Big news in the world of my particular quirks and passions: the brilliant Greg Daniels, executive producer of my favorite TV show, the American version of The Office, is coming out with The Paper, described as “a new documentary from the same crew” from The Office. It premieres on Peacock on September 4. (Interesting cultural side note: When I went to look for a trailer on YouTube, I accidentally watched a few clever fake trailers that were grabbing eyeballs by pretending to be The Paper trailers.) Now I’m reminded that I want to watch A Man on the Inside, created by Mike Schur, another brilliant person who worked on The Office.
Onward,
5 Things Making Me Happy
Do you enjoy watching someone exercise command of their gifts? I loved watching musician Jack White (best known as the guitarist and lead singer of the White Stripes) name a series of Beatles songs within one second. Remarkable. I was amazed at his skill—and I was also amazed at how distinctive the Beatles managed to make their sound, in just a single second.
After conducting a meta-analysis, researchers found that touch significantly improves mental and physical well-being, in both children and adults. My daughter Eliza was born prematurely, and to help her thrive, we practiced “kangaroo care,” where my husband Jamie or I would hold her against our bodies with skin-to-skin contact. For adults, hugs and massages help reduce feelings of depression, anxiety, and even physical pain. I certainly love getting a hug or getting a massage…it makes sense that they make me feel so good.
One item on my “25 for ’25 List” is to watercolor every day. Spoiler alert: I won’t have a perfect record. But while I may not be watercoloring every day, I am watercoloring most days, and I was pleased to learn that July is World Watercolor Month. These days, it seems as though every activity has its special date.
Last summer, my sister Elizabeth and I went on a hiking trip in England, and now I take a personal interest in all matters related to Hadrian’s Wall. I was fascinated by the article, “Giant shoes found near Hadrian’s Wall spark mystery around the soldiers of ancient Rome.” Along with work boots and baby shoes, archeologists discovered a stash of shoes equivalent to U.S. men’s size 13.5+ at the first-century Roman Magna Fort. Why the Roman military would have wanted extra-tall troops at this site is a mystery.
Because I love the TV show The Office (see above), I love the podcast Office Ladies with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey (actors who played Pam and Angela). In recent episode 253.3, they talked about a study that astonished me: Apparently people suffering from small kidney stones can boost their chances of passing them by sitting in the back of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Roller Coaster at Disney World. (With permission from the park, researchers rode the roller coaster with 3D printed model kidneys, complete with urine and kidney stones, to perform the tests.) Imagine getting that prescription from your doctor.
Hacking Your Summer Grocery Shopping
Summer is busy in the best way—more sun, more travel, more last-minute plans. Thrive Market keeps you stocked with high-quality groceries, minus the stress. Fewer errands, better ingredients, and a little more peace of mind.
This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin
PODCAST EPISODE: 543
Make a Decision and Make It Work, a Text-Scheduling Hack & Following Up on Mean “Jokes”
INTERVIEW
Bradley Tusk
Bradley Tusk is a political strategist and founder of the Mobile Voting Project. In his new TED Talk, he makes the case for allowing Americans to vote on their phones, showing how it could increase voter turnout and reduce political extremism.
Q: Can you suggest something we might try to help ourselves to become happier, healthier, more productive, or more creative?
To me, there are three levels of this: (1) All of the good habits that help regulate your mind, body, and spirit like exercise, meditation, and prayer; (2) Really focusing on relationships to make sure you’re in touch with the people you care about – I even keep a list of the 50 people in my life most meaningful to me and review it once a week to see who I haven’t talked to lately; and (3) Ensuring that some of the ways you spend your time are doing things that provide you with fulfillment and meaning, whether it’s volunteering or teaching or writing or, in my case, trying to change laws on issues I care about (like Mobile Voting).
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?
Don’t worry about most things. Turns out the vast majority of stuff that might seem important doesn’t actually matter. The only goal is to be happy and the best way to be happy is to be able to feel good about yourself on a sustained basis. And that means doing things you are proud of and can live with and the rest doesn’t tend to matter.
Q: What simple habit boosts your happiness or energy?
Positive interactions, especially with strangers that are just quick, friendly and make you feel good. For example, I was taking turns on a machine at the gym with someone. I took my headphones out and asked him a question about his added technique. We had a quick but nice discussion. It made the gym experience better.
Q: Is there a particular motto that you’ve found very helpful?
“Why not?” It’s just two words but I’ve asked that question my whole career and often realized that I could succeed at projects and campaigns and ideas that maybe didn’t fit with conventional wisdom but that didn’t mean you still couldn’t make it happen. That’s what we’re trying to do right now with Mobile Voting. Making voting a lot easier (on your phone) means more people participate. The more people participate, the less the extremes control turnout and outcomes. That moves politicians back to the middle again where they can work together and get things done. Everyone has said that mobile voting is too hard to pull off. We’re challenging that assumption. In general, if you want to live an unconventional life, you have to be willing to regularly challenge conventional wisdom.
Q: Has a book ever changed your life? If so, which one and why?
The most recent book to really impact me was Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman. It talked about people who don’t see any way to live other than trying to have a really big impact on the world. That’s the only approach to life that has ever made sense to me, so knowing it’s how at least a group of people see things was kind of reassuring.
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