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Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Little Happier: People Are More Interested in a Poison Garden Than a Medicine Garden

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project

Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.713K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A funny yet accurate observation about Alnwick Castle’s famous Poison Garden inspires a question about human nature. Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on social media: @GretchenRubin on YouTube @GretchenRubin on TikTok @GretchenRubin on Instagram @GretchenRubin on Threads Get the podcast show notes by email every week: happiercast.com/shownotes Get Gretchen Rubin’s newest book Life in Five Senses to see how she discovered a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses. Now available - order here. Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier. In partnership with

0:05.2

Wilderness England, my sister Elizabeth and I went on a wonderful hiking trip in

0:09.2

England. One day, as part of the trip, our group visited the famous Poison Garden at Anac Castle, place that I've wanted to see four years.

0:20.0

Anac Castle is the traditional seat of the Duke of Northumberland and the garden was

0:24.8

established by the current Duchess of Northumberland when she and her husband took up residence there.

0:30.9

The walled and gated garden is terrific. I was fascinated to learn about all these

0:36.5

dangerous plants and how their poisons work and also to hear some famous

0:41.9

examples of how people use these poisons in various crimes.

0:46.0

Some of the plants are so dangerous that they're kept in cages,

0:50.0

and one is even kept in a closed container because merely touching it causes such severe agony.

0:57.0

For our tour, we had a terrific guide who was full of information and also very funny.

1:03.0

At one point he was explaining how a particular plant could be used as a deadly poison

1:08.5

and was also an important ingredient in life saving medicine.

1:13.2

I was reminded of one of my secrets of adulthood.

1:15.9

Every medicine can become poison.

1:18.9

During his discussion, as an aside,

1:22.3

our guide made a casual remark that I keep thinking about. He said,

1:27.0

oh, that just doesn't want me talking about medicine. She wants me to stick to poison.

1:32.0

And I thought, how interesting.

1:35.0

I think that's true.

1:37.0

People are interested in a poison garden, not a medicine garden.

1:42.0

Sure, some people would be interested,

...

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