In today’s busy world, sometimes traditions get pushed aside. But blogger and author Jessica Smartt believes that making memories are the missing piece in today’s families. Her book Memory-Making Mom: Building Traditions That Breathe Life Into Your Home looks at how even the busiest family can rethink their day-to-day activities and create memory-making traditions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How traditions help bring us together

Even as our world becomes more connected, most of us are feeling less connected and more alone than ever before. Spiritual teacher, poet and author Mark Nepo’s latest book, More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and In Our World, looks at why we’re feeling so disconnected and how we can reconnect with others and learn to better accept one another’s differences.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What is making us less connected in today’s world

If you’re having trouble turning off your job and can’t seem to unplug from work, Bryan E. Robinson, Ph.D., has just the solution for you. A recovering workaholic himself, he understands how hard it is to step away from work addiction and make time for life. His book, #Chill: Turn Off Your Job and Turn On Your Life, is a month-by-month guide to working less and living more.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What happens to us at a cellular level when we’re always busy

Each year, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network releases a comprehensive World Happiness Report to look at happiness from a global perspective. This year, the news isn’t exactly great for the U.S., so Live Happy Editor Chris Libby and Live Happy Now Host Paula Felps sat down to talk about what’s causing us to be less happy than we should be…and what we can do about it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How social media has contributed to our declining levels of happiness

If you’ve ever felt that your fears are holding you back from creating the life you love, you’re not alone! This week, New York Times best-selling author Ruth Soukup and host of the Do It Scared podcast, joins us to talk about her new book, Do It Scared: Finding the Courage to Overcome Adversity, Face Your Fears and Create a Life You Love. She explains how all fear is not created equal and identifies the seven different Fear Archetypes that determine how we respond to fearful situations—and how to use our fear as a stepping stone to courage.

In this episode, you’ll learn:  

• Why each of us respond to fear in different ways

If you have a child, teach a child or have been a child, then you’ll want to hear what Renee Jain has to say on this week’s episode of Live Happy Now. Renee, the founder of GoZen!, developed her company to help children deal with anxiety as well as building life skills to find meaning, purpose and engagement in their lives. On April 8–11, in conjunction with Live Happy, GoZen! Will present the Happy Child Summit, a free online experience designed to help adults and children better understand how to use the tools that lead to happiness in childhood (and beyond).

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What inspired Renee to start GoZen!

This week, it’s all about time as best-selling author and Google Venture design partner Jake Knapp joins us. Jake spent 10 years at Google, where he helped build products like Gmail and Google Hangouts, but perhaps his greatest accomplishment is figuring out how we can design our days to get more out of them. In this episode, he’s talking with Live Happy Now about his new book, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day, and he teaches us how we can rearrange our days to match the priorities we want.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to identify the things in our lives worth making time for

Here at Live Happy Now, it’s not just another week; it’s time to celebrate our 200th episode! Live Happy’s Deborah Heisz and Paula Felps talk about how the podcast came to be and what listeners can look forward to in the future.  

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Live Happy Now began—and how it’s evolved

Author and advocate for positivity Shola Richards joins us to talk about how we can live in harmony when we work together. His latest book Go Together, covers the concept of the African philosophy of Unbuntu, which uses the power of human connectedness, compassion, kindness and togetherness to live happier, more productive lives. Shola is on a quest to show how to protect professionalism of our company cultures, the preciousness of our time, the strength of our talents, the dignity of ourselves and the mutual respect of one another.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The word “Ubuntu” and how it can positively change how you live, work and lead.

Bestselling New York Times author Gretchen Rubin has spent more than a decade exploring what makes us happy. And, she’s found, one of the simplest ways to improve our well-being is to clear the clutter around us. Her latest book, Outer Order, Inner Calm offers more than 150 different ways to get rid of the clutter around us and create more order. In this episode, she explains the relationship between decluttering and happiness, and gives tips on how to make lasting changes.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What achieving outer order does for our happiness