A.J. Jacobs: On Faith, Choice, Writing and Family
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2015
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if you could instantly trace your connection through an online family tree to nearly anyone on the planet?
Put another way, what if every person alive was your cousin?
Enter A.J. Jacobs, the master experimenter and mega-NYT best-selling author known for running crazy, year-long experiments on himself.
In the past A.J. has spent a year living every rule in the Bible (in NYC), tried nearly every health and fitness tip ever offered in an attempt be the healthiest person on the planet, and even read the entire encyclopedia. Each adventure became a book, and together, they became a fascinating life.
In our conversation, today, A.J. outlines his newest, boldest experiment, and this time, he's making it about you. Jacobs is on a quest to build the biggest family tree in history, then invite everyone on it to the largest family reunion . . . ever.
In fact, every person on the planet is invited to his Global Family Reunion on June 6th in NY. And, since we're all his "fave" cousins, A.J. has graciously set up a special link where you can register for 25% off.
In this week's episode, we talk about what inspired A.J. to run yearlong experiments with his life, then turn them into books. We explore how showing we're all related is really about a much bigger mission to cultivate tolerance and understanding. And we also dive into the creative process, the writing life, habits, the downside and upside of choice, fear of rejection, faith, atheism and so much more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | That's the idea that shows we're one big family and that cliche is true. We're all one big family. |
| 0:10.5 | And maybe if we see this more concretely that will be a little kinder to each other, |
| 0:15.2 | that's sort of the idealistic hope. |
| 0:17.2 | What if every person on the planet was actually your cousin? What if there was a single family tree that existed online |
| 0:26.2 | where you could literally go there, punch in your name a little bit more information, and track how you were related to almost every person on Earth. |
| 0:34.9 | That is the absolutely gargantuan task that a claimed author, AJ Jacobs, is working on right now. |
| 0:41.9 | Well, he's actually building the biggest family tree that's ever existed in history. |
| 0:47.1 | Now, there's some really interesting benefits and scary things about this. |
| 0:50.3 | For example, if you wanted to get in touch with somebody famous, it might be a little bit easier if you could kind of call them up and say, |
| 0:56.8 | hey, you're my cousin, we should hang out. |
| 0:59.8 | Then again, if you're looking to get romantically involved with somebody, if everyone's your cousin, that might provide a whole different set of challenges. |
| 1:08.4 | AJ Jacobs is renowned for having done these incredible intensive year-long experiments that have produced books that have swept the mindset |
| 1:18.0 | and the attention span of millions of people, really funny, really informative. |
| 1:22.9 | And in fact, this summer, he's launching the biggest global family reunion in history. |
| 1:29.5 | These are all things that we're going to explore in today's conversation. |
| 1:33.5 | I'm Jonathan Fields. This is Good Life Project. |
| 1:36.6 | Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water |
| 1:44.2 | Made with zesty lemon time from a small family farm in Provance and essential oils from herbs that grow in the Mediterranean sunshine. |
| 1:54.6 | So, if three quarters of your G&T is a Fever Tree Tonic, maybe it's time to call it a TNG. |
| 2:04.3 | Fever Tree Mixed with the Best |
| 2:08.6 | Oh, that takes me straight to the med. |
| 2:11.4 | Freedom is a spontaneous day at the beach. |
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