Our final chapter (at least for now)! In this episode, Paul and David discuss the science of happiness. We cover the difficulty of defining happiness (or the good life in general), the rise of 'positive psychology', the various factors that we know are related to happiness (genes, money, age, having children), and the question of why we can't just choose to be happy. We end with a discussion of pleasure and pain, and some puzzling findings about our memory of painful experiences. Read the book that inspired the podcast: "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind" [amazon.com] Email us with your psychology questions for a future episode!: [email protected] Sponsored By: Givewell.org: Givewell's goal is to provide the best research on the most effective charities. And they make this free, for everyone. They also provide recommendations for a small number of charities that do an incredible amount of good. To get your charitable donation matched up to $500 (until funds last), simply select "podcast" at checkout and write "Psych".