3 Books With Neil Pasricha

  Do you remember Chapter 4 of 3 Books with Sarah Ramsey? She introduced me to BUST Magazine, the largest feminist magazine in the world, and waxed on about how BUST had incredible book recommendations… Well, they sure have a lot more than that. I picked up a copy of BUST and was blown away by the urgency, voice, and community. I also wasn’t surprised to see The New York Times and Fast Company both profile BUST over the past few months. So I trucked down to Brooklyn to see if we could learn what’s behind the curtain. I’m so delighted to introduce you to my next guest on 3 Books — founder of BUST, Master’s and PhD graduate of Yale University with thesis in the psychology of women, and rampant feminist since age six … The one and only Debbie Stoller. In addition to her three most formative books, Debbie shares her inspiration behind BUST and how pop culture influences societal views and laws. Debbie has taken the powerful influence culture has on society by turning cultural narratives on their heads, striving to make BUST into a magazine that reads like the world that would exist ‘if women won.’ Debbie sits down with me in the middle of her office in the ‘warehouse district’ in Brooklyn, NY where I ask basic questions like: What is feminism? Who got us to where we are today? And what are the major gaps between men and women in the world right now? I feel like I sound like an ignorant fool a lot in this chapter but I hope you enjoy and learn as much as I did. Huge thank you to Debbie for this opportunity. And now let’s get into Chapter 20. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: How does culture reflect male and female desire differently—and what has been left out? What’s the difference between first-wave, second-wave, and third-wave feminism? How has pop culture amplified and influenced gender roles and stereotypes? How has the definition of feminism changed and shifted over the years? What would media look like if sexism didn’t exist? Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/20 Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

So here we are.   It's 11:59pm on December 31, 2018 and we're releasing our first annual Best Of 3 Books for 2018.   It's a time to look back. It's a time to look ahead. It's a time to look inside and think about which lessons, which insights, and which paths we will follow in the year ahead.   For long time listeners of 3 Books, I hope this hopscotch through the first 19 of 333 chapters gives you poignant reminders, tiny amplifications, and little lightbulb ideas as you look to your year ahead. For new listeners, I hope this gives you a little sampler platter of what we're all about here. We believe books change lives and we're so grateful you decided to listen in to our epic quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world.    3 Books just won the Apple Best of 2018 Podcasts award and is routinely ranked in the Top 100 on Apple Podcasts.    And what else do we believe in? We believe in 100% live in-person conversations, we believe in 100% ad / sponsor / interruption-free content, we believe in publishing every single chapter of 3 Books on the exact minute of every new and full moon from 5:36AM on March 31, 2018 to 5:52am September 1, 2031.    Please visit www.3books.co to read about all our values, see all our show notes, and catch up on the list of The Top 1000 books in the world.    Thank you for joining us. This is a powerful pilgrimage and I am so honored to be your host.   I can't wait for the year to come. Let's keep going.   Neil   --    Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

Our next guest is the first billionaire entrepreneur of a global brand we’ve had on 3 Books. We fly over to Vancouver to talk with the founder and former CEO of Lululemon, Chip Wilson. Chip founded the company Westbeach, a snowboard, ski, and apparel company, which he eventually sold in 1997. Then one day while flipping through the paper, he came upon a piece of fascinating information… There are now more woman than men graduating from colleges and universities. Then he got all prophetic. “Women will have more money! They’re gonna want to live downtown! They’re going to want clothing that fits their lifestyle!” So he launched this brand called Lululemon. The first store was opened in 2000 in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver. Chip served as the company’s CEO for six years before transitioning to Chief Product Designer. These days, although Chip is technically “retired,” he’s still doing so much. He’s raising five boys. He founded the Imagine1Day foundation with his wife to work on improving education in Ethiopia. And he just released a book called Little Black Stretchy Pants: The Unauthorized Story of Lululemon. This chapter is filled with so much thrilling conversation and content. From redefining masculinity and our definition of success to the importance of investing in our minds and our families. I think this is the perfect chapter to finish off the year, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Welcome to Chapter 19. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: What helps prevent bureaucracy in big companies as they grow? Why is there so much cynicism around motivation? How can we stop ourselves from complaining too much? Why are ‘mental workouts’ just as important as physical workouts? How can we improve our communication skills? What’s next for masculinity in the world? How do we raise our children into the best people they can be? What do all successful people have in common? Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/19 Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

I discovered David Sedaris after asking my college writing mentor how to become a better comedy writer. He handed me a strange looking book with a pair of boxer shorts on the cover … Naked by David Sedaris. I’d never heard of David before, but when I went home and started paging through his book, I was completely blown away. His autobiographical essays were incredibly sardonic, witty, and laugh-out-loud funny, and dealt with his homosexuality and his obsessive compulsive tics and dropping out of school. Like millions of people around the world, I quickly became obsessed with David Sedaris. I’ve read all of his books and every article he’s written in The New Yorker. I even went to see him speak, which is how I learned that after every single event he does, he’ll stay late (up to 10 hours!) just to talk to anyone who wants to meet him. So it was with a lot of excitement that I squeezed into the back of his limo on his North American book tour for Calypso. I rode with him all over Toronto from his hotel to his CBC interview to his book signing to uncover and discuss his three most formative books. What was supposed to be a tight half hour interview turned into a beautiful hour and a half long conversation. Welcome to Chapter 18 with the generous and beautiful David Sedaris. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: What’s the “secret to getting old”? Why can’t you be a writer if you’re not a reader? How do we remain artistically and ethically pure after commercial success? Why do we try to hide our love for money when we generally need it to live? How do we transition from mimicking other writers to establishing our own voice? Why does David ask random people he meets who he thinks are funny to open for him at huge events? Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/18 Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

  Have you ever looked through a bunch of greeting cards and felt like nothing reflected the way you feel? The greeting card industry is 150 years old, and yet they haven’t quite mastered this skill yet… But Emily McDowell has. Emily has an uncanny ability to characterize the relationships we have, not the relationships we want to have. Emily runs Emily McDowell Studio, an online hub of greeting cards, tote bags, and other gifts that articulate things in an emotional way that we often can’t express ourselves. Emily finds the right words to say … when we can’t. For our Valentines when we haven’t quite defined our relationships yet. For our loved ones who were just diagnosed with cancer. Emily is also the New York Times bestselling author of There Is No Good Card For This, which acts as a guidebook on how to navigate our relationships so we can understand our pain, work through our challenges, and develop resilience and empathy. I think she has really put her finger on something that we desperately need in the world right now: how to create more empathy. We discuss some really interesting themes including how our pasts affect us, how to raise creative children, and how to use lessons from advertising to make things people want… not make people want things. I hope you enjoy Chapter 17. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: How can we identify universal truths to better relate to others? How can we turn pain into humor? How do you raise children out of your own shadow?   Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/17 Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

Did you know the average person lives for 1,000 months? Or that the average person is awake for 1,000 minutes per day? That’s why I like the number 1,000 so much, and partly why I started my blog 1,000 Awesome Things about ten years ago. It’s why I’m on this quest with you to uncover the 1,000 most formative books in the world. And that quest is what brought me to the independent bookstore Books & Books with Mitchell Kaplan. Why did I decide to sit down with Mitchell? Because he started the entire Books & Books chain. Back in the early 1980s, Mitchell opened a 500-square-foot bookstore because he was passionate about community and wanted to create a “third place.” But it’s not just a bookstore chain. Mitchell has grown it to the point where there are rooms dedicated to publishers, outdoor magazine stands, and about 600 author events per year. And although he runs what he jokes is a “no-profit” bookstore, he is wealthier than many of us ever will be because he’s living such a rich life. Rich in purpose, relationships, connection, and meaning. Welcome to Chapter 16. I hope you enjoy this soulful and passionate chat as much as I did. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: What is a “third place”? Why don’t we spend as much time and money on mental health as we do physical health? How do you create an authentic community without it feeling manufactured? How do teachers play a powerful role during our most formative years? What is the “producer high”? What should a bookstore try and be? Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/16  Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

Oh, this life, this world. As Mitch says, once you find purpose, and once you find style… what’s left? Beauty. What’s left is finding and putting out beauty into the world. There are not many writers who have genuinely figured this out … but one of them is Mitch Albom. Mitch is the bestselling author of Tuesdays with Morrie, the bestselling memoir of all time, as well as The Five People You Meet in Heaven and his new book, The Next Person You Meet In Heaven, which just debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list this week. His books have sold over 40 million copies. Mitch just doesn’t turn off. He’s like a Tasmanian Devil. He’s hosting a radio show, he’s on TV, he’s writing columns in the Detroit Free Press, he’s a musician, he’s even running an orphanage in Haiti. Mitch is full of energy and life and moves quickly and talks quickly … and so we talked about that. We go deep into why he moves through life so fast. We unpack his relationship with Morrie and talk about how I actually misinterpreted parts of the book. We talk about what the worst thing you can say to an artist is (which he learned from Maya Angelou) and what the true enemy of getting things done is (and surprise, it’s not time or energy). I hope you enjoy learning what Mitch Albom’s three most formative books are as much as I did. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: What’s the worst thing you can say to an artist? How do we balance parental expectations with chasing our own dreams? How does Mitch say music and writing comes together? What encouraged Mitch invite more purpose and faith into his life? Which book inspired Mitch to transition from a reader to a writer? What does Mitch think is the best compliment a writer can receive? What will Mitch be sharing in his next book based on his own life?  Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/15  Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

“On the one hand, information wants to be expensive because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time.” Recognize that quote? It’s from a conversation between Steve Wozniak and Stewart Brand at the very first Hacker’s Conference in 1984. We’ve heard it so many times. Information wants to be free. And in many ways, it already is. We live in The Information Age, a time when you can find the answer to just about any question with the push of a button. But if that is the case, then why is the paid speaking industry expanding? Why pay five or six figures to bring a big name athlete or author to your conference when you could just watch the video for free online? We have all this free content everywhere, yet the value of live is going up. Well, maybe when we have more online content, we miss out on other things. We have less … attention. We have less … connection. We have less … alignment. If you want to get a room full of people excited about one thing, it’s hard to do that unless you all physically talk about that one thing. Unless you all feel that one thing … together. And nobody understands this better than my next guest … Rich Gibbons. Rich is President of Speak Inc, the largest speaking bureau in the western United States, and was formerly President of the International Association of Speaking Bureaus. And Rich is one of the most interesting and articulate people I’ve ever met. How can you become a paid public speaker? How does the industry work and what do speaking bureaus do? What is the “99th Floor” metaphor to inspiring feelings of gratitude? Buckle up, buckle in, and please enjoy Chapter 14 of 3 Books. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: How can you become a paid public speaker? How does the speaking industry work and what do speaking bureaus do? What’s the biggest skill that makes for a great public speaker? What’s the counterintuitive benefit to exposing ourselves to depravity in books? What’s the next evolution of parenting after “The Helicopter Parent”? Why did one of Rich’s dad friends describe himself as a benevolent dictator? How can parents balance desires for children to be happy … and rich? What is the “99th Floor” metaphor to inspire feelings of gratitude? How can writing be compared to telepathy? What’s Stephen King’s trick to read more books even if you’re a slow reader?   Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/14  Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

Do you remember the first person who introduced you to the love of reading? Was it a teacher? A parent? A friend? For me, it was my third-grade teacher. I remember on the first day of class we all gathered on this old, dusty green carpet and Mrs. Dorsman asked us all where we went that summer. “I went to Japan,” she began, with her eyes bugged open, “… and to Australia … and the waterfalls of South America … and to the Moon… and to Mars!” And then she looked around the room and dropped the final bomb. “Through … books!!!” Mrs. Dorsman lit a fire inside me that day. But what if you don’t have an incredibly soulful teacher who loves books? Who flicks the lighter to ignite that burning passion within you, within any of us? Well, these days, we have BookTube. According to The New York Times the BookTube community has gotten over 200 million views and engagement is up 40 percent versus last year.   And one of the most popular BookTubers in the world is Ariel Bissett. With hundreds of thousands of subscribers, Ariel feels BookTube kindles a passion and love for books. So, I traveled to Ottawa to sit down with Ariel, and we discussed BookTubing, how to grow your Youtube channel, why you need a book ‘medicine cabinet,’ how to reinvent yourself, and how to navigate loss. I hope you’re as excited about this Chapter as I am. Let’s begin. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN What is a BookTuber? How does BookTube work? How did Ariel grow her channel to hundreds of thousands of subscribers? Why should you start a “book medicine cabinet” and what goes in? Why (scientifically) should you reread books? Why should you never read 1-star reviews? How do we create trust online in an era where trust is at an all-time low?   Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/13  Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/

What was the first TED Talk you ever watched? Was it Do schools kill creativity? by Ken Robinson? Was it The power of vulnerability by Brené Brown? Whatever it is I bet you felt a bit like you stumbled onto an oasis. The Internet is junky! The whole thing feels like a pack of cougars just ran through a dollar store. Pop-up everything, ads screaming at you, and everything feels like a fish-hooks tugging at your eyeballs. TED is the opposite. TED doesn't beg for personal info, force you to open an account, quick-pick your wallet for your credit card, or do anything other than help spread ideas to shape, grow, and inspire your thoughts.   It is beauty in the scat-filled dollar store.  So, who's Ted? Who runs TED? Who's the 18-minute-or-less Emperor?  It's Chris Anderson. The Pakistani-born, Oxford-educated, New York Times bestselling... Chris Anderson.  In this Chapter, I fly down to New York City and sit with Chris in his office. We uncover his three most formative books and discuss developing willpower, tackling deeper issues, supporting ambitious spouses, and what being a dreamer really means...  I hope you enjoy this conversation with Chris Anderson, Head of TED.  WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: Which book taught Chris more in a weekend than his entire Oxford philosophy degree? What does Chris say is one of the chief criticisms of TED? What does Chris see as humanity's greatest superpower? Should you work with your spouse? What is Chris's view and why? What is the "shooting an asteroid out of space" view of intelligent life? How do we inspire others to feel wonder, awe, and optimism? What media tricks must we watch out for these days? How can we regain control over our attention? How do we become better dreamers?   Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/12 Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/