American Association of University Women, Bennington Branch
Press Contact: Judy Murphy, 802-375-3294

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Good Life: A Conversation with Dr. Robert Waldinger, MD The public is invited to join a virtual conversation on November 1 at 7 to 8 p.m. with Robert Waldinger, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of The Good Life (Simon & Schuster, 2023). His best-selling book, co-authored with Mark Schulz, PhD, reports the findings of the longest scientific study of happiness ever conducted. The program, co-presented by the Bennington Branch of the American Association of University Women and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bennington, can be accessed by Zoom at this link, with no pre-registration required: https://bit.ly/AAUWTheGoodLife

Dr. Waldinger, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and Zen priest, is only the fourth director of the 85-year history of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a longitudinal project begun during the Great Depression. The study, led by director Waldinger and associate director Schulz, has followed two groups of young men, a set of research participants that has been diversified by the inclusion of second generation family members, into their 80s and 90s, up to their deaths. The ongoing study combines science and personal stories collected from its subjects at regular intervals in an effort to identify predictors of well being and healthy aging.

Dr. Waldinger's 12-minute TED Talk, delivered in 2015 (Robert Waldinger: What Makes a Good Life? https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_from_the_longest_s[...]=en), has been viewed by over 40 million people and is one of the 10 most-watched TED talks ever. When the book was published earlier this year, it was featured in national newspapers and on television, radio and podcasts, and the Health Desk of The New York Times ran a 7-Day Happiness Challenge (https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2023/01/01/well/happiness-challenge), with questions that Dr. Waldinger helped develop, along with tips for initiating, developing and maintaining the relationships that the study indicates are vital to happiness across a lifetime.

The program opens with a conversation between Dr. Waldinger and AAUW member Julie Mackaman, who were public high school classmates in the Midwestern town where they grew up. The conversation will be opened up to viewers to pose questions in the virtual meeting's chat.

Copies of The Good Life are available at The Bennington Bookshop in Bennington and the McCullough Library in North Bennington. Questions for Dr. Waldinger may be submitted in advance to Julie Mackaman at jmackaman@gmail.com.