Topic
20 facts from 1 episode, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
250,000 years ago
Arthur Brooks says the pleasure response of the limbic system is a phenomenon of the Pleistocene brain, dating to about 250,000 years ago.
“That's a phenomenon from sort of the Pleistocene brain, from something the middle Pleistocene, what, 250,000 years ago”
6th century
Arthur Brooks says he prays the Divine Office with his wife, a monastic set of prayers that monks have said since St. Benedict in the 6th century.
“Generally speaking, I pray the Divine Office with my wife, which is an ancient monastic set of prayers that that monks have been saying since St. Benedict in the 6th century.”
2019
Arthur Brooks says he wrote his first happiness book in 2008, then after a hiatus from academia running a think tank in Washington DC he decided in 2019 to specialize in happiness.
“on this in 2008, but but I decided in 2019, after I took a hiatus from academia to go run a big think tank in Washington DC”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says the people with the highest measured life satisfaction have enjoyment, satisfaction and meaning, which he calls the three macronutrients of happiness.
“The happiest people have enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. Those are the 3 macronutrients.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says the human prefrontal cortex is about 30% of the weight of the brain and allows people to choose between animal impulses and moral aspirations.
“Ours is, like, 30% of the weight of our brain, and what that supercomputer allows us to do is to choose between animal impulses and moral aspirations.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks, aged 62, says he has trained in the gym almost every day for 30 years.
“I've been in the gym almost every day for 30 years.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says that, following Aristotle and Aquinas, the four worldly rewards are money, power, pleasure and honor.
“There's 4 worldly rewards: money, power, pleasure, and honor.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks, drawing on Pieper, says proper leisure includes deepening relationships on purpose, learning something you don't need to learn, and developing yourself metaphysically.
“So, deepening relationships on purpose with, you know, re a real focus on that. The 2nd is learning something you don't need to learn.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says the word compassion comes from Latin and means to suffer together.
“Now, the word compassion in Latin means to suffer together. That's what it means.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says his son is a scout sniper in the U.S. Marine Corps and that bonds formed through shared hardship there last for life.
“my son is a sniper, scout sniper in the U.S. Marine Corps, and these are friends for life.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says Olympic athletes are especially likely to fall into clinical depression after winning gold because progress toward the goal has ended.
“That's why Olympic athletes are so likely to fall into a clinical depression after they win their their, you know, their gold medal.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks describes Walter Mischel's marshmallow experiments, in which children who ate the marshmallow within 5 minutes later got worse grades and jobs, while he calls the findings complicated.
“the kids who ate the marshmallow within 5 minutes, they were they had no impulse control, and they went on to actually get worse grades and worse jobs”
Undated
Arthur Brooks lists the four idols as money or resources, power, pleasure (including comfort or security) and honor.
“Those 4 things are money, resources, power, which is influence over other people, pleasure, which also is comfort or security, right? Or honor”
Undated
Arthur Brooks plays a game with his students at Harvard Business School in which they identify their own dominant idol by elimination.
“I have a game I play with my students at HBS. They don't know what their idol is.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says James Q. Wilson's book The Moral Sense was the first time a social scientist used empirical, survey-based tools to study moral sensibilities.
“He had written a great book called The Moral Sense. That was the first time that a social scientist had actually used the tools of of empirical social science”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says James Q. Wilson, who sat on the board of the American Enterprise Institute, recruited Brooks to become its president.
“Later, he recruited me to be the president of the American Enterprise Institute, uh, because he was on the board of that.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says Catholic Mass is celebrated in essentially the same form around the world about 450,000 times a day, and that he finds services using an app.
“I've got an app, click next mass. It's great because it's literally the same product every place in the world, 450,000 times a day.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says the Catholic protocol for a nun reporting an apparition of the Virgin Mary is for the bishop to check first for epilepsy.
“if you're, for example, a Catholic nun, and you have an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the protocol from the bishop is to check you for epilepsy first.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks says his first two meaning questions are the coherence question (why do things happen, and am I acting accordingly) and the purpose question (why am I doing what I do).
“Number 1, that's the coherence question for philosophers. Why do things happen the way they do? Am I acting that way? 2, Why am I doing what I'm doing? That's the purpose question.”
Undated
Arthur Brooks recounts an unnamed billionaire telling him she had always chosen to be special rather than happy, which he says struck him personally.
“Because I've always chosen to be special rather than happy, and that was like a knife to my heart”
Episodes