Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Happy full moon, everybody!
Humans are the most social species on the planet.
So ... why don't we act like it? Why is loneliness rising? Why are we increasingly entombed in echo chambers? What is preventing us from connecting?
Enter Nick Epley, Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and one of the world's leading researchers on the psychology of social interaction.
Nick grew up in rural Iowa, lives in Chicago with his family, and has spent his career asking a deceptively simple question: Why do the most social creatures on Earth often choose to be less social than they could be?
Nick is the author of ‘Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want’, and his newest book, ‘A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection’.
His research spans social cognition, perspective-taking, loneliness, anthropomorphism, and why our judgments about people are so often inaccurate. Nick has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR. His course at Booth, ‘Designing a Good Life’, is an ethics course exploring how to build lives that are ethical, successful, and genuinely fulfilling, and it's among the school's most sought-after classes.
Pull up a chair and let's talk about the differences between introversion and extroversion, the ethics of a good life, parenting five children (yes, five!), how technology is affecting the ways we socialize, the uncertainty effect, finding wisdom, and of course… Nick Epley's 3 most formative books.
Let's flip the page to chapter 164 now…
-
0:00:00 - Welcome to Chapter 164 of 3 Books
01:27 – Who is Nick Epley?
04:30 – Two opening questions: gratitude and crying
06:05 – On building an unexpected family of five
13:58 – Inside 'Designing a Good Life' at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
21:17 – Book One: 'National Geographic Book of Mammals' by the National Geographic Society
25:34 – On wanting to be a mountain man
28:51 – What is AI doing to mammals?
33:15 – Phones, teenagers, and 120,000 fewer words a year
35:32 – On the uncertainty effect
42:20 – Where Nick's work meets Susan Cain's 'Quiet'
47:36 – Book Two: 'How We Know What Isn't So' by Thomas Gilovich
51:22 – On choosing Cornell and finding an academic father
54:54 – Danny Kahneman, anchoring, and a glass of wine
1:01:23 – Book Three: 'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon
1:07:38 – Surrogation: asking the people already living it
1:16:51 – When in doubt, reach out
1:19:01 - Final Reflections
-
SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly/2HHWPYg
Hey there,
I'm Neil and I spend a ton of time thinking, writing, podcasting, and speaking about living intentionally. I'm the New York Times bestselling author of six books including The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. I've been lucky to speak at places like TED, SXSW, and Google. And I host a huge passion project called the 3 Books podcast.
Want more 3 Books? Check out my top interviews with:
Brené Brown youtube.com/watch?v=X5l-Auv7h8Y
Quentin Tarantino youtube.com/watch?v=VVFdvfiPB-w
David Sedaris youtube.com/watch?v=wzz8tqnz1mI
Want to read more of my stuff?
https://www.neil.blog/archive/
Want to check out my podcast?
3books.co
Want to learn about my live events?
globalhappiness.org/speaking
Want my monthly book recos?
1000awesomethings.com/reading-club
Want my articles on intentional living?
https://www.neil.blog/newsletter/
I am also on the following drugs:
Facebook: facebook.com/NeilPasricha
Twitter: twitter.com/neilpasricha
Instagram: instagram.com/neilpasricha
Lastly, thanks so much for watching this vid.
👊,
Neil
neil@globalhappiness.org
Happy full moon, everybody!
Humans are the most social species on the planet.
So ... why don't we act like it? Why is loneliness rising? Why are we increasingly entombed in echo chambers? What is preventing us from connecting?
Enter Nick Epley, Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and one of the world's leading researchers on the psychology of social interaction.
Nick grew up in rural Iowa, lives in Chicago with his family, and has spent his career asking a deceptively simple question: Why do the most social creatures on Earth often choose to be less social than they could be?
Nick is the author of ‘Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want’, and his newest book, ‘A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection’.
His research spans social cognition, perspective-taking, loneliness, anthropomorphism, and why our judgments about people are so often inaccurate. Nick has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR. His course at Booth, ‘Designing a Good Life’, is an ethics course exploring how to build lives that are ethical, successful, and genuinely fulfilling, and it's among the school's most sought-after classes.
Pull up a chair and let's talk about the differences between introversion and extroversion, the ethics of a good life, parenting five children (yes, five!), how technology is affecting the ways we socialize, the uncertainty effect, finding wisdom, and of course… Nick Epley's 3 most formative books.
Let's flip the page to chapter 164 now…
-
0:00:00 - Welcome to Chapter 164 of 3 Books
01:27 – Who is Nick Epley?
04:30 – Two opening questions: gratitude and crying
06:05 – On building an unexpected family of five
13:58 – Inside 'Designing a Good Life' at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
21:17 – Book One: 'National Geographic Book of Mammals' by the National Geographic Society
25:34 – On wanting to be a mountain man
28:51 – What is AI doing to mammals?
33:15 – Phones, teenagers, and 120,000 fewer words a year
35:32 – On the uncertainty effect
42:20 – Where Nick's work meets Susan Cain's 'Quiet'
47:36 – Book Two: 'How We Know What Isn't So' by Thomas Gilovich
51:22 – On choosing Cornell and finding an academic father
54:54 – Danny Kahneman, anchoring, and a glass of wine
1:01:23 – Book Three: 'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon
1:07:38 – Surrogation: asking the people already living it
1:16:51 – When in doubt, reach out
1:19:01 - Final Reflections
-
SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly/2HHWPYg
Hey there,
I'm Neil and I spend a ton of time thinking, writing, podcasting, and speaking about living intentionally. I'm the New York Times bestselling author of six books including The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. I've been lucky to speak at places like TED, SXSW, and Google. And I host a huge passion project called the 3 Books podcast.
Want more 3 Books? Check out my top interviews with:
Brené Brown youtube.com/watch?v=X5l-Auv7h8Y
Quentin Tarantino youtube.com/watch?v=VVFdvfiPB-w
David Sedaris youtube.com/watch?v=wzz8tqnz1mI
Want to read more of my stuff?
https://www.neil.blog/archive/
Want to check out my podcast?
3books.co
Want to learn about my live events?
globalhappiness.org/speaking
Want my monthly book recos?
1000awesomethings.com/reading-club
Want my articles on intentional living?
https://www.neil.blog/newsletter/
I am also on the following drugs:
Facebook: facebook.com/NeilPasricha
Twitter: twitter.com/neilpasricha
Instagram: instagram.com/neilpasricha
Lastly, thanks so much for watching this vid.
👊,
Neil
neil@globalhappiness.org
