Mappy January!
Radical Honesty / Yale Happiness Course / Cruising Cabo with No Cash / Earthquake in Mexico City / Mayan Pyramids / Year in Slovakia / AI: Clone Your Voice, Podcast Snips / MLK biography / Montessori
In this letter!
New on MappyEverAfter: ATM Fiasco in Cabo, Mexico, and the Free Thrills it led to, and Mexico City Earthquake on the 16th Floor of the Hyatt House hotel
From the Archive: Video from our Year in Slovakia
AI Shenanigans: One Spooky and Two Handy Free AI Tools: Clone Your Voice with Speechify, Sum up any YouTube Video with Summarize.tech and Capture the Best Bits from Podcasts with Snipd
Experiment: A Month of Radical Honesty
Travel: Ancient Mayan Pyramids All to Yourself
Health: Learn Happiness, at Yale! (sort of)
Money: Your Credit Card Perk Audit
Watch: Let the Child be the Guide, a documentary about Montessori principles
Read: The New Martin Luther King biography by Jonathan Eig
Mental Hack - Do Your Sh*t Frist
Just because: Take the Sky Elevator
Note: I will always tell you if I’m getting any referral bonuses and how much they are. There aren’t any in this letter.
New on my MappyEverAfter website: Mexico double feature
Ready for a mix of adrenaline and margaritas? Check out my two newest stories below:
In Cabo, we stayed at a 5k-points/night hotel (lovely breakfast included) a 5 min. walk from the beach, and bartered our time for bottomless margaritas on a yacht. We literally sailed into the sunset.
Whereas Mexico City gave us an earthshattering welcome - one we could’ve lived without, especially on the 16th floor of the Hyatt House hotel.
From the Archive - Our Year in Slovakia
You’ll see the hubby’s unplanned debut in the “Gravity wins” snow game, a surprise serenade in a pub, herbal witchcraft, a midnight pianist in a ruined castle, and whipping of unsuspecting spouses for the greater good.
We play with butterflies, forage, make DIY kraut, dance around a huge campfire in a pagan solstice ritual, and do 13 takes floating down a freezing brook for a 3-second clip (blue lips notwithstanding).
AI Shenanigans - Clone Your Voice, and Save Time with Podcast Snippets
🤖🤖🤖
This is crazy. (And a little freaky.) I stumbled upon Speechify, which lets you sample cloning your voice. The first short clip is free.
Curiosity piqued, I set up an account and recorded a minute of my voice, from which Speechify generated my clone. Then, I pasted in the paragraphs from the beginning of this newsletter.
To my astonishment, it coughed up an audio file that sounded uncannily like me, accent and all. A clone of my voice. Even the hubby was convinced it was my voice. Here, have a listen and join the existential confusion. (It opens this post on a new page.)
Mark’s grandma (who died young, over half a century ago) used to say “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.” She must’ve been a psychic (or a damn good futurist).
🎙️🎙️🎙️
If you’ve been listening to podcasts thinking “Argh, I should be writing this down!”, Snipd is the app for you. When you hear something noteworthy, one click and it’s saved. You can name, edit, and export your audio snips. Unlimited podcasts, and unlimited snips, for free.
Where it really shines, though, is its AI magic (free for 2 podcasts/week). This cool feature creates detailed show notes with timestamps, lists key takeaways, transcribes your saved snips, and shows you the ones other people most often saved.
Pretty nifty.
Experiment - Radical Honesty
Remember that time you complimented your colleague's awful fruitcake? Yeah, we've all done the delicate dance of polite fibs. "I can't go out tonight, I'll be working late." "No, I haven't told a soul." "Of course you don't look fat!"
Do I tell the truth? Do I keep secrets? What does it mean to make a promise?
Philosopher and author Sam Harris and Stanford professor Ronald A. Howard say that unwavering honesty not only makes you happier but also creates deeper connections with others, which is life’s ultimate purpose.
(Check out the first 24 pages of Sam’s book here, the first 56 pages of Ron’s book here, and Ron’s talk at Google here.)
So Mark and I are taking the plunge into the social minefield of radical honesty. The goal is to learn how to let people down gently, disagree without bitterness, and decipher the truth in each situation.
Either that, or I'll be jotting down a list of awkward conversations to apologize for when the month is up 😳
Five days in, and so far so good. Only three cringy incidents:
1. Mark told a stranger in a coffee shop he was bothered by the noisy game the guy was playing on his phone.
2. I asked Mark to return the top he gave me as a gift because I didn't like the color.
3. I told someone that if they want people to call them, they need to be the kind of person who people enjoy calling.
Surprisingly, they all went well. I'll report back next month!
Until then, check out the videos, peek at the books, and/or join me in this experiment, and let me know how it’s going.
Travel - Mayan Pyramids All to Yourself
Our December trip to Mexico with our history-aficionado friend was all about the ancient Mayan pyramids. Yes, we ticked off the iconic (and touristy) Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, and Uxmal, but the real magic happened deeper in the Yucatan jungle.
Imagine stepping into a tiny grass-roof hut, a smiley man handing you tickets for $4, and asking you to sign the guest book... as the only visitors the site has had since the one Italian couple the previous day.
Then you walk onto a huge meadow dotted with 1700-year-old Mayan structures, all yours to explore. And they are every bit as spectacular as the most famous ones you've paid $35 to see alongside hundreds of camera-clicking tourists.
Kabah, Sayil, Xlapak, and Lebna are like ancient playgrounds.
Stroll around, climb the moss-covered steps, try to decipher the hieroglyphs, walk around the grassy plazas and moist forests (which is the actual term for the Yucatan jungle), and wonder what on earth these structures were used for.
Stay tuned for a story about these less-visited Mayan wonders and tips for your very own jungle adventure.
Health - Learn Happiness at Yale
I studied at Yale!
Well, sort of. Psychologist Laurie Santos is famous for teaching the most popular Yale class ever - on happiness. They made it available for free online on Coursera, under the title The Science of Well-being. You even get a pretty certificate.
This 10-week course isn't your typical "think positive" self-help pep talk.
It dives into the science behind your moods and uncovers biases and lies you tell yourself. There are personality tests, practical weekly exercises, and "rewirements" that force you to learn by doing.
I first stumbled upon it during the Covid pandemic and it helped me get out of the funk. It’s time for a refresher and I hope you’ll join me. If you do, I’d love to know how you like it.
Money - Your Credit Card Perk Audit
Your wallet (especially if you’re in the U.S.) may be hiding a treasure trove of perks you forgot about. It happens to the best of us! That's why, every January, I take a peek at my (many) credit cards and revisit those perks. It's like rediscovering old friends.
Here are some of the benefits that may be available to you:
Watch - Montessori: Let the Child be the Guide
This heartwarming, beautiful documentary shows the magic that happens when we nurture a child's natural curiosity, independence, exploration, and self-discovery.
You can watch it for free on Tubi and Kanopy, or buy it on Amazon, AppleTV, and Montessori (none of those are affiliate links).
Read - “King, A Life” by Jonathan Eig
This is my Hubby’s new favorite biography. Here’s his review:
More than 40 years after the last Martin Luther King biography came out, Jonathan Eig's new book King: A Life captivated me with its deep exploration of King's path from Georgia boy to International luminary.
It examines the recently declassified FBI files and wiretaps, shedding light on the power and influence of Coretta Scott King, King's deep belief in passive resistance, and the often misunderstood relationship between King and Malcolm X, including the manipulative edits to Alex Haley's renowned Playboy interview.
Despite MLK's significant influence on my life, it is only through this beautifully crafted narrative that I now feel I understand the man. More human, more intriguing, and even more inspiring than I had ever realized.
Mental Hack - Do Your Sh*t First
If you don't have good personal boundaries and allow people to put things on your plate, no productivity app or system is going to save you.
-Tiago Forte
(Tiago Forte is a productivity guru and the inventor of PARA and CODE methods for capturing information and organizing your digital life, knowledge, and time.)
Just Because - Space Elevator
Take a trip in this Space Elevator, complete with elevator music:
So there you have it. Hope you’re having a productive January, or at least pretending to be productive while secretly googling "best places to nap in public”.
Be Mappy, you glorious weirdos!
(and let me know if you start the No Lying experiment, the Happiness course, or try to clone your voice. Or say anything you like, just so I know you’re there!)
❤
Mags