Happy New Year from all of us at Nice News! We hope you enjoyed revisiting 2024’s top stories in the Best of Nice News series, and we’re excited to be back for another year of spreading positivity in the inbox and beyond. Below, we’ve curated a trio of 2025-related stories, starting with Assistant Editor Rebekah Brandes’ exclusive interview with happiness expert Gretchen Rubin. It’s the perfect way to kick off your year, if we do say so ourselves.
Gretchen Rubin Shares Lessons for Leading a Happier Life in the New Year and Beyond
Mary Long/ iStock
Happiness is hard to characterize. Is it contentment? Satisfaction? Joy? Ask author Gretchen Rubin, who studies and writes about the subject, and she won’t miss a beat in answering. “I do not define it,” Rubin tells Nice News matter-of-factly. “I started my career in law where we spent an entire semester arguing about contracts, and happiness is an even more elusive concept.” She notes that there are some 15 academic definitions of the term and adds: “We can all bring to it what we want.” “I think, for the ordinary person, it’s more helpful to think about being happier,” she explains. “If you do this — this week, this month, this year — are you likely to be happier? However you define that for yourself.” Host of the podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin, the Yale graduate published the New York Times bestselling book The Happiness Project in 2018 and went on to create a newsletter and award-winning app on the topic. Her ideas about human behavior are rooted in research and, as she puts it, “me-search.” One of her most refreshing assertions? “You don’t have to change.” Read more of her practical advice.
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New Year, New Celestial Wonders: Blood Moon, Partial Solar Eclipse, and Meteor Showers Await
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
If you’re filling in your celestial calendar for 2025, we’ve got good news for you. There are plenty of stellar events to look forward to — all you have to do is get out, look above, and maybe stay awhile. First up is the Quadrantid meteor shower, which is expected to peak in the pre-dawn hours on Friday. Considered one of the best annual meteor showers, the Quadrantids peak for only a few hours, a smaller window than most meteors, making it arguably all the more special to witness. Another exciting event to put on your radar is a total lunar eclipse on March 14, also known as a blood moon because of the reddish tint the moon takes when eclipsed. Later that month, on March 29, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from a small slice of the northeastern U.S.See what other events are on the horizon.
Culture
What Was Happening in 1925? Jazz, “The Great Gatsby,” and Silent Films
In a change-up from future-focused New Year’s content, let’s take a minute to rewind to 1925: the height of the Jazz Age. The economy was booming for many — as was the music scene. Louis Armstrong made his first recordings as a bandleader and the Grand Ole Opry opened in Nashville. The world was also abuzz underground, as speakeasies abounded, with between 30,000 and 100,000 in New York City alone. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that it was a time when “the parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the buildings were higher, the morals looser.” Back in 1925, he probably didn’t know that the newly published book in which that line appeared, The Great Gatsby, would one day be known as the Great American Novel. (Fun fact: It initially got mixed reviews.) The year also brought another iconic line — perhaps among the most famous openers in literary history: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself,” from Virginia Woolf’s pioneering modernist novel Mrs. Dalloway. As for movies, things were less chatty, with critically acclaimed silent films being released, such as The Gold Rush and The Phantom of the Opera. We can’t help but wonder what might happen this year that will be written about a century from now. As the saying goes, only time will tell!
In Other News
The U.S. Mintwill makenew quarters featuring five historical female figures this year (read more)
Get your 2025 reading list going with Time’s roundup of the most highly anticipated books (read more)
Consider swapping your resolutions for a “year-long syllabus” (read more)
Oscar nominations are just weeks away from being announced: Revisit the shortlists (read more)
Eat up! These New Year’s food traditions are said to bring good luck (read more)
Something We Love
Bitterleaf Teas I recently received a tin of Goldrush yellow tea from Bitterleaf as a gift from my dad, and it prompted me to check out more of the company’s offerings. It’s a small, family-run business in China, and I love the artwork on the labels and packaging. The tea itself is incredibly aromatic and complex — it’s a wonderful, warm treat to get through these cold January days. – Rebekah Brandes, Assistant Editor
Everyone wants community, but building one can be easier said than done in today’s world. “Collective loneliness is when you feel like you don’t belong to something greater than yourself,” explained friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson, adding: “We have to start acting like we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves.” Read her science-backed advice on fostering the social skills needed to create a village.
Photo of the Day
Michael DeWitt | @apostleislandsphotography
Brr! Just looking at this photo gives us a chill. It captures the winter wonderland along the sandstone cliffs of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. “Known as the ‘Jewels of Lake Superior,’ this stunning park undergoes a magical transformation in the winter,” the Department of the Interior captioned the photo.
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