Nope, no Radiohead here, but we do have Tal Ben-Shahar, and he’s just about as popular…at Harvard, anyway. Ben-Shahar is a professor of positive psychology — a field he pioneered that bridges the gap between psychology and self-help — and teaches an intro class to 1,400 students per semester, or about one-fifth of the student body. Impressive, no?

For the rest of us, Ben-Shahar has recently published his lectures in the form of Happier, a book that promises to make you love the life you live. Or something. He sat down with with Diane Rehm last week and explained just how exactly he teaches happiness: “Look at happiness as both a combination of meaning and pleasure,” the good doctor says. “Many people ask me, ’so, are you happy?’ and it’s very difficult to answer because it’s a continuum. I’m certainly happier now than I am 5 years ago, I know that.” When asked why students take his class, he answered, “They truly want to be happier. They’re doing well academically, socially, but they aren’t happier…everything that society tells us is necessary to be happy, they’re doing.” Uh huh.

For more on exactly what positive psychology entails, and the history of the class at Harvard, listen to the full interview.