About the Episode When A.J. Jacobs set out to thank everyone who made his morning cup of coffee, he realized the chain of thank-you's was endless. This hour, Jacobs shares ideas on gratitude — and how to make it count. About A.J. Jacobs A.J. Jacobs is an author and journalist, best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments. He is also editor at large at Esquire magazine, a commentator on NPR and a columnist for Mental Floss magazine. Jacobs' works chronicle his self-experiments, which have involved taking a vow of total honesty, following the Bible literally for a year, and reading the entire