About Happy You Asked: The Podcast That Explores Joy, One Awkward Conversation at a Time
Hosted by Dr. Erin Clair, an academic dean and professor whose research area is happiness studies. Join her as she chats about happiness with a diverse range of individuals, including psychologists, scientists, teachers, religious leaders, and more.
If you like the podcast, be sure to visit erinclairyoga.com and subscribe to the email list for a weekly dose of a little extra happy.
55. Ryan T. Howell: Buying Happiness Is More Complicated Than It Sounds
Most of us have bought something because we thought it would make us happier. Sometimes it does, at least for a while. Other times, the feeling disappears almost as quickly as the receipt. Today's guest, Dr. Ryan Howell, is a professor of psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology at San Francisco State University, where he also serves as Faculty Director of the Online Degree Completion Program. His research examines happiness, consumer well-being, and the ways our spending choices shape life satisfaction. Ryan is especially known for his work on why experiential purchases - the things we do - often provide greater and more lasting happiness than material purchases - the things we own - and on the psychological needs and social processes that help explain those differences. What makes that work especially interesting is that the familiar advice to 'buy experiences, not things' gets more complicated once you ask who is buying, why they're buying, and what the purchase actually means to them.
27 Sept 2026
54. Judy Moskowitz: Ten Skills for Navigating Life
Judy Moskowitz has spent decades studying an uncomfortable but useful question: what role can positive emotion play when the stress is real, severe, and not going away? Dr. Moskowitz is a Professor and Vice Chair for Scientific and Faculty Development in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research focuses on a positive emotion regulation intervention developed by her team, which aims to increase positive emotions, reduce stress and depression, and improve health behaviors. This includes trials with Alzheimer's caregivers, people living with HIV, frontline gun violence prevention staff, and in applications in general population samples.
20 Sept 2026
53. Suzanne Segerstrom: When Optimism Is a Mixed Blessing
Today’s guest is Dr. Suzanne Segerstrom, the Jo Anne Leonard Petersen Endowed Chair for Gerontology and Family Studies at Oregon State University, where she is a professor and director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research. Her work examines when psychological factors such as personality, optimism, and self-regulation affect the immune system, how those effects change across adulthood, and how brain health fits into the picture.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100
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YouTube
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