3 Books With Neil Pasricha

BIG NEWS! I just finished writing CANADA IS AWESOME: A Little Book About A Big Country. This podcast is me reading the whole book! The book is about all the weird, wonderful, beautiful things that make Canada ... Canada. Did you ever notice Canadians speak in the collective? “What do you think of the weather we're having?” “Shall we grab a Tims before the meeting?” “Think we have a shot at the playoffs?” We, we, we. We use the word we so much. Why do we feel like such a collective? I don't think it's complicated. I think it's because we are one. We all toss around half of everything we make into a big glass jar and use it to pay for everyone's health care, education, and services. Sure, the system's never perfect, but if you shatter your ankle in an icy Canadian Tire parking lot, need a dozen years of free school for five kids in Kamloops, or want to drive on freshly snowplowed roads from Comox to Cornwall to Cape Spear, well ... we got you. We got you. We got everyone. So today I'm releasing the audio version of my first new book in three years. For free! With no ads! It's a gift. The Canadian way. I'm sharing the audiobook for free on the 3 Books podcast feed and on YouTube and then on Canada Day (July 1st) I'll be publishing the full text and a beautifully formatted PDF for free download on my blog (www.neil.blog) and also selling paper books—both black and white paperbacks and full-color hardcovers—at cost, starting July 1st. It's a different type of book than I've done before—a 78-page, bright red, self-published love letter to my home country. And it was designed by a Canadian in Ottawa (Steve St. Pierre), audio and video edited by a Canadian in Toronto (Dave Boire), and even the t-shirt I'm wearing in the YouTube video was designed and manufactured by a Canadian in Toronto (Daniel Torjman). If you're Canadian I hope you feel pride in who we are. If you're not Canadian, I hope this helps you see Canada a little clearer. Maybe it will inspire you to visit ... or to move here! Flip this on for your long road trip and let's let ourselves get inspired by what's possible when grit, determination, and kindness come together across culture and language. Let's reflect on shared goals of spending time with loved ones, hitting best-in-world education rates, and, of course, kicking back by the lake with a Moosehead and a bowl of ketchup chips. This is a piece of writing close to my heart and something I have been working on for over a decade. It began as a 1000 word blog post on '1000 Awesome Things' (2012), turned into a 5000 word Audible Original audiobook (2017), and now, today, in 2025, has become a 10,000 word physical book and audiobook that I offer here as my gift to you—and to us. I hope you like it. Neil

It started with a modern plea for help: "Can I charge my dead phone in your bookstore?" I was in Del Mar, California, walking up the coast of the Pacific Ocean after birding all morning in ​Torrey Pines​. I was tracking my birds on ​eBird​—the ​Peregrine Falcons​, ​Anna's Hummingbirds​, and ​California Scrub-Jays​—and, of course, completely drained my phone's battery. When I get to Del Mar I spy this hobbit-hole looking bookstore called ​Camino Books: For The Road Ahead​ and when I walk in I am suddenly thrust into a gorgeous Biblio Paradise. Camino Books is one of the most spectacular bookstores I've ever seen! I fall into the handwritten Staff Picks walls, nookish children's section, incredible curation, giant hand-drawn posters from Dave Eggers, and the Wonka-like atmosphere that creates a true feast for the eyes and mind! But yeah ... my phone's dead. So I walk to the back counter and ask the gentleman unpacking boxes if I could plug it in back there. When I tell him I'm Canadian he gives me a quirky grin and says, "How many tariffs should I put on your free charge?" We laugh and start talking about the political scene. John has the aura of ​George Saunders​—a certain "warm gnarliness"—and he tells me, "We have no left wing in this country. We're like an eagle slowly swirling to the ground with just one right wing." And I could immediately tell this poetic bookselling Jedi master needed to be recorded... What emerges are the poetic distillations of 67-year-old John the Bookseller, along with his wife Alison who cameos at the end. They have been booksellers since 1981 ... a combined 88 years! No wonder the store's so great. They began in Berkeley and then opened up an independent bookstore chain called Diesel Books, up and down the California coast, and now have sold the store to open up a little new shop on the coast called Camino Books: For the Road Ahead. Don't we all need a good book for the road ahead? Let's talk about how to open a bookstore, California independence, fighting fascism, George Orwell, the 51st state, customers vs. readers, Susan Cain, the Spanish Civil War, how to 'stay awake,' and, of course, John and Alison's 3 most formative books. This is the kind of mind-opening conversation that great bookstores create. Let's head down to Del Mar, California as we flip the page to Chapter 149 now...

Loneliness rates have doubled since the 1980s and Vivek Murthy, former US Surgeon General, says loneliness will be the next major epidemic. So if loneliness is being alone and sad … then what's being alone and happy? Solitude. A few years ago, I picked up an incredible book called '​Solitude​' by Michael Harris, bestselling author and winner of the Governor General's Award for his writing. It completely blew me away. Why? Because in our era of endless machine-gun blasts at our brains, I feel strongly that the ability to be alone, and to be alone well, is a muscle that is quickly atrophying. Michael shares why we need to develop the strength and capacity to live and be by ourselves and how exactly we go about cultivating a rich interior life. Michael has gone on to tackle our culture of consumerism in his 2021 book '​All We Want: Building the Life We Cannot Buy​,' and I think after this conversation you'll agree this true “strength of mind” is a crucial aspect of living an intentional life as we face the threat of social and climate collapse. For this classic chapter of 3 Books, I flew to Michael's home in Vancouver, BC. We discuss: How do we cultivate the area between wakefulness and sleep? What does a healthy media diet look like? Why shouldn't you talk about anything serious over texts? And how do parents and children navigate the conversation about coming out of the closet? And, of course, Michael's 3 most formative books... Let's flip the page back to Chapter 29 now...

Ginny Yurich (​@1000hoursoutside​) drove 5 hours up the road from Michigan to Toronto to hang out with Leslie and me. We went for a walk outside (of course!) and recorded this podcast—our second outdoors podcast in a row after ​Nickisha The Dog Walker​! Why outside? I'm glad you asked! Ginny Yurich is the homeschooling mother of 5 (!) who has spirited a movement called ​1000 Hours Outside​. I like 1000 as you know! ​1000 Awesome Things​ was my first blog, ​1000 formative books​ is ... this entire podcast. So when 3 Bookers globally kept telling me to interview Ginny I looked her up and saw she was a fan of 1000 and I knew ... this was going to be good. And it was even better than I thought! Grab some headphones! Put on some shoes! Let's mutually peel ourselves off screens and scrolling and let's step into the sun, into the wind, into the air and talk about parenting pressures, raising a wild child, ​old dangerous playground equipment​, the benefits of spinning, why osteoporosis is a childhood disease, raising readers, and, of course, Ginny's 3 most formative books. Ginny is the bestselling author of '​1000 Hours Outside​,' '​Until The Streetlights Come On​,' and (out next week!) her brand-new book '​Homeschooling​' which has the catchy subtitle "You're doing it right just by doing it." I found her formative books truly fascinating and her work is heavily research-based which builds upon her Master's in Education and an almost endless reservoir of knowledge about raising enduringly popular and healthy children in today's cognitively-exhausting world.... I absolutely love Ginny Yurich! Open the door, hear the birds, and let's flip the page into Chapter 148 now...

Have you heard of a book called '​The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck​'? I'm guessing you have since it's sold, uh, 16 million copies since it came out in 2016. There hadn't been a non-fiction book that big and disruptive in a long, long time… Mark's meteoric success is the product of a giant mind which has mastered the art of taking the biggest, densest books on the planet and then simmering them down into simple, profanity-laced models and stories that hit you like a ton of bricks. The world is so loud! So busy. So full. Everything is screaming at us to buy this, buy that, do this, do that. You know what we need in this wild world? Guides! Clear voices. People who give us simple and practical advice that we can follow and put into place… Mark Manson is one of those guides for me and millions of others. I follow his popular ​YouTube channel​ and read his ​simple and punchy tweets​. In this classic 3 Books chapter, in Mark's cramped hotel room at The Drake Hotel in Toronto, we go deep on building trust in an era of clutter, why Mark poo-poos self-help gurus, what is the root problem with the 'advertising model,' why Mark played video games for months after the success of his book, what his writing routines and principles are, and, of course, his 3 most formative books… Let's flip the page back to Chapter 28 now...

Let's go for a walk!   I've sometimes imagined 3 Books as a long walk with a friend. So today—let's take one! Nickisha moved to Toronto from Jamaica when she was 16 to reunite with her mom and after working as a travel agent she broke out on her own to run a successful business full of fresh air, exercise, community, and lots of love.   I sometimes see Nickisha with five, six, or seven dogs around her—giving them the highlight of their day! Tongues wagging. Skip in their step. Motoring around town clocking 100km on foot each week!   One of our traditions on 3 Books is doing podcasts outside from ​Chapter 27​ with Robin the Bartender on the open patio of Bar Raval in Toronto to ​Chapter 106​ with Alok Vaid-Menon in Central Park in New York City to ​Chapter 131​ with J. Drew Lanham while birdwatching in South Carolina...   Another tradition here is exploring stories from people who fill our lives but aren't often represented by our screen-based culture full of politicians and billionaires. We vote with our attention so it's fun turning off the same faces to hang with people like ​Vishwas the Uber Driver​, ​Shirley the Nurse​, and ​Soyoung the Variety Store Owner​.   So strap on your running shoes! Throw in some headphones! And let's go for a walk with Nickisha to discuss urban density, pedestrian-driver relations, safe supply, the dog walking business, immigration assimilation, Danielle Steele, and, of course, Nickisha's 3 most formative books.   Let's flip the page to Chapter 147 now...

No one does it like Angie. Racial tensions, police shootings, citizen uprisings. Does this sound like the setting of a YA novel? How about three of them? Her debut '​The Hate U Give,​' her sophomore release '​On The Come Up​,' and her third '​Concrete Rose​' were all on The New York Times bestseller list, and her fantasy middle school-level book '​Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy​' was *also* an instant New York Times bestseller! In this classic chapter of 3 Books, we sat down together at the busiest hotel in downtown Toronto on the tail end of Angie's 15-city book tour to discuss how we find the truth for ourselves, when do we bring up harsh realities to kids, and what place media and religion have in society today. We dive deep into the heightened racial and political tensions today and we search for a way out and, as always, we get to learn Angie Thomas's three most formative books. Let's flip the page back to Chapter 26 now...

Is porn good sex education? Why does body autonomy matter for kids? Does talking about sex kill the mood? Emily Nagoski has the answers! Emily is a sex educator and activist whose mission is to teach us how to live with confidence and joy inside our bodies. She does this as the New York Times bestselling author of 'Come As You Are,' 'Burnout,' and 'Come Together,' as well as through her 3 popular TED Talks including—with over 3 million views—"How couples can sustain a strong sexual connection for a lifetime." Emily began working as a sex educator 30 years ago at the University of Delaware. She has a Master's in Counseling Psychology and she worked at the famous Kinsey Institute. She has taught graduate and undergraduate classes in human sexuality, relationships, communication, stress management, and sex education. She was Director of Wellness Education at Smith College for eight years before starting to write full time. In this deep-dive chapter we talk about neurodiversity versus neurodivergence, maintaining longterm sexual connection, OKCupid, ADHD and Autism, teaching kids about sex, and, of course, Emily's 3 most formative books... For those who want to strengthen and improve their sexual health with themselves and others ... Let's flip the page to Chapter 146 now...

What do you know about James Frey? Or what do you think you know about James Frey? I'm guessing it's not nothing. Everyone has an opinion! When I first spotted '​A Million Little Pieces​' on my wife's bookshelf when we were moving in together I was like “Oh? Really? That book? The Oprah guy?” And she was like “Have you read it?” And I was like “No, no idea what it's even about. Just that it's not real or whatever.” She looked at me with disappointed eyes. Understandably so! I hadn't bothered to go below the surface. To read about it on my own. I had just soaked in some distant fumes off the story. “Read it,” she said, and pushed the book into my hands. That night I opened 'A Million Little Pieces' and was completely pulled into this pulsing, frenetic, endlessly climactic story of addiction, growth, and finding yourself. The book shook me. It was a masterpiece. I couldn't believe it existed. I almost felt anger towards ​the Oprah saga​ because it headfaked me into thinking I knew what the book was about… when I couldn't have been more off. I went deeper into James Frey's catalogue and found myself similarly seduced by books like '​Bright Shiny Morning​' and '​Katerina​,' and am looking forward to Frey's new novel, '​Next To Heaven​,' which is coming out in June 2025. His stories have a pace and staccato to them that's perfect for distracted brains like mine. He doesn't mince words, he doesn't shy away, and his characters always punch you in the gut. In this classic chapter of 3 Books. I sat down with James with a lot of questions and I loved our discussions around fatherhood and living an intentional life. We talk about teaching children to read, the importance of secular bibles, why (and how) we can slowly stop comparing ourselves to others, what getting drunk really means, and much, much more... Let's flip the page back to Chapter 25 now...

Don't use mouthwash.   Why?   It's not Lindy.   At least that's what Paul Skallas, a Chicago-born technology lawyer who goes by Lindyman online, says. I was fascinated to read a New York Times profile of him titled "The Lindy Way of Living," and knew I wanted to have him on 3 Books.   In the 2012 book 'Antifragile,' the statistician and scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined "the Lindy Effect." He wrote, "For the perishable, every additional day in life translates to a shorter additional life expectancy, kind of like me and you and the cheese and our fridge, or the milk and our fridge. But for the non-perishable, every additional day may imply a longer life expectancy." The Lindy Effect says that the longer something has been around, the longer it will stay around.   Paul took this heuristic and with his unique and perceptive insights along with his deep reading of ancient history came to apply it to a broad range of things, including health. He doesn't use mouthwash, a relatively new invention that kills good *and* bad bacteria. But floss—poking stuff out of your teeth—has been around for thousands of years, so that can stay.   This Lindy heuristic is a useful way to navigate our noisy modern world. As reality destabilizes with spiking AI and a fracturing media landscape we can learn and apply long-range lessons from the past to help us today. I love the unique, provocative, and often challenging 'The Lindy Newsletter,' which Lindyman publishes 2-3x weekly, to help us apply the framework to topics as diverse as urban planning, dating, medical trends, drinking trends, and even whether we should listen to health influencers.   Lindyman gave me 3 very interesting and formative books. We talk about them along with the unintended consequences of the woke movement, why you should eat vegan once a week, how modern employment is destroying families, and much more. If you like to have your brain stretched like taffy and provoked by unusual thoughts this is the chapter for you.   Let's flip the page to chapter 145 now.

We live in interesting times.    And they're getting interestinger!   I keep my eyes open for big thinkers to help guide and inform me as I keep trying to make sense of the world. My friend Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) is one of those people:   Tim has a giant mind willing to engage with our fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. The big questions!   Tim's blog Wait Buy Why still scores millions of readers per month with big-name fans like Jonathan Haidt, Bari Weiss, Sam Harris, Bryan Johnson, and (yes) Elon Musk. Why? Because Tim has an incredible way of smallifying complex topics like artificial intelligence, time we have for loved ones, or why we haven't seen aliens into simple language.    More recently Tim has self-published an incredible book called 'What's Our Problem: A Self-Help Book For Societies' (which I review here!). He's a teacher and a philosopher. His Richard Feynman-like distillation abilities are on display in his TED Talk on procrastination which has 75 million views!   Tim's intellectual curiosity is huge and we are very lucky to get a glimpse into how his brain works in this classic chapter of 3 Books. Fly down to New York City with me and let's sit in the corner of a crowded coffee shop in SoHo with Tim as we discuss breaking convention, retaining curiosity, the Stitches vs Band-aids test, why you should let your children wear shorts in the winter, the difference between cooks and chefs, and much, much more....   Let's flip the page back to Chapter 22 now...

​Nick Sweetman​ is one of Toronto's most prominent graffiti artists. Last February I was walking down Lansdowne Avenue in Toronto with my friend ​Michael Bungay Stanier​, who was our guest back in ​Chapter 48​, and as we strolled under a giant bridge I saw a giant ... well, it looked like a photo! But it wasn't a photo. It was a massive spray-painted image of a ​Hooded Merganser​, and at the very bottom corner was a signature that said "Nick Sweetman." Looks like a photo, right? Look at that eye! That bill! But I discovered there's this Toronto mural artist named Nick Sweetman and turns out I've seen the guy's stuff all over the place. He paints ​pollinators​, ​birds​, ​insects​, and ​animals​ of all kinds... He painted a ​whale shark​ I've ridden by on my bike for years without knowing it was him! Squint and you'll see the 'Sweetman' underneath its cavernous mouth. So I decided to reach out to Nick Sweetman and ask him about doing a unique partnership with me and 3 Books. He was game! We found a 750 square foot brutalist bare concrete wall behind a subway station in Toronto begging to be beautified. And now 11 months later I am very proud to present... After I spent six months getting approvals from the Toronto Transit Commission (shoutout to Cameron Penman, David Nagler, Kerry-Ann Campbell, and Councillor Dianne Saxxe!), Nick started painting the wall behind ​Dupont Station​ on September 17th, 2024 (my birthday!) and finished it up on November 1st. What resulted is honestly the most beautiful piece of public art I have ever seen. I know I'm birdy biased but Nick's beauty, his eye, his senses—they just know no bounds. He doesn't use stencils! He's not tracing anything! The guy is literally just looking at a dirty, bare, curved 750-square-foot wall and, NO BIGGIE painting 16 HYPERREALISTIC LOCAL BIRDS ON IT! Over the six weeks of painting I pulled out my recorder many times, Nick's friend and fellow graffiti artist Blaze Wiradharma (​@blazeworks​) pulled up with his video gear, and then genius editor Scott Baker (​@adjacentp​) rolled in to edit our first-ever 3 Books audio-video documentary experience. Listen! Watch! Be amazed by the wonder of Nick Sweetman! We explore questions like: Why did Nick leave the wine drinking art gallery world for dirty street corners? What do people who have owe to people who don't? How do we see the crustaceans in our parking lot? And ... do we still have a shared reality? We talk about mural painting, graffiti, street art, what it means to live in a world where humans overtake everything and, of course, Nick's 3 most formative books. We even get a live splice of Leslie teasing out his third book in real-time which is pretty special! I highly recommend you WATCH this chapter if you can as we put so much heart and soul into making Nick's masterpiece come to breathtaking visual life. But, of course, as we flip the page to Chapter 144, you can always just listen in on Apple or Spotify, too.

Who else loves David Sedaris? I discovered him in 1997 when an old mentor/editor at Golden Words, my college humor papers, suggested I pick up his book 'Naked' to become a better writer myself. I found the essays sardonic, witty, uncannily observational, and laugh-out-loud funny. I couldn't believe how gently and elegantly he wrote about topics ranging from his obsessive compulsive tics to dropping out of school to (in the namesake essay) visiting a nudist colony. Like millions of people around the world I became obsessed with David Sedaris. I've read all of his books—'Me Talk Pretty One Day' (2000) being close to my heart and 'Calypso' (2018) being a recent fave. I even went to see him speak at Massey Hall in Toronto which is where I learned—first-hand!—that he waits hours and hours after every talk to happily chat and sign books from anybody willing to wait for him. (In my case my phone died about two hours before I had a chance to say hi. Years ago we had a sixty-second conversation about pie and he wrote 'Neil, I am so happy you are alive' in my book.) In this classic chapter of 3 Books—the all-time #1 most popular conversation ever on the podcast—I squeeze into the back of David's limo from the Four Seasons hotel in Toronto en route to the CBC building and then up to his bookstore event at the Indigo at Yorkdale. What was supposed to be a tight 20 minute chat evolved into a beautiful hour and a half conversation covering topics like the secret to getting old, artistic integrity after commercial success, why artists have a hole in their hearts, and, of course, the incredible David Sedaris's 3 most formative books. On this New Year's Eve let's flip the book back to Chapter 18...

Happy Solstice!   As we do every December solstice it's time for our 7th Annual "Best Of" episode of 3 Books.   3 Books is our 22-year-long conversation to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world.   This year we sat with ​academics at Oxford​ to ​bus drivers in St. Louis​, with ​Jonathan Franzen​ in Santa Cruz to ​Oliver Burkeman​ in the North York Moors, with the ​world's largest bookseller​ and ​Amazon union organizers​, with ​Oscar nominees​ to a ​guy who dresses up all day as as a duck​.   This year I've changed tack and made the "Best Of" highly concentrated—under 50 minutes long!—with little snippets from our diverse guests to provide reflection, provoke your thinking, and help to set intentions for 2025 and beyond.   Thank you for being a 3 Booker and spending time with this incredible community of book lovers spread across the world.   Let's stop to reflect and then keep enjoying the ride....

Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world with over a million employees in the U.S. alone. A monolith responsible for trillions of dollars of revenue through retail, entertainment, and infrastructure.   But Chris Smalls took it on anyway.   Chris had worked at Amazon for 5 years before he was fired in March 2020 after leading a walkout at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse to protest pandemic working conditions.   "We all got radicalized at some point in our lives," he told me. "My life changed forever when I got fired from Amazon."   Chris used that motivation to work with his former colleagues to try to unionize the warehouse. The first attempt failed, but in March 2022 the vote passed, and it became the first Amazon warehouse in the United States to be unionized.   As of today Amazon has not come to the bargaining table and is pursuing multiple legal actions to avoid recognizing the union, including challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.   What's going on?   I flew down to Hackensack, New Jersey to find out.   What really happened at that warehouse?   And what happens next?   Chris filled me in on life after the union drive, why he's been traveling the globe, his experience being under surveillance by Amazon and the police, what it's like leading protests at Jeff Bezos house, and why the Amazon Labor Union has recently affiliated with the Teamsters.   Chris calls bullshit on a lot of what we hear about labor organizing and reports on what's happening in the street. What can we learn from socialist countries? Why is the U.S. government reluctant to enforce antitrust regulations? What does fair human work look like in an increasingly algorithmic and AI-dominated society?   Pull up a white plastic chair beside us in Chris's backyard as he leans back behind dark shades and plumes of smoke to tell us how working at Amazon is like slavery, what's happening with human jobs as automation skyrockets, whether unions can be effective today, what politicians represent the working class, his 3 most formative books, and much, much more...   Let's flip the page to Chapter 143 now...

Once you find purpose, and once you find style… what's left? Beauty. What's left is finding and putting out beauty into the world.   There are not many writers who have genuinely figured this out … but one of them is Mitch Albom. Mitch is the author of '​Tuesdays with Morrie​,' the bestselling memoir of all time, as well as '​The Five People You Meet in Heaven​' and his latest bestseller '​The Little Liar​' which came out in 2023 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. His books have sold over 40 million copies. Mitch just doesn't turn off. He's like a Tasmanian Devil. He's hosting a ​radio show​, he's on TV, he's writing columns in the ​Detroit Free Press​, he's a musician, he's even running an ​orphanage in Haiti​. Mitch is full of energy and life and moves quickly and talks quickly … and so we talked about that. We go deep into why he moves through life so fast. We unpack his relationship with Morrie and talk about how I actually misinterpreted parts of the book. We talk about what the worst thing you can say to an artist is (which he learned from Maya Angelou) and what the true enemy of getting things done is (and surprise, it's not time or energy). Fly down to Detroit with me and let's take the elevator way, way up the 96-year-old ​Fisher Building​. Let's enjoy the wise Mitch Albom sharing his 3 most formative books with us in this classic chapter. Let's flip the page to Chapter 15 now...

Are you ready for a writing masterclass from one of the best self-help writers in the world?   After graduating from Cambridge, Oliver Burkeman wrote the popular column “This Column Will Change Your Life” in ‘The Guardian' for over 15 years sharing his real-world, real-time poetic exploration of the self-help universe. In 2021 he published 'Four Thousand Weeks,' a literary examination of how we live today. Mark Manson (our guest in Chapter 28) called it “a reality check on our culture's crazy assumptions around work, productivity and living a meaningful life” and Adam Grant (our guest in Chapter 72) called it “the most important book ever written about time management."   Oliver's work is much more about how to live a good life in the limited time we have than the system and hacks you find in other popular productivity books, and he's just released a wonderful follow-up called 'Meditations For Mortals.' This book offers the reader 28 short chapters meant to be read one a day for 28 days, a quiet evening ritual with Oliver's potent words.   Naturally with such a talented guest, this Chapter dives deep into writing craft. How does a productivity writer focus on meaningful work? What does Oliver always have in his pocket on a walk to help him write? And what is his dream writing schedule?   But we also mine Oliver's brilliant mind in wide conversations that ask: What are the signs of living in a totalitarian state? What is Jungian analysis? Is promotion offensive? And why does Oliver wear earplugs even in silence?   Oliver Burkeman is my favorite self-help writer so it was a great pleasure that he joined me on 3 Books. Join me to learn how Oliver manages his writing projects, his 3 most formative books, the best question to ask before making big decisions, why mess is necessary, and much, much more.   Let's flip the page to Chapter 142 now...

Let's jump into the backseat of Vishwas Aggrawal's Uber and take a trip you won't forget. This is a story about setting your own standards in a world constantly hammering us into "human resources." This is a story about setting your own winning lines in a world that wants us to be widgets. This is a story about raising the bar for yourself and deeply valuing the human connection and love that has the potential to exist between every single one of us. Uber has no formal leaderboard, reward mechanism, or pay-for-performance tied to driver rating.   So why would Vish care? Why would he care about giving thousands of rides and pouring in day after day of high-end customer services to establish an incredible 4.99 rating? Why would he clean his mats between every trip, only eat raw vegetables in his car to avoid odors, and develop masterful scripts that help riders feel deeply valued in the middle of their busy days? Why bother? Join me in the backseat of Vish's Uber as we slowly circle closer and closer to what we're really playing for in our short time on the planet.   We discuss the books that shaped Vish from his upbringing in India to his journey to give his daughter a better education on the other side of the world... even if it meant starting back at the beginning. Vishwas Aggrawal is one of the most engaging and inspiring people I've ever met. After you listen to his story in this classic 3 Books chapter, I hope you feel the same way.   Let's flip the page to Chapter 7 now...

James Daunt grew up in England the child of a diplomat—moving countries, tasting cultures, living a life with books and history at its core. He lived in Turkey and Cyprus before coming back to England for boarding school. After studying history at Cambridge, he didn't know what he wanted to do, so the Career Services department pointed him towards investment banking across the sea in New York City. He actually liked the job but his girlfriend thought it was incredibly boring and encouraged him to quit. He thought, "How do I combine my love of reading and my love of travel into doing something wholly different?" The first Daunt Books independent bookstore opened on Marylebone High Street in London soon after. Unlike nearly every book store in the world he organized his books … by country. Not genre! But by place. Bookselling isn't an easy business! Lots of stores were going belly-up and profits were meager but over time he found a special knack for it. He went to bookselling school, paid fairly, and took mentorship and development seriously. When big bookstore chains started falling in the wake of Amazon, and Waterstones was essentially the only national chain left in the UK, a wealthy entrepreneur bought it and asked James to lead it. He turned the concept of a chain bookstore on its head, suggesting that stores would do better if the head office minimized itself and helped the booksellers operate like their own independent bookstores. Gone were planograms! Head office mandates! He tore up lucrative publisher deals spelling out which books to force onto the front tables to guarantee bestseller lists! He ripped up the rulebook completely. And what happened? Sales shot up. The chain survived ... then thrived. When the new owners of Waterstones bought Barnes & Noble—the largest bookstore chain in the world—they asked James to lead it, too. Today, James Daunt is the biggest bookseller on the planet overseeing nearly 1000 bookshops including his now-9 store Daunt Books indie chain, over 300 Waterstones, and over 600 Barnes & Nobles (including 65 new ones this year!!). I was very excited when James said "yes" to coming on 3 Books. We go deep on learning from history, the role of bookstores in society, his most formative books, the best place to find a date, the key to customer service, leading from behind, and much, much more....   Let's flip the page to Chapter 141 now...

Did you grow up with Judy Blume?   My mom says I “found my voice” reading 'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing' to my sister in the bathtub when I was a little kid. Well, I grabbed that tattered copy and carried it with me down to Key West, Florida where I had the extreme privilege of sitting down with the one and only Judy Blume.   Judy and I met on a hot and sweaty day in her Books & Books bookstore … where she works! I'm not joking. Step off your cruise ship and Judy Blume will ring up a copy of 'It Starts With Us' if you like. We grabbed a little circle table, set it up in front of the bestseller wall, and then talked about her most formative books.     In this classic 3 Books chapter, Judy and I discuss censorship, why sexy scenes should be kept in books, how to get kids to love reading, the role of bookstores in a community, and a surprise reveal on which book Judy says is the only one she has left to write...

“Happiness is a choice.”   Heard that saying before? Betting you have. We all have! It's almost cliché. And yes, while research shows that a good deal of our happiness really is a choice, the saying gives us a “what” without a “how.”     And if your life is anything like mine, you have a million things going on—emaisl! texts! driving kids to soccer practice! finding time for date night!—and you need a "how" that can get you there fast, especially when your night time angst bubbles up, that dangerous mind that rears its ugly head after the dust of the day has settled and your resilience is low.      So in this special Fall Equinox Bookmark, I want to share this simple—dead simple, ruthlessly simple—system to help get you back on track. All you need is two minutes around the dinner table with your family or lying in bed to scroll back through your day. It's like wiping a wet shammy over the blackboard of your mind, and is backed up by science, too.     Ready to wind down your brain with intention? Let's flip the page...  

‘The Help' by Kathryn Stockett. ‘Big Little Lies' by Liane Moriarty. ‘Let's Pretend This Never Happened' by Jenny Lawson. ‘American Dirt' by Jeanine Cummins. ‘This Is How It Always Is' by Laurie Frankel. ‘Listen for the Lie' by Amy Tintera. ‘We Begin At the End' by Chris Whittaker. ‘A Higher Loyalty' by James Comey. ‘The Book of Awesome' by Neil Pasricha.     What do these books have in common? The famed but invisible editor pulling the strings from behind the curtain: Amy Einhorn     Fifteen years ago my seven-month-old blog ‘1000 Awesome Things' was nominated for ‘Best Blog' from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. I was approached by literary agents and my new agent Erin Malone told me she wanted to auction my blog to publishers … next week. Suddenly I was in the foreign position of interviewing editors who were somehow clamoring to publish my book.     I signed with Amy Einhorn—a woman I'd never heard of, who had just started an eponymous imprint I'd never heard of, within Putnam Publishing, which I'd also never heard of. But I was immediately and magnetically attracted to her vision for the book. “It's a hardcover, Neil,” she said. “It's for moms. It's a gift book. You gotta lose the frat boy posts. No blowing your nose in the shower. And I need a lot more new content.”     I learned everything about editing from Amy in our passionate late night diatribe emails, our hot-potato-ing of 300-page Word docs back and forth with 100s of comments in red down the sides, and arguing—good arguing!—about every single element along the way. I'd sit in her office and she'd have a variety of ‘cases' laid out on her desk. “What do you think of 5” by 7”?” she'd say. “Too precious? Too cute?”     Amy is one of the most successful editors in the world today with the highest percentage of books edited hitting the New York Times bestseller list. According to a feature in The Observer, “New York editors and publishers speak of Amy Einhorn's success as the product of an almost mystical editorial instinct.” She has a knack for sniffing out voice, for knowing what will work and what won't and, as you can imagine, I've been begging her to come on 3 Books for six years to hear how it all works.     So I flew down to NYC to talk with the bright, brilliant, and beaming Amy Einhorn about what an editor does, how a book gets published, what helps a book sell, Amy's 3 most formative books, and much, much more.     Let's flip the page to Chapter 140 now…

Happy new moon, everybody! I am going to release a few of my favorite classic chapters of 3 Books. Let's start with Seth Godin! I flew down to New York to uncover and discuss the most formative books of the one and only Seth Godin (​@ThisIsSethsBlog​) from his Hastings-On-Hudson studio. Seth is the bestselling author of '​Linchpin​', '​Purple Cow​', '​Tribes​' and ​many more books​ and is known as one of the world's biggest thinkers in communities such as ​TED​ and the ​Marketing Hall of Fame​. And did I mention he writes one of ​the most popular blogs​ in the world? In this interview we discuss where Seth sees publishing going and his thoughts on the changes we're seeing in how people read and spend time. Seth shares his opinions on blurbs, acknowledgments, and his unique perspective on work-life balance. He also gives insights into how we can change our own world by changing the narrative inside our heads. I sat in Seth's studio transfixed, mesmerized, and hypnotized by one of the world's best brains. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Big thank you to the kind, generous, and indispensable ... Seth Godin.

I was at a coffee shop on College Street when the barista Tony yelled “Hey! There's that duck!”     I turned and, sure enough, out the front window was a…  duck. A giant pixelated-looking green-headed Mallard set atop a rubber-tire-sized body on top of orange-stockinged legs and a pair of orange Converse. And he was just … walking by.     Like some kind of interdimensional tumbleweed.     Uh, what … was this?     Some gimmick from the local radio station? An ad campaign for a boot company? I ran outside with my friend Ateqah and was puzzled that … she seemed to know him!     “Hiiiiiii Lewis,” she cooed. “You're looking great, Lewis! How's your day going, Lewis?”     He just … quacked at her.     I had so many questions: “Who are you? What are you doing? What is the meaning of this?”     But, of course, he just … quacked.     Ducks can't talk!     Then he turned and did a 1920s-pauper-finding-a-penny-style heel-click a good three feet in the air and I was left standing on the sidewalk, stunned, with a big smile on my face.     I couldn't let the story finish there.     Turns out Ateqah had been following Lewis Mallard on Instagram for years so when she saw him she knew who he was. She took a picture of us and posted it on her Instagram Story, after which Lewis Mallard picked it up, artistically edited it, and posted it on his own.     I learned Lewis Mallard is an anonymous ‘interdimensional psychedelic folk artist' responsible for street performances and art installations across Hamilton, Toronto and, most recently, Victoria. Little duck-painted streetcar stations are popping up and, of course, the duck, in full quacking character, is being spotted on the streets.     Lewis's work has been covered in all the local press in Toronto—CP24, City News, CTV, The Toronto Star, etc. In one of many pieces of coverage in CBC a person named J.J. Collins, manager of a local record label, said "Anybody who sees Lewis will tell the next person they see and say, 'Oh my God, I saw Lewis on the way to work today.' It's like finding the golden ticket."     Finding the golden ticket? I … love that. BlogTo calls Lewis a “Toronto legend” and a “viral folk artist” and was trumpeting him after he painted a Toronto streetcar stop to look like … himself.     There was this … allure, to me, of what Lewis Mallard *was* and what he was doing. Taking over the streets, creating art amidst dustry construction, and mapping rivers of love, humanity, and community through endlessly flowing change we all feel happening on the streets.     Lewis Mallard agreed to meet me in human form—though his face, name, and identity remain secret throughout this interview—on a bright orange bench on College Street outside the same Manic Coffee where I saw him the first time. Lewis and I parked in the hot sun in front of noisy streetcars, gaggles of teens, and one guy who (really) believes Lewis is a spy.     We share Manic's famous yogurt cups, ham and cheese croissants, and cookies—all homemade!—and discuss sacrifices for art, the power of the collective, the right amount of ‘bad,' community through poverty, how to parent your parents, becoming an adult reader, what vandalism *really* is, and, of course, Lewis Mallard's 3 most formative books…     Let's flip the page into Chapter 139 now…

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 143 comes from Chapter 14 with Rich Gibbons, President of Speak Inc. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/14 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 142 comes from Chapter 14 with Rich Gibbons, President of Speak Inc. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/14 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 141 comes from Chapter 14 with Rich Gibbons, President of Speak Inc. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/14 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Maria Popova was born in communist Bulgaria and emigrated to the U.S. six days after her 19th birthday back in 2003. She studied at the University of Pennsylvania after “being sold on the liberal arts promise of being taught how to live.”     Did it work?     Well, yes and no.     She spent her family's life savings in the first few weeks on textbooks and, despite attending an American high school in Bulgaria, found herself in a bit of culture shock. “I mean, fitted sheets? Brunch?” She worked hard, a defining Popova characteristic, sometimes eating store brand canned tuna and oatmeal three times a day to get by. “I figured it was the most nutritious combo for the cheapest amount.”     At one of her jobs in 2006 a senior leader started sending out a Friday email of miscellany to provoke innovation and then Maria took the project on herself—weaving together write-ups on seemingly unrelated topics. One day was Danish pod homes, another the century-long evolution of the Pepsi logo, another on the design of a non-profit's new campaign to fight malaria. It was becoming clear: You never knew what you were going to get from Maria. And in an era of homogenization that was so ever-delightful.     Maria's emails got popular and then she taught herself programming to put it all online on a site called BrainPickings.org.     I was blogging on 1000 Awesome Things every night in that internet paleolithic. I still remember so many times I'd be researching for some arcane bit of wisdom or trivia and Google would wisely fire me over to BrainPickings.org. I came to love the site which had a top-of-the-page tagline back then that read: “A scan of the mind-boggling, the revolutionary, and the idiosyncratic.”     And like my own blog's 'About' page, this one didn't reveal the author's name, face, or identity. Was the internet just a bit more chat-room-anonymous back then? Or was this just before social media had been invented or figured out they needed our real names to maximize their ad revenues? Either way, Maria and I never got to know each other then … but, thankfully, a full 18 (!) years later the endlessly curious, cool, and erudite Maria Popova is ... still going.     George Saunders, our guest in Chapter 75, says Maria Popova manifests "abundant wit, intelligence, and compassion in all of her writings." Seth Godin, our guest in Chapter 3 says Maria "is indefatigable in her pursuits of knowledge and dignity. She does her work without ever dumbing down the work." And Krista Tippett, host of On Being, calls Maria a "cartographer of meaning in a digital age." Perhaps no surprise the Library of Congress has included her project, The Marginalian (once called Brain Pickings), in their permanent web archive of culturally valuable materials     I agree with the accolades and find Maria, her blog, and her wonderful books (‘Figuring,' ‘The Snail With the Right Heart,' 'The Universe in Verse,' and ‘A Velocity of Being') truly exquisite and much-needed reflections of everything that makes life beautiful.     Like 3 Books, her site The Marginalian has remained free and ad-free over the years. Maria has no staff, no interns, no assistant, and The Marginalian is, in her words, “a thoroughly solitary labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood.”     The world can feel heavy, intense, and overwhelming—media, politics, and news pulls us away from those harder-to-measure things that make life wondrous. Love, connection, trust, kindness, passions, memories. The invisible but much-more-important guideposts that emerge as we look back on our lives from the end of it. That's where Maria and The Marginalian rescue us—to point our attention towards the turn of phrase in a poem, a forgotten piece of advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson on trusting ourselves, or to provide a close reading with some stunning artwork from a 100-year-old picture book that helps illuminates one of those impossible-to-articulate emotions that we all share and feel…     I loved this conversation with the much-requested Maria Popova on a wonderfully wide-ranging set of topics including, of course, her 3 most formative books…

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 132 comes from Chapter 13 with Ariel Bisset, YouTuber and owner of Bisset Books. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/13 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 131 comes from Chapter 13 with Ariel Bisset, YouTuber and owner of Bisset Books. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/13 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

  I remember getting the knife.     It was near Christmas about 10 years ago and Leslie and I were zipping up a tiny suitcase before a beach trip with her grandparents and extended family. We weren't married and I was making a desperate last-second plea to stuff a 576-page novel called ‘The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen into our bag. “It just won't fit,” Leslie said. “You have … 100 pages left? Want to leave it and read it when we're back?”     I did *not* want to do that.     The book was slipping under my skin—serrating my soul.     So I remember getting that knife.     The deep blasphemous pain I felt slicing the paperback spine and carving the last 100-ish pages off the book was far outweighed by the exquisite suite of pleasures I had slowly savoring it on the beach all week.     I had never read anything like ‘The Corrections'—with a clarity of character, wildly spinning plot, and unique three-dimensional *realness* that, page by page, twist by twist, left pits in my stomach, lumps in my throat, and tears in my eyes.     The book single-handedly elevated what I thought books could do.     I read ‘Freedom' (2010), ‘Purity' (2014), and Crossroads (2021) the same way—equal parts admiration, fascination, and with a psychologically-transporting feeling of living outside of myself.     Jonathan Franzen is one of the most successful, accomplished, and decorated writers in the world. He is a Fulbright Scholar, National Book Award Winner, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, PEN/Faulkner Finalist, 2x Oprah's Book Club Pick, voted to TIME's ‘100 Most Influential' list as well as gracing their cover as "Great American Novelist," and much, much more.     The NYT calls his books "masterpieces of American fiction," NYMag calls his books "works of total genius," and Chuck Klosterman writing in GQ says "Franzen is the most important fiction writer in America, and—if viewed from a distance—perhaps the only important one.”     Tall praise! But there is just nothing like a Jonathan Franzen novel and it was sheer delight going deep with the master of the deep to discuss writing advice, the magic of the written word, what heroes look like today, competing with David Foster Wallace, the best thing we can do for the climate, Jon's 3 most formative books, and much, much more…     Let's turn the page to Chapter 137 now…

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 126 comes from Chapter 12 with Chris Anderson, Head of TED. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 125 comes from Chapter 12 with Chris Anderson, Head of TED. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 124 comes from Chapter 12 with Chris Anderson, Head of TED. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 123 comes from Chapter 12 with Chris Anderson, Head of TED. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.   Page 122 comes from Chapter 12 with Chris Anderson, Head of TED. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books. They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.  Page 121 comes from Chapter 12 with Chris Anderson, Head of TED. Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

I just got back from St. Louis.   It was my first time there and I met a wonderfully rich collection of people who I'm so excited to introduce you to in a special on-the-ground, in-the-street, from-the-backseat Chapter of 3 Books.   On the way from the airport to the hotel, the driver regaled me with St. Louis trivia from a deep well of St. Louis pride. “Did you know we hosted the World Fair and the Olympics the same year?” he asked. I knew about the World Fair! “Most do,” he said. “But not many know about the Olympics. 1904 was a banner year here. We were the fourth largest city in the US at the time!”   The next day I had time to explore. I knew there was a local bird species that didn't exist anywhere else in the country! The Eurasian Tree Sparrow was one of six species of birds brought to St. Louis in 1870 by German immigrants. The other five died that winter, but the Tree Sparrow still lives near Lafayette Park where it was first released. It has thrived without expanding its range or disrupting the local ecology.   After I got an address to try and find the birds, I hailed an Uber and met Jacqueline, who drove a bus in town for 27 years. When I asked her for the best thing about St. Louis she said, “Nothing! Watch your back or somebody gonna put a bullet in your head.” Our raw conversation touches on the erosion of community, the deprioritization of connection, and how we might find new kinds of support in our disconnected world. “My family is whoever loves on me,” Jacqueline said. “Blood makes you kin but it doesn't make you family.”   I then met Deneane, a 28-year-old single mother of five who does drop-off, pick-up, and evenings solo every day while driving Uber thirty hours a week, working at a cupcake shop, and running a small business online. We went to the Gateway Arch and Left Bank Books together while talking about enduring—after her mom found bruises all over her body, she left her abusive relationship and “found the strength to start over.”   The next morning I gave the talk that sent me down there and then got a final ride to the airport with Albano from Albania, who left his job as a public school teacher in Florida to make more than double as a driver. “Unfortunately,” he said, “if teaching was something others would care about, teachers wouldn't leave the profession.”   I hope you feel a kinetic pulse listening to stories from people whose stories aren't often told. Get ready to laugh, cry, and connect hearts as we tether ourselves to the human connection that exists around us every day.   Let's head down to St. Louis and hang out with Jacqueline, Deneane, and Albano as they share the love and connection we are always searching for on 3 Books.   Let's flip the page to Chapter 136 now… 

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books.   They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.     Page 114 comes from Chapter 11 with Kerri Kolen, editor of 'The Happiness Equation,' 'Lion,' and 'A Stolen Life.'   Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/11   Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books.   They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.     Page 113 comes from Chapter 11 with Kerri Kolen, editor of 'The Happiness Equation,' 'Lion,' and 'A Stolen Life.'   Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/11   Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less highlights from Chapters of 3 Books.   They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.     Page 112 comes from Chapter 11 with Kerri Kolen, editor of 'The Happiness Equation,' 'Lion,' and 'A Stolen Life.'   Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/11   Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are 333-second or less pulls from Chapters of 3 Books.   They are released at 3:33am between Chapters.     Page 111 comes from Chapter 11 with Kerri Kolen, editor of 'The Happiness Equation,' 'Lion,' and 'A Stolen Life.'   Listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/11   Get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   Join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Cal Newport is a guide, a visionary, a role model to me and millions of others on living an intentional and productive life amidst our noisy, scatterbrained, tech-drenched world. He's an MIT-trained computer science professor at Georgetown University and author of 10 books which have collectively sold over 2 million copies including ‘Deep Work,' ‘Digital Minimalism,' and his latest bestseller, ‘Slow Productivity.' “I sometimes joke that my entire career is built on giving two-word terms to things everyone thinks and knows,” Cal says, but the truth is he's doing a lot more than that. Take ‘Slow Productivity.' He's boiled this new phrase down into three principles: 1) Do fewer things, 2) Work at a natural pace, and 3) Obsess over quality. Sounds simple, right? Trite, even! But that's when you raise your head and realize the world is conspiring against you doing any of these. Doesn't our world today reward… doing *more* things, working at an *unnatural* pace, and obsessing over *quantity*? There's a reason Cal has no social media apps on his phone. Why he has no social media accounts at all…and never has! With his books, and his wonderful podcast ‘Deep Questions,' he is focused on helping us find our way as we navigate ever-changing technology and work patterns that increasingly feel at odds with our shared quest of living intentional lives. Cal has a giant mind and it was on full display in this chat as we discuss: how Cal measures success, the neuroscience of reading, Denis Villeneuve, the relationship between rest and work, the ideal age for unrestricted Internet access, The Washington Nationals, leetspeak and productivity pr0n, the role of books today and their future, Andrew Huberman, positive reinforcement theory, Jonathan Haidt and ‘The Anxious Generation,' technology boundaries for children, and much, much more… Let's turn the page to Chapter 135 now…

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 105 comes from Chapter 10 with award-winning screenwriter and novelist, Elan Mastai.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/10   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 104 comes from Chapter 10 with award-winning screenwriter and novelist, Elan Mastai.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/10   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 103 comes from Chapter 10 with award-winning screenwriter and novelist, Elan Mastai.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/10   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 102 comes from Chapter 10 with award-winning screenwriter and novelist, Elan Mastai.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/10   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 101 comes from Chapter 10 with award-winning screenwriter and novelist, Elan Mastai.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/10   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

I got an email from longtime 3 Booker Bo Boswell who told me he found an enticingly-titled thread on reddit called “What's your field or study (hobbyist or professional) and what's a cornerstone beginners book for that topic/field?”     The most upvoted reply on the thread read: "Librarian here, Susan Orlean's ‘The Library Book' is at first glance a true-crime book about tracking the arsonist who set fire and burned down the main library in Los Angeles, but it also gives a comprehensive glimpse into contemporary libraries and their issues, especially updating a view of them if you haven't been inside one since you were a kid."   Bo picked up the book, loved it, and then wrote to me that "the amount of research and bizarre detail Orlean puts into her work is so engrossing.” Bizarre detail! I was convinced. I picked up ‘The Library Book' and it blew me away. Reading it was like … wandering a library. Surprising curiosity trails at every turn. I ended up putting the book in my Best Of 2023 and then went deeper into Susan Orlean's back catalog where I found myself reading profiles like ‘The American Man, Age 10' and a series of fascinating but unconventional obituaries about people like the inventor of Hawaiian Tropic or the first magician on the Las Vegas strip.   I've come to think of Susan Orlean as one of the best non-fiction writers on the planet. She's been a Staff Writer for ‘The New Yorker' since 1992 and has written more than 10 bestselling books including ‘The Library Book', ‘On Animals', ‘Saturday Night', and ‘The Orchid Thief', which was turned into the movie ‘Adaptation', starring Meryl Streep in her Oscar-nominated role as … yes, Susan Orlean.   Susan has an endless, unbridled curiosity — that ‘bizarre detail' — which you'll see on full display in this conversation which begins by talking about how she organizes her shoes! She's a writer's writer who offers us a  true masterclass and always reminds us that “storytelling and knowledge-sharing is the essential human experience.”   We talk about organizing shoes and spices, what books do that nothing else does, finding the balance between professional and amateur, the genius of container ships, what great book design does, how to cultivate your writing voice, how you might organize your book, facing the fear of failure, LSD, the power of libraries, Susan's 3 most formative books, and much, much more…     I am so excited to share this conversation and hope you'll find it as endlessly inspiring, thoughtful as I did.   Let's jump into Chapter 134 of 3 Books now…

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 93 comes from Chapter 9 with the inimitable, indomitable, indefatigable Dave Barry.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/9   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books.   Page 92 comes from Chapter 9 with the inimitable, indomitable, indefatigable Dave Barry.   To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/9   To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail   To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube