Chapter 127: Lenore Skenazy on killing coddling to create capable kids

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, or YOUTUBE

Early episodes of Sesame Street from the late 1960s show five-year-olds walking streets alone, talking to strangers, and playing on vacant lots, but when those episodes were released on DVD years later a warning was added at the beginning saying “The following is intended for adult viewing only and may not be suitable for young viewers.”

I read about this in ‘Stolen Focus’, the massive bestseller by Johann Hari, our guest in Chapter 121. Johann went on in his book to discuss how ‘the confinement of our children’ is contributing to our plummeting ability to focus and he brought the idea to light wonderfully in his book by spotlighting the activism of Lenore Skenazy.

Lenore Skenazy is a Jackson Heights, New York mom of two who wrote a 2008 column for The New York Sun titled ‘Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride The Subway Alone.’ The article set off a huge media firestorm where Lenore was dubbed “America’s Worst Mom.” Undeterred, Lenore went on to coin the phrase “free-range kids”, write a bestselling book by the same name, and then five years ago co-founded a non-profit called ‘Let Grow’ which aims to give kids back the developmentally crucial ‘vitamin’ our culture has removed from childhood: independence!

Before her current work, Lenore wrote for The New York Daily News, New York Sun, and Mad Magazine (!). She has degrees from Yale and Columbia and is on the front lines of movements to bring back trust, independence, and free play in our children. She has created The Let Grow Project which partners with schools to give students the simple homework assignment to “Go home and do something new, on your own.” She created ‘Take Our Children to the Park & Leave Them There Day’ as a day for children to learn how to play without constant supervision. And Let Grow, the organization she co-founded with Jonathan Haidt (our guest in Chapter 103), Dr. Peter Gray, and Daniel Shuchman, has been helping to draft and sponsor 'free-range kid' legislation supporting reasonable child independence. To date, they have helped pass laws in eight states.

Join us as we discuss: recess, preventing anxiety in kids, the problem with child protective services, getting attention in activism today, the importance of fun, and, of course, Lenore's three most formative books...

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 127 now...

Chapter 127: Lenore Skenazy on killing coddling to create capable kids

 
 
 
 

Chapter 126: Jully Black on anthem alterations and attitude absolutions

LISTEN NOW ON APPLE, SPOTIFY, or YOUTUBE

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited onto ‘The Social’ a few times. Do you know the show? It’s like ‘The View’, but Canadian, with four dynamic hosts sharing fast-paced opinions in a raucous, bombastic, high-energy exchange. Producers hand you the topics of the day about 30 minutes before you go on — formed by that morning’s early headlines — and then it’s time to form an opinion and get ready to, no big deal, share it live with millions of people a few minutes later. Definitely one of the most challenging jobs I’ve ever had and I can’t tell you how much I admire people like Melissa Grelo, Cynthia Loyst, Lainey Lui, and Jess Allen, who do it day after day.

Since I’m guest-hosting it’s usually me onstage with three women — while one’s away — and we end up having full-on laugh attacks like this one. Well, one day, early in the pandemic, during the “live from everybody’s basement” era, I showed up ready to go on and discovered I was one of *two* guest hosts. The other was Jully Black! Canada’s R&B Queen. I’d heard of her but when the camera started rolling I fell in love. She was dynamic, bombastic, full of love, full of energy, and in the virtual green room after the show I invited her on 3 Books. (I knew she was a book lover because she’d been on Canada Reads — “the Survivor of Books” — a couple years before.)

Well, after a few years of planning, we finally pulled off our long-awaited live and in-person recording of 3 Books — up in Markham, Ontario, an hour north of Toronto — inside the 24-hour, 365-day-a-year, 68,000-square foot sauna and bath house Go Place. I had never been but Jully was a regular so we put on our checkerboard paper shorts and shirts and lounged on a couple curvy chairs before hitting record (and before hitting the hot and cold rooms afterwards.)

I think you’ll find this as fascinating a conversation as I did. Jully is a true icon — named one of ‘The 25 Greatest Canadian Singers Ever’ (CBC Music) with multiple singles reaching Top 10 pop, R&B, and dance music charts. She has sung for the Queen of England, she’s been inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame, and, as you’ll hear, she took the bold stance of changing the words to Canada’s National Anthem on its largest global stage. Her activism wins praise, plaudits, and, yes, some poo-pooing, but if you know Jully — and you will soon if you don’t! — she takes it all in stride and then she manifests another great day. She’s somebody who is seemingly always vibrating on another level.

Jully has been in the game for three decades, scoring her first record deal as a teenager, and collaborating with endless legends like Nas, Choclair, and Destiny’s Child. She’s an activist, award-winning musical theater star, community organizer, and much, much more. In this conversation Jully shares secrets of artistic longevity, thoughts behind her decision to change the lyrics of ‘O Canada’ at the NBA All-Star game, her definition of allyship, how we learn to forgive ourselves, what a ‘blanket ceremony’ is, how we navigate the death of our parents, her 3 most formative books (of course), and much, much more…

Let’s flip the page into Chapter 126 now…

Chapter 126: Jully Black on anthem alterations and attitude absolutions

 
 
 
 

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:

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

(YES, THIS IS A REAL PHONE NUMBER)