For the millions of Americans that celebrate Thanksgiving,Michael Schmidt it's a time when a lot of us reflect on the things and the people in our lives that we appreciate. But according to Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor at Yale and host of the podcast, The Happiness Lab, a practice of gratitude can improve our lives year-round. Host Brittany Luse chats with Dr. Santos about the surprising science of how gratitude can affect our brains — and how it leads us to be more generous with our future selves.

This episode was produced by Liam McBain. It was edited by Jessica Placzek. Additional support came from Barton Girdwood, Alexis Williams, and Corey Antonio Rose. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni and our senior VP of programming is Anya Grundmann.