WATCH: CJ Hauser on Finding Joy in the Not-Knowing

Ten days after calling off her wedding, author CJ Hauser went on an expedition to Texas to study the whooping crane; after a week wading through the gulf, she realized she’d almost signed up to live someone else’s life. Her essay about this experience and her ensuing revelation, published by The Paris Review, became a viral sensation.

In her new book—an intimate, frank, and funny memoir-in-essays—Hauser releases herself from traditional narratives of happiness and goes looking for ways of living that leave room for the unexpected, making plenty of mistakes along the way: kissing internet strangers; officiating at a wedding; studying Katharine Hepburn to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship; considering Florence Nightingale at a robot convention.

Hauser joins us in conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald (Dirtbag, Massachusetts) to celebrate the launch of The Crane Wife—a book for everyone whose life doesn’t look the way they thought it would, for everyone learning to find joy in the not-knowing.

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