Fifth-anniversary episode!

We’ve hit two milestones—five years and 100 million downloads. It’s hard to believe!

On Friday, February 28, we’ll include our first episode as a bonus in our feed, along with some of our reflections.

Origin story: We’d been thinking about something along these lines for a long time. We mention the Buzzfeed piece, “10 Life-Changing Things to Try in June.” Here’s Elizabeth, the night before we met Oprah.  

Our favorite Try This at Home ideas:

• Follow the one-minute rule (episode 1)
• Observe the family “update” (episode 2)
• Schedule a “Power Hour” (episode 6)
• Choose your one-word theme for the year (episode 26)
• Identify your signature anything — color, scent, personal symbol. In episode 127 of Happier in Hollywood, Elizabeth also talks about having a signature designer.
• Go to the doctor (episode 207)
• Celebrate minor holidays (episode 88)
• Write your list for 18 for 2018, 19 for 2019, 20 for 2020
• Consider starting a side hustle (episode 116)

Highlights

One of my favorite moments was when Elizabeth talked about the electric Ped Egg that she bought for her mother-in-law in episode 85, as part of the question, “Have you ever been upset by a well-intentioned gift?” Rarely have I laughed so hard.

A great moment happened during our live show in Seattle, in episode 87, when a listener’s manifesto included the idea, “Don’t treat a gift like a burden.”

I was very struck by an idea discussed in episode 82. A listener had written in to say that she was really struggling with unhappiness stemming from the fact that she’d lost her engagement ring. Another listener responded that in Japan, there’s a belief that possessions can sacrifice themselves for us—a way to re-frame the loss of the ring.

We loved our “Unplugged Episode,” episode 150! People are always interested in our sisterly relationship, and that was just us talking on the phone. 

After all these years, one of my very favorite episodes remains episode 10, when we cleaned Elizabeth’s closet, and also episode 160, when we cleaned her home office. I’ve loved Outer Order, Inner Calm for a long time!

Elizabeth especially loved getting the chance to talk to Dani Shapiro, whose book Inheritance was our first choice for the Happier Podcast Book Club—and who was Elizabeth’s very first writing teacher.

Mundane but interesting: people loved the discussion about the best sunscreen! Our listeners weighed in: Peter Thomas Roth’s Instant Mineral was the winner.

Milestones

• Elizabeth started another podcast, Happier in Hollywood with her writing partner Sarah Fain
• We did our first live show!
• We went on a big tour doing live shows—so fun!
• We made merchandise! Buy your mug, your t-shirt, and your tote bag!
• We did a Happier Podcast Meet-up.
• We started the Happier Podcast Book Club.
• We created the collections of reading for weddings and also for funerals and memorial services.
• We made a Happier 911 list on Spotify. So much great, happy music!
• We’ve added the “Happiness Hack” segment.
• We’ve added a “button”—a last little “P.S.” that plays after the credits.
• And now we’ve hit this latest milestone: five years. (The wood anniversary, by the way.)

As we think about our 5^th anniversary, it’s staggering to think about the number of “likes,” “you knows,” “ums” and “ahs” have been cut out. Yikes.

Haiku:

We so enjoyed the Try-This-at-Home to “Write a haiku” from episode 117.

In honor of our fifth anniversary, we each wrote a new haiku to each other:

Gretchen:

My sister the sage

You make everything more fun

Onward and upward!

Elizabeth:

Gold star sister Gretch Gentle bully, easy laugh— Five years happier

Awww! If you like this kind of look-back, best-of format, you can listen to our yearly round-ups: episode 54, episode 106, episode 157, and episode 209.

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