Happiness Is a Choice You Make

John Leland is a reporter for the Metro section of The New York Times, where he wrote a yearlong series that became the basis for Happiness Is a Choice You Make. Before joining the Times, he was a senior editor at Newsweek, editor in chief of Details, a reporter at Newsday, and a writer and editor at Spin magazine. John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America’s fastest-growing age group, those 85 and older. Over the course of a year, he interviewed six people, expecting to find challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. What John Leland found took him by surprise, and is with us today to discuss the experience and his book, Happiness is a Choice You Make.