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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

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 🌴@matttillotsonWho needs Ayahuasca?

Just drive straight through from Michigan to Florida.

Spectacular hallucinations.1:10 AM · Dec 29, 2021

1 Repost · 6 LikesSo what’s the strategy for surviving a long drive?

I’d like to tell you it’s this:

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. 😱)

A best-of list of my essays

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Happy new year, everyone.