Why is my friend late? How does nuclear fission work? What can I do to help my baby sleep through the night? We all feel the need to understand why certain things happen. Some researchers think the drive to explain the world is a basic human impulse, similar to thirst ...

We know that sleep deprivation can affect our physical health and our mood. But a chronic lack of good sleep can also affect how we make decisions and even what we value.

We often imagine that feelings of unhappiness come from outside us — in our circumstances or the difficult people in our lives. But what if the forces that erode our happiness come from within?

When historian Kate Bowler was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, she became fascinated by the ways people try to impose order on events they can't control. She joins us to explore what it means to live fully when life offers no satisfying explanation for the tragedies we may face.

In the second part of our conversation with Martin Seligman, he explains how we can strengthen our sense of agency and learn to see new possibilities.

Why do some people act on the possibilities before them, while others come to believe that nothing they do will make a difference? Psychologist Martin Seligman talks with us about his research on learned helplessness.