Chapters
Happy new moon!
Today I’m sharing a recent conversation I had with veteran journalist Matt Galloway for his show The Current.
Hope you enjoy!
Counting Blessings vs Burdens by Emmons & McCoullough
Does Happiness Lead to Success by Sonja Lyubomirsky
What is your favorite novel?
It's a hard question. A big question! A question that makes most people hmmm for a while before they get to an answer. If they get to an answer! But I think I know mine. My favorite novel is A Fraction of a Whole by Steve Toltz.
First, the book came to me in an interesting way. I walked into wonderful indie bookstore Type on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto a couple days before my wedding to Leslie. I was looking for a good book to take on my honeymoon. (Insert obvious joke: "You wanted to read on your honeymoon?" But yes. I did. We did!)
I spent two or three hours with incredible bookseller Kalpna who painstakingly picked book after book off the shelf working through my way-too-long list of criteria: the book couldn't be too heavy, it couldn't be too *physically* large, but it also had to last the trip because I only had one tiny bag so, you know, it had to simultaneously be fairly dense. And it had to be fiction. And it had to be fast-paced. And it would be good if it was funny. And, and, and...
Well, Kalpna (bless her) kept pulling books off the shelves and I kept doing The First Five Pages Test to check every book for pace, tone, rhythm, style, and language. I must have flipped through a few dozen books before I ended up with A Fraction of a Whole by Steve Toltz. A book I'd never heard of! By a guy I'd never heard of!
Why? Well, the first sentence pulled me in: “You never hear about a sportsman losing his sense of smell in a tragic accident and for good reason; in order for the universe to teach excruciating lessons that we are unable to apply in later life, the sportsman must lose his legs, the philosopher his mind, the painter his eyes, the musician his ears, the chef his tongue.” I kept reading and it just took off from there. Piles of accolades littered across the jacket helped too: “Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize”, "Finalist for The Guardian First Book Award", "Deserves a place next to The Confederacy of Dunces" (Wall Street Journal), "Soars like a rocket!" (LA Times), "A comic masterpiece!" (Ottawa Citizen) and on and on...
I fell deep into Steve’s Toltz’s absurd world of endless turns and surprise pearls of wisdom and spent years since then trying to land this interview with him! He is a deep and focused writer who is well off social media and doesn't do "the rounds" so it took some time. I emailed him some of my favorite lines from his books, sat in the front row to hear him speak at the International Festival of Authors, and waited -- just waited! -- for his next novel to come out so I could try again. And now it finally has...
Steve Toltz was born in 1972 in Sydney, Australia and he is the Man Booker-shortlisted award-winning novelist of three books including A Fraction of the Whole (2008), Quicksand (2016), and his newest Here Goes Nothing (2022). I personally recommend starting with A Fraction of the Whole because it was so deeply affecting to me and many folks I've recommended it to, but all three contain his wholly original sideways genius that constantly amazes and surprises.
Steve has lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, Paris, and Los Angeles and worked as a cameraman, telemarketer, security guard, private investigator, teacher, screenwriter, and, well, a lot more. I'm not sure he's right but he says in this interview: "If you want to become a novelist you sort of have to be a loser for a while.”
I was so excited to talk to Steve Toltz and we go deep on many things including: fear of death, Woody Allen, writing by hand in two-hour chunks, finding your voice, anonymity and success, Russian Literature, how to avoid quitting, how to start big projects, raising readers, books for boys, and, of course, the incredible Steve Toltz’s 3 most formative books.
It is my privilege, pleasure, and honor to share this conversation. As always, I'll be in your left ear, Steve will be in your right, and we pull up a chair between us for you to come on in...
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 119 now…
What does fear of death make us do?
What are the different ways authors develop character in a novel?
What is the value of a reading list?
What is the connection between Woody Allen and Russian Literature?
What misconceptions do we have about classical literature?
What is Steve’s writing process?
What is the power of writing by hand?
What does it mean to write with your subconscious?
What is a writer’s voice?
How do writer’s deal with anonymity and success?
How do we not quit big projects?
How can we learn to accept criticism?
How do we separate the art from the artist?
How do you raise a reader?
What are the best books for young boys?
How can we reclaim our focus?
“Voice is usually an alter ego.” Steve Toltz #3bookspodcast
“It takes a while for talent to catch up with ambition.” Steve Toltz #3bookspodcast
“The hourly wage of a novelist puts a sweat shop to shame.” Steve Toltz #3bookspodcast
“Ignore your contemporaries and just never stop reading.” Steve Toltz #3bookspodcast
Steve’s first book (18:13)
Steve’s second book (42.33)
Steve’s third book (1:08:11)
A Fraction of a Whole by Steve Toltz
Quicksand by Steve Toltz
Nausea by Sartre
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
How the Two Ivans Quarrelled by Nikolai Gogol
Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz
“Beats” by Charles Bukowski
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Hunger by Kanut Hamsun
Pan by Kanut Hamsun
Mysteries by Kanut Hamsun
The Bandini Quartet by John Fante
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Holes by Louis Sacher
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis
Once by Morris Gleitzman
The Iron Man by Ted Hughes
Zen Pencils by Aung Than
Do you ever have a book go viral through your family?
Your aunt reads it and tells everyone at dinner. The copy gets passed along. A few more dog ears show up. The spine gets cracked. And a year later half a dozen people have read it?
Well that's what happened in our family with Catherine Hernandez's wonderful debut novel Scarborough. I even just put it on my Best Of 2022 list!
Catherine Hernandez is an award winning Canadian author and screenwriter.
Born in Toronto, she is a proud queer woman of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent. She attended Ryerson University (now called Toronto Metropolitan University) for theatre but pretty quickly realized that she wanted to write. She started in magazines but soon branched off to books and plays.
So her first novel, Scarborough tells the story of a place -- a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood east of Toronto -- my home and the fourth largest city in North America. Scarborough is a multi-voiced novel with unforgettable characters: Victor, a black artist harassed by the police, Winsum, a West Indian restaurant owner struggling to keep it together, Bing, a gay Filipino boy who lives under the shadow of his father's mental illness, and many more.
I couldn't put it down. Neither could a lot of people! Scarborough has won a slew of prizes and awards and was turned into a critically acclaimed film which became first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at TIFF in 2021.
Catherine has gone on to write a number of other books including Crosshairs and Singkil, The Femme Playlist. Her next book, due out in 2023, The Story of Us is about a caregiver and her elderly client. And she’s even put out children’s books, like M is for Mustache and Where Do Feelings Live.
We talk about many things in this conversation including: body image, social support systems, posing nude, finding voice, authenticity in books, the tragedy of Turtle Island, being confronted by otherness and the beautiful traditions of a Navajo wedding.
Catherine is a talent and a force and such a dream guest.
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 118 now…
What is Scarlem?
How do we find our voice?
What are the singular pressures that the kids of immigrant parents feel?
What is it like to pose nude for a magazine?
How can we learn to accept and celebrate our bodies?
What are the Blue Zones?
What is true authenticity in books?
How can we fight the algorithms to spread the word on lesser known great books?
Why is being confronted by otherness an imperative?
What is the tragedy of Turtle Island?
What are the privileges of the settler?
What are the special elements of a Navajo wedding?
“Don't focus on becoming a writer, focus on telling a story.” Catherine Hernandez #3bookspodcast
Catherine’s first book (29:10)
Catherine’s second book (59:49)
Catherine’s third book (1:30:05)
Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bodies are Cool by Tyler Feder
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Charlie Salt - Medicine Man
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Where the Sidebook Ends by Shel Silverstein
Cultish by Amanda Montell
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
Our Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
Can you believe it?
We started 3 Books back on March 31, 2018 with the goal of counting down the 1000 most formative books in the world. We said we would hang out on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon for nearly 15 straight years until we collected all 1000 of them. We set the intention of making this show an ‘intrinsically-motivated journey’ and pledged to doing it with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. To help guide ourselves we started collecting Values like no book shame, no book guilt, quit more to read more, and the books are the hero.
For the nearly five years we’ve been hanging out I have to say this journey has felt like a warm ray of sun in my life. I hope it’s felt the same for you. My goal with this annual “Best Of” is simply to roll back through the year together and pick out moments that made us pause, ponder, and savor.
Thank you for being a 3 Booker and spending time with this incredible community of book lovers spread across the world. If you’re reading this, I love you more than lots.
Let’s stop to reflect and then keep enjoying the ride.
Chapter 95 with Bess Kalb (15:54)
Chapter 96 with Dave the CEO (28:42)
Chapter 97 with Debbie Millman (42:25)
Chapter 98 with IN-Q (54:15)
Chapter 99 with Doug the Bookseller (1:06:58)
Chapter 100 with Leslie and Neil (1:19:50)
Chapter 101 with Daniels (1:21:52)
Chapter 102 with Susan Cain (1:40:15)
Chapter 103 with Jonathan Haidt (1:51:17)
Chapter 104 with Boniface Mwangi (2:03:07)
Chapter 105 with Nancy the Librarian (2:15:41)
Chapter 106 with Alok Vaid Menon (2:26:40)
Chapter 107 with Latanya and Jerry the Booksellers (2:37:12)
Chapter 108 with Mohsin Hamid (2:45:55)
Chapter 110 with Kevin Kelly (3:07:43)
Chapter 111 with Austin Kleon (3:16:00)
Chapter 112 with Katie Mack (3:27:08)
Chapter 113 with Alie Ward (3:34:24)
Chapter 114 with Light Watkins (3:46:37)
Chapter 115 with Dr. Gabor Maté (3:59:47)
Chapter 116 with Bryan Stevenson (4:07:51)
Chapter 118 with Catherine Hernandez (4:35:36)
Please explore the show further at www.3books.co, read our values, see our show notes, and catch up on our growing list of The Top 1000 most formative books in the world.
On the heels of launching my latest book, Our Book of Awesome, I’m enjoying the fellowship of two authors in my life — one of whom I met 22 years ago when I was in my final year at Queen’s.
Bounding into my life at the time came a young professor named Ajay Agrawal. And I mean bounding! He was cold calling left, right and center, dancing around the room, and extremely theatrical. As you listen to him you’ll see why I found him so captivating and clairvoyant.
Professor Ajay Agrawal has won Professor of the Year seven times! He’s like Canada’s Adam Grant. He is the co-author of the bestselling book, Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, named one of the best tech books of the year by Forbes, The New York Times and The Economist. His latest book has just come out and it is called, Power and Prediction, also co-authored with Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb.
Ajay is a tenured professor at Rotman, a research associate at The National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, a not-for-profit program that helps start-ups launch, and co-founder of Next Canada dedicated to the development and training of young entrepreneurs. He is also a recent winner of the Order of Canada which is the highest civilian honor that Canada awards.
Over the years I've gotten a chance to meet Ajay's truly lovely partner in life: Gina Buonaguro. And, guess what? She's a writer too! Ajay focuses on the future. Gina focuses on the past. Gina is originally from New Jersey but has been living in Toronto for many years. She started at Villanova University, all the way up to the University of British Columbia on a Fullbright Scholarship.
Gina’s written dozens of articles, won five writing grants and is the co-author of six historical fiction books, including her latest, The Virgins of Venice.
You could not think of two books which are more different: The Virgins of Venice and Power and Prediction. One is a 500 year old historical fiction saga taking place in a convent with sexy nuns. And the other a deep dive into AI.
I was intrigued by the relationship dynamics between them, what their books really say, and how their writing processes work. So I invited them, together, to come on 3 Books. I also asked Leslie to join the conversation.
The four of us sat down in Gina and Ajay’s living room and we discussed questions like: what is the fate of girls in 16th century Venice, what does it mean for a city to be excommunicated, why has Uber been so revolutionary, what is the point vs systems solution in AI, how can books be shared and read together, what is an Untouchable Day, how can we think about living a little more intentionally, how does AI manipulate us today and it goes on and on and on.
This is a wide ranging conversation that I think you will truly enjoy.
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 117 now…
What does it mean for a city to be excommunicated?
Why has Uber been so revolutionary?
What is a point solution vs a system solution in AI?
What is holding AI back?
How can books be shared and read together?
What is a writer’s group?
What is the power of reading aloud to our kids?
How can we bring in more quiet into our busy urban lives?
What is an untouchable day?
How can we live intentionally?
How does AI manipulate us?
What are the challenges of raising kids in a tech centric world?
Why are young people finding social interactions so awkward these days?
What is the Chinese solution to screen time?
What is the tension between ideology and critical thinking?
How can we encourage more critical thinking?
How can we temper cancel culture?
What is the role of school today?
“Luck comes to the prepared.” Gina Buonaguro #3bookspodcast
“We are a species that is far more simple-minded than we thought.” Ajay Agrawal #3bookspodcast
Ajay & Gina’s first book (24:38)
Ajay & Gina’s second book (45:55)
Ajay & Gina’s third book (1:16:56)
Virgins of Venice by Gina Buonaguro
Prediction Machines by Ajay Agrawal
Power and Prediction by Ajay Agrawal
The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
“Why You Need an Untouchable Day Every Week (And How To Get One)” by Neil Pasricha
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt
“Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid” by Jonathan Haidt
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
“Rose Rose Thorn Bud” by Neil Pasricha
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
Hold On To Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate
Bowling Alone by Robert Putman
“How To Get Published” by Tim Ferriss
Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
“Total Entertainment Forever” by Father John Misty
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Thirst by Scott Harrison
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté
My new book Our Book of Awesome comes out today!
Grab a copy at www.ourbookofawesome.com
I got a phone call at 1-833-READ-A-LOT from Austin Wong in Oregon telling me we had to get Bryan Stevenson on 3 Books. I looked into Austin’s request and came upon Bryan's incredible bestseller Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. I listened to his 10-million plus hit TED Talk "We need to talk about an injustice" and approached the Equal Justice Initiative to have him on as a guest.
We finally found a time to have the conversation way down in Austin, Texas, where we were both scheduled to speak at the same conference. He came to my hotel room at 7am -- 7am! -- and we had a wonderful exchange in front of floor-to-ceiling glass windows with the sun brightening the Texas hills outside our window. I then went downstairs two hours later and watched Bryan captivate a room full of 700 people and get the loudest standing O I may have ever heard. This is a man on a mission. And his work and his words are so vital.
Bryan Stevenson has been representing capital defendants and death row prisoners in the deep South since 1985 when he was a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1989 he has been Executive Director and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private non profit law organization that focuses on social justice and human rights in the context of criminal justice reform in the US. In practice? Bryan and his team take on the cases nobody else wants: litigating on behalf of condemned prisoners, people sentenced to die in prison at age 13, disabled prisoners sentenced to death, people wrongly convicted or charged, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct.
Bryan has won the McArthur Fellowship "Genius" Award, multiple Human Rights Awards, and the ACLU National Medal of Liberty. He has a degree from Harvard Law and more honorary degrees than anyone I’ve interviewed before including from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn and it goes on and on.
His book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a captivating must-read with 23,268 reviews on Amazon as of right now. It's been turned into a movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.
Perhaps interesting: all 3 of Bryan’s formative books are fiction. Buckle up for a heart-shaking conversation around hope, justice, slavery, capital punishment, truth, trust and much, much more.
It's an honor to help amplify the incredible work of Bryan Stevenson. Thank you to Bryan, Caitlin, McCarthy Tétrault, and the Equal Justice Initiative for helping to make this conversation happen.
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 116 now…
What is the Equal Justice Initiative?
How can cultural institutions help redress the wrongs of oppression?
What is strategic rest?
What was it like being in a segregated school?
What is the true power of reading?
What does it mean to be sentenced to die in prison?
What is freedom?
How is justice served by the law?
What is narrative work?
How can we begin to deal with true reconciliation?
Why must we speak of genocide in North America?
How has false narrative perpetuated racism?
Why does capitalism perpetuate racism?
Why is truth so essential?
What is the history of the death penalty?
What is the link between racial bias and the death penalty?
What is happening with the Supreme Court?
Why are fear and anger such powerful forces?
How can a book teach compassion?
How must we cultivate optimism?
Why is hope essential?
Bryan’s first book (16:20)
Bryan’s second book (50:44)
Bryan’s third book (1:16:42)
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
The Blue Jay Dance by Louise Erdrich
In Another Place, Not Here by Dionne Brand
Let’s flash back to Budapest Hungary in 1944 where a little baby boy named Gabor lay crying in his crib. He wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. His mother called the doctor who said, “All my Jewish babies are crying”.
Nazis had taken over the country and killed Gabor’s grandparents in Auschwitz. Gabor’s dad was put into forced labor and his aunt was missing. Today we understand that Gabor was experiencing trauma through his mother’s stress.
His father thankfully returned after the war and when he was 12 years old, the family moved to Canada. Gabor went to the University of British Columbia before becoming a high school english teacher through the 60s and early 70s and then returned to university to become a doctor in 1977. Gabor spent over 20 years practicing family and palliative care medicine in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver -- a neighbourhood with one of the world's highest concentrations of drug addiction.
Today Gabor is the bestselling author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Close Encounters with Addiction, When the Body Says No, Scattered Minds, Hold Onto Your Kids, and his brand new New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic World.
I bought the book when it came out from Caversham Booksellers, which is North America’s largest mental health bookstore and located in downtown Toronto. They told me Gabor had been by many times and proudly had all his books in the front window. I cracked it open and couldn't stop reading. Gabor is entrancing, passionate, and wise and I was thrilled to sit down with him at Penguin Random House headquarters during the Canadian leg of his international book tour.
We discuss: play, love, Jordan Peterson, innocence, attachment parenting, Winnie the Pooh, father-son relationships, identifying and healing from trauma, curiosity and living, shifting attitudes, formative books, and much, much more…
This conversation is a journey I don't think you'll soon forget. I find myself thinking about it nearly every day.
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 115 now…
Why is loss of innocence so poignant?
Why should we not give up play?
How is love manifested?
What is attachment parenting?
Why is our culture so toxic?
Why must we let kids manifest the full range of their emotions?
How do you develop a strong father/son relationship?
What is trauma?
How can we begin healing from trauma?
How can we build better connections with our children?
How can we make sure we are meeting our children’s needs?
How do we balance curiosity and life?
How should we choose to live?
How can we learn to shift our attitudes towards events?
“Love is a manifestation of the universe.” Gabor Maté #3bookspodcast
“For the child it's a loss not to see the parent the whole day.” Gabor Maté #3bookspodcast
“Anger is a boundary protection. It's necessary.” Gabor Maté #3bookspodcast
“Children were never meant to be brought up in isolated nuclear families.” Gabor Maté #3bookspodcast
“We all have a bit of Don Quixote in us. We don't always see reality.” Gabor Maté #3bookspodcast
Gabor’s first book [8:38]
Gabor’s second book [27:18]
Gabor’s third book [46:15]
Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick
The Enchanted Places by Christopher Robin
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
God, Hold on to Your Kids by Gabor Maté
Iliad by Homer
Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt
The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
The Two-Minute Mornings by Neil Pasricha
The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate
You Are Awesome by Neil Pasricha
Five years ago I was invited down to Brooklyn to speak at an event called The Shine Movement. It was an intriguing soul-refueling combination of meditation, drumming, giving, and a few words by me. The event attracted a fascinating subculture of people and I felt slightly entranced meeting the man and mind behind it all: Light Watkins.
Light Watkins is someone I consider a master of spirit and mind. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama (with siblings Candy, Trey, and Dusty!) in the 70s and 80s, traveled the world as a fashion model, and then worked as one of the most prominent yoga instructors in LA (including teaching future princesses). Deepak Chopra calls his meditation insights "simple and profound." Today Light has taught meditation to thousands of people from all walks of life in retreats and workshops around the world. He is the author of three bestselling books: The Inner Gym, Bliss More, and Knowing Where to Look. And each morning since 2016, Light has been sending out a daily dose of inspiration email.
Light also hosts The Light Watkins Show, a podcast that shares inspiring stories of regular people who’ve found their purpose in life.
Not only is Light incredibly prolific but he is also a wandering spirit -- literally. He lives out of a backpack. Not a giant hiking backpack, either! A normal backpack. I was grateful to catch up to him from Mexico City to finally reconnect many years later. I think you'll love this conversation and his 3 most formative books.
We discuss: fostering community, happiness as a muscle, learning to meditate, leading with your heart, managing resistance, and much, much more…
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 114 now…
What is the Shine Movement?
How do you cultivate community?
Why is consistency so critical to personal growth?
Why does criticism not work?
How can you establish a meditation practice?
Why are more people not leaning towards meditation?
Why is passion in teaching so critical?
Why is happiness a muscle?
How can we learn to master our minds?
How can meditation help with sleep?
When is the optimal time to meditate?
What does it mean to live out of a backpack?
Why is Mexico City so special?
What does it mean to seek to understand?
Why should you begin with the end in mind?
Why is name change controversial in the West?
How did Light get his name?
How can we let our heart guide us?
How can we manage resistance?
How can we manage overwhelm and guarantee rest?
How can we learn to prioritize?
"Happiness is like a muscle that you have to cultivate.” Light Watkins #3bookspodcast
Light’s first book [16:56]
Light’s second book [41:57]
Light’s third book [1:01:50]
Knowing Where to Look by Light Watkins
Bliss More by Light Watkins
The Inner Gym by Light Watins
The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey
Turning Pro by Stephen Pressfield
Photo credit: Justin Zangerle
Oh hey.
It’s the person who just dropped their phone on the bus right when the driver hit the gas and now the phone’s sliding across the sandy floor all the way to the back… Neil. Neil Pasricha. And now it is finally time for our much-anticipated 3 Books chapter with the one and only ... Alie Ward.
Alie is the Sacramento-raised youngest of 3 girls who grew up in the 80s listening to DadWard deliver the morning news from the local radio station. She spent her childhood playing with bugs and just being told by her parents, “Come back by sundown and don’t get tetanus.”
Alie fell in love with science and studied science and film in college. An unlikely but prophetic mix. She went on to win an Emmy for being CBS’s correspondent for Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocco and was a host for Did I Mention Invention? on CW. She’s a consulting producer for the Barack and Michelle Obama-produced Netflix show Ada Twist Scientist and appears in the Netflix science series Brainchild and the science channel’s How to Build Everything.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! The piece de resistance of her science-and-performing ways is, of course, her jaw-droppingly great podcast, Ologies. Everybody I've suggested this podcast to just loves it. There's a reason it's the number one science podcast in the world! What are ... ologies? There are so many! There’s Myrmecology which is about ants, there’s Scorpiology which is about scorpions, there’s Etymology which is about word origins and, of course, there's one on Awesomeology about gratitude and happiness starring yours truly.
Now it’s time to pull up your petrified stump and get ready to talk about: self-help books, starting a podcast, skunk predators, Life lists, Cervidology, infectious energy, confidence versus arrogance, visioning, the Galápagos Islands, fostering community, building trust, formative books and much, much more...
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 113 now…
Are self-help books formulaic?
What is independence?
What are east vs west coast podcast styles?
What is Alie’s advice for starting a podcast?
What is a life list?
What is cervidology?
Why should we never be embarrassed about our favorite books?
Does the Law of Attraction work?
How can we make our energies more infectious?
What is the fine line between confidence and arrogance?
What is the etymology of confidence?
What is the power of ‘show up like you belong’?
Why is visioning so important?
Why do reviews matter in the podcast world?
How can we make people care about others?
What is wrong with the news?
What makes the Galapagos so special?
How can we foster community?
How can we build trust?
“Show up as who you are and you will be irreplaceable.” Alie Ward #3bookspodcast
“Show up like you belong and have fun.” Alie Ward #3bookspodcast
“All the wrong people tend to have imposter syndrome.” Alie Ward #3bookspodcast
“Let yourself be crazy about someone and always be friends first.” Alie Ward #3bookspodcast
Alie’s first book [10:57]
Alie’s second book [41:00]
Alie’s third book [1:13:52]
The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
The $100 Start Up by Chris Guillebeau
The 1 Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
If This Isn’t Nice What Is by Kurt Vonnegut
