Beyond saving lives: happiness and doing good (with Michael Plant)

Beyond saving lives: happiness and doing good (with Michael Plant)

Published: September 17, 2025

Duration: 1:12:05

Read the full transcript here.

Are we trying to maximize moment-to-moment happiness or life satisfaction? Can self-reports really guide policy and giving? What happens to quality of life metrics when we judge impact by wellbeing instead of health or income? How should we compare treating depression to providing clean water when their benefits feel incomparable? Do cultural norms and scale-use quirks impact the accuracy of global happiness scores? How much do biases warp both our forecasts and our data? Is it ethical to chase the biggest happiness returns at the expense of other meaningful interventions? Where do...