Arnold Stephen Jacobs Jr., commonly called A.J. Jacobs (born March 20, 1968) is an American journalist, author, and lecturer best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments. He is an editor at large for Esquire and has worked for the Antioch Daily Ledger and Entertainment Weekly.
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.[4] The genre is often called immersion journalism or "stunt journalism".[5][6]
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).[15] The article was excerpted in The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.[16] Jacobs also talked about his outsourcing experiences on a Moth storytelling podcast.[17]
In another experiment Jacobs wrote an article for Esquire called "I Think You're Fat" (2007),[18] 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,[19] and Jacobs gave a TED talk about what he learned during the project.[20] In May 2017, CBS Television picked up a TV series based on the book.[21] It was originally renamed By the Book for television, but later changed to Living Biblically.
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, including thanking everyone for the morning cup of coffee.[22]
In his book Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (2012), he explores different ways humans can bring their bodies to peak health, from diet to exercise.[5] He wrote the book while walking on a treadmill.[23] Jacobs gave a related TED talk about this health quest entitled "How Healthy Living Nearly Killed Me".[24]
From 2011 to 2012, Jacobs wrote the "Extreme Health" column for Esquire magazine, covering such topics as high-intensity interval training[25] 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.[26]
As of May 2013, Jacobs writes a weekly advice column for Esquire.com called "My Huddled Masses".[27] The column is crowdsourced to Jacobs's 100,000 Facebook followers, who give etiquette and love advice.[28][29] He also writes the regular feature "Obituaries" for Esquire, which consists of satirical death notices for cultural trends, such as American hegemony.[30]
On December 5, 2016, Gimlet Media announced Jacobs as the host of Twice Removed, a podcast focused on genealogy. In June 2016, Gimlet announced that the podcast would not be renewed for a second season.
Jacobs' April 2022 book The Puzzler reframes global issues as puzzles.[37][38]
In September, 2022, The New York Times published a story by Jacobs detailing a 1988 kayaking excursion in which he and his sister were lost overnight in the waterways of Glacier Bay National Park.[39] They were eventually saved by an unknown group of campers on Kidney Island and a search seaplane rented by their father.
Personal life
Jacobs is married to Julie Schoenberg and has three sons: Jasper Kheel Jacobs (born March 11, 2004)[40] and twins Zane and Lucas Jacobs (born August 24, 2006).[41][42]
Jacobs is a first cousin, once removed, of the legal scholar Cass Sunstein.[43]