Ryan talks to A.J. Jacobs about his new book The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life, the enduring power of puzzles, the Stoic concept of Memento Mori, and more.

A.J. Jacobs is an American journalist, author, and lecturer best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments. He is a self-proclaimed “human guinea pig” and avid nightly crossworder. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. AJ is also editor at large at Esquire magazine, a commentator on NPR and a columnist for Mental Floss magazine. His first book is called The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Simon & Schuster, 2004). The memoir — which spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list — chronicles the 18 months Jacobs spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a quest to learn everything in the world.

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