Jan 26, 2022
In the United States, deaths of despair—from alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide—have risen sharply in the past decades. Many countries have recognized levels of social disconnection so high that they have become a public health crisis; both Japan and the U.K. have appointed Ministers of Loneliness in the hopes of answering this need for community and connection. But awareness of this growing crisis in human well-being does not easily translate into knowing how to fix it—or if we can fix it at all.
Theologian Brendan Case sits down with Grant to discuss the various ways that society can foster—or hinder—the well-being and flourishing of its members. Case is Associate Director for Research with the Harvard Human Flourishing Program, where he helps foster dialogue between the humanities’ long and rich tradition of contemplating human happiness with the evidence-based research of the empirical and social sciences. He brings this unique expertise to the conversation as he and Grant discuss some of the many strands in our social weave that may contribute to or hinder the living of meaningful lives.
Educational methods, religious participation, cancel culture, and the desire for knowledge all come into play as they ask—what is missing in our current understanding of human happiness? Can we have all we hope for, or can some goods only be possessed at the cost of others?