Milestone!

We hit our 500th original weekly episode—with no breaks!

From the beginning, we’ve kept working on the “Podcast Manifesto” that outlines the podcast that we aspire to create.

In this special episode, we discuss the manifesto and reflect on how we’ve worked to put our aims into action.

For instance, we mention:

• our voice-memo episode from our hiking trip in England
• our “Clear the Decks” episode
• our unplugged episode
• our merch!
• my “Five Things” newsletter

In an upcoming episode, for our next Happier Podcast Book Club episode, we’ll talk to author Elizabeth Strout about her bestselling new novel, Tell Me Everything. Send us your questions and comments.

Demerits & Gold Stars

Gold stars to all our wonderful listeners! In honor of this milestone, we’d so appreciate it if you’d tell five friends about the Happier podcast.

Resources

I have so many terrific new products ready for pre-order:

• The I Want You to Know Journal to help you put your feelings into words and create a meaningful keepsake for loved ones
• The Happiness Hacks Card Deck offers quick, energizing tasks to boost your mood at work or home—gamify tasks!
• The Moment of Happiness Calendar features daily quotations to inspire and entertain, with space for your own notes
• The Design Your Year Guide helps you shape each season with reflections and creative exercises for a happier, more productive year

They’ll ship in late October, perfect for holiday gifts. Explore and pre-order these new items at happiercast.com/new.

*This episode is unedited*

[500] 

[music] 

Gretchen

Hello and welcome to.

Elizabeth

Happier, a.

Gretchen

Podcast where we talk.

Elizabeth

About how to be happier.

Gretchen

This week is an extraordinarily special episode. It is our 500th episode. We will reflect on the past 500 episodes by talking about our podcast manifesto. What’s on that manifesto and how we thought about it as we’ve done the show.

Gretchen

I’m Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness, good habits, human nature, five senses, secrets of adulthood, the open door. I’m here in my little home office in New York City, and joining me today from Los Angeles for the 500th time is my sister, Elizabeth Craft.

Elizabeth

That’s me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A.. And Gretchen, happy 500. I cannot believe it. Okay.

Gretchen

Happy 500. Yes. Congratulations, Chuck.

Elizabeth

Yes, Chuck. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you. You too.

Gretchen

Yeah, yeah, it’s a big day. Well, speaking of big days before we launch into everything related to the 500th, we want to remind everybody. September 23rd is the 100 day milestone. As of September 23rd, we will all have 100 days to the end of the year. So if you have things on your 24 for 24 list, if there’s something that you really want to get done in 2024, you got 100 days.

Gretchen

That’s enough time to make some serious progress. Yes, but it’s also kind of a good reminder that time is passing.

Elizabeth

Yeah.

Gretchen

And speaking of time passing, Elizabeth, I think every year we say it’s hard to believe. We never would have thought we would get here. But this time, this is a major milestone.

Elizabeth

Yes, Gretchen. Not only is today our 500th episode, we are coming up on our 10th anniversary of doing the podcast in February.

Gretchen

Yeah, this is a big milestone time for us. And, Elizabeth, I think that we just have to brag on ourselves because we’ve done 500 original episodes without skipping a week. We don’t have seasons. We don’t take vacations from the first time we started. We’ve gone every week with an entirely new weekly episode. Yes, I’m very proud of that.

Elizabeth

Yes. And that was a decision we made from the get go that we wanted to have a new episode every week and just make it work, and we have stuck to that. And of course, now that we’ve done that for 500 episodes, yes, we have to keep going. Yeah. Now we would break our streak.

Gretchen

Yes. And it’s just part of our lives. We don’t question it in a way that makes it easier. It’s just like, okay, how are we going to do it? It’s just part of what we do. And Elizabeth, I think one of the things that we started doing from the beginning that was interesting is working on this podcast manifesto, and it’s kind of an interesting framework to use to reflect back on the previous 500 episodes, because when we started, we didn’t know what we were doing.

Gretchen

So we talked to a bunch of really smart people, really creative people, and we started this podcast manifesto as what we aspired to. It’s not like, okay, this is what we do. It’s like, this is what we think about as we go forward, as we make decisions. And it’s really has shaped the way we think and how we approach each week.

Elizabeth

Absolutely.

Gretchen

And Elizabeth, you know, often when we get questions or we do an ask us anything, listeners will ask us, how do you get your ideas? How do you decide what you’re going to talk about, what you’re not going to talk about? They seem to be very curious about our process and our views as we’re shaping the podcast episodes.

Gretchen

And we’ve done a lot of thinking about what we think listeners would most enjoy and most gain from. And that really does pervade all of our thinking. And so we did this manifesto.

Elizabeth

Yes. And we’re going to pull back the curtain, Gretch, and reveal our inner workings here. Yeah. We’re machinery.

Gretchen

Yeah. It’s behind the scenes.

Elizabeth

Yeah. And, Gretchen, we both love manifest. Yes we do. I remember what we had done. Marriage manifestos. Yeah. I think you’ve done manifestos for.

Gretchen

Most of my book.

Elizabeth

Projects. Yes. We love a manifesto. Sarah and I have done manifestos.

Gretchen

Yes. It’s just a really helpful way to very briefly summarize your values, your beliefs, your expectations in a creative way. And because it’s summed up in concise, it’s easier to remember. So, Elizabeth, you and I will often like, say to each other some line from the manifesto and then it’s like, okay, you don’t need to say anymore. Like, I remember that.

Elizabeth

Whole.

Gretchen

Chapter of discussion that we had. Yes. So let’s launch into the podcast manifesto. So the first several really have to go through our thoughts about what is this? What are we doing? Because when we were starting out we’re like, okay, what are we going to do? All we knew was that we were going to do it together. That was the one thing that we were going to do.

Gretchen

Yes. One of the first things on our podcast manifesto was let’s be clear about what we’re doing. And to me, that means two things. One is what was our source like? What was our original, original inspiration? And one of the main things that inspired us was car talk, because I always thought, I love the brothers. I love just being part of their conversation.

Gretchen

I’m not interested in cars. I know nothing about cars. I don’t care at all what they’re saying, but I just wanted to listen in because I just thought it was so fun. Yes, but it was about something. It wasn’t just two brothers kicking back and talking about what was on their mind. They were focused. They were delivering information.

Gretchen

And even though I didn’t care about that information, I nevertheless found it very satisfying that they were really specific. And really, there was a lot of value in the information. And I think that has really informed how we approach it.

Elizabeth

Yes. And I also like that we decided to be clear about what we’re doing every day. Yes. The start of the show. Yeah. So we say at the start of the show today, we’re talking about this, that and the other thing. Yes. And that keeps us focused and moving forward through the material and clear about what we want to talk about.

Gretchen

Well, and one of the reasons that we have very distinct segments and segments that repeat, like know yourself better or have been a stumbling block or fun with the five senses or now empty nest, open door, is that I think it helps readers stay oriented. They know where they are. They know that a hack means you’re pretty much at the beginning, and they know if it’s demerits and gold stars.

Gretchen

And I like that. I like the architecture of knowing where I am when I listen. And I know when I listen to other podcasts, I really enjoy when I know, like with backlist. And so it’s always like, what are you reading? And I’m like, okay, now we’re in the introduction. I’m oriented in their podcast and I like that.

Elizabeth

And then another thing we wanted to do, and this is what you really do in all of your work. So it makes sense that this was the goal of the podcast, was to take the pursuit of happiness from the abstract to the concrete, right?

Gretchen

Because we always strive to like, have very specific things like what can you do tomorrow? Because I feel like sometimes that it’s very easy to get drawn into abstractions and generalities and I’m very interested in specifics and how those specifics might be different from one person to another. So it’s not like there’s one right answer. But let’s try to be concrete.

Gretchen

We will often say to ourselves, what’s an example of this in our own life? How do we see this happening? It’s not just an interesting idea. It’s like, what does this mean on the ground? Yes. Well, the next one is something that I repeat to myself all the time. I’m very sensitive to criticism. Yes. And I can have this urge to, like, be acceptable to everyone, which you cannot be.

Gretchen

That is an impossible task, and it’s very frustrating. Or we would just become so plain that there would be no personality to it. There’d be no atmosphere to it. And so in the way this appears on the manifesto is a strong voice repels as well as attracts. And so it’s like, you know what? It’s not for everyone, right?

Gretchen

Like Nebraska. Yes. Honestly, it’s not for everyone.

Elizabeth

Yes. Let’s remind everyone that’s their state motto. We’re not just saying that we happen to love Nebraska.

Gretchen

We love Nebraska. But yes, I did a little happier about it because when our parents, who are from Nebraska, told me this, I thought that they were pulling my leg. But honestly, for a while, their state tour slogan was honestly, it’s not for everyone. And that’s true with every podcast. Some people like it, some people don’t. And so if somebody like their voices bug me or whatever, it’s like, that’s okay, because a strong voice repels as well as a track, because that’s just part of having a voice, is that not everyone is going to be interested.

Gretchen

So that’s just something to keep in mind when people don’t like it.

Elizabeth

Number four is one of my favorites, which is Beware of Banter because I personally do not like banter. I don’t like banter.

Gretchen

But listen. They explain what we mean by banter because some people might say, But Gretchen and Elizabeth, you just banter the whole time, right? What do we mean by banter? We have a very clear sense of what is and what is not.

Elizabeth

Banter, right? To us, banter is just going back and forth with no point to the discussion. Yes, it’s just riffing. Yes to riffs. And some people love yes that some people, that’s all they want to hear is banter. And in life they love bantering. I am just not a person who enjoys banter. I just like a conversation to go somewhere.

Elizabeth

That’s just my taste. That’s your taste? Yes. And so because we know we don’t enjoy listening to banter, we don’t want to present a lot of banter to people to listen to.

Gretchen

And the fact is, sometimes we can kind of strand a banter because since we’re sisters and since we talk all the time, yeah, sometimes we’ll sort of go off on a tangent and then we’re just like, wait, that’s just banter. Meaning that’s just us. Like going back and forth. We’re not staying on topic, we’re not delivering. Which leads to another podcast manifesto entry, which is it’s not just opinion.

Gretchen

We’re information based entertainment. We want to be entertaining, but we also want to be delivering information. Maybe that’s scientific research. That’s interesting. Maybe that’s a vocabulary term, that’s clarifying. Maybe that’s a product that has been super useful for people or like a hack, or a resource that will help people become happier, healthier, more productive, or more creative. But we’re not venting, and we’re not just talking about our opinion.

Gretchen

We’re trying to really give information, which is maybe the opposite of banter. Possibly.

Elizabeth

All right. Great. And now we’re going to switch gears a little bit in the manifesto to sort of how we think about the episodes over time more as a whole.

Gretchen

So one of the things that I learned when I was talking to people before we even started the podcast, we’re just a really great people who had podcasts themselves, is I realized that what we wanted to do is we wanted to be consistent, but also surprise. And related to that is another entry on the manifesto, which is don’t underestimate the pleasure of the expected of repetition.

Gretchen

And so these two things work together, I think because we want to be consistent, we want people to have a sense of the format and what to expect to be oriented. Like we were saying before, with the segments, to kind of have their favorites and be consistent, because as a listener you value consistency. And also you do. I really value repetition when people have like a standard way they open.

Gretchen

Like Elizabeth, I always love listening to the Happy Hour in Hollywood, a back biting, fundamentally insane world. Like the way you guys say that. I take pleasure in that repetition. Or like the way a monologue at the beginning of a talk show or something. But we also want to surprise. And so we’ve come up with ways throughout the years to be consistent and also surprise.

Elizabeth

Yes. So, for instance, we decided to do our very special episodes.

Gretchen

Every was your idea. So you remember that? No. That was your idea. No, that was your idea number. Yeah.

Elizabeth

So we always do something just a little bit different every 10th episode. That was part of our thinking and wanting to take our trip to England. Yeah. Share with listeners. It was something we’d never done before. Yeah. We decided to do our voice memo episode. Yeah, because it was just something new, but still very much in keeping with what we do.

Gretchen

Right? Similarly to Clear the Decks episode Deck the Halls episodes, there’s funny episodes that are like, you know, stop the podcast and go run and do it. We did that as an experiment. We were like, people might think this is bonkers, but we wanted to try it because it is in line with the kinds of things we talk about.

Gretchen

But it was a surprise. Same with our unplugged episode where we did a thing that was just us on the talk about banter.

Elizabeth

That was banter.

Gretchen

That was banter that was just us having a sisterly conversation. But then we had such a good response from it. People enjoyed it so much that then that kind of led to the more happy hours where we are a little bit less focused and it is a little bit more loose. Yes. And so we ourselves are learning from be consistent and also surprise.

Elizabeth

Yes, some of my favorite episodes come out of that just wanting to shake things up.

Gretchen

Yeah, keep it fresh for ourselves as well as for.

Elizabeth

Listeners coming up, we’ll talk about how we discussed the idea of conflict between us when we were starting out the first this break. 

[music] 

Gretchen

Okay we’re back talking about the podcast manifesto and how we think about it in the show. So it was very funny when we were first coming up with the idea of the podcast, somebody very smart said to me, well, the thing is, what you’re really going to have to do is highlight your conflicts because people are really interested in conflicts.

Gretchen

And so the more you lean into that, the more interested the listeners will be. And I was like, well, that is kind of a problem because of everybody in my life. At least I have less conflict with Elizabeth than anyone else. So I don’t know if that’s true for you, but, I mean, you’re like my most conflict free zone.

Gretchen

And so it took me a back because I was like, okay, are we setting ourselves up for failure here, or are we going to have to manufacture our conflict in order to be interesting?

Elizabeth

Yes. But then we realized, okay, we don’t have a lot of conflict, but we do have differences. We are very different. I think everybody knows that. And people will say, oh, I’m like, you know, is this I’m like you, Gretchen. Yes. My own friends will say that. We realized, okay, it’s okay that we don’t have conflict because we have different points of view.

Elizabeth

We bring kind of a different lens. Yes, to the material.

Gretchen

We have different strengths, different weaknesses, different interests. You can talk about the Real Housewives all day long. Yeah, I can talk about kid lit all day long, which you also enjoy, but not to the degree that I do. Right. And then we have differences. You need accountability. I don’t I’m a super morning person. You’re not you’re doing all the orange theory.

Gretchen

So we don’t have conflict. But we do have differences. Yes. Another thing where I feel like I’ve really learned from you, Elizabeth, is the idea that the more we reveal ourselves, the more others will connect with us. And I think one of the things that I knew before, but really has become much clearer to me as we’ve worked on this together, is you’re much more comfortable with vulnerability.

Gretchen

I would say I am comfortable with revealing my idiosyncrasies, but you’re much more forthcoming and I have really learned from you that my instinct to just be defensive and protective. Maybe it’s my upholder never wanting anybody to tell me that I’m doing something wrong or whatever it is. I’m sure we can get into, like, the deep work of that.

Gretchen

Yes, but you’ve really said to me, we need to reveal the truth about our lives, and you lead the way on that.

Elizabeth

Well, you know, Gretchen, part of I think how I came to that is my love of Howard Stern. Probably a lot of our listeners don’t enjoy Howard Stern, but I went to school in New York. I started listening to Howard Stern when I was 18, and he is extremely authentic, almost to a fault. And so that was in my mind as one of my Guideposts.

Elizabeth

And, of course, Barbara Walters as well, of.

Gretchen

Course, your spiritual teacher. Another thing. Okay, so switching gears again, because this is much more about sort of the mechanics of podcasting, one of the lines on the podcast manifesto is to remember how people listen. And this is a reminder to us that people are listening in all different ways. And for instance.

Elizabeth

Completists, yes.

Gretchen

We did not see this coming. And completists, if you’re out there, we love you. We shower you with gold stars. But remember, it’s not homework. You don’t have to catch up if you don’t want to. But what we found is that a lot of people will go, you know, we’re 500 episodes and still we’re hearing from people. They will go back to episode one and they will listen, and people will say something like, oh, I know you’re thinking about getting a dog.

Gretchen

I just wanted to weigh in. I’m like, well, hang in there because you’ll find out I got a dog nine years ago or whatever, but that’s something to keep in mind. Some people are completist, some people will binge, they’ll listen to five at once. What do we think about that? How do we think about how a more happier might suit how people listen differently?

Gretchen

And then I think one of the reasons why we really did want to be so consistent is, as podcast listeners ourselves, we love it when it’s like it’s Thursday. I get to listen to Happier in Hollywood. I have my associations with days of the week and you sort of look forward to it, and that’s how people listen. We tend to do things by inhabit, and that’s satisfying to people.

Elizabeth

Yes. And Gretchen, we also talked about how people listen in terms of the length that they want the episode to be. And one thing that we really feel when we thought about it is that length may not be an exit problem, but it can be an entry problem. And by that what we mean is if we’re just for us listening to an episode that we love, we’ll listen for an hour and a half.

Elizabeth

But we may not start a podcast episode. That’s an hour and a half because it feels like it’s too overwhelming. Yeah, you’re not going to get through it, etc. so we really keep that in mind.

Gretchen

Yeah, well, and I have to say, one thing that I’ve learned is I do the little half year, every week, 2 to 4 minutes long. I started this as an experiment and I love doing them. But I have to say, of all the things that I create, the little happier are among the things that I’m most proud of.

Gretchen

And I think that I work the hardest on and are really good. But it’s not a form that works for most people. And I keep thinking like, how can I repurpose this? What can I do with these stories? Because I really love them myself. I will say with all vanity, a lot of people love them. They get good listenership, but not as many people.

Gretchen

And I think it’s because a lot of people, it’s like I’m going for a run. I kind of want to like turn something on and have it take me through. I sort of know that I’m still doing it because I like it, but I remember how people listen. It’s pretty short for most people.

Elizabeth

Switching gears again, of course, one of the biggest things we’ve learned and thought about is engaging with our community.

Gretchen

Well, and I have to say, when we started, we didn’t really have a vision of how this would work. But what we quickly learned is that we were getting amazing ideas, insight, resources from our listeners. And so again, because this podcast manifesto was something that has that evolves, we add to it. I’m the keeper of the manifesto as we learn.

Gretchen

So one of them, and I mean we talk about this all the time. People love to learn and people also love to teach and share, and they love to correct too. So we get things wrong. People correct us, we welcome that. But they love to teach and share, and we love it when they teach and share. Another part of the manifesto is we want to take advice, not just give advice, and we don’t have all the answers.

Gretchen

And increasingly we’ll do the hacks, rounds up, or we’ll do the listener answers, or we will highlight a bunch of ideas from what we’re getting back and that community aspect of it we didn’t foresee. We couldn’t foresee, we didn’t know how it would work. But that has been super exciting.

Elizabeth

And I think it was a breakthrough when we realized, hey, if we don’t have an answer, we can just put this out there as a question for listeners, and we know that they will come up with amazing answers. Yes, that we can then share. Right. And we do that often.

Gretchen

Right?

Elizabeth

Exactly right. Coming up, we will talk more about community as part of our podcast manifesto. But first, this break.

[music] 

Elizabeth

All right, glad you’re back. It’s our 500th episode. We are discussing our podcast manifesto.

Gretchen

Yes. So another related on community is it’s good to have listeners. It’s great to have a community. And we’ve learned this with time. So listeners are people who are listening, but the community or people who are engaging so well, is it one of them? I mean, if we’re talking about highlights of the last 500 episodes going on the live tour.

Gretchen

Yeah. And our live events. So amazing, right? Because getting to meet and engage and talk face to face with listeners was so exciting.

Elizabeth

Yes. And Gretchen, I want to mention, you know, Sarah and I, my writing partner and I co-host Happier in Hollywood. And we have our Happier in Hollywood Facebook group. Yeah. Which is like part of my daily life, my daily community. And it’s so satisfying. Another part of our community, Gretchen, is that our community supports us by using her advertiser codes, which we just want to mention.

Elizabeth

Yes, we really appreciate. Yes.

Gretchen

You know, Elizabeth, I just ordered something online and I used our code. I’m like, I love you, Sarah. Codes just this morning. Yes, listeners, thank you for using those codes. That’s really useful when another thing that we have as part of community, and this was something you had talked about for years, before we managed to finally do it, which is to have merch, which is to have things if you’re excited about the podcast.

Gretchen

And now we have t shirts and we have baseball caps, and we have for Tennessees mugs, and we have stickers that have our logo or that have the days are long or the years are short or onward or upward. And then there’s my favorite thing, which is the AirPod case. I love my AirPod case. I’ve given you an airport case, but I will say if anybody there, it’s getting an AirPod case.

Gretchen

Make sure that you get the right kind, because I accidentally ordered the wrong one for me. But then I realized you had the other kind of AirPod case, but it’s just super fun. I mean, I get her a big kick out of seeing that. Yeah, people are getting the onward and upward t shirt. It’s just really fun to have that.

Elizabeth

Yeah, I loved wearing my Happy Ear baseball cap all through England. Gretchen. Yes, our trip this summer I have about yes, 500 photos of me and my happier cap.

Gretchen

But, you know, listen, maybe for our 10th anniversary episode, do you remember this t shirts that you and I. The first time we went to a conference, we’d been on air for like six months, and we just went online and ordered with our little logo. Yeah, you get one off t shirts to wear to this conference.

Elizabeth

Yeah. We were so.

Gretchen

Proud of.

Elizabeth

Ourselves. Yes. And we wore them all around.

Gretchen

I still have mine for sure.

Elizabeth

I have mine too, of course. Yes.

Gretchen

Well, and along the lines of the merch and like connecting, we remind ourselves we want to connect with listeners in as many ways as possible. And this is important because people want to connect in all different ways. I put stuff on social media. You put stuff on social media. I have my newsletter, the five things newsletter sign up, but have your Cars.com slash newsletter again.

Gretchen

It’s like another way to connect with listeners that’s just so exciting.

Elizabeth

Yes, love our community. Gretchen. It is by far the best thing about our podcast, right?

Gretchen

And maybe this is kind of a summary reminder, but it’s always good to spell these things out in the manifesto, which is be open to new ideas and new circumstances. So for instance, Covid. Yeah. I mean, how much did things change for us during Covid?

Elizabeth

Hugely. I mean, aside from just, okay, now you don’t go into the studio?

Gretchen

No, I have never been back to the studio since.

Elizabeth

We record from home. Yeah. And the advantage of that is it’s easier to get guests who may be far flung. On the other hand, I do miss just seeing people in person when I wasn’t always there. But when I was during Covid. Gretchen, you and I, five days a week, did Instagram lives for half an hour. Yeah. And that was we said, we’re here, everyone’s home.

Elizabeth

People are sort of desperate for connection for some sort of schedule structure or something to do.

Gretchen

Including us, for sure.

Elizabeth

Us, most of all, us people. So we decided we will do this five days a week. It’ll get us, you know, put on some lip gloss and brush our hair. And it got us through.

Gretchen

Yeah. I mean, another thing that we did was we have the happier podcast book club, which I think we’d been podcasting for a couple of years. Elizabeth. And funny, I mean, looking back, we both love to read so much and we’re both writers. It’s surprising we didn’t do that earlier. But again, it’s sort of we’re always evolving about what the possibilities are.

Gretchen

And so that got started.

Elizabeth

Yeah, I love our book club.

Gretchen

And we can make a side note now that we can announce our next book club pick, by the way. Yeah. Everybody who’s listening. So exciting. We are such huge fans of Elizabeth Strout. It’s her new book. Tell Me everything. Buy it. Send us your questions and comments.

Elizabeth

Yes. And she is going to join us. Yeah. For our next book club episode. I cannot wait to talk to her.

Gretchen

Yeah. So that’s tell me everything. But listen, another thing that we didn’t have right away that seems obvious to us now is the happiness hacks. Now, in every episode there’s a few things that always repeat. Like we always have to try this at home and we always have a happiness hack. But we didn’t have that when we started.

Gretchen

And again, that was realizing how much people, including us, like those simple solutions, not those bigger, more ambitious idea, but just like, get yourself an electric foot warmer if your feet are really cold or wear double socks, and research shows that’s going to help you fall asleep faster. This is like the hack.

Elizabeth

Yes, we had all these smaller ideas. Yeah, I didn’t have a spot. Right. And so then we realized, oh, we can just make a spot. Yes. Every week for one of these smaller ideas. Yeah. And again keeps it moving lets you know where you are in the episode.

Gretchen

But it’s funny that I have forgotten that because we’ve been saying like, oh, this is a great idea, but it’s too small. Yeah. It doesn’t rise to the level of a segment. It’s like, oh, it’s too small. It’s like, yeah, now it’s a hack. So it’s evolved over time. And then finally, I think one of the things that we’ve learned is that we want to be natural and we want to be authentic, but we do not want to be too natural.

Gretchen

And we did not want to be too authentic because as Chuck will testify, you do not want to listen to what it sounds like if he has not worked his magic.

Elizabeth

Yes. Let’s listen.

Elizabeth

I’m completely lost. And that that that that that.

Gretchen

Like, like you’re going to just sort of, you know, kind of the.

Elizabeth

I don’t know.

Gretchen

Maybe in maybe in this case, sparkle and maybe in this case, sparkle, maybe in this case, lit, I might, you know, in this, way, and, and and, and, you know.

Elizabeth

Yes.

Gretchen

Yes, yes. And then like, you know. No, no.

Elizabeth

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Gretchen

I mean, it’s bananas.

Elizabeth

You know, kind of well, I mean.

Gretchen

And let me do that again. Oh, what? Okay. Listen, well, when I say like, I, I, and.

Elizabeth

I.

Elizabeth

You know, you know.

Gretchen

You know, kind of like.

Elizabeth

An an in, like in and, you know, I, I don’t know. Well.

Gretchen

You don’t I just, and so I think, but like, like and, you know.

Elizabeth

But but,

Gretchen

Like, you’re sort of sort of like, and, you know, in the, you know, and .

Elizabeth

Knowing that traps are out. All right. You know, I’m, let’s see. And that is, that’s just.

Gretchen

That’s way. Let me check it again. Well, no. Never mind. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yes. We we, you know, there it is.

Elizabeth

Yeah yeah yeah. So once again, thank you to Chuck Reed, our executive producer who suffers saves every. Yes. He suffers so that others won’t have to. So thank you Chuck everyone.

Gretchen

So I’ll I’ll listen to it and like can you take out more of the likes and ums in this particular thing. And he’ll be like, well, I took out a thousand already, but I’ll take out more.

Elizabeth

Yeah. Yes. But there’s still.

Gretchen

Things that we want to do. Elizabeth, what are some things that are on our bucket list?

Elizabeth

Well, we want to have our husbands on. Yeah, they have both theoretically agreed to it. I think once we try to actually execute, it’s going to be a little trickier. But they have agreed. Yeah. Theory to come on.

Gretchen

Yes. We need to figure out how to tee that up and many people say we would love to hear from your parents.

Elizabeth

Yes. And I haven’t totally given up on that. You know, our parents aren’t wanting to come on the podcast. Yeah.

Gretchen

We figure like if you have a have your podcast, what you do not do is badger your parents relentlessly about something that they are absolutely clear. That is something that is not of interest to them.

Elizabeth

Yes, of course we share things from our parents almost every week. I think we mentioned mom and dad. Yeah. And of course they listen every week. So shout out to our mom and dad for giving us so much great material. Yeah. Over these 500 episodes.

Gretchen

Yes. And something that we don’t have a list that I still think would be fun is to have like a name for our community, like 99% invisible has the beautiful nerds and your favorite bitch sesh. What do they call their listeners?

Elizabeth

Garbage people. It’s funny because they all love garbage television. It’s kind of a tongue in cheek name.

Gretchen

Yeah, very fitting for their vibe. Yeah. We’ve never had that epiphany.

Elizabeth

Yeah.

Gretchen

So community, if you have any great ideas, send them our way.

Elizabeth

So if you have a name for our community or if there’s something you think we should add to our podcast manifesto, do let us know.

Gretchen

Yes. We didn’t go through the whole manifesto because it’s not all of interest to the listeners. It’s even longer. But we want it to be complete, as complete as possible.

Elizabeth

Yeah. So go find us on Instagram threads. Tick tock. Facebook. Drop us an email at podcast or Gretchen rubin.com or go to happier cast.com/500 for contact info, images, links related to this episode or to look up any other episode.

Gretchen

Elizabeth. This is when we would usually do demerits and gold stars, but we are not doing demerits this week.

Elizabeth

No, we are just having a huge gold star for everybody who listens. Yes.

Gretchen

Yeah, obviously we couldn’t do this if there were not listeners. I think Elizabeth, it’s one of the engines of happiness in our lives for both of us.

Elizabeth

Oh, absolutely.

Gretchen

Yeah. And so thank you, listeners. And listeners, if you want to do something to celebrate with us, we say it all the time, but if you would take the time to tell five people in honor of 500 about the show, people that you think would be interested in it, that is hugely helpful. That is how people discover shows.

Gretchen

Almost always we find is through word of mouth. And so if there’s something that you enjoy about it, see if there’s five people in your life who you think would also enjoy it. That really does help the show.

Elizabeth

And I will say sending a link makes a big difference. People recommend podcasts to me all the time, and when they send a link to an actual episode, I’m way more likely to listen.

Gretchen

So yes, I.

Elizabeth

Text those links, email those links.

Gretchen

And the resource for this week. Okay, very appropriate for such a celebration episode. I am so excited because in the Happiness Project collection, all the products that I’ve created there are a lot of new things. Exciting, cool things to preorder. For instance, the I Want You to Know Journal, which is this little journal that helps you put your feelings into words, convey your memories.

Gretchen

It creates a meaningful keepsake. I always I’m talking about everyday creativity. This is a great way to be creative. That’s also like very manageable. I’m super excited about that. I’ve got the Happiness Hacks card deck because you know, people love the gamifying, they love the spin the wheel. And the happier of this is a card deck where you draw a card and get it done.

Gretchen

Great for rebels or people who loved a game of fly. And I have the Moment of Happiness calendar because a I love quotations and I’m not doing my Moment of Happiness newsletter right now. And it is growing up. The page a day calendar was a major feature of our Christmas morning. We would often exchange praise today, so super fun to have a page a day calendar that’s quotations and then design your year because we have designed your summer design your year.

Gretchen

It’s super fun. It’s how you have reflections and creative exercises to have a happier year. I work with a brilliant team to create these to help people achieve all their aims. They will ship in late October, so they are in time for holiday gifts so you can read more about them, see pictures and everything at happier. Cars.com slash new.

Gretchen

I’m super excited about each of these. I cannot wait to hear what people think and listen. As I would say, I would not buy any of these for yourself. I’m not saying what I’m going to get you.

Elizabeth

For, okay? I won’t go shopping for you know that. I can get them for other people.

Gretchen

Please do. Yes, yes, yes.

Elizabeth

I’ll tell Sarah not to shop for herself because I’ll like. Okay, I’m for Sarah.

Gretchen

Well, that is it. For this episode of happier. We have so enjoyed the last 500 episodes. And Elizabeth, we are moving onward for the next 500.

Elizabeth

Absolutely. Thank you so much to our executive producer, Chuck Reed and everyone at Audacy. Get in touch. Gretchen’s on Instagram threads, Facebook and TikTok at Gretchen Rubin. And I’m on Instagram and threads at Liz Craft.

Gretchen

And if you like the show, because we talked about the pleasure of repetition. So maybe you’re somebody who enjoys repetition and you sort of enjoy the repetition of me saying, hey, please tell your friends, and now you’re waiting for me to hit you with your rhyming reminder. And today, if you like the show, tell everyone you know.

Elizabeth

Until next week, I’m Elizabeth Craft.

Gretchen

And I’m Gretchen Rubin. Thanks for joining us. Onward and upward.

Elizabeth

Crush. Another thing that’s not in the manifesto, but you and I talked about before we started was whether I would go by Liz or Elizabeth on this podcast. Yes. And we decided, Elizabeth, because that’s what you call me.

Gretchen

But, Elizabeth, the strangest thing to me, I find it in uncanny is everyone refers to you as Liz. How do they know that mom, dad and me are the only ones who call you Elizabeth? How do they know that?

Elizabeth

Maybe because my Instagram is. That was craft. I don’t know.

Gretchen

I don’t know, I think it’s really interesting. Maybe you’re just a Liz.

Elizabeth

Yes. Well, in fourth grade, I was dubbed Liz, and it stuck for the rest of my life.

Gretchen

From the onward project.