#91 Solving Happiness with Mo Gawdat
3rd Mar 2021
Today I feel like I’ve had one of the most impactful conversations on a personal level. I vividly remember watching Mo Gawdat’s interview on Channel 4 news back in 2017 when he was touring & promoting his international bestseller “Solve for Happy”
Warning. Today’s podcast contains details of parental bereavement. Caution advised
His story of loss deeply touched me and changed my perspective on happiness and how to attain it. Mo wants you to achieve happiness and wants you to understand that “Happiness is easier to achieve than we’re led to believe”. For me to have the opportunity to interview him 4 years later is just such a surreal privilege I cannot explain.
Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer of Google [X], author of the international bestselling book Solve for Happy and founder of One Billion Happy.
After a long career in tech, Mo has made happiness his primary topic of research, diving deeply into literature and conversing on the topic with some of the wisest people in the world. Mo is also the host of Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat, where he has the most wonderful conversations with the greatest minds of our time, including Dr Tara Swart, Alain de Botton and Mark Williamson. I highly recommend you dive into this library and if you find Mo’s voice as soothing and rhythmical as I do, you’ll love listening back to his episodes.
A bit of back story to Mo, in 2014 he endured the tragic loss of Ali, his 21 yr old son, after routine surgery. Motivated by his loss, Mo began pouring his findings into his book, Solve for Happy. His mission to help one billion people become happier, #OneBillionHappy, is his attempt to honor Ali by spreading the message that happiness can be learned and shared.
And this is exactly what you’ll hear about in today’s podcast. We talk about:
- Mo’s intention for the year
- Flow and the various definitions of ‘flow state’
- The inability to sit with ourselves
- The tragic loss of Mo’s son and how that pushed his mission to ‘solve happy’
- A midlife crisis at age 29
- How his happiness equation is received cross culturally
- Death and a perspective on the pandemic that everyone should try
I sincerely hope you enjoy it and that it inspires you to listen to more of Mo’s work including his own podcast and workshop videos on YouTube recorded at Stamford university, the links to which are on the podcast show notes below.
Episode guests
Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer of Google [X]; host of the popular podcast, Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat; author of the international bestselling books Solve for Happy; Scary Smart; and That Little Voice in Your Head; founder of One Billion Happy; and Chief AI Officer of Flight Story.
After a 30 year career in tech and serving as Chief Business Officer at Google [X], Google's 'moonshot factory' of innovation, Mo has made happiness his primary topic of research, diving deeply into literature and conversing on the topic with some of the wisest people in the world.
In 2014, motivated by the tragic loss of his son, Ali, Mo began pouring his findings into his international bestselling book, Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy. His mission to help one billion people become happier, #OneBillionHappy, is his moonshot attempt to honor Ali by spreading the message that happiness can be learned and shared to one billion people.
In 2020, Mo launched his chart-topping podcast, Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat, a weekly series of extraordinary interviews that explores the profound questions and obstacles we all face in the pursuit of purpose and happiness in our lives.
In 2021, Mo published Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World, a roadmap detailing how humanity can ensure a symbiotic coexistence with AI when it inevitably becomes a billion times smarter than we are. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2023, Mo has been recognized for his early whistleblowing on AI's unregulated development and has become one of the most globally consulted experts on the topic.
In 2022, Mo published That Little Voice in Your Head: Adjust the Code That Runs Your Brain, a comprehensive user manual for using the human brain optimally to thrive and avoid suffering.
In 2023, Mo co-founded Unstressable, an online course and community for reducing and eliminating stress. It will be accompanied by a book of the same name releasing early 2024.
