We know a thing by its opposite. Hot Means Nothing without cold, and since im traveling the world to explore the nature of happiness and my own struggles to find it, i decide to visit an unhappy place. And if im going to do unhappy, i want somewhere that does it with panache and takes pride in its wallowing, somewhere full of beautiful expressions like, i dont want to feel good. I just want my neighbor to feel bad. [upbeat acoustic music] welcome to bulgaria. [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 onetwo. Im looking at the ways that where we are. Yeah, im acomin, im acomin affect who we are. Whoo, im acomin im acomin, yeah. Its been said that the search for happiness is the chief source of unhappiness. Im acomin, im acomin. Well, thats okay. Im already unhappy, so ive got nothing to lose. Lets go lets all blast off [projector humming] [upbeat music] where are we . Somewhere near the sunny coast of the mediterranean, certainly. Or is this an italian opera out in the open air . This is a land that symbolically lives on roses, on sunshine, on delicate crops, on subtle loveliness. This, wherever it is, is a land of happiness. [bells tolling] holy hell, have things changed since then. [quirky music] bulgaria ranks 85th on the World Happiness report, smack dab in the middle. When you adjust for income, bulgaria, a member of the European Union, suddenly ranks near the absolute bottom. Im a really happy person, and thats not a common answer here in bulgaria. The air is very polluted. Its a problem. [speaking bulgarian] there are bumps in the roads, holes in the sidewalks. Political problems. Someone may push you in the metro. Older people are really more pessimistic. We complain to each other all the time, and then after we exchange complaints, we say, lets go to have a beer together. We have to discuss this. I hold a black belt in dwelling on the negative, so i knew bulgaria would be the ultimate place to be amongst my faultfinding brethren. Years back, a gallup poll found that bulgarians have lower expectations for their futures than afghans and iraqis, who have lived in literal war zones for decades. So i wonder, what can i learn about my own sorrows by exploring one of the unhappiest places on earth . Oh, hello. Hey, how you doing . Yeah. Is that ok, please. Youre free . Yes. Ok, great. Come on. [speaking bulgarian] velcho. Velcho . Velcho. Rainn. [upbeat music] this is bulgarias capital, sofia. With a population of 1 and 1 2 million people, its not exactly paris, but its doing a decent impression of a bustling, midsized european city. You ever watch the office . The office . The tv show, the office . No . [humming the office theme] no. [upbeat music] a very nice city, sofia. Lots of trees, lots of parks. No, not very nice. Before 20 years maybe. Now too much people from village. Oh, coming. Is coming to sofia. Too many people from the villages are coming into sofia . Yeah. Life is different now. Ok. So are you happy . [speaking bulgarian] i feel you. [tense music] if people are fleeing to the city from the countryside, im curious to know what it is that theyre running away from. Velcho agrees to take me to a village called grozdyovsti. Unfortunately, oof, we seem to be on rather different timelines. How long to grozdyovsti . Two or three years. Two or three years . Yes. Areare we crawling . [upbeat music] i think it must be right here. Ok. Here we are. [grunts] merci. Bye. This town may look abandoned. But ive been told someone lives here who is going against the grain. Shes a former city dweller who moved to the countryside. Uh, hello . And i want to know why. Rainn . Oh, hello. [speaking bulgarian] this is ejo kirilova. She lives with her two dogs here in her hometown of grozdyovsti where travelers stay with her in exchange for helping with renovation projects. Grozdyovsti used to be a bustling town filled with residents going about their lives in the idyllic Bulgarian Countryside. Lately, though, things have gone downhill. How many people live here . Today, three people and a half one. The half a person is not wasnt sawed in half. Shes a whole person, but she lives here only half time. Half the time. How many when you were a little girl and your mom was a little girl, how many people lived out here . I dont know. Maybe 100, Something Like that. Yeah. Everybodyeverything was full of life here. And now its not like that. Now everybody not with three and a half people. Rural towns like this have witnessed Population Decline at the fastest rate in bulgaria, which itself has the fastest declining population of any country on earth. So im renovating the houses. Renovating . Yeah, a lot of different houses here. Who lives in all these . Theyre old family houses. Oh, wow, ok. So what are you doing today . What would you normally be doing . I was going to make the Elderflower Juice because its flowering right now. Uhhuh and this is the time. I have only three days to pick the flowers and make the juice. What do we need . We need elderflowers, and we need well need to buy sugar. Ok. And we need to get water from the village well. Great, lets do it. Ok. You stay, sweetie. Oh, gono, no, no, no. Ok, oh. Oh, well. So whats going on here . This is our old store. Oh, wow. It doesnt work for a long time. And who who are all these people here . Well, this is a bulgarian tradition. When somebody dies. Yeah . They put this, like, like a memory of it, and you see this. Oh. This is how you find out its like an obituary. Yeah, its i dont know how i would feel about going to get some bread and lemonade and finding out that my uncle died. I dont know. Its a little macabre. I hope that you learn before that. Yeah. Doing anything in the Bulgarian Countryside takes planning and usually a lot of walking. Its a bulgarian puppy. The closest store is over four miles away in another town, and these days, its only open two days a week because there arent enough customers to keep it open fulltime. More dead people, i see. Yeah. What whats going on in here . It used to be the pub the citys pub, the village pub. Used to be a pub. But now its the store. Yeah. [speaking bulgarian] having a beer. Ok. His name is nestor . Nestor. Is that right . Yes. Nestor, hello. [chuckles] Nice To Meet You. So he works twice a week, nestor . Yeah. Twice a week, the bread comes. And thats when they open the store is when the bread comes . Yeah. People come to get the bread, and then they pick up beer, and buckets, and. And things like that, yeah. Potatoes, yeah. Does nestor remember a time when it was more busy, that the store was open every day . [speaking bulgarian] [speaking bulgarian] and now there are 25, 30. Wow. [soft dramatic music] do you have any Cinnamon Raisin . It seems like bread day is the most exciting day of the week. [chuckles] you can stay here, drink a beer, and talk with everybody. Yes. Hi, buddy hi, sweetie. Hey. Precious. So ive never seen an elderflower before. Is this them right here . This isthe white thing. Ok. Right about now, as ejo and i forage for spring water and elderflower in the Bulgarian Countryside, you may be wondering, why exactly did everyone leave a place that looks so beautiful . That is a gorgeous view. Look at that. These hills are just. Yeah. Completely uninhabited. Well, when communism collapsed in Eastern Europe in 1989, rural factories closed, and all of the collective farms were broken up, leaving no way for people to make a living in the country, so they flocked to the cities, and all the farmland went to ruin. So who lives in here . A troll . [quirky music] so two years ago, you made a big change and moved out here. Yeah. This is kind of, like, a popular fantasy of like, oh, im going to move out of the city. Im gonna move to the country. Im gonna to have bees. I saw bees over there. Im gonna have a garden. But for a lot of people, that would get tiring after six months, Something Like that. How do you feel . Are you happy about the move . Im absolutely happy. I feel calmer. Ok. In my case, it happened so gradually that you know when you boil a frog, and the frog doesnt know that it will get boiled because the water incrementally. Yeah. Gets hotter. That happened to me. Just one day, i realized that i live here. All my life, i loved nature, and i loved to go outdoors. Maybe thats why i feel so comfortable here. [quirky music] so far, the only person ive met in this country found happiness by getting away from everyone else. I sympathize. My inclination is almost always to be left the hell alone. Now we have to measure 3 liters of water. 3 liters. Yeah, two times. Now we need to have patience and to wait for it. All right. My time in grozdyovsti makes clear what so many bulgarians left behind. Lets hug it out, bulgarian. [chuckles] but if i want real insight into bulgarian sadness, into my own sadness, ill next need a translator whos fluent in the language of misery. After advil. Feeling better . On top of the worlddddd before advil. Advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. When pain comes for you, come back fast with advil liquigels. Want a smarter way to mop . Introducing the new swiffer powermop. An allinone Cleaning Tool with hundreds of Scrubbing Strips that absorb and lock dirt away, for a mop and bucket clean in half the time. Mop smarter with the new swiffer powermop. mom the moment i loved our Subaru Outback most. Was the moment they walked away from it. daughter mom mom oh, thank goodness. And thats why our family will only drive a subaru. vo subaru. More iihs top safety pick plus awards than any other brand. Love. Its what makes subaru, subaru. We moved out of the city so our little sophie could appreciate nature. But then he got us tmobile home internet. I was just trying to improve our signal, so some of the trees had to go. I mightve taken it a step too far. Chainsaw Revs tree crashes chainsaw continues daughter screams lets pretend for a second that you didnt let down your entire family. What would that reality look like . Well i guess i wouldve gotten us xfinity. And wed have a better view. Do you need mulch . What, we have a ton of mulch. [quirky music]eral ton. I have a wound. We have [speaks bulgarian]. Mulch. Call an ambulance. [speaks bulgarian]. When i landed in bulgaria and i read some of the stats about the population braindrain and i looked at that airport and the expression on peoples faces, i was afraid a little bit. Sure, the more isolated regions of bulgaria seem like a bit of a downer, but im still baffled to how a city as cosmopolitan as sofia produces so many unhappy people. So many trees in bulgaria. I know. Its kind of blowing my mind. Yeah. Bulgarians love the nature, you know . Dr. Elena mustakova is a friend of mine and a renowned psychologist who recently moved from washington, dc to return to her native bulgaria. Im hoping she can help make sense of the sadness. Tell me this i land in the airport, and i definitely feel like im in a cliche of an eastern bloc country. Yeah. People seem really, really unhappy when you look at them. Yes, yes. They look dour. Yes. And they kind of look miserable. Now, that may not be whats going on inside. Maybe thats a front. Help me to understand that. Its not a front. Its a split in the psyche between the private and the public. In the public space, where theres no interpersonal interactions, people are miserable, negative, and hostile. Miserable, negative, and hostile, ok. [laughs] ok. As soon as they get into interpersonal interactions, theres laughter, and very quickly people will help you and offer you things. And it just everything changes. Why the Split Personality . Well, when youve endured the history that bulgaria has, youd probably be miserable, negative, and hostile too. In the 14th century, they were conquered by the ottomans, and over the next 500 years, any sense of National Identity was either beaten into submission or forced into hiding. In 1908, the Ottoman Empire fell, and soon came the soviets, who taught a generation of bulgarians that it was patriotic to rat out your friends and neighbors for the good of the communist party. By the time communism fell in 1989, bulgarians had been abused and abandoned by damn near everyone. This is ten generations surviving extraordinarily resilient. They had to become very insular, protect their families, then really survive in small circles. [somber acoustic music] [singing in bulgarian] if surviving in small private circles is how bulgarians retained some sense of happiness, then getting past these outward cold facades has got to be the next step on my journey. [singing melody] this is ivo dimchev. Hes one of bulgarias most famous recording artists. [singing in bulgarian] hes got a pretty devoted following in bulgaria, which makes sense since his songs are about very bulgarian things, like vodka or a National Pastry called banitsa. [singing in bulgarian] [singing in bulgarian] hello. Hello. Are you the new singer for the musical . [chuckles] yeah. [chuckles] yes, i am. Ivos currently in the middle of rehearsals for a musical hes written called in hell with jesus. Im sure the title will go over gangbusters. Im working with them on one of the songs called vodka. Id love to hear it. [singing in bulgarian] [singing in bulgarian together] and so on. [applauds] bravo. Bravo. Amazing. Hes not like any bulgarian ive met so far, or like anyone ive met in general, now that i think about it, which leaves me curious about where this guy came from. I remember when i was, like, 10 years old during the communistic regime, on a big holiday, like fourth of july, like every kid was marching in front of the palace of the president , and everybody had, like, a uniform but me. I dress as a woman with high heels and dress, makeup, and a wig. [laughs] and i dress like this, and i went marching with all my schoolmates like this when i was 10 years old. You thought itd be funny or you just i feel unconsciously, back then, i felt that there is a there is this convention that we all have to look equal, and unconsciously my mind or my soul was like, no, we should we should create a balance. Yeah. Have you suffered because of this path that youve taken . Has this been difficult . Yeah, i was very i was very abused, like and bullied, and beaten up. Oh, no. In school. It didnt stop me. So you followed your personal bliss. Yeah. They couldnt stop you. Yeah. [chuckles] i can totally relate because, although im dressed a little more conventional, i went to theater school, and thats how i found myself. I needed to express myself in my own weird way. Yes. [laughs] drink it up drink it, drink it up, my love, love drink it up, drink it, drink it up my love, love [imitates tambourine] thats me. Its a selfie sculpture. Its a 3d copy of my head. Oh, i see the resemblance now. Yeah. There are many around. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la drink it up, my love, my love people who listen to my songs are art lovers or, like, mafia bosses, like mafia guys. Art lovers and mafia guys . Why do the mafia guys like your songs . Because theyre theyre most openminded. Theyre like a contemporary audience. Nice. Maybe theyll take you to perform on like on an oligarchs yacht or something. I just did two days ago. Whoa. Now that weve gotten some playful banter about bulgarias terrifying ruling class out of the way, im joining ivo as a roadie for his concert tonight, and the crowd, im promised, will be at capacity. I like to perform in kitchens, but i think this one is too small maybe. Oh, my god. Its a bedroom. In case its not clear, ivo is setting up for one of his home concerts, which is exactly what it sounds like. [singing in bulgarian] for the price of a tshirt off his website, one of the countrys most popular singers comes to your place and performs in your shower, or laundry room, or [vocalizing] anywhere with a power outlet for his amplifier. How did you start doing House Concerts . It was the very beginning of the pandemic, and everybody was locked in their houses. It was kind of Rebellion Thing for them, i think. A brave thing to do. Hes getting warmed up. [ivo dimchevs banitsa] [singing in bulgarian] this is ridiculously awesome. Just a bulgarian superstar casually making himself comfortable and belting ballads about yogurtbased baked goods in the middle of a complete strangers apartment. [ivo dimchevs vodka] these people dont look miserable, negative, and hostile. They look happy. Whoo [all cheering] yeah [cheers and applause] whoo youve worn him out. [chuckles] i began acting when i realized that lip syncing Elvis Costello songs. [playing drums] made my High School Classmates lose their shit with laughter. In that moment, i found purpose and belonging. My Front Row Seat to ivos home concert reminds me of something thats easy to forget the mere act of selfexpression, the sharing of your inner self with others, brings joy, whether youre performing to a soldout arena or an audience of three. That was incredible. Youve brought so much joy into so many peoples homes during a pandemic i didnt have a choice, rainn. What do you mean . I didnt have a choice. I didnt have a choice. I just think its the right thing to do. I dont know. I dont think about happiness. I think about, its the right thing to do. And then, if it brings happiness, im really, like, satisfied. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. It was gorgeous. Thank you for coming. It was amazing. Youre incredible. Thank you so much. And thanks for helping me with the speaker. [chuckles] oh, my god. This thing is gonna kill me. Wheres the car . Our heritage is ingrained in our skin. And even when we metamorphosize into our new evolved form, we carry that spirit with us. Because you can take alfa romeo out of italy. But you best believe, you cant take the italy out of an alfa romeo. Years ago, we used to just fall asleep with a full face of makeup. Dont regret, just reverse. No7s new future renew with a worldfirst Peptide Technology no other Skincare Product has. Even those that cost 10 times more. Reverse visible signs of skin damage in 4 weeks. At pnc bank, even those that cost 10 times more. 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