Feeling Empty? Arthur Brooks Has a Formula for a Meaningful Life

About this episode

Jessi Hempel interviews Arthur Brooks about finding meaning and purpose in life amidst feelings of emptiness.

When was the last time you felt truly bored? And when was the last time your life felt genuinely meaningful? For Harvard social scientist Arthur Brooks, those two questions are more connected than you might think. This week on Hello Monday, Jessi Hempel sits down with Arthur Brooks — professor at Harvard Business School, bestselling author, and one of the most compelling thinkers on happiness and purpose — to dig into his new book, The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. In this episode, Jessi and Arthur discuss: Why so many high-achievers feel empty even when everything is going right How our devices are literally pushing us into the wrong hemisphere of the brain, and why eliminating boredom may have accidentally eliminated meaning The psychology of strivers: why so many driven, successful people are secretly running on a fear that idleness means they'll stop being loved The "arrival fallacy": why reaching your goals so often feels like a letdown, and what that tells you about whether you were chasing the right things The four types of career paths, and why "spiral" careers — built from a series of reinventions — may be the most fulfilling model for…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jessi Hempel, Jessi

Guest: Arthur Brooks

Topics covered

• meaningful life
• happiness
• purpose
• career paths
• boredom
• psychology of success

Keywords

• The Meaning of Your Life
• arrival fallacy
• spiral careers
• career opportunity evaluation

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Meaning of Your Life

Books & works: Hello Monday, The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness

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