The Surprising Choices That Make You Happier and Help the Planet | Elizabeth Dunn & Jiaying ZhaoThe Surprising Choices That Make You Happier and Help the Planet | Elizabeth Dunn & Jiaying Zhao
The One You Feed
Elizabeth Dunn and Jiaying Zhao talk about everyday choices that can reduce carbon emissions while increasing happiness, focusing on joy rather than guilt or fear. They outline practical changes across food, shopping and travel, and suggest starting with one area of life to find a personal “sweet spot” for climate action.
1:01:21•1 Sept 2026
Joyful Choices That Cut Carbon and Boost Your Happiness
Episode Overview
- Positive, joy‑based messages about climate tend to work better than fear, shame and doom for sustaining action.
- The most effective changes come from the “sweet spot” where one choice both reduces carbon and feels genuinely enjoyable.
- Individual actions matter through direct emissions, voting, spending and their contagious influence on friends and neighbours.
- Commonly praised steps like recycling often have low carbon impact, while shifts in food, travel and buying habits matter far more.
- Focusing on one area of life at a time makes sustainable climate‑friendly changes more realistic and easier to maintain.
“We change more by feeling better than feeling worse.”
What drives someone to seek a life that feels better and does less harm? This conversation with happiness researcher Elizabeth Dunn and climate scientist Jiaying Zhao looks at that question through the lens of everyday choices and their impact on both mood and carbon emissions. You’ll hear how they use the “two wolves” parable to rethink climate messaging. Instead of feeding the wolf of fear, shame and doom, they argue for feeding the “good wolf” of joy and meaningful action.
As Dunn puts it, “we can motivate climate pro‑climate behaviour by encouraging people to think of this as an opportunity for kindness, for improving their own lives.” Their big idea is the “sweet spot”: decisions that cut carbon and genuinely make life feel better. They break this down across food, shopping and travel, using Zhao’s “human carbon calculator” skills to show which actions really matter.
You’ll learn why recycling isn’t the climate hero many assume, how switching up meat and dairy has far more impact, and why long‑haul flights are worth treating like the Olympics or the World Cup – special, rare events rather than regular habits. The tone stays practical and warm, with plenty of humour, like Zhao’s hot‑pink electric car and Dunn’s defence of bacon and dark chocolate in small, joy‑boosting amounts.
They stress that individual choices aren’t about perfection or guilt, but about reclaiming a sense of agency: “Individuals have an immense amount of power… and that’s really our goal in the book is to help people reclaim that power.” If you’re already working on personal change – whether around substances, habits or mental health – this episode offers a friendly way to extend that same energy to climate action, one area of life at a time.
Which “sweet spot” would you start with: what you eat, what you buy, or how you travel?
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