Lemonada.

Hello and welcome to Happier, a podcast where we talk about strategies and solutions for making our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative.

This week we'll talk about a word-related, try this at home, that is very fun, and we will tackle illicit or question about the challenge of obliger rebellion.

I'm Gretchen Ruhin, rhetoricitner Studies, happiness, good habits, secrets of

adulthood, human nature. I'm back in my home office in New York City. And not far from me is my

new puppy Taffy, who is Sound asleep. By the way, if you want to see photos of Taffy, follow me on

Instagram because I will be posting many, many photos and videos because that is my favorite thing to do right now is to take photos of Taffy.

And joining me today from Los Angeles is my sister, Elizabeth Kraft, and Elizabeth, you led the way for the two-dog family.

We had one dog growing up, but after you had two dogs, it suddenly seemed

possible. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A. And yes, Scratch, I have my

two corgis, Nacho and Daisy. And I hope that you're happy in a few months when Taffy settled in.

I hope you are glad that I led the way. Yes, I'm already sure that I will be.

Before we jump in, we got some interesting responses from listeners. Yes, C said, I love the

podcast and love reading, but I wonder if anyone has found that there can be too much of a good

thing with reading. I've caught myself sometimes reading instead of spending time with family,

and that is not who I want to be. Once on your show, you shared a motto you had in college of

people first or something like that to remind yourself to prioritize people over reading. I think this

was shared on an episode in which a teenager wanted to read in the library instead of hang out with friends.

Different approaches may work for different people, but the people first motto is a helpful reminder to me while reading.

25 minutes a day is no problem, but some of us can easily get sucked into way more, especially when enjoying escapist fiction when a lot of current reality can be

tough but necessary to face. Just a thought. I think this is such a good point. I am exactly like

that. There have been periods in my life where I really had to say, I need to put people first.

...