I Heart This

Chapter 1: The Picnic Table John McPhee I’ve been thinking about John McPhee lately. In case you don’t know, he is one of most venerated American essayists … Pulitzer prize, national book award nominations, staff writer at the New Yorker for over half a century … widely considered the master of longform literary non-fiction.  In … The Monk, The Dynamo, and John McPhee Read More »

“When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that he is either  a.) drunk, b.) insane, or c.) American.” At least, that’s how one guy from Finland put it. Americans have a reputation around the world for being loud, outgoing, and overly friendly. And not everyone loves it. To many, that mega-watt … The Case for Smiling at Strangers Read More »

Intro “I’d been a vegetarian for over a decade, when a desert survival trip changed how I thought about food. This episode explores the hidden costs behind everything we eat and asks, “If we must kill to live, how should we live in return?” Welcome to “I Heart This,” my friends. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s … Death in Every Bite: Eating Gently in a World of Pain Read More »

You know what’s awesome? The moon. And I’m gonna tell you why.  Of the other rocky planets in our solar system, two don’t have moons at all, and the other, Mars, has two little rocks that are so small that you could walk around the small one, Deimos, in less than a day. An elite … The Astonishing Luck of Earth’s Moon Read More »

The story that I’m about to tell is a legend. And also it is true.  I first read it in the Next Whole Earth Catalog in one of the giant chairs of my college’s library, the ones by the great windows that looked out over Frenchman’s Bay even when the ice was thick on the … “You Don’t Cut Them Oaks: Keeping a 500-Year Promise” Read More »

Gotta admit … I didn’t expect to love the circus.  When I thought of them I thought of … squirm-inducing “freak shows” where people gawked at women with facial hair or conjoined twins … or 19th century fraudsters passing off some construction of fish bones and papier mache as a mermaid.  I have this thing … What the Circus Taught Me About Art Read More »

Feeling like you’ve got this whole life thing figured out? Yeah, me neither. In this episode . . . lessons learned from trying to live a more appreciative life and screwing it up over and over again. It’s about wonder, ritual, letting go of perfection, and three magic words that actually did change my life. … On Wonder, the Hedonic Treadmill, and a Canoe I Haven’t Fixed Read More »

Rocks seem almost like the dictionary example of “boring.” But in 1788, some curious guys standing on a rugged Scottish shoreline saw something entirely different — a revelation that shattered the known timeline of Earth and made them physically dizzy with wonder. In this episode, we follow those guys to one of science’s greatest discoveries … How One Boring Rock Broke All of Time Read More...

Intro What are you thankful for? Take a second to think …  Got it? …  Whatever it is, I’d bet it’s not your ballpoint pen. But maybe it should be. It’s an I Heart This mini-episode this week. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s talk about what we love.   Counterargument As a guy who’s work focuses on … The Unexpected Genius of Writing by Hand Read More »

Intro When Megan fell into QAnon, it nearly cost her everything. This is a story about a conspiracy theory and how one person’s radical listening helped Megan break free. I’m Ben Lord. Let’s talk about what we love.  Story In June of 2020, Megan opened a text with a link to a video that would … Escaping QAnon: The Power of Radical Listening Read More »