On Wed., Oct.6, Harris officially launched a brand-new newsletter called Wondercade. The weekly email missive, available for free by signing up here, will be put together by Harris himself, and he’s promising it’ll be a place where “the worlds of food and drink, design and decor, entertainment and experiences all gloriously collide.” The 48-year-old actor also calls it “a compendium of the things, places and people that I find interesting or inspiring… a little window into my world, a reminder that a life spent in good company is a life well-lived.” Curious to learn more? Parade.com has your exclusive first look at Wondercade’s inaugural issue below—but first, we wanted to know why now was the right time for Harris to launch this epistolary endeavor. “It’s been a rather grueling last few years of isolation for us all,” the How I Met Your Mother alum explained to Parade.com. “Now, finally, the world is opening up again. Restaurants, theaters, Australia. I thought the timing was right to add a few arrows to one’s quiver of knowledge, so when they go out for target practice, they might hit a few more bullseyes.” While inboxes can be overwhelming, between daily work and promotional emails, Harris vows that Wondercade (which will be sent out weekly on Wednesday afternoons) will be one message you won’t hesitate to click open. “Wondercade is me. There’s no agenda, there’s no filter,” Harris explained. “The two tenets of my life are authenticity and creativity. Both are essential to me, both fuel me. The beauty of the digital newsletter is that there’s no algorithm, no cookies (much as I love me some oatmeal raisin!). We write it, you read it, that’s that. It’s authentic in its creativity. So in that, hopefully I can gain the trust of the readers, maintain their interest, and shine the spotlight on a myriad of things that I find cool.” The free email newsletter, featuring a variety of Harris’ interests, seeks to inspire and inform readers with lifestyle content. As the actor (who can next be seen in The Matrix Resurrections) points out, “Inspiration can come from so many places.” Where does Harris find it? “I’d say I find it within my children [Gideon and Harper], but that would sound trite. I’d say I find it from Ted Lasso, but that would sound obvious,” he told us. “Ah, got one! I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals by Oliver Burkeman,” he revealed. “It’s just awesome. He’s had a legitimately profound affect on the way I’m processing the stresses of my daily decision-making. I highly recommend it. Also, if you’re into podcasts (and you should be!), check out Hidden Brain, hosted by Shankar Vedantam. It’s inspiration incarnate.” With Wondercade, readers “will quite literally learn how to become a better entertainer,” Harris writes in the newsletter’s first issue. Given the actor’s love for entertaining, we had to ask, what does he envision for his first big post-pandemic get-together? “I’d host a big, proper game night of fun party games like Running Charades, lots of action and laughing, no bad sportsmanship. The food would be chosen by my brilliant husband, David Burtka, who is simply the best (so says Tina Turner). And about halfway through the night, someone would collapse and it would actually be… a murder mystery party! Boom! Clap of thunder,” he told Parade.com. “The guest list would be eclectic, and would ideally include John Krasinski, Sasha Baron Cohen, Audra McDonald, the cast of Reno 911!, Jordan Peele, Bridget Everett, Nick Jonas, Paul F. Tompkins, anyone involved in Black Mirror, and Dame Judy Dench, of course.” Keep reading for more on Neil Patrick Harris’ Wondercade newsletter, including a sneak peek! In a subtle nod to NPH’s theater roots, the first issue of his “weekly dispatch on the culture of curiosity” is divided into four “acts,” followed by “the emporium” and “last call” sections. In Act One’s “Letter from the Founder,” Harris explains the meaning of the word Wondercade—which, yes, he made up! “The first half is one of my favorite feelings, and the latter is extracted from cavalcade, a suffix meaning procession in the formation of compound words,” Harris shared. “Put the two together, and to me, it sounds enticing. Wondercade. A carnival of comforts. A cabinet of curiosities. A circus of the senses.” Harris also explained why he chose “life should be entertaining” as Wondercade’s mission statement. “I don’t just mean the adjective, but also the verb. There are few things I love more than spending time with people. Amusing them. Feeding them. Making them comfortable. Making them happy,” he penned. The dad of two continued, “You will be whisked off to destinations near and far that we find entertaining: restaurants, speakeasies, hotels and holes in the wall, each of them with a story worth telling.” And in Wondercade’s inaugural issue, Harris does just that, taking readers to Italy’s Amalfi Coast in the second act, titled “The Art of Il Pranzo, or How to Eat Lunch Like an Italian.” The piece highlights the restaurant Lo Scoglio da Tommaso, which according to Harris has “perfected the art of serving lunch.” “The real key is eating all these things slowly and sequentially, one plate at a time, and enjoying your company as you await the next dish. No one will rush you from your table; in fact, they’d prefer you stay,” he writes. Harris admitted it’s “unlikely” that “the long, languid Italian lunch” will be replacing his family dinners any time soon. “That would require a wholesale rebranding of the American workday, a cause that I am not quite prepared to make my own. (Especially with the launch of Wondercade…!),” he confessed. “But in the meantime, David and I will surely be looking to turn some upcoming lazy weekend afternoons into our own version of a visit to Lo Scoglio, and I encourage you to do the same.” To help readers get started, the Doogie Howser, M.D. actor even shares the restaurant’s signature zucchini spaghetti recipe (courtesy of the founder’s granddaughter)! In subsequent sections, Harris asks Broadway star Audra McDonald “what randomness happened on or offstage " during her recent Tonys hosting gig (spoiler: it involved an “enormous horsefly”), and the performer also shared five fall skincare tips from his personal groomer Amy Komorowski, along with his favorite fall gear to help readers “enjoy Mother Nature in both style and comfort.” Harris concludes issue No. 1 with a riddle reminding subscribers, “If you thought this was going to be another one of those easily digestible emails full of nothing but pretty food pictures and sesquipedalian soliloquies, think again.” The answer will be revealed in next week’s newsletter. “Until then,” Harris wrote, “I’ll be in my office at Wondercade HQ, sipping some Darjeeling …” Sign up for Wondercadehere!
