Looking Back: Gretchen Rubin Wants to Make You Happy/ish

Fail Better with David Duchovny

Grace Cohen-Chen

Society & Culture

4.6 • 534 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’re revisiting my conversation with the author Gretchen Rubin, since we could probably all use a little more light these days. Gretchen has spent years trying to understand happiness, the ways she can access it herself, and how to bring others in on the wisdom she’s gained. Gretchen also has a new podcast, Since You Asked, with bestselling author and psychotherapist, Lori Gottlieb. The two of them team up to take on the everyday problems we all face. Whether it’s the pet peeve that’s annoyed you for years, the question you’re too embarrassed to ask, or the dilemma you can’t solve, they'll address it all with warmth, humor, and insight. Follow Since You Asked wherever you get your podcasts or head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/SinceYouAskedfd Follow me on Instagram at @davidduchovny. Find more video podcasts on our YouTube channel. Stay up to date with Lemonada on X, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's morning in New York.
0:02.8	Oh, God.
0:06.2	Hey, everybody.
0:07.3	I'm Mandy Patinkin.
0:08.7	And I'm Catherine Grady.
0:09.8	And we have a new podcast.
0:11.7	It's called Don't Listen to Us.
0:14.1	Many of you've asked for our advice.
0:16.1	Tell me, what is wrong with you people?
0:19.2	Don't listen to us.
0:20.3	Our Take It or Leave a Device show every Wednesday out now.
0:24.7	A Lemonada Media Original.
0:35.9	I'm David Dukovni, and this is Fail Better, a show where failure, not success, shapes who we are.
0:43.0	Gretchen Rubin is considered one of today's most influential observers of happiness and human nature.
0:48.7	She has a slate of New York Times bestselling books, including the Happiness Project, an award-winning app, and a hit podcast called Happier.
0:57.1	And Happier is now a part of Lemonada Media, which you might know is the same network that puts out this show.
1:04.0	Before she got into this work, Gretchen had a very successful law career, including advising the chairman of the FCC and clerking for Sandra Day O'Connor,
1:12.5	and she still just wasn't happy. Gretchen was in her 40s when she decided to research how to be
1:18.5	happier, and her approach has turned out to be pretty much the opposite from what we hear from
1:23.0	self-help gurus. Now Gretchen identifies primarily as a writer, which is obviously something I relate
1:29.6	to, but otherwise her work is pretty foreign to me. You know, she at least appears to be on the other
1:34.6	side of the spectrum from failure. But I knew she'd have a lot to say about ups and downs and maybe
	...

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