As Told To

“In general, magazine profiles are to biographies as inland lakes are to oceans,” writes the late entertainment journalist and ghostwriter Bill Zehme in The New York Times best-selling Carson the Magnificent. “Far less sprawling and easier to navigate.”   This is true—and readers need look no further than Zehme’s latest (and last) book, completed posthumously, for confirmation. Zehme, who collaborated on memoirs with Jay Leno and Regis Philbin and was a frequent contributor to Esquire, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Vanity Fair, worked on his Carson biography for over a decade, before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023, The New York Times cited “Carson the Magnificent” in his obit as one of the entertainment world’s “great unfinished biographies.”  Enter podcast guest Mike Thomas, Bill Zehme’s former research assistant and longtime friend, who was tapped to complete the project, which was an immediate New York Times best-seller upon its publication last month. “Everything I needed (and so much more) was there, somewhere, stashed in long-unopened binders and torn envelopes and dusty bins,” Mike Thomas writes of this collaboration. “It was mostly a matter of sifting through the stockpile, extracting and sorting the relevant material and reaching out to a handful of Bill’s sources, all of whom were eager to help, for further illumination. But I’ve never lost sight of the fact that, despite my contributions, this is Bill’s book.” The book, Mike says, has been a blessing, gifting him the chance to keep connected to a close pal with whom he can no longer communicate directly—a mentor who cheered him on during his own career as arts and entertainment features writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, as a regular contributor to Chicago magazine, and as the author of two critically-acclaimed books of his own—The Second City Unscripted and You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman. Learn more about Mike Thomas: Instagram Threads Grantland profile of Jan Hooks Mentioned on the show:  The Bob Book, by Bill Zehme and ATT guest David Rensin Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

This episode originally aired on Feb. 14, 2023 “I moved on to the next thing I was going to write,” says the noted dramatist and television writer Winnie Holzman, recalling the cancellation of her critically-acclaimed series “My So-Called Life,” after just one season. “That’s what we do as writers.  We move on to the next thing.”  Indeed. In Winnie Holzman’s case, one of those “next things” turned out to be the book for the hit Broadway musical “Wicked,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz—one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. The collaboration earned her a prestigious Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, as well as a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical. Prior to her Emmy-nominated work on “My So-Called Life,” which she created for executive producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, Winnie wrote several scripts for the Zwick-Herskovitz drama “Thirtysomething,” and she would go on to serve as executive producer of “Roadies,” created by Cameron Crowe, and as co-creator of the series “Huge,” with her daughter Savannah Dooley.  Join us as Winnie reflects on her wickedly successful career writing for the stage and the small screen, the many ways writers measure their successes, and the give-and-take that has fueled her collaborations with some of the most creative minds in theater and television. Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Hal Donaldson’s faith-based humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope is a magnificent agent of change.  In partnership with local churches, businesses, civic organizations, and government agencies, the organization is deeply committed to healing the world in all its broken places, through children’s feeding initiatives, community outreach and disaster response.    Convoy of Hope currently feeds more than 571,000 children worldwide each day—and has served more than 250 million people in total since Hal, together with his brothers and friends, started the organization in 1994. It’s the 35th largest charity on the latest Forbes “100 Largest U.S. Charities” list. So what does all of this have to do with ghostwriting?  Well, before launching Convoy of Hope, Hal started out as a journalist and ghostwriter. Early on in his career, on a ghostwriting assignment in Calcutta, he had the opportunity to interview Mother Teresa, who turned the tables on their interview and asked the young journalist what he was doing to repair the world. Hal had no answer, but when he returned to the United States a short while later, he rallied his friends and family and began donating goods and supplies to communities in need.  As the organization has grown, Hal has continued to write. He’s just out with his latest collaboration, What Really Matters: How to Care for Yourself and Serve a Hurting World, written in collaboration with his daughter Lindsay Donaldson-Kring.  Join us for an inspiring conversation on what really matters, as Hal Donaldson reflects on the good works that continue to flow from the first strokes of his pen.  Learn more about Hal Donaldson: Website Convoy of Hope Website Convoy of Hope Facebook Convoy of Hope Instagram Convoy of Hope Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

What does it take to help channel one of the most singular voices in rap in an entirely new medium? Join us as we chat with novelist and screenwriter Aaron Philip Clark, co-author of the just-published thriller The Accomplice, written in collaboration with rapper and entertainment mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.    Aaron is perhaps best known for his International Thriller Writers Award-nominated crime fiction series featuring Detective Trevor Finnegan (Blue Like Me, Under Color of Law), as well as for his standalone novels.     His first book with 50 Cent introduces readers to Nia Adams, a New York-born, Texas-bred detective who always dreamed of becoming a Texas Ranger, who sets off on the tail of a hardened Vietnam vet bad guy who steals the secrets of the rich and powerful.    In addition to writing fiction and screenplays, Aaron teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, and he collaborates with a variety of public figures and luminaries.    Learn more about Aaron Philip Clark: Website Facebook Instagram 50 Cent Instagram G-Unit Film & Television Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

“Lots of ambitious books announce themselves,” writes Lauren Christensen in The New York Times Book Review of podcast guest Betsy Lerner’s debut novel Shred Sisters. “This one doesn’t need to.” High praise for a first-time novelist, but that’s not surprising considering Betsy’s long and distinguished career as an editor and literary agent. A born storyteller (and, story-sharer), Betsy has helped to shape our literary landscape, as the guiding hand behind such cultural touchstones as Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation.  She’s also earned her As Told To stripes as the co-author of The New York Times best-selling Visual Thinking, written in collaboration with Temple Grandin, in addition to writing several non-fiction books of her own, including the memoir The Bridge Ladies, and the writing guidebook The Forest for the Trees.   A recovering poet, Betsy received an MFA in poetry from Columbia University, where she was selected as one of PEN’s Emerging Writers, before trading her pen for a red pencil and embarking on a heralded career as an editor.  With the publication of her first novel, longlisted prior to publication for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Betsy kick-starts an exciting new chapter in her writing life, offering a rich, bittersweet tale of sisterhood, mental health, love and loss, and reminding us that it’s never too late to become the artist you were always meant to be.   Learn more about Betsy Lerner: Website TikTok Facebook Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Over the course of her nearly forty-year career, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule has earned a singular spot in the American songbook. Best known for her breakout 1995 singles “Supermodel” (from the “Clueless” soundtrack) and “I Kissed a Girl” (which came out more than 10 years before the Katy Perry hit of the same name), her quirky, heartfelt, cheer-filled songs are difficult to categorize: she sings about the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, the French Resistance, LGBTQ issues and Mexican wrestling.  In another decade, Jon Pareles, the chief pop music critic of The New York Times, wrote that she stands “among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade”—high praise that has surely applied in all subsequent decades.      Jill’s songs are enchanting, disarmingly funny and achingly poignant, and many of them are featured in her Drama Desk-nominated autobiographical musical "F*ck 7th Grade," which premiered at the Wild Project in NYC in 2022 and returns for a limited engagement in November 2024.  “We didn’t have to create a story around these songs,” she says of the show, which she really, really hopes isn’t dismissed as just another jukebox musical featuring songs from an artist’s back catalogue. “These songs are my story. I just wrote a few more to fill out the narrative.” Jill joins us on the podcast to discuss her rich and varied career as one of the music industry’s most uniquely collaborative artists. She’s performed with musicians such as Neil Young, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, and Warren Zevon, and once released a concept album of original music with lyrics written by some of her favorite writers, including Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, Vendela Vida, and David Hajdu. She regularly tours with comedian/actress/author Julia Sweeney in their two-woman “Jill & Julia” show. Two highlights from the very many cool, pinch me-type moments that have stamped Jill Sobule’s remarkable career: she inducted Neil Diamond into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and she appeared as herself on an episode of “The Simpsons.”  So, you know, there’s that.  Learn more about Jill Sobule: Website Patreon Instagram Threads Facebook Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

“The task of writing is to take a character and put him up a tree and start throwing rocks at him,” notes novelist, screenwriter, comic book writer, and television showrunner J. Michael Straczynski. The two-time Hugo Award-winning author is perhaps best known as the creator of the television series “Babylon 5”, and as the screenwriter for the 2008 Oscar-nominated Clint Eastwood film “Changeling.” He is also the author of the Superman: Earth One” trilogy of graphic novels, and for many years he was the writer for Marvel Comics’ “Thor,” “Fantastic Four,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” series, as well as for DC’s “Superman,” “Wonder Woman,” and “Before Watchmen” titles.     These days, Joe is spending most of his time throwing rocks on behalf of his late friend Harlan Ellison, the legendary writer of speculative fiction, who is having a bit of a moment more than six years after his death. As the executor of the Harlan Ellison estate, Joe has been the driving force behind the re-release of the first two installments of Ellison’s landmark story collections Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, which the author had always imagined as a trilogy. Now, thanks to Joe Straczynski’s dedication, the long-awaited third installment of “the most significant and controversial Science Fiction collections of our time,” will finally see the light of day with the publication of The Last Dangerous Visions, due from Blackstone Publishing in October 2024. “Harlan was my friend, and I have an obligation to him to get his work where it needs to be, in front of a mainstream audience,” Joe reflects on a year that has also seen the publication of a new collection of Ellison’s stories (Greatest Hits) as well as a novel of his own (The Glass Box).  Join us as we talk with J. Michael Straczynski on his influences as a writer, on the art and craft of storytelling in all its many forms, and on what it has meant to him to be able to breathe new life into the work of an artist hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a twentieth-century Lewis Carroll.” Learn more about  J. Michael Straczynski: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Best-selling author, investigative journalist, political commentator and memoirist Nancy French is a storyteller at heart. She’s helped to write more than a dozen books, including five New York Times best-sellers, with a variety of collaborators from conservative politicians to Olympic athletes to reality television stars.  Her latest memoir—Ghosted: An American Story—was published in Spring 2024 to wide critical acclaim. CNN’s Jake Tapper hailed the book prior to publication as “a great read for anyone trying to make sense of cultural whiplash over the last few years,” and went on to write that “Nancy French’s journey from poverty-stricken mountains to a presidential campaign plane is a joy.”  Join us as we kick off Season 4 at the podcast factory with an insight-filled conversation on what it means to lend your voice to leaders who share your values, only to find yourself “ghosted” by a political establishment that seemed to want to punish you for your refusal to endorse the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee.    Learn more about Nancy French: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Threads Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Originally aired Dec. 6, 2022. Frank Santopadre is a veteran comedy writer and the longtime co-host of “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast,” with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. Prior to working with Gilbert, Frank helped to write jokes and supporting material for numerous awards shows (including the Daytime Emmys, the TV Land Awards, and the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize). He has also written comics for Bazooka Joe bubble gum, and mock ad copy, concepts, and character profiles for the Topps Company’s popular Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards series. Oh, and did we mention he also wrote for Mad and Cracked magazines? And the somewhat less zany The New York Times, The Washington Post, People, US Weekly, and Politico? Along the way, he has created comedy material for an eclectic line-up of celebrated personalities, including Bill Murray, Howard Stern, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, Martin Short, and Ben Stiller, and briefly served as a staff writer on what he proudly calls “the worst sitcom in television history”—a forgettable show from the late ‘90s called “Lost on Earth,” hailed by The Los Angeles Times during its mercifully-brief run as “mirthless.” Join us for a somewhat more mirth-filled hour, as we talk about what it was like to help give voice to one of the most singular voices in the annals of American comedy—a joyful burden Frank kinda, sorta shared with podcast host Daniel Paisner, who collaborated with Gilbert Gottfried on his 2011 memoir Rubber Balls and Liquor. Learn more about Frank Santopadre, visit his official website, like his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter.  Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Join podcast host Daniel Paisner as he moderates the keynote panel discussion at the inaugural “Gathering of the Ghosts” ghostwriting conference earlier this year—an event jointly sponsored by Gotham Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.   Dan is joined by music journalist Holly Gleason and former As Told To guests Seth Davis and Jodi Lipper for a spirited discussion on their ghostwriting journeys, and a reflection on the many ways authors and journalists are writing in collaboration.  Learn more about our guests: Follow Seth Daviss on X | Episode 61 Holly Gleason Website Jodi Lipper Website | Episode 28 Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Hope Edelman is an author, ghostwriter, essayist, writing instructor and life coach. The through-line connecting much of her work, from the collaborations she’s helped to write to her own best-selling memoirs, is the theme of parent-loss. “Navigating motherhood without your mom is like assembling a complex puzzle without the picture on the box,” she writes in a blog post on her website. She’s been writing about the grief and loss in her own life since her best-selling 1994 memoir Motherless Daughters—a book she began as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, when she realized she was being called to write about her mother’s death more than a decade earlier.  It's a calling that connects Hope to her ghostwriting clients as well. Her first collaboration, a dual memoir written with actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez—Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son—is informed by the death of Sheen’s mother, when the actor was just 11 years old, while her current project, written with Owen Elliot-Kugell, the daughter of the late Cass Elliot—My Mama, Cass—finds its narrative drive in the sudden death of the author’s mother, who died in her sleep in a London apartment nearly ten years after she shot to fame as a member of The Mamas & The Papas. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize for Creative Nonfiction, Hope has taught writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the University of Iowa, and Antioch University-Los Angeles.  Join us for a compelling conversation on what it means to find a way to heal as you find your voice as a writer.    Learn more about Hope Edelman: Website Facebook Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Television director, filmmaker and author Adam Nimoy, the son of actor Leonard Nimoy, knows what it means to grow up in the chilling shadow of a famous father. He also knows what it means to tell a helluva story, and he does so in the pages of his new memoir The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy. The book explores the author’s complicated relationship with his father and reflects on how it informed his views on marriage, parenting, addiction and recovery. A graduate of Loyola Law School, Adam Nimoy started his career working in entertainment law, before becoming a filmmaker, ultimately directing dozens of network television shows—some of them, he allows with self-deprecating good cheer, “sublime”, and some of them “eminently unwatchable.” He also directed the documentary “For the Love of Spock,” which was originally conceived as a collaborative venture with his father shortly before the actor’s death in 2015. Adam also taught writing, directing and acting at the New York Film Academy, and filmmaking at Beit T’Shuvah, an addiction treatment center.   “Whether you’re a Leonard Nimoy fan, a Trekkie, or from another planet,” writes noted rabbi and social justice advocate Shmuly Yanklowitz, “you are sure to find this vulnerable, brave, humorous, and intimate story about Spock, the outer limits, a father-son relationship, and teshuvah (recovery and repair) deeply moving.”   Learn more about Adam Nimoy: Website Instagram Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Michael Franklin is the co-founder and executive director of Speechwriters of Color, a community of expert and aspiring communicators helping to give voice to leaders at every level of the public, private and non-profit sectors. As a proud partner of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, the organization has placed dozens of candidates in both full-time and contract roles as speechwriters across the Biden-Harris administration.   “We are definitely understanding and realizing the power of words to make a difference,” Michael says.   As the founder and chief thought leadership officer of Words Normalize Behavior, a Black- and Gen Z-owned and certified LGBT Business Enterprise, Michael has developed a reputation as a leading communications strategist, working with clients in higher education, political advocacy, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, sports and entertainment.   Michael’s commitment to telling stories through coalition building, targeted outreach and inclusive communications practices has its roots in his commitment to public speaking and debating.  While a student at Howard University, he was the inaugural HBCU Speech and Debate League National Champion in both Parliamentary Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking and helped to lead the school’s debate team in 2019’s “Great Debate” against Harvard University.  Learn more about Michael Franklin: LinkedIn Website Twitter Instagram Please support the sponsors who support our show: Ritani Jewelers Chelsea Devantez's I Shouldn't Be Telling You This Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog  Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot 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

Ellis Henican—New York Times best-selling collaborator, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist, and popular television news pundit—had perhaps the coolest side-gig of any of our podcast guests to date. He provided the voice of “Stormy” in the adult animated television series “SeaLab 2021,” which ran on the Cartoon Network for four seasons.  This spring, he’s also provided the “voice” for books by former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (What Would Reagan Do?); legendary actor Tom Selleck (You Never Know); and, high-stakes hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman (In the Shadows), marking him as perhaps the busiest ghostwriter of the publishing season.  Ellis’s other collaborative credits include Home Team, a New York Times best-seller written with New Orleans Saints football coach Sean Payton; In the Blink of Any Eye: Dale, Daytona, and the Day that Changed Everything, with two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip; and Doc, with former All-Star pitcher Dwight “Doc” Gooden.  For 20 years, he wrote a thrice-weekly column in New York Newsday, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper’s coverage of the Union Square train wreck. Join us as Ellis reflects on his mid-career pivot from the newsroom, the lessons he’s learned writing on behalf some of our most influential athletes, actors, and politicians, and how it happened that a veteran journalist found his way to becoming a cartoon character.  Learn more about Ellis Henican: Twitter Instagram Facebook LinkedIn 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 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

“Celebrity memoirs have always been my favorite book genre,” reflects podcast guest Chelsea Devantez, the Emmy-nominated writer, comedian, director, and host of the celebrity book club podcast “Glamorous Trash.” “That is what happens when your nearest bookstore growing up is a Wal-Mart. That was my fate.”  Chelsea is just out with a celebrity-adjacent memoir of her own, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This (But I’m Going to Anyway), from Hanover Square Press. It’s a book that might surprise her loyal podcast listeners, or viewers who know her from her work as a television writer for shows like “Not Dead Yet,” “Girls5Eva,” and “Bless This Mess,” or as the head writer for the Apple TV+ show “The Problem with Jon Stewart.”  The book is wildly funny in spots, but harrowing and traumatic in others, as Chelsea tells her story through a series of essays about the many women who have given her life shape and meaning, recounting a tumultuous childhood, a series of toxic relationships, and a pattern of domestic violence that might have upended a less determined soul.  Join us as we talk with Chelsea about her new book, about her unlikely career path, and about the current state of the celebrity memoir, in a conversation that will hopefully make you think about the stories we share, and the ways we go about sharing them.  Learn more about Chelsea Devantez: Website "Glamorous Trash" podcast Instagram Twitter Facebook TikTok Patreon 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 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

“You gotta be the best on your worst day.” Words to live by from the mother of Ronda Rousey, the mixed-martial-artist-turned-professional wrestler known as “the baddest woman on the planet.” Rousey’s mother happens to be first American to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships, and she also happens to be the mother of podcast guest Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author of Rousey’s just-published memoir Our Fight. The book is a follow-up to the sisters’ previous collaboration—the New York Times best-selling My Fight/Your Fight.    Maria has taken her mother’s hard-won advice to heart, in an entirely different arena from her famous sister. A former columnist at ESPN.com, with an expertise in digital integration in sports media, she was honored as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Emerging Journalist of the Year in 2007 and has served as an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College.  Alongside her work as a journalist, Maria is also a leader and innovator in the game development industry. She is the CEO and co-founder of 7 Generation Games, an award-winning developer of educational adventure games for children, and was recently named executive director of Global Game Jam, the world’s largest game creation event.  Join us as Maria shares what it was like to give voice to a shared childhood and a family history that gave rise to one of the most celebrated female athletes of our time.  Learn more about Maria Burns Ortiz: Website X/Twitter Instagram Ronda Rousey on Instagram Ronda Rousey on Twitter 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 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

“Reading to me is like breathing,” notes Zibby Owens, the creator and host of the Webby Award- winning podcast “Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books,” who joins us on the podcast to discuss her lifelong love of reading and writing and her commitment to championing books and authors. Indeed, Zibby has built on the success of her podcast to become the publishing industry’s “most powerful book-fluencer,” according to New York magazine.  A frequent contributor to “Good Morning America” and other media outlets, she is the co-founder and CEO of Zibby Books, an independent book publisher, and the owner of Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California. Across her Zibby Media empire—which devoted followers have christened “the Zibby-verse”—she also offers retreats, classes, special events, a book club, a writing group, and other bookish opportunities.  “Everything has unraveled one thing at a time,” she says, of her full-on embrace of the book world, and the community of book lovers she has helped to nourish. “It’s like a carpet sort of unspooling in front of me.”  Most recently, Zibby has added the title of novelist to her long list of credits.  Her just-published first novel, Blank, the story of a frustrated writer who seeks to disrupt the publishing industry, was hailed as “a delightful gift to book lovers,” by New York Times best-selling author Carley Fortune. Join us for a fresh, candid conversation on what it means to celebrate the written word.  Learn more about Zibby Owens: Website Zibby Media “Moms Don’t Have Times to Read Books” Facebook Twitter Instagram Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature 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 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

“This is an author who really has his finger on the way kids think,” The New York Times says of podcast guest Todd Strasser, the author of over 150 books, including the award-winning young adult and middle-grade novels The Wave, Give a Boy a Gun, and Fallout. He is also the author of the wildly popular Help! I’m Trapped series of books for young readers, as well as several other best-selling series and movie tie-in books and novelizations.  His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and several have been adapted for film and television. Many of his standalone books are pulled from today’s headlines, exploring difficult themes like bullying, homelessness and school shootings. Join us as we talk with Todd about his influences as a writer, and his unlikely career turns writing X-rated fortune cookies (“clairvoyant contortionist is one who can see her own end”) and soap operas (“Guiding Light”) to become one of our most prolific YA novelists.   Oh, and he also finds time to share one of the best pieces of writing advice he ever received, after struggling for a way to explain how the character of Cameron Frye managed to place a chair on the edge of a diving board, facing the pool, before sitting himself down in it, as he attempted to “novelize” a key scene in the “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” script: “You just cut to it!” Learn more about Todd Strasser: Website Twitter Facebook Summer of ‘69 The Lazy Person’s Guide to Surfing (with Lia Strasser) 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 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 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 magazine journalist Genevieve Field joins us to discuss her mid-career pivot into ghostwriting, as she celebrates the success of her “Andy Award”-winning collaboration with Hollywood stuntwoman Kimberly Shannon Murphy. Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing, Murphy’s unflinchingly honest account of intergenerational familial abuse, was honored this winter with an inaugural “Andy Award”—so named for the “and” credit often awarded to ghostwriters—at the first annual “Gathering of the Ghosts” conference in New York City, jointly sponsored by Gotham Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.    Genevieve Field is no stranger to long-form storytelling in the voice of one of her subjects, but she is a relative newcomer to book-length memoir and collaborative non-fiction. Prior to embarking on a freelance writing career, she worked as a story editor at The New York Times Magazine, as the editorial director of Seventeen online, and the features director at Glamour. While at Glamour, she was a frequent contributor to the magazine’s first-person celebrity features, presenting “as told to” articles in the voices of notable figures such as Rachel Maddow, Cecile Richards, and Sarah Silverman. She also co-founded the Webby-Award winning magazine and dating site, Nerve. “I help writers unearth the stories in their hearts, get that deep wisdom on the page, and create breakthrough books,” she writes on her website. “Whether serving as a collaborator or editor, my purpose is always the same: to help bring important stories and great writing into the world.” "This book is so much more than the sum of its parts,” notes actor Cameron Diaz in the forward to Glimmer. “It is a gift. It is Kimberly's offering to readers suffering in silence. It is a companion for anyone who has endured trauma, at any level. And it is a beautiful tribute to the strength and power of the human spirit." And, in the talented hands of podcast guest Genevieve Field, it is a powerful example of what it takes to collaborate on a deeply personal memoir of sexual abuse and childhood trauma. Learn more about Genevieve Field: Website LinkedIn Glimmer: A Story of Survival, Hope, and Healing Glamour piece by Sarah Silverman, on her battle with depression, as told to Genevieve Field 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 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 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

Seth Davis is a veteran sports journalist and broadcaster, and The New York Times best-selling author of Wooden: A Coach’s Life and When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball. He is the co-author of the just-published memoir It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me, written with NBA veteran and University of Kentucky basketball legend Rex Chapman—a book that transcends (and upends!) the sports memoir genre and stands as a devasting and inspiring story about the human struggle for self-acceptance.  Over the course of his career, Seth has written for The Athletic and Sports Illustrated and served as a college basketball studio analyst and reporter at CBS Sports.   “You have to make the phone ring,” he says, echoing a piece of advice once shared with him by his one-time SI colleague and longtime friend and mentor Rick Reilly, of his efforts to grow his game from magazine and broadcast journalism and jump-start his career as an author and collaborator.   Join us as we celebrate “March Madness” with one of our leading sportswriters who is fast becoming a sought-after ghostwriter, calling on the hard-won experience he’s developed in thousands of locker room and post-game interviews to help his subjects reflect on the games we play and the reasons we play them.  Learn more about Seth Davis: Twitter/X Substack: “Seth Davis Writes Again”  TikTok Wake Up with Purpose! (with Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt) Empower: Conquering the Disease of Fear (with Tareq Azim)  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 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 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