We don't think anyone can argue with us when we assert that 2020 has been a difficult year. The pandemic, political strife and national divide, and climate-related disasters all evoked a plethora of negative emotions: anxiety, fear, sadness, grief, anger, antipathy, and longing. Now that the year is drawing to a close, we're more than ready to start feeling good! So let's put 2020 to bed with a big dose of much-needed love and happiness.

 

The first episode in the collection features a program about Happiness from our very first season back in 2004 with the late Robert Solomon from the University of Texas at Austin, author of True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling Us. Next up is an episode asking a live audience at the Mill Valley Public Library "What Is Love?" recorded in 2012 with poet/philosopher Troy Jollimore, whose then-new book was called Love's Vision. The role of friendshp in a well-lived life was the topic of a 2005 episode with the prolific Martha Nussbaum, author of Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. In 2008 John and Ken welcomed Jeff Schloss from Westmont College, co-editor of Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue, for a discussion of the role of altruism and selfishness in human life. Finally, in 2016, the hosts asked about the science of happiness before a live audience at the Marsh Theatre in Berkeley with Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Science Director at the Greater Good Science Center.

 

So grab your favorite warm beverage (hot chocolate anyone?) and cozy up to some feel-good listening, guaranteed to make you... HAPPY!