Stuff I'm Listening To (8/21/23: Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend)

I have these goals:

1. Write regularly

2. Be super casual about it (like, ‘oh, hey.’’)

3. Don’t overthink it (is that the same as #2?).

Today my problem is I don’t want to write. I want to have written. It’s hot outside. My battery is low. My routine got jostled. I probably had too much wine last week. 

When I feel like this – 

1. The dehydrated husk of a human

2. A cicada shell half-smashed on the sidewalk

3. Janitor at Chernobyl –

Conan and Sona and Matt are perfect. Today they talked to Martin Short and Steve Martin and conjured my favorite kind of mutual admiration society which must include sick burns and stories about Lorne Michaels. 

If I am not listening to podcasts about murder or cults or self-improvement I am listening to podcasts about stratospherically successful people haunted with self-doubt. I receive them like hugs from the universe. Gentle there there’s. 

And maybe I’ve made someone’s day along the way –  in my sensible shoes, sun hat and invisible earbud, BAH ha ha-ing down the street like a crazy person, remembering it’s good to laugh.

Stuff I'm Listening To (8/21/23: Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend)

I have these goals:

1. Write regularly

2. Be super casual about it (like, “oh, hey.’’)

3. Don’t overthink it (is that the same as #2?).

Today my problem is I don’t want to write. I want to have written. It’s hot outside. My battery is low. My routine got jostled. I probably had too much wine last week. 

When I feel like this —  the dehydrated husk of a human; a cicada shell half-smashed on the sidewalk; janitor at Chernobyl — Conan and Sona and Matt are perfect.

Today they talked to Martin Short and Steve Martin and conjured my favorite kind of mutual admiration society which must include sick burns and stories about Lorne Michaels. 

If I am not listening to podcasts about murder or cults or self-improvement I am listening to podcasts about stratospherically successful people haunted with self-doubt. I receive them like hugs from the universe. Gentle there there’s. 

And maybe I’ve made someone’s day along the way –  in my sensible shoes, sun hat and invisible earbud, BAH ha ha-ing down the street like a crazy person, remembering it’s good to laugh.

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