Author Archives: jjwilser

Piece for mental_floss magazine.  (Who knew Nixon was such a sweetheart?)

A piece for New York Magazine’s The Cut that sort of went viral. It turns out that #people really #hate hashtags.  (And in a truly meta moment, this piece was eventually Retweeted and Favorited by the guy who invented the hashtag.)                             […]

An essay for Glamour. Proof that some guys, finally, can change. Sort of.  

Feature for New York Magazine’s The Cut.  The response to this article (6,000 Facebook shares) gives just a bit of empirical evidence, maybe, that men really don’t know how to text.                                                 […]

Controversial feature for Cosmo magazine. Essay that argues, basically, that if people hook-up on the first date, the guy’s not going to “lose respect,” and if he does, he’s a hypocrite. Article here.

Referred to as their “marriage guru,” Jeff breaks down relationship advice for Esquire.  

A story that involves Harry Houdini, card counting, and advanced mathematics. Jeff profiles a drop-out-turned-magician-turned-statistician for mental_floss magazine.    

Jeff blogged about culture for GQ, focusing on television and film. Tons of posts can be found at this archive. Sample post:  

Jeff’s advice has been syndicated to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, and a network of over 200 papers. Here’s an example from the LA Times:  How to be a Best Man. (Full story at the LA Times here.)

Jeff is the founding editor of ThePlunge.com, a website for grooms. (Jeff has never been a groom.)  He has written over 100 articles on weddings, bachelor parties, and the guy’s perspective on the engagement. Since its launch, The Plunge has over 1.2 million unique visits and 3.7 million page views. Jeff’s advice from The Plunge […]

What religion has the most hardcore monk? The holiest hairdo? In a feature that will offend millions, Jeff accepts the humble challenge of picking the world’s best religion. For mental_floss magazine.  

Jeff’s editor asked him to read “50 Shades of Grey” and provide the guy’s take.  Here is his report.                                               (Full story here at TheNest.)

Most prolific builder: Donald Trump or Queen Hatshepsut? Best Coliseum:  Rome or LA? Pyramids vs. Skyscrapers?  Jeff doles out the Architecture Awards. For mental_floss magazine.

Some sex advice is undeniably true (example: “Stay awake.”). But as women’s magazines churn out wackier ideas like, “Run ice cubes down his legs,” a quest for variety has led to absurdity.  

Jeff wrote roughly 50 features for VH1 and MTV’s websites, mostly about movies. He also conducted celebrity interviews for VH1.com, with personalities ranging from George Clooney to Paul Rudd to Ellen Page. Tragically, most of these are lost to the world; when VH1 redesigned their site, the old archives went kaput.     Some of the […]