A. J. Jacobs

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A. J. Jacobs bigraphy, stories - American journalist

A. J. Jacobs : biography

March 20, 1968 –

Arnold Stephen Jacobs, Jr., commonly called A.J. Jacobs (born March 20, 1968, New York City) is a journalist, author, and lecturer best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments.

Books

  • 1994. "The Two Kings: Jesus and Elvis". ISBN 978-0553373752
  • 1996. "America Off-Line: The Complete Outernet Starter Kit" ISBN 978-0836224337
  • 2003. "Esquire Presents: What it Feels Like" ISBN 978-1416599081
  • 2005. "The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" ISBN 978-0743250627
  • 2007. "Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible" (2007) ISBN 978-0743291477
  • 2010. "The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment" ISBN 1439104999
  • 2012. "Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection" ISBN 978-1416599081

Personal

Jacobs is married to Julie Schoenberg and has three sons: Jasper Kheel Jacobs (born March 11, 2004)Jacobs, A.J. The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. (2004) Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. p. 371. and twins Zane and Lucas Jacobs (born August 24, 2006).Jacobs, A.J. The Year of Living Bibically (2007) Simon & Schuster. p. 314-316. He is the editor at large for Esquire and previously worked for the Antioch Daily Ledger and Entertainment Weekly.

Jacobs is a first cousin of the legal scholar Cass Sunstein.

Early life

Jacobs was born in New York City to Jewish parents Arnold Jacobs Sr., a lawyer, and Ellen Kheel. He has one sister, Beryl Jacobs. He was educated at The Dalton School and Brown University.

Professional

Jacobs has said that he sees his life as a series of experiments in which he immerses himself in a project or lifestyle, for better or worse, then writes about what he learned.. TED video. Filmed December 2007. The genre is often called immersion journalism or "stunt journalism"., Mathew Honan, Wired, July 28, 2010., By HANNA ROSIN, Published: October 14, 2007

In one of these experiments ("stunts") Jacobs read all 32 volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He wrote about it in his humorous book, The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (2004). In the book, he also chronicles his personal life along with various endeavors like joining Mensa. The book spent eight weeks on The New York Times best seller’s list. NPR’s Weekend Edition ran a series of segments featuring the unusual facts Jacobs learned in each letter. Jacobs also wrote a column for mental_floss magazine describing the highlights of each volume. The book received positive reviews in the daily New York Times , Time magazine and USA Today, among others, though Joe Queenan panned it in the New York Times Book Review. Jacobs wrote a humor essay in response entitled “I Am Not a Jackass”.

In 2005 Jacobs out-sourced his life to India such that personal assistants would do everything for him from answering his e-mails, reading his children good-night stories, and arguing with his wife. Jacobs wrote about it in an Esquire article called "My Outsourced Life" (2005)., Esquire, September 1, 2005 The article was excerpted in The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Jacobs also talked about his outsourcing experiences on a Moth storytelling podcast.

In another experiment Jacobs wrote an article for Esquire called "I Think You’re Fat" (2007),, Esquire, July 24, 2007 about the experiment he conducted with Radical Honesty, a lifestyle of total truth-telling promoted by Virginia therapist Brad Blanton, whom Jacobs interviewed for the article.

Jacobs’ book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) chronicles his experiment to live for one year according to all the moral codes expressed in the Bible, including stoning adulterers, blowing a shofar at the beginning of every month, and refraining from trimming the corners of his facial hair (which he followed by not trimming his facial hair at all). The book spent 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and Jacobs gave a TED talk about what he learned during the project.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (2009) is a series of first person essays about his experiences with various guides for human behavior.

Jacobs is the author of The Two Kings: Elvis and Jesus (1994), an iirreverent comedic comparison of Elvis Presley and Jesus; and America Off-Line (1996). He also writes for mental floss, a trivia magazine.

His most recent book is Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (2012) in which he explores different ways humans can bring their bodies to peak health, from diet to exercise. He wrote the book while walking on a treadmill. Jacobs gave a related TED talk about this health quest entitled “How Healthy Living Nearly Killed Me.”

From 2011 to 2012, Jacobs wrote the “Extreme Health” column for Esquire magazine, covering such topics as high-intensity interval training and the quantified self. Since 2012, he has written the “Modern Problems” advice column for mental_floss magazine. The column compares modern day life to the horrors of the past.

As of May of 2013, Jacobs writes a weekly advice column for Esquire.com called “My Huddled Masses.” The column is crowdsourced to Jacobs’s 100,000 Facebook followers, who give etiquette and love advice. He also writes the regular feature “Obituaries” for Esquire, which consists of satirical death notices for cultural trends, such as American Hegemony.

Notable Articles

  • 2005. "My Outsourced Life". Esquire.
  • 2008. "My Life as a Hot Woman". Esquire.
  • 2009. "The 9:10 to Crazyland". Esquire.
  • 2012. "How to Blurb and Blurb and Blurb". The New York Times.
  • 2012. "Overly Documented Life". Esquire.
  • 2013. "Grading the MOOC Universe". The New York Times.