With Thanksgiving coming up, people are traveling, they're binging on podcasts and recommending their favorites to family and friends. I figured I would recommend some of my favorites with Anne from What Should I Read Next, which is a great podcast that answers the question that at least I'm always thinking about, which is what should I read next? And So to start off, I wanted to talk with you and about your episode where you read the first chapter
of your latest book about personality. And one of the things that I found most fascinating in that book was you talked about how we've all taken personality tests, we've all looked at this, but that we're not very good at looking at what we find and integrating it into our lives, that we can actually do that in some ways that are not the best. And I just I found that a really interesting take on the whole personality thing and one that I hadn't heard before. Well, thank you,
I appreciate that. So, Eric, speaking of Parson a Reality, I was delighted to find your podcast just recently, the one you feed and I love. I love where the title comes from. Do you want to tell the story? Well, it's uh, the title comes from an old parable where you've got I'll try and do it quickly. But there's a grandfather and he's talking with his grandson. He says, we've all got a battle going on inside of us between two wolves, and one of them is a good
wolf and the other's a bad wolf. And the grandson, of course wonders, well, grandfather, which one's gonna win, And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So I use that parable is just sort of a jumping off point with my guests about really what it means to live a good life. Yes, and I've really enjoyed listening to it, and but it didn't make me wonder you sound you have a great voice and style that reminds me of a network news anchor in the best sense. You don't
have that kind of background, do you have. You just been doing two undred episodes, and so that's what it sounds like. I think that's probably what it is. It's probably just, um no, I don't have that background at all. I never been really done anything like it, So yeah, I've kind of, I guess, uh, developed it over time and maybe just been kind of lucky. That is what
two episodes will do. But back to the personality. I really loved your episode with Matthew Quick, who is an author that I've read a lot of his books, but I really know almost nothing about him personally, and it was so interesting to the way you drew him out about his introversion in his anxiety, two themes I've seen in his books, but had no idea that he was writing out of personal experience. I've been thinking ever since I listened about his cat's takeaway, how he said that
what was it? Caffeine alcohol? I forget the T. Yeah, I forget the T too. I should know that, but caffeine alcohol, what we can say tired? Oh that makes sense. I thought I was going to remember this forever um, but I've been thinking ever since I listened to his interview about what he said triggered his anxiety and how
he was careful to manage those things. And you can him in the middle of his book tour, so it was really interesting to hear him reflect on introversion and anxiety and other personal challenges in the midst of what was for him a good season but also a really difficult one. And I just loved hearing the behind the scenes of his work so much, and he sounds he was so interesting. You never know what to expect the authors, Um you hear what they're going to be like as people.
But I'm really excited about reading his next book. The Reason You're Alive is that it Yeah, yep, yep, yeah, it's a it's a great book. We've been lucky to have him on three times. I mean, he's just somebody that like I interviewed once and we really hit it off and have just it's been strange because he's a
big fan of the show. So it's kind of this weird thing where like somebody that I really respect also really loves the show, and so it's been fun just getting to know him and and we got to you know, this time, we got to do that interview in person, so it was awesome. Yeah, that's something I love about podcasting, how sometimes it throws you in the way of like minded people. Absolutely well. And and I both have our
favorite podcast episodes listed out at Wondering dot com. Slash Thanksgiving and all the Wondering hosts have made a list of their favorite episodes. You can also find a video of how to listen to a podcast if for some reason you don't know how to do that. You can give it to those family members who are first time podcast listeners. Again, that's Wondering dot com slash Thanksgiving to get lots and lots of great podcast episodes. And thanks
so much for coming on. It was a pleasure to get to talk with you, and I love a podcast about books, so I'm sure we'll be talking more. Well, it was my pleasure. Thanks for joining me. Eric O