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Arthur Brooks

Helping Millions Live Happier Lives | #1 NYT Best-Selling Author | Vanderbilt Professor | Columnist with The Free Press

Arthur Brooks: Mike Tomlin’s ‘Minecraft’ Hobby Is a Lesson in Happiness

The former Steelers coach spent 12 years secretly building a digital city. The lesson for the rest of us is that what makes us happiest may be the…

October 2, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Your Parents Raised You. What Do You Owe Them?

Caring for an aging parent can be exhausting, expensive, and unfairly distributed among siblings. It can also become one of life’s deepest sources of…

September 27, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Letting AI Write for You Will Make You Unhappy

Writing leads to happiness for a simple reason: It satisfies the human need to create something concrete and meaningful out of raw materials.

September 21, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Why Americans No Longer Grieve Together

When a couple loses a child, one factor determines whether it will strengthen or tear apart their marriage: blame. And so it is with countries in the…

September 13, 2026

Arthur Brooks: How to Be Happy at College

Parents tell their children that it will be the best time of their lives. Students often discover something very different. Why?

September 7, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Why Won’t the Boomers Grow Up?

That’s right, my young friends. It might very well be the case that your 75-year-old dad relaxing down in Boca is smoking weed right now and just caught…

August 31, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Why Bumble Embraced Human Nature

The dating app is famous for its requirement that women message first. But last week, it changed its policy due to a simple reality: Most women want men…

August 19, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Beware the Facebook Parents’ Group

Does using these groups make your kids’ lives better? What about your own? The answer, I’m afraid to say, is no.

August 17, 2026

Arthur Brooks: I Tried to Vacation Like a European. It Was a Disaster.

I’d literally rather electrocute myself than lie on a beach doing nothing.

August 10, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Will Socialism Make You Happy?

If you see a belief that appears out of nowhere, if you are suddenly pressured to change your life or views, and especially if you face a social cost…

August 3, 2026

Arthur Brooks: Looksmaxxing Is Repulsive

If there was ever a bigger disjunction between technology and evolutionary biology than this, I haven’t seen it.

July 27, 2026

Arthur Brooks: The Great Battle Between Ambition and Happiness

I travel nearly every week to teach happiness. But the lifestyle I chose undermines the very thing I study.

July 20, 2026