The changing light of this time of year always makes me feel a bit melancholy…there’s something about the quality of the shadows. Do you have a favorite season? I can never decide which season is my favorite, but I do love experiencing seasons. I like to feel the passage of time.
Onward,
5 Things Making Me Happy
Big news! My longtime friend Lori Gottlieb (therapist and bestselling author) and I are co-hosting a new advice podcast, Since You Asked. Do you need some advice? Send it our way. We’ll be talking about everything from everyday dilemmas to big, complicated issues—and putting our own twist on the classic advice format. The first episode drops September 23.
I’m so happy: I just learned that The Rose Field, the third volume in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust trilogy, hits the shelves on October 23. I cannot wait. In preparation, I re-read La Belle Sauvage and am re-reading The Secret Commonwealth. I’ve read the three novels in the first trilogy, His Dark Materials, so many times that I don’t need to re-read them; I remember them perfectly.
I love the work of writer Lytton Strachey, whose name I’ve always pronounced as “stray-chee.” I listened to a podcast discussion in which they pronounced his name as “stray-key,” and I panicked that maybe I’d been mispronouncing this right my whole life. I looked it up—and phew, I had it right. Stray-chee. Now quiz me on philosopher George Berkeley.
I got a big kick out of reading about actor Daniel Radcliffe’s strategy to outwit the paparazzi constantly trying to take his photo.
Many people assume that dogs are colorblind; in fact, they see they see the world in shades of yellow, blue, and gray. So if you want to choose a toy or a bowl in the color that a dog finds most appealing — choose yellow. To learn more, and to see the difference between human and canine vision, read “What’s your dog’s favorite color? First you have to know which colors dogs actually can see.”
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This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin
PODCAST EPISODE: 54851
Question Assumptions, College Drop-Off Hacks & Rebelling Against an Unappreciative Family
INTERVIEW
Sean Malin
Sean Malin is a culture critic and columnist for Vulture who writes about film, comedy, and food. His new book, The Podcast Pantheon: 101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen, will be published on September 16. On September 18, he will host a book launch at P&T Knitwear in New York City—one of my very favorite indies—featuring a special panel discussion with podcasters Ira Glass, Dan Taberski, Negin Farsad, and Pam Grossman.
Q: Can you suggest something we might try to help ourselves to become happier, healthier, more productive, or more creative?
Trying new podcasts outside my normal weekly cycle! I spent the last three years listening to, watching, and talking about hundreds of podcasts while researching my book The Podcast Pantheon, and discovered that my tastes were far more expansive – and stranger – than I had any awareness of. It turns out that sticking to my regular shows was only contributing to the staleness of my daily routine and pushing me away from the pods I listened to. It took assigning myself the project of jumping into the sea of podcasts and genres that I might normally might have ignored (or even scorned) – like sports, meditation, or music – to reconnect with my love of listening.
Q: Do you have a Secret of Adulthood? A lesson you’ve learned from life the hard way; something you’d tell your younger self?
You’re never too old to have a dream come true. There is no such thing as “washed up,” “aged out,” or “over the hill.” With patience, fortitude, and self-belief (not hubris!), it becomes clear that there is no hill.
Q: What simple habit boosts your happiness or energy?
Taking my headphones off when I feel like letting the world back in. You can’t shut yourself out from the real world just to listen to Gretchen and Liz, or Marc Maron, or Conan, or anyone else all day. Reconnecting with the sounds of my loud neighbors or my refrigerator humming or the birds squabbling over my empty feeder out on the deck is essential personal time.
Q: Is there a particular motto that you’ve found very helpful?
I’m not a big believer in applying other people’s mottos to my own life, and have a very bad memory for specific quotes (a bad brain problem for an interviewer!) But I definitely have personal rules that have been huge guides for me, particularly as I’ve embarked on the busiest two years of my entire life. They are: 1) Every step of the way is exciting; 2) Time is a gift; and 3) Good shtick doesn’t have to mean hurting people.
Q: Has a book ever changed your life? If so, which one and why?
To avoid embarrassing Gretchen by mentioning how much her books have influenced me and drew me to the podcast in the first place, I’ll shout out and Pauline Kael’s I Lost at the Movies and A.O. Scott’s Better Living Through Criticism. Being assigned to write about Kael’s book in high school shocked my brain awake to the value of loving what one loves without guile or guilt, but Scott taught me how to harness that love into responsive, emotional art of my own. Cultural criticism is a wonderful art form, and these two critics are among its greatest advocates.
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