Update

I’ve launched my latest self-knowledge quiz — “The Five Senses: What Your Most Neglected Sense?” I worked will a brilliant team to design it. It’s been exciting to see people engage with it so enthusiastically.

My book Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World hits the shelves on April 18, 2023. Pre-order early and often!

Try This at Home

Indulge in a nostalgia smell.

We mention Homesick Candles.

I talk about how much I love my heated lotion dispenser!

I also mention CB I Hate Perfume.

Take the neglected-sense quiz here.

Happiness Hack

If you’re tempted to get a snack to give yourself a shot of energy or comfort, tap in into a different sense. I often use smell.

Listeners’ Answers

Listeners suggested many ideas for gentle, easy April Fool’s pranks to play on family members.

I know which one I’m going to use! The spider on the toilet paper.

Listener Question

A listener asks about how to handle the fact that when he visits his sister, he’s overwhelmed by the smell of air freshener in her house, but she insists that there’s no smell.

Demerits & Gold Stars

• Gretchen’s Demerit: I haven’t been making time to read, and I need to read.
• Elizabeth’s Gold Star: She gives a gold star to the people on her group text chains who can supply the answer to any question she asks. We also mention the Happier in Hollywood Facebook Group.

Resource

If you’re so inclined, join the Super-Fans list. I so appreciate the support and enthusiasm of the Super-Fans. From time to time, for the Super-Fans, I give early access or a first look at something new, ask for a favor, pose a question, or offer a discount.

What we’re reading

• Elizabeth: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (Amazon, Bookshop)
• Gretchen: Still Pictures by Janet Malcolm (Amazon, Bookshop)

423

Gretchen

Hello and welcome to Happier, a podcast where we talk about strategies and tips for how to build happier habits into our daily lives. This week, as part of our Five Senses countdown to the publication of my new book, Life in Five Senses, we’ll talk about why you might indulge in a nostalgia smell and we’ll share listeners ingenious ideas for fun, gentle April Fool’s Day pranks.

[Music]

Gretchen

I’m Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness, good habits, the five senses. I am here in my little office in New York City. And joining me today from Los Angeles is my sister, Elizabeth Craft. And Elizabeth, I wish we had a way to evoke the smell of our grandmother’s kitchens in North Platte, Nebraska.

Elizabeth

That’s me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A. and Gretch, I feel like I can smell it.

Gretchen

I know.

Elizabeth

Right now, even though I can’t, but I feel like I can.

Gretchen

I know it’s just enough to call it into your mind. Now, before we launch in, take the Five Senses quiz, I am so excited about this quiz. Kind of had a hiccup because so many people took the quiz the minute the word got out that the quiz got slowed down and had a hiccup. That’s all fixed now because people are spreading themselves out.

Gretchen

But it has been so fun to see how many people are taking the quiz and what their response is. It seems like most people’s response is this is really interesting. Now that I know this, it makes sense, but I didn’t quite realize it before, which I think is a great self-knowledge quiz where you feel like, Oh yeah, that rings true.

Gretchen

But I didn’t quite realize it before.

Elizabeth

Yes, the quiz is so much fun, Gretch. I was one of those people that tried to take it right away. But now it’s all working and it’s just. It’s just fun to examine yourself for a minute and see what you get.

Gretchen

Yeah. So you can find it at Gretchenrubin.com/quiz. But yeah, it was…it’s funny a lot of times some people ask about the quiz. Like I worked with this brilliant team to design the questions of the quiz, the how you would do the scoring of the quiz, and then how it looks just like the graphic design.

Gretchen

We want it to be so luscious. But it’s funny because people often assume that the background sorting of the answers is the hard part. I’m like, no, it’s the questions that are the hard part. Yeah, that’s the hardest part is like, What are you looking for? What are you trying to find out?

Elizabeth

And then how do you get an authentic answer.

Gretchen

Yes, without asking 100 questions and in a way that lots of people can identify with. It was like it took many, many, many, many. I have hundreds, not hundreds but dozens of questions that didn’t make the cut because for whatever reason, they didn’t work. So anyway, go to Gretchenrubin.com/quiz.

Gretchen

Take the quiz. Let us know what you find out. It’s so fun to do this is as part of the countdown to Life in Five Senses.

Elizabeth

Yes, Gretch, it’s less than a month away. We want to remind everyone, please pre-order the book. And you know, some people might think, well, I bought Gretchen’s other books. Why do I need this one? This one is very different. It’s. It’s new stuff.

Gretchen

Yeah, I think it’s it’s funny because I think people are like, well, I listen to the podcast. What more can there be? But I mean, Elizabeth, I remember you saying to me like, “Wow, I didn’t know you were thinking about all these things.” And I’m like, well, if anybody would know Elizabeth, it would be you. We spend so much time in each other’s heads and ears and eyes, but yeah, so even even for you, it was new stuff.

Gretchen

Yes. So Gretchenrubin.com pre-order early and often. I really do appreciate it. It is really the greatest way to support a book because pre-orders are just so important to a book success. So thank you and Gold Star to everyone who has already pre-ordered. Believe me I know because they they tell me. But this week the try this at home.

Gretchen

I love this one! Is to indulge in a nostalgia smell.

Elizabeth

Yeah. So, Gretchen, talk about one that you indulged in recently.

Gretchen

So we all know the power of the five senses to recall memories. All of the senses are very powerful. These are often called Proustian memories because of Marcel Proust writing about how eating a madeleine cookie brought back all these memories from the past for him. There does seem to be a special power for many people in the power of smell and I have to say that for me, one thing that I did just for a nostalgia smell and, Elizabeth, I’m sure you remember this period in my life when my signature perfume was Tea Rose.

Elizabeth

Oh, yes. I think that was high school and college.

Gretchen

It was high school. And then I got away from it and then my senior year it was like my signature perfume. So yes, it was senior year of high school. Senior year of college. Most…is most distinctive. The thing about Tea Rose is it is a beautiful smell, but it is…it is a strong smell. And I think these days perfume in general, a lot of people don’t wear.

Gretchen

I just really wear perfume at night when it’s just me and my family. So I wouldn’t wear Tea Rose out and about. But then I was like, but I love Tea Rose. I could wear it at night. I could just wear it when I’m around the house. And it brings back so many happy memories. So I was like, I’m going to splurge on a big bottle of Tea Rose and I love it.

Elizabeth

Well, my equivalent, Gretchen, of that, would be Anaïs Anaïs I think is how you say it. That was the perfume of my youth. I mean, everybody wore it.

Gretchen

That was Angel. Yeah, everybody wore it.

Elizabeth

Which now seems like a funny idea that everyone would wear the same perfume because part of the idea of perfume is you should kind of have your own signature scent. But everybody in my class wore it. And so if I smell that, it’s like, I am in ninth grade. Yes.

Gretchen

Even seeing the bottle, it had a very distinctive label with a sort of gauzy, very washed out pastel. Feminine.

Elizabeth

Feminine, yes.

Gretchen

Well, another one. And it doesn’t have to be a perfume and a nostalgia smell could be something else. Like for me, a smell that I absolutely love is Johnson’s baby lotion, which makes me think of my daughter’s childhood. But it’s also…so it’s a nostalgia smell, but it’s also just a smell that I love. And I like a thicker lotion because my skin is so dry but I recently bought a travel sized one just to smell it.

Gretchen

I don’t even use the lotion. Just smell it. But then I was thinking, hey, because it is a little more liquidy, maybe this would be really good for my hand lotion warmer.

Elizabeth

Oh, my gift to you!

Gretchen

Yes, it was. It’s like such a sensory indulgence. Boy, if you have never had a lotion warmer, it sounds so decadent and it is decadent. It’s such a treat. It totally has changed my shower experience because I love my my hand lotion warmer so much. But I was thinking Johnson’s would be perfect for that. How about anything else for you, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth

Well, Gretchen, there’s also there’s a company that makes what they call homesick candles. I gave you one. I think a Missouri one. So they have them for all the states, but then they also have things that are called like birthday party, and beach cottage, and lake living, and gone hiking, to evoke the sense, which I thought that is such a fun idea for a candle.

Elizabeth

There was one I was looking at that’s called Road Trip, and it says Cruise down the highway with open windows, inviting in hot air and cool breezes, leather seats and a car freshener in the rearview mirror. And then the sense in that they said, are top notes of lime, leather, and marine. Mid notes of fresh air and cedar wood, and then base notes of amber and jasmine.

Elizabeth

And I just thought that was so clever.

Gretchen

Yeah. Because sometimes we think of things as needing to be perfume-y, but sometimes it’s just a smell that you enjoy, like, I wish I could buy a bottle of my summer camp that would just evoke camp.

Elizabeth

And they do have, Gretchen, Girl Scout camp as well.

Gretchen

Ouh I should try it because maybe, maybe camp is basically camp. But this reminds me sort of a related thing. This is not so much nostalgia, but just this idea that things can just be an interesting or pleasurable smell without feeling like it’s an air freshener or it’s a fragrance that you’re using like as a perfume or something. CB I hate perfume, which is this very unconventional perfumer that I really, really, really love.

Gretchen

They make these smells and it’ll be things like Black March or Burning Leaves. And I remember I have all these little vials and somebody said to me, Well, what do you do with it? And I was like, I just put it on a shelf and every once in a while I smell it. I don’t do anything with it other than I just smell it.

Gretchen

And I think that’s enough. You can just smell it.

Elizabeth

I wish that company would do our library from growing up, Gretchen, we were talking about…talking about a nostalgia smell, the smell of the library, I would give anything to smell that again, because it doesn’t smell that way now. Because we’ve been back.

Gretchen

No, I write about that in Life in Five Senses because of that fountain that it had with like the garden around it. It had a very, very distinctive smell. And I smelled it in an office building that somehow had the same conditions. And it was like the greatest moment of my life. But just for people who are interested in kind of the research behind this is like things that invoke nostalgia, that bring us back to the past, that’s actually can be very good for our sense of well-being.

Gretchen

It can help us feel more connected to other people. It helps us recall a time and a place and the people who matter to us so we feel less lonely. Elizabeth. just reminiscing together that brings us closer. These are memories that you and I share. We share the memory of the Kansas City Public Library, what it was like when we were young.

Gretchen

And then it also gives us a sense of continuity because it’s like, I smell baby lotion now. And that reminds me of when my children were little. And then also when I was young myself, I mean, Johnson’s baby lotions. Yeah, that’s a through line. So even though nostalgia is kind of by definition, sort of bitter and sweet together, but it turns out that for most people, the positive does tend to over outweigh the negative.

Gretchen

And so tapping into the sense of smell is a way to tap into that. The beauty of nostalgia. Yeah.

Elizabeth

And actually unlock memories that you don’t know you have. I mean, you think you wouldn’t have any idea you remembered something until you had that smell, and then suddenly you’re back and you’re doing it and it comes full force back to the Proust of it all.

Gretchen

Well, and I think that’s why people seem to think that that smell has particular power. I think all five senses have that power. But I think it’s also because it comes on us unawares. All of a sudden, just something invisible just washes over you and all of a sudden you’re transported back to something that you didn’t remember, like the smell of the department store that we went to when we were young, or the smell of a particular lunch that they served in grade school cafeteria or whatever you’re not expecting it

Gretchen

and all of a sudden you zoom back to this memory that you forgot you had. It is…it’s remarkable. It’s wonderful. I’m so curious to know what people will choose as their nostalgia smells. I bet people have very, very funny things, just like we want to go back and smell a library. I mean, I wonder what people want to go back and smell.

Elizabeth

Well, I could buy, for instance, if I was indulging in a smell, I could buy a Pop-Tart because that’s very much a smell of my childhood. Then I would probably eat the Pop -Tart.

Gretchen

Okay. So I’ll tell you what I did. Okay. You, Kansas Citians out there. Topsy’s popcorn. So we got a tin of Topsy’s popcorn. And I thought, Oh, my goodness, the smell of this popcorn is so precious to me that in this box right behind me, I have little Ziploc bags of cinnamon corn, cheese popcorn, and the caramel corn.

Gretchen

And every once in a while I just smell it because nothing takes me back to, I mean, the smell of Topsy’s. It’s just so powerful.

Elizabeth

It’s fudge and popcorn. And something chemical.

Gretchen

Slushies and oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. So true. So again, we’re talking about smell. Maybe you haven’t thought about smell that much. Maybe when you took the quiz, the five senses quiz, your most neglected sense turned out to be the sense of smell. So this is a way maybe to lean into that because the idea of identifying your neglected sense is that it’s low hanging fruit for you to find new ways to find pleasure and memories and connection and fun and calm and focus and all these things through the five senses.

Gretchen

There’s probably a lot for you to do if it’s a scent that you tend not to pay much attention to. So this could be particularly interesting, perhaps for the people who, when they took the quiz, got smell. And again, that’s if you go to Gretchenrubin.com/quiz, you can find out what you’re neglected sense is. So let us know if you do try this and how indulging in a nostalgia smell works for you.

Gretchen

Let us know on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, drop us an email at podcast@gretchenrubin.com or as always, you can go to the show notes. This is happiercast.com/423 for everything related to this episode.

Elizabeth

Coming up, we’ve got a smell happiness hack. But first this break. Okay, Gretchen, it’s time for our happiness hack. And this has to do with smell. We’re talking about smell today.

[Music}

Gretchen

Well, it’s smell. Or it can be a lot of other senses, too, but I use smell. So this is a hack for if you are facing the temptation of getting an unhealthy snack when you’re tired in mid-afternoon or you’re a little bored. Or you’re restless, or you just go out in the kitchen and you’re sort of opening the fridge, rummaging through the cabinets, wanting to give yourself a little snack.

Gretchen

And this is a way that a lot of people give themselves sort of energy or comfort or just from boredom. And we often, when we’re in that state, turn to the sense of taste, which can be fine. But for some people that treat is an unhealthy treat and they want to change that behavior. And one way, a very fun way to change that behavior is if you’re feeling that need to give yourself a sensory kick, pick in different sense because you’re turning to the sense of taste, but you’ve got other senses.

Gretchen

So I tap into the sense of smell. So I will like go smell almond extract, or we have like a little jar of saffron, or fresh grapefruit. And it doesn’t have to be something in the kitchen, I could smell fresh towels, I could smell sharpies. It’s just this idea of feeding your senses, kind of giving yourself like a moment of being overwhelmed by a sense.

Gretchen

And I don’t know if this is because it distracts me or if it’s somehow that it’s just it’s a different solution to the problem of wanting to give yourself a little sensory jolt.

Elizabeth

Yeah. Burst.

Gretchen

Yeah. I don’t actually know.

Elizabeth

I’m going to try this. I’ve never done this, Gretch. I’m going to try doing this because I am the Boredom Snacker or the Restless Snacker or the procrastination snacker. I am all of it. So definitely, I’m going to try it.

Gretchen

I think part of it is the sensory thing and then part of it is just the habit. And so sometimes it’s easier to like replace one activity with something analogous than to just try to stop. And so I think if you’re like, Oh, I’m rummaging around for something to eat, it can be like, Oh, I’ll go into my bathroom and smell my Johnson’s baby lotion.

Gretchen

It substitutes in. So, I find that that really works. So I’m curious to hear other people’s response to that because for me, it’s been very, very effective.

Elizabeth

Maybe light a scented candle. That’d be another thing. We’ve been talking a lot about. scented candles.

Gretchen

Yes, exactly. And now we have answers from listeners. We’ve asked people for good ideas for April Fools pranks. Easy, gentle, fun pranks, not mean pranks. And easy pranks, not complicated pranks. And ones that tapped into the five senses. But here’s the thing. You know what I realize, Elizabeth? All pranks are tapping into the five senses because what they do is they….

Gretchen

they confound your senses usually. And so practically all pranks are somehow related to the five senses, which sort of a fun thing to realize. I loved the creativity and whimsy that people showed. I have several ideas. I don’t know what I’m going to unleash on my family, but it was so fun to read these suggestions from listeners.

Elizabeth

Yes, Claire said “A few years ago, as an April Fools for my husband, I turned every piece of clothing he owned inside out in his drawers, closet, everything. I had some time that day, apparently. I thought it was hilarious. Him not so much. This April Fool’s joke also doubled as a hack because there were still items of clothing turned inside out when we moved a year later, so he knew he hadn’t worn them and donated a bunch of them.”

Gretchen

Well, we asked for easy pranks. This sounds like pretty labor intensive, but she said it had like this follow on benefit. I love that. This is a sweet one. I bet this would be very popular. Rosie writes, “We do dessert before dinner. Always pizza and brownies. And my two kids make the brownies now without my help. So they just they reverse dessert and dinner.”

Elizabeth

That’s fun. That’s fun. Roxbury19, said “April Fool’s joke. Cut out the letter E from Brown paper a bunch. Put them in your famous brownie pan, cover with foil, and offer treats. Warning It does get mixed reviews. Kids have been known to cry.”

Gretchen

Oh because it Brown-iEs. Here’s a pound of brown Es.

Elizabeth

Funny! That is so funny.

Gretchen

Adreana who’s from Kansas City. Love Kansas City Pranks. She said “I pulled the most epic April Fools joke on my husband during the pandemic. He had been complaining about my Amazon purchases. I saved every Amazon package for months and placed a huge stack of packages outside the front door for him to find. When he found the packages, he was so confounded.

Gretchen

Then he picked up a package and it was empty, leaving him to fear that the package contents had been stolen from our porch. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t explain that it was an April Fool’s. I don’t think I’ll ever top this one.” That’s very funny, because it’s also…I bet he was like, hopping mad. Like, What are you doing?

Gretchen

Like, the whole thing is very, very funny.

Elizabeth

And I loved the planning that took.

Gretchen

That’s the long game. Yeah. I’m thinking of mine like, the night before, but that’s like. That’s planning ahead. Yeah.

Elizabeth

Crystal said “My mother loved an April Fool’s prank. My bed was regularly short sheeted, and one year she cut out cardstock the size of the frosting in my Oreo, opened the cookie as you do, and then lined the cardstock up with the frosting as I attempted to eat it at the lunch table at school there was no biting through that cookie.

Elizabeth

Her traditional prank is carefully opening my father’s Splenda packets that sit on the kitchen table and replacing the Splenda with salt. She does it every year. He never learns and has salted coffee every April 1st.”

Gretchen

I like the idea of a traditional prank. Works every time.

Elizabeth

Yes. And then she says, “My go to has become the spider on the toilet paper. You either draw a spider with a sharpie or glue a plastic spider on the toilet paper rolls so that it faces the wall or the floor. It cannot be seen until your prey goes to pull the paper. I mean, I’m laughing. As they do

Elizabeth

It appears that the spider is running at them. An unexpected and alarming joke that always gets me a good yelp from the loo. Maybe not for those who have a true fear.” Oh, my god, that’s hilarious.

Gretchen

I’m doing that to Eleanor for sure. I do a lot of toilet related pranks to Eleanor, I realize. Bridget says “A fun April Fools joke that I did as a kid was to switch the bag of cereal into different boxes so that when a family member would pull out one box of cereal, they would find a completely different type landing in their bowl.”

Gretchen

That is very funny. Any kind of switcheroo like that is very funny.

Elizabeth

Lindsay said “This is sight in a different way. It is still one of my favorites. We put googly eyes on things all around the house and then pretended that we had no idea. It was very whimsical.” And she sent us a photo of all these googly eyed toilet, googly eyed sink. googly eyed remote control. Okay.

Gretchen

I have to say, I think the googly eyes thing is very underused. I feel like 2023 is going to be my year of embracing the possibilities of the googly eyes.

Elizabeth

So funny! And she had some other ideas, she says, “Putting a drop of food coloring in the bottom of a glass so that when you get your kid a glass of water, it magically is another color.” She says, “For smell and taste, toothpaste looks an awful lot like vanilla frosting. We still laugh about this one in our house.”

Gretchen

Well, I do…speaking of like, using something to it’s.. to it’s possibilities. Food dye. There are so many fun things you can do with food dye. I’ve literally never done this one, which is so obvious but is a great idea. But I will often I will often do things with food dye.

Elizabeth

You do green milk.

Gretchen

I do. And it’s very it’s very surprising. And it’s so easy if you’re looking for things that are that are very easy. There’s a lot of lunch bag one. So if you’re if you if your kid takes lunch to school, there’s a lot of possibilities. Stephanie said, “I made my daughter lunch that was starbursts shaped into baby carrots and other swapped out items.

Gretchen

It’s been too many years ago now to remember what everything was. It was pretty funny because it all looked so authentic.” So that’s cute. Yeah. If you’re a little artistic.

Elizabeth

Yeah. And then another Stephanie says, “My dad’s visual senses were fooled when his birthday celebration landed on April Fool’s Day. We filled a cardboard box with dirt and decorated it just like a cake.”

Gretchen

And then, similarly, like swapping out the food, Jennifer said “Meatloaf mashed potato cupcakes, cake baked in ice cream cones with icing that looks like a regular ice cream cone. So this is like trompe-l’œil with food. Always so fun. Yeah. And then Susan said, ”Substituting sugar for salt and vice versa, swapping mayo for pudding.” Ooh, I’ve never heard of that one.

Gretchen

I bet that would work. “Shaving cream for whipped cream.” Oh, okay. Yeah.

Elizabeth

Oh. Oh, my gosh, Gretch, these are so funny. I…this just makes my day. But I definitely have to do the spider because Adam is afraid of spiders. I’ve got to. I’ve got to do the spider one.

Gretchen

It’s going to be really, really fun. Okay, well, we’ll compare notes before and after. And now we have a listener question that is smell related in keeping with our theme. And this comes from Blake.

Elizabeth

He says, “I keep having a big fight with my sister and her boyfriend. They live in a small apartment and it absolutely reeks with the smell of a scented air freshener they use. It’s a horrible smell and it also gives me a headache every time I walk in. So I never want to visit. But they say that there’s no smell.

Elizabeth

They act like I’m being very rude and making lame excuses for not wanting to come to their place. I thought that maybe they lost their senses of smell from Covid so I’ve found ways to test whether they can smell other things. And they both can. So what do I say?”

Gretchen

This is a very common situation. It’s because our nose and our senses really are difference detectors. They aren’t meant to give us a constant report on what’s happening. They’re telling us when something changes because that’s when there’s opportunity or danger. And so there’s something called odor fatigue and you have sensory adaptation. And so you get used to something.

Gretchen

And so the people who live in a home cannot smell it the way a guest smells it. So they do not smell it. They probably think that air freshener isn’t really working, and that’s why it smells so strong. But because you are only an occasional visitor, your nose is telling you, Hey, there’s a smell here. So they don’t smell it and you do smell it.

Elizabeth

So maybe the answer is just explaining the science to them and then they’ll get it. Gretch, you and I were having this conversation, and then I was having a few people over, and then I got so worried that my house smelled like dogs and that I didn’t smell it, that I was lighting candles. I was like, oh, opening doors like, oh my gosh, what if this smells and I’m not smelling it?

Gretchen

I worry about that, about dog food. I’m like this my apartment smell like dog food and I just don’t know. Now, one of the things is if you go away for a while, when you come back, you will smell it because you’re not accustomed to it. And, you know, I think this was to explain cigarettes because now the smell of cigarettes, I feel like the faintest whiff of it.

Gretchen

I smell it and I don’t like the smell at all. But I was like asking, Mom, didn’t people object to this? Didn’t all their clothes like ye olden days, like, did they all smell like cigarettes And she said, nobody ever really talked about it. It wasn’t that noticeable. And I think they were all just so accustomed to it.

Gretchen

It didn’t register.

Elizabeth

Yes. They didn’t smell it. Oh, interesting.

Gretchen

So I think with this, the only thing to do is just to sort of explain to them, trying to be as diplomatic as you can be, and just say, this is what’s going on. Because if you don’t know about this, it’s surprising, I think, how strong this effect is.

Elizabeth

So good luck with this Blake. Coming up, Gretchen gives herself a demerit, which is somewhat surprising considering how she usually spends all of her time. But first, this break. Okay, Gretch, we’re back with demerits and gold stars. You have a demerit this week.

[Music]

Gretchen

My demerit is that I think it’s because I’ve had so much going on leading up to my book is that I haven’t been making time to read. And that is just a big mistake for me, because it really just starves my soul and I just don’t feel like myself if I’m not making time to read. And, you know, the thing is, I never know when I am reading.

Gretchen

Like I always feel like I don’t have time to read, and yet I do read. But now I feel like I don’t have any time to read and I’m not reading. And so I’m trying to figure that out. I need to make that time to read.

Elizabeth

You do. I mean, I don’t know if people understand how much you read and love to read, but my one of my main memories of you is growing up you’re always sitting cross-legged on the floor reading a book while you dried your hair.

Gretchen

I still do that.

Elizabeth

That is.

Gretchen

Yeah, that is so funny. Is that really a memory you have?

Elizabeth

Oh, yeah. That is how I think of you drying your hair and reading. Said this girl really likes to read. But yes, you do need to read. Absolutely.

Gretchen

On the theory that sometimes giving giving yourself an official demerit helps you recognize and pivot. I’m giving myself that demerit. Elizabeth, what is your gold star?

Elizabeth

Well, I am giving a gold star to all the mom text chains in my life where I can get information that I desperately need about anything. So I have various mom text chains. And it’s amazing to me, like, I can ask anything from are they supposed to wear something special to school today for this holiday? To where can I get a great quiche?

Elizabeth

To does anyone know of an electrician who works on Sundays? I mean anything. And within about 15 seconds I get the answer back. It is. It’s the most amazing thing. It like has changed my life. And I am grateful to all of these moms who are just constantly providing useful information and hopefully I also provide to them useful information.

Gretchen

Well, I think, kind of a drive by hack from this is that well, this is great that you have this text chain, but I think in life there are often people who are just know everything about something. Like I have a friend who knows everything about New York City, where to do this, where to do that. And I know somebody else who’s got a person.

Gretchen

You’re like, I need to make my mother’s engagement ring into a locket. It she’ll be like, Oh, I got a guy for that. You know what I mean? And so it’s just good to know who these people are. So you have a source. But here’s my question, Elizabeth. With the people on this text chain who are answering or of my people who are like the know it alls in a good way, do you think that they get annoyed by the fact that people are constantly lobbing questions at them, or do you think that they get energized and delighted by their own ability to answer every question?

Elizabeth

I think people love having an answer. Yeah, I think those people love it. Now, I also say on this text chain, it’s large, so it’s not always the same person.

Gretchen

So it’s kind of crowdsourcing more than there’s one person.

Elizabeth

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Yes.

Gretchen

That’s good. Yeah, that’s good. I feel like the Happier in Hollywood facebook page acts that way for a lot of people.

Elizabeth

Absolutely! And it’s so interesting!

Gretchen

And it’s nothing to do with anything. But if anybody.

Elizabeth

No, they’re like, I can only take a carry on suitcase to Greece for four days. What should I pack? I love it.

Gretchen

It’s very, very funny. Yeah. So the resource for this week, the Super-Fans list. If you are a Super-Fan, I so appreciate the enthusiasm and support of the Super-Fans. You can go to a happiercast.com/superfan and I’m going to do an exclusive sale just for my super fans later this week because I do so appreciate the Super-Fans.

Gretchen

So if you’re thinking about joining, this is a good time if you want to get a bargain. But just in general, I often will ask the super fans. I’ll give them like like an early look at something like the quiz or my cover, the jacket of my book, or I’ll ask for advice or I’ll ask for a little bit of help.

Gretchen

So I really do so appreciate the Super-Fans. And Elizabeth, what are we reading? What are you reading?

Elizabeth

I’m reading The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley.

Gretchen

And I am reading Still Pictures by Janet Malcolm. And that’s it for this episode of Happier. Remember to try this at home, indulge in a nostalgia smell. Let us know if you tried it and what smell worked for you.

[Music]

Elizabeth

Thank you to our executive producer, Chuck Reed, and everyone at Cadance 13. Get in touch. Gretchen’s on Instagram and TikTok @GretchenRubin and I’m on Instagram @LizCraft. Our email address is podcast@gretchenrubin.com.

Gretchen

And if you like the show, please be sure to tell a friend that is how most people discover our show. Forward the link. You can just do it right from your podcast app, just hit share episode. That is how most people discover our show. We really appreciate it.

Elizabeth

Until next week, I’m Elizabeth Craft.

Gretchen

And I’m Gretchen Rubin. Thanks for joining us. Onward and upward! Elizabeth, the next time we’re together, we should buy a box of strawberry Pop-Tarts just for the…just to see them, hold them, smell them, because that was always like the highlight of a trip to the grocery store with grandparents. We never got to eat these at home.

[Music]

Elizabeth

And I remember they smelled differently when they’re just out of the box. Or if you toast them. It’s like two totally different smells.

Gretchen

Totally. Oh my gosh, we don’t even need to buy them. Just talking about them. I absolutely.

Elizabeth

I know. My mouth is watering.

Gretchen

Or the cinnamon ones. Oh, what a smell.

Elizabeth

Yes. You like the cinnamon ones.

[Music]

Gretchen

From the Onward Project.