How Can We Rebuild Our Social Safety Net?

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The study found that being securely connected to at least one other person was really important. What are some more of those ways that you think we should change things and do them in a better way? We ask our older people, as they look back, what do you most regret about your life? And i mean, for me, i should get in my car every morning and commute on the highway for forty five minutes every morning to the hospital where my office is,. That's where i need to go to have all my meetings and do all my work. I could waste an hour and a half of my life every day.

Listening to your favorite song, going on vacation, chocolate… What makes YOU happy? Today’s guest, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Waldinger, is the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an 83-year-old project--one of the longest-running studies of adult life ever--that tracks how life experience across decades affects health and wellbeing in middle age and beyond. Robert shares the surprising things he’s learned about what makes a meaningful life and what to do--or avoid--in order to have a long, fulfilling existence. Robert is the author of numerous scientific papers as well as two books, and he teaches medical students and psychiatry residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is a Senior Dharma Teacher in Boundless Way Zen. To learn more about "How to Be a Better Human," host Chris Duffy, or find footnotes and additional resources, please visit: go.ted.com/betterhuman