UM Common Reading Experience 2024: Build the Life You Want

Arthur Brooks' recurring column about pointing yourself toward happiness written for the popular American magazine, The Atlantic.

If we want a life full of deep meaning, true love, and emotional strength, it’s going to involve the risk (and often the reality) of discomfort, conflict, and loss.

Pleasure is addictive and animal; enjoyment is elective and human.

No matter what we achieve or attain, our biology always leaves us wanting more. But there’s a way out.

Arthur Brooks thinks studying happiness before "widgets" bring us back to first principles. A Q&A interview with Robert O'Neill, April 7, 2021. Harvard Kennedy School.

More than two decades’ worth of celebrated titles. Published May 7, 2024.