HTDE: The Perfect Christmas Present with James Patterson and Gillian Flynn
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What do Mike and Ian need help with?
This is Ira Glass, the host of This American Life. So much is changing so rapidly right now with President Trump in office. It feels good to pause for a moment sometimes and look around at what's what. To try and do that, we've been finding these incredible stories about right now that are funny and have feeling and you get to see people everywhere making sense of this new America that we find ourselves in. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there, WaitWait listeners, it's Peter. We have a new episode of How to Do Everything hosted by our very own Mike Danforth and Ian Chilock. Today, Mike and Ian recruit some of the biggest names in literature to help a listener with the perfect Christmas present for his wife. Oh, the things we do for love. If you like what you hear on that show, make sure to follow them at their very own feed. But in the meantime, enjoy the latest How to Do Everything.
It's December, and it's cold, which leads to the question, how do you stay warm? Burn something. Ed Eyestone just coached the BYU cross-country team to a national championship in freezing cold temperatures, and he has a tip. Yeah, we have a little bit of a hack.
What is a unique way to stay warm during runs?
Prior to the start of the race, there's that five minutes where you will strip down, take those sweats off, and you're just standing there shivering in your short shorts and your singlet. So the little hack that we found, and it's very old school— our trainers and coaches will just coat the runner's arms, exposed shoulders and legs with a thin little layer of olive oil. And that tends to give them a little buffer from the cold and And particularly if it's a windy day and if the temperatures are, you know, freezing, it just kind of bridges that gap until the gun finally sounds and then they are on their way.
And is this like a special sports performance olive oil or is this just go to the grocery store?
Yeah, you know, it's just whatever's on sale that day, that particular day or whatever our trainer comes back with, you know. And, uh, it's interesting though, because, uh, I've been contacted from a olive oil company out of New York. I won't give you the brand name because we haven't, uh, inked the deal yet, but they, they want to be our sponsors. So kind of funny.
If I were to, if I were to go back and watch, uh, this race, the footage, would I say, you know what? BYU looks shinier than all the other runners on the start line. Yeah.
Well, I don't know that that would have been that dramatic. I think more than anything, it's interesting because I've got a couple of mechanical engineering majors in my program that actually ran. One was in particular, they said because of the viscosity of the oil, it can kind of trap a thin layer of air between your skin and the oil itself. So it's kind of multiple layers there. And that provides some insulation from the convection that you would normally have from the cold air.
Wait, so Ed, did any of the other teams that were competing say anything? Did they notice and react?
No, and I don't think it's really that unique. I think the older coaches had probably seen it done before, and many of them, if they were runners in a previous life, had actually experienced it. I was a runner before going into this coaching gig, and I actually won the NCAA championship back in 1984, so I think that was a 40-year anniversary. The race was in Penn State, and we had little snow flurries that morning, and my coach had me... Donned the olive oil, and I crossed the finish line smelling like a plate of spaghetti or whatever. Stay greasy, Ed. All right.
Hey, Charlie. What can we help you with?
Yeah, so my wife is really good at telling bedtime stories to my boys. Just out of nowhere, she'll just kind of make a story, and they'll give her really good ideas, and I've tried... I just can't land it. I am trying to figure out how to kind of write an ending to a bedtime story that I want to give my wife for Christmas. I've got the story idea that I wrote with my boys, but I do not know how to end it. And every time that they try to help me, it always ends in just like little boy humor about ghosts or ninjas or zombies or farts. I'm hoping to get a good ending, a solid ending that means something.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What do Mike and Ian need help with?
0:00–1:07
2
What is a unique way to stay warm during runs?
1:07–5:21
3
How can Charlie write a great ending for his children's book?
5:21–8:03
4
What advice does Gillian Flynn give about writing endings?
8:03–14:17
5
What creative story ideas does James Patterson suggest?
14:17–14:33
6
How does the story of Bella the Umbrella evolve?
14:33–24:36