3 Books With Neil Pasricha

I started 3 Books back in 2018. I didn't fully appreciate how big, wide, and deep the core question of this 22-year conversation was at the beginning. "What are your 3 most formative books?" Sounds simple! But as you trace back which books inspired ideals, ignited passions, altered values, slingshotted directions...well, it turns out there's always a lot there.  That was definitely the case as I recorded Chapter 128 of 3 Books in a Washington DC hotel room overlooking the Potomac with writer, designer, and speaker Heather McGowan. Heather is a big thinker focused on the "future of work" and she has elegantly stitched her business and industrial design backgrounds along with some fascinating experiences into two bestselling books called 'The Adaptation Advantage' and 'The Empathy Advantage.' She has spoken at the World Economic Forum, TEDx, and SXSW, has written for Forbes and Harvard Business Review, and is an advisor to the Business Higher Education Forum and Innovate+Educate. We talk why empathy is essenti

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 34 comes from Chapter 3 with Seth Godin, author of 'Tribes' and 'Linchpin'. To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/3 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 33 comes from Chapter 3 with Seth Godin, author of 'Tribes' and 'Linchpin'. To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/3 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 32 comes from Chapter 3 with Seth Godin, author of 'Tribes' and 'Linchpin'. To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/3 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 31 comes from Chapter 3 with author and marketing strategist, Seth Godin. To listen to the full chapter: https://www.3books.co/chapters/3 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & 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 sam

Page 22 comes from Chapter 2 with Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret. To listen to the full chapter: http://www.3books.co/chapters/2 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Page 21 comes from Chapter 2 with Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret. To listen to the full chapter: http://www.3books.co/chapters/2 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited onto ‘The Social’ (@TheSocialCTV) 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. 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.

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 13 comes from Chapter 1 with Leslie Richardson. To listen to the full chapter: http://www.3books.co/chapters/1 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 12 comes from Chapter 1 with Leslie Richardson. To listen to the full chapter: http://www.3books.co/chapters/1 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube

Pages are pulled from Chapters of 3 Books. Page 11 comes from Chapter 1 with Leslie Richardson. To listen to the full chapter: http://www.3books.co/chapters/1 To get the 3 Books email: http://www.3books.co/3mail To join our community: Follow @neilpasricha on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & 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

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 wonde

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 likel

Happy new moon! Here's a story and a snip from my appearance on The Rich Roll Podcast. Listen to the full show right here:   YouTube   Apple   Spotify

“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, ab

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 di

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 worker

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