One year ago this month — February 20, to be exact — the world was introduced to Dr. Sue Varma’s landmark book Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being . Its tagline certainly speaks to our modern times: “A practical program rooted in optimism to help you live fully and joyfully in an imperfect, turbulent world.” Yes, please! Sign me up. Sue has a fascinating story — she is a board-certified psychiatrist with a private practice in Manhattan, and was the first ...
Feb 02, 2025•31 min•Season 15Ep. 16
Like so many, my heart is deeply heavy today for the victims of both the Washington D.C. plane and helicopter collision and now, as of Friday night, the tragic plane crash in Philadelphia. Both incidents — as well as so much else going on in my life right now — have led me to start reevaluating my life. What matters most? What should be prioritized? Today’s guest helps us, through her impressive body of work, learn how to make decisions, including learning when to quit and walk away from somethi...
Feb 01, 2025•39 min•Season 15Ep. 15
We’ve got an absolute legend on the show today, although he’d never refer to himself that way. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned executive leadership coach, is here today to chat with me specifically about his 2015 book Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts — Becoming the Person You Want to Be , which turns 10 years old this year. In Triggers , Marshall writes that meaningful behavior change is very hard to do, and today he explains what a trigger is and how triggers can stop behavior chan...
Jan 30, 2025•33 min•Season 15Ep. 14
I could not be more excited to continue our big week of programming with the fantastic Molly Fletcher, who is a podcaster, entrepreneur, speaker, and former sports agent, described as “the female Jerry Maguire” by CNN and ESPN. She is also the founder of The Molly Fletcher Company and, when she was working as a sports agent, she represented athletes, coaches, and broadcasters ranging from Tom Izzo to Doc Rivers, Erin Andrews, Billy Donovan, Joe Theismann, and more. She is a former athlete hersel...
Jan 29, 2025•30 min•Season 15Ep. 13
I could not be more excited, because today is R and P day on the show! That’s right — today we’re chatting with the fabulous Lindsay Jill Roth, one of my new favorite people, about her book Romances & Practicalities: A Love Story (Maybe Yours!) in 250 Questions , which comes out today, January 28. I spoke to Lindsay just before my wedding, and even though I was obviously in major love mode in the leadup to that, let’s be honest — I’m always in major love mode. I’m a hopeless romantic, and I ...
Jan 28, 2025•28 min•Season 15Ep. 12
Today we’ve got another necessary conversation for so many of us — we’re talking with Dr. Ellen Hendriksen about her new book How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists , which came out January 7. It turns out, perhaps not surprisingly, that feeling a lack of enoughness is a widespread problem, and Ellen’s book taught me so much about perfectionism — including that I apparently am one, even though I never would have thought that of myself. Perfectionism, as Ellen write...
Jan 27, 2025•30 min•Season 15Ep. 11
Today I am thrilled to have on the show Israa Nasir to talk about her book Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Demands More , which came out November 19. Israa is a psychotherapist, speaker, and the founder of the mental health brand WellGuide, a digital community for mental health awareness. I love getting her WellGuide Substack, so make sure to subscribe to “The Well Guide” if you love this book and this conversation, which I know you will. Her wor...
Jan 26, 2025•30 min•Season 15Ep. 10
As we continue our ongoing, sporadic time management series, we’re chatting today with Maria Bowler, the author of Making Time: A New Vision for Crafting a Life Beyond Productivity , which came out January 21. In the book, Maria writes that we are a culture obsessed with productivity — but in Making Time , she argues that our to do lists are just a distraction. In our conversation today, we talk about what we’re distracting ourselves from; how we should act from our being rather than our doing ;...
Jan 25, 2025•24 min•Season 15Ep. 9
I recently had the great honor and pleasure of chatting with legendary sports broadcaster Chris Myers, whose book That Deserves a Wow: Untold Stories of Legends and Champions, Their Wins and Heartbreaks came out last November 19. This book is part memoir and part time capsule of some of the highlight reel of sports moments over the past few decades, as Chris has truly seen it all. Chris is an Emmy-winning FOX Sports broadcaster who in That Deserves a Wow takes us behind the scenes for his 1998 l...
Jan 22, 2025•28 min•Season 15Ep. 8
Today on the show we’re talking about a fascinating topic — how to unlearn the idea of being a so-called “good mom.” We’re chatting today with Nancy Reddy, author of The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom, which comes out January 21 and helps us unwind, as the title suggests, “the good mother myth” and myths we’ve been told over the years about what it means to be quote-unquote “good” in the mom department. In this book, Nancy presents so much science-backed ad...
Jan 21, 2025•34 min•Season 15Ep. 7
Birmingham, Alabama — also known as The Magic City — is a major part of my story. I lived there for nearly 11 years, from January 2013 until December 2023; my husband is from there and I met my husband there; and, living there from age 26 to 37, it was part of my formative years as an adult. During my time in Birmingham, I worked in communications at the economic development organization the Birmingham Business Alliance, where I had the opportunity to meet Birmingham’s mayor, Randall Woodfin, on...
Jan 20, 2025•31 min•Season 15Ep. 6
Earlier this week we spoke about romantic relationships, and today we’re turning the focus to friendships — which are equally as important to a life. I have been so, so fortunate throughout my life to have the best of the best when it comes to friendships, both female and male, and I personally know — as I’m sure so many of you do — what friendship can add to a life. Our surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy, whose work I really appreciate and admire, has spoken at length in the past few years about ...
Jan 16, 2025•31 min•Season 15Ep. 5
This week on the show, we’re going to be talking about some of our most important relationships — our romantic relationships and our platonic relationships. Today on the show we have the relationship expert herself, Jillian Turecki, to talk about her new book It Begins with You: The 9 Hard Truths About Love That Will Change Your Life, which comes out January 14. As Jillian puts it in the book, no matter where your love life is at today, “you hold the key to the change you want to see in your lov...
Jan 14, 2025•32 min•Season 15Ep. 4
When you think of the word “audacity,” what comes to mind? Honestly, for most of us, it’s probably a negative connotation — as in, how do they have the audacity to do that? In her new book Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win , Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster Anne Marie Anderson is looking to reframe the word “audacity” into a positive, and something we all should be doing: being audacious enough to go for the big dream, the big goal, the big life. As she writes in Cu...
Jan 12, 2025•33 min•Season 15Ep. 3
Today we have an inside look into life in the Ford White House thanks to Bob Barrett’s new book Inside the President’s Team: Family, Service, and the Gerald Ford Presidency, which comes out January 7. In this book, Bob — who was one of President Ford’s most trusted advisers — gives us a behind-the-curtain view of the Ford presidency as, second to Gerald Ford’s wife Betty Ford, no one was closer to the president during his administration than Bob Barrett. Bob carried the “nuclear football” of the...
Jan 07, 2025•28 min•Season 15Ep. 2
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 bo...
Jan 05, 2025•25 min•Season 15Ep. 1
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 ...
Dec 31, 2024•33 min•Season 14Ep. 22
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 Ro...
Dec 29, 2024•59 min•Season 14Ep. 21
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 als...
Dec 19, 2024•33 min•Season 14Ep. 20
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 Wome...
Dec 15, 2024•28 min•Season 14Ep. 19
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...
Nov 30, 2024•42 min•Season 14Ep. 18
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 mont...
Nov 28, 2024•26 min•Season 14Ep. 17
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 ...
Nov 24, 2024•39 min•Season 14Ep. 16
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 “...
Nov 12, 2024•35 min•Season 14Ep. 15
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 ...
Nov 07, 2024•35 min•Season 14Ep. 14
Election Day is on Tuesday, November 5, and I could think of no better book to tee that up than Bill Haldeman’s new book Meeting the Moment: Inspiring Presidential Leadership That Transformed America , which is out November 1. This book about presidential leadership takes a specific leadership quality of a certain president and shows readers how the combination of that quality and that president transformed America. Case in point? Bill writes that for Thomas Jefferson, his transformative leaders...
Nov 01, 2024•25 min•Season 14Ep. 13
Today on the show we have Wright Thompson here to talk about his latest book, one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read — The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi , which came out September 24. Though it’s not mentioned in the title or the subtitle, the book is about the brutal, absolutely depraved murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till on August 28, 1955 in Mississippi. I have a deep connection with Mississippi, as does Wright, who was born and raised there, and who grew up just 2...
Oct 25, 2024•31 min•Season 14Ep. 12
Today on the show we’re talking about a woman you all have long known I admire — Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. I have read every book I can get my hands on about this former First Lady, American (and, really, global) icon, and one of the most famous women to ever live. We have even had many episodes of the show about her in the past. But today we’re talking about the new book Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life by Dr. Karen M. Dunak, which is out November 12, and instead of just lo...
Oct 20, 2024•39 min•Season 14Ep. 11
What an episode we have for you today, listeners. Today on the show we have the phenomenal Terri Cole, whose work about boundaries I have so resonated with in the past. She has a new book out on October 15 called Too Much: A Guide to Breaking the Cycle of High-Functioning Codependency , and it examines what we thought we knew about codependency. We have had the godmother of codependency, Melody Beattie, on the show, and Melody introduced the concept to the world. Now, in Too Much , Terri is taki...
Oct 13, 2024•39 min•Season 14Ep. 10
Today on the show we are talking about Victoria’s Secret, the retail giant that, as my guests Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez write in their new book Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon , “defined a generation’s idea of sexy.” Selling Sexy is out October 8 and tells the story of a company that, at its peak, pulled in $8 billion in annual sales. We talk in today’s episode about Les Wexner, what Victoria’s Secret was like at its apex, its ubiquitous presence...
Oct 07, 2024•42 min•Season 14Ep. 9
