Arthur Brooks
Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School. On 4 shows, 7 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
academicauthorscientisthostexecutivejournalist@arthurbrooks ↗LinkedIn ↗arthurbrooks.com ↗Wikipedia ↗YouTube ↗Instagram ↗
Arthur Brooks is an academic and social scientist specializing in the science of happiness and human purpose, having previously served as president of the American Enterprise Institute. He has authored multiple bestselling books and currently hosts the podcast Office Hours with Arthur Brooks.
4shows
7appearances
126statements
52resolved
22supported
11contradicted
42%fully supported
7said about them ↓ Everything Arthur Brooks said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Brooks: Polyamory is nonsense because humans are built for pair-bonding
“All of the nonsense about, I don't know, polyamory that are coming around. That's all Nonsense. And again, I mean, look, no judgment, different strokes, but look, I'm a behavioral scientist, and the truth of the matter is that we are built for pair-bond mating”
Brooks: Dark Triad personalities are disproportionately social activists
“There's a really interesting papers that we've seen recently, the dark triads, they're disproportionately social activists.”
Brooks: Anonymous internet posters are overwhelmingly likely Dark Triad personalities
“Do you like to post anonymously on the internet? Because the answer is yes, you're overwhelmingly likely to be talking to a dark triad. You're overwhelmingly likely to be talking to a pathological personality, somebody who really likes to stir up trouble and h…”
Brooks: The therapy industrial complex mistakenly wants you to relive trauma
“And again, that's been largely overlooked by the therapy industrial complex that wants you to relive your trauma. No, no, no, no, no, no. You need to reframe and understand your trauma, understanding that you probably weren't the person who was suffering the m…”
Brooks: CEOs are the loneliest people because their relationships are transactional
“The loneliest people I ever meet are CEOs, the loneliest people I meet. And the reason is because it's all deal, no real. Because real friends take time and you don't, you're not compensated for it.”
Brooks: Using AI as a therapist, lover, or friend causes depression and emptiness
“If you use AI as your therapist or your lover or your friend, It will leave you feeling empty, depressed, and anxious. That's the bottom line.”
Brooks: Happiness and unhappiness are processed in different brain hemispheres
“Happiness and unhappiness are not opposites. They're largely governed in different hemispheres of the brain, as a matter of fact. So to say, if I got rid of the screens and had fewer aggravations and mood disorders, I would be happier. That's wrong. You'd be l…”
Brooks: Non-religious people tend to be less happy than religious people
“We find that non-religious people tend to be less happy than religious people because they don't think that there's something big and good and beautiful that, that, that lies in store for all of us if we live right”
Brooks: Median number of questions men ask on first dates is zero
“You know, the average, by the way, the average number of questions asked by a man on a first date, according to my colleague, Alison Woodbrooks at HBS? Zero. That's the average. That's the median number of questions asked by a man on a first date with a woman.”
Brooks: Ages 25 to 32 is optimal range for relationship success
“You find that people from about, you know, 25 to 32, that's the kind of the range where people are most likely to have successful relationships because they're a startup. They're not merging to fully formed lives and careers.”
Brooks: Men over 30 never cohabiting face 1-in-3 substance abuse rate
“For example, if men over 30 who've never either cohabitated or been married, they have a one in three likelihood of a substance abuse disorder.”
Brooks: Dating apps funnel 80% of overtures to dark triad men
“80% of the overtures toward men go to 10% of the male population, and those are not the right guys. Those are a lot of dark triads. The dark triads are the ones who show the best in every format, including in, in, in dating profiles.”
Brooks: Four uses of money bring happiness; buying material goods fails
“So there's five things you can do with money. Okay. This is a very much a Cody Sanchez part of the conversation, isn't it? Number one, you can buy stuff, right? We've already talked about that. Number two, you can buy experiences. Number three, you can buy tim…”
Brooks: Women's happiness has plummeted over twenty years to match men's
“Over the past 20 years or so, women have converged downward to the unhappiness levels of men. So they've converged, and at first I thought, great, men are getting happier. Women are getting unhappier is what we find, and they're getting unhappier very quickly.”
Brooks: Over 20 years, women's happiness has declined to men's levels
“But what you've found is that over the past 20 years or so, women have converged downward to the unhappiness levels of men. So they've converged, and at first I thought, great, men are getting happier. Women are getting unhappier is what we find, and they're g…”
Brooks: The bucket list is a destructive concept that fuels dissatisfaction
“The worst, most metastatically stupid idea in Western society, in American society is the bucket list. The bucket list is like, I'm going to make a list of all my cravings and attachments and desires, and I'm going to pour over it.”
Brooks: Authentic Happiness Comes From Faith, Family, Friendship, and Work
“There are four idols that people chase in life. Money, power, pleasure, and honor, by which he meant fame, and which we mean prestige in life. Those are idols that never bring satisfaction. They run you in the wrong direction. If you want to be ambitious for t…”
Brooks: US poverty rate stayed at 10-15% despite $20T spent
“We have, the poverty rate has bounced around between 10 and 15% every year since then. Despite the fact that we spent somewhere around 20 trillion dollars in the war on poverty.”
Arthur Brooks: The bottom 80% of earners experienced zero economic growth
“This blended, by the way, with the Great Recession in 2008, 2009, such that basically 80% of the income distribution, the bottom 80% has experienced zero economic growth.”
Arthur Brooks: Left-wing and right-wing populism are both nonsense
“It's rich people who've got your stuff, and both of those approaches are nonsense. Neither one of those approaches is legitimate”
Arthur Brooks: Believing in inevitable tech advancement means discarding morality
“The people who believe in the inevitability of technological advance in all areas at all times, these are people who have basically decided that morality is not important.”
Brooks: Enjoyment Requires Combining Pleasure With Social Connection and Memory
“One is enjoyment, which is not pleasure. It's pleasure plus people plus memory. It's, you know, pleasure doesn't lead you to happiness, The pursuit of pleasure leads you to rehab, but when you actually add people and memory to it, you transfer the experience o…”
Brooks: Meaninglessness Is the Top Predictor of Depression in Young Adults
“As a matter of fact, the best predictor of depression, anxiety, For young adults is the answer yes to the question. Does your life feel meaningless? That's the best predictor.”
Brooks: Pandemic Response and Tech Mediation Drove Modern Meaninglessness
“The problem wasn't the coronavirus. The problem is what we did about the coronavirus, which pulled people apart, left people in a very, very lonely state. It actually reoriented them toward the way that they self-soothe. People really started using their smart…”
The other half of the tape: Arthur Brooks's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 7 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Codie Sanchez 7
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
BigDeal 7
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 6 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Arthur's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIGDEALLEDGER | Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School | 4 | 87 | 42% 18/43 | full record on BigDeal → |
 AMERICAN OPTIMISTLEDGER | Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School | 1 | 14 | 75% 3/4 | full record on American Optimist → |
 a16zLEDGER | Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School | 1 | 13 | 0% 0/3 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School | 1 | 12 | 50% 1/2 | full record on Masters of Scale → |