Joshua Roman has been playing the cello everyday since he was three - but then on a concert tour he caught Covid. The illness wouldn't go away and sapped his ability to play the music he loves at the level he was used to.

How can things like music help us feel better during tough times? And what can tough times teach us about appreciating and reappraising the activities we sometimes take for granted? 

Lili Taylor loves her acting career – but the emotional intensity of her work and the constant travel can take its toll. But Lili has found a way to relax and unwind – watching birds.

As Lili explains in her new book Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing – if we stop to listen to birdsong or pause to watch their busy daily lives – we give ourselves a break from our own stresses.

You might think etiquette is outdated. Who really needs a dinner with nice napkins and four different forks? Etiquette expert William Hanson disagrees. By observing good manners we show others we respect and care about them – deepening our bonds.

William (author of Just Good Manners and host of the podcast Help I Sexted My Boss) explains the origins of many formal behaviours and how they can make us happier.

We all have our own ways of coping – especially when things get tough. So for the next few shows we’re going to talking to people with interesting coping strategies. And we start with Elias Weiss Friedman, aka The Dogist.

Throughout his life, Elias has found comfort in dogs. And when he got fired from his job, dogs came to the rescue again – they helped him forge a new career as a photographer and a social media star.

Elias discusses his journey and what he thinks dogs can teach us about being our best selves. And for more stories, check out his new book This Dog Will Change Your Life.

The happiness of young people has taken a big hit since the advent of the smartphone – and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that there is a direct link. He warns that allowing children easy access to the internet and social media adversely impacts their sleep, their self-esteem and even how their brains develop.

Jonathan explains the dangers he sees in letting kids use smartphones, while Jill Murphy of Common Sense Media suggests ways parents can navigate introducing tech into children’s lives.

This series on parenting coincides with Dr Laurie’s new free online class, The Science of Wellbeing for Parents which is available now at Coursera.org. You can sign up at drlauriesantos.com/parents.

Why do kids do disruptive, annoying or maddening things? Usually when children behave badly, the first thing adults do is yell at them, tell them they’re bad and dole out punishments. Developmental psychologist David Yeager says that’s the wrong approach. Instead parents need work out why their child made bad decisions in the first place.

David is the author of the book 10 to 25  and argues that we should work out what’s at the root of bad behaviour in young people. Maybe they want to gain status with their peers, or crave more outlets to be social. Once adults work out these motivations, they can encourage their kids to find better ways to reach their goals without breaking the rules.

This series on parenting coincides with Dr Laurie’s new free online class, The Science of Wellbeing for Parents which is available now at Coursera.org. You can sign up at drlauriesantos.com/parents.

Clinical psychologist Dr Becky Kennedy thinks every child is “good inside” even when they’re behaving badly. So to tackle tantrums or rule-breaking, she argues that parents must set clear boundaries for acceptable behaviour, but also seek to understand why their children are misbehaving.

If a child is acting “badly” because they are disappointed, sad, frustrated, jealous, or uncomfortable, then a parent’s job is to help their kid deal with those feelings and build up more resilience to common emotions that they’ll experience throughout life.

Hear more of Dr Becky’s parenting tips on her podcast Good Inside With Dr Becky

This series on parenting coincides with Dr Laurie’s new free online class, The Science of Wellbeing for Parents which is available now at Coursera.org. You can sign up at drlauriesantos.com/parents.

Nordic countries are known to be happy – so should we all raise our children like the Scandinavians do? British parent Helen Russell moved to Denmark and was shocked that Danish children play outside in all weathers; are given knives and they’re shown how to light matches.

In her book The Danish Secret to Happy Kids: How the Viking Way of Raising Children Makes Them Happier, Healthier, and More Independent, Helen explains why play, risk and independence are the cornerstones of “viking” parenting.

This series on parenting coincides with Dr Laurie’s new free online class, The Science of Wellbeing for Parents which is available now at Coursera.org. You can sign up at drlauriesantos.com/parents.

Parents are never perfect – but their mistakes can have a lasting impact on their children. We all carry with us ideas and attitudes planted in us during childhood – and they’re not always very helpful for leading a happy life. How can we unlearn some of these things and also prevent ourselves from passing them on if we have kids?

Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach have raised three children together – so have lots of thoughts on this topic. The couple behind the hit podcast We Can Do Hard Things (and a new book We Can Do Hard Things) tell Dr Laurie how they’ve learned from their upbringings and decided to do a better job with their own family.

Too many parents feel “exhausted, burned out, and perpetually behind” according to the former US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy. He says more needs to be done to protect parental mental health.

Vivek talks to Dr Laurie about his experience as a dad and the loneliness, guilt and shame parents can feel as they struggle with the challenges of raising children.

This series on parenting coincides with Dr Laurie’s new free online class, The Science of Wellbeing for Parents which is available now at Coursera.org. You can sign up at drlauriesantos.com/parents.

There are many benefits to being an optimist – particularly when things go wrong in our lives. But we aren’t all naturally optimistic, so can we learn to adopt the best and most positive behaviours of born optimists?

Through treating New Yorkers caught up in the 9/11 attacks, psychiatrist Dr Sue Varma developed a concept she calls “practical optimism”. She shares her tips on how we can all be more optimistic in the face of life’s challenges.

Read more in Sue’s book Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being

Best-selling author John Green wants to see less suck in the world and more awesome – and you can help achieve that right now! John’s turned his attention to tuberculosis (TB) – a disease that is fixable and yet still kills millions of people. But you can stop that. 

TB is a disease of poverty – so if you can spare a buck, then you can save lives by donating to GiveDirectly.org/tb

Giving to help others is proven to make us feel happier and more hopeful in tough times, so Dr Laurie will match every dollar up to the first $10,000, and John will match donations up to $10,000 after that. 

It’s a bad time for people everywhere – but even a dollar donated at GiveDirectly.org/tb will reduce the suck and increase the awesome. 

John’s new book Everything is Tuberculosis is out now.

Sometimes a two-week vacation just isn’t enough – we all might need to leave our jobs for three months, six months or even a year. Taking an extended break can be great for our wellbeing – allowing us to recharge our batteries and reassess our priorities.

But for most of us taking a sabbatical feels impossible – so live at SXSW Dr Laurie asked the advice of sabbaticals expert DJ DiDonna. DJ teaches at Harvard Business School and founded The Sabbatical Project – but in a past life he established a hectic start-up and eventually found he was badly in need of an extended career break.

There are so many happiness lessons to remember – but it helps if we can boil them down into memorable little sayings. Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin has done exactly that in her latest book – Secrets of Adulthood.

Dr Laurie picked twelve of her favorite aphorisms from the book and invited Gretchen along to explore sayings such as “Happiness doesn’t always make us feel happy” and “Accept yourself and expect more from yourself”.

Do you trust your government? Do you trust your neighbors or the strangers you meet on the street? Do you trust the media? Or your teachers? Who we trust is changing. And trust in our institutions and our fellow citizens is in steep decline. That’s according to the World Happiness Report. Who we trust can have a huge impact on our behavior and our happiness.

So what’s behind the dramatic changes in how we trust? And can we learn to trust in a smarter way? We ask advice from Rachel Botsman, the Trust Fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and author of How to Trust and Be Trusted.