Hi there, I'm Jason Gatz, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

Life is full of horrible things. I dare you to deny it. Things like death, sickness, and alcoholism.

And did I mention death, which lies in wait for us all? But if you talk about these things at dinner parties or at work or to someone you have just

met in line at the grocery store, you risk being branded a negative person.

In some circles, such as the state of California, negativity is like leprosy.

It can really mess up your social life.

This does not seem to trouble my guest today,

who has spent much of his adult life turning horrible, true stories into festive comedy.

Like many people, I first heard David Sedaris's unmistakable voice on public radio in the late

90s. My sister and I took a couple of his audiobooks on a road trip across America in her red

Saturn with a bumper sticker on the back that read, Humanity is Trying.

Having Sedaris along his company somehow made the endless miles of stuckies and strip malls

and the weeping people at Elvis's graveside in Graceland a little less alien and terrifying.

In his latest book, Calypso, David is doing his

thing better than ever. It's about what's on his mind these days, from decluttering the English

countryside to feeding a surgically removed lump of fat to a snapping turtle to a sister's suicide.

Welcome to think again, David. Thank you. You're wearing your Fitbit, I see. Yes, I am

wearing my Fitbit, and so we walked, I'm here with my publicist, and we're doing a day of

publicity. Right. And we got to our first appointment early, so we walked a mile and a half,

and then we just walked, we got out of the car a mile and a half ago and walked.

You are very focused on how many steps you are walking.

Yeah, I really am.

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