AI Summary
5 min readJonathan Rauch was in his early 50s when he noticed something strange. He had just lost both parents, his organization collapsed, and a startup he launched failed. Yet his sense of contentment was growing. That personal experience collided with a piece of research from a happiness economist at the Brookings Institution, where Rauch is a senior fellow. Economists had found that life satisfaction tends to bottom out in the mid-to-late 40s and then rise through death—on average, across cultures. Then in 2012, a study found the same pattern in chimpanzees and orangutans. Rauch, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and author of nine books, decided he had to write about it. The result was The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50, a book that helped popularize a finding that still feels counterintuitive to most people.
The U-Curve and Why We Get It Wrong
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:01) **The Surprise of Midlife Happiness** - Rauch introduces the core paradox: everything he thought about aging as decline was wrong, and the biggest surprise was discovering that happiness often increases after 50.
- 2 (01:05) **Introducing Jonathan Rauch** - The host, Chip Conley, introduces Rauch as a senior fellow at Brookings, contributing writer at The Atlantic, and author of nine books.
- 3 (03:48) **The Contrarian's Eye** - Rauch explains his journalistic approach of finding underexplored angles and thinking from first principles.
- 4 (07:15) **The Personal "Me-Search" Behind the U-Curve** - Rauch recounts his own midlife experience: achieving status and awards in his 40s but feeling increasingly dissatisfied.
- 5 (09:19) **The Chimpanzee Revelation** - Rauch explains how a 2012 study finding the same U-curve pattern in chimpanzees and orangutans convinced him the phenomenon was biologically important.
- 6 (10:36) **The Biggest Surprise: Aging is a Gift** - Rauch states his biggest surprise was discovering a vast literature showing late adulthood is the most satisfying and prosocial period of life.
- 7 (12:21) **A New Wrinkle: Young Adults Are Now the Least Happy** - The conversation shifts to recent data showing young adults are now the unhappiest demographic, a reversal of the traditional U-curve.
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Show Notes
Jonathan Rauch had reached the top of his career, yet each year he felt less satisfied. Then came the loss of his parents, his job, and a startup he had tried to build. To his surprise, his sense of contentment began to grow.
Rauch is a journalist and the author of The Happiness Curve, The Constitution of Knowledge, and Cross Purposes. He joins Chip Conley to explore what his personal experience and research reveal about getting older, and why the future looks more troubling for younger adults.
In this conversation:
- Why achievement does not always bring the happiness we expect
- Why life satisfaction often rises after 50, even through setbacks
- Why young adults’ loss of hope concerns Rauch
- Why free speech alone is not enough to establish what is true
- How wisdom helps us navigate conflict, and why it can be taught
Watch for an honest, thought-provoking conversation about happiness, truth, and the value of staying curious throughout life.
Timestamps:
(06:43) Seeing what others miss
(12:16) The midlife happiness curve
(15:16) Why life can get better after 50
(18:45) Why young adults are losing hope
(21:11) How society knows what is true
(26:53) Wisdom in an age of disinformation
(30:27) Christianity and our shared values
(43:04) Advice for the next generation
(45:01) Staying curious as we age
Learn more about MEA at https://www.meawisdom.com/
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