Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. All right. For the last 10 minutes of the show today, we're going to head to The Good List. AWhat is The Good List? It's a brand new New York Times newsletter, The Good List. It was launched about two weeks ago, and each week the newsletter gives recommendations and inspirations for living a more joyful and meaningful life. They range from fun things to participate in, as we'll see, March Madness is on their list, great films to see, and things like rethinking small talk as something actually more meaningful. Let's welcome Melissa Kirsch, who is the writer of the new newsletter, The Good List. Hi, Melissa. Welcome to WNYC.

Melissa: Hi there.

Brian: Listeners, we don't have a lot of time for this, but we think we have enough time for you to contribute to the list and make some suggestions to things that Melissa Kirsch might write about. What would you put on The Good List? Some things that are maybe new to you recently or just bringing you some joy here at the beginning of spring, in what many of you will say is otherwise tough times, maybe for you personally and in the world. Maybe a brand new hobby, seasonal or not, is already benefiting you, a new season of your favorite sport with new players to look forward to.

Maybe it is March Madness, maybe it's a great new book you just finished, or a movie you just saw for the first time, maybe a new recipe is a hit for your family. You get the idea. Anything big or small you want to share that's bringing meaning to your life. If you were writing a newsletter called The Good List that you might put on it, and maybe Melissa Kirsch should consider it for her. 212-433-WNYC, call or text, 212-433-9692. You want to just define what you're doing with this newsletter, Melissa?

Melissa: Yes. As you said, we're living in this uniquely tense moment of heavy news, and I hear from so many people that they're looking for good news. It's simplistic to think that all of our cares could vanish if only there were more good news in the world, or we think there's more good news. What we're trying to do is help all of us orient towards what's good in our lives. It's not like ignoring what's happening, ignoring what's stressing us out, or the problems that we're having. It's remembering we need that, and remembering the good, and orienting ourselves towards it so that we are noting it, so that it is resonating with us, and it's giving some sort of [inaudible 00:02:55].

Brian: I was just going to say, as she couldn't stick the landing of that sentence, giving us some sort of what? Maybe pleasure, maybe meaning. We'll get her back in a second. Obviously, we're having some connection problems with her line. That'll give us an opportunity, actually, to hear the first of what some of you might put on a Good List podcast, starting with Chris in Crown Heights. Chris, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Chris: Hey, Brian. I wanted to share a new podcast I found called A Moment of Kindness. It's available on Spotify, and people can submit beautiful things people did in their lives of kindness they performed to somebody that they remembered. It's just really lovely to hear stories of hope and kindness right now.

Brian: Chris, thank you very much. Nice one. Marie in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marie.

Marie: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm giving a shout-out to the New York Public Library. I live near the branch, I think it's called the Morningside Branch on West 100th Street, and every Monday they show movies for free. They show all ranges of films, from brand new to vintage, and it's just an extraordinary thing.

Brian: Good one, Marie. Thank you very much. I think we have Melissa Kirsch back. I'll note that you begin last week's newsletter with March Madness Madness. For people in Connecticut, you might double or triple or quadruple that this morning, right?

Melissa: Yes, I think they're going wild. If there were a Connecticut version of the Good List, certainly you'd have the Huskies on there. The item on the list, I was looking at March Madness, and if you're not a basketball fan, there's so many sort of extensions of March Madness out there, people creating their own brackets for everything from the best books of the past year, or the best cows in particular [inaudible 00:04:59].

Brian: I'm going to keep jumping in because we keep having line problems. The previous caller mentioned her local library branch on West 100th Street in Manhattan there, and I see that you wrote on your newsletter that your editor noticed a battle of the top 16 circulating books at the local library in Norfolk, Connecticut, which called to mind the Glorious Tournament of Books, which has been presenting a bracket of the year's best novels since 2005. It's kind of the March Madness of books. That is awesome. Adele in Oyster Bay, you're on WNYC. Hello, Adele.

Adele: Hello. I have one word for you, and that is sing. It doesn't matter if you belong to a singing group or if this is just something that comes back to you from your childhood, that's fine, too. The physical exercise of singing is just wonderful.

Brian: That is a great one. Thank you for that. Janet in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Janet. What's on your good list?

Janet: Hi, Brian. I've called you so many times. It's a pleasure. What's my idea? It's birdwatching. I discovered it a couple of years ago during the pandemic. I was looking outside, and I saw sparrows taking dirt baths. I said, "This is fascinating." What I do, I can't even hold binoculars, but I have an app called Merlin, and it will hear the birdsong and tell you what the bird is. It's so wonderful being in the middle of New York City in Harlem and discovering birds all around us.

Brian: Birdwatching in Harlem. By the way, a little correction on the library branch name. It's the Bloomingdale Library on West 100th Street, not the Morningside Branch. I think she was referring, actually, to Bloomingdale, that particular branch, because she gave the location. Matt in Yonkers, you're on WNYC. What's on your good list?

Mark: Is that Mark?

Yes, Mark. You're pouring some water there.

Mark: Sorry about that. Hi. Yes, Brian. I actually called in last month to tell you about this. My suggestion is just find a way to be of service. We do an outreach, just a street homeless outreach every Thursday night in Midtown, and it has just really improved my life immeasurably. Just to be present with people who you can help, there's an incredible joy. We have a celebration every Thursday night, it's like a street party. Just find a way to do that. It'll enhance your life, it'll lengthen your life, and it'll give you a sense of value that you may be seeking.

Brian: Nice, Mark. Glad you got that on again. Melissa, you're hearing some of these from listeners, and on your Good List in The New York Times newsletter, one of the ones that surprised us was pleasantries. How you don't like small talk, and yet there was this Times op-ed by Roger Rosenblatt about that?

Melissa: Yes. He wrote a defense of small talk, and presented it as, rather than just like an on-ramp to larger conversation, he presented it as a moment in which we are seeing one another and telling each other that we matter, and there's something about that. That's such a basic human need to feel like you matter in the esteem of another person, and it made me reconsider it.

Brian: I'll let you end on this one, a diversion that you call the sandwich alignment chart, like Dungeons & Dragons, but about sandwiches?

Melissa: That's right. In the same way that you can evaluate the moral character of a character in Dungeons & Dragons, someone has put together a sandwich alignment chart so you can determine how chaotic or lawful or evil a meatball sub is.

Brian: So much fun. Can people submit actual suggestions to you, like what we've been taking on the air?

Melissa: I would love it. The Good List at nytimes.com.

Brian: The Good List, the new newsletter from The Times, written by Melissa Kirsch. Thanks for coming on and helping to introduce it.

Melissa: Thanks so much.

Brian: That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Our interns this spring are Arlo Bivens and Jack Walker. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls.

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