Hello everyone, how’s it going?
My name is Luciano Sewaybricker, and this is The Underside of Happiness podcast.
Happiness is an incredible topic, isn’t it? Everyone wants to be happier, to know more about happiness, to spread happiness around the world… It makes sense that such an important theme is mentioned so often—at the corner bar, in politics, in movies, in advertisements, and in science. There’s no shortage of people trying to show how happy they are, talking about the secrets to happiness, and even giving step-by-step guides to becoming happier.
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That’s not what this podcast is about. I don’t think you need one more person telling you how to be happier. There are already plenty of people doing that. My goal is to contribute to the conversation about happiness in a slightly different way. And that has to do with my story and how I got here, to prepare The Underside of Happiness.
Just so you know, some basic stuff about me: I’m based in São Paulo, Brazil. I’m a university professor and happiness researcher… and it all started in 85, when I was born in a small city… just kidding. It’s not that long a story.
I started studying happiness in 2008 while preparing my undergraduate thesis in Psychology. The conclusion I came to was that the more I dug into theory and concepts about it, the more complicated happiness seemed. It was too complex a topic for an undergraduate.
So, I started my master’s degree. Two years later, my conclusion was that happiness was too complicated a topic for a dissertation… and the same for my PhD, my first postdoc, and now my second. But I see that conclusion differently now. Thankfully, otherwise, this story could be seen as a terrible personal branding.
There is no happiness—at least not “The” happiness. And that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to a life of misery, suffering, or unhappiness. It just means there’s no single happiness that we can find, discover, and then… voilà. Happiness isn’t something you can grab. It’s not in a place or a thing like, say, a glass of water or your blood insulin level.
The more you study and think about happiness, the more complicated it gets. It branches out, grows roots, transforms… Maybe happiness, then, isn’t an object to be “controlled” or “tamed,” but something to be appreciated and reflected upon. Throughout the episodes of this podcast, we’ll see that happiness is tied to the most fundamental aspects of our lives—what it means to be human, the purpose of life—and is inseparable from the world we live in. I can’t think about happiness outside of the place where I intend to be happy, outside of a specific moment in history.
And if that’s the case, there’s no way to come up with a recipe for happiness. I mean… you can always invent a recipe, but it won’t be a rigorous, precise one that you can just follow and be done with. A book like The Secrets of Happiness serves the author more than it serves you. In fact, it might even make you feel worse: holding the supposed secret to happiness in your hands and still not feeling like you’ve found it. A recipe for happiness should be used more like my mother uses her recipe book, she opens the book, reads the recipe, gets inspired, and does something crazy.
This podcast exists to go beyond that surface level. It’s here to poke at happiness with a stick and see what happens.
Of all the names considered, The Underside of Happiness best captures this podcast’s purpose (not to say, “my purpose”). Actually, the best translation from Portuguese, my mother tongue, would be “The Inside Out” of happiness. But the movie by Pixar got in the way. So, The Underside of Happiness it is.
It’s not in the sense of being contrary. After all, this isn’t a pessimistic podcast to convince everyone to be sad or unhappy—nobody needs a podcast for that. We already have politics. It’s the “underside” in the sense of going beyond the surface. Here, we’ll take this thing called happiness that surrounds us and examine it as thoroughly as we can.
Including seeing it from a less pleasant perspective.
Think about a car. The design teams of brands (Ford, Fiat, General Motors, etc.) spend a fortune to come up with the shape of the car, the curves, the aesthetics… all very beautiful and important since we see it all the time and it greatly influences the decision to buy a certain car or not. But there is another part, which we don’t see, and is essential for the car to be that car, for the car to “move”, which can only be accessed by opening the hood or from underneath the car. You will have to lie down on those boards with wheels and slide underneath it. Do you think the design team spent too much time thinking about the underside of the car? It is a part of the car that gets dirty, a part of the car that is not designed for its beauty, but for its functionality… It is difficult to see, it is unpleasant… but it tells us a lot about how that car works. Probably it tells us more than the shiny and exciting body of the car.
Including flipping it inside out.
Think of when you wear a shirt inside out. Usually by mistake, right? It’s not the prettiest version of the shirt. Instead of the design, you see loose threads and that huge tag sticking out. But that less pretty, less pleasant version is also part of the shirt. It helps you understand, for example, the stitching, where it was made, how to wash it, the materials used, and so on.
The same applies to happiness. It has a very beautiful side, which is easier and more pleasant to talk about: tips on how to be happy… reading famous, lovely quotes about happiness… I Googled happiness quotes and found this one from Drew Barrymore: “Happiness is the best makeup.” Why Drew Barrymore? Who knows. But it’s beautiful, right? Be happy and the beauty will follow you. No need for creams and botox.
For examining happiness, though, that’s not enough—barely scratching the surface of its complexity.
I hope you’ll join me in this exploration throughout the episodes.
You can take a look at the podcast’s page, from its portugues title avessodafelicidade.com. You can find it in the episode’s description. Easier than taking portuguese lessons. There you’ll find transcripts of the episodes, reading recommendations, and a bit more about me.
Don’t forget to share your thoughts about the episodes as we go along.
See you next time.
The Underside of Happiness 