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Overcoming the myths of happiness might make life seem more complicated, but it’s the only way to stop interfering with our own potential to be happy.

Superman may have originally been envisioned as a telepathic bald villain bent on world destruction, but he was quickly transformed into a beloved hero of Depression-era America, with his all-American, […]

Overturning previous studies on the subject of aging and happiness, researchers at Florida State University College of Medicine have found that people generally become happier as they age. 

A few weeks ago my husband and I were out to dinner with some people. The table behind us was filled with eight young-ish women. They were having a bachelorette […]

Social scientists have recognized that income over a certain threshold fails to increase the amount of the happiness the earner experiences, but spending on others may return more happiness. 

Maitri, Petya, Deni and Monika, all in their mid 20s, thought that it was a shame how the granny knitting talent is going to waste and decided that Bulgarian babas ought to take their deserved place in the world as the “knitting gurus” that they are. 

Higgs is Confirmed After a Higgs-like particle was detected last summer by CERN scientists, that particle has now been confirmed to be the real deal. Read more here.  Sex in […]

So we have no idea what happens after we die, and I’ve taken that lack of our knowledge as an opportunity to write fiction about it. I have a book […]

There are a lot single people who are very happy. Moreover, the scientific literature tells us that if you have not found a partner, there’s a lot of hope for […]

We are a community of messy, stumbling, fumbling beings tumbling through space wrestling with a confusing gift of consciousness. And that is the great gift of consciousness. 

It’s important to recognize that there’s this interplay between what the individual can do and what society can do to empower individuals to live longer and healthier, more productive lives.

Just as religion informed the dawn of civilized man, so too do these 21st century stories act as a shield – protecting our sanity from an overwhelming sensation of entropic change. We are trying to find the signal in the noise. But increasingly, the noise is becoming louder and louder. It’s like this treadmill we’re running on has reached a speed we can’t keep up with. Today’s prowess Kairos is being pushed into yesterday’s fleeting Chronos. It’s a collision of dizzying proportions… everything happens now.

We imagine our view of the world like a painting from the Realism movement – rife with detail and comprehensible – but the contents of our conscious mind are more […]

If you’re anything like me, you can’t wait for summer to finally start. The Chicago winter dragged on forever and now the weather just can’t seem to make up its […]

There are plenty of people who are single and frustrated, unhappily married, or, on the other hand, happily divorced. What matters most is how they prepare their minds. 

Recently I had occasion to browse my collection of yellowed “second-wave” feminist paperbacks, from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I bought most of them at used book stores in […]

While Americans observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the historic swearing-in of President Barack Obama to a second term today, using the bibles of Lincoln and MLK, across the […]

In a charming essay on envy, A.S. Byatt observes that it “works inwardly; concealment is part of its nature.” Envy is a festering kind of sin. It’s also the Deadly […]

Here’s a published dialogue that I did with my friend Deepak Chopra in which we discuss the challenges of standing up for Spirit in a secular culture. Enjoy! __________________________________ ANDREW […]

So lots of readers (about six) have written ME asking for advice on what book they should read to turn their lives around. Here’s my recommendation:  Lost in the Cosmos by […]

We’re told to have a positive attitude; that love conquers all; that anger is unhelpful and hate unneeded. Evangelists of optimism would drown us in their toothy smiles and keep […]

What distinguishes human life from animal life is our ability to search for meaning. Differing from happiness, meaning implies transcending the self while happiness implies its satisfaction.

A new consumer study concludes that the happiness derived from anticipating a new purchase is often greater than the emotional benefits received from the material good itself.

“The owl of Minerva,” Hegel wrote, “takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.” A year ago I launched Praxis as a forum for thinking reflectively about […]

We all know that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.  No secret there.  We can’t keep growing the way we have been over the last decades or centuries […]

There’s a pervasive notion that a monogamous relationship is the ideal.  Certainly, that’s what most Americans have been hearing for as long as they can remember.  A committed, loving relationship […]

An imaginary round table discussion with Anthony Robbins and Gautama the Buddha on being the best we can be. I was musing upon an interesting idea: What would it be […]

The premise of many business books is to boldly go where no business book has ever gone before, to gather more data, to interview more executives, to read more articles […]

The stories come in surprising ways.  An unexpected confession over a meal or a few drinks. A warning, perhaps, to keep your distance from a particular person before a conference.  […]

France had its own version of Dr. Spock. Her name was and is Françoise Dolto.  Like Dr. Spock, she was a pediatrician and a psychoanalyst.  And she is still kind […]