THE NON-OBVIOUS SHOW · EPISODE 43
with A.J. Jacobs
In this engaging conversation, AJ Jacobs, known for his unique lifestyle experiments, discusses his latest book, 'The Year of Living Constitutionally.' He shares insights on approaching disagreements as puzzles, the importance of learning through fun, and the impact of writing by hand on thought processes. Jacobs emphasizes the urgency of understanding the Constitution in today's political climate and advocates for bipartisan solutions to strengthen democracy. He also reflects on the role of humor in engaging readers and the potential of AI as a collaborative tool in creative endeavors.
AJ Jacobs has built a career on turning his own life into a lab, reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, obeying every rule in the Bible for a year, tracking down every person who touched his morning coffee. His latest experiment, living by the original 18th-century meaning of the Constitution (muskets in the house, quill pen in hand, tricorn hat optional), turned up something he didn't expect. The quill wasn't a costume choice, it changed how he thought. Offline, unbaited by ads and notifications, his ideas went deeper and more subtle, which led him to a question worth sitting with: could the founders have written anything profound in a Google Doc with candle-maker ads firing at them? He and Rohit also trade tactics for tying yourself to the mast like Odysseus (Rohit's son handed his screen-time password to his friends, so overriding it means looking like a cheat in front of them). Then there's the argument that the founders feared a single powerful executive so much that Ben Franklin wanted a council of a dozen presidents, a case AJ took to Congress on a quill-signed scroll. And the point that anyone claiming to read a founding document literally, Bible or Constitution, is almost always cherry-picking the parts that already agree with them. Plus the forgotten tradition he is trying to bring back: election cake.
Author of The Year of Living Constitutionally
A.J. Jacobs is an author and journalist whose books include The Year of Living Biblically, The Puzzler, and The Year of Living Constitutionally. He is known for immersive first-person experiments in which he lives by a strict set of rules and writes about what he learns.
ajjacobs.com ↗
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