Archive for March 2018
The gift of a memory is one of the best gifts of all
While visiting Hyde School in Bath, Maine, I ate breakfast with a teacher and hometown friend named Sean. We got to talking about our childhoods, specifically the time our parents were members of the Boots & Saddles Club, a riding club in Blackstone, MA. We would ride the back trails together with our parents on…
Read MoreThe Georgia Senate is controlled by bigots in the pocket of the NRA
In the last two weeks, the Georgia Senate has made two unfortunate decisions: Last week, they approved a bill eliminating a tax break for Delta Air Lines after Delta eliminated its discount program for NRA members. Delta offered discounts to NRA members flying to their annual meeting. In 2017, this discount was utilized by a…
Read MoreFrom genius to Bart Simpson
When I stepped out of the shower, I found my five year-old son, Charlie, reading the graphic novel version of A Wrinkle in Time on our bed. Charlie’s full name is Charles Wallace. He’s named after a character in the book. Elysha is reading us the original version of A Wrinkle in Time every night,…
Read MoreBoy vs. Girl: Our 100th episode
Boy vs. Girl, the podcast that I produce with my partner, Rachel Leventhal-Weiner, just published our 100th episode. While I don’t often get excited about round numbers, 100 is a pretty good number. Boy vs. Girl is a podcast about gender and gender stereotypes. Rachel and I each bring a topic to the table each week,…
Read MoreThis is the way to live
Last night I met my in-laws, Barbara and Gerry Green, at a restaurant in New York for dinner before performing in a storytelling show down the street. As Elysha and I walked in, we found Barbara and Gerry sitting at the bar, eating salad and chatting with the bartender. As I sat down, they…
Read MoreA sign, a grade book, and a bathtub are just a few of my memories of Hyde School
I had the honor of spending two days in Bath, Maine, recently, visiting with the eleventh and twelfth grade students of Hyde School. I taught them about storytelling, performed my one-person show in the evening, and hosted a story slam on the final afternoon of my visit. It’s a fantastic school, filled with some of…
Read More4 good ideas and 4 bad ideas about book clubs
PopSugar’s Elyssa Friedland offers 10 tips for a successful book club. I’ve been a member of a book club for more than a decade. Six people – three couples – meet and talk about books over dinner 6-8 times per year. I’ve also visited with well over 100 book clubs over the course of my…
Read MoreBeing a jerk and needing food stamps are mutually exclusive conditions
I was standing in line behind a man at a local convenience store, waiting. His credit card was being rejected, and he was clearly getting frustrated. He turned to me. “Do you want to go first?” he asked. “I’m fine,” I said. I was catching up on the day’s news. I didn’t mind waiting. But…
Read MoreI performed in the dark. Without amplification. The results were surprising.
The worst experience I ever had while telling a story was on election night 2016 at a live show of Slate’s The Gist. I was telling the story about my run for the Presidency of my college when things started to turn in the election returns and eyes quickly shifted from me to phones. Trump…
Read MoreOne of the best podcast episodes of all time
I started listening to podcasts when podcasts first became podcasts. Way back in 2005, as Elysha and I were moving from an apartment on one side of the street to an apartment on the other, I was listening to podcasts. In the beginning, I was listening primarily to This American Life and tech podcasts (which…
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