We're heading to Africa!

Over the years we have taken the 3 Books podcast on the road many times ... from recording in ​Judy Blume's bookstore​ in Key West to to the ​back of Jackie's Uber​ in St. Louis to ​Jonathan Haidt's kitchen​ in New York we've gone where the stories take us. And for the first time we are going to the 55-country and 1.5 billion person continent of Africa.

I am so excited to share the first of three chapters of 3 Books recorded in Nairobi, Kenya.

I landed there and went whizzing down busy streets with colourful stalls, wandering goats, people pulling carts full of eggs, women carrying baskets on their heads, endless whizzing bodas (motorcycles).

I visited the lovely home of novelist and professor ​Peter Kimani​ — where he lives with his wife Anne and their two boys. Peter is a huge mind and talented writer whose work spans New York Times Notable novels such as '​Dance of the Jakaranda​' to writing a poem for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration. Peter has studied at the University of Iowa—the Harvard of writing schools, perhaps!—and earned his doctorate at the University of Houston. He was awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Kenya's highest literary honor, and is a professor at Aga Khan University in Nairobi.

Let's sit down outside in his backyard garden, near the mango and orange trees, below the calls of the Pied Crows, and discuss normalizing abnormalities, decolonizing our minds, The Hardy Boys, writing as an extension of living, whitewashing conservation, Peter's 3 most formative books, and much, much more...

Let's flip the page to Chapter 154 now...

"Whatever Jen Agg says is worth listening to," said Anthony Bourdain.

I fully agree!

If you live in Toronto you probably know Jen Agg. If you don't, let me tell you she runs the best restaurants in town! Come visit and try them!

Her most recent stunner is a two-story converted auto-body shop turned Toronto Life #1 ranked restaurant called "​General Public​" and it is a feast for the senses.

Jen describes the place as "part Narnia, part fancy British pub, and part '80s cocaine dream" which gives you a sample of her incredible way with words on top of dishes on top of lighting on top of music on top of ... vibe. I was at General Public last week with my friend Agostino and we split Rainbow Trout Tartare, Hiramasa Crudo, Chicory Salad, and Popcorn Clams and Mussels. And those were just our appetizers! And precisely none of the items fully described the depth of surprising and fresh ingredients leading to the full-body sensory experiences we had when taking our first bites...

Jen Agg has opened many other award-winning restaurants including ​Bar Vendetta​, ​Grey Gardens​, ​Le Swan​, ​Rhum Corner​, ​Hoof Cocktail Bar​ and, famously, The Black Hoof (RIP), where I still remember my friend Drew ordering a Spicy Raw Horse Sandwich with raw egg on top many years ago. His verdict? "Delicious!" Of course that place turned the restaurant scene in the city sharply sideways!

And sharply sideways is such a great way to live...

I admire Jen Agg's sharply sideways ways and also highly recommend her bestselling memoir "​I Hear She's A Real Bitch​" (perhaps the best memoir title of all time?)

Now there is of course no where else to sit down with Jen than one of her restaurants so for this one we slip into the front booth at the delectable "french diner" that is ​Le Swan​. Btw, if you go you might find yourself making a new Spotify playlist like I did to remember the great music you're hearing—"Ooh la la" by Ronnie Lane followed by "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison followed by "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson followed by "Tangled Up In Blue" by Bob Dylan!

Of course it's hard to pay attention to the music when you're gobbling Smoked Trout Rillette, Steak Tartare, and the city's best Corn Dogs!

Let's sit down and talk about fussiness as a virtue, the art of dining alone, having a healthy marriage with someone much older than you, the brilliant Jen Agg's 3 most formative books, and much, much, MUCH more...

It was an honour and privilege to talk to Jen Agg in this classic chapter of 3 Books.

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

I grew up reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series but it had been years — decades even! — since I'd read a game book. Then I stumbled upon the fascinating book Meanwhile by Jason Shiga and was completely sucked back into this incredible genre.

When you open Meanwhile you are a young boy on his way to an ice-cream shop. If you get vanilla? You go home. The end! But if you get chocolate? You plunge into thousands of endlessly splintering storylines. You meet a mad scientist. You jump in a time travel machine. The fate of the world is suddenly at stake!

I have no idea how someone could imagine a book this complex and yet so elegant to experience. I was sucked in. So I reach out to Jason Shiga and was grateful that he agreed to come on 3 Books.

Jason is a Japanese-American cartoonist who incorporates puzzles, mysteries and unconventional — very unconventional — narrative techniques into his work. He grew up in California and studied Pure Mathematics at the University of Berkeley.

Jason has been the 'Maze Specialist' for McSweeney's Quarterly (founded by Dave Eggers, our guest in Chapter 81!), written for Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants, and much more. He's also won a number of awards including the Eisner and the Ignatz and has written a number of additional books, including Book Hunter and Demon.

What are we going to talk about on this show? Well there is a lot to learn including: what is a Japanese chicken commune? How does children's literature address taboos we have around death? How can a love of puzzles inform creativity? What are moral dilemmas and what can we learn from them? What is the 'classic trolley problem'? What is the relationship between books and video games? What is the state of the game book industry? How do we think about playing with a book? And, of course, what are Jason Shiga's three most formative books?

Let's turn the page into Chapter 87 now …

What You'll Learn:

• Why is death taboo in children's literature?

• What is pure mathematics?

• How can a love of puzzles and brain teasers inform creative work?

• What is elegance of form?

• What is an interactive form of literature?

• What can we learn from moral dilemmas and the state of humanity today?

• Why are moral choices so good for game books?

• What's the classic trolley problem?

• How can books and video games co-exist?

• What is the state of the game book industry today?

• How can we encourage our kids to get into game books?

• How does one play with a book?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/87 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Do you ever feel book guilt?

Do you ever feel book shame?

Do you ever feel bad when you quit a book?

Do you ever feel like the books you read aren't 'hard' enough?

These are common feelings that I know I've had. I say we need to get rid of all the book shame and book guilt we learn as we grow up because there really is no right or wrong way to read. We need to escape the book exhaustion that can come with endless Shakespeare, mandatory classics, and piles of textbooks.

We need to tell kids that they can read whatever they want to read.

Picture books! Comic books! Young Adult!

Whatever.

Just follow your joy and keep the books coming.

I partly started 3 Books as a way to keep stoking the flames for that pure love of reading books.

For most of my adult life, I lost my love of reading. Loved books as a child! And yet somehow by my late 20s I had almost completely stopped reading books. What was it? I'm not sure if it was too many dry textbooks, the endless addiction of social media feed, or the false belief I just didn't have time to read anymore.

How many times have you heard that?

Chapter 86 of 3 Books is a little different. It's a mental intermezzo between deep dives.

It's a way to hopefully remind us of the pure joy that comes from reading books. Of spreading books out on the carpet and playing with them and doing somersaults over them. This chapter is about tapping back into that childhood love of reading.

We are going to hang out on my bedroom floor with my two year old son …

Join me as we flip the page into Chapter 86 …

What You'll Learn:

• Why are chapter books scary?
• What can books with flaps teach us about our cities?
• Why do so many people go to the bathroom in train stations?
• How does Waldo get around so much?
• How can sharks jump onto boats?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/86 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Happy Sturgeon Moon, everybody! And happy Blue Moon, too! Jane McGonigal joins us on Chapter 85 of 3 Books to help us celebrate.

Let's start off with a question.

What would you do if you jumped out of a desk chair and slammed your head directly into an open cupboard door which gave you a massive concussion that left you bedridden for months? Oh, and you were told "No reading, no writing, no video games, no work, no email, no running, no alcohol, and no caffeine."

Well, most of us would probably just lie there.

I mean, what else could you do?

Well, if you're Jane McGonigal that's not what you do. No! If you're Jane McGonigal, what you do is design a game, in your concussion-riddled state, to help you get better. You create an avatar. You give yourself goals. You select projects. And you slowly help yourself heal! You call the game Jane the Concussion Slayer, after your favorite TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and then you release it out into the world.

Today that game has helped over a million people tackle challenges like concussions, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. It's been renamed Super Better and been evaluated by clinical trials, randomized control studies, and all kinds of scientific white papers as the top game in the world treating depression, anxiety and pain.

Is it any wonder Jane was the first person to study computer and video games in her PhD at Berkeley? Or that she's a TED superstar with two talks racking up over 15 million views about how gaming can make a better world and the game that can give you 10 extra years of life? Or that she's the New York Times bestselling author of Reality is Broken and (yes) Superbetter? Or the Director of Games Research & Development at the Institute for the Future? No, I did not make any of that up. And I could go on!

Jane McGonigal is a humanistic designer of alternate realities and her life goal is to see a game developer win the Nobel Peace Prize. I love her work and the incredible force for good it is having on the world.

Let's grab a seat with Jane and talk: how we live with greater flow, how we harness our children's 'soul force', why we maybe shouldn't be limiting screen time, how to choose games for kids, what questions you should ask your kids about the games they play, the best card game out there, exploring the boundaries of our psychic selves, and, of course, Jane McGonigal's 3 most formative books.

Let's turn the page into Chapter 85 now …

What You'll Learn:

• How can we bend the rules of reality?

• What is the power of a twin relationship?

• What is a soul force?

• How should we think about nature and nurture as we parent?

• Are our identities more malleable today?

• What is the difference between social media and gaming?

• What is flow?

• Why do game designers learn about flow?

• How can flow be a resource for humanity?

• How do we find our own flow?

• How can we shift away from bullshit jobs?

• Why should we shorten the workday week?

• How can games help treat PTSD and depression?

• How can we better manage screen time for our kids?

• How should we curate games for our kids?

• How can games help our kids learn confidence?

• Why should kids teach their parents how to play video games?

• What are the  key questions you should be asking your kids about the video games they play?

• What is a predictor of video game addiction?

• How does TV benefit kids?

• Why should you watch TV with your kids?

• Why should you know the theme songs of your kids' favorite TV shows?

• How do we teach aliens what it means to be human?

• What does studying an audience tell us about art?

• How do we experience more out of life?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/85 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Do you have a therapist?

Do you meet up with someone on a regular basis to open up, talk about yourself, and get into the weeds of your emotions? Maybe the ones you can articulate, the ones you can't articulate, the ones you're angry about having, the ones you're confused about having.

I started seeing a therapist about 10 years ago.

After the loss of my marriage and my best friend, it was suggested by my parents that I would benefit from seeing a therapist.

I'm embarrassed to admit I said no. "I don't need a therapist! I don't have problems! That's for people with problems! That's not me!"

Maybe it was the years, decades, generations of stigma and taboos around that word? Therapy. Growing up I never heard about anyone going to therapy except in the context of some desperate, last second attempt to salvage something like a failing marriage at the eleventh hour.

Maybe that's why I'm talking about it today! I'm very lucky to have a therapist. And proud of it too, I'd say. My wife Leslie is, too. We talk openly about going to therapy with our children. So often, so easily, so quickly, people say, 'I've got to go to workout, I've got to go to the gym, I've got to run on the treadmill.' We're so open about sharing physical self care. But we aren't nearly as open about mental self care. And that conversation only progresses globally if we keep having conversations like the one we're about to have today…

So welcome, welcome, welcome. Great to have you here. Thank you for reading all the way down here! Are you new? Are you a 3 Books virgin? If so, you picked a wonderful chapter to begin with. Chapter 84 with Lori Gottlieb. If you like it, we'd love to have you join our community. 3 Books is by and for book lovers, writers, makers, sellers and librarians. The show is a 100% a labor of love and a piece of art with no ads, no sponsors, no promotions, and no interruptions. We've got deep values like no book guilt, no book shame, the right to sip, the right to dip. We're not about reading as a chore, or as a job, or as homework. We're all about discovering or rediscovering the pure joy of books or deepening the love you already have.

Today I am very excited to share with you a conversation with the one and only Lori Gottlieb.

Do you know Lori Gottlieb?

She's a psychotherapist and author of the New York Times bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk To Someone which has sold well over a million copies. It's even being adapted as a television series. She writes the extremely popular weekly column Dear Therapist in The Atlantic. She contributes regularly to The New York Times, has a very popular TED Talk, shared one of the best stories at The Moth ever, and is a member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change To Mind. Finally, she also hosts her own wonderful podcast called Dear Therapists.

As a therapist who writes about therapy, Lori kicks open the door to conversations we need to have.

We are going to talk about finding a therapist, making adult friends, what you should ask instead of 'how are you?', how heterosexual women often react to men crying, processing grief, the key ingredient to vulnerability, tennis partners, defining emotions, the voices in our head, the root cause of trauma, why insight is the booby prize of therapy, and, of course, about the wonderful Lori Gottlieb's three most formative books.

Let's turn the page into Chapter 84 now …

What You'll Learn:

• What is the difference between content and process in therapy?

• How do people move through their struggles?

• What makes us human at our core?

• How can we find ourselves in the stories of others?

• How much should we share about ourselves on social media?

• What is the importance of authenticity for a writer?

• How do therapists use their own humanity to help others?

• How should we navigate vulnerability in writing?

• How can authors write about their own children without betraying their stories which are their own to tell?

• What is true vulnerability?

• What are the misconceptions surrounding therapy?

• How do you test drive your therapist?

• How do we discover our dark side and how can it help us grow as a human being?

• What is the beauty of mentor mentee relationships?

• Why are adult friendships hard to come by, specifically for men?

• Why is it harder for men to be vulnerable?

• Why do we apologize when we cry?

• What is the danger of labeling feelings?

• How can we use our feelings without judgement to make better decisions?

• What is the danger of numbing our feelings?

• Why should we not talk our kids out of their feelings?

• How should we deal with loss and why are the commonly listed stages of grief not necessarily helpful?

• How do we grieve better?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/84 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

"Our technologies, markets and cultural institutions, once forces for human connection and expression, now isolate and repress us. It is time to remake society together, not as individual players, but as the team we actually are: Team Human."

That little paragraph is printed right on the cover of the latest book by Douglas Rushkoff.

Do you know Douglas Rushkoff?

He's a vivid, big-thinking author behind books like Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Present Shock, Program or Be Programmed, Screenagers, Playing the Future, Media Virus, and many others.

Seth Godin calls him acerbic. I'll call him provocative. Douglas is not afraid of anything! His writing is confident and he's got the research and logic ready behind every point.

No wonder he's been named one of the world's most influential thought leaders. Douglas hosts the popular Team Human podcast, writes for The Guardian, and is the documentarian behind Generation Like and Merchants of Cool. He's also responsible for coining many popular phrases including "viral media" and "social currency."

Douglas Rushkoff is a big thinker! A different thinker. And we love getting different thinkers on this show.

From Chapter 4 with Sarah Ramsey, my favorite bookseller, to Chapter 36 with Elder Cox and Elder Corona, two teenage Mormon missionaries, to Chapter 61 with Temple Grandin, one of the world's first autism activists, we're having a blast bouncing around brain spaces.

We are going to talk about Bitcoin, reality tunnels, what the internet really is, the benefits of slack, rebuilding societal trust, the source code for magic, Timothy Leary and designer deaths, facts versus reality, mycelium and trees, Bardo orgies, the purpose of play, and, of course, the incredible Douglas Rushkoff's three (or maybe four!) most formative books.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 83 now …

What You'll Learn:

• What is a media theorist?

• How is Team Human doing?

• What is the true environmental cost of Bitcoin?

• Why is slack so important?

• How can we rebuild trust where it is lost?

• How do we free ourselves from societal pressures?

• Is there such a thing as an original thought?

• How does intergenerational living benefit society?

• Why should we never retire?

• What is Chapel Perilous?

• What is a reality tunnel?

• How do you surf reality?

• How does tradition keep us sane?

• How should we think about death?

• What is the difference between death and dying?

• What is the Tibetan bardo? 

• What kind of games should we strive to play in life?

• What is the purpose of play?

• What was the original vision for the internet?

• What is the true meaning of the Sabbath in today's world?

• Why is Torah magical?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/83 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

What was your first Tarantino experience?

I was thirteen years old in an unfinished basement watching Reservoir Dogs on VHS and can still remember how shook my friends and I were when we saw it.

Was that your first Tarantino experience? Or was it Pulp Fiction? Jackie Brown? Kill Bill? Inglourious Basterds? Django Unchained? The Hateful Eight? Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Well, the Tarantino Experience continues with his brand new book Once Upon A Time In Hollywood which is the propulsive, addictive, roller-coastering movie novelization of his award-winning film. I absolutely loved it.

Today we're going to talk about: Quentin Tarantino's favorite writer, how we thicken our skin in a thin-skinned world, how we can live confidently in a clickbait world, how one goes about writing a movie novelization, what an unlikely spinoff to Inglourious Basterds might look like, why we should avoid self censorship, what are Quentin's thoughts on meme Quentin Quarantino, his three most formative books, and much, much, more …

I'm going to be in your left ear (from a furnace room at my family's lake house rental!), Quentin's going to be in your right ear (from his writing studio in Hollywood Hills!) and you will be sitting right between us.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 82 now …

What You'll Learn:

• What's the difference between releasing a movie and releasing a book?

• What should we make of today's ad-driven culture?

• How do we build thick skin today?

• Why is failure so important in the creation of art?

• What do critics offer artists?

• How do you decide what to do when you can do anything you want?

• Why is the artistic path such a guide post?

• Who was the first rock and roll idol?

• What is the balance between progressivism and artistic freedom?

• What principles should be followed when turning a movie into a book?

• What are the artistic and relationship implications of having confidence?

• Why is self-censorship limiting?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/82 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

I discovered Dave Eggers in the late 90s when the Internet was all belts and pinions and the only two comedy websites that I remember reading were The Onion and McSweeney's.

The Onion's site was the notorious outcropping of a campus comedy newspaper from Wisconsin and McSweeney's was founded by a publishing dynamo Whiz Kid named Dave Eggers who'd worked at places like Wired and Might Magazine, which he'd cofounded out in San Francisco.

In 2000 Dave's 'anti-memoir' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius came out and, no big deal, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. I loved the book and the seemingly endless creative fireworks Dave was capable of producing.

What happened in the twenty years since?

Well today Dave Eggers is one of the most celebrated writers in the world — he's written bestsellers like The Circle, A Hologram For The King, Zeitoun and won or been nominated for endless awards including the TED Prize, The Salon Book Award, Time's 100 Most Influential People, The National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and the list goes on.

Dave is also co-founder of 826 National which is a non-profit dedicated to tutoring and helping students age 6 - 18 with writing. (The organization helps over 100,000 students a year.) Oh, and Dave's written screenplays like Away We Go, together with his wife Vendela Vida, and The Wild Things, the Spike Jonze-directed adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Is that it? No! He's also a painter. His art has been exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, The Nevada Museum of Art, The Biennial of the Americas and many other art galleries around the world. More recently, his training as an artist was put to use in a fabulously quirky book called Ungrateful Mammals.

His latest book The Museum of Rain is about to release. I read it and loved it and was so excited to talk to him about it.

He called in from a landline for our chat because he is known for being off the grid. No wifi and no smartphone!

I was nervous and, to help the interview along, I completely mismanaged my time, so the whole thing may or may not dissolve into complete disarray by the end. But we somehow still managed to discuss: spying, life without smart phones, the ethics of Alexa, how to get boys to read, cheering for the underdog, the problem with Rotten Tomatoes, the joys of old old laptops, the tradeoff between convenience and surveillance, making art in an algorithmic society, and of course the incredible Dave Eggers' three most formative books…

Let's flip the page into Chapter 81 now …

What You'll Learn:

• What are the trade-offs between surveillance and convenience?

• Why do we give away our privacy so easily?

• How do we figure out which companies to trust?

• How can we help kids find their way to books on their terms?

• How do we carve out mental space for ourselves?

• How do we make art and ignore the algorithm? 

• How do we consume art?

• What is particular about the podcast art form?

• How does great art shine in today's shallow world?

• What is the problem with Rotten Tomatoes?

• And much, much, more

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/81 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

3 Books is published on the lunar calendar.

I share one new chapter of the show on the exact minute of every single full moon and every single new moon all the way up to September 1, 2031 at 5:52am.

But today … I don't have a chapter for you.

I have a bookmark.

On every single equinox and every single solstice I will drop a little extra of some kind … a seasonal intermezzo if you will.

The first bookmark was with Nora McInerny, host of Terrible, Thanks for Asking, back on the March equinox. And now it's the June solstice and I'm sharing my SXSW 2019 speech "Building trust in distrustful times"

Why am I sharing this speech? Well you know what's one thing I have missed during the pandemic? Giant rooms full of throngs of people. Cheering together, laughing together, learning together. There is an electric energy buzz that cannot be replicated virtually.

So let's head down to the Austin Convention Center to a ballroom with over 2500 people filling every chair and standing at the sides and at the back and talk about building trust in distrustful times…

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/bookmark2 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Are you ready for a brain workout?

Are you ready for a mind expanding conversation with the incredible Dr. Kristin Neff?

Kristin received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in moral development and followed it up with a post doc at the University of Denver studying self concept development and now she's working as an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

During Kristin's last year of graduate school she became interested in Buddhism and has been practicing meditation in the Insight Meditation tradition ever since. While doing her post-doctoral work, she decided to conduct research on self-compassion – a central construct in Buddhist psychology and one that had not yet been examined empirically.

Kristin is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, creating a scale to measure the construct almost 20 years ago. She is the author of the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and the brand new book Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive.

Together with Dr. Chris Germer she developed a training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. They co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook as well as Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. She is also co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.

In addition to her books and training program, Kristin has written over fifty academic journal articles and chapters on the topic of Self-Compassion over the past twenty years. And this is not egghead up in the ivory tower stuff. Her work has been cited over 35,000 times!

I also recommend you check out self-compassion.org to find a ton of other work like resources, instruments, practices, and of course guided meditations.

My wife Leslie joined me in the basement for this conversation because it's through her that I first discovered Kristin's work.

We sit down and discuss how you can embrace your tender and fierce sides, regrets, how to wield anger as a tool, the phrase "is this being used in the sense of harm or preventing harm?", owning singledom, the difference between spinsters and bachelors, gender norms, and of course Dr. Kristin Neff's 3 most formative books.

Join me as we flip the page into Chapter 80 …

 What You'll Learn:

• How can meditation help us navigate mistakes?
• What is tender versus fierce self compassion and how do they alleviate suffering?
• What do #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and self-compassion have in common?
• How we can channel our anger constructively?
• Why is female anger perceived differently than male anger?
• Who is the Goddess Kali?
• How can anger and love co-exist?
• How can we teach our kids to be angry in a constructive way?
• How can we separate ego and anger?
• What are the benefits of anger?
• How are women socialized to view their worth through relationships?
• Why are social systems still so sexist?
• What does Buddhism teach us about love?
• Why is there no male word for spinster?
• What should men do to embrace their tender side?
• How is self-compassion contagious?
• How do we embrace our imperfections?
• How should we build self esteem?
• What are the three critical components of self-compassion?
• What is a self-compassion break?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/80 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

"The Ys sounds like Js," Yuyi Morales tells me when I ask for the correct way to pronounce her name. It's embarrassing to ask but my detective work online resulted in a half dozen different options.

Yuyi is a Mexican-American children's book author and illustrator. She was born in Mexico and raised amongst giant grandmothers, mossy house walls, and rampaging feral gardens, fostering a strong bond with magical stories that ran in her family as a child.

Today she is known for her incredible children's books which combine powerful spare language and sumptuous complex imagery.

She has written books like, Dreamers, Niño Wrestles the World, Just a Minute, Viva Frida, Little Night, Just In Case and her brand new book coming out in September called, Bright Star (I suggest you pre-order it!). It tells the story of a fawn making her way through a border landscape, teeming with flora and fauna native to the region. A gentle empowering voice encourages her to face her fears when she comes across an obstacle in the form of an insurmountable barrier.

A lot of her work has these themes running through it — immigration, pilgrimage, journeying, discovery. It's no wonder she is one of the most decorated children's books author in the world. At last count she's won twenty-nine awards including the Pura Belpré Medal, the Americas Award for Children and Young Adult Literature, the California Book Award, the Tomas Riviera Award and the Caldecott Honor. For those of you who know the children's books world well, the Caldecott is the top prize! She is the first Latina to ever be a Caldecott recipient.

Let's strap in to talk about the burdens of colonialism, Mexican artistry, introducing books to book deprived communities, magic realism, community feminism, teen prostitution, dirty cops, living in books, making the world a better place, and, of course, the wonderful Yuyi Morales's three most formative books.

Let's head down to Veracruz, Mexico. Feel that sun on your face, picture yourself on a beach, grab a drink, lay out a towel, and stare into the sea and the surf with me.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 79 …

What You'll Learn:

• What is Xalapa like?

• What is the state of Mexico today?

• What are the burdens of colonialism?

• What is community feminism? 

• What is the cost of a book in Mexico?

• How can magical realism still be familiar?

• What motivated the student uprisings of 1968 in Mexico City?

• What was La Noche de Tlatelolco?

• Why do Mexican students feel criminalized?

• What must we change in our culture to allow children to  thrive?

• Why must we change our paternalistic views on immigration?

• What can we learn from children?

• What toxins do we absorb when we eat animals that have been slaughtered cruelly?

• How can we organize books by our emotional state?

• What is storytelling?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/79 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

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...

I was a tiny and skinny kid with thick glasses at my public school in the suburbs of Toronto in the early 80s. I was pretty lonely and definitely hadn't found my way. One day my librarian Ms. Ferrell handed me a book called Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar.

The book single-handedly turned me into a reader.

I had never read a book that was funny, absurd, choppy that just kept me flipping, flipping, flipping. I loved the book. I fell into the book. I read it again and again and again and still have multiple copies on my bookshelf today. (A small count towards the nine million copies sold.) In 2010 when The Book of Awesome came out I wrote in the Acknowledgements: "To Louis Sachar, for writing Sideways Stories from Wayside School and teaching a nerdy kid to to fall in love with reading."

Louis Sacher was born in East Meadow, New York in 1954 and moved to California when he was 9. He liked school but was not much of a reader until he fell into the works of J.D.Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut. He started studying at Ohio University but left to go move back with his mom after his father sadly passed away in his first semester. Later on he enrolled at Berkeley majoring in Economics.

One day, on campus, he caught sight of a young girl passing out flyers. The flyers read: "Help - Teachers Aides Wanted at Hillside Elementary - Earn 3 course credits." It struck him as a sweet deal. No homework, no term papers, no tests. He signed up.

He soon found himself both in the classroom and on the school playground, known to the kids as "Louis the Yard Teacher". He loved it. And it ended up changing his life.

His time at the local public school inspired him to write Sideway Stories from Wayside School. He even named the kids in the book after real kids he taught. It published in 1978 though did not make a loud splash. No fanfare. So Louis went on to Law School and practiced law for 10 years — all the while writing children's books on the side.

His writing finally took off in 1989. He quit law to write full time and is now one of the best known children's authors in the world. (Although I'm a Sideways junkie he's probably sold even more copies of Holes which won him both the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Newbery Medal and — no biggie — was made into a giant blockbuster film, too.)

I was delighted to sit down with a childhood idol. He called us up from the suburbs of Austin, Texas and we talked about absurdity, wooing readers, drinking urine, literary heroes, celebrity culture, writing structure, The Shawshank Redemption, wrestling with doubt, and how to live a quiet life.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 78 now…

What You'll Learn:

• What kind of reader do writers think about as they write?

• Are writers still heroes today?

• What made the 1960s such a special time of upheaval?

• How do we live a quiet life in today's world?

• How can writers maintain humility?

• How does one separate commercial success from what you do next? 

• How do authors use their craft to skip time smartly in their work?

• How do you make a good movie from a book?

• How do some authors cultivate friendship with their readers?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/78 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Happy Pink Moon, everybody!

Way back in 2017, I came across a feature article in The New York Times Magazine called "A Whimsical Wordsmith Charts a Course Beyond Twitter." The article was about MIT PhD student Jonny Sun's online personality — as a sentimental alien — attracting a huge following online.  

I was like "Okay, this is about the latest viral Instagram influencer and their particular brand of attention seeking behavior." But as I read the piece, and went deeper into the bio of Jonny Sun, I found myself fascinated. Jonny Sun is a PhD student at MIT looking to understand, in more objective ways, how social media fosters community. His research focuses on how social media content influences the broader world. How meaning is made. How it spreads. How it changes news and culture. As one comedian put it, "He's like Jane Goodall and we're the apes."

I found myself falling deeper and deeper into the Jonny Sun rabbit hole. There's a lot there! Jonny is an architect, designer, engineer, artist, playwright, and comedy writer who has written for BoJack Horseman. In fact, we recorded this chapter with him in L.A. currently writing another screen play.

Jonny's work is across multiple disciplines which broadly addresses the narrative of human experience. His plays have been performed at the Yale School of Drama, Hart House Theatre in Toronto, the Toronto Theatre Lab First Sight Festival and the University of Toronto Drama Festival. His art has been exhibited at Yale University and the University of Toronto.

And, he is the author of a brand new and highly anticipated book called Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections & Illustrations. It is a truly wonderful book. Looks simple on the surface but then roller coasters up and down and sideways with obsessive mental insights like Jenny Lawson or David Foster Wallace.

Jonny's work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeneys, NPR, The New York Times and Late Night with Seth Myers. He's also been named by Times as one of the 25 most influential people on the internet, Forbes has named him one of their 30 under 30 and his TED Talk has nearly four million views.

Are you ready to talk about the culture of productivity, about being on all the time, about therapy and anxiety, about the provocative nature of humor, about succulents and aloe plants, about Dadaism, about competition, about algorithms, and of course about the wonderful Jonny Sun's 3 most formative books? 

Let's turn the page into Chapter 77 now…

What You'll Learn:

• What is a toxic culture of productivity?

• How do you juggle competing pursuits?

• What are the additional pressures marginalized people face?

• How do drama and humor interplay in comedy?

• How do we stand out in today's mass media dominated world?

• What are the tensions between professional and personal ambition?

• How do social media algorithms work?

• What is instructional art?

• What is behavioural simulation?

• How do you convey deep thought and emotion in short form?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/77 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Do you suffer from anxiety disorder? Depression? Intrusive thoughts? Obsessive compulsive disorder? Voluntary hair pulling? Avoidant personality disorder? Any of the above?

Well, Jenny Lawson suffers from all of the above. Tuberculosis too, according to her wonderful new book. It's an overwhelming way to live and only partly cured by being a global community leader for mental health through her wonderful blog (TheBloggess.com), her millions of followers, and her indie bookshop Nowhere Bookshop down in San Antonio, Texas.

Does Jenny Lawson do podcasts? Interviews? No, not really. She tells us at the beginning of the chat that she loves 3 Books so much that she wanted to come — lucky us, as 3 Bookers have been asking for this interview for years! — and she made herself cozy by calling me up from under her desk, in cozy clothes, post-beta-blockers, and with Hunter S. Tomcat providing animal therapy throughout.

Jenny is funny, crass, smart, and openhearted. She's struck a deep chord with her books Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Furiously Happy, You Are Here, and Broken. (All, I should mention, with the wonderful Amy Einhorn who's edited four of my books, too!)

Jenny and I talk about what a good editor does, reading in the freezer, stealing Stephen King, dollhouse therapy, mental health toolkits, LSD, what your kids will actually remember about you as a parent, and of course, Jenny's 3 most formative books.

Jenny is gracious and disarmingly truthful and she doesn't want her pain to go to waste. She is a beaming voice the world needs more of and today I am just so privileged to help her do just that.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 76 …

What You'll Learn:

• What does an editor do?

• How do you read horror books when you have anxiety?

• How do you open a bookshop?

• What is reading guilt?

• How can ketamine treat depression?

• How can we cultivate self care and self awareness if we have anxiety?

• What are intrusive thoughts?

• How does depression lie?

• What is a mental health toolkit?

• What is dollhouse therapy?

• How can we talk to our kids about mental illness?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/76 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, and Judy Blume. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

"An astoundingly tuned voice, telling just the kind of stories we need to get us through these times." Thomas Pynchon

"Not since Mark Twain has America produced a satirist this funny." Zadie Smith

"George Saunders makes you feel as if you are reading fiction for the first time." Khaled Hosseini

I could keep going and going with other literary all-stars lining up to praise George Saunders but my favorite quote about George's writing comes from Ben Marcus in The Believer back in 2004:

"The Suits call his writing 'stories,' but they are really soft bodies to wear for a larger experience of life, hollowcore person-shapes that one can slip on in order to attain amazement. Saunders writes bodies, and his readers wear them."

Yes! That's how I feel, too. Which is what made it such an immense pleasure to sit down with the humble genius that is George Saunders. Don't take the genius label from me! He's won a MacArthur Genius Grant, Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Prize and been named to Time's 100 Most Influential People.

He won the Man Booker for the mesmerizing otherworldly masterpiece Lincoln in the Bardo, and every time I read his short story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December they just crack my heart wide open. And, just to extend the literary resume here, his most recent book A Swim in the Pond in the Rain is simply the best book on writing I have ever read. I highly recommend it to all writers.

George Saunders has also been a Professor in Creative Writing at Syracuse University since 1997. Cheryl Strayed, our guest in Chapter 69, is one of hundreds who had George as a teacher and calls him a mentor today.

Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation discussing the computer we are all trapped inside, reading as a life project, how we process reality, practicing Buddhism, the world as a corrective force, delivering payoff, staying grounded, cultivating a love of literature in children, harnessing our shadow selves, quieting mental rumination, aiming our spigots, and much, much more … .

The wisdom of George Saunders offers a true masterclass on writing, on living, on life.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 75 …

What You'll Learn:

• How does our brain process reality?
• How do writers justify the non normative and guarantee pay off?
• What is a reading project?
• How does death amplify life?
• What is the self?
• What is efficiency in writing?
• How should we stay grounded despite success?
• When should writers compare themselves to the masters?
• How should we think about kindness?
• What can we learn from Buddhism?
• What is an innate tendency of mind?
• How can parents cultivate a love of literature in their kids?
• How can we channel our different mental states to be creative?
• How does exploring one's dark side or subconscious impact one's writing?
• How can the minutiae of editing save a writer?
• How can we learn to live more freely?
•  

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/75 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

I love you, 3 Bookers.

The deepening connection and trust in this community constantly blows me away. It picks me up when I'm down, it's a barrel of nerdy laughs, it helps me scratch a lot of itches in my brain. And it's been truly great friendship through the pandemic.

I mean, End of the Podcast Club, Cover to Cover Club, and Secret Club? Where you have to find a hidden password? And then send cash in the mail to a secret address? I didn't think anyone would join these ridiculous things! You leave so many voicemails at 1-833-READ-A-LOT, you mail letters we read on the show, and you leave the hundreds of reviews that I try really, really hard not to care about and yet still shamefully, biologically kind of do. We get the joyful pleasure of going on an adventure and of braiding together our invisible reading lives.

I have so many ideas for deepening this connection over the years and I want to introduce one today. For the last ten years of 3 Books, I plan to release a special Bookmark on the exact minute of every single solstice and equinox. That's today! The sun is right over the equator and day and night are just about equal lengths. We will play the theme song backwards and explore a different side-trail on our shared path. It might be a speech, a reflection, or some alternate type of ... other. The first Bookmark drops today. And it's a conversation between me and my friend Nora McInerny on her wonderful, wonderful podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. 

I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. Would love your feedback and thoughts!

Neil

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 22-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of an inspiring person. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, George Saunders, Angie Thomas, Daniels, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume, and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single full moon all the way up to April 26, 2040. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Happiness Equation', 'Two-Minute Mornings', and 'The Book of Awesome.' For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, and Judy Blume. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Leslie and I welcomed a baby boy into the world just a few weeks ago.   

Like our other three sons, he was sheparded into the world by Kanmani Guruswami and her incredible team of midwives at Kensington Midwives in downtown Toronto. Kanmani has become a guide for Leslie and me — supporting us physically, emotionally, and spiritually on our parenthood journey. Not only is she a veteran midwife, heading up the Kensington Midwives clinic, but she's also a passionate activist who tirelessly focuses her energies towards making the world a kinder, more inclusive, and more empathetic place. 

What do I mean?

You'll hear it in seconds.

Born in Calgary to her Tamil-speaking engineer father from Tamil Nadu, India and her mathematician mother from Switzerland, Kanmani is the product of their hard work ethic and their struggles navigating many degrees of colonization and assimilation. Kanmani chose midwifery as a career path while assisting with home births in Vancouver and now for the past twenty years, her midwife clinic has assisted indigenous and settler Canadians. 

I confess I knew nothing about midwifery a few years ago. Less than nothing! Less than less than nothing! But as I've been exposed to the work they do, I've come to believe it is truly critical and transformational to both families and broader society. I believe the work of midwives needs to be discussed, debated, and celebrated.

So Kanmani and I hung out on my couch in full PPE and masks right as she was finishing up an appointment with Leslie and my two-week-old son. We discuss things like: delivering versus catching, people of the global majority, what exactly midwives do, who exactly is a settler, the invisible effects of colonization, racism in health care, the magic of childbirth, and, of course, Jughead Jones.

Kanmani Guruswami is a local hero whose voice, stories, wisdom, and humanity should be amplified. So let's amplify it! I hope her love and wisdom ripples deeply into your heart as it does to mine. 

And now let's flip the page into Chapter 74 …

What You'll Learn:

• What is a midwife?

• What are the trends around midwifery versus physician care?

• What are the values underpinning midwife care?

• What is assimilation?

• What is the significance of the phrase: people of the global majority?

• What is the Truth and Reconciliation movement?

• What is cultural competence training?

• What are some of the less discussed effects of colonization?

• What does it mean to be 'a Jughead'?

• What is The Farm?

• What is an ambivalent baby?

• What holistic approaches do midwives bring to the magic of birthing a child?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/74

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, and Judy Blume. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Do you miss coffee shops?

The clatter, the din, the pshh-pshh of the espresso machine. The cacophony of music and typing and magnetic sense of connection with strangers. I miss the belonging. I miss the community.

One of my favourite coffee shops is inside the Centre for Social Innovation in downtown Toronto where 3 Bookers will remember I vowed to record a future chapter while cruising by in David Sedaris' limo back in Chapter 18. Well, the podcast gods worked their magic and I was lucky to find myself there months later in the company of the wonderful Humble the Poet. 

Truth be told, I've kept this chapter on ice for a while since it was recorded pre-masks, pre-lockdown. I kept thinking normalcy would return and then the pandemic dragged on and on and on and I grudgingly switched to virtual recordings. But now I need that coffee shop! So here is the last live and in-person recording of 3 Books I've got for you for a while. (Insert tear emoji here)

Do you know Humble the Poet?

He's an electric and creative polymath, rapper, poet, spoken word artist, best selling author of Unlearn and Things No One Else Can Teach Us, Lollapalooza performer, former elementary school teacher, and a wildly popular blogger at humblethepoet.com with over 100,000 readers. Oh, and did I mention more than a million people follow him across social media @humblethepoet.

Perceptive, inquisitive, and putting out a vibe that captures hearts and minds, Humble defies easy stereotypes. I might even say he shatters them.

We dive deep into his activism and how he develops courage to brave the wilderness and be so unafraid to challenge mainstream consensus by shedding light on Indian farmers or the Colin Kaepernicks of the world far before doing so becomes en vogue. We discuss how mainstream media preys on our biology and why controversy hooks our attention. We chat about the counterintuitive value of obscurity and how to stand out in a global village of sameness. And, of course, we discuss Humble the Poet's 3 most formative books. 

I am grateful to share this conversation with this incredible human being while getting an aural dose of coffee shop community at the same time. Wherever you are right now, whatever you're doing right now, I encourage you to flop down on the green couch beside the radiator. I'll be in your left ear, Humble will be in your right ear, and let's hang out.

Can I get you a cappuccino?

What You'll Learn:

• Why should we explore and push the boundaries on unpopular stances?

• How do we find the courage to stand up for injustice?

• How should we pick causes to defend?

• What are the tensions between science and religion?

• How do we figure out what to trust?

• Why is controversy not sustainable?

• Why should there be no shame in liking short books?

• What is the balance between authenticity and curation on social media?

• What are the dangers of geolocation?

• How do we stand out in a world of sameness?

• How do we navigate the pull of followers on social media?

• Why should we always ask before we post?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/73     

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, and Judy Blume. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Picture this: You're a brand new professor two years into a teaching career at an illustrious university and feedback on you as a professor is … terrible. Sorry! But you're told you suck. By lots of students. Again and again.

How would you process that? Cry? Crawl into a hole somewhere and curl up in the fetal position while sucking your thumb? That's what I would do! That's actually what I did do, frankly, in my first job ever at Procter & Gamble. They told me I sucked so I quit and ran away before I got fired.

But Adam Grant? No. He leaned into the feedback. He designed new surveys to get richer feedback. He asked other professors if he could take on more teaching classes. He basically triangulated and solved for the question: what makes a good professor?

Impressive right? Well, he's been voted the most popular professor for seven straight years so I'd say so.

I had heard this story about Adam before I interviewed him and it made me even more curious about what makes this guy tick.

He seemingly does everything.

He has a popular podcast with TED called WorkLife which is wonderful if you're a student of organizational psychology, organizational behavior, or becoming a better leader. 

Oh, and how about his books? Every time Adam Grant pens a new book it shoots straight to the top of The New York Times bestseller list and sort of just roosts there for months. Give and Take, Originals, Option B (with Sheryl Sandberg), and now Think Again which I've loved reading.

In Think Again Adam says we must redefine intelligence, not just as the ability to think and learn, but rather embrace rethinking and unlearning. Rejecting the comfort of conviction for the discomfort of doubt allows us to widen our definition of what real intelligence is and widen the aperture of our minds. 

Adam was good enough to dial me up from Philadelphia where he lives with his wife Allison and his three children. Since I did the interview literally hours after Leslie welcomed our new son into the world, I was a bit brain-jumbled. But we end up having a wonderful chat about parenting and balancing ambition versus contentment, along all the less visible sides of life. We also talk about feminism, humility, work life balance, and of course, Adam's 3 most formative books.

So 3 Bookers! Stuff the earbuds in and fill up the sudsy sink, grab the leash for a long early-morning walk, or come hang out with Adam and me on a late night driveway chat…

Are you ready to turn the page to Chapter 72?

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• What are some elements of parenting intentionally?

• How can busy couples think about sharing work?

• What is Adam's view on the state of feminism?

• What is some low-hanging structural / systemic fruit when it comes to fighting misogyny?

• What is The Daughter Effect?

• What are some specific tools Adam uses to help practice humility?

• What is 'the curiosity gap'?

• What does healthy ambition look like?

• What is the meaning of life? (Yes, really)

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/72     

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

So I pull into the gas station to fill up my van and a car starts honking and keeps honking and keeps honking and keeps honking and keeps honking and I open my door and I look behind me and a woman opens her door and suddenly screams "MOVE YOUR CAR!!!"

And then I go "But I'm getting gas?" and then she goes "BUT YOU PARKED IN FRONT OF ME!!!" and then I go "Because I'm getting gas?" and then she goes "BUT YOU COULD HAVE PARKED THERE!" and then I go "But my tank is on this side?" and then she goes "BUT YOU SAW ME RIGHT HERE!!!" and then I go "DOES YOUR CAR GO BACKWARDS???" and then right as things are sizzling up and it feels like I'm about to get smacked in the forehead with a squeegee another woman walks between us and says "YOU DON'T GOTTA LISTEN TO HER!!!"

It was enough to cut the tension and help me give my head a shake. The situation simmered down and melted away as she reversed out and I was left standing there, filling up my tank, thinking about how we are all too wound up right now. Tension is high. Pandemic is wearing. We don't need to yell at each other at gas stations! We need to give each other space to feel what we're feeling and try to help each other along the way.

Right? I think? Something like that?

I was feeling bad about not being more compassionate when my public defender walked by me again. I said thank you and we exchanged big exaggerated eye-smiles and I got a sudden feeling that there was a little connection right here, right now. So I told her I talk to people about formative books and asked if she wanted to chat. Her reply? "HELL YEAH!" So we drove our cars across the street, I hit record on my phone, and we ended up laughing, crying, and connecting over the highs and lows of life, in just a few minutes, as two complete strangers.

How did it happen? I don't know. I can't explain it! But I think this guerrilla chapter of 3 Books will stick with you for a long time.

Get ready to discuss how it feels to lose everything, how it feels to suddenly be homeless with only your children and a stack of books at your side, and how it feels to be Black and raise Black children in the world today.

Get ready to meet a woman you will not soon forget.

Get ready to meet the incredible Shirley the Nurse aka Shirley Davis.

It is time for another guerrilla chapter of 3 Books.

Let's go!

• What does a day in the life of a critical care worker in remote regions look like?

• How do we encourage young people to ask questions?

• How did a single mother turn her kids lives around with books?

• How does it feel to raise Black children in the world today?

• How can language help defuse stressful situations?

• What is the value of unconditional love?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/71     

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Leslie and I had just started dating when she sent me a short clip of Brené Brown explaining the difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy is climbing down into the hole with somebody and saying "Hey, I know what it's like down here, and you're not alone." Sympathy is poking your head in the top of the hole and saying "Ooo! It's bad, uh-huh!" Brené's simple-sounding words created such a profound paradigm shift that we still use the line "Come down to the hole with me" in our relationship when we're looking for deeper understanding (i.e., trying to get out of a fight.)

That clip was the beginning of Brené Brown's incredible work entering our marriage. When we found out we were going to have a baby Leslie printed out Brené Brown's Parenting Manifesto and put it up on our wall. Leslie took Brené's Kitchen Table Parenting Classes and we sat together watching her viral TED Talks, The Power of Vulnerability and Listening to Shame. I gave Leslie a copy of Daring Greatly on the day she gave a speech to her old high school and I was lucky to see Brené give a talk at a conference full of A-listers where hers was the only talk punctuated throughout the speech with standing ovation after standing ovation.

Her wisdom may sound simple but it just hits you like a ton of bricks. Many of her lessons have themselves become tendons in our relationship including the phrase, "The story I'm telling myself is…" which we use to navigate tough conversations and not lay blame.

Her #1 New York Times bestsellers Daring Greatly, The Gifts of Imperfection, Braving the Wilderness, Rising Strong and Dare to Lead grace our shelves and often lie beside our bed. We turn to them again and again. We loved her Netflix special The Call to Courage and her hit podcasts — yes, plural! — Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead featuring a lot of no-name guests like President Barack Obama, Dolly Parton, and President-Elect Joe Biden. I mean: come on!

Brené is a North Star to so many.

Teachers, CEOs, movie stars, Oprah, and even Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are amongst her legion of fans. She is doing so much good in a world full of anxiety, grief, misunderstanding and miscommunication.

She is the beacon we all need.

It was a huge privilege to sit down and interview Brené together with my wife Leslie. We loved this intimate and wide-ranging conversation discussing questions like: How do we truly honor our partners? What is the value of ordinary moments? How do we actually operationalize love?

And, of course, what are Brené Brown's 3 most formative books?

Are you ready? Please sit back and enjoy Chapter 70 with the one and only … Brené Brown.

Let's go! 

• How do we make time for friends?

• How do we find contentment within our sphere of influence?

• What does it mean to be spiritually fit?

• Why is it so critical to set boundaries with family and friends?

• What is the difference between being sweet and being kind?

• How can a classroom be transformed into a sacred space?

• What does it take to be a great teacher?

• What is meant by the phrase "education as the practice of freedom"?

• How can we better train teachers to be agents of change?

• What is a love ethic?

• What is a pandemic of lovelessness?

• How can we learn to love?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/70     

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

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...

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

I am so delighted to close out 2020 with the magical wisdom of the one and only … Cheryl Strayed.

Cheryl is the New York Times bestselling author of Wild, the Oprah's Book Club pick turned blockbuster film starring Reese Witherspoon, Brave Enough, a collection of raw and unflinchingly brave quotes, and Torch, her award-winning debut novel.

And then there's my personal favorite! The Dear Sugar Column she wrote for years in The Rumpus literary magazine where she navigated the deep tissue of the human experience through raw and honest advice under the pseudonym Sugar. Since the letters were also written under pseudonym it's an exquisite portrait of anonymous loving beating hearts of humanity connecting with no names and no faces — just riding the waves of life together. Cheryl's bestselling book Tiny Beautiful Things is a magnificent compilation from the column that spawned the hit podcasts Dear Sugars and Sugar Calling.

How did Cheryl gain such deep perception of the human experience? 

All I know is Cheryl is a singular, lyrical, big-hearted voice who never shies away from the deep questions. In this conversation we discuss things like: How do we deal with grief? How do we live objectively in a subjective world? How should we think about meeting our heroes? What is the power of community and connection? How do we write with vulnerability?

And of course, what are the eminent Cheryl Strayed's … 3 most formative books?

Let's go! 

• What is the double standard when it comes to men and women's appearance in public?

• Why do we not use the term "working dad"?

• How are books a portal?

• How do books break down facades?

• How do we turn grief into beauty?

• What is objective reality?

• How should we think about space?

• How can people work to understand white privilege and complicity?

• How can community transcend political differences?

• How can we learn to write with vulnerability?

• What is your story to tell and what isn't and why are you telling it?

• And, of course, what are Cheryl Strayed's three most formative books?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/69    

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Happy winter solstice! Happy summer solstice!

If you're in the northern hemisphere, we are tilted farther away from the sun today compared to any other day of the year. The darkest of dark days! But if you're in the southern hemisphere, you are officially tilted closer to the sun than any other day of the year. The brightest of bright days!

Do you feel a bit tilted right now? I know I do. It has been a wild year from almost any perspective. And the tiltiest of days seemed like the perfect time to drop our third annual "Best Of" special episode of 3 Books.

I went back and listened to every conversation we had this year and picked out highlights I thought would provoke, stimulate, and challenge us. We sat down with so many inspiring people including Rich Roll, Dr. Laura Markham, Wagner Moura, Roxane Gay, Dr. Andrea Sereda, Derek Forgie, Temple Grandin, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and many, many more…

I hope this patchwork quilt conversation serves to both help us reflect on the year that was and help us set intentions for the year that will be. We have been through a lot. Grab a blanket and a cup of tea, settle in for a long drive, strap on some boots and let's enjoy some time together now…

I really love having this conversation with you.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/best-of-2020 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Roger Martin has been called the #1 management thinker in the world by Thinkers50.

I'm not surprised.

For the past twenty years I have often been in crowds gathered around Roger to hear him speak. Like Marshall McLuhan or Malcolm Gladwell, he has a singular visionary worldview that's simultaneously astonishingly insightful and deeply humble.

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Roger went on to be a top director at The Monitor Group, the boutique strategic consultancy firm cofounded by Michael Porter. He then became Dean of Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, where he not only managed to 10x revenue during his tenure, but massively elevated Rotman's status globally until it became one of the top business schools in the world. Most interestingly, he applied a series of counterintuitive management practices to placate disillusioned staff operating in a Lord of the Flies type setting.

Along the way, he's managed to author a number of bestselling strategy books including Playing To Win and The Opposable Mind. This year, he released When More Is Not Better which I think is his best book to date. (I called it my #1 non-fiction read of 2020.) In the book, Roger calls out a very broken system of democratic capitalism, rusted from within, favouring the elite over a working class struggling to make ends meet. But, unlike most business books which sort of stop at illuminating the problem, Roger actually spends most of his time offering tangible and concrete solutions that have proven to work elsewhere.

If you are the leader of a team, a community group, or within a family, you will gain a ton of actionable wisdom from Roger Martin. There is so much here, from countering monopolies to designing slack systems and building trust. 

Roger Martin is a self effacing, deeply humble genius with the power to distill complex ideas into digestible concepts.

Ready for this masterclass?

Let's go!

• What is the real definition of capitalism?

• How do we get capitalism working for the middle class?

• What is "multi-homing" and how can we do it?

• What are the issues with Amazon, Facebook, and other monopolies?

• How should politicians really be passing laws?

• How would you introduce gun control in the US?

• What is slack and why do we need more in business?

• Why is principled leadership so critical and what does it look like?

• Why is face to face better for conflict resolution?

• How can we change repetitive behaviours which do not serve us?

• How do you move yourself along the path towards true mastery in any art or craft?

• And, of course, what are Roger Martin's three most formative books?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/68       

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Provocative bestselling author. Prestigious editor. Prolific book reviewer. Passionate press founder. Prominent professor. Powerful speaker. Perceptive social commentator.

Phew!

Is it any wonder Roxane Gay has been dubbed by Playboy as the most important and most accessible feminist critic of our time?

Over 1,000,000 people follow Roxane across Twitter, Instagram, and GoodReads, where she is, no big deal, currently the #1 ranked best book reviewer on the entire platform. So she's an Internet junkie then, right? One of those social media "influencer" people? That kind of thing?

Oh no, no, no, no, no! Roxane Gay is not that. She writes the Work Friend column at The New York Times as well as regular Op-Eds. She is the author of numerous bestselling books including Ayiti, Bad Feminist, An Untamed State, Difficult Women and Hunger. She was an editor for The Rumpus, co founded PANK literary magazine, and is currently editor at Gay Mag. She launched Tiny Hardcore Press (in her words, publishing "books tiny in stature but grand in reach and spirit,") and has been a professor at Eastern Illinois, Purdue, and Yale.

Roxane's work is known for challenging mainstream narratives and deconstructing feminist and cultural issues through the lens of her personal experience as a Black queer writer. I spent weeks preparing for this conversation and felt like a ravenous wolf trying to read and listen to as much Roxane as I could find. I read and loved Bad Feminist, dug into her treasure trove of essays on Medium, and listened to her on many podcasts including two episodes on the wonderful Design Matters with her wife Debbie Millman. And still: I didn't scratch the surface. She is such a prolific voice.

We talk relationships, love, morality, sex, even wokeness and, of course, about her three most formative books. Are you ready to hang out with Roxane's incredibly compelling mind?

Let's go!

PS. This chapter is in partnership with Roxane and Performance Space NY, an alternative arts hub currently raising funds for housing insecure Black and trans artists. The arts world needs us all the time but even more so during this pandemic. Please consider donating. I will match all 3 Books listener donations up to $5000. Please email Manuela at manuela@globalhappiness.org with your donation receipt. Thank you!

What You'll Learn:

• How do you navigate the TBR (to be read) pile?

• What are the ingredients for finding love?

• What does it mean to be loved well?

• What is cultural relativism?

• What is the true power of a book?

• How do we teach kids about sex these days?

• Why is it so destructive to associate sex with shame?

• How do we stop caring about what other people think?

• How do we become better writers?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/67

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

So Joe Biden gets elected President on a Saturday.

Who does he call up on Sunday?

Vivek Murthy.

The former Surgeon General of the United States under Barack Obama and the new co-chair of Biden's Coronavirus Task Force offers such a unique combination of indisputable professional acumen with calm and resonant introspection.

I was first drawn to Vivek Murthy back in September of 2017 when I came across a cover story he wrote in Harvard Business Review called Work and the Loneliness Epidemic. I couldn't believe it! Doesn't the Surgeon General usually warn about smoking, obesity, and AIDS? Yet here was a medical doctor, in the most public forum, warning us on the perils of … loneliness. 

I took the piece to heart and let it lead me down a rabbit hole of research on solitude. I even quoted Vivek in You Are Awesome. Vivek's CV reads like an Indian parent's dream with a high school valedictorian followed by a Harvard undergrad and then Yale to become (no biggie) a doctor with an MBA!

What did he do on the side? He founded VISIONS Worldwide (a not for profit focused on HIV/AIDS education in the United States and rural India) in 1995 and Doctors For America ( which fights for access to high quality affordable health care for the most needy) in 2008. He would then alternate years in medical practice with time in the highest echelons of government.  

Vivek released his wonderful book Together which went straight to the New York Times bestseller list and was endorsed by Malcolm Gladwell, our guest in Chapter 37 of 3 Books, who said: "Vivek Murthy reminds us that our national conversation about medicine has been too narrowly focused on hospitals, doctors and drugs and not enough on the human connections that sustain us." Amen!

Fascinated by his prodigious intellect and dedication to the service of others, I knew I would love to chat with him on 3 Books. Susan Cain generously introduced us and Vivek then gave us the incredible gift of his time … spread out over two interviews across two months and stitched together here.

What are the social implications of COVID? How do we prioritize the people in our lives who matter most? What is the best way to pursue a spiritual path? What is higher energy and how can we channel it? How do we deepen our friendships? What is a moai and how can one be used to help our spiritual and emotional growth? What does it mean to be guided by love versus fear? And, of course, what are former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's 3 most formative books?

I hope you see why Vivek's voice resonates so powerfully in medical, business and political circles. His contemplative bias, humility, and calm in the face of this pandemic are a gift. If I was elected President, I would call him the next day, too!

Sit back and let his words and advice be the balm of wisdom that we can all benefit from right now.

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• How will the pandemic allow us to rebalance our priorities?

• What is true service to others according to Hindu spiritual teachings?

• How do religions share spirituality? 

• How do we stay deeply connected to who we really are?

• How can we be truly vulnerable with our friends?

• What is the real power of an open ended question?

• What does it mean to be fully present?

• Why does multitasking not work?

• What is sacred space and why is it so critical to our wellbeing?

• How can friends keep us honest?

• How can we offer kindness to others?

• How should we define success?

• How do we experience God?

• How can we create a better world for our children?

• How can we trust today?

• What is the importance of pausing?

• What can help us live longer?

• How do we listen to ourselves and learn to be alone to foster deeper connections?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/66 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Happy Blue Moon and Happy Halloween everyone!

A singular lunar event is fitting for the release of my next chapter with the venerable Nikki Giovanni. Do you know Nikki? I'm a bit ashamed to admit I didn't until I came across her wonderful children's book, Rosa (on American civil rights activist Rosa Parks), which I read to my kids and loved. After Apurna called 1-833-READ-A-LOT in the End of the Podcast Club in Chapter 59 and suggested Nikki as a guest, I watched her TED Talk, read some of her poems and watched a captivating interview she did with James Baldwin back in 1971.  And then I reached out to her and she graciously accepted to be interviewed for 3 Books. 

Nikki Giovanni was born in 1943 and is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. Wikipedia says she is one of the world's best known African American poets. I think she's one of the world's best known poets, period! (Why do we always hedge it??)

She is prolific and deeply introspective throughout her poetry, anthologies, recordings and nonfiction essays on topics ranging from race, to social issues, to children's issues. She was nominated for a Grammy and was named one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 Living Legends for her prominence in the 1960s Black Arts Movement and as a defender of both the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. She's been dubbed "The Poet of the Black Revolution" for her strong militant perspective.

Today, at 77, she is a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech where she still teaches and mentors students to help them find their voices. And it is from her very office that she dialled in to chat with me.

Listen in as we discuss the true meaning of activism, the true meaning of community, why it is important to hate (yes hate!), and to share what she believes is the best thing to do when you get up in the morning. And of course we get into her 3 most formative books. 

I am honored and humbled to bring you this lively conversation with the eminent Nikki Giovanni.

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• How can we be better at being alone?

• What is a mirror check in?

• How does poetry give us hope?

• How can we learn to write poetry?

• How was the first black show Soul started on TV?

• Why was Nikki's interview of James Baldwin a cultural turning point for the Black community?

• Why is forgiveness overrated?

• How can we hate productively?

• Why is it a good idea to be old?

• What was it like seeing a movie during segregation?

• What still needs to be done to combat racism?

• What is the link between abortion and capital punishment?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/65 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

So I'm walking down the street in downtown Toronto when I glance into a restaurant on my right and see a little chalkboard sign in the window which reads, "Your rights end where another person's begin. Wear a mask."

I found the sign to be a tiny display of civic activism. Asking people to wear masks! Demanding it, even. So tough in the service industry. I stop to snap a quick photo and the owner, Rhiannon, seeing me do this, steps outside.

We talk about how tough things are in the industry right now and discuss the challenges of enforcing masks and distance while trying to run a business.   

I decide to order a breakfast burrito, which gives me time to engage Rhiannon in a longer exchange. Turns out she was an English teacher and loves reading so I turn on my recorder and record a short guerrilla chapter of 3 Books right on her patio. (Our second after Chapter 44 with Kevin the Bookseller! And our second bar patio chapter after Chapter 27 with Robin the Bartender.)

Listen into this honest conversation about school politics, engaging reluctant readers, tackling stereotyping, hangover poutine, and of course, Rhiannon the Restaurateur's 3 most formative books.

As this pandemic endures, we need to support our local corner shops, variety shops, and neighborhood restaurants. The future is going to need small businesses!

Let's give some love to the beautiful Rhiannon of Grapefruit Moon.

Let's go! 

What You'll Learn:

• Why is revisiting books valuable?

• How can a book inspire action?

• How do you run a business with your mom?

• What's it like growing up on an island?

• Why should we burn The Ugly Ducking?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/64 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

"If you are willing to get closer to people who are suffering, you will find the power to change the world."

That quote by Bryan Stevenson perfectly describes the incredible work of Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York, my guest on Chapter 63 of 3 Books.

Happy Harvest Moon everyone! 

Are you surviving the onslaught of 2020?

If you're anything like me you're looking for grounding which is why I'm thrilled to be bringing you this uplifting exchange which completely filled my heart and soul.

Brandon Stanton is an American author, photographer, blogger, activist, and philanthropist. He is the creator of the viral sensation Humans of New York, which boasts a community of over 30 million people around the world who get a regular glimpse into the private lives of strangers through Brandon's arresting photos and accompanying stories that reflect back to us the deeper nature of humanity.

Brandon is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Humans of New York, Humans of New York: Stories, Little Humans of New York, and the highly anticipated new book Humans which comes out next week. (Side question: I believe he also holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Books With The Word Humans In The Title").

Brandon was listed as one of TIME's 30 People Under 30 Changing The World, and received the James Joyce award for the Literary and Historical Society for Professional Achievement. Not bad for a roaming flâneur who got fired from his bond trading job and just started walking around taking pictures all day.

In this chapter we discuss:

• What did Brandon learn while photographing Barack Obama?

• What's the difference between schooling and education?

• What system did Brandon adopt to improve his reading?

• How do we balance artistic ambition with family contentment?

• How can cannabis help with creativity?

• Why is it important that kids fear drugs?

• How can we rebuild trust?

• And of course, what are Brandon Stanton's 3 most formative books? 

In this tumultuous year of ups and downs, pandemic havoc, incessant media and political mayhem, let this conversation be an oasis of energy to fill you back up.

Let's go! 

What You'll Learn:

• Why is it so important to never judge a person from one moment?

• Who was the original inventor of the self help movement?

• How do we separate reading from compulsion and curiosity?

• How can you design systems to realize more of your potential? ?

• How do we tap into our deeper artistic selves to tell better stories?

• What is freedom and how does success limit it?

• What is the difference between being an influencer and being an artist?

• Where does power in a modern democracy really reside?

• What does it take to be a historical biographer?

• Why is getting close to people who are suffering so critical to bettering the world?

• What does it mean to be a moral person?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/63

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

"Xicana AF. Bitch is my pronoun." So reads the Twitter bio of Myriam Gurba, my guest, our guest, in Chapter 62. 

A Mexican/American writer, storyteller, and visual artist from California, Myriam is the author of the true crime memoir Mean, which was hailed by O magazine as "one of the best LGBTQ+ books of all time." She is also the author of Painting Their Portraits in Winter, Dahlia Season, as well as a number of chapbooks, all of which pack an audacious punch. And if her infectious written word is not enough, she's toured with Sister Spit, a lesbian feminist spoken word and performance art collective. 

She traffics in Spanglish and bold truth, the kind of which is raw and fierce. 

"When I tell gringos that my Mexican grandfather worked as a publicist, the news silences them. Shocked facial expressions follow suit. Their heads look ready to explode and I can tell they're thinking, 'In Mexico, there are PUBLICISTS?!' I wryly grin at these fulanos and let my smile speak on my behalf. It answers, 'Yes, bitch, in México, there are things to publicize such as our own fucking opinions about YOU.' - Myriam Gurba

Those words are from her viral article, Pendeja, You Ain't Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature, in which she takes down Jeanine Cummins' novel American Dirt. She had been asked to review the book by Ms. Magazine, but they rejected said review on the basis that she, "lacked the fame to pen something so negative." The controversy came to light, as well as her original critique, and the publishing world erupted. Cultural appropriation, the white gaze, racism, and the lack of diversity in the publishing industry were brought to the fore. 

Unafraid and unapologetic, Myriam had no choice but to ride the wave of deliberation. Aspersion was only heightened, shortly thereafter, by her very publicized suspension from her teaching job in a local high school by an armed police escort. Her social media presence was deemed inappropriate. And yet, she was, in her words, simply defending students who were accusing teachers of abuse.

She is passionate and energetic, a big thinking firecracker who challenged my views and grew my thinking on so many levels for which I am so grateful. We had a jet-fueled conversation talking about racism, prejudice, growing up queer, police brutality, violence against women, the Mexican obsession with death, and, of course, Myriam Gurba's 3 most formative books.

Are you ready for a gritty, vulnerable, and honest conversation with the one and only Myriam Gurba?

Let's go!

(Trigger Warning: This conversation does veer into topics of sexual abuse and trauma.)

What You'll Learn:

• Why is there so much white supremacy in publishing?

• How can we use vulnerability to draw strength?

• What is it like growing up queer?

• How can we become better activists?

• Why should the police and prison system be abolished?

• What constitutes violence against women?

• What systems fuel misogyny and patriarchy?

• How can we have a better body image?

• How do we deal with genital shame?

• What are the roots of racism?

• Why is it so important to engage in corporeal politics?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/62  

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

Welcome to Chapter 61!

I am delighted to bring you a conversation with the one and only Temple Grandin whose life has profoundly changed our preconceived notions on autism and neurodiversity, and whose work has heightened awareness of the importance of animal welfare.

Born in 1947 in Boston, she was diagnosed with autism while still nonverbal at age 4. Told her daughter should be institutionalized, Temple's Harvard-educated mother dismissed doctors and worked tirelessly to help her daughter blossom.

A BA, MA, and PhD later, Temple is a lauded faculty member at the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. She has authored over 60 scientific papers on animal behavior and is one of the first people with autism ever to document her own journey.

This has contributed to her notoriety on many fronts: she was brought to prominence in the world by Oliver Sacks M.D in his book, An Anthropologist on Mars, she has authored her own books on autism, Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism and The Autistic Brain: Helping Different Minds Succeed, her TED Talk - The World Needs All Kinds of Minds has been viewed over five million times and the HBO movie, Temple Grandin, shed authentic light on her incredible story.

As a respected spokesperson in the animal community, Temple is also celebrated for her re-design of slaughterhouses (yes, you read that right). She is outspoken in her belief that, "alleviating anxiety rather than extending life fully," should be the priority for those raising animals. Her essay "Animals are Not Things" and her books Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human, have garnered her the highest regard, for her ability to empathize with animals is second to none.

In this Chapter, we discuss:

• What is the state of autism in the world today?
• How do we nurture diverse minds?
• What is missing from our education system today?
• What are the ethics of eating meat?
• How can we value our elders more?
• And of course, her 3 most formative books.

Ready to jump into my conversation with this beautiful and resilient soul?

Let's go!

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE:

• What is autism and what does 'the autism spectrum' really mean?

• What is missing from the education system today?

• Why should kids do more hands-on learning?

• What does it mean to be a visual thinker?

• What could have avoided the Fukushima nuclear disaster?

• What is animal welfare and why is it important?

• What is the future of our species? (big one!)

• How can we embrace getting older?

• How do we find our purpose?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/61

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

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...

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

In Shane Parrish's first group project during his MBA he watched as his professor got into some verbal fisticuffs with his partner on a project. They were debating the logic behind his group's presentation. They disagreed about it! And, eventually, his partner got up and shouted, "I am wasting my time here!" before storming out of the room, out of the class, and out of the program in one fell Costanza-like swoop.

Shane fortunately caught up with the unnamed hero in this little caper while he was waiting for a taxi and said, "What happened back there? I thought we did the project right. Why did we get such a different answer than the professor?" His partner's two-word answer ended up changing Shane's life.

He said simply: "Charlie Munger".

Who is Shane Parrish?

He's a former spy who, to quote the NY Times, 'helps Wall Street mavens think smarter.' He's become an unlikely guru to the world's intellectual elite with strategies appealing to an overachieving audience across high finance, Silicon Valley and professional sports. He runs Farnam Street, colloquially known as FS.blog, which aims to 'help you master the best of what other people have already figured out.'. FS.blog helps readers optimize decision-making through a giant worldwide community of thousands of people, a virtual think tank of professionals who can help "shorten the path to wisdom' and self-education. FS is also: an award-winning newsletter (Brain Food), a podcast called The Knowledge Project (which I guested on not so long ago) and a series of incredible books called The Great Mental Models that Shane Parrish and his team personally publish. 

So how do you meet a spy? You fly to him. And so I did. Up to Ottawa, Canada and into the new Farnam Street Offices on Bank Street — all pre-pandemic. To say I'm intrigued by Shane is an understatement. He is a voracious reader with  insights and worldly wisdom on big questions like:

• What does it mean to think better?
• How should we think about our thinking?
• What is intelligence and how should we measure it?
• How do we build trust in relationships?
• What does it mean to be a gentleman these days?
• How do you raise boys into great men?
• And, of course, what are Shane Parrish's 3 most formative books?

Are you ready?

Let's go.

What You'll Learn:

• What does it mean to live a more meaningful life?
• How should we create trust in the world today?
• How do we create art with integrity?
• How do we think about sponsorship?
• How do you make adult friendships?
• How do you live life without lawyers?
• How do we develop trust without contracts?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  https://www.3books.co/chapters/60   

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

Where in the world are you right now?

Are you in cramped apartment in a busy downtown core? Are you in a countryside farm beside a tiny general store? Or are you in a basement hotel gym in Ulaanbaatar? 

And, more importantly, why in the world are you where you are? Are you chasing a career? Are you in school? Did you move for love? Does inertia have you wedged deeply into your neighborhood?

Well, where ever you are, I can promise you this: by the end of Chapter 59 you won't look at where you live the same way ever again.

Why?

Because my next guest is a visionary city planner and urban designer and who will guide us through the power of place and principled planning.

Sidenote: Chapter 59 is our first rabbit hole chapter of 3 Books. You may recall Anne Bogel introduced us to Jeff Speck by picking his book Walkable City as one of her three most formative back in Chapter 57. She was in love with the book, I fell in love with the book, and we ended up inviting Jeff onto the show.

So who is Jeff Speck?

Well, he's an internationally renowned city planner and urban designer, recognized for his research surrounding, and advocacy for, more walkable cities. He was Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003-2007, he was also Director of Town Planning at DPZ & Co (the founders of the  New Urbanist movement) for over 10 years and now heads up his own consulting practice, advising cities and mayors across the globe. He is a fellow at both the Congress for the New Urbanism and the American Institute of Certified Planners and has made conversations surrounding walkability mainstream via his two TED Talks viewed over 4 million times: The Walkable City and 4 Ways to Make a City More Walkable.  

And as if the above planning pedigree were not enough, he is the author of several books including the aforementioned Walkable City, the top selling city planning book for the past decade, (and #832 in our Top 1000!) as well as Suburban Nation, declared by the Wall Street Journal as 'the urbanists bible'

In this chapter we deep dive into:

• What is walkability and what is its true value?

• What is the relationship between design and well-being?

• What are the true costs of car ownership?

• How can city planning combat loneliness?

• How does poor planning perpetuate racism?

• What makes a good mayor?

Jeff is a wonder brain. Humble, articulate, passionate, he's a man on a mission. His mind has these cranks and gears that allow him to see the world with giant perspective and distill things down to simple ideas for us to absorb and reflect upon. 

Are you ready?

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• What is urban planning?

• Where and how did urban planning go wrong in the twentieth century?

• What is necessary to create human-scale livable spaces?

• Why are many cities failing its citizens?

• How much is car dependency hurting us?

• Why is strangeness important?

• What is the importance of the concept of live, work, play in planning?

• Why is it illegal to build mixed use walkable communities to this day in the US?

• How has the pandemic affected how we build and think about our cities?

• And, of course, what are Jeff Speck's three most formative books?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  https://www.3books.co/chapters/59     

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

"Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers" Gustave Flaubert

I heard David Mitchell mention this quote while I was deep in the rabbit hole preparing to speak to him. It gave me pause. Was there any way he could possibly live up to the pedestal in the clouds I'd long placed him on?

My love affair with David Mitchell began years ago when I became completely transfixed by Cloud Atlas. I then began devouring his other books like a starving man — Ghost Written, number9dream, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, and his brand new masterpiece Utopia Avenue.

Every book broke new genre territory while consistently offering vividly realistic characters, leaping plotlines, and hints towards a larger scale multiverse tying everything together. It's no wonder five of his books have been long- or short-listed for the Booker Prize.

And it's not just me or the Booker committee, either. The Boston Globe calls David Mitchell, "one of the most electric writers alive", Esquire calls him, "a genre leaping, mind bending, world-traveling, puzzle-making, literary magician", and the New York Times Book Review declared him "a genius who writes as though at the helm of a perpetual dream machine." TIME even declared him one of the world's "100 Most Influential People".

I was indeed worried, but after spending two and a half hours talking to David (in what I think may be the longest feature-length interview with him anywhere and his first podcast interview in years) I am pleased to say no specks of gold came off in my fingers. If anything, his grace, humility, and wit only elevated the pedestal higher into the cosmos.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, prepare to go deep into one of the world's deepest minds in the world. Get ready for a ramble across Middle Earth, Russia, Ireland, and Japan as we discuss things like:  

• How can art be an anti-snobbery force?

• How books can stop minds from scratching themselves raw?

• How writers build trust with their readers?

• How we can we harvest imagination?

• What is it like raising a child who is non-verbal?

• What is the power and meaning of the metaphysical?

• How should writing be judged?

• Which fantasy author trumps Tolkien and why?

These are just some of the topics we touch on with loving father, master craftsman, mentor to many, and endlessly erudite bibliophile David Mitchell.

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• Why shouldn't genre matter in writing?

• Why doesn't snobbery belong in the world of books?

• How do books change after they're read?

• How does the metaphor of a TV box set apply to books?

• How do writers build trust with their readers?

• How do we harvest imagination?

• What's the relationship between health care policy and good writing?

• Who are The Russians and how does one properly wade into them?

• Why are we all storytellers?

• What are some myths surrounding autism?

• How do you become a better writer?

• And, of course, what are David Mitchell's three most formative books?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/58     

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

Want to hang out in New York?

Yes, let's go back to pre-pandemic when sidewalks were full, strangers shook hands, and everybody popped in and out of stores like it was nothing. Sound like a faraway dream world? Yeah, it does to me, too. Yet somehow only a few months ago I flew down to New York and hung out in Union Square and The Strand bookstore with literary phenom Anne Bogel.

Anne runs Modern Mrs Darcy, one of the world's largest book blogs, as well as What Should I Read Next? and One Great Book, two of the world's largest books podcast. Is that all? No, of course that's not all! Do you know Anne? She's like the Tasmanian Devil. She's also a bestselling author and has three books to her name including Don't Overthink It, I'd Rather Be Reading, and Reading People. Oh, and did I mention she's the mother of four children!?!?

In Chapter 57, Anne shares why she's hesitant to look at people's bookshelves when she's just met them, what your 'reading life' is and how to grow and nurture it, what makes a city liveable, how Anne would organize a bookstore, and, of course, Anne's three most formative books.

I am so excited to share this conversation with you. I dare you to listen to Anne and not feel immediately excited to grow your reading life…

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• What is your reading life?
• How do you grow your reading life?
• What do your bookshelves say about you?
• How do you lean into reading new narrative structures?
• What books should you read to your kids to introduce them to death?
• What would Anne Bogel's bookstore look like?
• How do you measure success?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/57        

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

I miss walking into stores.

I miss walking into stores the way stores were stores before the pandemic.

I miss the act of mindlessly browsing. I miss getting to know a shopkeeper. I miss idly chatting with strangers. I admit it! I miss the way it used to be.

A couple of years ago, as I was walking around Toronto, a store caught my eye.

There was a big sign outside that read Hard Feelings, and in the window there were a number of books I liked—books by Brené Brown, Susan Cain, Allie Brosch, etc — and several I knew nothing about.

I noticed all the books were on the topic of mental health.

I walked inside and met up with a woman named Kate Scowen.

Kate is from Montreal, and she spent her formative years reading books that explored all kinds of feelings. She ended up getting three (!) degrees in Social Policy and Planning, Social Work, and English, but she always wanted to do more!

Why?

Because she wanted to create one of the first stores targeted specifically around mental health.

Yes, a store targeted to mental health. Curated books, candles, eye masks, wheels of emotion. And with accessible, incredible low cost therapy in the back!

Over the next few years I developed a great relationship with Kate. I believe her idea is revolutionary and indeed it is being used as a prototype around the world already.

Today we sit at the back of the shop and discuss topics like:

• What is therapy?

• How do you find a therapist?

• How do we navigate the system?

• What are 'hard feelings'?

• How do we be more honest with our children?

• How do we create a chosen family?

• What are the core six emotions?

• And, of course, what are Kate Scowen's three most formative books?

Listen in to this episode of 3 Books to hear from the incredible Kate Scowen.

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• What is therapy?
• How do you find a therapist?
• How do we navigate the system?
• What are 'hard feelings'?
• How do we be honest with our children?
• How do we create our chosen family?
• What are the core six emotions?
• How do we practice self-care?
• And much, much more…

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/56 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

I kind of believe that way down deep in our stomachs there's this tranquil little pond of peacefulness that is where we want to live. It's that part of us that knows for sure that these days are short, life is precious, everything is fleeting, and like these little relationships we have - with a podcast, with our mothers, with our sisters, with our lovers - these relationships are life.

Sure, they're harder to measure and harder to count and harder to remember during the daily overwhelm ... but if you can tap into that pond… if you can tap into that deeper, knowing, wiser self… then it's a better way to live.

I know for me for the past few years Brad Montague has been a bit of a guide back down to that pond inside myself. Do you know Brad? He is a wonderful human being. He created the viral Kid President videos which have been seen over 700 million times. He started a charity to get socks to homeless people, he founded the Montague Workshop, he goes on listening tours to classrooms around America asking kids want they want from grown-ups in their life, and his epic social presence is a daily source of inspiration for hundreds of thousands of people. (Check out his beautiful Instagram offering here.)

Most recently, he put his incredible wisdom down on paper into a bestselling book called Becoming Better Grown-ups: Rediscovering What Matters and Remembering How to Fly.

We're catching up to him today from his home in Henderson, Tennessee, and discussing some pretty heavy (but important!) topics surrounding death, the pandemic, and how faith and art can co-exist.

Although these are not your typical feel-good topics, Brad's perspective will no doubt leave you feeling refreshed and positive.

As always, when I talk to Brad, or read his books, or see his art, I am awed by how he can create chaos from the cosmos.

Getting the chance to chat with him about his three formative books was a true gift.

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• How do we talk to our kids about death?

• How do we navigate the pandemic with children?

• How do faith and art mix?

• How do artists live a spiritual life?

• What does the phrase 'there is nothing so secular that cannot be sacred' mean?

• How do we create timeless art?

• And, of course, what are Brad Montague's 3 most formative books?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/55

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

In the late 1980s outside of Seoul, South Korea, a woman got pregnant with twins. She was 18 years old, she'd had a one night stand, and she was not able, for reasons we do not know, to keep the babies, so she gave them up for adoptions.

Two baby girls were born and they were given the names K881901 and K881901. Because most people who adopt babies want one baby the twins were immediately split up and put into foster homes.

For the first five months of their lives they did not know each other existed.

Eventually a couple from New Hampshire, USA wanted children with siblings and adopted both babies. K881901 and K881902 were reunited and flown over to the United States to grow up under the watchful gaze of their Italian American father and French Canadian mother in a US state that is 98% white.

K881901 was renamed Emily Kim Ae Sun Hunter and what were are about to hear is a story I got to hear live a few months ago when I gave a speech for Manulife at their first ever Global Employee Summit. Manulife is a global financial services company of over 35,000 people with a number of divisions such as John Hancock Financial.

Unfortunately I had to follow Emily onstage! She dropped the mic with her personal story, the one I've just started sharing with you here, which received a giant standing ovation from the audience. She talked about finding yourself, navigating your race, being a person of color where you're always the minority, and about how we discover our identities in a world of grey.

We recorded this conversation at the Manulife Head Office in Toronto between our afternoon speech to the Western hemisphere employees and before our late-night speech to the Eastern hemisphere employees. I want to say a huge thank you to Manulife CEO Roy Gori, Director of Global Communications Brooke Tucker-Reid, and of course Emily Kim Ae Sun Hunter for helping make this conversation happen.

Let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• How do you react to racism?

• How do you find yourself when you're far from where you're from?

• How do you grow your career as a woman of color? (And how do you think of the spectrum between 'submissive' and 'confident'?)

• How can you find the meeting point of all your worlds?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/54    

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

I was browsing through a book store a few years ago when I stumbled on a small purple book called I'm Afraid of Men written by Vivek Shraya.

Hadn't heard of the book! Hadn't heard of Vivek Shraya! But the provocative title grabbed me so I flipped it over. What was on the back? A simple big solo statement: "And men are afraid of me."

I opened and kept reading the jacket. Here's what it said: "A trans artist explores how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl, and how we might reimagine gender for the twenty-first century. Vivek Shraya has good reason to be afraid. Throughout her life she has endured acts of cruelty and aggression for being too feminine as a boy and for not being feminine enough as a girl. In order to survive her childhood she had to learn how to convincingly perform masculinity. As an adult she makes daily compromises to steel herself against everything from verbal attacks to heartbreak. Now, with raw honesty, Shraya delivers an important record of the cumulative damage caused by misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia, releasing trauma from a body that has always refused to assimilate."

Needless to say, I was intrigued. I picked up this small book and it transfixed me. It showed me a view and a lens and a perspective that I had no familiarity with and was opening my mind to a culture and people living with so much oppression. I ended up buying more of Vivek's books, including her wonderful children's book A Boy & The Bindi. And when her traveling live memoiry stageshow How To Fail As A Pop Star visited Toronto my wife Leslie and I bought tickets and joined the giant standing ovation.

Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. That bestselling book I'm Afraid of Men was her­ald­ed by Vanity Fair as "cultural rocket fuel," and her album with Queer Songbook Orchestra, Part‑Time Woman, was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. She is one half of the music duo Too Attached and the founder of the publishing imprint VS. Books. A six-time (!) Lambda Literary Award finalist, Vivek was a Pride Toronto Grand Marshal, was featured on The Globe and Mail's Best Dressed list, and has received honours from The Writers' Trust of Canada and The Publishing Triangle. And, as if that's not enough, she's also Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Calgary!

And now, right in the throes of her book launch for her fiction debut (!) The Subtweet, I had the pleasure of chatting with Vivek from Calgary about a slew of topics I think you'll enjoy such as how parents can avoid snuffing out their children's gender creativity and how we might think about using pronouns.

Vivek is able to navigate many complex topics—topics that most people are not even willing to discuss—with a comfort and clarity that shows a deep level of thinking and which is the partial product of the hardships she's endured and navigated throughout her life. I find her and her work incredibly brave, vulnerable, and important.

I loved talking to her and hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

And now … let's go!

What You'll Learn:

• How do you conduct a virtual book tour?
• How can parents avoid snuffing out the gender creativity in their children?
• How did colonization induce transphobia?
• What are the pros and cons of using labels?
• How might we think about using pronouns?
• What are some issues with the most common trans narratives?
• How do we learn to see cultural lenses that we have lived with our whole lives?
• What is an artist's real job?
• And, of course, what are the incredible Vivek Shraya's 3 most formative books?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/53   

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Chapter Description:

We need leadership right now.

Professional sports? Paused. Olympics? Postponed. Movie theaters? Closed.

And yet we need stories to process, make sense, and inspire us more than ever before.

Community leaders, politicians, and family members are filling the void. Don't you love the viral stories of doctors playing piano after a long shift or prime ministers doing press conferences declaring the Tooth Fairy an essential service?

We need leadership right now.

And today I want to offer you a great one.

Sérgio de Mello was a United Nations diplomat for 34 years earning awards and praise for his astounding global humanitarian efforts. He had a unique leadership style which cut through bureaucracy, clearly saw the humans behind the flags, and understood that we live in a global village and the most important way to get through tough times is by connecting our hearts.

His empathetic and hopeful story is being brought to the screen in a brand new film called Sergio by Wagner Moura, an incredibly talented actor perhaps best known for playing Pablo Escobar in Narcos.

Leslie and I absolutely loved Sergio and I was thrilled to sit down with Wagner Moura, passionate father, passionate activist, and passionate artist, to discuss many, many themes including: 

How do we learn to stand up for what we believe in?

How do we parent during quarantine?

How do we commit to things beyond our control?

How do we create art in times of crisis?

What do you say to your children when a president publicly denounces you?

How do we seek out the humble leaders without titles in our own lives?

And, of course, what are Wagner Moura's three most formative books? 

I found Wagner Moura to be an incredibly beautiful soul and I think you will be inspired by the wonderful soulful offering he gives us all on 3 Books.

Let's go!

• How do we learn to stand up for what we believe in?
• How do we parent during quarantine?
• How do we commit to things beyond our control?
• How do we create art in times of crisis?
• What do you say to your children when a president publicly denounces you?
• How do we seek out the humble leaders without titles in our own lives?
• And, of course, what are Wagner Moura's three most formative books? 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/52

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Look up to the sky.

It's a slowly waning crescent before Chapter 52 arrives on the exact minute of the new moon next week.

So why this special episode of 3 Books?

Well, like the "cultivating calm during coronavirus chaos" episode we released a month ago, it's because we are swimming in wholly unprecedented seas. I am feeling stress around coronavirus and I can tell by your DMs, tweets, comments, and voicemails to 1-833-READ-A-LOT that you're feeling it, too.

Now, as many of you know, I give speeches. I travel around the world giving motivational speeches to organizations, companies, and schools around the world. I am very lucky I get to do this, but guess what?

They're all cancelled.

Every single speech I was slated to give this spring is now officially cancelled. TED is cancelled. SXSW is cancelled. Any organization running any event with hundreds of people is cancelled.

So I am grounded like many of us are.

But then the phone suddenly started ringing again.

It seems with so many organizations working remotely while managing tectonic changes there's a new opportunity to talk virtually about cultivating a positive mindset.

So I have started being asked to give virtual speeches.

I was recently supposed to be in Arizona speaking to a group of great leaders at Kao. I gave a speech to them in Cincinnati a couple months ago before coronavirus and was looking forward to seeing them again.

But ... cancelled.

So instead I gave a speech to them virtually, over a WebEx call, with a few hundred people all dialing in. I spoke for half an hour about resilience. If you've read You Are Awesome you can guess what I talked about! The two-minute morning ritual to ground and center us for the day. How developing a weird hobby helps avoid cognitive entrenchment and mental fragility during this uncertain time. And why it's critical to go untouchable from the news and social media for a dedicated amount of time each day.

After I spoke we opened up the call to a Q&A.

And remember this is a call with hundreds and hundreds of people who can't see me or each other. There's a chatroom on the side where I can receive personal messages but we did it together. And I am so amazed at what happened. The leaders at Kao were incredibly vulnerable, brave, and courageous with each other. Their leader Trevor created incredible space for them to share emotions, feelings, and worries in a generous and open-hearted way. I did my best to reflect and add to the thoughts but most importantly they supported each other. I was awed by what you're about to hear from these folks.

After the call was over the leadership team and I spoke about using this chat as an opportunity to help other people. We are in this together right now around the whole world. We are one giant team. So that's why we received expressed written permission from every single voice you're about to hear to share this with you.

The Q&A you are about to hear is being shared with one goal: we think there might be a nugget, tool, framework, or an idea that you can use.

It's not meant a panacea or a cure-all. This Q&A won't solve all your problems. But it's an offering. It's a little plate with tiny treats on it.

I hope there's one thing here you can apply to something you are wondering or worrying about.

We discuss things like:

• What do we say to children who are struggling?
• How do we manage overwhelm and disorientation?
• How do we get through this if we are alone?
• How do we manage guilt we are feeling?
• And much, much more... 

I want to say a giant thank you to the team at Kao for letting us share this conversation with a special thanks to every voice you are about to hear.

You are true leaders in every sense of the word.

And now …

Let's go!

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: www.3books.co/chapters/corona2

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list  

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...

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Chapter Description:

Where are you in the world right now?

Shacked up in Shanghai? Isolating in Iceland? Quarantine in Qatar?

Well, I don't know where you are but I am guessing that one of the biggest questions you've been asking yourself lately is about self-care.

How do you take care of yourself if you are socially distancing or taking care of the others for weeks or months on end? What tools can you use? As the world is shifting, how do we all make sure you are taking care of our personal well-being? My mental health is being challenged right now and I am guessing yours may be, too.

Well, today I bring you the very first virtual chapter of 3 Books, featuring Dr. Qing (pronounced "Ching") Li all the way from Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Li is the world's foremost authority in forest medicine. A medical doctor at Tokyo's Nippon Medical School, he has been a visiting fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and is the founding chairman of the Japanese Society for Forest Medicine. He's also the author of several books including the international bestseller Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness.

I am so grateful that the kind and generous Dr. Qing Li accepted my invitation to come on 3 Books.

I hope you find the conversation as informative and inspiring as I did.

Let's go! 

What You'll Learn:

• How do you take care of yourself during these uncertain times?
• What is forest therapy? What are the immune-boosting properties of being in nature?
• What are great books to build your leadership and capacity for hard work?
• How can you benefit from forest bathing in a city or while stuck inside?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/51 

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co/

Marcus Buckingham is a global researcher, bestselling author, and thought leader focused on unlocking strengths, increasing performance, and pioneering the future of how people work. He is the co-author of two of the bestselling business books of all time including FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES and NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS as well as his newest bestseller NINE LIES ABOUT WORK. Building on nearly two decades of experience as a Senior Researcher at Gallup Organization, he currently guides the vision of ADP Research Institute as Head of People + Performance. He founded The Marcus Buckingham Company in 2006 with the clear mission to instigate a "strengths revolution." 

Chapter Description:

Welcome to Chapter 50 of 3 Books!

Yes, in the midst of Coronavirus chaos we're going to hang out on a hotel room couch in Vancouver for a little bit of calm. (PS. If you haven't listened to the Surprise Waning Crescent episode of 3 Books all about Coronavirus please check that out first.)

I am very excited to have you on the couch beside me and the absolutely incredible Marcus Buckingham.

Who is Marcus?

Well, if you're in the business world, you've probably heard of him. Why? Well, he's written books sitting on every executive's bookshelf and his assessments and work is used everywhere. Marcus Buckingham is a global researcher and thought leader focused on unlocking people's strengths, increasing their performance, and pioneering the future of how people work. I have a feeling his work is going to be much needed after Coronavirus! How did Marcus end up doing this job? Well, after working as Senior Researcher inside Gallup for a couple of decades he co-authored some of the most popular business books of all time including First Break All The Rules, Now Discover Your Strengths, and his latest bestseller, Nine Lies About Work.

What does Marcus do now? He guides the vision of ADP Research Institute as Head of People and Performance and in 2006 he founded the Marcus Buckingham Company, with the clear mission to instigate a "strengths revolution."

I love the optimism behind his work. That people are born as acorns, with an imprint inside them on what they could be, and what their true potential could lead them to.

I sat down with Marcus overlooking the foggy mountains over Vancouver Harbour just before he took to the stage for the headlining slot at The Art of Leadership.

We cover a lot of topics in this chapter including:

How do we learn to truly see our children? 

How can the education system be improved?

How do we avoid tribalism? 

What is the real definition of weird?

What's the single best question to ask yourself when trying to articulate your strengths? 

And how can we find our own unique way to draw strength and love from life?

I found Marcus to be brave, vulnerable, and inspiring in this conversation. Years ago, when I worked at Walmart, we used Marcus's books and videos in our training sessions. Getting a chance to sit down with him many years later to discuss his 3 most formative books was a rare treat. 

 Let's go…

• How do we learn to truly see our children?
• How can the education system be improved?
• How do we avoid tribalism? 
• What is the real definition of weird?
• What's the single best question to ask yourself when trying to articulate your strengths? 
• How can we find our own unique way to draw strength and love from life?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/50    

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, and the world's greatest Uber driver. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show as well as the world's only podcast by and for book lovers, writers, makers, sellers... and librarians. For more info check out: www.3books.co

- How do we stay connected in this disconnected time? 

- What do we say to children and preteens?

- How can we take care of ourselves as we go through this trauma?

- What are some ways we can practice self-care?  

- And much, much more... 

If you need an empathetic voice, a compassionate voice, a loving voice, a tender voice, or a guiding voice, I can't wait for you to meet or remeet my lovely wife, Leslie. (Chapter to Chapter Club members will of course know Leslie from Chapter 1 of 3 Books.)

During our chat we set up a chair for you in the basement beside us. (We honestly did.) It has a thick wooly blanket and a cup of lavender chamomile tea. 

I hope you'll join us. 

Let's go! 

Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: www.3books.co/chapters/corona1

Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list