Harvard Summit Content Summary: Global Flourishing Study: What Contributes to a Life Well-Lived

Harvard Summit Content Summary: Global Flourishing Study: What Contributes to a Life Well-Lived

From Currently Considering by Justin Brown

October 24, 2025 · 14 min

About this episode

This episode explores the Global Flourishing Study and its insights into what contributes to a life well-lived.

The Global Flourishing Study: What Contributes to a Life Well-Lived? A groundbreaking podcast diving deep into the science of human flourishing, featuring insights from the inaugural wave of the Global Flourishing Study (GFS). The question of "WHAT CONTRIBUTES TO A LIFE WELL-LIVED?" has long been central to philosophical traditions and religions. Now, social scientists, policymakers, and business leaders are grappling with this question using rigorous, large-scale research. This podcast explores the innovative GFS, a major collaboration between researchers at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and Gallup. What is Flourishing? We define flourishing as “the relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the contexts in which that person lives” , a definition cited in the report by T. J. VanderWeele (2017). A life well-lived is a holistic interplay of multiple dimensions, measured across six core domains: happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial and material…

People in this episode

Host: Justin Brown

Topics covered

  • human flourishing
  • well-being
  • longitudinal study
  • life satisfaction
  • social science

Keywords

  • Global Flourishing Study
  • happiness
  • mental health
  • meaning and purpose
  • character and virtue
  • social relationships
  • financial stability

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, Gallup

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