Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Latest Episodes:

More Happier: Survivor Fantasy League, Gold Star for Teachers on the Subway & Reading Renaissance Mar 01, 2025

Show notes

We share what's making us happier: Survivor Fantasy League and teachers herding middle schoolers on the subway. We discuss whether reading is having a cultural moment (we think so) and explore the differences between club soda, sparkling water, and seltzer.

Resources & Links Related to this episode:

Take the Habits for Happiness quiz

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 523: Write Your Secrets of Adulthood, Magazine Happiness & Helping the (Obliger) Helper Feb 26, 2025

Show notes

We explore the powerful practice of distilling your hard-earned observations into concise "Secrets of Adulthood,” such as "Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination" and "The more I write, the more I write." We also talk about the simple pleasure of physical magazines, and we tackle a complex Four Tendencies question about supporting an Obliger mother-in-law whose helpfulness contributed to her health problems.

Resources and links related to this episode:

A Little Happier: The Power of Telling the Truth--What Nebraska's and Oslo's Tourists Know
Pre-order my new book, Secrets of Adulthood
Take the Next Novel quiz
Take the Four Tendencies quiz
Elizabeth is reading: Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon (Amazon, Bookshop)
Gretchen is reading: Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times by Andrew Kaufman (Amazon, Bookshop)

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little Happier: We All Have Our Luna Park: Places That Capture Our Imagination Forever Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

Three distinct childhood memories—from an art-carnival creator, a food writer, and a horror master—illuminate how the “luna parks” of our childhoods can live in our imaginations for our entire lives.

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More Happier: Very First Episode [Revisited] Feb 22, 2025

Show notes

For our 10th anniversary, we’re revisiting our very first episode of Happier. We discuss how the “one-minute rule” contributes to outer order and inner calm, the difference between a satisficer and a maximizer, and the one-coin loophole. Plus, for the first time, we give ourselves Demerits and Gold Stars.

Resources & Links Related to this episode:

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 522: Tenth Anniversary! Best Try-This-At-Home Ideas, Happiness Hacks, and Highlights Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the podcast, we highlight our favorite ideas, hacks, and moments from the last decade. Everything from the “one-minute rule” to “clear the decks” to “give yourself a derby name” to Elizabeth’s famous recommendation of the Ped Egg.

Resources and links related to this episode:

Pre-order my new book, Secrets of Adulthood
Better Than Before, my book about habit change
Follow the one-minute rule
Observe the family “update”
Identify your signature anything: color, scent, personal symbol.
Go to the doctor
Celebrate minor holidays
Start a side hustle
“Identify your Happiness 911 song”
Give yourself a “derby name”
Create a five-senses portrait
Organize trinkets
Outer Order, Inner Calm book
Packing cubes
Share a podcast episode
Closet-clearing montage
Cleaning Elizabeth's office
Hacks for reading more
Hacks for making entertaining easier and more fun
Hacks for performance
Thank-you note debate
Happiness lessons from teachers in episodes 324 and 326
Object sacrificing itself
“Unplugged Episode”
Clear the Decks
Sweep the Decks
Deck the Halls
Voice memos from England
Ped Egg
“Have you ever been upset by a well-intentioned gift?”
Happier in Hollywood podcast
We made merchandise! Buy your merch!
10th Anniversary Celebration Sale
Find the resources here

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little Happier: The Efforts Made That Allow a Grandmother’s Love to Speak Across Time Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

The inscription on an ancient Greek grave marker illustrates the purpose of preserving art across millennia. A grandmother's words about holding her beloved grandchild, both in life and death, bridge more than two thousand years.

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More Happier: The “More Happier” Debate, Do You Eat Before You Pay & Advice For Creative People Feb 15, 2025

Show notes

We review the great debate among listeners about whether our ungrammatical jokes about “More Happier” are fun—or annoying. We also discuss whether, as creative people, we expect our friends and family to read, watch, or listen to what we create. Plus we explore a silly question about whether we’d start to eat an item before we’d pay for it.

Resources and links related to this episode:

5 Things Making Me Happy Newsletter
The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr (Amazon, Bookshop)
Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky (Amazon, Bookshop)
After Hours with Jamie Rubin podcast
Eliza Starting at 16 podcast
People My Age podcast

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 521: Very Special Episode! Ask Us Anything, Part II Feb 12, 2025

Show notes

For this Very Special Episode, we answer questions from listeners about our relationships, happiness, watercolor, celebrities, our reading habits, and more.

Resources and links related to this episode:

Bookshop
Quiz: Fall In Love With Your Next Novel
Happier in Hollywood Substack
Simon Haisell's slow read of War and Peace
Five-Senses Journal
Dabble Writer
Elizabeth is reading: Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon (Amazon, Bookshop)
Gretchen is reading: The Many Lives of Anne Frank by Ruth Franklin (Amazon, Bookshop)

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Little Happier: It’s Right to Do the Right Thing, Even When It Makes No Difference Feb 10, 2025

Show notes

Three distinct voices—Leonard Woolf, Gerald Heard, and Thomas Merton—point to the same truth world: The value of right action lies not in the results we achieve for others, but in the rightness of the action itself, and its significance for ourselves.

Get in touch: podcast@gretchenrubin.com

Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More Happier: Happiness Lessons from Evacuation: When We Have to Leave Home Fast Feb 08, 2025

Show notes

We talk about the unexpected lessons Elizabeth learned during her family’s emergency evacuation from their home, from the practical (“know your zone”) to the emotional (dogs can provide comfort in displacement). We discuss how information networks proved crucial, the reality of evacuation traffic, and how different people react in crisis. We also explore how to maintain productivity during disruption and the importance of advance preparation, including the value of a well-planned "go bag" and a pre-made list of irreplaceable items.

Resources & Links Related to this episode: