Gretchen Rubin was an early guest on Best of Both Worlds about five years ago. So Sarah and I were delighted to welcome her back this week to talk about her brand new book Life in Five Senses. (And a great many other topics! Including a lot of listener questions.)
Gretchen began studying the senses after realizing how much she took experiencing the world for granted. And while you can live a full life without the full use of a sense, being able to experience the world in so many ways is a gift.
In this interview, Gretchen and I talk senses (including our “neglected senses”), visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art (she went daily while writing the book), the Four Tendencies, how she’s going to transition into empty nest life (her youngest daughter is finishing high school this year), and her writing advice.
Please give the episode a listen! If you’d like to discuss Gretchen’s book Life in Five Senses with me and Sarah, please consider joining our Patreon community. Life in Five Senses is our next book club pick, and we’ll be chatting about it on May 25th at noon eastern. You can sign up for the Patreon community here.
(Our next meet-up, where we’ll be talking about friendship, is this Thursday April 20th at noon. Hope to see some folks there!)
Loved this episode! Looking back, I can identify that reading The Happiness Project was a pivotal moment in my life and, more generally, Gretchen’s work and research have had tremendous impacts on some major decisions I’ve made over the last decade!
Scent is a huge memory trigger for me – especially woodsy smells (e.g. pine trees, rotting leaves), since I grew up close to a forest and have fond memories of time spent wandering along trails with my parents and siblings. Sadly, I have developed an allergy to most perfumes over the years. I have a signature perfume I was wearing when I met my now-husband and used a spray just a few days ago for the first time in months. I love the scent, but if I use it often or in more than the smallest of quantities, it gives me a headache. I really should investigate some more natural perfume options that might not upset my neurosensory systems, because I really do miss wearing perfume. (And I really appreciated Gretchen’s comment about wearing her perfume at home since so many people are allergic to perfumes these days!)
@Elisabeth – glad you liked it! I’ve never really been into perfume, probably because I’m so turned off by overdone versions of it, but I can imagine that a little bit could smell nice!
Great episode – I listen to Gretchen’s podcast all the time and I still learned a ton from your chat with her. Thanks for asking about sugar – her response gave me a lot to think about.
@Elisa- thanks! It was fun to record, and having some listener questions helped me ask some totally different things.