As Told To

"As a ghostwriter, I've trained my ear to listen for what's really there or not there, to discern what's underneath or between someone's words," writes veteran collaborator Samantha Rose, in her stirring, soaring new memoir Giving Up the Ghost: A Daughter's Memoir. "I hear what's implied, what's withheld…" Samantha's gifts as a storyteller are very much on display in the pages of her new book—a heartbreaking account of her mother's suicide, published earlier this year by Sybilline Press. An Emmy Award-winning television writer and a New York Times best-selling collaborator, Samantha has written extensively in the areas of spirituality, health and wellness, personal growth and parenting. Her books have been translated into more than 20 foreign languages and have been featured selections of Reese's Book Club and Target's Bookmarked Book Club.  She is the principal of literary development and the head of client relations for Yellow Sky Media, her boutique editorial agency in Petaluma, Calif. Learn more about Samantha Rose: Website Instagram Facebook Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Nelson and Alex DeMille's The Tin Men is an electrifying read and a chillingly timely one," writes The New York Times best-selling novelist Megan Abbott of the third and final father-son collaboration in the Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor series. "[It's] both a master-class in suspense and a haunting exploration of the dangers and costs of a surrender to technology, an abandonment of the human." Yes, it is. It's also the final novel from legendary author Nelson DeMille, completed posthumously following his death in September 2024, and a follow-up to the duo's first two collaborations in the series—The Deserter and Blood Lines, both immediate New York Times best-sellers.  Its publication offers Alex DeMille an opportunity to reflect on growing up under the influence of one of our finest storytellers—a backdrop that at first inspired Alex to become a filmmaker. A graduate of the MFA program in film at UCLA, Alex's films have won many awards and fellowships, and have played at festivals worldwide, including "My Nephew Emmett, " which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2018.  "I want to thank my father," he writes in an emotional grace note to the new book, "who might be reading this somewhere among the stars with a good scotch in hand. Thank you for all you've given me, all you've taught me, for your love, your encouragement, for making me laugh and making me think. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for showing me the way. I hope this makes you proud." Learn more about Alex DeMille: Website Instagram Threads Twitter Facebook Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Student journalist and first-time documentary filmmaker Matthew Winkler joins us to discuss his work on a film chronicling the life and career of Joya Sherrill, an unsung American jazz vocalist who wrote the lyrics to the Billy Strayhorn standard, "Take the A Train," made famous by the Duke Ellington orchestra. Matthew came across Sherrill's name during his freshman year at Tufts University, while doing research for Boston Globe journalist and noted biographer Larry Tye, who was writing a book about jazz. Matthew, a music and history major, was astonished to discover the small footprint Sherrill had left behind, despite being the first female jazz singer to visit the Soviet Union, accompanying bandleader Benny Goodman, and earning the distinction of being one of Duke Ellington's favorite singers. "Public-facing history is very important to me," Matthew told a reporter for Tufts Now, the university's alumni magazine, in an article detailing how the Tufts undergraduate grew a student research project into a feature-length documentary, with the help of his professors and mentors. "I hope this film will make people know who Joya Sherrill is and why we should care about her. On a broader level, I think a documentary like this will make people realize how easy it is for remarkable figures to fall through the cracks of history." With this conversation, it is hoped, he might also signal to aspiring storytellers how easy it is to keep their eyes and ears open for stories that might move us, inspire us, and enlighten us. Learn more about Matthew Winkler: LinkedIn Five Sisters Productions Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Podcast guest Michael E. Long calls himself "a professional explainer with a restive mind."   He is just that.   Trained as physicist, Mike is the co-author of the international bestseller The Molecule of More, which has been translated into more than 20 languages, and the sole author of the recently-published follow-up title Taming the Molecule of More.   As a speechwriter, he has written for members of Congress, U.S Cabinet secretaries, presidential candidates, governors, diplomats, and business leaders. As a ghostwriter, he has collaborated on several books of non-fiction. As a playwright, he's had more than two dozen of his shows produced, most on New York stages. He was finalist for the grand prize in screenwriting at the Slamdance Film Festival. A popular keynote speaker, Mr. Long has addressed audiences around the world, including at Oxford University. He teaches writing at Georgetown University, where he is a former director of writing.   The son of a southern preacher, Mike's call to writing found him close to home. "I learned how to write," he says, "and how words should go together, by listening to the music of my father's voice."   Join us for a fun, freewheeling conversation on a writing life lived at the crosshairs of the written word and the spoken word.   Learn more about Michael E. Long:  Website Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

"No two caregiving journeys are alike," writes Emma Heming Willis, the wife of actor Bruce Willis, who was diagnosed in 2023 with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), a rare form of dementia affecting behavior, movement and language. "But we are connected by the same unchosen thread." In The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path, Emma writes movingly and hopefully about the blessings and burdens of being thrust into the role of caregiver, emerging as a passionate voice for care partners and families navigating neurodegenerative disease. Together with her collaborator, Michele Bender, she offers an essential blueprint for others confronting some of the same issues facing her own family. "My grief can still paralyze me," she shares in the pages of the book she wishes someone had handed her when her husband was first diagnosed. "I still have a hard time accepting what is, yet FTD doesn't give you many options. It can suck all the air out of a room. So I've made a choice to pump oxygen back into our lives, for the sake of our girls, Bruce, and me. And to give the middle finger to this disease." Join us as we visit with Emma Heming Willis and her co-author Michele Bender for a heartbreaking and heart-lifting conversation on what it takes to tap the universal elements in such a deeply personal story—and what it means to step from an unimaginable darkness at home to stand in the world as a light for others. Learn more about our guests: Emma Heming Willis Website Emma Heming Willis Facebook Emma Heming Willis Instagram Michele Bender Website Michele Bender Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

"Pull the heart of your work out of your chest and lay it out there for the gods," podcast guest Samuel G. Freedman told his Columbia Journalism School graduate students on the first day of his final semester after 35 years of teaching. "That's all I'm asking of you. Not much."   No, not much. And yet what Sam Freedman asked of his students during his tenure as one of our leading journalism educators was everything. Before his retirement this spring, his popular book-writing seminar led to the publication of 95 books by his students. "He's been the godfather to an awful lot of publishing over the years," noted Grove Atlantic executive editor George Gibson, in a New York Times profile on Sam's career and his legacy in journalism and publishing. Sam was named the nation's outstanding journalism professor in 1977 by the Society of Professional Journalists and was awarded Columbia University's coveted Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. A former staff reporter and columnist for The New York Times, his work as appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Tablet, Salon, and New York magazine.     He is the author of 10 acclaimed books, including The Inheritance: How Three Families Moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond, a 1997 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights; and, Who She Was: My Search for My Mother's Life, which was reissued in a new edition earlier this year.   Learn more about Samuel Freedman: Website Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Jane Leavy is the New York Times best-selling author of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood, and The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created. She is also the author of the comic novel Squeeze Play, hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "the best novel ever written about baseball." A longtime sportswriter and feature writer for The Washington Post, Jane covered baseball, tennis and the Olympics during her tenure at the paper. She also wrote features for the Post's "Style" section on sports, politics and popular culture. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Grantland, The Los Angeles Times, and Tablet.  In her latest book—Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It—Jane waxes philosophic and not-quite-catastrophic about the game she has loved her entire life, and asks readers to join her in re-imagining the way that game is played, and all the ways we might play it better, or more meaningfully, or more relevantly.  In the book, just published by Grand Central Publishing, she writes movingly and hilariously and insightfully on our national pastime, offering a thinking fan's take on what the game has become, and what the game has lost over the years. Join us for our Season 5 opener, as we visit with one of baseball's biggest fans… and one of publishing's finest storytellers.  Learn more about Jane Leavy: Website Instagram Twitter  Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Episode originally aired on Nov. 2, 2021. "Don't make it out, make it better." That's a line from podcast guest D. Watkins, offered in the book trailer for his book of essays We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America, in which he gives voice to the voiceless and shines meaningful light on what it means to come of age in East Baltimore, in one of America's poorest black neighborhoods.  It's a line you might hear as well from D.'s NBA legend Carmelo Anthony, himself a product of an uncertain, unforgiving environment–the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Baltimore. In the future Hall-of-Famer's just-published memoir, Where Tomorrows Aren't Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope, an immediate New York Times best-seller, D. helps his celebrated co-author share his story of finding a way out of no way at all, sounding the call for social justice and offering a guidepost for readers looking to pull success from struggle.  More than any other athlete's memoir in recent memory, the book offers a perfect pairing of author and subject, as D. brings his own perspective to Anthony's hard-won experience.  An editor-at-large for Salon, D.'s work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. He is the author of the New York Times best-sellers The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir and The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America. Connect with D. Watkins:  Facebook Twitter Instagram Website Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Episode originally aired on April 11, 2023 "Writing is not what you start," writes podcast guest Nell Scovell in her scathingly funny memoir Just the Funny Parts. "It's not even what you finish. It's what you start, finish, and put out there for the world to see." Indeed, Nell offers this observation from a place of hard-won experience. A veteran television writer ("Newhart," "The Simpsons," "Late Night with David Letterman," "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," "Murphy Brown," "Coach," and on and on), Nell understands what it means to get an idea on its feet and out in front of an audience. As Sheryl Sandberg's collaborator on the #1 New York Times best-seller Lean In, she helped to create a guidepost for a generation of women looking for a shared compass point in their lives and careers—a book Nell says she wishes she'd read at twenty-five, as a woman working in the male-dominated field of television comedy, instead of helping to write at fifty-two. Join us as Nell reflects on a lifetime working in collaboration with some of the brightest (and least accommodating!) minds in television, on what it was like to write jokes for President Obama at the White House Correspondent's Dinner ("Obama, out!"), and on what it was like to be Spy magazine's first staff writer, and a contributor to Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The New York Times. Learn more about Nell Scovell: Website Facebook LinkedIn PostNews Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Visitation Street, These Women, Sing Her Down, and the just-published Ecstasy, a reimagined contemporary feminist horror story hailed by the Washington Post as a "stiletto-sharp remake of Euripides."  She is also the co-author of The New York Times best-selling middle-grade Epoca fantasy series, created by the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant and written under the name Ivy Claire. Her books have been awarded the L.A. Times Book Prize, the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France, and she has been a finalist for the prestigious Edgar Award. A former collegiate and professional squash player, Ivy has led a creative writing workshop in Skid Row, Los Angeles, and is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program.  Writing fiction and playing squash are a lot alike, she says. "Both teach self-reliance and self-motivation. And both practice deception." Learn more about Ivy Pochoda: Website Facebook Twitter Pochoda's appearance on Writer's Bone Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Amy Silverberg is a comedian and writer based in Los Angeles. Her stand-up comedy has been featured on Comedy Central, Hulu, NPR, and Amazon Prime. Her short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Paris Review, Granta, and The New Yorker. She holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from USC, where she now teaches. Prior to publication, Amy's debut novel First Time, Long Time was hailed by Oprah Daily as "a funny, high-spirited novel…the book humorously describes a lesser-seen side of Los Angeles: the unglamorous neighborhood of Van Nuys, the humiliations of fame, the agony of trying—and failing—to be someone else, and the thrill of discovering yourself along the way." "Somebody is always going through something," she writes in the novel, just published by Grand Central Publishing. "Somebody is always reading a book and finding himself there." Join us for a funny, thoughtful look at the ways Amy's comedy informs her writing, the ways her writing fuels her comedy, and the many ways she finds herself in her work. Learn more about Amy Silverberg: Website Instagram Threads  TikTok Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Veteran journalist Carla Sosenko has written for The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, People, Self, Newsweek, and numerous other publications. Her work has also appeared in Time Out New York (where she was editor-in-chief), Entertainment Weekly (where she was executive editor), In Touch (where she was managing editor) and Us Weely (where she is currently executive editor at large). She is also the co-author of A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home: Housekeeping Hacks You Can't Live Without, written with TikTok star Melissa Dilkes Pateras. In her just-published collection of essays entitled I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body, Carla writes with candor and great good cheer about growing up with a rare congenital vascular disorder known as Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome—a disorder that shaped the way she looked out at the world, and the ways the world looked back in turn. "If you are thin, even if you are too thin, life is inherently safer," she writes. "The world order puts thin people at the top, with the rest of us below struggling for air. Many of us have been gasping for decades." In her new book—hailed by Harper's Bazaar prior to publication as "raw, vulnerable, and utterly hilarious—she breathes deep and sounds a clarion call for anyone who has ever been made to feel like an outsider or told they should take up less space. Learn more about Carla Sosenko: Website Instagram Threads LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the Ghosts Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Heaven Help Us: How Faith Communities Inspire Hope, Strengthen Neighborhoods, and Build the Future—a collection of inspiring profiles of individuals working to make a difference with the help of their faith communities—is podcast host Daniel Paisner's fifth collaboration with former Ohio governor John Kasich.  The collaboration goes back to the very first book the two wrote together—the 2006 New York Times best-seller Stand for Something: The Battle for America's Soul—as Gov. Kasich was completing his ninth term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 12th district. They would go on to write about the governor's long-time Bible study group, about his 2016 presidential campaign, and a primer on what it takes to live a life of purpose and meaning, encouraging readers to be the change they wanted to see in this world. In Heaven Help Us, Gov. Kasich continues to explore the themes that have defined his public life, as he shines a powerful light on a group of extraordinary people who are working selflessly to transform their communities—work that is being magnified by their churches, synagogues and mosques.  "My goal here is to get readers to think outside themselves for a bit, to think bigger than themselves," he writes. "To open their hearts to what's possible instead of what's impossible."  Learn more about John Kasich: Website Instagram Twitter Facebook It's Up to Us Every Other Monday Two Paths Courage Is Contagious  Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

"I never thought I would have a career in the television business," writes podcast guest Art Bell, the founding father of the Comedy Central network and the longtime president of Court TV. While at Comedy Central, which had its origins at HBO as "The Comedy Channel," Art helped to launch the careers of Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, and to provide a platform for up-and-coming comedians. He also found the time to co-author a humor book with his network colleagues—Web Sightings: A Collection of Websites We'd Like to See. At Court TV, he oversaw the network's daily live courtroom coverage and the production of hundreds of hours of original true-crime television series, documentaries, and movies, becoming a guiding force behind one of the most successful brand evolutions in cable television. He credits his time at Court TV with helping him to master the mechanics of storytelling. "The challenge," he said in a recent interview, "was to find the pacing that worked for the story, to include twists, exploit red herrings, and most of all, to make sure the audience stayed riveted and came back after the commercial break." Art's first novel, What She's Hiding, was just published by Ulysses Press, which had previously published his memoir, Constant Comedy: How I Started Comedy Central and Lose My Sense of Humor. In addition to his books, he has published short stories, non-fiction and satire in several journals, including Lowestoft Chronicle, The Ocotillo Review, and Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature. Learn more about Art Bell: Website Instagram Facebook Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

"Comedy writers learn early on that we have a high degree of anonymity," writes podcast guest Alan Zweibel in his memoir Laugh Lines: My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier. "Our words are spoken publicly by others who often have famous faces. Or by unknown people on their way to having famous faces." As one of the founding writers on Saturday Night Live, Alan's words were given voice by a cast of virtual unknowns, all on their way to becoming famous faces, eventually earning worldwide acclaim as some of the most iconic comic performers of their generation. Over the course of his 50-year career, he has penned jokes for dozens of Borscht Belt comedians and written for some of SNL's most memorable characters (such as Gilda Radner's "Roseanne Rosannadanna," John Belushi's "Samurai," and Garrett Morris's "Chico Escuela"), and helped to craft SNL producer Lorne Michaels's now-legendary appeal to invite the Beatles to appear on the show for the standard artist fee of $3,000.  Alan is the recipient of five Emmy Awards for his work in television, which in addition to SNL also includes "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (which he co-created and produced), "The Late Show with David Letterman," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He is the author of 11 books, including the 2006 Thurber Prize-winning novel The Other Shulman, and Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner—A Sort of Romantic Comedy, and six off-Broadway plays. He also collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning play "700 Sundays," and with Martin Short on his Broadway hit "Fame Becomes Me," and co-wrote the screenplays for the films "Dragnet," "North," "The Story of Us," and "Here Today." He joins us on the podcast to reflect on a singular career as one of our leading comedy writers and humorists—and a wickedly funny body of work that has earned him an honorary Ph.D. from the State University of New York, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America, East.  Learn more about Alan Zweibel: Website Facebook Instagram Bluesky Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us  Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

How much does ego play a role in the art and craft of a book collaborator? That's a question at the heart of this conversation with #1 New York Times best-selling ghostwriter Rachel Holtzman, co-author of more than 60 books on topics ranging from wellness and spirituality, to cooking and entertaining, including collaborations with such celebrated personalities as Shaquille O'Neal, Alicia Silverstone, Robin Quivers, and Christine Quinn. Prior to her work as a self-described "book doula," Rachel was an editor at Penguin Books and ELLE magazine, before a detour to culinary school and a short stint in the kitchen at New York's Gramercy Tavern helped to launch her career as an in-demand cookbook co-author and recipe tester and developer. "We're climbing inside the minds or the lives of our clients in order to produce something that is really of them," she reflects, "while also leaving behind a pretty big footprint of our own, because it is of us as well. We're not ChatGPT." Rachel joins us at a busy time on the collaboration front, as she celebrates the publication of four new titles this month—Tahini Baby, a collection of "veg-forward" Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired recipes, written with television food personality Edin Grinshpan; The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook, featuring seasonal recipes from celebrity chef and style curator Meredith Hayden; Living in Wisdom, a guide to peak living, from wellness educator Devi Brown; and, Playful by Design, a parenting primer on nurturing independent play, from Myriam Sandler, creator and founder of the Mothercould lifestyle platform. Learn more about Rachel Holtzman: Website Instagram Books Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us  Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Adam Ross's second novel, Playworld, is one of the best-reviewed books of the year. A story "dipped in molten nostalgia and flecked with love and sadness," according to The Washington Post, it was hailed immediately upon publication by The Los Angeles Times as "extraordinary" and by The New York Times as "a gorgeous cat's cradle of a book." He is also the author of a previous novel, Mr. Peanut, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Economist, and the story collection Ladies and Gentlemen, which featured a story entitled "In the Basement," a finalist for the BBC International Story Prize. Adam has been the Mary Ellen von der Heyden fellow in fiction at the American Academy in Berlin, and a Hodder Fellow for Fiction at Princeton University. His non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other publications. Since 2017, he has been the editor of The Sewanee Review, the oldest, continuously published literary quarterly in the United States. He joins us to discuss his remarkable new novel, and the collaborative aspects of his work as one of our most acclaimed editors and novelists. Learn more about Adam Ross and the topics discussed in the episode: Adam Ross' Instagram Adam Ross' Facebook U.S. Center for Safesport Anthony Quinn's One Man Tango Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us  Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

"Sometimes our own stories get snatched from us, hidden in darkness for years," writes podcast guest Salwa Emerson, "until it's time to reclaim them." Salwa is well-known to publishers as an author, editor and ghostwriter, specializing in memoirs, thought-leadership books, and book proposals. To hear her clients tell it, she has a way of bringing those stories out of hiding and into the light. She has collaborated with world-renowned chefs, professional athletes, reality television personalities, Oscar-winning actors, and Pulitzer Prize winners. Before turning to ghostwriting, she worked on the other side of the desk, for publishers such as St. Martin's Press and DK Publishing. Her most recent publication—The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future, written with environmentalist Benji Backer—was hailed by former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prior to publication as "an essential read that shows how protecting our natural resources and advancing America's national interests are mutually reinforcing goals." Join us as Salwa shares her thoughts on helping to find an author's "voice", the three clauses all ghostwriters should have in their contracts, and the best ways to engage with readers, fellow writers and potential clients. Learn more about Salwa Emerson: Website LinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us  Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

"My job was to dance so well that it didn't matter who favored me or why." That's a line from the compelling new memoir by world-renowned ballerina Joy Womack, "as told to" podcast guest Elizabeth Shockman. Together, in (dare we say it?) balletic prose, the two recount Womack's storied career as the first American woman to dance under contract for the Bolshoi Ballet Theater in Moscow. "The dancers beside me were tired, pale after months of clouded winter skies," they write in Behind the Red Velvet Curtain: An American Ballerina in Russia. "They bent and bowed, their bodies corded with muscle, like sallow stalagmites that had mushroomed off the floor of a cave." Womack's story offers a first-hand glimpse of the cutthroat world of ballet, complete with acts of violence and intrigue, tales of eating disorders and body shaming, and profiles of legendary Bolshoi coaches who encouraged obsessive devotion and imposed their uncompromising standards on their young charges. And yet beneath the ugliness of graft and competition, the author's love of dance and her appreciation for the place ballet holds in Russian culture fairly leap off the page, as she reflects on the intersection of art and politics and exposes the shadowy underbelly of the world of professional ballet. First-time collaborator Elizabeth Shockman is a public radio journalist based in Minnesota. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, Minnesota Public Radio, and the BBC. She has previously written for Reuters, The Moscow Times, and other publications. She first met Joy Womack on assignment for Reuters in Moscow and spent over a dozen years collaborating with her on this book. (Yes, Elizabeth agrees, that's a very long time to work on one project, but as she shares in this episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, it sometimes happens that life and career take center stage, both for an author and her subject, as memoir waits in the wings.) Learn more about Elizabeth Shockman: Instagram Twitter BlueSky Joy Womack Instagram Joy Womack Facebook  Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

David Peisner is a freelance journalist and ghostwriter/collaborator based in Atlanta. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, New York, Esquire, Playboy, and other publications. His first book collaboration—with "Steve-O," the legendary co-star of the legendarily out there MTV reality series "Jackass"—grew out of a magazine assignment, taking Peisner on a sidelong career turn he hadn't anticipated. "If you are only going to buy one book this year about an alcoholic, self-abusive, vegan, pyromaniac ex-circus clown with a talent for vomiting on command and stapling his scrotum to his leg, make sure this is the one," he wrote upon the book's publication. That book, Professional Idiot, became a New York Times best-seller, and led to a follow-up title, A Hard Kick in the Nuts, and a string of ghostwriting projects that helped to supplement Peisner's income as a freelance newspaper and magazine writer. Curiously, those two Steve-O books made headlines in December 2024, when they surfaced on the Goodreads account of suspected "CEO Killer" Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—a connection that put Peisner's work in an unexpected sliver of spotlight. It also brought his collaborative work to the attention of the similarly-named host of this here podcast, resulting in this conversation. Join us for a reflection on what it takes to build a career as a freelance journalist, and how to walk the fine line between writing about a celebrity subject and writing for a celebrity subject. Learn more about David Peisner: Website BlueSky Twitter Threads Homey Don't Play That! – The Story of In Living Color and the Black Comedy Revolution "Devil With a Cause" (05/19/24 Rolling Stone profile of Kid Rock) Please support the sponsors who support our show: John Kasich's Heaven Help Us (now available for pre-order) Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Heaven Help Us by John Kasich Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount