Lifestyle
Is Taiwan the happiest place in Asia?
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Growing up, Huang Wen-chun remembers listening to friends and family complain about life in Taiwan. So when she saw news reports declaring Taiwan the happiest place in Asia, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride.
“When I was young, everyone believed that the moon was rounder abroad,” said the 25-year-old freelance worker in Taipei. “As I got older, I realized there are so many ways in which Taiwan surpasses everywhere else.”
According to the annual World Happiness Report, the island democracy has surpassed Singapore as the happiest place in Asia. Globally Taiwan ranked 27th, while the top three spots went to Finland, Denmark and Iceland.
The report, which draws on Gallup World Poll data, is compiled by asking more than 100,000 participants in more than 140 countries to rank their lives on a scale from 1, worst possible, to 10, best possible. Taiwan averaged a response of 6.669 over the last three years.
The World Happiness Report also cited factors such as having someone to count on, economic development, healthy life expectancy, generosity and the freedom of choice and freedom from corruption as reasons for a feeling of contentment. It also attributed high levels of happiness to activities such as volunteering and sharing meals with others.
One thing Huang appreciates about Taiwan is the sense of safety. When she was a high school student, she visited Oakland during a trip to California, where thieves broke into her family’s car. Then they were targeted by scammers, who claimed they were sent to tow the car. When her father asked about a replacement vehicle, they drove away.
“In Taiwan, I never had to worry about this kind of thing,” she said.
Office workers pray for business prosperity as their company reopens after Chinese New Year holidays in Taipei, Taiwan, in February 2020.
(DAVID CHANG/EPA-EFE/REX/DAVID CHANG/EPA-EFE/REX)
In interviews, Taiwanese pointed to universal healthcare, an open and friendly society, freedom of expression and convenience in daily life as other potential contributors to local happiness. But some residents were not convinced that Taiwan should rank the highest in happiness in all of Asia.
“Right now, I don’t feel particularly happy, because of the pressures of inflation,” said 55-year-old Shen Shi-hung, who runs a food stall in Taipei. “But on the whole, Taiwanese people are very friendly and the quality of life is very good.”
Yu Ruoh-rong, a professor at Taipei-based research institution Academia Sinica, said that although the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with loneliness, her research indicated that most Taiwanese people had reverted back to their previous social lives. “Even people who are single or live alone seem to easily gather with friends, and find people to share meals with,” she added.
Yu, who has helped the Taiwanese government conduct happiness surveys, said that such reports often garner reactions of surprise from the general public. She said that although younger generations have some frustrations with economic stagnation, their sense of well-being rates higher compared with prior generations.
Stagnant wage growth and high housing prices are common complaints among Taiwanese. “When I saw the news I was a bit confused,” said Shen Wan-ju, a 37-year-old accountant in Taipei. “I feel like the salary growth is not quite keeping up with the increase in our cost of living,” she continued, adding that the cost of raising kids puts a lot of pressure on parents. Although Shen does not have children, she has watched her brother work hard to send his two sons to good schools.
“Honestly, it seems really hard to be parents. The cost of providing a good education for your child is getting higher,” she said.
Taiwan’s birth rate has fallen so low that it’s considered a major crisis, prompting the government to provide more financial support and matchmaking services for singles. Last year, the island’s fertility rate, or the number of children the average woman will bear in her lifetime, was 0.885, among the lowest in the world.
The title of “happiest place in Asia” also coincides with increasing military threats from China, which claims the self-governed island as part of its territory. In 2021, the Economist labeled Taiwan “the most dangerous place on Earth.”
But Tony Yang, a professor in health policy at the George Washington University School of Nursing, said the ability of Taiwanese to adapt to adversity such as ongoing tensions with China and see happiness as a fluctuating condition contribute to the quality of life.
“Despite persistent threats, daily life proceeds with remarkable normalcy and optimism,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Taipei Times. “This is not denial, but an ability to hold contradictory realities simultaneously — acknowledging threats while refusing to let them dominate our collective consciousness.”
Lifestyle
Sunday Puzzle: New newsmakers of 2025
On-air challenge
Every year around this time I present a “new names in the news” quiz. I’m going to give you some names that you’d probably never heard before 2025 but that were prominent in the news during the past 12 months. You tell me who or what they are.
1. Zohran Mamdani
2. Karoline Leavitt
3. Mark Carney
4. Robert Francis Prevost (hint: Chicago)
5. Jeffrey Goldberg (hint: The Atlantic)
6. Sanae Takaichi
7. Nameless raccoon, Hanover County, Virginia
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Think of a two-syllable word in four letters. Add two letters in front and one letter behind to make a one-syllable word in seven letters. What words are these?
Challenge answer
Ague –> Plagued / Plagues / Leagues
Winner
Calvin Siemer of Henderson, Nev.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge is a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago. Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 8 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
Lifestyle
Daniel Tosh Sells Lake Tahoe Estate for $10.75 Million
Daniel Tosh
Sells Lake Tahoe Home for Millions
Published
Daniel Tosh has officially sold his sprawling Lake Tahoe compound but the comedian isn’t leaving the area … TMZ has learned.
Real estate sources tell us the 7-bedroom, 7-bath estate officially closed Friday for $10.75 million, and Tosh bought another property across the lake to be closer to friends, which is why he decided to sell.
The gated estate, located on the pristine west shore between Tahoe City and Sunnyside, sprawls across 1.6 acres and features three distinct homes, each with its own character and charm.
The Upper House is the ultimate entertainer’s dream … 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, elevator, game room, industrial ice cream maker, 4-car garage, hot tub, fire pit, bocce and horseshoe pits, and sprawling lawns with breathtaking lake views.
The Middle House keeps classic Tahoe charm alive with knotty pine interiors, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a stone fireplace, skylit kitchen, and steam shower — perfect for unwinding after a day on the lake.
The lakeside cabin is a serene retreat with a studio loft, retro kitchenette, modern bathroom, and French doors opening right onto the lake.
Altogether, the property boasts 93 feet of lake frontage, two buoys, and multiple outdoor spaces for fun and relaxation.
Daniel may be moving, but one thing’s clear … he’s still very much a Lake Tahoe guy, just on the other side of the lake now.
Lifestyle
What worked — and what didn’t — in the ‘Stranger Things’ finale
Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield.
Netflix
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Netflix
Yes, there are spoilers ahead for the final episode of Stranger Things.
On New Year’s Eve, the very popular Netflix show Stranger Things came to an end after five seasons and almost 10 years. With actors who started as tweens now in their 20s, it was probably inevitable that the tale of a bunch of kids who fought monsters would wind down. In the two-plus-hour finale, there was a lot of preparation, then there was a final battle, and then there was a roughly 40-minute epilogue catching up with our heroes 18 months later. And how well did it all work? Let’s talk about it.
Worked: The final battle
The strongest part of the finale was the battle itself, set in the Abyss, in which the crew battled Vecna, who was inside the Mind Flayer, which is, roughly speaking, a giant spider. This meant that inside, Eleven could go one-on-one with Vecna (also known as Henry, or One, or Mr. Whatsit) while outside, her friends used their flamethrowers and guns and flares and slingshots and whatnot to take down the Mind Flayer. (You could tell that Nancy was going to be the badass of the fight as soon as you saw not only her big gun, but also her hair, which strongly evoked Ripley in the Alien movies.) And of course, Joyce took off Vecna’s head with an axe while everybody remembered all the people Vecna has killed who they cared about. Pretty good fight!
Did not work: Too much talking before the fight
As the group prepared to fight Vecna, we watched one scene where the music swelled as Hopper poured out his feelings to Eleven about how she deserved to live and shouldn’t sacrifice herself. Roughly 15 minutes later, the music swelled for a very similarly blocked and shot scene in which Eleven poured out her feelings to Hopper about why she wanted to sacrifice herself. Generally, two monologues are less interesting than a conversation would be. Elsewhere, Jonathan and Steve had a talk that didn’t add much, and Will and Mike had a talk that didn’t add much (after Will’s coming-out scene in the previous episode), both while preparing to fight a giant monster. It’s not that there’s a right or wrong length for a finale like this, but telling us things we already know tends to slow down the action for no reason. Not every dynamic needed a button on it.
Worked: Dungeons & Dragons bringing the group together
It was perhaps inevitable that we would end with a game of D&D, just as we began. But now, these kids are feeling the distance between who they are now and who they were when they used to play together. The fact that they still enjoy each other’s company so much, even when there are no world-shattering stakes, is what makes them seem the most at peace, more than a celebratory graduation. And passing the game off to Holly and her friends, including the now-included Derek, was a very nice touch.
Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, and Joe Keery as Steve Harrington.
Netflix
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Netflix
Did not work: Dr. Kay, played by Linda Hamilton
It seemed very exciting that Stranger Things was going to have Linda Hamilton, actual ’80s action icon, on hand this season playing Dr. Kay, the evil military scientist who wanted to capture and kill Eleven at any cost. But she got very little to do, and the resolution to her story was baffling. After the final battle, after the Upside Down is destroyed, she believes Eleven to be dead. But … then what happened? She let them all call taxis home, including Hopper, who killed a whole bunch of soldiers? Including all the kids who now know all about her and everything she did? All the kids who ventured into the Abyss are going to be left alone? Perfect logic is certainly not anybody’s expectation, but when you end a sequence with your entire group of heroes at the mercy of a band of violent goons, it would be nice to say something about how they ended up not at the mercy of said goons.


Worked: Needle drops
Listen, it’s not easy to get one Prince song for your show, let alone two: “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry.” When the Duffer Brothers say they needed something epic, and these songs feel epic, they are not wrong. There continues to be a heft to the Purple Rain album that helps to lend some heft to a story like this, particularly given the period setting. “Landslide” was a little cheesy as the lead-in to the epilogue, but … the epilogue was honestly pretty cheesy, so perhaps that’s appropriate.
Did not work: The non-ending
As to whether Eleven really died or is really just backpacking in a foreign country where no one can find her, the Duffer Brothers, who created the show, have been very clear that the ending is left up to you. You can think she’s dead, or you can think she’s alive; they have intentionally not given the answer. It’s possible to write ambiguous endings that work really well, but this one felt like a cop-out, an attempt to have it both ways. There’s also a real danger in expanding characters’ supernatural powers to the point where they can make anything seem like anything, so maybe much of what you saw never happened. After all, if you don’t know that did happen, how much else might not have happened?
This piece also appears in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.
Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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