New Podcast Release: AJ Jacobs

The latest episode of "Lives Well Lived," the podcast I co-host with Kasia de Lazari-Radek, is now available.

In this episode, Kasia and I had the pleasure of speaking with AJ Jacobs, a writer and self-proclaimed "human guinea pig" known for his experiments in living. Below are some highlights from our conversation, lightly edited for clarity. You can now listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform.

On the Purpose Behind His Experiments:

AJ Jacobs: "I love trying these experiments out, and the whole idea is that I do something sort of outlandish. But the hope is at the end something good will come of it. I will have some insights that will make my life better and hopefully other people's lives better."

On Learning from History:

AJ Jacobs: "The good old days were racist, sexist, homophobic, dangerous, smelly, horrible. ... It made me a little more optimistic that progress is possible."

On Radical Honesty:

AJ Jacobs: "Radical honesty is terrifying... I had to say what was on my mind, which was, 'You seem like nice people, but I have no interest in interacting with you again.' ... It is a very dangerous way to live."

On Health and Longevity:

AJ Jacobs: "The basics of health are astoundingly simple... eat real food, move, don't smoke. But the interesting question is why don't we do it? ... I think it's outrageous that people make millions of dollars selling these secrets when there really are no secrets."

Closing Thoughts:

Peter Singer: "AJ, I'm sure that you have done a lot of good in your life for others in a whole variety of ways... through informing people about different ways of living, getting them to think, stimulating them to think about different experiments in living that they may or may not choose to have."

AJ Jacobs: "I hope I've had a slight net positive effect on the world... I hope it's been a net positive but I also want to say that life well lived sort of implies that I have a lot of control over my life. Whereas I do think that luck plays a huge role. So even if I did a net positive to this world, then it's not just by my own free will—it's also because luck played a huge part."