It’s 2025, and it’s season 15! I could not be more excited for this season and all that it will bring, starting with today’s guest, Rachel Hollis. Since Rachel’s last book in 2020, so much has happened in her life, and she’s here today to talk about it and her brand new book, What If YOU Are the Answer?: And 26 Other Questions That Just Might Change Your Life, which is out January 7. On the 1 percent chance you don’t know Rachel and her work, Rachel is the stratospherically popular author of books like 2018’s Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be, 2019’s Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals, and 2020’s Didn’t See That Coming: Putting Life Back Together When Your World Falls Apart. She is an author, a motivational speaker, a blogger, a podcaster — a leader in the self-help space, which you all know is a world I love to read books about. As I said, since 2020, Rachel’s world has been rocked by a divorce from her ex-husband, Dave Hollis, who died in 2023 after their separation; a miscarriage; finding new love (your world can be rocked even when it’s good!). In this new book, Rachel is harnessing the power of asking questions, and is doing so in a very vulnerable, candid, and close-to-the-bone way. As she puts in the book, “the right question can change everything,” and in this book Rachel asks 26 questions that cause readers to look at their own life through a new lens. I loved this book, and I think you will too.

What If YOU Are the Answer?: And 26 Other Questions That Just Might Change Your Life by Rachel Hollis

I know many of you — myself included — are thinking about what we want out of 2025, and with that reflection drumming up some New Year’s resolutions. As we do so, I thought it would be helpful to bring in the habit expert herself, the one and only Wendy Wood, to close season 14 and to close 2024. Whatever type of year you had — a great one, or a not so great one — a fresh start is on the horizon, and 2025 is a blank canvas that we can make of whatever we want. Wendy wrote the 2019 hit book Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, and she walks us through today what a habit is, in the first place; how hard it really is to change our habits and, in the process, change ourselves; the science behind changing our habits, including processes like context, repetition, and reward; statistics that might stun you, like that we as humans spend 43 percent — yes, 43 percent! — of our day doing things without thinking about them, as if on autopilot; whether it is easier to make a habit or break a habit, and so much more, including the best advice she’s ever received regarding habit formation — and it is hopeful as we venture into a new year. Many of us have habits we want to make surrounding going to the gym more, and I can’t wait for you to hear the statistics Wendy brings about how environment is so important, as well as proximity. Wendy Wood is here to help us reach our goals, so let me tell you a little bit about her. She is a professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California and has written for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times; her work has been featured so many places, including The New York Times, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, NPR, and TIME magazine. Her purpose is to convey scientific insight on habit to the general public, and she’s here today to do just that.

Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick by Wendy Wood

My annual “Best Books of the Year” episode with Carla Jean Whitley is always such a highlight for me (and I know for all of you)! Below are her picks for 2024. Enjoy!

The Best Books She’s Read This Year:

Nonfiction —

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman (also adding in Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals for good measure, as well)

Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield

Memoirs —

Just Like Glass: A Family Memoir by Amy Wight Chapman

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

Fiction —

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

The Best Books She’s Reread This Year:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

The Giver by Lois Lowry

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

The Books She Is Anticipating for 2025:

Mothers and Other Fictional Characters: A Memoir in Essays by Nicole Graev Lipson (coming March 4, 2025)

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff (coming April 22, 2025)

The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland by Nan Shepherd (coming March 18, 2025)

The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street by Mike Tidwell (coming March 25, 2025)

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green (coming March 18, 2025)

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (coming May 13, 2025)

We are continuing our series of life optimization episodes today with the dynamic Laura Vanderkam, time management expert and author of multiple books on the topic, including three books we’re discussing in today’s episode: her book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, which came out in 2010; Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, which came out in 2014; and I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time, which came out in 2015. Laura has also written What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings — and Life, which came out in 2012; All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Getting and Spending, which was released in 2013; The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work from Home, which came out in 2020; and 2022’s Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. And that’s still not all of her books! A graduate of Princeton, Laura and her husband share five children — so time management is a must! — and she became interested in time management while working as a journalist, after interviewing accomplished people juggling busy schedules. In October 2016, she gave a TED talk called “How to Gain Control of Your Free Time,” which has been viewed more than 12 million times, and she has written everywhere from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fortune, and more. She is also the host of the “Before Breakfast” podcast and the co-host of the “Best of Both Worlds” podcast with Sarah Hart-Unger. With a life as busy as Laura’s, she has to know how to manage her time! Today we chat about Laura’s philosophy that looking at your life in 168 hour blocks — so, a week — is more preferable than looking at it in 24 hour blocks; the power of time tracking; the best piece of time management advice she’s ever received; how outsourcing is a time management hack; her thoughts on multitasking; and so much more. There’s not a person among us who has an extra stockpile of hours in their day or week — no, not even Beyonce! — and Laura’s here to teach us how to make the most of our time.

All by Laura Vanderkam:

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time

We have so much good for you even before 2024 closes, and especially as 2025 kicks off. We’ll be bringing you lots of new books, especially in the new year, but as we close 2024 and look ahead to what next year will bring, I’m also going to bring in some conversations about books from years past that will make you think about the type of person you want to be going forward into this next chapter. That includes today’s conversation with Amy Morin about her 2018 book 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do: Own Your Power, Channel Your Confidence, and Find Your Authentic Voice for a Life of Meaning and Joy. In addition to this book, Amy has written a number of books about things mentally strong populations don’t do — people, couples, kids, parents. We are zooming in on women today, but I think anyone will be able to take something from this conversation. Today we talk through each of the 13, spotlighting some of my favorites; I ask Amy, if she could revise this book — which came out six years ago this month — what she’d add or take away; and we talk about three components of mental strength. We also talk about what mental strength brings to a life, and I’m really excited for you to hear what she has to say. Amy is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, college psychology instructor, keynote speaker, author, and expert on mental strength. Her books have sold over 1 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and, in addition to being an accomplished writer, she’s also an award-winning podcast host, hosting “Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin.” She is also the former editor-in-chief of Verywell Mind and has been featured everywhere from Today, Good Morning America, Time, Fast Company, Success, CNN, CNBC, and more. Amy’s TEDx talk “The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong” is one of the most popular talks of all time with more than 22 million views, and Amy’s quest to find mental strength is hard won: she lost her mother at 23, and her husband died when she was 26. As she puts it, “Losing the two most important people in my life sent me on a quest to learn as much as I could about how to be mentally strong.” In 2013, during one of the lowest moments in her life, she wrote a letter to herself about what mentally strong people don’t do, and 13 things emerged that could rob her of her mental strength if she let them. She figured her letter could maybe help someone else, so she published it online, thinking maybe a few people could benefit from it. It went viral, and more than 50 million people read it. From there came her book deal, and the rest is history. We are all better for her message. 

13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do: Own Your Power, Channel Your Confidence, and Find Your Authentic Voice for a Life of Meaning and Joy by Amy Morin

I have a great story to tell you about our guest today. Back in 2020, my co-host Jessica and I were looking to start what would become our podcast about the royal family, Podcast Royal. By 2020, Cathy Heller was already a prolific podcaster, as her show Don’t Keep Your Day Job — which has since been renamed — debuted in 2017. Cathy gave me such helpful advice, and Jessica and I went on to launch Podcast Royal in November 2020 before I solo launched I’d Rather Be Reading about six months later in 2021. Cathy was so generous, selfless, and kind, and I’ve never forgotten it. Cathy gave so much to me without getting anything in return — she is truly, truly a good person. A light in a sometimes dark world. Now, flash forward to the present day, we’re here to celebrate Cathy today with the December 3 release of her brand new book Abundant Ever After: Tools for Creating a Life of Prosperity and Ease. Speaking of Abundant Ever After, that is the updated name of Cathy’s podcast, which is seven years running and 916 episodes strong! Along with her podcast, Cathy’s book teaches us how to create the most expansive life possible and serves as a powerful guide for anyone ready to step into their most authentic self and transform their lives. In a word, Abundant Ever After is transformative, teaching us to do less striving and more surrendering, allowing more and more abundance in our lives. Today on the show we talk about what abundance is, how to live an abundant life and eschew limiting beliefs, and lean into, in Cathy’s words, “a life that takes your breath away.” She also discusses what she might say to someone who is a skeptic of all of this, and so much more. It’s a very powerful conversation with someone whose life I look at and genuinely say, in the iconic words of When Harry Met Sally, “I’ll have what she’s having.” I can’t state enough what a difference Cathy has made in my life — and I’m not the only one. She is so giving of her time and energy and resources, and one of the best gifts she’s given the world comes in the form of this fantastic book. Let me tell you a little bit about the force that is Cathy Heller. She has been described as a “fire hose of inspiration,” and is a dynamic transformational coach, spiritual guide, meditation teacher, and motivational speaker. In addition to Abundant Ever After, Cathy also wrote Don’t Keep Your Day Job: How to Turn Your Passion into Your Career, and a through line through her work is providing inspiration for listeners and readers to boldly pursue their dreams and live authentically, to find their purpose and live on purpose. Cathy originally had a career in the music industry and has found new purpose through her work trying to help others find their happiest, most fulfilled selves. The world could use a million more people just like Cathy, and I can’t wait for you to learn more from her today. She’s the real deal. 

Abundant Ever After: Tools for Creating a Life of Prosperity and Ease by Cathy Heller

I went to the library recently and checked out so many books on self-help and self-improvement. It’s really dawning on me that, in just a few days’ time, I’ll have a new name and, while I’ll always be the same person, I am looking at it as a fresh start of sorts. One of the books I checked out was Caroline Adams Miller’s 2009 book Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide, and I enjoyed it so much that I reached out to her to chat about it. Well, wouldn’t you know it, that same month Caroline had a new book coming out — and so today we are talking about both of these books! Caroline’s new book is called Big Goals: The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life, which came out November 27. I found Caroline, both in her books and in this conversation, to be a wealth of knowledge. In Caroline’s groundbreaking Big Goals, we learn about Goal Setting Theory and about goal setting practices for personal and professional goals that will ensure that we make all of our goals a reality. Caroline spent over 15 years researching this book, and it’s packed with data. It connects beautifully with Creating Your Best Life, her 2009 book, which we also speak about today. Caroline is a pioneer in the areas of the science of goal setting, happiness, success, and grit. Creating Your Best Life was the first mass-market book on goal accomplishment that included evidence-based research, and it also connected the science of success with the science of happiness for the first time. It is so popular that it was re-released in 2021. Caroline also wrote many other books, including Getting Grit in 2017, and she is a keynote speaker who has worked with clients like Morgan Stanley, lululemon, Harvard Law School, and many others. Caroline has taught as part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School Executive Education program and has also taught in NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and the University of Texas-Dallas School of Management. A graduate of Penn and Harvard, she’s been featured in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, NBC, NPR, and CNN. She’s also a top-ranked Masters Swimmer and even has a black belt in martial arts. She’s clearly pretty good at this whole goal setting thing. We’ve got much to learn from her.

Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide by Caroline Adams Miller

Big Goals: The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life by Caroline Adams Miller

Sometimes in life we get the chance to experience a mountaintop moment, and that’s exactly what happened when I chatted with the brilliant Geneen Roth this week. Geneen wrote the landmark book Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything, which came out in 2010, nearly 15 years ago. A huge fan of this groundbreaking work? None other than Oprah Winfrey, so if it’s good enough for Oprah, it’s good enough for me. At its core, one of the central messages in Women, Food, and God is this: we often eat to fill a void or a hole for something other than food. Anytime we eat when we’re not physically hungry — so, think emotional eating — we are hungry for something other than food. We are seeking nourishment from food to fill a lack of nourishment in another area of our lives. The good news, as Geneen and I discuss in today’s episode? This is fixable! I am living proof, as I used to struggle with this but don’t to the same degree anymore. I will probably always struggle with this to an extent, but reading Geneen’s book (which I cried while reading!) ushered in a new chapter of my life where my issues with food didn’t run the show. Geneen has candidly admitted that she has had food issues in the past, too, going back to age five or six. Her first diet began when she was just 11. I relate to this so much, as it was the same story for me. If you have ever eaten to fulfill an unmet need elsewhere, this conversation is for you. We must ask ourselves, Geneen writes, “What do I really want?” One’s relationship with food is often directly correlated to one’s relationship with themselves, and food is a mirror for how well we feel nourished in our lives. Today, Geneen helps us take the first step with an intention to heal a poor relationship with food; talks to us about why diet and restriction are not the answer to solving this issue; and shares what she’s learned after the massive global reception to this book. This is by no means the only book Geneen has written, but Women, Food, and God is what we’re zooming in on today. In fact, Geneen has written 10 books, and I was excited to hear her say on this episode that she’s working on a new book! In addition to Women, Food, and God, Geneen has also written This Messy Magnificent Life, When Food Is Love, Breaking Free from Emotional Eating, Lost and Found, and many others. Over the past 40 years, she has helped thousands of people through her workshops and retreats and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, 20/20, and The View. Geneen’s books were some of the first to link compulsive eating and perpetual dieting with deeply personal and spiritual issues that transcend food, weight, and body image. She believes, as I do, that the way to transform our relationship with food and our body is to be kind to ourselves, not punishing. Take a listen to our conversation.

Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth

Learn more about Geneen’s work at geneenroth.com!

What if I told you that, when it comes to managing your time and your life, you were never going to get it together — and that was okay? Continuing the thread from our last conversation with Kendra Adachi, today on the show we have the incomparable Oliver Burkeman, who wrote the book Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, which came out October 8. Literally from the opening page of the book — page one of the introduction, which is called “The Imperfect Life” — Oliver had me hooked with the words “This is a book about how the world opens up once you realize you’re never going to sort your life out.” The hard truth? There will always be too much to do. We will never win the unwinnable battle of conquering our time. But the good news? We will be okay, and Oliver’s book teaches us how. We will, in his words, never reach the end of the trouble-free phase. Our culture has a productivity and busyness obsession, and it all comes down to grasping for control in an uncontrollable world. The book is broken up into bite size chunks — daily offerings over four weeks. Those four weeks are Week 1: Being Finite; Week 2: Taking Action; Week 3: Letting Go; and Week 4: Showing Up. Today on the show Oliver talks to us about why he decided to organize the book this way and teaches us about a concept called strategic underachievement and what he calls JOMO, which is the JOY of missing out, as opposed to FOMO, the fear of missing out. We talk about embracing “imperfectionism” and why people pleasers may struggle with this more; a major fallacy about time that Oliver thinks we’ve gotten terribly wrong; and so much more. Oliver is also the author of 2021’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, the title of which roughly represents the length of a human life. Oliver wrote the weekly column “This Column Will Change Your Life” for The Guardian from 2006 to 2020 and, in addition to Meditations for Mortals and Four Thousand Weeks, is the author of two other books, HELP!: How to Be Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done and The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking. You’re going to love him. If you’re looking to be liberated from your to do list, explore a more meaningful life, and take a four week “retreat of the mind” (unless you’re like me and gobble his book up in one sitting), take a listen.

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman

I said I was going to take this month off from the show, but then, Kendra Adachi’s brilliant book The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius found me, and I couldn’t be selfish to you lovely listeners and keep it to myself. I really do believe books meet you where you are, and The PLAN certainly met me where I was (and still am). I am obsessed with time management, productivity, life hacks, life optimization — but I was shocked to learn in Kendra’s book, which came out October 8, that a full 93 percent of time management books are written by men! In today’s conversation, Kendra explains why that matters, and why we need a different voice at the table. Kendra writes in the book “The problem isn’t you” when it comes to time management, and that “It’s not your lack of dedication, consistency, or motivation. It’s not because you haven’t started the right habit or taken the right online course. It’s because the current productivity paradigm doesn’t work for women. It’s that simple. The advice you’re getting is for men by men, and women are just expected to make it work.” In today’s episode we talk about the productivity industrial complex, her method of compassionate time management, what a “Lazy Genius” is anyway, the four components of the PLAN (which is an acronym!), and perhaps most meaningful for me, how time management looks different in different seasons, and to embrace the season we’re in and what time management in this particular season looks like. There’s so much good here, and here to walk us through it all is Kendra Adachi, who is a New York Times bestselling author of The Lazy Genius Way, The Lazy Genius Kitchen, and now, The PLAN, which is a New York Times bestseller! And rightfully so. She hosts the Lazy Genius Podcast and, through her compassionate time management philosophy, believes that we should stop doing it all for the sake of doing what matters. She has a husband, three kids, and a great message.

The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius by Kendra Adachi