Interview: Broadcasting Happiness with Michelle Gielan

17 Dec 2025 · 34 min
Episode

17 Dec 2025 · 34 min

0:00

Podcast interview (recorded May 21, 2016) in which Brian Johnson interviews Michelle Gielan about her book Broadcasting Happiness. Gielan—former CBS anchor turned positive-psychology researcher—describes practical, research-backed techniques (e.g., Power Leads, fact-checking, HALT, two-minute drills) and organizational findings (three predictors of long-term job success) for spreading and sustaining positivity, plus a call for "transformative journalism" that pairs problems with solutions.

Questions this episode answers

May 21, 2016.

Work optimism; positive engagement (stress-as-challenge); support provision (how supportive an individual is of others).

Taken together they account for 75% of long-term job success (as reported in the interview).

People in the top 25% of support provision are 40% more likely to get a promotion over the next year (as cited in the interview).

Three minutes of negative news in the morning led to a 27% higher likelihood of reporting the day as unhappy six to eight hours later (study cited in the interview).

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