Matt’s Mix Tape, Vol. 124

Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Matt’s Mix Tape: essays + links on living a vibrant and creative middle life.

This week’s Mix:

• Surviving long car rides

• A best-of list of my essays

• This week’s not-Florida photo

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Surviving long car rides

I’m back from a straight-shot, 21-hour drive from Michigan to Florida.

My family decided to head north for Christmas. I was the courier for three lovely ladies, two dogs, and too much cargo.

Matt Tillotson 🌴 @matttillotson

Who needs Ayahuasca? Just drive straight through from Michigan to Florida. Spectacular hallucinations.

So what’s the strategy for surviving a long drive?

I’d like to tell you it’s this:

• Hydrate.

• Eat protein-heavy. Limit sugar and carbs to even out your energy.

• Stop every four hours for a quick walk and to stretch.

The reality:

• Sipped black coffee all night/day/night. Drank no other liquids.

• Munched on garbage (I had a bag of cereal holstered next to me, and crunched through it regularly).

• Stopped the car only when a family member threatened to report me for kidnapping.

As Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

(Or drive for 21 hours.)

Totally worth it to see family and snow. We needed a change of scenery. The trip delivered.

Podcasts also helped.

My favorite listen was Episode 52 of Huberman Lab. Dr. Andrew Huberman interviewed Dr. David Sinclair about the biology of slowing and reversing aging.

Dr. Sinclair wrote the book Lifespan, and is launching his own podcast on longevity in January.

(I also listened to a bunch of Joe Rogan episodes. 😱)

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A best-of list of my essays

A short of list of favorite and/or most popular essays from the past year-ish:

Writing

• 14 writing tactics to learn from Winston Churchill. He never typed a thing, but was unbelievably prolific and eloquent.

• How to create unique and valuable content from the books you read. After you read, take what you learned and pay it forward. Here’s how.

• Jerry vs. James. Jerry Seinfeld and James Altucher had a dust up over NYC. But Altucher showed us how to persuade like a pro.

Health and fitness

• What I do to stay in shape. It’s about asking yourself the right questions, experimenting, and most importantly, showing up over and over.

• When the binge becomes cringe. My battle to wrestle a beer habit to the ground.

• The verdict is in, jogging is out. What happened when I quit a 30-year jogging habit cold turkey.

Books and reading

Fiction books: the anti-algorithm. Read fiction to burst your algorithmic info-bubble.

A whole mess of book summaries and reviews. And I’m adding more regularly.

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This week’s not-Florida photo

Harbor Springs, Michigan, does an amazing job dressing itself up for Christmas.

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Hello to 46 new subscribers!

And thank you to you for reading. Drop me a note, ask a question, or tell me I’m wrong anytime.

Happy new year, everyone.