Stuff I'm Listening To (8/15/23)

Last week I listened to an episode of The One You Feed called What Puzzles Can Teach Us About Happiness with A.J. Jacobs (E626). Now, I don’t remember who A.J. Jacobs is or what his credentials are but he sounds like a happy guy. He’s got a kind of pep in his step, vocally, but not in a desperate or overly performative way. And he likes puzzles. I don’t remember why or how the two things are related.

I do remember one helpful — purportedly helpful — thing from his interview which is that he makes a 26 item alphabetical gratitude list as he’s trying to fall asleep. Puzzles stress me out, usually, but that kind of brainstorming appeals to me. So I’ll try it.

• Air conditioning

• Brother

• Comedy writers

• Dessert for breakfast

• Electricity

• Fried pickles

• Ghost stories

• Hydro electricity

• Identical twins I have known

• Justin Theroux

• Kitsch, Taylor

• Legal dramas

• Ma

• NXIVM, the fall of

• Olives

• Paternalism, discussions about

• “QUERY!” as a conversation starter

• Ripe tomatoes

• Speakers, Bluetooth

• Tar

• Unreliable narrators as a concept

• Venture Capitalists, just kidding

• Whitehouse Correspondence Dinner hosts

• Xterras, Nissan

• Yuuuuuup (but not yuppers)

• Zoinks, the fantastic interjection