A.J. Jacobs (on puzzles and living biblically)

Episode overview

A.J. Jacobs (The Puzzler, The Year of Living Biblically) is a journalist and author. A.J. joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why he loves puzzles so much, why he decided to follow every rule in the Bible literally to study religion, and what happened after he read the entire collection of Encyclopedia Britannica. A.J. and Dax talk about what their favorite riddles are, what it's like to be a clue in the New York Times crossword, and how it's human nature to want to gossip about each other. A.J. explains that he wants to get healthy by walking to space on his treadmill, what crazy things he sees outside his New York apartment, and how he ended up representing the U.S. in the world jigsaw puzzle championship.

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Short transcript highlights

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1. 0:01welcome welcome welcome to armchair expert experts on Expert I'm Dan Rather and I'm joined by Minister Mouse The
2. 50:22is exactly the kind of thing so it's something unexpected it's not moving a digit but that is not the answer I'm
3. 1:41:08can you start presenting me with a a riddle um on fact check right um that's