Speaker 1: Guess what mango? What's that will? So when you think
Speaker 1: of fast food stories and Moscow, what comes to mind first?
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe that old pizza hut Corbusho of
Speaker 1: commercial exactly. And I used to think that was maybe
Speaker 1: the most fun association of fast food with Moscow. But
Speaker 1: I actually read another story recently and I think it
Speaker 1: might be my favorite now. So did you know that
Speaker 1: when McDonald's first opened in Moscow, they actually had to
Speaker 1: train workers on how to smile and look friendly to know?
Speaker 1: Why is that? Well, it turns out there's an old
Speaker 1: proverb there that goes something along the lines of a
Speaker 1: smile without reason is a sign of idiocy. That's pretty rough,
Speaker 1: and um, I mean I guess it sounds like a
Speaker 1: Russian proverb. Yeah, it's It's a phrase that obviously doesn't
Speaker 1: apply to all Russians, but it did get me thinking.
Speaker 1: You know, if if Russians are not known for smiling unnecessarily,
Speaker 1: what places are you know, where are the happiest places
Speaker 1: in the world and what are some of the secrets
Speaker 1: to happiness in those places? So that's what we're talking
Speaker 1: about today. Let's dive in h a their podcast. Listeners
Speaker 1: welcome to hard Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend man guest Ticketer.
Speaker 1: And on the other side of the soundproof class wearing
Speaker 1: the biggest smile you'll never see. That's our friend and
Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. It's actually getting a little unnerving. Now
Speaker 1: what what is he smiling about? I don't think he'll
Speaker 1: ever tell us. But good news is there will be
Speaker 1: plenty of chances to smile later though, because today's show
Speaker 1: we're talking all about happiness and you know, more specifically
Speaker 1: the places in the world where you can find the
Speaker 1: most of it. Now, happiness is highly subjective, of course,
Speaker 1: and if you were to ask ten people to name
Speaker 1: what makes them happy, you probably come away with ten
Speaker 1: different answers. But there are actually some aspects of happiness
Speaker 1: that are pretty universal. So we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: what those factors are and how they manifest and upbeat
Speaker 1: countries all over the globe. And we're also going to
Speaker 1: try to get to the bottom of why Scandinavian countries
Speaker 1: like Denmark and Norway always claim these top spots for
Speaker 1: places ranked by happiness. Yeah, why why don't we start
Speaker 1: with that? Because it really is crazy how Nordic countries
Speaker 1: tend to dominate those lists. So the u N does
Speaker 1: this ranking of the happiness levels and a hundred fifty
Speaker 1: five countries called the World Happiness Report. They've done this
Speaker 1: since two thousand twelve, and every year the top five
Speaker 1: has always been some combination of Scandinavian countries, and this
Speaker 1: year is no exception. Norway is actually ranked number one
Speaker 1: for the first time, but it's followed closely by Denmark, Iceland,
Speaker 1: Switzerland and Finland. So I'm guessing a lot of our
Speaker 1: listeners are wondering what I'm wondering, and that is, is
Speaker 1: this whole thing rigged? I mean, it's almost always freezing
Speaker 1: cold in these Nordic countries. You know, they've got the
Speaker 1: whole midnight sun thing where daylight last twenty four hours
Speaker 1: for a month or so at a time. So no
Speaker 1: way are these the happiest places on Earth? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I would have said the same thing before looking into it.
Speaker 1: But surprisingly there's some researchers who actually think Scandinavia is
Speaker 1: cold weather and all those long nights might be a
Speaker 1: big reason why those countries both such high levels of happiness,
Speaker 1: and the thinking is that such an unforgiving climate that
Speaker 1: actually helps bring local communities together. I mean, the people
Speaker 1: there depending on each other for survival as well as
Speaker 1: for company in a way that people in most temperate
Speaker 1: climates don't have to. And actually, there's this professor John
Speaker 1: helli Well who was the editor for this year's Happiness Report,
Speaker 1: and he compares this kind of mutual support system to
Speaker 1: what we traditionally see with like rural farming communities, you know,
Speaker 1: where people gather to help raise the neighbor's barn without
Speaker 1: expecting any sort of payment in return. Well, it's pretty
Speaker 1: interesting to think about it, and you know, it might
Speaker 1: be strange to hear about cold places making people happy,
Speaker 1: but the underlying premise actually lines up with a lot
Speaker 1: of what I've read recently on the subject. And what
Speaker 1: from this is that, well, basically that a person's environment
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with how happy they feel.
Speaker 1: There was this study this year that examined surveys completed
Speaker 1: by about I think it was about half a million
Speaker 1: Canadian immigrants, and these are people that had moved to
Speaker 1: Canada from a hundred different countries over the course of
Speaker 1: the past forty years or so. Many of the immigrants
Speaker 1: home countries didn't rank anywhere near the top of the
Speaker 1: Happiness Report, but Canada did. Now routinely places in the
Speaker 1: top ten happiest countries, and actually this year it was
Speaker 1: the first country outside of Scandinavia to chart at all.
Speaker 1: It came in at number seven. That's crazy, but I'm
Speaker 1: guessing these folks were happier after moving to Canada. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. And actually, just after a few years in Canada,
Speaker 1: immigrants from less happy countries started to adopt the higher
Speaker 1: happiness level of their new home. So even though things
Speaker 1: like income and family life it stayed more or less
Speaker 1: the same, these people were happier simply because of where
Speaker 1: they were. Okay, but there has to be more play
Speaker 1: here than just geography, right, they're probably specific characteristics of
Speaker 1: life in Canada that leads to greater happiness, like the
Speaker 1: way that uh, I don't know, Scandinavia's starkness helps foster community. Oh, definitely.
Speaker 1: In fact, the researchers behind the World Happiness Report believe
Speaker 1: that about seventy of human happiness is due to just
Speaker 1: six factors. So they point out quality, social relationships, strong
Speaker 1: economic growth, healthy life expectancy, generosity, trust, and the freedom
Speaker 1: to live the life that's right for you. Now, any
Speaker 1: country that delivers in even a few of these categories
Speaker 1: is likely to have a fairly happy citizen base. I
Speaker 1: mean that sounds right, though it still feels weird to
Speaker 1: be talking about happiness in terms of metrics and rankings.
Speaker 1: On one hand, it seems right that a country would
Speaker 1: be concerned with the happiness of its citizens, you know,
Speaker 1: the pursuit of it is mentioned in the first sentence
Speaker 1: of our declaration of independence. But I can also understand
Speaker 1: the argument that happiness is too vague and even like
Speaker 1: fluffy a concept to be held up as this national goal.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is philosophical, but like, what do we
Speaker 1: even mean by happiness? Yeah, and it's it's a tough
Speaker 1: question to answer. And happiness is is something we all
Speaker 1: have experience with, or at least hopefully we have experience
Speaker 1: with it. But it's much easier to talk about where
Speaker 1: it comes from than it is to narrow it down
Speaker 1: to a single definition. I was actually looking at this
Speaker 1: National Geographic cover story that recently came out, and they
Speaker 1: gave an overview of three countries that historically received high
Speaker 1: marks for happiness, and the author of the story Dan
Speaker 1: butN Or. He proposed that real lasting joy actually comes
Speaker 1: from the interplay of three distinct kinds of happiness. There's pleasure, pride,
Speaker 1: and purpose. Huh. So, uh, how do you come up
Speaker 1: with those three? Well? I think partly because most measures
Speaker 1: of happiness can be broken down into those three categories.
Speaker 1: So going back to the six factors used for the
Speaker 1: World Happiness Report, you know, take social relationships. They can
Speaker 1: bring you pleasure, or generosity toward others can provide a
Speaker 1: sense of purpose, or maybe the freedom to live how
Speaker 1: you want can become you know, like a source of pride. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, those three types of happiness actually line up
Speaker 1: pretty well with three types of happiness that scientists have
Speaker 1: been trying to get a handle on for years. So
Speaker 1: I looked this up, and uh, there's something called experienced happiness,
Speaker 1: and that's the term for the pleasure that comes from
Speaker 1: everyday life. Is usually measured by how much a person
Speaker 1: has smiled or laughed during a day, and then pride
Speaker 1: that kind of corresponds with evaluative happiness. You know, you
Speaker 1: can think of this as like life satisfaction, basically how
Speaker 1: happy you are with your career or family, social status,
Speaker 1: that type of thing. So researchers are often trying to
Speaker 1: assess this by asking you to rank your lives on
Speaker 1: a scale from zero to ten. So questions like, all
Speaker 1: things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as
Speaker 1: a whole nowadays? And you know, this does feel like
Speaker 1: a very clinical approach to happiness, but I guess that's
Speaker 1: what happens when you know you've got scientists and economists
Speaker 1: that are thinking about the subject rather than say, like
Speaker 1: philosophers for example. Yeah, so it's funny you should mention
Speaker 1: philosophers because the concept of happiness that springs from purpose
Speaker 1: actually originated with Aristotle. He rejected what he viewed as
Speaker 1: alder happiness. That's the kind that yields short term enjoyment,
Speaker 1: but you know, it doesn't deliver, it's it's kind of fleeting. Instead,
Speaker 1: he believed that those who wish to lead these virtuous
Speaker 1: lives just stry for a type of happiness you find
Speaker 1: through lifelong learning and maybe helping others. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense. And then that GEO
Speaker 1: article I was talking about earlier, they chose Denmark to
Speaker 1: exemplify purpose driven happiness, and part of the reason why
Speaker 1: is that over nine of Danish citizens are members of
Speaker 1: some kind of social club or association, and more than
Speaker 1: forty of them volunteer for civic groups. That kind of
Speaker 1: fulfillment from social engagement and giving back to one's community.
Speaker 1: It seems like the kind of happiness that Aristotle was
Speaker 1: after that you were talking about before. Definitely, and it's
Speaker 1: really cool that Dan Butner touched on that because most
Speaker 1: of us take a more hedonistic approach to happiness, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to maximize our pleasure and minimize our pain.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take his heart aligne against that approach, is Aristotle.
Speaker 1: I do think he's right that there's this deeper kind
Speaker 1: of happiness that comes from I don't know, finding meaning
Speaker 1: and what you do with your time rather than just
Speaker 1: how comfortable you are. Right. But but to be fair,
Speaker 1: I mean, this kind of happiness can feel like somewhat
Speaker 1: of a luxury at times, you know, learning new things
Speaker 1: or helping others in need. That it often happens only
Speaker 1: after our basic needs are provided for. And and that's
Speaker 1: partly why purpose driven happiness seems to thrive in most
Speaker 1: of these Scandinavian countries when they have a ton of
Speaker 1: government programs that make sure no citizen goes without food
Speaker 1: and housing and healthcare. Let me just actually listen to
Speaker 1: how Butner describes the societal expectations of Danish citizens. Quote,
Speaker 1: Danes grew up believing they have the right to healthcare, education,
Speaker 1: and a financial safety net. University students draw government stipend
Speaker 1: in addition to free tuition. New parents can take a
Speaker 1: year long government paid parental lead, you know, nearly at
Speaker 1: a full salary. This includes gay and lesbian parents as well.
Speaker 1: People work hard in Denmark, but on average less than
Speaker 1: forty hours a week, with at least five weeks of
Speaker 1: vacation per year. I mean, you hear all that in
Speaker 1: your realize how they have so much time for social
Speaker 1: But it's also, like you think about it, it's like
Speaker 1: a level of government support that would make Bernie Sanders black.
Speaker 1: Probably so, But you know, Northern Europe seems to have
Speaker 1: cracked the code on how to create this environment where
Speaker 1: people feel secure enough to you know, pursue their passions
Speaker 1: without having to constantly worry about how to make ends meet.
Speaker 1: And it's not just sweeping government programs. I mean that
Speaker 1: there's a more laid back approach to life that you
Speaker 1: can see reflected in little ways too. For instance, have
Speaker 1: you heard it, and this is something that I had
Speaker 1: not heard of before, But in Norway it's called the
Speaker 1: right to rome. No, what is it? It's this traditional
Speaker 1: right to explore nature that Norway has acknowledged for centuries,
Speaker 1: and so basically anyone is free to hike or camp
Speaker 1: in any part of the country that they want. What
Speaker 1: that sounds so crazy, I mean even if it's like
Speaker 1: privately owned land. Yeah, that's the whole point. I can't
Speaker 1: see this flying here. But it goes back to that
Speaker 1: strong sense of community in Scandinavian countries that we talked about.
Speaker 1: So even though someone owns a deed for a particular
Speaker 1: piece of land, it's still a part of the shared
Speaker 1: country and that means that every citizen has a right
Speaker 1: to enjoy it at any time. And the old exceptions
Speaker 1: to this or for private land that's been cultivated, so
Speaker 1: things like parks and gardens or you know, maybe farm
Speaker 1: fields or something like that. That's pretty cool and it
Speaker 1: reminds me of like when I was a kid and
Speaker 1: I just like we had a creek behind our yard
Speaker 1: and we just like follow it through other people's yards
Speaker 1: and stuff is awesome, But so is this like an
Speaker 1: unwritten law or I don't know, something kind of like
Speaker 1: common knowledge type thing. Well that's how it started out.
Speaker 1: But actually Norway citizens feel so strongly about the importance
Speaker 1: of of just being outdoors and outdoor recreation they actually
Speaker 1: decided to make the right to roam a federal law
Speaker 1: back in n That's amazing, you know. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not just purpose driven happiness that Scandinavians have mastered, so
Speaker 1: they also have a knack for like the simple pleasures
Speaker 1: of life. And in fact, there's this term that you
Speaker 1: see on the internet used a lot now and it's
Speaker 1: used in Denmark in Norway, and I know I'm butchering
Speaker 1: the pronunciation. I think it's called hugo, but there isn't
Speaker 1: this like English equivalent for it. But you can kind
Speaker 1: of think of it of this like general feeling of
Speaker 1: comfort and kinship or maybe contentedness, like it's something that
Speaker 1: applies to anything from like a softly glowing candle to
Speaker 1: a couple of coffee with friends. And actually found this
Speaker 1: account from this Norwegian transplant to the United States who
Speaker 1: did his best to try to sum up the idea.
Speaker 1: And this is what he wrote. He wrote, it is
Speaker 1: basically a state of well being, coziness, and ambiance. It
Speaker 1: is a feeling of atmosphere and in action. You can
Speaker 1: be a huge lig person, or you can describe a
Speaker 1: cabin as huge lig. Or it could be used as
Speaker 1: a verb. Let's huga ourselves with a meal, a visit,
Speaker 1: a book, et cetera. Huga hugo huge. Actually know what
Speaker 1: this reminds me of. It's kind of like how the
Speaker 1: Smurfs would always use the word smurf and this kind
Speaker 1: of replacement for everything, and so they'd be like, We're
Speaker 1: gonna smurf all the way up to the top of
Speaker 1: Smurf Mountain to day. Have you seen smurfs recently? I
Speaker 1: have not, exactly skinny means they're basically the smurfs of
Speaker 1: our societies. Yet I get the point. I mean, you know, well, well,
Speaker 1: as long as we're comparing cultures, we should yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: we should probably talk a little bit about the happiness
Speaker 1: of our country. You know, because free tuition and healthcare
Speaker 1: that that that's one thing when it's a country of
Speaker 1: about six million people. But the kind of happiness that
Speaker 1: comes from things like that, it's trickier in a place
Speaker 1: with over three hundred million citizens. Absolutely, But before we
Speaker 1: dig into that, why don't we take a little break.
Speaker 1: You're listening to part time Genius and we're talking about
Speaker 1: the happiest places in the world. All right, mango. So
Speaker 1: it looks like the US can fourt on this year's
Speaker 1: World Happiness Report, which I mean, that's not too shabby
Speaker 1: given how many countries are ranked. But you know, with
Speaker 1: our economic prosperity, you maybe think we could manage a
Speaker 1: little bit better than that. But we've already seen that
Speaker 1: it's the country's overall environment and their sense of community
Speaker 1: that actually determines the happiness of its citizens, and it
Speaker 1: isn't really the economy. Was just going to say that
Speaker 1: money doesn't matter. After all, the countries that top the
Speaker 1: Happiness index all have these like healthy GDPs, and you
Speaker 1: know the nations at the bottom of the list don't.
Speaker 1: But money isn't everything, and for the U s it's
Speaker 1: the social aspects that we really need to work on
Speaker 1: if we ever want to muscle our way to the
Speaker 1: top of the list. All right, well, that's fair enough,
Speaker 1: but but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of happy
Speaker 1: places in the US already In fact, Gallup recently teamed
Speaker 1: up with nat Geo to find the twenty five happiest
Speaker 1: cities in America. So how they pull that off? Well,
Speaker 1: first they established a series of metrics that commonly indicate happiness.
Speaker 1: And then they pulled data from about a quarter million
Speaker 1: interviews conducted with adults in almost two hundred cities throughout
Speaker 1: the US, and and then they used it to see
Speaker 1: which cities ticked the most boxes on this list. So
Speaker 1: I am, of course super curious to know who the
Speaker 1: winner was, But first tell me about these metrics. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it wasn't as simple as what was it pleasure,
Speaker 1: pride and purpose that we talked about earlier. Not quite.
Speaker 1: I mean, the study actually considered over a dozen different factors,
Speaker 1: everything from civic engagement, vacation time, o b CD rates.
Speaker 1: Actually this one was interesting. Even dental check up. Well,
Speaker 1: nobody loves going to the dentist. So does that mean
Speaker 1: that the key to happiness is having bad teeth? No, MAGA,
Speaker 1: That was definitely not the studies take away. In fact,
Speaker 1: it was actually the opposite of that. And and and
Speaker 1: there was a higher level of satisfaction in places where
Speaker 1: people made frequent trips to their dentists. Alright, So where
Speaker 1: all these dentists loving Americans living really fixated on that? Well,
Speaker 1: eight of the cities are in California, and of course
Speaker 1: Honolulu scores a spot on the list. But according to study,
Speaker 1: the single happiest place in America is actually Boulder, Colorado.
Speaker 1: I mean that doesn't actually surprise me. Anytime I hear
Speaker 1: about Boulder, it's usually something about how healthy the citizens
Speaker 1: are or how much they exercise. And I've heard that
Speaker 1: more people per capita walk or bike to work in
Speaker 1: Boulder than almost any other city in the US. US. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's definitely true. Boulder has over three hundred miles of
Speaker 1: bike roots, and their bike to work grade is actually
Speaker 1: about seventeen times higher than the national average. And something
Speaker 1: as simple as that leads to all these other boosts
Speaker 1: and happiness from other things like cleaner air, fewer overweight citizens,
Speaker 1: you know, stronger connection to the outdoors, all of these
Speaker 1: other factors. All right, But obviously no place is perfect,
Speaker 1: and there's got to be something negative we can mention.
Speaker 1: So this doesn't seem like it's sponsored by the Boulder
Speaker 1: Tourism Board. Yeah, I don't know. We love to talk
Speaker 1: about lots of negative things here on part. But but
Speaker 1: there is the fact that about forty nine of the
Speaker 1: local survey for the study reported feeling stress on any
Speaker 1: given day, and that that's also higher than the national average.
Speaker 1: So the happiest city in the country is also one
Speaker 1: of the most stressed out. Like, how does that even work? Well,
Speaker 1: it's it seems strange on the surface, but the impression
Speaker 1: I got was that the citizens are stressed because of
Speaker 1: how active and engaged they are, not only in their
Speaker 1: personal lives, but you know, in the wider community as well.
Speaker 1: So it's a good kind of stress. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: productive stress. And you may remember back from our longevity
Speaker 1: episode where we talked about this that those that are
Speaker 1: living the longest often do have some of these sources
Speaker 1: of stress because they are so involved in the world
Speaker 1: around them. So it's the kind that comes from working
Speaker 1: to achieve a goal or to produce something worthwhile. So
Speaker 1: it really does go back to that purpose driven happiness
Speaker 1: that we were talking about earlier. Yeah, So it seems
Speaker 1: like the more invested and connected you are to the
Speaker 1: place where you live, the happier you become. And that's
Speaker 1: true even when you have to continually strive to improve
Speaker 1: your surroundings because that's the kind of work we find
Speaker 1: most satisfying. It actually makes me think of the study
Speaker 1: from Surry University in the UK called Places that Make Us.
Speaker 1: So first of all, you know the idea of having
Speaker 1: your own personal happy place, right, Yeah, like a physical
Speaker 1: or actually even a mental place if as long as
Speaker 1: it makes you feel calm or less anxious. So you know,
Speaker 1: this might be a peaceful room in the house that
Speaker 1: you've decorated, or or maybe just like a memory of
Speaker 1: a great trip that you went on, sure, or in
Speaker 1: and out you visited in California, that's right. But the
Speaker 1: researchers that sorry wanted to better understand attraction that people
Speaker 1: feel towards special places like that. So they round up
Speaker 1: twenty volunteers and have them look at familiar images of
Speaker 1: like houses and landscapes and objects that they'd identified as
Speaker 1: like personally meaningful, and they also conducted these um fm
Speaker 1: r I scans on their brains at the same time.
Speaker 1: And when they measured the volunteers brain activity, researchers found
Speaker 1: that the familiar places caused way more excitement in the
Speaker 1: part of the brain linked with these emotional responses than
Speaker 1: any of the objects did. Yeah. I mean specifically, these
Speaker 1: happy places evoked feelings of belonging and as well as
Speaker 1: like physical and emotional safety. And so do you think
Speaker 1: that's like what's going on here with Boulder or what, yeah,
Speaker 1: or any of these happy places? Really? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think when a city or a country helps the citizens
Speaker 1: strike that balance between pleasure and pride and purpose, that
Speaker 1: whole place becomes a part of them, just like their
Speaker 1: favorite room at home, where the vacation spot they returned
Speaker 1: to every year. You might be on this something here
Speaker 1: because you know, the process you're describing as real a
Speaker 1: pretty organic one. You know, rather than constantly seeking out happiness,
Speaker 1: it comes about pretty naturally, just through these opportunities that
Speaker 1: our environment gives to us, which seems like the right
Speaker 1: way to go, right. I Mean, I've seen a few
Speaker 1: studies now that have actually shown the larger the focused
Speaker 1: person puts on happiness, the less successful they are and
Speaker 1: actually being happy, which is probably why people who buy,
Speaker 1: you know, all these self help books about happiness never
Speaker 1: seemed to stop at just one. Al Right, Well, what
Speaker 1: do you say we close out the show with a
Speaker 1: look at some of the places that make happiness look easy.
Speaker 1: You know, no statistics, no metrics, just plain old happy places.
Speaker 1: Yeah it sounds great, but why don't we take a
Speaker 1: quick break first? Okay, man goes. So, as we said
Speaker 1: earlier that GEO did a ranking of the happiest cities
Speaker 1: in America and Boulder, Colorado came in number one. And
Speaker 1: I'm happy to tell you that we've actually got the
Speaker 1: Mayor of Bold, Colorado on the line. Mayor Suzanne Jones,
Speaker 1: welcome to part time genius. Well, I'm happy to be here,
Speaker 1: and congratulations on being named happiest city in America. Some
Speaker 1: people are pleased and others are like, we're not that happy.
Speaker 1: So would you mind telling us why Boulder is such
Speaker 1: a happy place? Well, I think there's a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: Starters is that we are blessed to live in a
Speaker 1: really beautiful place, and we've really invested a lot over
Speaker 1: the years and protecting it. We were one of the
Speaker 1: first cities to create an open space tax, and so
Speaker 1: we've bought up forty acres of open space all around
Speaker 1: our city. So there's lots of places to recreate and
Speaker 1: see wildlife. So we tend to attract athletes and people
Speaker 1: that love the outdoors, which tend to be happier people. Um.
Speaker 1: But we also were university city, so almost a third
Speaker 1: of our population or students and professors, and we also
Speaker 1: have a dozen federal laboratories like the National Center for
Speaker 1: Atmospheric Research. So we are bills with pe well that
Speaker 1: are well educated and informed and engage and working on
Speaker 1: everything from you know, the solution to climate change to
Speaker 1: starting up a new high tech business. And so there's
Speaker 1: a lot of um, good energy directed towards um making
Speaker 1: the world a better place, um, but having a good
Speaker 1: time while we do it, right, all right, that's pretty great.
Speaker 1: You know. I feel like Boulder used to be a
Speaker 1: little bit more of this kind of hidden gem that
Speaker 1: that that people didn't necessarily know what a beautiful and
Speaker 1: wonderful place it is. And it feels like more people
Speaker 1: are coming there and that's maybe moving there or visiting there.
Speaker 1: And so how have you guys dealt with this as
Speaker 1: a as a city as you have grown? Well, I
Speaker 1: will say that that is actually one of our biggest challenges.
Speaker 1: Colorado's population is booming because it is a beautiful place
Speaker 1: to be and the economy is doing well, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people worried that we're gonna uh kill
Speaker 1: the goose that laid the golden egg by you know,
Speaker 1: loving this place to death. So I was gonna say
Speaker 1: we are happy to be considered the happiest city, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people would argue that, um, we should
Speaker 1: keep that a secret because more people kind of is
Speaker 1: challenging to manage. And so what plans do you see
Speaker 1: from the Boulder's future. So I think one of our
Speaker 1: big challenges is how do you, um keep being vibrant
Speaker 1: and gritty and interesting and and you know, not too trendy.
Speaker 1: And I think we wrestle with that because, um there's
Speaker 1: a lot of growth pressure, and with that comes um
Speaker 1: a real affordability challenge. So it's really expensive to live
Speaker 1: here now, and that challenges diversity both economically and ethnically.
Speaker 1: The other thing is when things things are going really well,
Speaker 1: and the question is how do we um keep them
Speaker 1: vibrant and interesting and evolving and yet also keep what
Speaker 1: we love about this place as it is. These are
Speaker 1: the problems that come with success. Boulders are really wonderful place.
Speaker 1: I've note that the entire Denver metro area is really thriving,
Speaker 1: right now, and it's it's a really wonderful place to
Speaker 1: beat me. Yeah, that's great. Well, we know that we're
Speaker 1: all very happy talking together today, but we do have
Speaker 1: to put you to the test with a really, really challenging,
Speaker 1: and some might say dumb quiz. So mango, what what
Speaker 1: what quiz? Are we playing with Mayor Jones today? It's
Speaker 1: called come on, everyone, get happy? All right? So here
Speaker 1: we go. We got five questions for you, Mayor Jones.
Speaker 1: You ready, I'm ready. Every answer includes the word happy. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's right. Every answer includes the word happy. Okay, here
Speaker 1: we go. Question number one. This show gave the world
Speaker 1: the term jump the shark when Fonzie jumped a shark
Speaker 1: on water skis. Oh yeah, that's right. It happened during
Speaker 1: the fifth season, and while it seemed out of character
Speaker 1: for the show, it was meant to showcase Henry Winkler's
Speaker 1: real life water skiing skills. Oh wow, okay, alright. Question
Speaker 1: number two. In the very first of These Kids Meals
Speaker 1: sold by McDonald's, kids got either a mcdoodlers stencil, mc
Speaker 1: wrist wallet or a McDonald land character erasers shaped like
Speaker 1: Grimace or the Hamburglar. So what kids meal. Are we
Speaker 1: talking about, well, happy meals? Of course, that's right. Two
Speaker 1: for two question numbers. We told you it was a
Speaker 1: really hard quiz. Question number three. Here we go. This
Speaker 1: term came about in nineteen fourteen and wasn't initially associated
Speaker 1: with bars or deals on snacks. Instead, it was used
Speaker 1: to describe sixty minutes of scheduled entertainment that sailors would
Speaker 1: get in the afternoons to alleviate boredom at sea. Well,
Speaker 1: happy hours, and I will say Boulder is a great
Speaker 1: place for that. We have lots of breweries and that's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. And until post prohibition, a happy hour could
Speaker 1: include anything from live music to dancing to boxing matches.
Speaker 1: Doesn't sound very happy, okay, alright? Number four, this song
Speaker 1: sung once a year to most people, was used in
Speaker 1: the first ever singing telegram to celebrate someone's special day.
Speaker 1: It's happy something um happy Graham. I don't know. This
Speaker 1: would be the happy birthday song. It was. Actually what
Speaker 1: was this song originally called mango? It was? It was
Speaker 1: originally called good morning to you, Good morning to you.
Speaker 1: All right, you're three out of four. This is the
Speaker 1: last one for the big big prize. Here we go well.
Speaker 1: RI e M made a lot of money off of
Speaker 1: this very happy song. According to lead singer Michael Stipe quote,
Speaker 1: if there was one song that was sent into outer
Speaker 1: space to represent r e M for the rest of time,
Speaker 1: I would not want it to be that song shiny
Speaker 1: happy people. Yeah, that's right, you got it. So how
Speaker 1: did Mayor Jones do today? Mango? She went in amazing
Speaker 1: four for five, which means she's going to get a
Speaker 1: very top prize, a part Time Genius Certificate of Genius,
Speaker 1: as well as a hearty congratulations. Well, congratulations again Mayor
Speaker 1: Jones on being named the happiest city in America and
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us on Part Time Genius. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot today about measuring happiness and how
Speaker 1: it does or doesn't relate to the g d P.
Speaker 1: And I know we've mentioned this on a previous episode,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to talk about a country that doesn't
Speaker 1: gauge prosperity by gross domestic product but by g NH,
Speaker 1: which is gross national happiness. Well, we might have said
Speaker 1: no metrics, but that I think we should make an
Speaker 1: exception for one as goofy as this, but we we
Speaker 1: should remind our listeners. What place we're talking about? Yeah, Bhutan,
Speaker 1: and it's if you don't know, it's the small but
Speaker 1: this kingdom tucked away in the Himalayas. It's been around
Speaker 1: for centuries, but its borders were close to tourists until
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, which was just a few years after
Speaker 1: the country revealed its new happiness based approach to measuring progress.
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole country is about the size of Indiana,
Speaker 1: so tourism is still regulated. I mean I did like
Speaker 1: reading about it and talking about it before, but is
Speaker 1: g n H Is that actually working for them there?
Speaker 1: So according to the Boutanese, it is, and the country
Speaker 1: released a study in two thousand fifteen that showed that
Speaker 1: of the population identified it as either narrowly, extensively or
Speaker 1: deeply happy. That's kind of arrange there. Narrowly too deeply,
Speaker 1: so so what are they also happy about? Though? Lots
Speaker 1: of stuff? So for one thing, life expectancy in Bhutan
Speaker 1: has doubled over the last two decades. The country also
Speaker 1: has an almost a hundred percent enrollment rate for children
Speaker 1: in grade school. Has taken all kinds of steps to
Speaker 1: protect its natural environment, including a monthly pedestrian day when
Speaker 1: all private vehicles are completely banned from its roads. I mean,
Speaker 1: that does sound pretty sweet, but I don't know, are
Speaker 1: you sure they're not cooking the books just to make
Speaker 1: life and Bhutan look a little bit better than it
Speaker 1: actually is. I mean, it's not a realized Shango law
Speaker 1: or anything, despite its reputation. But even the UN has
Speaker 1: started to explore ways to apply Bhutan's g n H
Speaker 1: model to other parts of the world. In fact, that
Speaker 1: was the inspiration for their whole World Happiness Report project.
Speaker 1: But if you're still uncommenced, listen to how Bhutan's Ministry
Speaker 1: of Education makes the case for his country's unique approach
Speaker 1: to progress. And these are his words. People always ask
Speaker 1: how you can possibly have a nation of happy people,
Speaker 1: But this is missing the point. G n H is
Speaker 1: an aspiration instead of guiding principles through which we are
Speaker 1: navigating our path towards a sustainable and equitable society. We
Speaker 1: believe the world needs to do the same before it's
Speaker 1: too late. I mean, they seem to have a point there,
Speaker 1: which you know, I guess that's why at the first
Speaker 1: sign of armageddon, I'm going to be booking a trip
Speaker 1: straight to Finland. Why Finland, because the end of the
Speaker 1: world can be stressful, and the Finish seems to know
Speaker 1: how to unwind. I mean, after all, they're the only
Speaker 1: country with a deeply ingrained sonic culture. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been looking for a sonic culture. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've heard this, but the Finns had this deep love
Speaker 1: for warm, wooden saunas, and this goes back centuries, so
Speaker 1: much so that they're over three point three million saunas
Speaker 1: for Finland's five point four million citizens. That's more than
Speaker 1: half a sauna for each person, and that means these
Speaker 1: things are just about everywhere. This is homes, offices, factories,
Speaker 1: not to mention really unexpected places like airport, lounges, underground
Speaker 1: mind even parliament. It was so much fun reading about
Speaker 1: all these different weird places you'd see them. So I
Speaker 1: don't know if you notice that I secretly love saunas
Speaker 1: like they help you with hangovers, they make you feel
Speaker 1: good up with sports. But I saw this thing in
Speaker 1: gastro Obscura that you can actually cook a sausage and
Speaker 1: a sauna as you sit there and then eat that
Speaker 1: as a snack after and that turned me a little off. Really,
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say that could like actually
Speaker 1: raise the rating of the world happiness. But I do
Speaker 1: get why Finland always ranks so highly is the Happiness report.
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole country is just hanging around naked, relaxing,
Speaker 1: you know, shooting the breeze in the cozy little sweat boxes. Well,
Speaker 1: I will have you know that plenty of important work
Speaker 1: gets done in these finished saunas too. And according to
Speaker 1: a report from the BBC, former President Nobel Peace Prize
Speaker 1: Laureate marty Ata Sari used sauna diplomacy and these are
Speaker 1: these diplomatic meetings that actually take place in a sauna
Speaker 1: and either this to move forward negotiations with countries like
Speaker 1: Tanzania and Anesia, several others. And actually during the Cold
Speaker 1: War they negotiated with Soviet diplomats in the sauna. How crazy.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Sauna diplomacy. I love that that that's the
Speaker 1: real secret to happiness. But you know, if it's not saunas,
Speaker 1: then I think the secret of happiness might have to
Speaker 1: be monkey buffet festivals like the one this town in
Speaker 1: Thailand holds once a year. All right, mag I feel
Speaker 1: like you're kind of setting me up this one. And
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping that monkeys aren't actually on the menu
Speaker 1: at this monkey buffet festival. I've never heard of this,
Speaker 1: definitely not. So monkeys are actually the guests of honor.
Speaker 1: So each year, thousands of visitors flocked to the tiny
Speaker 1: town of Lopuari, Thailand, and they watch as local long
Speaker 1: tailed monkeys are pampered by their during residents. So, according
Speaker 1: to legend, the monkeys are the descendants of Hanuman, who
Speaker 1: is this into god. He's a heroic monkey king who
Speaker 1: helped build the town of Lope Worri thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1: So to honor Hanuman, the monkeys are now treating to
Speaker 1: this feast of exotic fruits and stinky white rice and
Speaker 1: other Thai favorites. I mean, the food is piled high.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's seen these photos, Like they're
Speaker 1: huge buffet tables and more than three thousand monkeys joining
Speaker 1: the feeding friends. Yeah, I mean, meanwhile, human spectators enjoy
Speaker 1: all these monkey theme festivities like monkey dances and monkey
Speaker 1: costume contests. I mean it does sound like fun. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, is this some kind of ancient tradition the
Speaker 1: town has kept up or how long has this actually
Speaker 1: been going on. Yeah, so it's actually been held since
Speaker 1: seriously ancient. Yeah, it's definitely not some sort of sacred
Speaker 1: cultural tradition, but it's more of a marketing scheme of
Speaker 1: this local businessman and he wanted to increase tourism. Delope
Speaker 1: Bori and his plans actually been a huge success. I mean,
Speaker 1: the festival continues to draw more and more visitors to
Speaker 1: the town each year, much to the delight of hungry Monkey.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's at least drawing more monkeys to the
Speaker 1: Towny here's that sounds like. And it's definitely the happiest
Speaker 1: place in the world for those monkeys, I would have
Speaker 1: to imagine, right, And I actually think there's a good
Speaker 1: lesson there for the rest of us about finding your
Speaker 1: own happy place, because in the end, ranking and comparing
Speaker 1: the happiness levels of different places is kind of futile. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't really like to think that we've
Speaker 1: wasted the better part of an hour here. But what
Speaker 1: do you mean by that? No, I don't mean that.
Speaker 1: I just mean happiness is happiness, like either you have
Speaker 1: it or you don't, and if you do, then you're lucky.
Speaker 1: And if you don't, then it's time to try something new.
Speaker 1: Because the difference between living in the number one happiest
Speaker 1: place versus I don't know, the tenth or fourteenth happiest
Speaker 1: places probably something you can make up on your own. Actually,
Speaker 1: it's interesting that you say that, because I was checking
Speaker 1: out this one study from the University of Edinburgh where
Speaker 1: researchers determined that roughly fifty percent of human happiness is
Speaker 1: genetically predetermined. So the idea is that some hardwired personality
Speaker 1: traits like you know, being sociable or active or hard working,
Speaker 1: that that actually caused happiness and the people who possessed them.
Speaker 1: And many psychologists have actually suggested that ten of our
Speaker 1: happiness is due to life circumstances, you know, like age
Speaker 1: and income, education, location, a few things like that. Sure,
Speaker 1: but what about the other Well, it's entirely up to us. Well,
Speaker 1: I I know one thing that's guaranteed to make you
Speaker 1: at least happier me too. That's that's eating one of
Speaker 1: those sausages in a finished saun all right. I was
Speaker 1: thinking something that's good too, So we'll go with that. Alright,
Speaker 1: My first fact, let's see here, all right, Well, last
Speaker 1: year computer scientists at the University of Vermont were on
Speaker 1: the hunt for the happiest words in the English language,
Speaker 1: so they turned to a crowdsource survey system and looked
Speaker 1: at over ten thousand words. Some of the words that
Speaker 1: turned up in the top two hundred were cupcakes, weekends, beach, victory, heaven, mother,
Speaker 1: as well as both ha ha ha and ha ha
Speaker 1: ha ha ha ha. Both of those were words, But
Speaker 1: the happiest word was laughter. I like that. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of the holiday season here. It
Speaker 1: was interesting to read about a few studies that have
Speaker 1: shown that family rituals make people happier, and that is,
Speaker 1: those who have rituals they practiced at Christmas or New
Speaker 1: Year's or even Easter, whenever families tend to get together,
Speaker 1: they felt closer to their families. And interestingly, the type
Speaker 1: of rituals doesn't seem to matter as much as the
Speaker 1: number of different rituals. So you know, stuff like East
Speaker 1: reg hunts and family dinners at Thanksgiving, going to watch
Speaker 1: New Year's celebration, that type of stuff, Well, that's pretty neat. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think most of us would be surprised to
Speaker 1: know that spending time in nature makes people happier, But
Speaker 1: there have been some pretty interesting findings from recent studies.
Speaker 1: One out of the University of Michigan found the benefits
Speaker 1: of walking in nature are found to be even more
Speaker 1: significant when you walk with a group. Another one found
Speaker 1: that exercising outdoors saw greater mental health than provements than
Speaker 1: those who exercised indoors, And yet another one found that
Speaker 1: those who simply looked at pictures of urban landscapes saw
Speaker 1: more activity in the part of their brain linked to
Speaker 1: negative emotions when compared to those who looked at natural scenes.
Speaker 1: So to recap nature is good for us. So I
Speaker 1: recently read about a study out of UC Davis where
Speaker 1: psychologists had three different groups keep weekly journals, and the
Speaker 1: first group they had to write about what they were
Speaker 1: up to that week, the second talked about things that
Speaker 1: were irritants that week, and the third wrote about things
Speaker 1: they were grateful for. And sure enough, a couple months later,
Speaker 1: those who have written about things they were thankful for
Speaker 1: reported being more satisfied with their lives than the other groups.
Speaker 1: They even had fewer negative physical symptoms like headaches and
Speaker 1: running noses. Interesting all right, well, speaking of little daily things,
Speaker 1: we can do to make ourselves happier. We we've talked
Speaker 1: about the benefits of exercise on our mental health, but
Speaker 1: I was actually curious to see what that meant in
Speaker 1: terms of how much exercise. And it turns out that
Speaker 1: just twenty minutes of exercise can actually boost your mood
Speaker 1: for up to twelve hours. And of course those who
Speaker 1: exercise regularly are generally found to feel a greater satisfaction
Speaker 1: with their lives. Well, you open the show with a
Speaker 1: fact about McDonald's, and I've actually been saving one about
Speaker 1: Mickey D's. Did you know that in the two thousand
Speaker 1: and fifteen Paid with Loving campaign that they ran, I
Speaker 1: love that name, Pay with Love, and I can't say
Speaker 1: I remember that way. Well, the idea was to encourage
Speaker 1: people to do nice things, which would then put smiles
Speaker 1: on people's faces. So they randomly chose a hundred customers
Speaker 1: and asked them to do nice things as the payment
Speaker 1: for a meal. And there was one account from a
Speaker 1: customer who is not so psyched about this, and it
Speaker 1: kind of made me laugh, so I wanted to share it.
Speaker 1: Kate Beckleder, who happens to be an editor at The
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, wrote quote, Suddenly, the cashier began clapping
Speaker 1: and cheering, and the restaurant crew quickly gathered around her
Speaker 1: and joined in. This can't be good, I thought, half
Speaker 1: expecting someone to put a birthday sombrero on my head.
Speaker 1: The cashier announced with glee, you get to pay with lovin.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh. Confused, I again started to try to pay,
Speaker 1: but no. My fellow customers seemed to look at it
Speaker 1: with pity. As I drew my fate asked someone to dance.
Speaker 1: I stood there for a mortified second or two, and
Speaker 1: then the cashier mercifully suggested that we all danced together.
Speaker 1: Not wanting to be a spoil sport, I forced a
Speaker 1: smile and raised the roof a couple of times as
Speaker 1: employees try to lure cringing customers into forming some kind
Speaker 1: of congo line, asking them when they had last been
Speaker 1: asked to dance. The public embarrassment ended soon enough, and
Speaker 1: I slunk away with my free breakfast, thinking, now there's
Speaker 1: an idea that never should have left the conference room,
Speaker 1: that is so painful but hilarious to hear. And I mean,
Speaker 1: not only did you match my Mickey D's story with
Speaker 1: a better one, but the idea of someone raising the
Speaker 1: roof for a hamburger. That is worth the win in itself,
Speaker 1: so congratulations, I'm giving you the fact off. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, and thank you guys for listening. That's it
Speaker 1: for today's episode. Don't forget we love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: If you have any fun facts or any questions, you
Speaker 1: can email us part time Genius at how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also call us on our fact
Speaker 1: hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, or hit
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening, Arch,
Speaker 1: thanks again for listening. Farttime Genius is a production of
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Speaker 1: forget Jason? Jason who