A few weeks ago, I was on a family trip to the Algarve region of Portugal when I was approached by a man who wanted to photograph me. It turned out, he was a photographer and wanted to know if he could take a picture of me. I said yes, and he was kind enough to take a photo of me, and then we ended up talking about some of my secrets to happiness.
00:03:44.680I said, would you mind if I ask, you know, why did you specifically pick me?
00:03:48.820What do you, can you gauge if somebody is going to be, you know, open to such a request?
00:03:54.180He said, well, you know, I mean, I don't want to sound arrogant or whatever.
00:03:58.180He said, well, you have a very, whatever, striking face that I thought would be great to photograph.
00:04:04.280And you seemed like a nice person and so on.
00:04:06.560And so I told him that I had this book coming out on happiness.
00:04:10.880And then I, you know, we, he took my photo.
00:04:14.420I signed his book, you know, like, you know, what my name is, my age and my, some of my secrets to happiness.
00:04:22.460I chose three of them from my book, choose the right spouse, choose a profession that allows you to instantiate your creative impulse that allows you and hence increases your likelihood of, of having purpose and meaning in your profession.
00:04:38.760And then number three, life as a playground.
00:05:29.520You know, when you're walking around in the world, people can either feel, oh, this is someone that's approachable.
00:05:37.700This is someone that seems as though they're sending cues that they can be approached or not.
00:05:42.880And I think that when you do send out the appropriate cues, I'm not saying that you should speak to every random person on the street.
00:05:49.200Obviously, there's a sweet spot, which is something else that I discuss in the forthcoming book.
00:05:54.180I have a whole chapter on the idea of finding the sweet spot, you know, everything in moderation and so on.
00:06:01.540And so it's just such a lovely moment.
00:06:04.660So that even, you know, with all of the topographical beauty of Portugal and the, you know, see-through water of the sea,
00:06:15.380jumping off these beautiful cliffs into this gorgeous water, glorious luminosity of the Portuguese sun and so on.
00:06:23.740Great food, unbelievable food and sweets and natas and all kinds of crazy food that I would otherwise never eat.
00:06:31.180One of the things that will remain memorable is that sweet, fleeting moment with a stranger.
00:06:37.380And so I think there's a real lesson there in terms of, you know, the pursuit of happiness.
00:06:43.740Part of the pursuit of happiness is to have an open spirit, which can then be instantiated in all kinds of ways.
00:06:51.800Your open spirit when you're doing your science, your open spirit when you are walking down the street.
00:06:56.700I was truly humbled by the fact that there were many people that came up to me in Portugal who, you know, who recognized me and chatted with me.
00:07:06.820And I should say I haven't responded to them yet and I hope that I'll have a chance to.
00:07:11.540I received a wonderful invitation to visit a winery in Portugal because apparently they're fans and so on.
00:07:21.160And so all that comes from the fact that I think one exudes a certain positivity and then people respond to it.
00:07:30.800So just wanted to share that story with you to all those who either wrote to me and haven't had a chance to write back.
00:07:40.320If I don't respond to you, please don't be offended.
00:07:43.080It only stems from the fact that it becomes difficult to answer everybody.
00:07:47.800And I specifically did not read or respond to anyone, certainly when I was on vacation.
00:07:55.140If anything, I only posted on social media things that were related to the vacation because I only wanted to navigate through positivity.
00:08:06.000And frankly, it really did me a lot of good to not look at, weigh in on any of the craziness that one typically is exposed to whenever they go on social media.
00:08:20.980Yes, it's part of what I do, which is to be a social and cultural commentator.
00:08:26.620But by the very nature of doing that, you're always mired in all sorts of negative nonsense.
00:08:34.160And so it's just good to get away, only be interacting with positive people, only interacting with the loving glow of my family.
00:08:45.060Very, very, very excited about the media tour that's about to start.
00:08:52.180I already had, just the day after I returned to Montreal, I had two chats, actually, with Jordan Peterson for his show.
00:09:01.640One was a two-hour chat, I think, that he posts on YouTube, and then another 30-minute chat, separate chat, which he then posts to his subscribers for the Daily Wire Plus, I think.
00:09:12.420And so very much looking forward for those conversations to come out.
00:09:17.100It's always such a joy to chat with Jordan.
00:09:20.360Contrary to what many people think, he's just such a delightful, decent guy, truly a good friend.
00:09:26.680Tomorrow, I'll be speaking with Dave Rubin.
00:09:29.900I'll be hosting on my show a psychiatrist who has a forthcoming book on the whole transgender issue.
00:09:37.860Then on Tuesday, I'm hosting Christopher Rufo, who's got a book coming out and appearing on a whole bunch of shows.
00:09:45.720Actually, the day that my book will be released, on July 25th, I'll be, in Texas, appearing on Joe Rogan's show.
00:09:52.960So a lot of appearances over the next few weeks.
00:09:56.840Hope you're all having a great summer.