What does 'success' mean to you?

Jennifer Romolini is a writer, author and podcaster. Her second book is ‘Ambition Monster,’ a memoir about the connection between workaholism and childhood trauma. In it, she traces the evolution of her voracious ambition and reckons with the price she paid to obtain career success.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Jennifer joins Leah to discuss how her relationship to work has evolved since she entered the workforce as a teenager. A self-described ‘workaholic,’ Jennifer also reflects on how she learned to redefine success and ambition for herself. Later, she shares strategies for how to manage your time so you can prioritize what matters most.

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Everyday Better is kicking off 2025 with a month’s worth of conversations designed to help you reset for the year ahead. Each week, you’ll learn about research-backed techniques to improve your mental, physical, work and relational well-being. No matter what your goals are this year, our 2025 Reset Series will equip you with the tools you need to make measurable, lasting changes in your life.

In our productivity-obsessed world, getting a good night’s rest is probably low on your to-do list. But what would change if you made sleep a priority this year?

Today’s guest Dr. Rebecca Robbins has a clear answer: prioritizing sleep will help you achieve your goals because sleep and performance are linked. Dr. Robbins is a sleep scientist and Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

In this conversation, Dr. Robbins debunks some of the most pervasive myths about sleep, including the belief that eight hours is the magic number, that we can catch up on sleep over the weekend and that falling asleep should only take you a few minutes. She also explains the science behind sleep and shares actionable tips for getting a better night’s rest that you can try out yourself tonight.

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Happy New Year! To kick off 2025, Everyday Better is bringing you a month’s worth of conversations designed to help you reset for the year ahead. Each week, you’ll learn about research-backed techniques to improve your mental, physical, work and relational well-being. No matter what your goals are this year, our 2025 Reset Series will equip you with the tools you need to make measurable, lasting change in your life.

Today’s guest is here to help you reset your relationship to stress. Dr. Aditi Nerurkar is a Harvard physician and expert in stress and burnout. Her first book is The Five Resets: Rewire Your Brain For Less Stress and More Resilience. 

In this conversation, Dr. Nerurkar walks through five powerful strategies for resetting your baseline stress level and preventing burnout. She explains the difference between stress and anxiety, as well as what happens in the brain and body when we experience stress. She also addresses why it’s so hard to build new habits and shares tips for creating boundaries with your phone.

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Meik Wiking is the founder and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. He’s also the author of several books including The Little Book of Hygge and My Hygge Home. 

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Meik joins Leah to discuss ‘hygge’ – a Danish word that loosely translates to “coziness.” Meik shares how he and other Danes prepare for winter each year by creating ultra-cozy indoor environments to support well-being. He also explains why hygge and happiness are interconnected and why simple pleasures are the key to happiness.

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Each winter, life slows down. It’s dark and cold, yet the season offers an opportunity for rest. This week’s episode of Everyday Better honors the beginning of winter with Katherine May, author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.

In Wintering, Katherine shares the story of navigating a personal ‘winter’ – a challenging period of time during which she retreated into herself in order to cope with everything happening around her. Drawing on research about how Northern cultures weather their own harsh winters, Wintering is a balm for weary souls everywhere.

In this episode, Leah and Katherine discuss the art of slowing down and how to embrace the metaphorical seasons we all go through in life. 

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Andrew Adams, co-founder and CEO of Headway, is making access to therapy easier. Headway is a mental health care marketplace that matches patients with providers who accept insurance. Earlier this year, Headway was named a LinkedIn top 50 startup.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Andrew joins Leah to discuss the barriers to accessing mental health care. He shares his experience with finding a therapist and going to therapy, as well as his personal motivation for building a national network of mental health care providers. Andrew also reflects on how his mental health hygiene routine has changed as his company and responsibilities as a CEO have grown. 

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To learn more about Headway, check out their website.

Athena Aktipis is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University and co-Director of The Human Generosity Project. She studies how people work together, especially during crises, through the lenses of evolutionary biology and psychology. Her latest book, “A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times”, digs into the history and science of cooperation.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Athena joins Leah to discuss the history of human survival during times of crisis. Drawing from her research with the Maasai tribe, Athena explains why cooperation is key to surviving both natural and human-caused disasters. She also shares how game theory can be used to build more cooperative communities. 

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Scott Rick is a behavioral scientist and marketing professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He holds a PhD in Behavioral Decision Research from Carnegie Mellon, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Scott joins Leah to explore the complicated role of money in relationships. He shares advice for couples who have different views on spending money, including strategies for those who hate spending and those who enjoy it too much. He also discusses the importance of gift-giving in relationships and how to use psychology to find the perfect gift this holiday season.

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To learn more about how money messes with relationships – and how you can keep it from messing with yours – check out Scott’s book Tightwads and Spendthrifts: Navigating the Money Minefield in Real Relationships.

Shasta Nelson is a leading expert in healthy relationships and intimacy. For over 15 years, she’s been translating the science of human connection into actionable practices for enhancing belonging and well-being.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Shasta joins Leah to discuss the key components of healthy relationships. Shasta shares strategies for developing new friendships and nurturing existing ones, as well as advice for ending a friendship. She also draws on data about loneliness and happiness to explain why working on our relationships is the most important thing we can do to improve our overall health. 

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To learn more about how to foster healthy relationships, check out Shasta’s book Frientimacy: How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong Health and Happiness.

Lynne Peeples is a journalist and author of The Inner Clock: Living in Sync With Our Circadian Rhythms. She covers science, health and the environment and holds master’s degrees in biostatistics and science journalism.

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Lynne joins Leah to discuss the science behind our circadian rhythms. Lynne explains why our inner clocks are out of sync and what that means for our physical and mental health. She also offers strategies for resetting our clocks, including limiting the hours during which we eat and following a consistent sleep/wake schedule.

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To learn more about circadian rhythms, check out Lynne’s book The Inner Clock.

Carole Hopson is a Boeing 737 captain for United Airlines and the author of ‘A Pair of Wings,’ a historical fiction novel about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to get her pilot license. After a successful twenty-year career working for iconic brands like the National Football League, Foot Locker and L’Oréal, Carole quit her job to pursue her lifelong dream of flying planes. 

On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Carole tells the story of how she turned that childhood dream into a second-act career. She shares wisdom on balancing your career alongside the responsibilities of being a parent, demonstrating why moms make for some of the best employees. She also discusses her novel and her next big dream: sending 100 Black women to flight school by 2035. 

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To learn more about the life of Bessie Coleman, check out Carole’s novel A Pair of Wings.