Gretchen Rubin is HAPPIER, and she wants you to be happier too. The #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before gets more personal tha...
Ep. 514: Host Better Holidays, Tips for Reading More in 2025 & Some Big Podcast News
We discuss how to make hosting more fun and less work by reflecting and making notes after each gathering; we include specific tips from our own experiences as well as creative suggestions from listeners. We also answer frequently asked questions about the "Read 25 in 25" challenge to help us all make reading a daily habit in the new year. Plus, we share terrific holiday hosting hacks from listeners.
Resources and links related to this episode:
"Habits for Happiness" course
Read25in25
Design Your Year
Rolling cart
Elizabeth is rereading: Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York Maitre D' by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina (Amazon, Bookshop)
Gretchen is reading: North Woods by Daniel Mason (Amazon, Bookshop)
Get in touch: [email protected]
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.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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36:02
Little Happier: When One Song Can Express Contradictory Emotions
The Fleetwood Mac song “Songbird” illustrates the truth that with a great artwork, its power often lies not in expressing a single emotion, but in speaking to various, and sometimes even seemingly opposite, human experiences.
Get in touch: [email protected]
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.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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3:16
More Happier: Bonus: I Read “The Snow Queen” to You, Pt. 2
As a holiday gift to listeners, I’m reading aloud “The Snow Queen,” one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous fairy tales. Last week was Part One; this week is Part Two.
Get in touch: [email protected]
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.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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42:12
Ep. 513: Revealed: Our Annual Challenge for 2025! Plus We Review 2024’s #Write24in24 Challenge
As part of “Design Your Year,” each year we announce an annual challenge based on the year—a habit that will help us and listeners to be come happier. We review our experience with last year’s “Write 24 in ‘24” challenge and reveal the challenge for 2025. Plus we discuss some of the tools and strategies we’ll use to help ourselves stick to this excellent challenge.
Resources and links related to this episode:
"Habits for Happiness" course
#Write24in24
#Read25in25
One-Sentence Journal
bookshop.org
Happier™ app
2025 "War and Peace" Slow Read
Four Tendencies Quiz
Don't Break the Chain tracker
"What's Your Neglected Sense?"
Elizabeth is rereading: Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York Maitre D' by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina (Amazon, Bookshop)
Gretchen is reading: Was She Pretty? by Leanne Shapton (Amazon, Bookshop)
Get in touch: [email protected]
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.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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37:05
Little Happier: When Everything Changes, What Remains? The Mystery of Persistent Identity
From the Ship of Theseus to the Grand Shrine of Ise, from the Tin Woodman to our own constantly renewing bodies, humans have long wrestled with a profound question: When something is replaced piece by piece, is it still the same thing?
Get in touch: [email protected]
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.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gretchen Rubin is HAPPIER, and she wants you to be happier too. The #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before gets more personal than ever as she brings her practical, manageable advice about happiness and good habits to this lively, thought-provoking podcast. Gretchen’s cohost and guinea pig is her younger sister, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in Los Angeles, who (lovingly) refers to Gretchen as her happiness bully. Part of the Audacy Network.