The Human Progress Podcast

Is Progress Making Us Miserable? | Tim Lomas | Ep. 65

13 snips
Aug 8, 2025
Tim Lomas, a psychology research scientist at Harvard's Human Flourishing Program, dives into global happiness trends. He discusses the complexities of measuring well-being, revealing how community and relationships often outweigh wealth. Lomas highlights cultural biases and fascinating findings, such as how medium-income countries can achieve high flourishing levels. He also explores gender disparities in well-being, noting that cultural contexts significantly influence perceptions. Throughout, he underlines the vital role of personal agency and community support in fostering happiness.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
ANECDOTE

From Ska Singer To Researcher

  • Tim Lomas previously worked as a ska band singer, a psychiatric nursing assistant, and an English teacher in China.
  • These varied roles show his practical background before moving into academic research on flourishing.
INSIGHT

Longitudinal Study Is Globally Ambitious

  • The Global Flourishing Study follows the same people across countries over multiple waves instead of taking one-off snapshots.
  • That longitudinal design reveals trends and possible causal patterns that cross-sectional polls cannot capture.
INSIGHT

Six Core Domains Of Flourishing

  • VanderWeele's framework measures happiness, health, meaning, character, close relationships, plus material stability as a sixth domain.
  • Material stability secures other domains rather than standing identically alongside them.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app