Pushkin.
Welcome to a special set of episodes of The Happiness Lab.
The now global spread of coronavirus is affecting all of us.
This disease has brought a host of medical, economic, and political problems.
But it's also given us a ton of uncertainty and anxiety,
which are beginning to have an enormous negative impact on our collective well-being.
But whenever I'm confused or fearful,
I remember that looking for answers in evidence-based science is always the best way to go.
And that's where I'm hoping this podcast can help.
If you're like me,
you probably feel like your entire life has been or is about to be upended by this awful crisis,
which leads to lots and lots of negative emotions and stressful personal situations.
Last week, for example,
I wound up working 24-7 to get all the students in my residential college here at Yale back home safely.
All that stress and rushed goodbyes made me feel incredibly sad and anxious.
But after paying so much attention to my students,
I realized that I'd not given my own situation much thought.
So I decided to head to the grocery store, which was a major error.
All the toilet paper's gone, a lot of the frozen foods, a lot of the bread.
Vegetables, cleaning supplies, meats and dairy are hard to come by.