Daniel O'Brien's Newsletter: June '25!
Hello! This is the official substack of me, Daniel O'Brien, six-time Emmy-winning Senior Writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents and its adaptation Your Presidential Fantasy Dream Team, Head Writer for the Cracked De-textbook and editor and contributing author for You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News (a New York Times Bestseller), and co-host of the popular hang out podcast Quick Question with Soren and Daniel (now on YouTube, support us on Patreon to get access to bonus episodes and an exclusive podcast miniseries, Dead Presidents). I co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in Cracked After Hours, which is easily the most popular thing I've ever done, but that's in the past. This is the latest issue of my substack, a thing you signed up for on purpose.
Every month I will send an email with a list of what I'm reading, updates on whatever I'm working on if applicable and that's really it!
It's June, it's very hot, too hot to think thoughts and turn those thoughts into words to type. So here come books.
Swimming to Cambodia (Spaulding Grey)
My (and your?) favorite comedian John Mulaney mentioned this piece as an early influence in some interview so I picked it up in accordance with my practice of reading the things my favorite writers love. I can see why Mulaney latches on to this so much, and if I was still performing live or had pursued it, Spaulding would probably be one of my guys. Longform storytelling with tangents and parentheticals within parentheticals, humor and heart.
Harold (Steven Wright)
You know Steven Wright, he's the long-haired, brilliant comedian known for incredible one-liners that alternate between really dumb and incredibly profound. He's also an Academy Award winner and a joy guest on any late night show. I've admired his stand up since before I even thought about comedy or writing and he's a major influence but, oops, I didn't love his first novel. A dozen or so truly great one-liners and thoughtful… thoughts, but it felt like I was reading this book forever. It's all stream-of-consciousness, a day in the brain of a curious third-grader, there's no stakes or any real momentum. Again, funny lines but also again, oy vey.
Harold realized that adults were always saying and describing how the world worked and he felt sorry for them because he knew they believed it and he knew they knew nothing and thought they knew everything which was the lowest rung on the whole ladder.
Meditations for Mortals (Oliver Burkeman)
Helpful in my ongoing pursuit of being present and enjoying life instead of trying to master it or get ahead. Burkeman also wrote Four Thousand Weeks which I think had a slightly bigger impact on my quest for peace, but they're both work it. Most books like this are! Even if you don't stop and sniff every rose, it's good to be reminded that that's one of the things we're supposed to do here.
The Dream Hotel (Laila Lalami)
Holy fucking shit this book ruled.
So good. Insane to learn Lalami first started writing it in 2014 because it's one of the most Right Now books I've ever read ("Algorithms are bad, strikes and collective labor are good.") I can't remember being so moved and terrified by a book. It's the not-at-all distant future and people are being put in jails for literal dreams that are determined to be problematic. Surveillance state! Prison industrial complex! Tech companies obsessed with a growth-at-all-cost mindset rapidly ruining the world! If all that isn't prescient enough, there's also an epidemic AND a California wildfire thrown in there. I cannot over-reccommend this book enough, read it, let it fuck you up, come back and we'll discuss.
That's it! I'm going to go read.