UpFront

God, Government, and Happiness

SonjaLyubomirskyEver think about how “in god we trust” got on our currency? Ironically, it happened under the watch of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man who got baptized AFTER assuming office. Kevin Kruse traces the roots of that story  to someplace most historians have not ventured – the backlash against the New Deal. After that: What makes us happy? Sonya Lyubomirksy has been studying exactly that question for close to two decades, and the research contains a lot of surprising results.

Guests:

Kevin M. Kruse, professor of history at Princeton University and author of One Nation Under God: how corporate America invented Christian America.

Sonya Lyubomirsky is a professor of psychology at UC- Riverside and author of The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn’t; What Shouldn’t make you Happy, but Does.

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