Robin Abcarian with The Los Angeles Times

When Robin asked to interview me about my book for her Op-Ed last fall, I was of course thrilled! To be an indie author launching your first book and have interest from a journalist of Robin’s caliber falls into the "dream come true" category of life.

Robin and I talked about all the things! We start out with her history writing about the fashion industry including watching some Fendi bag bandits at a PFW, comparing our different times and experiences in France, her journey to what she writes now which are articles that pack a necessary punch to make us think and hopefully compel us to action, what it means to role model empowering body talk for younger girls and how she views her profession as a journalist as one that can offer others generosity and grace.

Finally, how she keeps her own heart plus-sized being a journalist is shared with such sincerity. Listen to the end. It'll expand your heart! 💖

I know I pronounced Op-Ed wrong. 🤦🏼‍♀️ My apologies to all the journalists listening. I'm always learning! 🙋‍♀️

Here is Robin’s incredible bio:

Robin Abcarian is an award-winning columnist at the Los Angeles Times. Twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, she writes about politics and culture for the opinion pages.

Before taking this assignment in September 2020, she was the paper’s roving California columnist for several years. Checking into far flung corners of the state, she reported columns about all aspects of life in the Golden State. 

She has also written frequently about sexual harassment, abortion rights and the #MeToo movement. 

In 2016, she wrote extensively about cannabis, which California voters approved for recreational use that year.

In 2017, her column about a Santa Rosa couple who survived a terrible wildfire by taking refuge in their neighbor’s swimming pool was one of the Internet’s most read stories.

Robin covered the 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns full time, and wrote occasionally about the 2016 campaign. 

As a culture writer for the paper’s Calendar section, she has covered the Oscars, the Emmys and the Sundance Film Festival. For most of the 1990s, she was a columnist for The Times’ feature section, before becoming the section’s editor in 2003. She has also been a radio talk show host and a frequent guest on radio and television news programs.

After receiving a double bachelor’s degree in English and French from UC Berkeley, she earned a Master’s degree in journalism at Boston University.

She began her career as a news intern at United Press International in downtown Los Angeles, before moving to the Ventura Star, the Santa Monica Outlook, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Detroit Free Press. She worked as a beat reporter, a feature writer, fashion editor and columnist.

During her stint as fashion editor at the Free Press, she covered the fall and spring shows in New York, Paris, London and Milan. 

In 1997, while working as a columnist at the LA Times, she was hired to co-host the nation’s first all-female morning drive commercial radio talk show in Los Angeles. The station, KTZN, lasted less than two years before being kicked off the dial to make way for Radio Disney for Kids.

Robin lives in Venice Beach with her 14-year-old niece and three-year old Golden Retriever.

You can learn more about me 🙋‍♀️ the host of Plus-Size Hearts on my website, Instagram and TikTok. You can purchase my book Plus-Size in Paris anywhere books are sold.

Instagram: @erinzhurkinwrites

TikTok: @erinzhurkinwrites

Website: erinzhurkin.com

The theme song "Vous Tous" (Be You) was written and preformed by Rachel Adell and is available anywhere you get your music! It is a great addition to your self-love playlist. 🫶

Instagram: @love.racheladell

Website: racheladell.com

The production and editing is done by Alice Krief of lesbellesfrequences.com