10% Happier with Dan Harris

Why optimization is a joy blocker, how to find the 'yes' inside the 'no,' and why that restless ache you can't shake is actually your compass.
Kate Bowler, PhD is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, award-winning podcast host, and an Associate Professor of American Religious History at Duke University. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we're capable of change. Her newest book is Joyful, Anyway.
In this episode we talk about:
The dangerous difference between joy and happiness
Why optimization and self-mastery are quietly killing your capacity for delight
How to find the "yes" inside every "no" (even when things are genuinely terrible)
The ache and restlessness you can't shake—and why it's actually your compass, not a problem to solve
What grace actually looks like when control disappears
How to stop trying to improve your way into joy
The "assignment" that changes how you show up for other people
Why survival isn't the point—living is
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Additional Resources: 
Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I've Loved) 
No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear)
Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie, and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18. Grab your in-person spot here, or sign up to livestream here!
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This episode is sponsored by: 

BetterHelp: Online therapy, matched to your needs. Get 10% off your first month at www.betterhelp.com/happier.
Gusto: Try Gusto today at gusto.com/HAPPIER, and get three months free when you run your first payroll.

What a fake guru discovered about genuine connection, why ancient wisdom survives even the most rigorous skepticism, and the real reason humans crave spiritual authority.
Vikram Gandhi is an award-winning and boundary-pushing director of fiction and non-fiction film and television. Vikram most recently co-directed The Man Will Burn — a five-part HBO Original Documentary Series on the full arc of Burning Man, from its countercultural roots in San Francisco to the 80,000-person desert event it's become.
In this episode we talk about:
Why an experiment built to reject capitalism ended up swimming in it
What playing a fake guru taught him about how belief actually works
Why people are often more comfortable opening up to a stranger than to those closest to them
What religion, cryptocurrency, and Burning Man all have in common
How to find meaning in ancient wisdom without needing to belong to anything
And much more
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This episode is sponsored by: 
Jiyu Skin: Our listeners can now get an additional 20% off plus free shipping with our code HAPPIER at jiyuskin.com.
Tonal: Right now, Tonal is offering our listeners $200 off your Tonal purchase with promo code HAPPIER.
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Simple practices for not believing everything you think, becoming less reactive, and handling whatever life throws at you.
Joseph Goldstein is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, both in Barre, Massachusetts. He is the author of many books including, most recently, Dreamscapes of the Mind. 
In this episode we talk about:
Why your thoughts have so much power over you — and how to take it back
A surprisingly funny technique for dealing with self-judgment
Why trying to get rid of an unwanted thought often makes it worse
The difference between recognizing an emotion and actually being mindful of it
Why sadness and unhappiness aren't the same thing
And much more
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Plus: combatting loneliness, turning down the volume on social comparison, and why mattering to a few people beats outperforming everyone.
Gordon Flett is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University where he has served as the Director of the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research. Dr. Flett is most known for his influential research on perfectionism in health and mental health and his more recent work on the psychology of mattering. 
In this episode we talk about:
The difference between perfectionism and healthy striving
How perfectionism functions as a coping mechanism for unmet needs for love, belonging, and significance
What "mattering" actually means
Antimattering (and our fear of not mattering)
Why feeling like you matter to others can loosen the grip of perfectionism
Why people consistently underestimate how much they matter to others
Practical ways to help others feel like they matter
Why helping others feel like they matter boomerangs back and boosts your own sense of significance
The fear of not mattering in the age of AI
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Additional Resources: 
Gordon's books: The Psychology of Mattering, Mattering as a Core Need in Children and Adolescents, and Perfectionism: Theory, Research, and Treatment
Join Dan, Sebene Selassie, and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18. Grab your in-person spot here, or sign up to livestream here!
This episode is sponsored by:
Quo – Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com/happier. 
BetterHelp — Online therapy, matched to your needs. Get 10% off your first month at https://www.betterhelp.com/happier
Warby Parker — Prescription glasses with virtual try-on. Buy one prescription pair and get 20% off additional prescription pairs at https://www.warbyparker.com/happier
IQBAR:   To get twenty percent off all IQBAR products, including the ultimate sampler pack, plus free shipping, text DAN to 64000.
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The time the Dalai Lama went bowling in their basement, the time a stranger showed up with exactly the $15,000 they were missing — and more behind-the-scenes stories from 50 years of IMS.
In 1975, a handful of young Americans fresh back from years of intensive practice in India and Burma pooled together $150,000 they didn't have and bought a former Catholic novitiate in rural Massachusetts. Fifty years later, the Insight Meditation Society has become one of the most consequential institutions in the history of Buddhism in the West — the place where Jon Kabat-Zinn had the idea that became Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and where, as one longtime yogi put it, the whole thing has run for half a century "without any adult supervision whatsoever."
For IMS's 50th anniversary, Dan sits down with four of its founding teachers — Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jacqueline Mandell — along with Steven Schwartz, who helped get the organization built in the first place. Together they trace the founding story, the early years of $25-a-month stipends and "window wars," the accidental birth of the mindfulness movement, and what they hope IMS looks like 1,000 years from now.
For more on the Insight Meditation Society, including how to support their new retreat center, you can visit dharma.org. 
Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here
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Join Dan, Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren for Meditation Party, a 3-day immersive retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, October 16–18, 2026. Register here.
To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris