Jancee Dunn, a health and lifestyle columnist for The New York Times, has learned from psychologists how to support a friend who’s getting divorced. She’s picked up bargaining tips from a kidnap negotiator. She’s learned to extend her walks by counting the dogs she passes, instead of the passing minutes.
“I’m curious about how people live, and what makes them feel better when they don’t feel good, and what issues are important to them,” said Ms. Dunn, who shares the knowledge she picks up with her readers in The Times’s Well newsletter every Thursday night. “So this is a dream job.”
Ms. Dunn, who has written the Well newsletter since joining The Times in 2022, specializes in demystifying health problems and making the medical world accessible to readers. She shares anecdotes, advice and encouragement, all in a relatable, empathetic voice (and with more than occasional dry wit).
In a recent conversation, Ms. Dunn, who lives in New Jersey with her husband, the journalist Tom Vanderbilt, and their daughter, talked about how she comes up with ideas, how she channels her distinctive voice and the pieces of her own advice she doesn’t take, but should. These are edited excerpts.
What should readers expect when they sign up for the Well newsletter?
It’s very conversational — it’s a dinner party, plus science and personal stories. Above all, it provides useful information. I’m always thinking of little nuggets readers can use.
Paint me a picture of the reader you imagine you’re writing to.
I sometimes use my parents as a stand-in for readers, because they read The New York Times voraciously and have a lot of the same concerns as other readers. My mother goes through every single comment, every single week, because she likes to tell me which ones to respond to. She’s retired; she has the time to do this sort of thing.
What’s a memorable comment you’ve received?
During the Happiness Challenge, one reader told me she was very shy and had trouble reaching out to people because she was introverted. I understood, and it made me think about how I should sometimes avoid blanket advice like “Go chat up a stranger,” which can be extraordinarily hard for people who aren’t extroverted. I shared in the comments that I’m introverted, too. I’ve cosplayed being extroverted for so long that it’s become real.
It must be daunting to start each week with a newsletter to fill. How do you come up with ideas?
When I first started at The Times, I thought, “How am I going to come up with something every week?”I remember scanning from the top of my head to my feet, like, OK, we can do headaches. We can do ear aches. All right, going down to the feet, we can do plantar warts.
But I quickly discovered that I never seem to run out of material. My friends and family are starting to, understandably, edge away from me when they start telling me something, because they can see I get that kind of glittering look in my eyes where I think, “This could be a good column.”
For the 7-Day Happiness Challenge in 2023, one exercise, the 8-Minute Phone Call, came about because I could never get my friend Tina to commit to a 10-minute call. I said, “OK, how about eight minutes? Single digits!”
You share so many personal anecdotes. Do you find it difficult to write about yourself?
Sometimes I cringe a bit, but then I think, Who cares? I don’t want to go on and on about myself, but I do see how it can be relatable for readers, who then share their own stories. The more I’ve done it, the easier it is.
I do grapple with whether to share some things. I did a column once on how to stop being a people pleaser, and wrote about an old boyfriend who was a happily unemployed aspiring poet who had me pay all the bills. I worried that he might recognize himself, but I’ve gone out with two aspiring poets. The people I’ve dated will give me material for the rest of my life.
You’re constantly mining your family and friends for anecdotes and ideas. Do you give them a heads-up before including them in a newsletter?
Absolutely. I want to keep exploiting all of my loved ones on a regular basis. So yes, I believe in transparency.
What are some of the most popular topics with readers?
Anything about relationships. And people always want to read about anything quirky around rituals or traditions. Anything about teeth or sleep also seems to resonate with readers. If they would let me get away with it, I’d do a monthly tooth newsletter.
What’s a memorable piece of expert advice you’ve heard?
I interviewed eight dentists for one newsletter, and one of them told me, “Do not brush your teeth directly after you’ve had coffee in the morning. You’ll scrub off your enamel. You have to wait at least half an hour, preferably an hour.” Every morning, I think about that.
Another expert told me that if you enter a meeting, lift your chin up one inch; it makes you look more confident. In the early days, when I was miming confidence that I didn’t have, I would go into meetings and I would stick my chin up one inch. It helped.
What’s one piece of your own advice you don’t take, but should?
I know that I shouldn’t eat as much sugar as I do. The American Heart Association says six teaspoons of sugar should be the daily maximum for women, and I brought in cookies to the office — I love to bake — and just ate three like an hour ago, which is probably six teaspoons worth. I love sugar, full stop. I have dessert every single night. So that is advice that I am ignoring, probably to my peril.
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