What purchase of $100 or less has most improved your life in the last six months?

And maybe it’s unfair to use a book. So $100.00 or less? I think one of the best values you can get for $100.00 is a good axe.

Well, you know, I would probably point us to a beautiful Pinot Noir from Joseph Swan up in Sonoma County. You know, it’s like the artwork of Andy Goldsworthy or anyone who delights in anything ephemeral. The charm in a bottle of wine, the craft, all the work that goes into it, and actually delighting in the fact that it’s perishable and goes away I find really helpful.

That’s a really hard question for me because I don’t buy a lot of stuff. I’m a total snob when it comes to the stuff I own. And the reason for that is because I travel incessantly. And when I travel, I just have one bag, and I have to take it. So, everything I own has to do like double duty. ... So, I can’t think of something really easy that comes to mind under $100.00 that I could just name. Ice Breaker Underwear.

This is easy. It’s called Mother Dirt. It clears your skin, and it cost $49.00. My skin was a hot mess for most of my adolescence and into my 20’s.

So, I recently bought the FINIS, F-I-N-I-S, swim paddles. They somewhat magically lengthen out my freestyle stroke. And when I combined them with some fins, I use the ones Cressi, C-R-E-S-S-I, I feel sometimes like I’m almost flying through the water.

As a child, it was a yo-yo because I never could master the yo-yo, and it would drive me crazy. And the fact that I couldn’t master it drove me crazy.

Initially I was going to say a pair of Groucho Marx glasses that I bought in Japan. I got a lot of legs out of those.

Yeah, two things pop up. One is this $11.99 book that my wife bought my son and he won’t put it down. I have an eight-year-old son. ... Any little book that I give my son feels like the greatest gift in the world because he becomes mesmerized by the imagination and the stories inside of it.

Probably a piece of music. I think it was probably an album by Brian Eno called Another Green World, which is one of his early ‘70s, it’s ambient music, but not the kind of really weird ambient music. There’s an adage that says the music you discover when you are 18, I think it’s 18 is the magic year, is the music that stays with you for the rest of your life. ... Well, I discovered that when I was 18. And I sing the songs of that album in my head all of the time. And I worship Brian Eno.

This is going to sound a little strange, but my trainer started recommending that I add moringa leaf powder to my tea. That’s actually added a rich antioxidant, anti inflammatory and a little bit more substance such that drinking tea now feels a little bit like a snack and is super healthy.

Actually, this is quite random, but I love it. It’s a diffuser for aromatherapy oils. My piano is in my lounge and I have this diffuser on. I put different oils in. For when I’m practicing, I would put geranium in, for instance, which I love. I just find it relaxes me, but at the same time keeps me perked up enough to be able to work.

I’ll give two answers. I bought a new electric teakettle. I used to have all the stovetop kettles. Even though I knew it was vastly better, I underestimated how much better my life would be by having an electric tea kettle so I can have tea actually quickly and more or less on demand with very little fuss.

Probably the biggest impact for something less than $100.00 would be a mole skin diary. I’ve got them all lined up for every year. I’ve had them since 1986. So, in there, in a very tactile way, I have like lists in the back, movies, books. And then, I write in the back the name of the book and then who recommended the book.

I have the question ready right here. I bought a skateboard about two months ago, which has a funny story in itself. ... I used to skateboard back when I was a kid, but literally had not skateboarded in 20 years. But I happen to live right now out here in California, where I’m just the perfect distance away from lunch that a skateboard is just what I need.

I hate to plug my other podcast, but on episode two I went out and interviewed this guy that is a master of pens. He knows more about pens than we do about anything else on earth. He recommended three pens that have the absolute best rollerball pen, the best fountain pen – and these are all $4.00 pens. ... I swapped out my entire stock of pens at my desk with these cheap little $3.00 to $4.00 pens and they’re amazing.

We’ve already got it. It’s the Frisbees, for sure. I was hanging out with my two brothers and my dad. We decided to drive up the coast and my two brothers and me, we’ve played Frisbee golf our whole lives so we love it, and my dad, not so much. But we got a bunch of discs and then we went really high up on Highway 1 and threw them out into the ocean.

That is a good question. Well, one thing I do love is my elastic shoelaces. ... So, you just replace the cloth shoelaces with these elastic… I think it’s called “Lace Lock” is the brand I use. And, yeah, shoelaces seem like such 18th century technology.

Probably a notebook. ... A notebook and pens. And I don’t even write out jokes but I write out thoughts; goals and thoughts.

Okay, let me tell you guys. I didn’t know this until last week. There’s a thing called a boot box for your long boots. You put your long boots in them instead of them draping all over the floor of your closet, and then you put a bump on the shelf.

Well, the purchase that has influenced me over the last six months is the Apple pencil. I do so much of my artwork by hand and now there is a device that draws and feels like a real pencil that I can use electronically. It’s changed the way I work.