Segment from The Pursuit

Don’t Worry — Be Happy!

Author Barbara Ehrenreich describes the New Thought movement, which urged Americans in the late 1800s to embrace positivity over pious suffering.

Comma Chameleon

Producer Jessica Smith reports on an entire conference dedicated to a mysterious smudge on the Declaration of Independence — found right after the word “Happiness.”

00:08:45

So Happy Together

The hosts explore the different meanings Americans have given, over the centuries, to the idea of pursuing happiness.

00:07:08

Don’t Worry — Be Happy!

Author Barbara Ehrenreich describes the New Thought movement, which urged Americans in the late 1800s to embrace positivity over pious suffering.

00:08:15

Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

Producer Bruce Wallace has the story of a peculiar craze in the 1920s, when recordings of people laughing broke the charts.

00:08:17

Psychiatrist Robert Waldinger tells host Brian Balogh about a longitudinal study at Harvard that was meant to track professional success, but starting turning up data of a different sort: on happiness and well-being.

00:09:17