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John Hodgman And The Three Wildernesses Of 'Vacationland'

It's safe to say John Hodgman is a favorite podcaster of those of us on Pop Culture Happy Hour. Both Glen Weldon and I have spoken of our fondness for his show Judge John Hodgman, and we were lucky enough to welcome him to our live show in Brooklyn in May of 2017.

What followed was a conversation about his terrific new book, Vacationland, which is, as he calls it, "a book of true stories about me, a highly citified asthmatic person hiding out in three different wildernesses: western Massachusetts, rural western Massachusetts, where I spent a lot of my youth; and then coastal Maine, where I have been instructed by my wife I will accept my death; and then the metaphoric wilderness of middle age that connects those two uncomfortably." He also covers the topics of marriage, New England, turning serious, and how well-acquainted with what wrapping it up feels like.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour.