Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: episode will be a slightly longer one part of the
Speaker 1: series where I interview fascinating people about how they take
Speaker 1: their days from great to awesome and any advice they
Speaker 1: have for the rest of us. So today, I am
Speaker 1: delighted to welcome Aj Jacobs to Before Breakfast. AJ is
Speaker 1: the author of several books such as the Year of
Speaker 1: Living Constitutionally, The Year of Living Biblically, and The Puzzler.
Speaker 1: He is the host of the podcast Hello Puzzlers. So Aj,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm so thrilled to be here. I am
Speaker 2: a fan and you have made my life better with
Speaker 2: so many of your tips. So I'm hoping that I
Speaker 2: can repay by giving some helpful feedback on your show.
Speaker 1: I am sure you will. Did you tell our listeners
Speaker 1: a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2: Sure? I am a writer. I mostly do nonfiction writing.
Speaker 2: I've written several books where I try to take on
Speaker 2: a weird, admittedly an odd lifestyle for a year and
Speaker 2: then write about the lessons I've learned. So I spent
Speaker 2: a year trying to live by all the rules of
Speaker 2: the Bible that included the Ten Commandments, but also growing
Speaker 2: a huge beard so people would cross the street to
Speaker 2: avoid me. I tried to be the healthiest person alive.
Speaker 2: I wrote a book about gratitude where I thank a
Speaker 2: thousand people who had anything to do with my morning
Speaker 2: cup of coffee, which is very relevant to this show,
Speaker 2: and try to become as grateful as I could. So
Speaker 2: those are the types of books and articles I write.
Speaker 1: And now you're doing a podcast about puzzles, so I
Speaker 1: would love to hear about this.
Speaker 2: Why puzzles, Yes, I do. I love it. I do
Speaker 2: a podcast called Hello Puzzlers and available everywhere, and it
Speaker 2: is uh we give word put fun little word puzzles
Speaker 2: to our guests and to each other. I have a
Speaker 2: co host. And that came about because I wrote a
Speaker 2: book about puzzles, mostly during COVID, which seemed like a
Speaker 2: good time to write about puzzles. But I am a
Speaker 2: huge fan of all types of puzzles, crossword puzzles, word find,
Speaker 2: Jake Saws. I love Jake Saws. I'm not good at them,
Speaker 2: but I love them and have I am convinced that
Speaker 2: puzzles are not a waste of time. I know that
Speaker 2: this this show is a lot about not wasting time,
Speaker 2: using your time best you can. I believe puzzles are
Speaker 2: a big part of that.
Speaker 1: Well, tell us about that. I mean, what is it
Speaker 1: about puzzles that. I mean, they're fun, they're fun, But
Speaker 1: beyond just being fun, what are the benefits of that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I do puzzles every morning. I do the
Speaker 2: New York Times Crossword, I do connections, I do a
Speaker 2: few others. I listen to my own podcast sometimes if sometimes,
Speaker 2: Well that makes me feel good.
Speaker 1: For the morning.
Speaker 2: But I think the benefits include h Well, one is
Speaker 2: is you've probably heard that puzzles keep your brain sharp
Speaker 2: and help with staving off cognitive decline, which I think
Speaker 2: is true. It's not like I'm a cure all but
Speaker 2: it does help a little. And it's not exclusively puzzles.
Speaker 2: It's just about keeping your brain engaged. You could learn
Speaker 2: a new language, you could, uh, you know, learn a
Speaker 2: new hobby. So, but puzzles are one way to keep
Speaker 2: your brain engaged. But I think there are other advantages
Speaker 2: in addition. One is, for me, it really helps keep
Speaker 2: my mind flex So puzzles train you to see the
Speaker 2: world from all these different angles and looking for a solution.
Speaker 2: So it's if you see a clue in the crossword
Speaker 2: with the word trunk in it tr u n K,
Speaker 2: you're thinking, okay, well that could be an elephant trunk,
Speaker 2: it could be the trunk of a car, it could
Speaker 2: be bathing suit trunks what my grandma called bathing suits
Speaker 2: or trunks. And that flexibility of mind seeps out into
Speaker 2: my whole worldview, so that when I'm confronted with a
Speaker 2: problem at work or at home, I'm able to keep
Speaker 2: my mind flexible and not lock in on what of
Speaker 2: this has to be the answer. No, I'm able to
Speaker 2: keep my brain fluid. And finally, and this I think
Speaker 2: relates to a lot of your message. It really encourages
Speaker 2: a mind what I call the puzzling mindset, which is
Speaker 2: a mindset of deep curiosity and looking for solutions because
Speaker 2: we are with the media, as you point out, is
Speaker 2: so problem oriented and it's just your your hit with
Speaker 2: this relentless stream of negative news without solutions being presented.
Speaker 2: I love it when you can look for solutions. There's
Speaker 2: a great quote I like by Quincy Jones, the late
Speaker 2: music producer, and he's his philosophy of life. He said,
Speaker 2: I don't have problems. I have puzzles, and it's just
Speaker 2: that simple reframe of being like, I can solve this.
Speaker 2: I'm going to roll up my sleeves. It's a challenge,
Speaker 2: but it's not a crisis. I'm not going to curl
Speaker 2: up in the corner in a fetal position. I'm going
Speaker 2: to try to make this happen and get to the solution.
Speaker 1: I love it. And I was listening to you know,
Speaker 1: Hello Puzzlers the other day and you had I was
Speaker 1: noticing what my brain was doing as I was going
Speaker 1: through one of your puzzles, and just to if anyone
Speaker 1: wants to try it here, it was that there's a
Speaker 1: South American country that if you rearrange the letters of
Speaker 1: the capitol will give you the name of another country.
Speaker 1: And of course when you hear that, so then I'm
Speaker 1: like going through my list of you know, South American countries,
Speaker 1: which I probably haven't thought about that much. But of
Speaker 1: course that has to pull back from somewhere at the
Speaker 1: back of my brain that I had to fill out
Speaker 1: that geography thing in tenth grade, and so I'm going
Speaker 1: back through it, like, Okay, where is the capital. Where's
Speaker 1: the capital? Does anything have a short capital, because that's
Speaker 1: probably what it's going to be. Rearrange that. And then
Speaker 1: of course, you know, I'm thinking like, oh, well, you
Speaker 1: know i've been to all right, I'll tell you guys.
Speaker 1: The answer Peru where Lima is of course Mallei with
Speaker 1: the country in Africa. And so I was like, ah,
Speaker 1: I got it, I got it. I'm very excited. But
Speaker 1: it was like that little you know, that hunting through
Speaker 1: your brain and then that moment of excitement. I think
Speaker 1: that's what's really what that's what it does, right.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And I like to call that, or people
Speaker 2: in the puzzle business called that the Aha moment. You
Speaker 2: had an Aha moment, and that's what you're looking for,
Speaker 2: and we as humans are wired for that aha moment.
Speaker 2: And and I think that's you can you can make
Speaker 2: that not just about puzzles, but about life, you know,
Speaker 2: looking for the Aha moments in life. But I also
Speaker 2: love what you did with the strategy because I think
Speaker 2: that is very important too. When you're presented with a
Speaker 2: puzzle or problem, what is the best way to solve this?
Speaker 2: And you were like, well, I think it's going to
Speaker 2: be a short word and that was a key insight
Speaker 2: that will help a lot. So taking a step back
Speaker 2: whenever you're presented with a puzzle or problem, what is
Speaker 2: the best way to solve that? Instead of diving right
Speaker 2: in and trying to solve it, step back and say
Speaker 2: what strategies should I use?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I hear that you may have a puzzle
Speaker 1: for us. I do.
Speaker 2: Okay, I wrote it this morning, hear it. It's not
Speaker 2: it's not all that elaborate, but it is. It is
Speaker 2: breakfast themed. So I thought that.
Speaker 1: People haven't had their coffee yet. But we don't need
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 2: Of frids exactly. Well, I just noticed that there are
Speaker 2: a lot of fun phrases in the English language that
Speaker 2: include breakfast foods. All right, so I am going to
Speaker 2: give you a hint a clue where I will paraphrase
Speaker 2: one of these idioms that include breakfast food, and you
Speaker 2: tell me what you think might be the phrase, and
Speaker 2: I will give you the food if you want, I
Speaker 2: will give it to you up front, but for instance,
Speaker 2: and we'll start with an example.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is a.
Speaker 2: Food, a breakfast food phrase that means to earn money,
Speaker 2: So that is.
Speaker 1: Bring home, bring home the bacon, the bacon. Okay, is
Speaker 1: going to go all right? All right, all right.
Speaker 2: This phrase means to risk everything on a single plan
Speaker 2: or a single person.
Speaker 1: So, oh, all your eggs in one back.
Speaker 2: Look at that. You didn't even need a hint. Wow,
Speaker 2: all right, all right. This phrase refers to the unpleasant
Speaker 2: process behind creating a finished product.
Speaker 1: Oh, how we're making the sauce.
Speaker 2: Oh, you are good, you are good. You know your
Speaker 2: breakfast foods and.
Speaker 1: I know my breakfast foods.
Speaker 2: How about if you, uh, if you've got to face
Speaker 2: an unpleasant reality, you would encourage people to.
Speaker 1: Would we eat that frog? Are we going?
Speaker 2: That's interesting? Some people have frogs for breakfast.
Speaker 1: No, no, that's what we say. Okay, well, we like to
Speaker 1: think about that one. We're gonna take it. We're going
Speaker 1: to take an ad. Break listeners come up with it,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be right back. Well, I am back
Speaker 1: talking with A. J. Jacobs, who is the co host
Speaker 1: of the Hello Puzzlers podcast, author of several books of
Speaker 1: sort of experiential journalism Doing things for a year. So
Speaker 1: he is giving me some brain teasers here on breakfast
Speaker 1: related idioms. Okay, so repeat the one you did just
Speaker 1: before the break.
Speaker 2: Well, this one. And I should have mentioned because maybe
Speaker 2: this was the it's the I'm including beverages as well
Speaker 2: as okay, beverages, all right, so this is to face.
Speaker 2: If you're encouraging someone to face an unpleasant reality, you
Speaker 2: might tell them too. It's the most famous, at least
Speaker 2: in America, breakfast, beverage, coffee. Yeah, and what do you
Speaker 2: have to do in every morning? You have to before anything?
Speaker 2: You open your eyes?
Speaker 1: You okay, you got me here.
Speaker 2: Wake up and smell the coffee.
Speaker 1: Wake up and smell the coffee. Okay, gotcha? All right, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's all right. We got last one.
Speaker 2: Last one. Last one is uh, this is this is
Speaker 2: a person who is very admired or celebrated in a
Speaker 2: certain community or or small city. Uh. And it is
Speaker 2: a I'll give you the food. Okay, it is toast.
Speaker 2: So this is a phrase with toast blank blank blank,
Speaker 2: someone who is very celebrated.
Speaker 1: Oh, the toast of the town, most of the town.
Speaker 2: Exactly. You got it too.
Speaker 1: I have never thought of that many breakfast related idioms,
Speaker 1: but it's true. It's true. I guess we're all we're
Speaker 1: into our breakfast items totally.
Speaker 2: And who wouldn't be. It's it's a great meal.
Speaker 1: It is, it is, for sure. So AJ, how should
Speaker 1: we I mean, are there particular puzzles you would recommend
Speaker 1: that a newbie look into. If somebody's like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: sounds good, I'd like to try doing a few puzzles.
Speaker 1: Where should people go or what should they try if
Speaker 1: they're new to this.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good question. And I do think that
Speaker 2: there are puzzles for everyone. So some people like logic puzzles,
Speaker 2: some like number puzzles, some like word puzzles, like me. Also,
Speaker 2: the scientists do say that the more you can vary
Speaker 2: the types of puzzles, the better it is for keeping
Speaker 2: your brain active. So I can just tell you some
Speaker 2: of my favorites. I do the spelling Bee in the
Speaker 2: New York Times, which is a good starter puzzle because
Speaker 2: it's basically jumble. It's like, you know, finding words, the
Speaker 2: word search and anagrams. I do the crossword in the
Speaker 2: New York Times, which is tough. The Monday is the easiest,
Speaker 2: but even the Monday is tough. It took me like
Speaker 2: five years to get where I can finish all of
Speaker 2: the puzzles. So it is a language that you have
Speaker 2: to learn. There's a fun one on the Atlantic website
Speaker 2: called racket City, which is free. I recommend that there's
Speaker 2: one called parseword dot com, which was created by the
Speaker 2: guy who created Wordle, named Josh Wardle. And of course
Speaker 2: there's Hello Puzzlers. And we do try to have very
Speaker 2: accessible puzzles because we know this is part of a
Speaker 2: lot of people's morning routine. And yeah, you don't want
Speaker 2: to frustrate them too much at the beginning of the day.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, I feel like the crossword puzzles. I
Speaker 1: have not yet crossed that bridge to like the New
Speaker 1: York Times crossroad puzzle. I mean maybe someday, but I
Speaker 1: have not yet attained to that level.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you could. It's as I said, it's all
Speaker 2: a language to learn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I know somebody who does it with
Speaker 1: like either the down or the across. Oh covered.
Speaker 2: That's a tough guy, yeah, a tough woman.
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly. I wanted to pivot to your sort of
Speaker 1: genre of experiential journalism, which you so like own that
Speaker 1: category with all the books you've done in that. How
Speaker 1: do you do like, how do you come up with
Speaker 1: your topics for that? What makes you say that is
Speaker 1: something I should try doing for a year.
Speaker 2: Well, I actually I am very passionate about idea generation,
Speaker 2: and in fact, that is one of my part of
Speaker 2: my morning routine is I actually spend ten minutes. I
Speaker 2: have a remarkable tablet, you know those tablets, which I
Speaker 2: like because I cut it off from the Internet, and
Speaker 2: I just come up with ideas for ten minutes I
Speaker 2: have Sometimes I have a magazine and I use that
Speaker 2: as like a mental jungle gym. And one key is
Speaker 2: that ninety eight percent of those ideas are crap. They
Speaker 2: are just not good, but hopefully there's two percent that
Speaker 2: are good. It's really a numbers game creativity. So I
Speaker 2: am a huge fan of that, and I come up
Speaker 2: with book ideas, article ideas, random ideas that I know
Speaker 2: are not going anywhere, but just keep my brain fluid
Speaker 2: and flexible. As far as books come, I try to
Speaker 2: find books. First of all. I like to think of
Speaker 2: the customer, the reader, you know, what would they be
Speaker 2: interested in? What would I want my book to check
Speaker 2: a couple of boxes. One I wanted to be able
Speaker 2: to improve their life. I want I want to stay
Speaker 2: married to my wife. So there are topics that.
Speaker 1: She said, you just won't go into.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she is Yeah, So there's that. There's something
Speaker 2: I wanted to be timely. I wanted to be broad
Speaker 2: enough so that it can encompass a year's worth of adventures.
Speaker 2: So my topics are usually big gratitude, the Bible, health,
Speaker 2: so some of those are some of the considerations.
Speaker 1: And how do you project manage something like that? Like
Speaker 1: they say, you know, you recently did the Constitutional year
Speaker 1: as we're coming into the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
Speaker 1: here the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, but still
Speaker 1: you know, related people are celebrating two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: years of America here, Like how did you project manage that?
Speaker 1: Like you look at doing that and then you say,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do this for a year. How do
Speaker 1: you sketch out what you're going to do?
Speaker 2: That's a good quote. Well, first of all, I'm a
Speaker 2: huge fan of outlining in terms of writing. I love that.
Speaker 2: I also keep two different sets of notes to keep
Speaker 2: be organized. So I have a note I have sort
Speaker 2: of a journal where it's my personal experience, like you know,
Speaker 2: what it was like to pretend to be a revolutionary
Speaker 2: war soldier and fight in the fake battle of Trenton.
Speaker 2: And then I have another part where it's all research
Speaker 2: because I do like to research, read hundreds of books,
Speaker 2: so that's one. I also for the Constitution book. I
Speaker 2: think this is relevant. I decided to follow Ben Franklin's
Speaker 2: morning routine, which is to wake up at five AM.
Speaker 2: And I used to be a night owl, wake up
Speaker 2: at nine or ten in the in the morning. But
Speaker 2: I've switched. I've so I don't think it's you know,
Speaker 2: it is possible to switch, at least for me, and
Speaker 2: I love it. I wake up at five. The first thing,
Speaker 2: by the way, Brent Franklin did, he said he had
Speaker 2: a little reminder what good can you do today? Which
Speaker 2: I love. That is just such a night and I
Speaker 2: try to remind myself in many days and I don't
Speaker 2: don't I don't know if I'm doing good. Is this
Speaker 2: help in the world? Maybe maybe not, but it's a
Speaker 2: good goal to shoot for.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we love Ben Franklin around here. Always this
Speaker 1: to Ben Franklin in the self help universe. But I
Speaker 1: mean with with something like that, I mean part of
Speaker 1: when you're writing about your experiences, I mean nonfictionate needs
Speaker 1: to sort of have these epiphanies like these realizations of
Speaker 1: something that happened, and yet when you're going into something
Speaker 1: you can't really know for sure where the epiphany is
Speaker 1: gonna happen. I'm curious how you think about structuring your
Speaker 1: activities through a project like that in order to get
Speaker 1: realizations that will make compelling anecdotes.
Speaker 2: I love that. That is a great question, and it
Speaker 2: is hard because you have to I feel that it's
Speaker 2: a balance between having a structure and being able to
Speaker 2: improvise within that structure, and I think that's that's in
Speaker 2: many endeavors. But yeah, I have a structure where I
Speaker 2: know it's going to start and end at the year.
Speaker 2: I know that. For instance, with the Gratitude Book, I
Speaker 2: hoped at the end that I would become more grateful.
Speaker 2: It would be a little disappointing if I didn't. And
Speaker 2: then I came up with here are ten what they
Speaker 2: call in movie set pieces. Here, I want to go
Speaker 2: down to South America and visit the coffee farmer. I
Speaker 2: want to meet with the guy who tastes the coffee
Speaker 2: and says, oh, there's a hint of licorice and a
Speaker 2: little bit of chocolate. And I'm always like you know,
Speaker 2: it tastes like coffee to me, but I love that
Speaker 2: you can taste all that other stuff. So having those
Speaker 2: set pieces and at each one, I'm like, what did
Speaker 2: I learn? What can I take away that I can
Speaker 2: give the reader as a as a lesson. And for instance,
Speaker 2: with the tasting one, it was a lot about savoring,
Speaker 2: which is a big part of you know, holding onto
Speaker 2: that moment for a little bit longer instead of just
Speaker 2: letting everything flit by so rapidly like we often do.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, well, We're going to take one more quick ad
Speaker 1: break and I'll be back with more from AJ Jacobs. Well,
Speaker 1: I am back talking with AJ. Jacobs is the author
Speaker 1: of several books, including the Year of Living Constitutionally, The
Speaker 1: Year of Living Biblically, and The Puzzler. He's the co
Speaker 1: host of the podcast Hello Puzzlers. So Aj a few
Speaker 1: you know a little earlier in the show, you mentioned
Speaker 1: your morning routine has an element of idea generation that
Speaker 1: you're sitting down come up with ideas. What else is
Speaker 1: part of your morning routine?
Speaker 2: Well, I love my morning routine, and I mean it's weird.
Speaker 2: As I've gotten older, I've i have become a morning person.
Speaker 2: So idea generation. I have a list of I won't
Speaker 2: call them affirmations because some of them are kind of depressing,
Speaker 2: but they are reminders you know, you're only here for
Speaker 2: a little on this world. Try to make the most
Speaker 2: of it, or you know, get curious, not furious. That's
Speaker 2: on the phrase I love, and I have a list
Speaker 2: of like fifty of those. So I'll just look at
Speaker 2: those during the morning for a couple of minutes to
Speaker 2: ground myself. I have the brain storming. I do split
Speaker 2: up my exercise throughout the day, so I do five
Speaker 2: minutes on the treadmill in the morning, but then I'll
Speaker 2: do I'll get back on four or five times and
Speaker 2: do another five minutes. But I from my research, and
Speaker 2: I'm not a doctor, I think it's a little more
Speaker 2: healthy than bunching all of the exercise at once. So
Speaker 2: those are just a few of the things I love
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: I love that. Well, I'm going to next time I
Speaker 1: want to get off the treadmill after five minutes, I'm
Speaker 1: going to remember that excuse of first I have to
Speaker 1: get back on at some point.
Speaker 2: That's the downside.
Speaker 1: Oh well, oh well, And I'm curious when you mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier that ninety eight percent of the ideas are bad.
Speaker 1: How do you know a bad idea from a good one?
Speaker 2: Oh, such a it's a great question. I have a
Speaker 2: couple of tests that I do. One is I am
Speaker 2: very free with telling people my ideas, and a lot
Speaker 2: of people are who I tell are friends and they're
Speaker 2: not going to say that absolutely sucks, but you can
Speaker 2: kind of see it in their eyes. You can see
Speaker 2: or if they ask follow up questions. So that's one test.
Speaker 2: Another test is am I still thinking about this idea
Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks and being like, oh, that
Speaker 2: is an interesting idea. If I just forget it the
Speaker 2: next day, maybe it's not worthwhile. And then just experimenting
Speaker 2: starting to write and say, you know, is this flowing?
Speaker 2: Is does this have legs? Because yeah, you can't always
Speaker 2: decide in advance of a project. You might have to
Speaker 2: start it and see if it takes off.
Speaker 1: Yep, test it out a little bit, just like a puzzle.
Speaker 1: You have to work with it a bite, see what
Speaker 1: you're pulling back from your brain and trying out and
Speaker 1: looking at it in a different way. So aja I
Speaker 1: always ask my guests what is something you have done
Speaker 1: recently to take a day from great to awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, I have another little habit ritual that I do
Speaker 2: that I have found very helpful, and I wrote about it.
Speaker 2: I wrote about it on my substack Experimental Living with
Speaker 2: ad Jacobs if anyone wants to check it out.
Speaker 1: And it is.
Speaker 2: Just really keeping track of my moods when some both
Speaker 2: good and bad. When I'm grateful for something, I write
Speaker 2: it down on a little index card and I said, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm grateful that my dog wanted her belly rubbed,
Speaker 2: you know, just little things and also things that annoy me.
Speaker 2: This person didn't text back, you know. And I find
Speaker 2: it good because it helps me savor the good emotions.
Speaker 2: And also when I write down what I'm annoyed about,
Speaker 2: more often than not it's something dumb and that I
Speaker 2: look at it when I write it down, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I got to get over that. That is not a
Speaker 2: good use of my mental energy. Now there are apps
Speaker 2: you can get on the iPhone that do this mood tracking,
Speaker 2: and they work for some people. I tried them. For me,
Speaker 2: I actually like the physical index card because I have
Speaker 2: it in front of me on my desk with a pencil,
Speaker 2: and so it's almost It's very much a reminder like
Speaker 2: when I have an emotion of gratitude or annoyance that
Speaker 2: I should can write it down, and the iPhone is
Speaker 2: not as helpful in that way. So that is something
Speaker 2: that has really I wrote about it like six months ago.
Speaker 2: I did it for like three months. Then I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe I should take you know, maybe it's
Speaker 2: served its purpose. And I found it was affecting my
Speaker 2: day material I wasn't as happy, and I went back
Speaker 2: to it, and now I am committed. I think I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do it for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it well. And writing down
Speaker 1: things that annoy you gets part of getting curious instead
Speaker 1: of furious, right exactly. Maybe it's not as big as
Speaker 1: I thought it Once I write it.
Speaker 2: Down, and why does that annoy me so much? It's
Speaker 2: like a little puzzle.
Speaker 1: It is a little puzzle. So ajay, what are you
Speaker 1: looking forward to right now?
Speaker 2: I am looking for it. I feel very lucky that
Speaker 2: I get to do what I do for a living.
Speaker 2: And part of my overall thesis is that life that
Speaker 2: we should all experiment with our lives. So and you
Speaker 2: don't have to grow a beard and wear a robe
Speaker 2: like I did for following the Bible. But it could
Speaker 2: be just small experiments. It could be trying a new toothpaste,
Speaker 2: a new way to work, et cetera. So I am
Speaker 2: always looking forward to the next experiment because I think
Speaker 2: it keeps life interesting. It improves life. Sometimes painful because
Speaker 2: not all the experiments work out, but it is a
Speaker 2: way to keep your mind young and carve new paths
Speaker 2: in your brain and make life interesting. So that's what
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Well, aj, where can people find you?
Speaker 2: I am I have that sub stack I mentioned Experimental
Speaker 2: Living with aj Jacobs, and I also have the Hello
Speaker 2: Puzzlers podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and I'm on
Speaker 2: the socials at aj Jacobs wherever you can find me.
Speaker 2: But I love hearing from readers and listeners and people,
Speaker 2: whether it's ideas or constructive critiques, whatever it is I do.
Speaker 2: I think writing can be a lonely a lonely job,
Speaker 2: so I love that people have these ways of reaching out.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, aj thank you so much for joining us,
Speaker 1: and thank you to everyone for listening. If you have
Speaker 1: feedback about this or any other episode. As Ajay mentioned,
Speaker 1: it's nice to hear from people, so you can always
Speaker 1: reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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