[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 lafsson - 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 lafsson 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 killed in everything i do. - we're planning on killing 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! 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 can't take the italy out of an alfa romeo. meet the team... behind the team. the coach. the manager. and the snack dad. all using chase to keep up with their finances. the coach helps save goals here, because she saved for soccer camp there. anddd check this out... the manager deposited a check. magic. and the snack dad? he's getting paid back. orange slicesss. because this team all has chase. smart bankers. convenient tools. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. more shopping? you should watch your spending honey. i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. check it out, you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, i'll look into that. let me put a reminder on my phone. save $700 dollars. pick up dad from airport? ohhhhhh. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i have moderate to severe crohn's disease. only pay for what you need. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are looking up ♪ ♪ i've got symptom relief ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ feel significant symptom relief with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements at 4 weeks. skyrizi is the first and only il-23 inhibitor for crohn's that can deliver both clinical remission and endoscopic improvement. the majority of people on skyrizi achieved long lasting remission at 1 year. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. ask your gastroenterologist how you can take control of your crohn's with skyrizi. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save. so, you've got the power of xfinity at home. now take it outside with xfinity mobile. like speed? it's the fastest mobile service around. with the best price for two lines of unlimited. only 30 bucks a line per month. that's hundreds in savings a year when you wave bye to the other guys. no wonder xfinity mobile is one of the fastest growing mobile services. you really shouldn't walk out the front door without it. switch today at xfinitymobile.com. [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 shit 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 killing 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 killing 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! 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[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 asshole. [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 shit. - 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, but ísbíltúr 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. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ meet the team all using chase to keep up with their finances. smart bankers. convenient tools. boom. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists taking photos that are analyzed by ai. so researchers can help life underwater flourish. ♪ i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, let me put a reminder on my phone. on the top of the pile! oh. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hi, i'm denise. oni've lost over 22 pounds. with golo in six months and i've kept it off for over a year. i was skeptical about golo in the beginning because i've tried so many different types of diet products before. i've tried detox, i've tried teas, i've tried all different types of pills, so i was skeptical about anything working because it never did. but look what golo has done. look what it has done. i'm in a size 4 pair of pants. go golo. (soft music) permission to dig in? granted. breyers carbsmart is so rich, so creamy, it tastes totally off-limits. but with only 4 grams of net carbs in every delicious serving, you've got the green light. better starts with breyers. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ we've got one hope. voltaren. the joa bomb.vement. 4... 3... 2...1... they just fired a starting gun. - 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. (mom) the moment i loved our subaru outback most... was the moment they walked away from it. (daughter) mom! (mom) oh, thank goodness. and that's why our family will only drive a subaru. 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