01x01 - Happiness Is A Bottle Of Cod Liver Oil

[bunniefuu]

[birds chirping]

- Let's do this!

- Yeah.

I'll see you back at the cars.

Okay, here we go.

[overlapping chatter]

- There's no tension.
We're okay.

You can feel the breeze,
but it's cozy.

- It's cozy...
- And a little cool.

- Okay.
- Yes.

- It's a nice warm breeze
from the Arctic Circle.

This is a show
about happiness.

- Breathe in through
the nose...

on three and out on six.

- As you can see...

I'm not exactly
all smiles right now.

So how did I get here?

[high-pitched rewind whine]

[projector humming]

I grew up as a big-headed
baby in Seattle,

moved to Nicaragua
when I was three,

made friends with parrots
and sloths.

Moved back to Washington State
when I was five,

learned to play the bassoon.

Moved to Illinois
and joined the drama club,

and eventually,
I landed in Los Angeles

as Dunder Mifflin's Assistant
to the Regional Manager.

- Please welcome Rainn Wilson.

- Rainn Wilson.

- Yet for all my success,

my wife and son,
whom I love,

a nice house, people tattooing
my face on their feet...

[beeping, whirring]

[sighs]

You'd think I'd be happier.

[upbeat music]

* *

But like so many others,
I struggle...

to find fulfillment.

Amy.

To find true joy.

I need to be
honest with you all.

It's just I've been going
through

a really hard time recently

on a number
of different levels,

and I've been feeling
a little bit low,

a little bit less than,
a little depressed

and humbled
and lost these days.

* *

And so I've churned
through countless therapists

and self-help books.

I've tried journaling
and meditating.

And I tried this, whatever--

I don't even know
what that is.

- Are you happy?

- I am happy.

I'm happier than I used to be.

- I even founded SoulPancake,

a media company focused
on life's big questions.

[staticky channel changes]

And yet,
life continued on autopilot.

Ecchh.

[staticky channel changes]

Happiness is out there,

hiding in some of the places
you'd least expect.

What I want to know is,
which places?

[Nicky Blitz' "Blast Off"]

- * Getting too close,
better pull on back *

- What if I travel the world,

exploring what makes some
places happier than others?

- * Need a one-two... *

- I'm looking at the ways
that where we are...

- * Yeah, I'm a-comin',
I'm a-comin' *

- Affect who we are.

- * Whoo, I'm a-comin' *

* I'm a-comin', yeah... *

- It's been said that
the search for happiness

is the chief source
of unhappiness.

- * I'm a-comin',
I'm a-comin'... *

- Well, that's okay.

I'm already unhappy,
so I've got nothing to lose.

- * Let's go *

* Let's all blast off *

[birds chirping]

[bells tolling]

[bouncy music]

For my first stop of this
harebrained experiment,

I'm visiting a place
that does happiness

as well as anywhere on Earth.

For a decade now,
Iceland ranks as one

of the top five countries on
the World Happiness Report.

The United States has
never cracked the top ten.

A lot of people hear this
and wonder, Iceland?

As in that island country

floating
in the North Atlantic,

submerged
in near-total darkness

and tongue-numbing cold?

[wind howling]

Yes, that Iceland.

But how the hell do you
measure happiness?

It's complicated,
but each year,

hundreds of thousands
of people around the world

rate the quality
of their lives

on a scale from one to ten.

Okay, so it's not really
that complicated.

Is there any truth

to this so-called science
of happiness?

Well, I intend to find out.

I'm here in Iceland's
capital of Reykjavík

during the still pretty much
freezing springtime,

wondering
what alternative reality

I've stumbled into where--

[baby cooing]

It's a baby.

Where people leave babies
unattended

and find joy
in endless winter.

How do you find happiness
against all odds?

Hi, Icelandic dog.

There are no strangers
on this island of 370,000,

roughly the population
of Cleveland.

So when you hit up your
Icelandic actor friend

for a favor,
he happily stands

in front of a tourist
information booth

and pretends he just happened
to run into you.

[horn honking]

- What?
- Rainn?

- Icelandic cultural icon,
actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

- Say what?
- Hey, how's it going?

Oh, good to see you, man.

- So you could not
find a smaller car?

- This is
the smallest they got.

- Okay.
- Yeah.

Here we go.

Raaah!

- Boom.
- Hey.

- Sing.
- No, no, thank you.

I'm not--I'm all right.

- Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
is an iconic Icelandic actor,

and one of the most

joyful people I know.

He's like a 6'5"
Viking teddy bear.

Don't you guys ever
watch "Shark Week?"

I met him while filming
"The Meg" a few years back,

and spoiler alert--=
we both get devoured

by a massive mackerel shark
from the Pliocene epic,

and we won't be reprising
our roles in "The Meg 2."

- Do you--
because I almost always

get k*lled in everything I do.

- We're planning on k*lling
you on this show, too.

I hope that's okay.
- Absolutely.

I would expect nothing less.

[laughter]

So whenever
you come to Iceland,

there's one thing
all of us have in common.

- Okay.
- We go to a hot springs.

- A hot springs.

Icelanders love their nature.

Around here, winter
means being locked inside

for months on end,
so they learned

not to take their
surroundings for granted.

Look how beautiful this is.

- I wanna say you get
used to it, but you don't.

[upbeat jazzy music]

This fjord, we're in
a pretty massive fjord.

It's called Hvalfjordur,
or whale fjord.

- You steer for a second.
- Right.

So this is where we're going,
huh?

- Yes.

- Mountains up ahead.

This is with Darri driving.

There's his hand.
- Ha.

- There's his meaty
little hand.

- Rainn, are you coming back?

You gonna take
the wheel at some point?

- Um...at some point.

- This is fun.
It's fun, though.

[sea birds calling]

You know, Rainn,
if we wanna do this

the real old-school
Icelandic way,

we really should
drop our trunks.

- Just two...
enormous, naked men.

- Yeah.
Go au naturel.

- In a fjord?
- Yes.

- All right. Let's do it.
- Let's do it.

- Okay.

- Whoo!
- Here we go.

[splash]
- Oh, wow.

Ooh, it's a little
stinky, right?

- It's a little stinky.

- Ahh...
- That's the sulfur.

- Wow. We're in a bubbly,
sulfuric,

Viking armpit.

I look around, I'm like, well,

I could be happy here.
- Yeah.

- Anyone could be happy here.
I mean, this is--

there's so much beauty.

- It's not something
you get used to.

It knocks you on your feet
almost every time,

any time you go into nature.

'Cause, you know, our capital
city is the biggest city.

It has about half
the population.

But you can be in the middle of
nowhere in, like, 20 minutes.

- Yeah.

Are those birds
gonna attack us?

- I think they like--
they don't like us being here.

- Intruders!
Intruders!

- Turning into
a Hitchcock movie fast.

This closeness to nature...

when I talk about nature,
I mean the whole thing.

Like, the closest
to the weather.

The weather will go
from sunny to snowing

to sunny again
to raining in one hour.

You know, you never know
what's going to happen.

[thunder rumbles]

This is a very, very alive,
as a country.

- Well, I love you saying,
like, the land is alive,

'cause it really does
feel that way.

There are hot springs.
There are geysers.

There are waterfalls
everywhere.

There's glaciers.

It's chockablock with glaciers.
- Yeah.

- And active volcanoes.

Like, this is not a kind of
a mellow landscape.

It's changing,
evolving, moving.

- And I kind of like that.

It's a place
you have to respect.

But if you treat it with
respect, it is so rewarding.

- There's a concept
in positive psychology,

the study
of human happiness,

that explains the joy
Icelanders derive

from the nature around them.

It's known as
the biophilia hypothesis.

It says that on
a genetic level,

human beings are happiest
when we feel most connected

to other living things.

It's why we feel that sense
of calm watching a sunset.

Or in my case...

scratching the bellies
of Amy and Snorty,

my pot-bellied pigs.

It's a pig life.

Icelanders understand this,
and the respect for nature,

its beauty, its volatility,

it forms the very foundation

of how they
view the world around them.

- So we have a saying
every Icelander knows,

which is [speaking Icelandic],

which is basically,
ah, it'll work out.

And that comes with, I think,

having an environment
that is constantly changing.

And I think that
doesn't only come with

how you deal with nature,

but it becomes
a part of your entire life.

If you decided that, you know,
we're going to--

tomorrow we're gonna...get hay.

You know, we're gonna go and
take hay and put in the barn.

But tomorrow,
it's gonna be raining.

You just have to go
and do something else.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- And I think in Iceland,

that's what we do very often.
- Mm-hmm.

- And I kind of love
that adaptability.

- You talked about the
changeability of the weather.

Since we started
our conversation,

there is an icy, icy wind

coming from the north.

* [whistling] *

Adaptability.

It's an important first
lesson as I begin my journey.

To understand happiness,

I'll need to embrace
what comes my way.

- Hey!

- Aah!

[mellow music]

- Antifragile.

It's a term in mathematics
used to describe systems

that actually thrive

when exposed
to volatility and disorder.

Icelanders are the epitome
of antifragile.

- My favorite
Icelandic expression

is probably
[speaking Icelandic].

- [repeating same expression]

- [repeating
same expression]

It means, like,
it will work itself out.

- [Icelandic expression]

Even on the verge of
becoming roadkill,

Icelanders insist upon their
unofficial national motto

that everything
will work itself out.

- In the last month,
didn't have a job,

but I knew
it would just work out.

And now I have a job.
So...it just works out.

- I'm struggling to buy
into all of this

because I am wired to believe

that the worst is always
lurking around the corner.

- Why do I think
the world thinks

Iceland
is one of the happiest--

- Oh, God.
[laughs]

That's a heavy question.

I can imagine that people think
that we are very happy here,

which we are, I assume.

- It's all about good
marketing, I think.

- We just make
our own happiness.

- Magic mushrooms...
[chuckling]

definitely do their part.

- But Icelanders have no
hallucinations of grandeur.

In a country where chaos

is always
one volcanic eruption away,

plotting and planning
to control anything in life

is so obviously a joke.

- This is
a Roman helmet, right?

- Even the politicians
are in on it.

- Isn't it?
- Yeah.

I don't know
if we're gonna be able

to take you very seriously
in this interview...

- No?
- While wearing that.

That's so ridiculous.

- You don't think
I should be wearing it?

- Jón Gnarr.

- Jón Gnarr.

- Jón Gnarr.

- The world's coolest mayor.

His campaign began as a joke.

- Some thought it was a joke,

but at least one-third
of the Reykjavík voters

thought differently.

[triumphant chords]

- Jón Gnarr is a cab driver
turned playwright

turned comedian,
who, in 2009,

successfully ran for mayor
of Reykjavík.

Among his platforms

was his refusal
to form a coalition government

with anyone who hadn't seen
HBO's "The Wire."

- Inspired by
a philosophy of nonsense,

Gnarr promised to get them a
polar bear for the city's zoo.

- I actually think we need more
humor in all aspects of life.

[triumphant music]

[laughing]

- Here we go.
Allow me.

So, who better to don my
Viking regalia alongside...

- You prefer a shorter axe?

- Oh, an axe, please.
- Oh, yep.

- While exploring 1,100 years

of ridiculously graphic
Icelandic bloodshed?

[dramatic music]

* *

- Wow.

- Yeah, so this is all
pretty amazing.

- The Saga Museum is a lot
like It's a Small World.

But instead of animatronic
children singing in harmony...

[quirky music]

It's a bunch of
murderous Vikings

hacking off
each other's limbs.

Oh, here's another guy
chopping another guy.

I'm going to just stay here.

- Oh, that's beautiful.
- When some tourists come by,

I'm gonna scare the sh*t
out of them.

Did the early settlers who
came from Norway, I assume--

- And British Isles.
Why did they come here?

- Yeah. Why?
- Nobody knows.

- There is no word for
"history" in Icelandic.

Instead, they have sagas,
which just means stories.

So the history of Iceland

is just a hodgepodge of
mythologies, tall tales,

and some actual history
thrown in.

Aaaah!

- What is she doing
with her boob?

- I'm not sure.
- "Finding herself cornered,

"she took up his sword,
opened her tunic,

and placed the blade
against her naked breasts."

- Yes.

- "The strange
but bold gesture"--

it is strange and bold.
- Strange, but bold.

- "Put the natives to flight."

They were like, "No,
don't cut off your boob!

Aah!"
- Don't-don't do it!

Don't do it.
- Wow.

What does this saga-ness reveal

about the modern
Icelandic character?

- It's everything
that is Icelandic.

To be able to survive here
and live here

and find happiness here,

you have to be quite creative
and inventive.

- Hmm.
- Yeah.

Come up with stories,

something to entertain
yourself and others.

One thing you have to
realize about Iceland--

it is kind of like a cult.

Facts have never been that
popular here, but fiction...

So we come up with
alternative realities.

Otherwise, you lose your mind.

- I don't know
if I've mentioned this,

but it's really
hard to live here.

In the 1400s, Iceland
was twice hit by the plague,

each time k*lling half of the
country's entire population.

In 1783, the volcano Laki

erupted
for eight straight months,

destroying
most of the country's crops

and k*lling nearly a quarter
of the people here.

For centuries,
this constant turmoil

meant that reinvention

was the only means
of survival in Iceland.

Farmers had to
learn how to fish.

Fishermen had to
learn how to farm.

And this legacy
continues today,

in a slightly different form.

Well, this is fascinating,
because you are kind of

the poster child
for that adaptiveness.

- Yes.

- You started as
a stand-up comic,

and then kind of
almost as a joke

ran for mayor of Reykjavík.
- Yeah.

- And served four years as
mayor of this world capital.

Now, were you
playing a character

when you were
running for mayor,

or were you really yourself?

- In the beginning,
I was playing a character.

- A fictional
version of yourself.

A saga version of yourself.
- Exactly.

- But it seems like
a lot of Icelanders

have kind of multiple
reinventions of themselves

and multiple realities.
- Yeah.

- Someone can be a stockbroker

and also be
in a heavy metal band.

- Yeah, and publish poetry.
- Mm.

Because in America,
you're really...

culturally, people want you
to be on one track.

They kinda wanna
know what you are.

Oh, you're an
insurance salesman.

- Yes. Exactly.
- You're a schoolteacher.

And people...
it's pretty rare for people

to break out of
that kind of track

they get kind of set into.

- To be able to survive here...
- Mm.

- You have to be adaptive

because the country
is quite unforgiving.

I have sometimes
compared to being raised

by an alcoholic mother.

It's like, she's
beautiful, you know?

But you never know...
[laughter]

what's gonna happen.
- Yeah.

* *

- Once upon a time in Iceland,
reinvention was a necessity.

Today, though, it's evolved
into trying your hand

at whatever the hell
you feel like

because no one
is judging you for it.

Failure doesn't carry
a stigma in Iceland

because failure has always
been a fact of life here.

- This guy was a Catholic.
- Oh.

It makes me realize
I'd be nowhere

if not for my own failures.

Crap plays an important
role in my line of work.

It's fertilizer.

It allows the good stuff
to grow.

And failing is the only way
to know for sure

if you'd be happiest as an
actor, as a cab driver...

I think it's time
for your beheading.

Please.

Or as the mayor of
a European capital.

I'm gonna cut off my breast!

- Oh, no! Don't do that.
- Aha!

Run away!
[laughing]

[birds twittering]

[engine humming]

[upbeat music]

* *

- This is
Pálína Axelsdóttir Njarovík.

She lives and works
in Reykjavík,

but for several
months each year,

she heads a couple of hours
east to Eystra-Geldingarholt,

where she and the rest
of her family run a farm.

At this point, I've heard
a lot about the resilience

of the Icelandic people.

But today, I'm going
to witness firsthand

just what it takes
to survive here,

and it's going to be...
adorable.

[sheep bleating]

Hello.

- Hi, hi.
- Am I in the right place?

- Yes.
- Oh, this is amazing.

- Welcome.

This is Maria, my partner.

- Hi. "Mari-ah."

- Maria, yeah.

- Okay, wonderful.

I understand
that there are lambs.

- There are lambs.
- Many, many lambs.

- Yeah.
- [giggling]

- So you know,
May is lambing season.

- Okay.

- So the past few weeks
have been very busy.

- Oh, wow.
- We don't sleep much,

and we're here all day,
every day.

- Well, I'm here to help,
so put me to work,

whatever you need.
- I will.

Are you ready?
- I'm ready.

Bring on the lambs.
[exhales]

"Silence of the Lambs."

Wait,
that's a terrible reference.

[laughter]
[lamb bleating]

- Oh, look at lambykins.

Hi, sweetie.

[bleating]

Hi, guys.

What's up?

High five.

High five.

Nothing?
Leave me hangin'?

What an as*h*le.

[bleating]

- Let me show you
my favorite lamb.

She is...

- Oh, hi.
- Kind of cute.

- Oh, she's adorable.

Hi, sweetie.
Hi.

- You can name her,
if you want.

- It's like a kitty cat.
- Yeah.

- I can name her?
- Yeah.

- I'm going to name her...

Bjork.

- Bjork?
- Yeah.

I think I can just
end my journey now.

Happiness
is naming 300 baby sheep

after Icelandic pop stars.

Is he going to bite my face?

- Let's see.
- N--hey!

But then I realized
why lambing season

is an around-the-clock,
totally exhausting,

all hands on deck
family affair.

I wish the cameras could
pick up how bad this smells.

- [laughing]
- Smells like sh*t.

- Does your family
do all of this work?

- My uncles run the farm.

I always make sure that
I have lambing season off

because I wouldn't want
to be anywhere else.

- See you later, guys.

[bleating]

So this farm, how long has
it been in your family?

- I think I'm the
seventh generation.

- And Icelanders have
been raising sheep for...

- Since we got here.
- Yeah.

- The sheep
has literally kept us alive

through the centuries.

Through the cold winters, they
provided both meat and wool.

- That's what strikes me
as an American,

coming over here,
where, yes, we have

traditions that go back,
you know,

150 years or
something like that.

But I'm not connected, either
to my land or my property

or to my traditions
in the same way.

- Well, I feel, firstly, just
lucky that somehow my branch

of the family ended up here.

- It's amazing coming
here because I just

grew up in Reykjavík,
and it's so amazing

to get to know this life.
- Right.

- I feel it's a privilege
to have grown up here.

That's something that
I would love my children

to experience, and that
is one of the reasons

that I would never
consider, you know,

not having a life here as well.
- Yeah.

[light music]

* *

Theories abound as to
why cold climates

produce happier people
than warm ones.

My favorite
might well be called

the "get along or die" theory.

In warm places, it says,
your next meal simply

falls from a coconut tree.

In colder places,
people must band together

to ensure a good harvest,

or else everyone dies...
together.

- This is a cup of tea for you.

- Oh, thank you.

- For Pálína, her mother Siggy
and her father Axel, a pastor,

this interdependence doesn't
just explain their survival

on this frozen tundra.

It may also explain
their happiness.

What a beautiful
Icelandic kitchen.

I understand this farm
has been in your family

for six or seven generations,
back to the mid-1800s.

What was life like?

- Well, I think it didn't
change for centuries.

I think the most changed
were in my parents'

and grandparents' life.

- Mm-hmm.

- To survive here, you had
to be able to tolerate

the day-to-day life.

- And you have to stock up
with food in the autumn,

and that food needs to
last the whole winter.

And the winter is long.

- So we still do that in a way.

You know, for the slaughter
season, we take meat home,

and we fill our freezers

enough that it will
last us for a year.

- So this is all nice.

Oh, it's so idyllic.
Everyone's so happy.

We're hard-working
and we're resilient.

Where are the struggles?
Where are the difficulties?

- I think it's very difficult
to be a human being.

That's key number one.
- Amen, brother.

- It doesn't really matter
where on Earth you live.

There is no formula to be
happy or successful in life.

And if you are lucky,
lucky enough

to have people around you
to help you,

that's the key thing.

- Yeah.

The faces on this farm have
changed through the years,

but one constant remains--

family.

So this game
is called kubbar.

We humans need one another
to survive, so we cooperate.

Oh, come on.
I was robbed.

At some point, though,
the needing fades,

and all that remains
is cooperation.

We help each other
because we can,

not because we're counting
on some future payback.

There's a word for this.

- Oh!
- Oh!

Love.

I come from a pretty
unhappy family,

and a very particular
kind of unhappiness.

And to witness
the warmth and love

of that family, the acceptance,

it was really touching.

It was incredibly moving to me.

Here they come!
Amazing.

Yes!

Come on!

I'm in awe of Pálína
and her family.

I didn't grow up
with any of this.

My birth mother
left when I was two.

My dad and step-mom divorced

the instant
I went away to college.

So when I see what
Pálína and her family

built for themselves,
I'm both envious

and so grateful
for the experience.

Who wants a--

[sheep bleating]

Oh, sorry.
I got milk in your eye.

Hi.
Everyone gets a milk.

You get a milk, and you get
a milk, and you get a milk.

And you get a milk.

Why are you nursing
from my elbow?

[animals bleating]

- I'm beginning to
understand this place.

[mellow rock music]

Folks here support each other.

They're unusually comfortable
getting naked with friends

in a cauldron of magma.

But what would it be like
if I actually lived here?

* *

I need the perspective
of someone who, like me,

started off as an outsider.

- You're going
to the left here.

Yeah, it's kind
of a little street

because we're almost there.

Into this parking lot.

- I'm trusting the navigation
skills of Jewells Chambers,

a Brooklyn native
who moved here six years ago

after marrying
an Icelandic psychologist.

That's a big move
from dating and loving

this Icelandic therapist,
and, like, I'm going to

move to Reykjavík.
- Yeah.

I've been very fortunate,
and I've loved it.

And I've had such
a great time, like,

getting some insight
about Icelandic families

and all these things.

- I am so thrilled
to be talking to you.

You're like
the Icelandic expert.

- I wouldn't say that,
but I definitely feel like

I have a unique perspective.

- Jewells shares her insights
on her social media channels--

All Things Iceland.

- Here are five habits
of Icelanders

visitors might find strange.

- Today we're puttering around
Reykjavík on a...

- Ísbíltúr.
- Ísbíltúr.

- Yeah.

- Or ice cream road trip.

The description is epic,
the company is great,

and Jewells
is convincing me

that, despite my early
resistance to the idea,

everything
will work itself out.

So you've been here
almost six years.

How do you feel that this
place has affected you?

- I definitely find myself
being a lot more flexible.

So Icelanders have this saying
called [Icelandic expression].

And when I first heard it,
I was kind of annoyed.

I'm not going to lie.

So it basically means that
everything will work out.

And I used to think or feel
that this meant

that you didn't put in
any effort.

You're gonna turn right here.
- Okay.

- But over time,
I started to understand

that you are doing all
the things that you can do,

but you have to
let go of control.

- Right.
- And it will just work out.

It just comes into place.
- It's kind of like

the Serenity Prayer in action.
- Yeah.

- What is in your control, and
what is out of your control.

- Exactly.

You know, I was
coming from a place

where I was just always like,
we have to do this.

It has to be like this.
You know, it was so rigid.

And I find myself
having loosened up

and being more in tune with

it's okay if it
doesn't work out

the way that I want to,
but it still worked out fine.

And I feel like that,
for me, opened up

this creativity that I was
a little bit holding back on.

And that's actually
how my podcast came about.

Hi, everyone.
Welcome to All Things Iceland.

I still get to keep
where I come from,

and how it helped to shape me.
- Yeah.

- But then I also get to
absorb different things.

And you know,
as I learn, I teach.

- Where am I going here?
- You're going to the right.

- Okay.

- All right.

Come on, come on, come on.

* Da da da da *

- At last, the ice cream
in the ice cream road trip.

- Hello.
- How are you?

- I'm good.
How are you?

- What's the most
Icelandic flavor you got?

- It would probably be
the licorice.

- You don't have,
like, raw seal meat

or whale blubber ice cream?
- [laughing]

- I hate to be the one
to break it to them,

butísbíltúr is basically
just driving to get dessert.

Oh, my God.
It's the size of a human head.

But Icelanders take their
ice cream very seriously,

so they gave it
a legendary name.

Oh, and more sauce on top?

Cheers.

- Skál!
- Skál!?

- Mm-hmm.
- Fantastic.

- So I'd love to hear
what you think of

your Lakkris Lakkris.
- All right, here we go.

This is licorice ice cream
with licorice nibs,

licorice powder,
and licorice sauce.

Wow.

Wow.

- Amazing, huh?

- That's incredible.

So are you a long hauler?

You gonna stay in Iceland?

- Yeah.
I get this question often

because people are like, why
do you call yourself an expat?

Are you staying there?
And I'm like, you're right.

I have to change from
expat to immigrant

because I do plan on
staying here forever.

I don't see a reason
to ever move back.

- You don't want to go
back to the United States?

- Not permanently.

I love living in Iceland.

And that freedom
that I was telling you about,

in terms of being
able to express myself

and feeling safe.

Being a woman,
I feel very safe in Iceland.

And being a Black woman,
I feel very safe.

Now granted, I'm not saying
people don't have experiences

of being discriminated
against or racism.

I know of people, personally,

who people
have said things to them.

But I have never heard it
directly, and, you know,

knock on wood,
I hope that never happens.

- So that must
be such a relief.

- It is. It is.
When I first got here,

of course, I knew that I looked
different than everybody,

or the majority of people.

And I definitely had people
staring at me pretty long,

especially in,
like, the suburbs,

where they normally don't
see people who look like me.

But I felt very welcomed.

Like my Icelandic family,
meeting my husband's family

has been so welcoming to me.

And I love that, and I feel
like part of the family.

I think for me,
it's just been very freeing

to not walk around feeling
like I'm this Black chick.

I'm just--I'm just
Jewells from New York City,

who gets to enjoy Iceland
and talk about it.

- Jewell's experience is,
of course, her own.

Iceland is not without
its social issues.

But in a country so close knit

that nearly everyone
is related to one another,

her acceptance here
is inspiring.

You're making a mess.

- [laughs]

- It's tempting
to pick up your life

and move somewhere else.

I won't be hitting the
reset button anytime soon,

but it's a nice thought.

For Jewells,
happiness in Iceland

is as simple as
finding a place

where she can be herself.

- Blue Lagoon.
- Blue Lagoon.

- Fun time.
- Always.

- I can't imagine anything
more powerful than that.

- I can certainly see
how Jewells found

her artistic spark in Iceland.

This is an exceptionally
creative place.

They even hold
the per capita record

for inventing per capita
statistics about themselves.

- Iceland has the most
everything per capita.

Nobel Prize winners.

- Neither of these is true.

- Pretty sure
it's billionaires.

- Also not true.

- Beer drinking per capita.

- Beer drinking per capita.

- [laughing]

- Not true,
but also not so far off.

- Writers.
There are a lot of writers.

- Okay, that one is true.

There are more artists
and writers per capita

in Iceland than any
other country on Earth.

One in ten Icelanders
will publish a book.

Another fun
Icelandic statistic--

surveys
have consistently found

that more than half of
Icelanders believe in elves.

- Well, you can't
really see them,

but I do believe it's because
some kind of source there,

some kind of element of,
like, a type of magic,

kind of.

- My grandfather, he was
actually saved by an elf.

- I don't know where all
the foreigners get the idea

that we all believe in elves.
We don't.

- Yeah, I have no idea

where we would
have gotten that from.

- And he was playing
by the ravine.

He almost falls
into the ravine,

but he feels like as
if he's been grabbed

and sort of pulled away.

- It's something out there.

We don't know what it is.
It could be elves.

It could be ghosts.

It could be nothing,
so it's difficult to say.

- Clearly, this is a place
with unlimited imagination.

But the mind-blowing thing
is Iceland,

thanks to centuries of only
focusing on survival,

is inventing
much of its culture now.

And that's where the
young folks come in.

[mellow music]

* *

Five years ago, Fonn and
her cousins, Eir and Asa,

formed the gothic
rock trio Ateria,

combining their training
in classical music

with lyrics about
everyone's favorite source

of omega-3 fatty acids--
cod liver oil.

But the youth of Reykjavík
are the first to admit

that Iceland, for all its
creativity and whimsy,

is not without its struggles.

[tuning instruments]

What does the name mean?

- Our grandparents,
they have, like,

an eider duck nesting that
take care of every summer.

They watch it so that the fox
doesn't get into the nest.

- Wow.
- Yeah. And so the Latin name

of the eider duck
is Somateria mollissima.

And so we took
Ateria from that.

- Boy, you Icelanders
have the weirdest hobbies.

Like, our family hobby
is protecting

the nest of the eider duck.

[laughter]

- What's life like as
a disaffected punk rock youth

in suburban Reykjavík?

- I mean, I guess we have
other stuff to worry about.

Like we take the
most antidepressants

per capita in the world.

- You heard that correctly.

Iceland, one of the reportedly
happiest places on Earth,

takes more antidepressants
than any country in the world,

and it's really not even
close.

- There are a lot of people
who have seasonal depression.

- Okay.

- Because of the
darkness, yeah, in winter.

- Do you have friends that
have struggled with depression,

anxiety, suicidal?

- I have struggled with
depression and anxiety.

- Yeah. Me, too.
[laughs]

- There's a lot of
culture in Iceland

that you always have
to be doing something,

and everything you do,
it has to have a purpose.

- Right.

- And so if you're depressed,
you're just lazy.

- Mmm.
- And you're just--

- So there's a cultural
stigma against depression.

You should be out there

safeguarding this eider duck's
nest this winter

instead of sitting around

feeling sorry for yourself
or something.

- And like, I think that
talking about how you feel

is a pretty recent thing here.
- Yeah.

- We're big fans of
suppressing our emotions,

big fans of ignoring trauma.

And the conversation,
it has started.

It is starting.

- Yeah, but I think
we have a long way to go.

- We definitely do.
- Yeah.

- We all need
a means of coping.

Fortunately,
the band members of Ateria

found a unique form of
artistic expression.

Perhaps my favorite
Ateria song

is one that you guys wrote
about cod liver oil...

[laughter]

The national beverage
of Iceland,

which, when I was
googling its effects,

it actually said it had
mental health benefits

and reduces anxiety
and depression.

Cod liver oil.
- Yeah.

You take one spoon
of it each morning,

and then you follow it
up with something else

because it's disgusting.

- What song is that,
the cod liver oil song?

- [speaking Icelandic]

- Of course.
Of course that's it.

[gothic rock playing]

As someone who has dealt
with his share of depression

beginning in my teens
and rearing its ugly head

time and time again
in the years to come,

I understand how difficult
it can be to talk about.

* *

- [singing in Icelandic]

- It's a sobering
reminder that even

in the supposedly
happiest of happy places,

life is never just a montage
of stunning landscapes

and cuddly sheep.

It's hard, no matter
where you live.

[classical melody]

* *

[end chords]

- Mm--

[laughter]

Almost.
I couldn't quite finish it.

Amazing, you guys.
That was incredible.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

So livery.

I'm sorry, did I get oil
on your hands there?

Here, let me.

[laughter]

Chatting with Ateria
humanizes this place,

and suddenly this whole
quest for happiness

doesn't feel like such
a lonely endeavor.

Whoo!

Yes! I will accept your
request to join the band.

[peaceful music]

* *

- This is Margarét Liefsdóttir
and Tinna Thorlacius.

These are the faces
of my torturers.

[upbeat music]

* *

[singing in Spanish]

* *

- You see, three times per
week, these lifelong pals

join with 70 of
their closest friends

to go for a swim in the frozen
waters of the North Atlantic.

* *

They claim it's a physical
healer and a mental cleanser.

* *

- They call their squad
of ocean swimmers...

which translates to
"Happier You."

[music continues]

* *

[birds chirping]

And what could possibly
be happier

than waking up
at the crack of dawn,

dipping into these

40-something-degree
Arctic waters

with a group
of insane Icelandic women,

followed by a near total
freeze of my Netherlands?

[bluesy guitar music]

* *

- [speaking Icelandic]

- Hello!

- Whoo!

Hi!
- All right, let's do this!

- Whoo-hoo!
- Good to see you.

All right!
- Ohh...

Oh ha ha...
- How you feeling?

- [whimpering]

Uh, I don't want to be
this cold.

I want to drink hot chocolate,

and, um...
- I feel you, yeah.

- I-I'm scared.
- Okay.

- Okay. Okay.
- It's okay.

- Your only goal now is to go
in this ocean and surrender.

But if you tell
your body, "I'm okay..."

because you--with your
nervous system and your hat,

you control everything
what your body wants to do.

- [laughs] okay.
My nervous system and my hat.

- Mm-hmm.
- Okay, good. I love it.

- So now we're going to
just concentrate on

emptying our minds, and be...

- That's easy for me.
- Present.

And what we're going
to do is just we're

going to close our eyes now,
and we're going to breathe in

through the nose.
[inhales]

Hold the breath a little bit,
and then release.

[exhales]
- [exhales]

- And we're going to do
our normal warming up.

Tell the body
and the nervous system

that we are going to do
something very challenging.

So we breathe in the nose.
[inhales]

[rapid inhales, exhales]

Okay.
And we start.

[inhaling and exhaling]

Way up here.

We breathe in and we stretch
out, look up in the sky,

and then--whoo!
- Whoo!

- Whoo!
- Whoo!

- Woo!
- [laughs]

[inhaling and exhaling]

- Whoo!
- Whoo!

And one more!

[inhaling and exhaling]

- Whoo!
- Whoo!

- Yes!
Let's do it!

- Yeah!
- Let's go for it!

- All right!

Here we go, ladies!

I'll see you back at the cars.

[laughter]

- It's at this precise moment

that a harsh reality
finally sets in.

For all of my wisecracking,
I'm actually a little scared.

- You can feel the breeze,

but it's cozy
and a little bit warm.

- It's cozy. Okay.
- Yes.

- The nice warm breeze
from the Arctic Circle,

just a few dozen miles
north of here.

This is probably
going to suck.

I'm a total wimp
around this stuff,

and I wanted to ask you--

why?

Why do this?

- Because you can.

- Okay.

Weirdo.
- [laughs]

- It's a good question.

It's actually a great question.

- Why do you do this?

- A friend of mine
got me to try it once.

And I came out--
I don't drink alcohol,

but I came out
so high on life that I did--

I-I was amazed.
- Yeah.

- I think for me, at least,
I think it's about stepping

out of my comfort zone.

And when we go in the sea,
then it is difficult,

and it's always a challenge.

Even though Margarét and I
are very used to

go in the sea now,

and we go
three times a week,

it's always
a bit of a challenge.

But then you think,
I am doing this.

I am going to do it, and, um,
there's nothing changing that.

I'm here, I'm doing it.

Then you can transfer that

onto so many other things
in life

that are difficult
or challenging.

[suspenseful music]

- Everyone's ready?

[all singing in Icelandic]

* *

[singing continues]

[moody music]

- The main task is to
surrender to the cold.

- And now we're going to
calm the system again.

Breathe in on three.

Out on six, and we go in.

- Ooh.

- [exhales]

- Ah.
- And we're breathing.

- And the second was to
say to your body,

"I'm okay."

- I know for me, I have--

literally have been diagnosed
with an anxiety disorder.

Like, I am a highly
anxious person.

And there's work
that I do on a daily basis

that helps bring me
kind of to--

vaguely within normal.

So it was--for me, I had a
lot of resistance of like,

oh, I can't believe
I have to do this.

It's early in the morning.
It's cold outside.

But I found it
so, uh, uplifting.

* *

- So guess how long
you've been in the water.

- How long have
I been in the water?

- Guess.
3:40.

- 3:40?
That's crazy!

[laughter]
Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh!
[women cheering]

Aah!
I love it, I love it!

I feel invigorated in a
really new and positive way.

And honestly,
it didn't feel that cold.

- All this ocean dipping is
also about just letting go.

And it's funny,
because in Iceland,

it gets dark in the winter,
and often we have bad weather.

And you can complain
about the weather

all the time if you want.

But when you do ocean
dipping the whole year,

you don't even notice
that it gets dark.

You don't even notice
that the weather is bad.

It just does not matter.

- Let's go again!

Are you two happier

than when you started this
15 years ago?

- 100%.

- Definitely, yeah.

- I just--I could not
imagine life without

going in the sea every week.

- And not just happier,
because it's, like, a word.

And then you says--

then you think,
what does it mean?

It means that you are healthy.

It means that you can
cut through difficulties.

It means that you are able
to enjoy life

just the way you are,
and nothing else matters.

- Aah!
- Aah!

[cheering]

[upbeat music]

* *

[cheering]

- Woo!

- Whoo!

[cheering]

* *

- Hey, Bliss Heads.

It's me, Rainn, sitting in
my hotel room in Reykjavík.

Um, what an incredible day.

I had a lot of
anxiety going up to, like,

you're gonna be jumping into

an ice-cold
North Atlantic Ocean.

I mean, I knew it
was going to suck.

I didn't know
that it was gonna be

a really
transformative morning.

It was beautiful.

And it's a lot more
than just cold swimming.

It's about
overcoming obstacles,

and healing, and celebration.

[light music]

* *

When I first
arrived in Iceland,

I was skeptical that
a place as remote as this

could legitimately
be such a happy one.

Signa,
any thoughts on happiness?

Happiness is subjective,
of course.

You're making a mess here.

- [laughs]

- But in the same way you a
good meal when you taste it--

- Whoo!
- Yay!

- You know a happy place
when you visit it.

Oh, look at that.

Look at that.
That's ridiculous.

Look at that.

For my final day in Iceland,

Darri has been gracious
enough to invite me

and my motley crew
of ice swimmers

and former mayors,
sheepherders,

and indie rockers
to one last feast.

- Did you meet old
Lamb Boy as well?

- I met Lamb Boy, yep.

Mm-hmm.

If I've learned anything
from my time here,

it's that happiness, at least
some small fraction of it...

Oppa!

Skál!

Is a matter of choice.

[glass tinkling]

- Hey-hey!

Hey, guys.

Thank you so much for coming
and being here with us.

Cheers. And Rainn--

I think Rainn's
gonna say a few words.

Oh.
[laughs]

[laughter]
Cheers.

- "Skál,"I believe you say.

Skál.

Uh, I just want to
thank all of you.

Darri and Lovisa,
thank you for having us

in your beautiful home.

And, you know, it's been
an incredible adventure

in Iceland, and I've learned
so much, you know,

about what we're searching for.

We're searching for something
larger than ourselves.

And in the spirit
of the great quest

for ice cream,
the ísbíltúrof Iceland,

it's not about the destination.

It's about the
journey along the way.

So once more, Skál!

- Skál.
- Skál.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Bjork.

[laughter]

- The lamb or the musician?

- The lamb
that's in your sandwich.

Yes.

[guitar music]

* *

- [singing in Icelandic]

- So this guy kept
approaching our director,

offering to play
a song at the party,

and eventually, she gave in.

* *

- As it turns out,
his name is Hreimur,

and he is an extremely popular
singer-songwriter in Iceland.

And literally every person
there knew this song.

- [continues singing]

- As I said...

- Come on!

- There are no
strangers in Iceland.

[all singing]

* *

Nietzsche tells us that
the measure of a society

is how well it transforms
pain and suffering

into something worthwhile.

Not how a society avoids
pain and suffering,

but how it transforms it
into something useful.

Happy, even.

* *

Faced with a brutal climate
and utter isolation,

Icelanders could easily
have chosen despair.

* *

But instead, these hardy
descendants of Vikings

peered into the unyielding
darkness of the midnight sky

and chose a different option:

happiness.

It is, I think,
the wiser option.

Besides, what else is
there to do in the dark?

- Yeah!

[all cheering]

- [whistles]
- Whoo!

[applause]

- Now that I've seen one of
the world's happiest places...

Merci!
- Bye.

- I wonder, what does it mean
to live in an unhappy place?

But where should I go?

[sighs]

[mid-tempo music]

The lowest-ranked countries
on the Happiness Report

say more about
the nature of w*r

than about the nature of
happiness.

Their misery
is easily diagnosed.

No. I need a place with a
particular variety of gloom

which, much like my own,
is harder to define.

[knocking on door]
Uh, hello?