Daniel O'Brien's Substack: July '26!

Hello! This is the official substack of me, Daniel O’Brien, seven-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 (watch 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.

Whenever I can, 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 been a minute. Fatherhood is obviously the main thief of my time (for which I’m extremely grateful) and part of that has included some trips to tour my son around so everyone in the family can see how beautiful and sweet and small he is. There are also a few potentially exciting outside-of-work projects occupying some of my time that are way too early to talk about except as excuses for why I haven’t published this monthly newsletter.

Before we get into books, I’d like to use my small platform to talk briefly about blood. The Red Cross has declared a BLOOD CRISIS, the second such crisis in its history and it’s particularly dire for Type O. If you’re lucky, you will never have to rely on a hospital’s library of donated blood but if you’re unlucky, you’ll be incredibly grateful that a bunch of total strangers gave up a few hours to get jabbed with a need while some other total strangers safely carried and stored bags of blood on the off chance that you might need it.

Assuming you can, make an appointment to donate. If you donate in the next two days, the Red Cross will give you a Fandango gift certificate to see a movie like the new Spider-man or Odyssey or whatever you’re into. If you donate before the end of August, you’ll get an Amazon gift card. I donate every four or six months (whatever the medically safe timeline is) because it makes me feel morally superior and also if I donate one more time in 2026 I get a free tote bag and also the donation center near me is right by a Chili’s. Plenty of reasons to donate.

Books!

Vigil (George Saunders) I’m a huge Saunders head-- his Substack? Now that’s a Substack-- and while this wasn’t my favorite of his it’s still unbelievable how original and funny the writing is and how efficient and effortless it all feels. He has fun when he writes and you can tell. A ghost visits a horrible man at death’s door to give him an opportunity to repent before ushering him off to the afterlife but he’s a huge asshole who sees no need to repent, frustrating all involved.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers) My bookstore-working cousin recommended this, I had no idea what to expect but seeing that it was a “monk and robot book” I was pretty hooked pretty immediately. Very meditative, I liked everything about this buddy comedy road trip between a restless monk and a curious robot in a future where robots are sentient and free.

Good Material (Dolly Alderton) I picked this up after reading about it in Clusterfeck, the substack of former Last Week Tonighter Carlin Feck. Incredibly strong, funny break-up novel. A few opportunities where characters get to say their version of a Big Truth (”The thing about heartbreak is…” or “the thing about women is…” or “Here’s how you heal a broken heart…”), the kind of thing you can really only get away with in books like this. A comedian gets dumped by his serious girlfriend and does not handle it well. If Young Daniel would have read this, it probably would have formed the basis of his understanding of men and women and dating and relationships. Alas, instead Young Daniel read High Fidelity 900 times.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle) You’re not prepared for how hungry this sick fucking asshole is. Without spoiling, the twist at the end is pretty predictable but again this one’s really about how hungry one caterpillar can be (hungrier than you would think).

That’s it, that’s the post. Give blood!