The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

Dr. Laurie Santos teaches the most popular course in Yale history, and this podcast is basically that class in audio form. The premise is straightforward but kind of unsettling: most of what you think will make you happy, more money, better grades, a perfect Instagram feed, is backed by essentially zero science. Santos pulls from psychology research and behavioral economics to show what actually works, and she does it with a warmth that never feels preachy. The show has 276 episodes and holds a 4.7-star rating from nearly 14,000 reviews. Each week she brings in researchers, authors, and real people to talk about topics like why social comparison wrecks your mood, how gratitude practices hold up under scrutiny, and what loneliness does to your brain. Recent episodes have tackled what social media is really doing to kids (with Dr. Jean Twenge) and how to stop work from consuming your identity. For high schoolers dealing with academic pressure, social media anxiety, and the general stress of figuring out who they are, this stuff is genuinely practical. Santos has a gift for translating dry academic papers into stories that make you rethink your daily habits. The production quality is top-notch thanks to Pushkin Industries, and episodes typically land around 30 to 45 minutes. One thing to know: there are a lot of ads, which some listeners find annoying. But the content between those ads is consistently strong, and Santos never talks down to her audience.