The Happiness Curve

Why Life Gets Better After 50

By: Jonathan Rauch

Narrated by: Robert Fass

"Robert Fass proves the perfect guide to exploring these concepts of age and happiness. Presenting the author’s personal journey, and his research and interviews, Robert keeps listeners engaged and tuned in to this fascinating study." — AudioFile Magazine

This audiobook will change your life by showing you how life changes.

Why does happiness tend to get harder in your 40s? Why do you feel in a slump when you’re successful? Where does this malaise come from? And, most importantly, will it ever end?

Drawing on cutting-edge research, award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch answers all these questions. He shows that from our 20s into our 40s, happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, a “happiness curve,” declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low slump in middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s.

This isn’t a midlife crisis, though. Rauch reveals that this slump is instead a natural stage of life—and an essential one. By shifting priorities away from competition and toward compassion, it equips you with new tools for wisdom and gratitude to win the third period of life.

And Rauch can testify to this personally because it was his own slump, despite acclaim as a journalist and commentator that compelled him to investigate the happiness curve. His own story and the stories of many others from all walks of life—from a steelworker and a limo driver to a telecoms executive and a philanthropist—show how the ordeal of midlife malaise reboots our values and even our brains for a rebirth of gratitude.

Full of insights and data and featuring many ways to endure the slump and avoid its perils and traps, The Happiness Curve doesn’t just show listeners the dark forest of midlife, it helps them find a path through the trees. It also shows how we can—and why we must—do more to help each other through the woods.

Praise for The Happiness Curve:

"The Happiness Curve delivers on the promise of its title, with wise insights and practices to help you become the best you can be. Leave the midlife slump. Enter into an encore adulthood of powerful purpose." — Richard Leider, international bestselling author of The Power of Purpose, Repacking your Bags, and Life Reimagined

"Do you wish to understand the arc of your life? And why you are likely to end up happier than you are right now? If so, The Happiness Curve is the best place to start. And I write this as someone who can vouch that the upper part of the happiness life curve is very glorious indeed." — Tyler Cowan, New York Times bestselling author of The Complacent Class and The Great Stagnation

Critic reviews

"This important and often personal summary of how age affects happiness is served well by the equanimity and grace of Robert Fass's narration. Whether it's author Rauch's personal journey, his fascinating data, or his sensitive portraits of the experts he interviews, Fass captures all of this author's intensity and colorful writing...The audiobook is a most satisfying guide to the hills and valleys of life, and a satisfying roadmap for achieving greater happiness with whatever roads we have taken in life." -AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner

Required reading for midlife

This book has been such a comfort for me and I think reading it could be a good first step for those feeling the pull of midlife malaise. Packed with statistical and scientific information, this book crunches the imperical data in sort of a sort of meta-analysis that gives a very big picture about how we are more a like than we are different. We will all go through this in some way, shape or form if we live long enough and this book gives me a lot of enthusiasm for the possibilities and adventures yet to discover in the second part of my life

Great gift

Book is balanced and very relevant. I thought it would be pop psychology but ended up to be outstanding. Got this as 50th bday gift from my son.

Excelent book , much recomended

I really liked this book it reflects reality and center your situation in mid agre times

Now We Need It In Spanish

This is an increible work, really important to read for everybody who wants to understand that, there is more after 40s

Life Affirming

Must read for every 40-something. The book was well researched and meticulously written. This is not another pop psychology book. It’s not one of those “hack your life” books either. But the information is presented in a way that resonates with a general audience. As a woman, I found the first half of the first chapter a bit “privileged white male” sounding, which was initially off-putting. But I am so happy I did not make a hasty judgement and stop listening. The rest of the book is excellent and for me personally, chock full of the answers I’ve been seeking for years to no avail. I’ve been validated. I am encouraged. And for the first time in years, I have hope for my future.