Melancholy in Maine

I recently was up at Bates College in Maine to lecture on Against Happiness. While there, I was interviewed for a news show airing on an NBC affiliate station. The show is called "207." I enjoyed a brief but rewarding conversation on the beautiful Bates campus. Here's a link to the interview: http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/207/story.aspx?storyid=105205.

Too Much Niceness

Here's an interesting article from the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It's from the Style section, and it explores a symptom of the American addiction to happiness: an overemphasis on bland agreeableness, on rote pleasantry, on, in a word, niceness. You'll find some quotations from me in the article; you might especially like the final paragraph of the piece, mainly if you're dead weary of Tom Hanks. Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/fashion/24nice.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=eric%20wilson%20nice&st=cse.