Chapter 25: James Frey on drunk, defiant differentiation
Release Date: 02/28/2025
Chapter 36: Two teenage Mormon missionaries on missing mom to make miracles
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
So one day I’m out taking one of my magical when suddenly two guys are like “Hi! How are you?!” And I look up kind of stunned because I’m walking around downtown Toronto where no one really pops out of the woodwork to shout a “Hi! How are you?!” at you … What do I see? Two young men smiling back at me. Like, big smiles! Gigantic smiles. Dressed up, too. It takes me a minute to piece it together but turns out they’re Mormon Missionaries living away from home for two years with the sole purpose of teaching people about their church. They asked me what I’d heard about...
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Chapter 154: Peter Kimani on conquering the curse of choreographed colonialism
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
We're heading to Africa! Over the years we have taken the 3 Books podcast on the road many times ... from recording in in Key West to to the in St. Louis to in New York we've gone where the stories take us. And for the first time we are going to the 55-country and 1.5 billion person continent of Africa. I am so excited to share the first of three chapters of 3 Books recorded in Nairobi, Kenya. I landed there and went whizzing down busy streets with colourful stalls, wandering goats, people pulling carts full of eggs, women carrying baskets on their heads, endless whizzing bodas...
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Chapter 35: Jen Agg on fussy feminism and ferocious fastidiousness
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
"Whatever Jen Agg says is worth listening to," said Anthony Bourdain. I fully agree! If you live in Toronto you probably know Jen Agg. If you don't, let me tell you she runs the best restaurants in town! Come visit and try them! Her most recent stunner is a two-story converted auto-body shop turned Toronto Life #1 ranked restaurant called "" and it is a feast for the senses. Jen describes the place as "part Narnia, part fancy British pub, and part '80s cocaine dream" which gives you a sample of her incredible way with words on top of dishes on top of lighting on top of music on top of...
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Chapter: 153: Carl Honoré imparts illuminating insights into intentional idleness
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
The pace of living is accelerating. I often feel like things are happening too quickly to process ... the reels are going too fast, the scrolls have too many colors, the information feed feels like a flood. I just can't process it all! Do you feel the same way? If so you need this conversation as much as I did. Carl Honoré is the godfather of the "slow movement" — a Canadian born, UK-based author, journalist, and whose first book, the 2004 long-running bestseller '', sparked a global conversation about time, speed, and how we live. What's happened since 2004? Life has gotten even...
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Chapter 27: Robin the Bartender on fiddling with frankincense and fighting for freedom
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
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Chapter 152: Robin Sloan weaves wonder and weirdness into the warbly world of words
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
Last year I picked up a book called ‘’ by Robin Sloan and it blew me away. Reading it was like riding some rainbow-speckled rocket ship where I experienced the bizarre combination of having no idea what was going on while not being able to wait for what happened next. The book was full of talking beavers. Talking swords! Strange video games. And ever-expanding worlds with wizards, who maybe aren’t really wizards, and oh—it's narrated by a microscopic AI-type chronicler, who’s been in many different lives across millennia and who now sits inside our protagonist’s left shoulder. ...
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Chapter 30: Jerry Howarth on branding, bereavement, and Blue Jays baseball
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
My friend Drew Dudley once told me that, other than his parents, he hadn’t heard anyone speak to him more in his life than Jerry Howarth… The voice of the Toronto Blue Jays. I can relate. Growing up I would listen to Jerry Howarth call the Blue Jays games on the radio on long summer drives, with my friends at the park, or just on my clock radio with the “Sleep” timer on as I fell asleep. Why do I love Jerry? Because for thirty-six years he was a local leader and community-builder who created trust with millions of baseball fans… So I was thrilled to visit the Skydome in...
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Chapter 151: The Holderness Family conquers content creation by corralling chaos
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
What do Xmas Jammies, ADHD, and The Amazing Race have in common? The Holderness Family! Penn and Kim Holderness have created viral videos with ... billions of views. They entered Season 33 of The Amazing Race ... and won. They wrote one of my favourite books ... 'ADHD is Awesome'. Penn and Kim started their careers in broadcasting but have old ditched that to find a massive 8 million person following as creators of hilarious yet educational videos on topics as wide-ranging as wearing masks during COVID, the 5 stages of pickleball, and, of course, losing your...
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Chapter 4: Sarah Ramsey on beating book blame with brilliant bookselling
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
A few years ago, I settled into the children's section of Book City in the heart of Toronto's beautiful Bloor West Village for the first chapter of 3 Books recorded live in an open bookstore with my favorite bookseller in the world—the one and only Sarah Ramsey. I love Sarah because she takes the art of bookselling seriously and seemingly reads people’s minds to find the exact book they need to help them grow. As we always say: Humans are the best algorithm. Listen in to hear us talk about how books can transcend generations, if memoirs are over, why you *can* judge a...
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Chapter 150: Prime Minister Jean Chrétien lays down lifelong lessons on leadership, liberalism, and longevity
3 Books With Neil Pasricha
Born in 1934, the 18th of 19 children in the small blue-collar town of Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Jean Chrétien has risen to become the "grandfather of Canada" and a definitive force in global politics for over 50 years. Chrétien was one of the longest-serving Prime Ministers in Canadian history and led three successive majority terms as leader of the Liberal Party from 1993 to 2003. He famously said no to joining the US in the Iraq War (solidifying Canada’s independence on foreign policy), signed the Kyoto Protocol (committing Canada to its first-ever international...
info_outlineWhat do you know about James Frey?
Or what do you think you know about James Frey?
I’m guessing it’s not nothing. Everyone has an opinion! When I first spotted 'A Million Little Pieces' on my wife’s bookshelf when we were moving in together I was like “Oh? Really? That book? The Oprah guy?”
And she was like “Have you read it?”
And I was like “No, no idea what it’s even about. Just that it’s not real or whatever.”
She looked at me with disappointed eyes. Understandably so! I hadn’t bothered to go below the surface. To read about it on my own. I had just soaked in some distant fumes off the story.
“Read it,” she said, and pushed the book into my hands.
That night I opened 'A Million Little Pieces' and was completely pulled into this pulsing, frenetic, endlessly climactic story of addiction, growth, and finding yourself. The book shook me. It was a masterpiece. I couldn’t believe it existed. I almost felt anger towards the Oprah saga because it headfaked me into thinking I knew what the book was about… when I couldn’t have been more off. I went deeper into James Frey’s catalogue and found myself similarly seduced by books like 'Bright Shiny Morning' and 'Katerina,' and am looking forward to Frey's new novel, 'Next To Heaven,' which is coming out in June 2025.
His stories have a pace and staccato to them that’s perfect for distracted brains like mine. He doesn’t mince words, he doesn’t shy away, and his characters always punch you in the gut.
In this classic chapter of 3 Books. I sat down with James with a lot of questions and I loved our discussions around fatherhood and living an intentional life. We talk about teaching children to read, the importance of secular bibles, why (and how) we can slowly stop comparing ourselves to others, what getting drunk really means, and much, much more...
Let's flip the page back to Chapter 25 now...