Chapter 125: Two Syrian Chefs share sheep and shawarma shopkeeping shenanigans

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, or YOUTUBE

“All the time focus on the positive things. Not the negative things. Then the karma, it will come, it will reflect to you.”

Meet Chef Osama Harwash and Chef Houssam Harwash. Two brothers who came to Canada as Syrian refugees and rented a food stall to begin crafting traditional recipes learned from four generations of Syrian chefs. Listen as they share lessons learned from their sheep-farming great-grandfather at the fall of the Ottoman Empire and then tell us how mint and cardamom help make the perfect lemonade for sweltering Torontonians.

I was riding past a tight row of graffiti-covered food stalls on an absolutely scorching day in downtown Toronto when I spotted these two gregarious brothers wedged into a tiny four-foot by four-foot booth smiling, wishing “happy days to their brothers and sisters” while making them chicken shawarmas, beef kofta plates, and grape leaves for a non-stop line of faithful fans. A 4.9 rating with over 500 reviews on Google since they opened doesn’t lie.

But what makes them tick?

“The most important thing in Toronto is community,” Osama says “We love Toronto. And we want to support our community So we make more food to make more people happy.”

Maybe it's as simple as that! Let’s take a break from the news flow, the omnipresent digital tide, to come down to the sidewalk to hang out with me, Osama, and Houssam as we discuss growing up with six brothers in Damascus, 800-year-old houses, the perfect drink for a good sleep, lessons from ancient Arabic philosophy, the joys of taking time to slowly craft perfect meals with love, and, yes, of course, their 3 most formative books.

It was a treat hanging out with Chefs Houssam and Osama Harwash at their wonderful Chef Harwash food stall at 707 Dundas St W (at Bathurst and Dundas) in downtown Toronto.

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 125 now…

Chapter 125: Two Syrian Chefs share sheep and shawarma shopkeeping shenanigans

 
 
 
 

Bookmark: Live At 'Word On The Street' Book Festival

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, and YOUTUBE

Do you have book festivals where you live? 

I feel like book festivals are such a sign of healthy community. Long lines to check out independent manga. Local bookstores sponsoring stages where authors answer questions. People walking by dressed as Harry Potter and wearing "The book was better" T-shirts. And, of course, just the energy that comes from thousands and thousands of readers walking around carrying bags full of books. And the air pulsating with thousands of people all talking about books at the same time...

For the past 34 years -- minus a few years off for covid -- the incredible Word On The Street book festival has taken place in downtown Toronto. A giant, rapturous IRL love affair with the written word featuring all kinds of indie publisher and indie bookstore booths, the smell of churros in the air, and many intimate stages under big umbrellas in front of plastic chairs -- where people line up to meet, ask questions, and get a book signed from their favorite local author (check out the wonderfully wild lineup!) 

Anyway, I was so pumped Word On the Street was back up and running this year! Taking over Queen's Park -- the giant, oval, grassy park right in the middle of downtown Toronto -- to celebrate books is my kind of Sunday. I was flattered to be invited and was hosted by the lovely accountant-by-day-raucous-DJ-by-night Anime (check her out / hire her at @walkwithanime).

It was sweltering outside and despite my Peak Heat stage time 2:30pm on Sunday I was thrilled a couple of hundred fellow book lovers came by. Book festivals have such a unique buzz of fun, egalitarian, anything-goes energy and I love the community and lotsa-strangers-together vibe.

So grab a churro, find a plastic lawn chair in the shade, and let's hang out.

Bookmark: Live AT ‘Word On the street’ Book Festival

Find out more about this festival:

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

Chapter 124: Martellus Bennett weaves Willy Wonka and warrior wisdom

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, or YOUTUBE

Martellus Bennett is reimagining imagination. 

He’s perhaps best known in cultural press for his championship NFL career which included the famous Super Bowl LI comeback where his Patriots were down 28-3 at halftime and rallied for a 34-28 win in OT. But Martellus, who goes by Marty now as well as the new moniker Mr.TOMONOSHi, served as starting Tight End and recorded five catches for 62 yards as well as drawing the key Pass Interference penalty that set up the game-winning touchdown. He said afterwards he didn’t know they won. “I'm telling you, bro. I was in flow. Like, I don't know what the score is, right? I had no idea.”

There may be a few reasons for that flow experience, though. Marty has always been a truly broad and dimensional thinker who questions and examines everything. Why? “I had parents who let us talk at the kitchen table.” As a result, he’s still only in his 30s and has just massively varied interests and pursuits. “I’m always reading, searching, asking why, what if, or how?” 

Just as likely to be found in Japan searching for illumination, drawing cartoons to inspire young black kids (the award-winning book Dear Black Boy, as an example), tracing his family’s pre-slavery origins in Senegal, writing and releasing hip-hop albums, and always — always! — standing up and speaking out for what he believes in. No wonder he was one of the first NFL players kneeling in 2016 — joining Colin Kaepernick and older brother Michael — in a tough position that made him a target. Indeed, he left the Green Bay Packers after that year... “The way you feel the coldness when you walk into a freezer, you could feel the racism there.”

Today Marty carries and emanates the deep purpose of re-igniting imaginations worldwide. He wants to “activate imagination through touch, sound, smell, taste, and the body” and help support every human’s “opportunity to play, explore the universe, experience joy, wonder, and have active social connections regardless of age.”

He lives in Houston with his wife and daughter AJ and operates out of an an incredible in-the-neighborhood studio-space he’s named the TOMONOSHi! I+d LAB — a kind of magical Willy Wonka factory-esque playground full of hand-built bookshelves, woodshop tables, computers for recording music, a stump garden, and, yes, a Bird Hotel. When kids walk by they smile and scream out “Hi Mr. TOMONOSHi!” and he smiles and screams back. He’s even adopted their moniker as a way to communicate his expanding identity and purpose. He soaks into the identity and challenges societal norms around labels in almost every way.

Mr. TOMONOSHi interacts, serves, and connects with the community, writes and illustrates children’s books — like his popular Hey AJ series — and even has a deal with Disney for an upcoming series based on his books. “My life is my biggest art project,” he says.

And it’s a beautiful one. 

So let’s fly down to Houston, Texas and enjoy a long sunny morning at a hand-made table — made by Mr. TOMONOSHi, of course — to experience the wit, wonder, and wisdom of a true renaissance man. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring, challenging, and soul-fueling as I did.

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 124 now...

Chapter 124: Martellus Bennett weaves Willy Wonka and warrior wisdom

What You'll Learn:

  • How can we foster a connection with nature?

  • What is a stump garden?

  • What do trees tell us about neighborhoods?

  • What is an educational gap?

  • How is the prison system a for profit business?

  • What is code switching?

  • What is missing in children’s literature?

  • What is the Imagination Agency?

  • What is the art of book publishing?

  • What makes a movement?

  • What is the origin of the word dodo?

  • Who were the super slaves?

  • How was the slave trade perpetrated?

  • What is the power of imagination?

  • What is the truth about the chocolate industry?

  • How can cannabis help with focus?

  • What is creative freedom?

  • What does it mean to have an out of shape imagination?

  • How can we learn to take risks?

  • Why is reverse engineering an amazing skill?

  • Why is competition essential?

  • How can we reprogram ourselves to think differently?

  • How can we learn to manifest what we see as unmanifested?

  • How can systems outlast us to help others?

  • What is generational knowledge?

  • What makes for a good leader?

  • What is collective genius?

  • What can we learn from the samurais?

  • What is the power of our hands?

  • Why should we have kid-parent dates?

  • Who was the first black Samurai?

  • Why should we all have a code of ethics?

CONNECT WITH Marty

Marty’s 3 Books

  • Marty’s first book (40:18)

  • Marty’s second book (1:29:14)

  • Marty’s third book (2:09:34)

Click-to-tweet quotes

Show notes

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

 
 
 
 

Bookmark: The Rich Roll Podcast

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, and YOUTUBE

Hey everyone,

 Happy new moon! I was invited down to LA to go on my favorite podcast. If you don't know The Rich Roll Podcast, well -- you're in for a treat. It's often the #1 Education and #1 Self-Improvement podcast in the world for good reason. Rich is 10 years into conducting his unique and thoughtful longform conversations that tease open big ideas and examine ways of living better than anybody in the business. 

In today's short -- 20-minute! -- Bookmark I share the story of flying down for the show, play a little hello to 3 Bookers from Rich (and get his favorite part of the convo!), and then play a little snip of the chat.

This was the most in-depth longform chat I’ve had and with Rich’s masterful steering we discuss many new things like: what role the Indian-Pakistan partition played in my existence, the 2 tests to perform before making a career leap, what your 20s are really for, how I scared Leslie off after our first date, 2am lessons from McKinsey consultants, the 10-rock dresser calendar, our current thinking on the “Never Retire” philosophy, my reaction to Rich calling me an ‘automaton’ and telling me I live a ‘spreadsheet life’, what I learned from working with The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live writers, our advice for starting a podcast today, fast-food hiring best practices, the benefits and perils of being a big fish in a small pond, and much, much more…

Listen to the 20-minute Bookmark on my feed right here.

Listen to the (epic three-hour!) main show on Rich's feed right here or watch the two of us chat face-to-face on YouTube right here.

Bookmark: The Rich Roll Podcast

Full episode:

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

Chapter 123: Suzy Batiz on suffering, surviving, and selling shit

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, GOOGLE, SPOTIFY or YOUTUBE

“Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve taken the smell out of shit!”

Suzy Batiz says this is what her husband Hector said — shocked! amazed! — when he realized the strange essential oil spray she’d been obsessively working on late into the night for nine straight months really and actually … worked.

Today Suzy is founder of billion-dollar-valued Poo-Pourri and supernatural. But the endless topline superlatives surrounding her — EY Entrepreneur of the Year, ranked #240 on Forbes “Richest Self-Made” Woman list just above Serena Williams — actually mask the more startling, complex, inspiring story underneath. Sure, there’s no denying the wealth — after all, we did this interview in the 15,000 square-foot church she lives in — but Suzy isn’t motivated by money. Never has been! She’s motivated by freedom, by energy, by making, by love — and by leading and sharing a life of inspiration.

I flew down to Dallas, Texas and sat with my friend Suzy Batiz to understand how exactly she navigated a lifetime of poverty, abuse, depression, divorces, bankruptcies, and suicide attempts in order to — bit by bit, step by step — manifest a life full of exploration, transformation, and abundance. Led by her curiosity, gumption, and an “I gotta get out” energy she reveals hard-fought lessons in personal growth, unicorn-building entrepreneurial advice, and deeply resonant nuggets of life-changing wisdom — much of which she’s never shared before. I think you will take away a tremendous amount from this conversation. And, for those feeling stuck, trapped, or helpless — there are many jungle vines hanging here to help you get out. Freedom is possible. Suzy will share a few ways to find it.

We discuss: the art of cold-calling, agency in abuse, finding angels, the problem with antidepressants, deuterium-depleted water, the trinity of transformation, 4 questions to break free of destructive thinking, ayahuasca voices, what entrepreneurs need to remember, Suzy Batiz's 3 most formative books, and much, much, much more…

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 123 now…

Chapter 123: Suzy Batiz on suffering, surviving, and selling shit

What You'll Learn:

  • What is the art of cold calling?

  • What is the emotional toll of bankruptcy?

  • How can we find meaning in our lives?

  • What are the questions we should be asking ourselves to break our patterns of destructive thinking?

  • How can we learn to shift our lens?

  • What is radical accountability?

  • What is the problem with antidepressants?

  • What do abundance and happiness have in common?

  • What does it mean to be human?

  • What does it mean to operate from a place of abundance?

  • What are the signs of resonance?

  • How do you create a business?

  • What do Suzy Batiz and Elon Musk have in common?

  • What is an ‘alive’ idea?

  • Why must we not be afraid to ask questions?

  • What are the scales of consciousness?

  • How does ayahuasca work?

  • What is expansiveness?

  • What is the trinity of transformation?

  • How do you know when you have arrived?

  • What is deuterium-depleted water? 

  • What is it like to live in a church?

  • How should we learn to trust ourselves?

  • What is the grief that leads to a suicide attempt?

  • What causes abuse?

Click-to-tweet quotes from Suzy

“My husband said to me ‘Do you realize what you've done? You've taken the smell out of shit!’” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“There’s a myth out there that no one wants to help you and that everyone’s out to get you. I’ve found the exact opposite is true. Everyone wants to help you, everyone wants to support you — when you let them know your position.” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“I didn’t have a drinking problem. I had a thinking problem. I was letting my thoughts actually create my suffering.” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“People often ask ‘How long did it take you to remodel the place?’ And I say, you should ask the place ‘How long did it take to remodel me?’” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“Pain begets pain until we start cleaning it up and clearing it up for the future generations. It’s the same cycle. It's a vibration. It's gonna keep getting repeated.” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“I was willing to get rid of my story. I wanted freedom over any story that I had.” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“Stop making good shit and start making great shit. We’ve got enough good in the world.” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“I commit to expanding my capacity for abundance, love, and joy every day as I inspire others to do the same.” ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

“If you want out, you can get out. The only question is what are you gonna do to get out? Once you know there’s a way out — you can find it.”  ― Suzy Batiz #3bookspodcast 3books.co/chapters/123

CONNECT WITH Suzy

Suzy’s 3 Books

  • Suzy’s first book (10:12)

  • Suzy’s second book (1:40:03)

  • Suzy’s third book (2:02:34)

Show notes

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

 
 
 
 

Bookmark: Honing happy healthy habits with the Holdernesses

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, GOOGLE or SPOTIFY

Penn and Kim Holderness are a beam of light in the world. 

If you aren't one of the billion people -- like, an actual billion -- who've watched their viral videos, well then, let me quickly usher you over to their YouTube Channel or Instagram feed. From their original 2013 "#XMAS JAMMIES" singing Christmas card (parodied by Kristin Wiig and team on SNL) to their truly astounding "Hamilton Mask-Up Medley" at the peak of the pandemic -- well, it's all right there. Laughs, connection, love offered as endless simple and reorienting gifts in our disorienting world. 

I was flattered a few months ago to be invited on their intimate, high-energy Holderness Family Podcast. They have such unique chemistry and I didn't know what to expect. Well, they came in hot! Pushing past the typical "Tell us your story" stuff and getting right into the meatier "Come on, really?" questions that helped us fall into a deeper, richer conversation covering so much ground in (somehow) a wee 58 minutes. 

Listen to Kim, Penn, and I discuss: finding an ikigai, ambition versus contentment, the joy of making, the 4 S's of great work, a better name for ADHD, how to tactically get the phones out of the bedroom, how much money we need to be happy, replenishing decision-making energy, the true meaning of awe, why Our Book of Awesome is my last awesome book, reconciling a desire to be happy with what we have with a desire to improve, and, of course, fitting for these hyper-talented twenty-first century Weird Als (and I mean that in the best possible way), our go-to karaoke songs. 

Thank you deeply to Kim and Penn Holderness for having me on their show. Subscribe to The Holderness Family Podcast, follow them everywhere right here, and I hope you enjoy this Bookmark episode of 3 Books.

Bookmark: Honing happy healthy habits with the holdernesses

original episode:

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

Chapter 122: Tank Sinatra on masterpiece microdosing and meme mastery in our manufactured madness

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, GOOGLE, or SPOTIFY

Diluting central news sources. Constantly narrowing echo chambers. An ever-fracturing sense of community. It’s easy to feel disconnected from each other right now — and from what’s collectively real and true in the world. We need people and places that help unify us and bring us together. 

“Fear displaces faith and vice versa,” says Tank Sinatra on Chapter 122 of 3 Books. “And laughter displaces everything. It’s impossible to be sad when you’re laughing.” It's no wonder more than 10 million people follow Tank — the world’s #1 meme creator.

At @tank.sinatra he shares with 3 million people a photo of Heath Ledger as The Joker, with stringy wet hair, in the nurse’s outfit, in the middle of a road, with smoke and fire in the background together with the caption “The CEO of Silicon Valley Bank after selling $4 million worth of his stock the day before collapse.”

At @tanksgoodnews he posts a photo of a woman holding a hot water bottle over her stomach with the Spanish flag and the tag “Spain just granted workers paid leave for period pain.” 

At @influencersinthewild he shows a tattooed woman posing in a bikini in front of the waves ... along with a follow-up image of the wave crashing over her and her hair and face all suddenly messed up with a caption that simply says “Ocean.”

“There’s something about laughing that’s heavenly,” he says. And the massively growing tribe and community forming around Tank's work agrees. Tank offers a clear reflection of our day and age. He speaks truth from a deep, resonant place which creates connection in divided times. 

In addition to posting daily on his megafeeds, he's also the host of the brand new 'true-crime comedy' podcast Psychopedia and creator of the hilarious Influencers In The Wild board game. 

Tank and I have been connected for 12 years (12 years!) from back in the ancient internet world when we became blogger friends. It was a real honor to reconnect with him for 3 Books and discuss microdosing reading, what ‘sales’ really is, religion versus spirituality, generational trauma, the pleasures and perils of social media, and, of course, his most formative books...

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 122 now…

Chapter 122: Tank Sinatra on masterpiece microdosing and meme mastery in our manufactured madness

 
 
 
 
 

Bookmark: On braving bushy brambles and becoming a birder

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, GOOGLE or SPOTIFY

I felt trapped early in the pandemic.

I normally walk every day in downtown Toronto. I write on park benches and in distant coffee shops and love popping into bookstores and bumping into friends. I am very privileged in that I get to travel one or two days a week, too. But then: the pandemic. It hit hard and I was suddenly sitting in a makeshift office upstairs. Staring at four blank walls and peering out a glass door into the trees and electrical wires outside.

And then I saw it. A bird! A bird I'd never seen before! It was ... a robin? No. Way bigger than a robin? And the chest was red but ... the rest looked different. Some white. Was it a woodpecker? I ran downstairs, got some binoculars, and then downloaded the Merlin ID app a friend had told me about. Within a couple of minutes more of looking and using the app: I had it! It was a Rose Breasted Grosbeak.

Later that day my wife and I put together a (desperately needed) trampoline in the backyard ... and the bird didn't fly away. The next day I noticed there were three of them. Maybe four. My kids started jumping underneath them. It seemed like everyone was smiling at each other. It was a strange bit of connection in that suddenly-so-disconnected time. I felt less ... speciesist? Just more aware of all life. All energy. It helped me zoom out from my mind chewing on problems and worries.

I got hooked on birdwatching. I became... a birdwatcher. I am, today, as I stand here beside you, a birder. Yes, hearing them counts. For me, I got hit by the birding bug in 2020. It really has changed my life. Now when I touch down in a new city, time zone, or airport... I go birding. I reconnect with the natural world. I practice shinrin-yoku and really feel my cortisol and adrenaline lowering. Basically: I recombobulate. And I have made wonderful friends birding through the eBird app -- shoutout to Tommy in Phoenix, JC in Jacksonville, Dave in Vegas, and Alannah in Newfoundland! -- and have found birding a wonderful source of conversation, beauty, exercise, nature, perspective, inspiration, and community. I even wear the big hat and khakis now and get a kink in my neck in the Spring. As I write this (March 20th, 2023) my life list is 401 after my first Snow Buntings and Wild Turkeys last week. I even snuck a couple of birding entries into OUR BOOK OF AWESOME, which as of now has spent 12 weeks on the international non-fiction bestseller list thanks to you! (Thank you so much and, if you don't have a copy, get one here.

It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Jody Allair of Birds Canada on the wonderful Birds Canada podcast "The Warblers" late in 2022. Birds Canada is a non-profit run by extremely passionate people with the mission of driving understanding, appreciation, and conservation of birds in Canada. Leslie and I donate to Birds Canada and, if you're interested, you can donate here. 

Thank you sincerely to Patrick Nadeau, Jody Allair, Andrea Gress, Kate Dalgleish, Kris Cu, José Mora, Alex Nicole, and the entire Birds Canada team.

Bookmark - On braving bushy brambles and becoming a birder

original episode:

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

Chapter 121: Johann Hari on deleting devious dogma and discovering deeper designs

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, GOOGLE, or SPOTIFY

Happy full moon, everybody! 

Do you feel like the world today -- our culture today -- is pulling us further and further away from things that matter? Like deep in-person, real-life, human connections. Like the ability to focus on things that require deep thought, care, and time -- like reading books. Are you feeling yourself sucked into the algorithmic abyss -- where endless dings and pings and alerts and notifications pull us into echo chambers that prey on biological tendencies beyond our comprehension?

You may remember our chat on 3 Books six chapters ago with Dr. Gabor Maté who calls our culture today "toxic" and the record-levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and suicide rates we have today. So what do we do about it?

Well, our guest today is Johann Hari who will help me, help you, help all of us rekindle what is important in our life. How? By taking back our focus and our attention. 

Some history: I first heard about Johann back on Chapter 49 with Dr. Andrea Sereda. One of her 3 most formative books was CHASING THE SCREAM by Johann Hari. I read it cover to cover and it was a deep, nuanced book about the war on drugs and our cultural history and relationship with drugs. I made it one of my top books of the year.

So I reached out to Johann and we eventually sat down to get his 3 most formative books. 

Who is Johann Hari?

He was born in Glasgow in 1979 and when he was a year old his family moved to London where he lived most of his life. He studied social and political science at Cambridge and is now the author of three massive bestsellers: CHASING THE SCREAM, LOST CONNECTIONS, and his newest out in 2022 called STOLEN FOCUS: Why You Can't Pay Attention. His work has been lauded by everybody from Bono to Oprah and he's been named national newspaper journalist of the year by Amnesty International twice. 

Listen as we talk about: regaining our attention, kSafes, reading as resistance, negative bias, amygdala hijacks, managing intelligence, French burnout laws, and, of course, Johann's 3 most formative books...

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Let's flip the page into Chapter 121 now...

Chapter 121: Johann Hari on deleting devious dogma and discovering deeper designs

 

What You'll Learn:

  • What does reading offer?

  • What is happening to our ability to focus?

  • What are some practical ways to improve our focus?

  • What is the French burnout law?

  • What is the fallacy of multitasking?

  • What is negativity bias?

  • What can we do to counter the power of money-making algorithms?

  • Where is the power of the public in the tech debate?

  • Why is propaganda more crucial in free societies compared to others?

  • How can we maintain unity without propaganda?

  • How can we stay properly informed today?

  • Why is nuance so critical?

  • Why is it so important to delve into complexity?

  • Why is a black-and-white perspective so destructive?

Notable quotes from Johann

“We live in a culture where there's an enormous machinery designed to fragment your attention. That is making you dumber, less attentive, less empathetic. It is designed to make you angry.” Johann Hari #3bookspodcast

“All of this AI, all of these algorithms, all of this genius in Silicon Valley is designed for one thing and one thing only -- to figure out how to get you to pick up the app as often as possible and scroll as often as possible.” Johann Hari #3bookspodcast

“Reading books is a crucial act of resistance to the madness of our time.” Johann Hari #3bookspodcast

"We need to hold the ground for complexity and ambiguity and not making up our minds about people and allowing a little bit of space." Johann Hari #3bookspodcast

“You've gotta say that a business model based on tracking and surveilling us in order to figure out the weaknesses in our attention and sell that attention to the highest bidder is fundamentally inhuman and immoral.” Johann Hari #3bookspodcast

CONNECT WITH Johann

Johann’s 3 books

  • Johann’s first book (41:52)

  • Johann’s second book (1:08:08)

  • Johann’s third book (1:28:23)

notable links

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

 
 
 
 

[Oscar Encore!] Daniels existentially explore everything everywhere

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, GOOGLE or SPOTIFY

Happy new moon, everybody!

I have a very special Oscar Encore episode for you today -- in celebration of our guests little-film-that-could EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE scoring 11 (11!) Oscar nominations. Yes, the Oscars goes down in a few weeks on March 12th and it just seems worth pausing on how this remarkable non-sequel, non-superhero, paltry-budged, genre-smashing flick is suddenly poised for recognition in categories like (no biggie!) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress.... and on and on.

Some history! Way back in November 2021 I was in theatres in downtown Toronto and saw a preview for EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. The trailer blew me away and when I got home I remembered at the beginning it said "A Film By Daniels". Daniels? Who's Daniels!? I started googling and discovered it was two guys named Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert who have been making films together since college. They'd made one feature film before called SWISS ARMY MAN (also known as the 'Daniel Radcliffe Farting Corpse Movie') and a slate of incredible music videos like TONGUES by Joywave, SIMPLE SONG by The Shins, and TURN DOWN FOR WHAT by DJ Snake and Lil Jon ... which has over 1.1 billion views!

I fell into a rabbit hole soaking up their incredibly creative, challenging, boundary-pushing art and reached out to Daniel Kwan (@dunkwun) to invite the guys on 3 Books. We started trading long thoughtful emails about formative books while the background buzz on their movie kept building. It started limited runs in New York and LA and the Rotten Tomatoes score was 99%! And then, just a few days before the movie got a national distribution, we sat down for this moment-in-time conversation on 3 Books.

And now: To mark the incredible run the film's had since then we've done a very special edit of the conversation. It's hot! It's tight! It's fresh! It's sizzling! And if after listening to this you want the "Directors Cut" just scroll back to Chapter 101 for the full-length "extra hour" version.

I feel strongly that this is the type of art we need in the world today -- brave, risky, challenging, beautiful, profound. So much of what gets made, especially in the big-budget worlds of film, music, and podcasting, is, you know, repetitive. It's easier! That's what makes what Daniels is doing so important. It's been a massive honor getting to know Daniels "before they were cool" all the way up to this big moment at the Oscars on March 12th.

I hope you enjoy this special Bookmark Episode of 3 Books. Enjoy!

[Oscar Encore!] Daniels existentially explore everything everywhere

original episode:

Enjoy the show? Use the Links Below to Subscribe:

GIVE US A Call AT 1-833-READ-A-LOT

(YES, THIS IS A REAL PHONE NUMBER)