The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos Pushkin

Thank you. Im grateful you have a podcast. I hope you continue making your podcast. It’s helping me immensely. You have a Beautiful soothing voice. Love Aurelia Hernandez💞

I am a physician and I started listening to this podcast over a year ago. At first, I was just intrigued by what the science said regarding happiness because I felt like, in general, I was very happy and content with my life. My daily life involves critically appraising medical literature and deciding if the results of this or that clinical trial should change how I practice medicine. As I listened to more and more of this podcast I began to realize that MY approach to happiness was not really supported by the clinical data. I was in a world of working harder, getting more money, and buying more things to make myself happy. I was devoted to my family but focused on things that didn't make us a happier family or me a better person. Socrates said "The unexamined life is not worth living" and, the more I learn about myself, the more I believe he was 100% correct.
I credit this podcast with introducing me to Stoicism in the episode 'Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Epictetus' where I listened to William Irvine. This really struck a personal cord with me and led me to read two of his books. I have since done fairly extensive reading about this philosophy and have adopted this as my philosophy of life. I have since come to see differences in my own personal beliefs compared to Irvine's and I have embraced a more traditional version of Stoicism. The point is, this podcast exposed me to something life changing. I do agree with William Irvine's statement that you are better to adopt a flawed philosophy of life than to have no philosophy of life at all. This podcast exposes you to a broad range of philosophies and presents the scientific evidence which supports the use of that philosophy.
There is an episode that addresses the best way to change human behavior. I have uses many of these concepts to try and motivate my patients to begin an exercise program and actually be consistent and stick with it. I learned that rituals and habits are some of the most effective tools in changing behavior on a long-term basis. I focus on habit in my clinical practice and tailor my recommendations to each specific patient's circumstances. Understanding the general concepts and clinical research allows me to apply these concepts in a more broad range of experiences. I believe it is far, far better to get a patient to develop lifelong habits of exercise and making good decisions about how one nourishes themselves physically and mentally rather than just pushing some pill that will lower their cholesterol. However, best of all is when patient's trust me to make good recommendations and they listen to me when I do. Some patients are better off on medications because they are in a high risk category and some patients are not - the art in medicine is in figuring out who is who.
This podcast has also helped me to realize that a person's mental state may be the most important determinant of their ability to execute a plan. If a patient is profoundly depressed, it is unrealistic to think they are going to begin an aggressive exercise program. However, the evidence suggests that that may be the most effective treatment program they could engage in. Evidence also suggests that forming relationships and helping other people in your community are very effective ways to improve your personal happiness. As a result, the clinical history that I obtain from my patients has changed significantly since listening to these podcasts - which I have done more than once. I try to learn what kind of environment each of my patient's live in, what kind of stress they have in their home life, what kind of support network they have. Sadly, many patients feel as though they have no support network when, in reality, they have not really put the work in to have those relationships. I try to find out what they do for recreation and what personal interests they may have. I then try to use all of this information to make a recommendation that I feel is realistic for this specific patient - one that will challenge them enough to make positive change but will not be so overwhelming that they will fail. In other words, this podcast has helped me to become a better physician.
At least in my field of medicine, cardiology, there is a push to prescribe the right medication for the right medical condition. If a patient has atrial fibrillation and they fall into a higher risk category for stroke you are 'supposed' to recommend anticoagulation. If you do not make that recommendation and the patient has a stroke, you could potentially be guilty of malpractice. However, there are times when, as a physician and knowing everything you know about this specific patient, you feel that anticoagulation is a bad idea and the better recommendation is not to put the patient on a blood thinner. The safer thing to do to protect your career and income is to recommend a blood thinner but the better recommendation to help your patient is to not recommend a blood thinner so what do you do? Believe it or not, this podcast has helped me in making these types of decisions. The new catch phrase for this is 'shared decision making' which allows the patient to enter into the conversation in making medical decisions and this allows me to take into account their specific values.
I thank you Dr. Laurie Santos for organizing this excellent and entertaining podcast. I highly recommend this podcast to all of my family, friend, colleagues, and patients.

Just can’t say enough good things about this podcast and Dr. Santos. This podcast has become a staple in my routine. It is incredibly well thought through and highly executed. Not to mention all the happiness and benefits I’ve seen as a result. 10/10 recommend to anyone who will listen.