'Our Book of Awesome' celebrates the small joys that can actually make us happier

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2022

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bestselling author Neil Pasricha knows what it's like to feel down. Fifteen years ago, he was going through a difficult period in his life – so he started a blog to write down the ordinary, everyday things that brought him happiness: unsubscribing from annoying emails, finding the right tupperware lid on the first try, wearing warm undies out of the dryer. That positivity is the driving force behind Our Book of Awesome. In today's episode, he explains to Here & Now's Jane Clayson how those seemingly insignificant moments can add up to actually change our outlook on life.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Really quick, before we get into it,
0:07.0	I just want to say thank you for being part of the pod with us. It is so much fun being able to bring
0:12.1	these books to you and help you find the next book to read or just hear a different take on a big
0:16.7	picture topic or understand an author's writing process. Now you probably know what's coming,
0:22.9	and it's true. It is only with your help and support that we can do this work. So please consider
0:28.8	making a contribution at donate.npr.org slash books. Every day, we aim to bring you some thought-provoking
0:36.3	interviews or hit you to the buzzing new thing on the block in books world. These books we aim to bring you some thought-provoking interviews or hit you to the
0:37.6	buzzing new thing on the block in books world. These books not only help keep you informed about
0:42.7	all the things going on in the world around you, but they also offer a very welcome respite
0:48.5	when the world around us gets to be a little too much. And you can help us keep that going for another year.
0:55.5	Again, that's donate.npr.org slash books. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
1:03.1	Okay, on to the show. Okay, I'm not going to lie, I wanted to today's interview being
1:07.3	kind of a hater of the general idea that today's author promotes. It's with
1:12.3	Neil Pistricha, a best-selling author and advocate for happiness and positivity, which to me
1:17.6	raised red flags. I'm not big on aggressive positivity. But in this interview with here and now's
1:23.7	Jane Clayson, he kind of got me on his side a bit. He's out with a new book
1:28.5	called Our Book of Awesome, which collects these little moments of happiness, and it's less
1:34.0	forcing yourself to smile like I thought it was going to be, and more just appreciating the
1:39.1	small respites we get from, you know, the world. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:47.6	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:52.1	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:54.2	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.