Jonathan Rauch - The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 — in conversation with Scott Stossel
As new research is establishing, we experience a “happiness curve” as we age, following a U-shaped trajectory from the bright ambitions of the 20s to the more pragmatic 40s before rising again with the empathetic joy of the 50s. Once known as the midlife crisis, the emotional trough of the 40s is more usefully viewed as an essential stage. Recounting his own and others’ experience of the slump decade as well as citing statistics, Rauch, a senior fellow at Brookings and contributing editor of The Atlantic, shows that this period helps us shift our focus from competition to compassion, and that in the process we develop the skills of wisdom, gratitude, and supportiveness we’ll need in the third stage of life. Rauch will be in conversation with Scott Stossel, editor for The Atlantic and author of My Age of Anxiety.
