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Gretchen Rubin
Lemonade
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Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts
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Gretchen Rubin
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is a little happier I like some of Andy Warhol's art, but I love his writing. He is the most extraordinarily interesting writer and observer of human nature. I find myself quoting him all the time. For instance, I often find myself quoting a comment he made in the Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and back again. He wrote, When I think about what sort of person I would most like to have on a retainer, I think it would be a boss. A boss who could tell me what to do. Because that makes everything easy when you're working. I find that so true about work that the hardest part about working is telling yourself what to do. Once you know what to do, things get much easier. At times I wish I had someone around who could just tell me what to do. Sometimes, too, Andy Warhol makes observations that seem odd, eerie, or even nonsensical, but that strike a deep chord with me. For instance, in the same book he wrote, when I look around today, the biggest anachronism I see is pregnancy. I just can't believe that people are still getting pregnant. This is obviously a ridiculous thing to say, but somehow I feel that I know exactly what he means. Inspired by Andy Warhol, I've been keeping a list of things that I would add things that seem anachronistic when I think, wow, is this still happening in the same old way? Here is my list. Volcanoes erupting, museum guards standing in galleries, political adversaries of the Russian government being thrown out of windows, Birds causing an airplane to crash, growing crops for food, relying on a physical wall to keep out intruders, Heart attacks rising in frequency during the Super Bowl. Obviously I see the absurdity. It's ridiculous to think that growing crops for food seems anachronistic. And yet I do have that vague feeling. How about you? Is there anything that happens today that seems somehow anachronistic? I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier.
Host: Gretchen Rubin
Date: April 27, 2026
In this episode of "A Little Happier," Gretchen Rubin draws inspiration from Andy Warhol’s book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol to explore the idea of anachronisms—things that, despite all advances and modernity, still seem oddly out of place or old-fashioned. Gretchen shares Warhol's unique perspectives and reflects on her own list of phenomena that feel similarly anachronistic today, inviting listeners to consider what, in their own lives, strikes them as oddly persistent.
This concise, reflective episode invites listeners to find humor and wonder in the things that persist despite all our progress, blending Warhol’s offbeat observations with Gretchen’s thoughtful, personal take.