We Must Imagine Sisyphus as Happy

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]I have to sign. Okay. I know. I talk to Henry about dinner. Well, I have to sign right now. Okay. We must imagine Sisphus is happy and I have to sign had a rare dud piece of paper here. And there's some kind of uh bad print bad print job up here. Give it a weird texture. Very unpleasant.

[00:01:01]So, we're not we're not going to use that one.

[00:01:07]Hey, potato. I know you want to eat dinner, but it's not time for dinner.

[00:01:15]It's time for signing today. My goal is to get to 32,500.

[00:01:22]Oh, potato, come on, man. My goal is to get to 32,500, at which point I would be caught up with where I need to be after my commencement at Rice. So, I gave the commencement address at Rice. Oh my god.

[00:01:33]Okay, you've talked me into it. I'm calling Henry.

[00:01:38]How's that sound?

[00:01:40]We'll call Henry and we'll get it dealt with. Potato, I I I I I can tell you're going to be unpleasant until this gets dealt with as an issue.

[00:01:59]Well, that's not great. That's not great.

[00:02:04]Okay, let's call Alice then.

[00:02:14]This is already taking away valuable potato. This is already taking away valuable time that I should be spending that I should be spending doing signing.

[00:02:23]Okay, if I have to stand up, it's going to be yet more inconvenience for me. It seems like I'm going to have to stand up, potato.

[00:02:38]Hey, Alice, can you eat and walk the dog, please?

[00:02:45]Okay, thank you.

[00:03:06]Okay, back to it. Alice is going to deal with it. [sighs] All right, I've signed like 20 sheets so far. This is a disaster.

[00:03:27]Okay, here we go.

[00:03:30]Now we're sign. Now we're signing with gas.

[00:03:37]Now Potato knows that it's Alice and so he's like trying to get Alice's attention.

[00:03:44]He's a smart dog.

[00:03:47]He may not be technically a good dog, but he's a smart dog.

[00:03:52]He's a good boy.

[00:04:00]I just watched Tottenham play um leads. It's pretty thrilling one-1 draw actually as draws go. Um I am so I gave the commencement address at Rice University over the weekend. It was kind of a weird day because thunder started right before the event was supposed to start and it's outdoors in the football stadium and so everybody had to clear out and then it started really late and then they kind of condensed down the schedule and cut a bunch of speeches but kept my speech but I felt like I had to go a little faster than I would have liked because of the threat of the weather. Um, but it was still really nice to be there. I got to meet with a bunch of students and talk with professors and learn from folks about Rice and um which is an amazing school, far better school than any I could have ever gotten into and got to learn learn from them and talk to creative writing students especially which is always really interesting to me and it was really fun. It was really nice.

[00:05:00]Are them going to stay up? probably I would say it's like 75% likely to happen now that they've gotten another point, but they almost got all three points which would have basically guaranteed that they stayed up. I suspect Oh, there's an article about me at Rice.

[00:05:17]Well, I haven't read it yet. I hope it's okay. The student journalist who interviewed me did a very good job of disarming me and making me talk to her like a regular person, which is always dangerous when you forget you're talking to a journalist.

[00:05:34]Potato.

[00:05:36][snorts] Potato. Take it down a notch.

[00:05:44]Are we ever going to get more Paper Towns content? Almost certainly not. Um, I mean, if you want to go to the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattisburg, Mississippi, you can see all my early drafts of paper towns and uh see all the stuff that had p like mailboxes and PO boxes and carnival rides and everything else that was in the first draft. But um no, I don't really like releasing drafts or um or or or or stuff that didn't end up in the book unless it's uh for a very specific good reason because in general I find that I mean my job is to try to present you with a finished book and I did that to the best of my ability and and I try to leave the characters in a place where I can actually leave them, you know, not a I was just talking today with a bunch of the nerd fighters who donated to the Project for Awesome to get me to recommend them some books. So, we have like 10-minute Zooms and then I recommend them some books. And um I was talking about how why I don't write in series or why I don't return to stories after I finish them. And it's primarily because I I can't handle that pressure as a writer. like the way readers feel about um George R.R. Martin or whatever is not something I could handle. I could not handle people feeling that way about me.

[00:07:16]So I just don't uh don't write don't write across books.

[00:07:27]I just can't do it. So instead, I try to write books that don't necessarily end well or anything, but end conclusively where you feel like, okay, that book is over. And hopefully I did that with Paper Towns. But full disclosure, I haven't read it in almost 20 years, so I don't feel like I can comment on its uh quality.

[00:07:53]Well, you might not think that I would George R. smart in people, but like I don't think I could handle that pressure. And I think the likely response to that pressure would be to collapse under its weight and not be able to write and not be able to finish something and then have people get more mad at me, which would make me would make it harder to finish it and so on and so forth forever. That's that's what I would fear anyway. I think it's actually really hard to live with the expectations of readers.

[00:08:24]Uh, I think that's why I mean it's not hard in the scheme of things as jobs go.

[00:08:30]Potato, potato, take it down two notches. I'm I'm two notches right now.

[00:08:35]>> One and two. Okay.

[00:08:40]Um, like I think that's I think that's one of the main reasons why my last two books were non-fiction.

[00:08:46]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:08:50]Not now. I'm live streaming. What are you looking at?

[00:08:55]What? What is it? Oh, it's the fireplace tools are upsetting you. He's very complicated. He's very complicated animal. He has a lot of complicated feelings.

[00:09:06]Um, anyway, uh, I think it's a hard thing to live with.

[00:09:13]>> Alice.

[00:09:16]Alice, this is parenting.

[00:09:25]Um, yeah, potatoes upsetting the dogs that Celeste is pets sitting and that's not cool.

[00:09:35]Um, I am not an accomplished pianist.

[00:09:37]Alice plays piano though.

[00:09:43]Oh.

[00:09:46]Oh, wow. You were also a chaplain.

[00:09:49]Well, uh, thank you for reading that chapter and, um, yeah, I appreciate it and for your $10 donation to AFC Wimbleland's playing fund. Both are appreciated. But yeah, it's that, uh, that chapter was like the hardest thing I've ever written, but also one of the most fulfilling. Anyway, what I was saying is that I think one of the reasons my last two books have been non-fiction is that I was allowed to preview them so that to lessen the pressure a little bit like with the anthroposine reviewed obviously a lot of the book came out in podcast form became before it came out in book form and that gave me a chance to you know kind of expose it to the world without exposing it to the world as it were and then with everything as tuberculosis there was an hourong video that borrowed a lot I mean not entirely certainly but borrowed a bunch from the and where I did get things wrong, important things wrong that I that I learned about making that video. So, you know, I those th those are ways of dealing with pressure for me. But with this book, with Hollywood Ending, the one that's coming out in September, uh it's back to just pure pressure, which is um Yeah.

[00:11:01]Yeah. It's back to pure pressure, which is an uncomfortable feeling, but there are obviously worst jobs in the world.

[00:11:08]This is a great job. I love my job. I love signing books over and over again.

[00:11:13]Football's on TV. Yeah. Like just the uh highlights of the Tottenham leads game.

[00:11:28]Well, we're coming down to the end of this Sharpie here.

[00:11:34]Do we know when a book tour announcement is coming? I don't. Uh there are still a few considerations like when the book tour is going to start and where it's going to start. So, we've got to got to get that nailed down. But we'll announce it as soon as as soon as we have all the dates lined up and ticketing and everything. But you don't want to announce a tour without tickets being available. I learned that from Olivia Rodrigo.

[00:12:00]you know, or you announce the tour right before you make the tickets available with clear definitions of when you're making the tickets available. That's what Olivia Rodrigo did, and it worked on Atlas.

[00:12:11]I would love to come to New Zealand.

[00:12:13]I've never been to New Zealand. It's one of the places I would most like to go that I've never been, but um it's also quite far away. And it's hard to travel more than I already travel like 130 days a year. So, it's hard to imagine traveling more. I' I I'd be happy to travel more if my kids were out of the house, but they're still home and I like hanging out with them. So, um yeah, a little more time with them. One that I want to enjoy.

[00:12:46]John, I have an extra ticket for Netherlands versus Tunisia in uh Kansas City. Well, I appreciate the offer. I think I'm only seeing one World Cup game, though, and it's the US versus Australia.

[00:13:00]Um, I don't think I'm going to go to another one. I think between watching it with friends and at bars and I think that's the way I want to watch the World Cup this time around.

[00:13:12]But enjoy. Uh, Kansas City is a great town and that should be a fun game.

[00:13:45]Mhm.

[00:13:53][snorts] >> I think my favorite city in the US that isn't New York or Chicago. I mean, my favorite city of Chicago, but my favorite city that's not one of the obvious ones is um where did that where did that marker go?

[00:14:13]H mysterious.

[00:14:17]Seem to have lost a marker disastrously.

[00:14:21]Oh well, we'll just we'll just grab another one. It's not like these intergalactic indigos are a rare species. That's under significant threat. Oh, there it is. It fell on the ground. Great. Um, is Houston. I think Houston's a really cool city. That's where I was over the weekend. And that's where I often take the kids when Sarah has a big work deadline. And it's just a great city.

[00:14:45]It's super diverse. They've got amazing restaurants. They've got a great aquarium. Um, very cool art museum, one of the best art museums in the country.

[00:14:58]How do I balance my dislike of online visibility and love of privacy with wanting to share my work for career growth?

[00:15:05]Um, it's really hard. Some people can do it, you know, like I think about the guy who just won the Pulitzer Prize, Dan Krauss.

[00:15:15]He has a public life, but not a particularly not a hugely active one. he spends most of his writing time writing and um and I think that's true for some artists. There's also, you know, there's an artist I really like named Lanka Clayton who again has a public life but not an overly uh ambitious one like not like mine and is able to make work and talk about the work without the disorienting pressure of being a professional influencer. And I think that's the main thing is that you you don't you know you want to you do want to have a private life and you don't want to be in you know most people I think don't benefit from being influencers very much. I think the cost is pretty high and the rewards are are not that high um to be honest. But you can still make art and share art. As for the toxic nature of the internet, that's part of the value proposition is that people are going to be somewhat toxic in a lot of spaces. I think some of the norms are getting better. I think the norms on Tumblr, for instance, are much better than the norms on Twitter. And you know, Tumblr has been around the bend on this stuff a little bit and has seen that you don't have to tag people in hate comments. And if you don't tag them in hate comments, they won't see them. And then you're allowed to have whatever discourse you want to have without the person you're having discourse about having their feelings hurt. That's a, you know, I'm starting to see more of that, but it's certainly not universal. And there is a toxic nature to the internet. And the toxicity comes down to the willingness of these corporations to do whatever it takes to hold your attention. And if that means supporting a toxic culture of misinformation and disinformation, that's what it means. Because their job is not to inform you or make you happy or provide you with fulfilling or accurate information landscapes. Their job is to hold as much of your attention as they can for as long as they can [snorts] and to monetize that attention as effectively as they can, mostly with advertising.

[00:17:43]And there's, you know, that's not a recipe for Hey. Hey, Alice.

[00:17:50]>> Yeah.

[00:17:50]>> Can you figure out what potato he's barking at and make him stop?

[00:17:55]Did he poop?

[00:17:58]>> No, he picked up.

[00:17:59]>> Okay. Um, can you play with him a little bit? He seems he seems bored and uh and barky.

[00:18:05]>> Okay.

[00:18:05]>> And I'm streaming.

[00:18:07]>> Oh, okay.

[00:18:08]>> Thank you.

[00:18:14]>> Um, yeah. So, I just think as long as the internet is advertising fueled and rewards maximum attention over over accuracy or anything else, it's going to be somewhat toxic. I don't have a solution for that.

[00:18:30]But I think in general what you want to do is continue to make stuff and remember that you're not making it for the people who hate it. You're making it for the people who don't hate it, which is a lot of people. Hi Potato. I see that you're very active this evening.

[00:18:50]Alice, you excited for the Olivia Rodrigo Tour?

[00:18:53]>> Yes, >> she is. She's very excited.

[00:18:55]>> Very. Um, what do we think of Olivia's new songs?

[00:19:00]>> Really good.

[00:19:00]>> When does your new album come out?

[00:19:02]>> June 12th.

[00:19:03]>> June 12th.

[00:19:05][snorts] >> I should really copy my my career on Olivia Rodrigo's career because she does such a good job.

[00:19:11]>> Yeah, you should.

[00:19:12]>> Yeah.

[00:19:14]John, why are you not allowing Potato to practice his First Amendment bark rights? Well, just because I know that it makes other dogs bark that are watching the stream. But right now, he's uh consuming socks, which is his right.

[00:19:28]That's that's one of his First Amendment rights.

[00:19:48]I would rather have a tail like a spider monkey. I think I would like to have a tail like a spider monkey independent of all that other stuff. I don't like meet and greets in general. I especially don't like them with evil people. Um I find I find real life interactions with humans pretty stressful.

[00:20:07]So yeah, that would be my pick.

[00:20:17]I am signing copies of my new book, Hollywood Ending. So, I'm signing 85,000 sheets of paper and then at the end of it, uh, these pieces of paper will be sent to the printer in Pennsylvania and the printer will has a little machine that shoots a page into the book as it's being bound so that the first page of the book is signed by me. It's pretty cool technology.

[00:20:54]>> [laughter] >> Nerd Fighter Nicole um is going going through it about about their interaction with Ted Cruz, which fair enough, but it's as you say, it's for the cause.

[00:21:18]I've repeatedly expressed interest in naming a character in a book Saul. Why haven't you? Well, I have a real life uh there's a kid I know named Saul, and I would feel weird about it because I know that kid. I try not to name people things I know. Although I mean I didn't know I didn't know that Hank and Catherine were going to end up together when I was writing An Abundance of Catherine's, but I did know about her and I should have probably handled that differently.

[00:21:47]Clockwork Bio says this is a good space for a co-working stream, which I like to hear. I mean, it's even better when I don't talk. [snorts] Did I ever visit the Hague? Of course I did visit the Hague. Um, I spoke at a high school there. I spoke at high schools all during my residency because I was there at the behest of the Dutch government. I spoke at high schools all over the country. So one of the ways I finished writing the fault stars is I would take the train in the morning to the Hague or to Roderdam or to Utrect and then I would speak at a high school there and then I would take the train back and I would use the train time as writing time. And I like that so much that even after I finished all my high school visits, I would get on the train and just take it somewhere random. Like I would just like go to, you know, uh what's that far away town called that's uh barely that where they like speak a different dialect. It's called Gez. It's got a football team that's pretty good that's always in the Ara de uh golly gee, I wish I could remember the name of that town. Anyway, I would take the train there and then um and then it would be fun. Hey, potato, please don't.

[00:22:58]Please don't. Hey, potato, please don't.

[00:23:02]Hey. Hey. What is it, man?

[00:23:06]What is it?

[00:23:08]You already ate. You already went outside. You got a good life. Oh, it's an obligatory milestone message. It's my favorite kind of milestone message.

[00:23:18]Uh, hair in vain. Hair in vain. That's what I was thinking of.

[00:23:26]And isn't there also a potato? You're ruining my live stream, man.

[00:23:35]Um, and I think it's just cuz he's mad at the fireplace stuff. He's mad at the fireplace.

[00:23:41]I don't know if there's like something in there.

[00:23:45]Potato, you got to take it down a notch, man.

[00:23:50]Hey.

[00:23:53]All right. I'm touching the fireplace.

[00:23:55]So, look. Nothing scary. Nothing scary.

[00:23:58]It's all safe. See, there's nothing bad there. You're just a scared dog. You're very decently scared.

[00:24:10]Hey, Alice, can you take your upstairs for a minute?

[00:24:19]just to hang out with you in your room.

[00:24:21]>> Thank you.

[00:24:23]>> Yeah.

[00:24:30]>> All right.

[00:24:33]I'm signing so slowly. Remember when I signed 100 sheets in 4 minutes and 30 seconds?

[00:24:47]He's just kind of a difficult dog today.

[00:25:03]>> Well, [snorts] that was a good signature.

[00:25:06]>> So, anyway, um that was a good one, too.

[00:25:10]On a good run. That was a good one, too.

[00:25:12]I'm on a good roll.

[00:25:14]That one was also good.

[00:25:17]That one was not as good, but it's fine.

[00:25:20]Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I get in like a flow state where all my signatures are pretty good. And then sometimes I get in the opposite where all my signatures are really bad. Like that one's pretty bad.

[00:25:30]But what are you going to do?

[00:25:33]I'm not watching wrestling in the background. I don't know what I'm watching in the background. I think I'm just going to turn off the TV actually.

[00:25:39]That way I don't get copyright struck.

[00:25:42]Um, I'm watching some something on USA.

[00:25:47]Can you please buy an AFC Wimbledon leash for potato? $14 on the website.

[00:25:52]No, I'm only spending the money on AFC Wimbledon's playing budget. I promise that. That was um I might get Potato and AFC Won leash separately from that. Uh, that's a pretty good idea. That could be really cute. Um, he's he's he's doing well in general, I think. like Sarah's out of town and um he's just, you know, a little bit um yeah, I was watching soccer earlier and I will again be watching soccer soon.

[00:26:24]I am utterly transfixed by this relegation race because two teams with 60,000 seat stadiums are at risk of relegation which is just bananas.

[00:26:52]I see the potato is causing as much trouble upstairs as he is downstairs.

[00:26:57]Um, at least from what Alice is is talking about.

[00:27:02]Well, if I get to the bottom of this pile before the end of the stream, I'll have maybe 600 to go today. So, that's pretty doable. That's like 30 minutes at the most. 40 minutes maybe.

[00:27:18]So, >> I can do that tonight.

[00:27:23]>> Oh, is he going to the kennel, Alice?

[00:27:25]>> Yeah.

[00:27:26]>> He was naughty.

[00:27:28]>> Did he poop up there?

[00:27:30]>> No. Pick a lot of my sauce.

[00:27:32]>> Oh no.

[00:27:32]>> No. Potato. Kennel.

[00:27:34]>> Kettle. Potato. Kennel.

[00:27:35]>> Kenn.

[00:27:38]>> Oh yeah. He's just excited, Alice. I don't know why he's just so fired.

[00:27:52]Well, he'll calm down and rest in the kennel.

[00:27:58]I can't believe you wore matching Pizza John shirts to your in-laws house.

[00:28:04]That's incredible. That's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. If we tried to do that, we would get in real trouble.

[00:28:14]Has Rowan Williams ever crossed your path theologically? Yeah. Um, yeah, I've read a couple of Rowan Williams books.

[00:28:21]Um I'm not uh I don't think we're inclined in exactly the same directions, but uh we're inclined in a lot of similar directions.

[00:28:32]So yeah.

[00:28:34]Um I'm not as I'm not as Anglican as as I should be as an Episcopalian. I think um I got to lean into my Episcopalianness a little bit more to get really into him.

[00:28:50]Oh, look at that. Forest N's mom studied with him at school. What a small world.

[00:28:56]At Oxford, no less.

[00:28:59]So, we've got maybe 300 to go until we're at the bottom of this pile, which is good.

[00:29:16]It's not too bad.

[00:29:23]Potato has never eaten a sheet. Uh, if he did, I would be really angry. Not least because there's like 6,000 sheets out here right now. If he ate 6,000 of them, it would be absolutely devastating.

[00:29:44]My cat is watching with Rapture. So, thank you, Potato, for helping. That's funny.

[00:29:51]That's funny. I'm glad your cat is into it. Your cat, your cat loves this dream.

[00:29:55]Potato is my dog. He's an Italian water dog. He's very cute, but he's also very mischievous.

[00:30:21]>> [snorts] >> All right.

[00:30:58]Um, I have never gone truffle hunting with him. He doesn't seem like he would actually be a very good truffle hunter.

[00:31:04]Um, well, thank you for watching my short on hope. I appreciate that. Um, it's really hard to be uh it's really hard to live with OCD. Um, especially when it's acting up on you. I hope that you're able to get access to good treatment and get the exposure response prevention therapy or whatever works for you because you don't deserve to have your life ruled by those thoughts, man. It's really hard. I know how hard it is.

[00:31:36]All right, Potato. I'm going to let you out. Oh, boy. Okay.

[00:31:42]It's always something.

[00:31:45]You know what I'm going to do, Potato?

[00:31:46]I'm going to let you roam. I'm let you roam outside.

[00:31:50]How's that sound?

[00:31:55]Come on. Let's go outside. Let's go outside.

[00:31:58]>> Yeah, this will be fun.

[00:32:05]Potato.

[00:32:10]Do you want Come here, Potato. Come.

[00:32:14]Come on. Let's go outside. You want to go outside? Do you not you don't want to go outside?

[00:32:21]You want to go outside? What about if I just leave the door open and then you can decide when you want to go outside?

[00:32:26]How's that sound? That way you have freedom of movement.

[00:32:30]Yeah, just go outside. That's fine.

[00:32:31]That's that's all of outside is for you to bark.

[00:32:35]Great.

[00:32:38]Okay. I'll tell you what, parenting a dog is just as hard as parenting children. Today's podcast is truly brought to you by the the couch because the couch keeps hosting the podcast the p the live stream and I'm not getting my sheets done. This is why it ends up taking me an hour to do a thousand.

[00:33:08]Now he wants to come back in, but I'm not going to let him. He has one of Alice's socks in his mouth and he wants to come back inside. It is beautiful couch. I love this couch. We bought this couch right when we bought this house in 2013.

[00:33:33]How did he get the sock outside? Uh, he has his ways. T's a miracle worker when it comes to socks, man. Fortunately, I belong to a sock club that sends me a pair of socks every month and also sends a pair of socks to my children every month. So, we're uh we're very fortunate to be in a sock club.

[00:33:57]I'm here for the first time. What are those sheets for? Thank you for asking.

[00:34:00]So, I sign these sheets for um to be bound into copies of my new book, Hollywood Ending. I'm signing 85,000 sheets of paper. So that will be 85,000 signed books. And if you live in the US or Canada, I believe the person who asked lives in India if I remember correctly, but if you live in the US or Canada, you can order a signed book right now at hollywoodendingbook.com.

[00:34:23]Unfortunately, if you live outside the US and Canada, you can't for complicated reasons that involve the strangeness of international English language publishing. But um if you live in the US or Canada, anywhere you buy your books, they should have copies except for bookshop.org, which sold out of their a lotment.

[00:34:46]So yeah, you should be able to get a signed copy right now.

[00:34:48]Hollywoodendingbook.com.

[00:34:54]But yeah, every every local independent bookstore in the US and Canada will have plenty of copies. Hope I mean hopefully if I do my job My local bookstore is only able to get five signed copies. Forest Nymph, where do you live out of curiosity?

[00:35:39]That makes me feel like I need to sign more copies. I do listen to Noah.

[00:35:45]Um, Toronto.

[00:35:47]Toronto should have more than five signed cop. Well, maybe I need to sign a 100,000 then. Maybe 85,000 isn't enough.

[00:35:54]I'm thinking about trying to go up to 100,000 if I can stay uh near my count and then I'll just double the the days in July when I'm watching the World Cup anyway. That's my new that's my new thought is maybe I can get to 100,000 which would put me at 800,000 lifetime which would mean that I have only 200,000 left to go to get to a million which is my secret goal.

[00:36:22]I haven't had any pain. So, that's part of the reason why I think maybe I can go up to 100,000 is that I've had no discomfort at all. But, um, we'll see. I mean, I don't know if there's only if there's independent bookstores that are only getting five copies, I feel like that's so annoying. They should be getting more than that. Um, but it's also it's really it's it's really hard because I mean y'all probably don't follow this stuff that closely, but Amazon sued the big five publishers for price gouging or for price fixing. And so now all the big publishers are terrified of Amazon suing them for like treating some accounts different from other accounts. And so you have to sort of yeah, you have to it's it's it's hilarious. The idea that Amazon is the anti- anti that Amazon is like suffering under the yoke of anti-competitiveness is so hilarious. But yeah, it's a it's a delicate situation. I got to let Potato back inside.

[00:37:26][clears throat] >> Hi, Potato. Are you going to be calm now?

[00:37:30]Yeah. Or are you going to bark at the fireplace? Have you decided?

[00:37:45]What number am I at now? Uh, somewhere between 30,000 and 32,500.

[00:37:54]Probably 31,000.

[00:37:57]probably 31,300 200 maybe somewhere above 31,000 and below 32,500.

[00:38:14]But I'm just trying to do a thousand a day this week.

[00:38:17]So, uh, if I can do a thousand a day this week, I have to go to Chicago for a crash course meeting, but if I can do a thousand a day other than the day I go to Chicago, I should be able to catch up with where I'm supposed to be.

[00:38:35]Uh, do my books get translated to uh, other languages and do I have any say in any of that? Um, I have not read The Threebody Problem, but you're not the first person to recommend it to me.

[00:38:48]Um, so I should read it obviously.

[00:38:52]I uh my books Oh, potato. My books have been translated into several um they've been translated into Hindi and a few other uh languages that are widely spoken in India. I do not have any say in whether it happens. I mean, like, I have say in the sense that I can say no to a deal, but I can't like, you know, I can't say yes to a deal unless my publisher secures one. So, it's something I always say yes to because it's a huge privilege to have your books published in other languages and translated. And so, I always say yes.

[00:39:27]Um, it's it's not about that. It's just that like you have to have a pretty successful book to to be translated into a lot of languages. Like I think the fault in our stars was translated into 55 languages, but that's quite rare. Everything is tuberculosis has only been translated into like maybe 10.

[00:39:51]Paper Towns in German. Marggo Spurin. I do remember that one.

[00:40:01]How does this not hurt your wrist? Well, I had physical therapy um to learn how to sign without uh hurting my wrist or my elbow. I do have arthritis in my shoulder and often my shoulder hurts, but for whatever reason this this time around, my shoulder hasn't hurt.

[00:40:18]Admittedly, I've only done 30,000 so far, so I've got still over 50,000 to go, but my shoulder hasn't hurt at all.

[00:40:26]I felt pretty good and you know as long as that holds I'm going to just keep signing. But the physical therapy was really about learning how to glide my hand over the page instead of uh pressing down on the paper. Just letting the pen do the work. And then secondarily learning about stabilizing my wrist as much as possible so that more of the actual action is taken on by my elbow.

[00:40:57]One month till the World Cup. We love to hear it. One month till the World Cup.

[00:41:04]I can't wait. I've got the Indy500 to look forward to and the World Cup to look forward to.

[00:41:17]Would I ever make a TV documentary? I would if the right opportunity came along. I would love to. I mean, we made that hourlong crash course deep dive into tuberculosis that is kind of a documentary, but I would love to make a documentary centered on the lives of people living with TV.

[00:41:35]Uh, I just have never found the right partner for that.

[00:41:43]What are my thoughts on the Freedom 250 race? I won't be uh I won't be in Washington DC for that one.

[00:41:59]Oh boy.

[00:42:01]There's just the thing about the pages is that there's always more of them, you know? You just That's the good thing and the bad thing. Like Sisphus, there's always another opportunity to roll the ball up the hill.

[00:42:22]Yes, [snorts] just like the laundry, which I also need to do. I'm going to do that tonight.

[00:42:28]There's an astonishing amount of laundry in this household.

[00:42:40]Well, more than anything, signing is something to do. You know, it's a way to get into a flow state. It's uh easier than writing and gets me into the same flow state and it's pretty fun in the scheme of things.

[00:42:57]I mean, there are definitely things that are less fun than signing.

[00:43:01]Like most jobs, most jobs you can't do while you watch the pit.

[00:43:11]All right, let's lock it in.

[00:43:55]Oh, that's incredible. I'm unlocking because [snorts] Noir Dal, actor for Charles in Red Dead Redemption 2, asked me to let you know that he'd love to contribute to the streams and somewhere donate a signed item for charity. I can share his email somewhere appropriate private if interested. You can always email me at [email protected].

[00:44:13]That's oh god my book my book fell and with it my papers. Um yeah sparkslipgmail.com is my email address.

[00:44:21]And um I'd be I would be happy to have them donate something for um for the project for awesome or or just for the stream whatever. That's really cool.

[00:44:32]Thank you.

[00:44:35]Um, we will have to [snorts] be nice when we talk about Charles in the future.

[00:44:46]What's the blue mark on the edge of the sheets for? That's to know which side is down. And then they uh when they chop when they chop the sheets, they chop that off. They chop off an inch on the bottom and an inch on the top and about a quarter inch on each side when they actually do the printing.

[00:45:05]Charles is the goat in that game. Okay.

[00:45:07]Well, that's encouraging to know.

[00:45:11][snorts] I think they might have come up with this for me. I don't think that it was there the first time I signed. Um, yeah, but a lot of the things about signing tip-in sheets were invented by my publisher in in in concert with me because I was pretty early on to that uh train. And now that it's no longer popular, I'm still on that train. So, I believe in what I believe in. And one of the things I believe in is signing as many books as possible.

[00:45:42]All right.

[00:45:47]All right. Let's lock it in. Phoebe, you're right. Let's lock it in.

[00:45:52]Oh, except for quickly say greetings from Mexico. Uh, greetings back from Indianapolis.

[00:45:59]Now we're locking in. Oh, Charles taught us hunting. Well, that was fun of him.

[00:46:04]Now we're locking in.

[00:46:40]That's exceptionally bad.

[00:51:10]All right, I've got about 30 to go.

[00:51:29]Oh, potato. 20 to go.

[00:51:41]How often do I live stream? Maybe uh once uh maybe [snorts] three times a week >> 10 to go.

[00:51:55]>> Dad, I have piano.

[00:51:56]>> You have piano now? If I was at 6:30, >> right now she's here.

[00:51:59]>> Okay. All right. I got to go.

[00:52:03]>> Um congratulations to Potato on barking the most. Uh we'll do a Red Dead Redemption 2 stream tomorrow. I'll see you then. DFTBA.