Billboard Happiness

This week, Jerome and Laura talk about a new book from Marie Forleo (100% GREATEST OF ALL TIME), Everything is Figureoutable. There are so many good nuggets, we had a hard time picking one (and spoiler alert: we didn't quite pick one). Come hear some real-world advice from the master of motivation (and business and hip hop and amazing hair)!

Have a question about raising your kid or something you want us to chat about on Billboard Happiness?
Send us an email ([email protected]) or leave us a voice message and we’ll use it on the podcast! 510-269-1944

Go get the book!
Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo

This week, Jerome and Laura talk about one of their FAVORITE BOOKS: Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. Tara's a master teacher: the perfect mix of woo-woo and practical, and this most essential book is her at her best. Come listen!

Have a health or happiness topic you’d like us to chat about on Billboard Happiness? 
Send us an email ([email protected]) or leave us a voice message and we’ll use it on the podcast! 510-269-1944

This week, Jerome and Laura do a mini-episode while together in Park City, Utah to talk about some great life advice Laura got from her Lyft driver on the way to the airport. 

Have a health or happiness topic you’d like us to chat about on Billboard Happiness? 
Send us an email ([email protected]) or leave us a voice message and we’ll use it on the podcast! 510-269-1944

This week, Jerome and Laura talk about the core lesson of Karen Rinaldi's great new-ish book, (It's Great To) Suck at Something. The book is part memoir, part life manual and all fantastic. Laura found this book especially relevant for her family of perfectionists; Jerome has some great insights into the the nugget from a gender perspective. Come listen!

Have a health or happiness topic you’d like us to chat about on Billboard Happiness?
Send us an email ([email protected]) or leave us a voice message and we’ll use it on the podcast! 510-269-1944

Resources:
(It's Great To) Suck at Something by Karen Rinaldi

This week, Jerome and Laura dive into Lori Gottlieb's new book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. The book is a gem and you'll learn a lot about what really goes on in therapy, from both the side of a therapist as well as from the side of a therapist going to therapy herself. We could have pulled a million nuggets to share with your kids from this book; tough to settle on just one, but we did it! We both highly recommend this book: come for the insights, stay for the fun. Oh and guess what?! This is an anniversary episode: our 10th! Thanks for hanging in with us as we figure out our way!

Resources
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

This week, we discuss a nugget from the book "Thoughts without a Thinker" by Mark Epstein, MD. Mark is a Jewish-Buddhist-Psychiatrist who goes pretty deep in this book on
the nature of happiness. 

Like all the books we deconstruct-and-reconstruct-for-kids in this podcast, there are a ton of insights in this book, but the nugget we focus on in this episode is: It’s not what happens in our life; it is our perception or our thoughts about what happens. We can choose how to relate to our emotions, our feelings if we understand the difference between feelings and our personalities.

Jerome came up with a way to introduce this idea to your kid: FEAR vs. FAR. Listen to the podcast and find out what that means! ; )

Have a topic or question you'd like Jerome & Laura to talk about on Billboard Happiness?
Send us an email—or even better: leave us a voicemail so we can use your question on the air!
[email protected]  or  510-269-1944

Resources:
Mark Epstein, MD
Thoughts without a Thinker

This week, we discuss a nugget from the book "Dark Horse" by Todd Rose & Ogi Ogas. The authors studied hundreds of people who are super-successful in their field, but came to that success via very unconventional and circuitous routes. The book's basic premise is this: "Pursuing excellence doesn’t lead you to fulfillment, it’s the pursuit of fulfillment that leads you to excellence."

There's lots of great stuff in this book, but the nugget we honed in on is what the authors call "micro-motives." We talk about how you can help your kid learn their own micro-motives and help them more easily find their way to what will fulfill them.

Have a topic or question you'd like Jerome & Laura to talk about on Billboard Happiness? Send us an email—or even better: leave us a voicemail so we can use your question on the air! [email protected]  or  510-269-1944
Resources:
Dark Horse by Todd Rose & Ogi Ogas
Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard & Monica Padman

This week, Jerome and Laura discuss just one of the many awesome lessons/practices from the brilliant book The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. The practice we discuss is called "Give an A." 

See a short video of Benjamin Zander talking about this practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ANV5BQnJA

Get the book (a must!): https://www.amazon.com/Art-Possibility-Transforming-Professional-Personal/dp/0875847706/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=art+of+possibility&qid=1554673941&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Have a question you'd like us to answer on the podcast? Write us: [email protected]

Or leave us the question on our voice mail! 510-269-1944

This week, we tackle a question sent in by our listener and friend, Julie: "What do I do when my kid says, 'I'm bored!' I'm tired of being the cruise director of his downtime!" Whoa, did this one hit home! We discuss a recent New York Times article on the subject, one that mentions one of Laura's favorite books in recent years. Plus, of course, Dr. Jerome has AWESOME advice on the topic.

In this episode:
"Let Children Get Bored Again" by Pamela Paul in The New York Times
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

This week you get two nuggets for the price of one!

Our first nugget is a twist on the famous Mr. Rogers quote: Always look for helpers.
Laura wanted to turn that around for her daughter: Always look for ways to help. A mindset of service is a great thing to develop in a child (with the usual caveat from Jerome, of course!).

Our second nugget is the 5-Second Rule from Mel Robbins. She does a great TED talk on it (see link below) and it's a great nugget for kids: if you have a thought you want to act on, count down from 5 and then when you get to 1, take an action (raise your hand in class, start walking to make a new friend at lunch, etc.).

Show Notes:
Won't You Be My Neighbor? documentary on Mr. Rogers
The 5-Second Rule book by Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins' TED talk