It’s guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence: the right to pursue happiness. But that doesn’t make it mandatory, does it?

Happiness is this formerly elusive thing, which has been turned into a kind of a global commodity – with countries touting their “Gross National Happiness.”

But Barbara Ehrenreich says here in America, we’re spending too much time trying to talk ourselves into happiness.

Today, Where We Live, a conversation with the author, whose new book is called, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Ehrenreich is a long time observer of American culture and she worries that Americans are bombarded with the message that they should be happy all the time, even when, or especially when, they really shouldn’t be.

We’ll be joined by one of our favorite positive thinkers – The Hartford Courant’s Susan Campbell.