Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin wrote The Happiness Project and turned it into a podcast with her sister Elizabeth Craft that has been running for over 1,300 episodes. That longevity alone is impressive, but the real draw is the sibling dynamic. Gretchen is the happiness researcher — systematic, evidence-based, slightly Type A. Elizabeth is a TV writer and producer in Los Angeles who tests Gretchen's theories in real life and reports back with often hilarious results. The format mixes full-length episodes with shorter "A Little Happier" segments and bonus "More Happier" installments, giving listeners several entry points per week. Topics tend toward the practical and specific: how to build a nighttime routine, why certain habits stick while others fail, how your tendency type (a framework Gretchen developed) shapes your approach to expectations. The 4.7-star rating from over 12,000 reviews shows consistent quality across a very long run. The advice is manageable by design — small changes, not life overhauls. Some listeners note the ad load has gotten heavy, and the product recommendations can feel frequent. But the core content remains thoughtful and grounded in research. Gretchen's Four Tendencies framework, which categorizes people by how they respond to inner and outer expectations, has become genuinely useful for thousands of listeners trying to understand why they struggle with certain habits.