The one, the only Candace Bushnell is on the show today! *insert fangirl screaming here* As Sex and the City is my favorite show of all time—and Candace, you know, created the whole franchise back in 1994—this is a dream come true. I actually met Candace in person in 2019, when she was on her book tour for Is There Still Sex and the City? , and I found her to be as lovely as I hoped she would be. Most people probably know Candace best from penning The New York Observer column “Sex and the City” ...
Dec 21, 2023•34 min•Season 9Ep. 6
For Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino—star of MTV’s Jersey Shore and a career reality show talent with other appearances on shows like Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Big Brother —the highs have been very high, and the lows have been very low. At his highest point (or at least what he thought was his highest point at the time), Mike was a multimillionaire, the second highest-paid reality star of 2010—second only to Kim Kardashian. Drugs, partying, and women came easily, and he was living seem...
Dec 18, 2023•33 min•Season 9Ep. 5
There will literally never be another "I'd Rather Be Reading" episode this short again. Enjoy it, and support your local booksellers this holiday season. That's all!
Dec 15, 2023•1 min•Season 9Ep. 5
Today on the show we have one-half of one of my favorite writing duos: BBC’s Katty Kay who, along with fellow journalist Claire Shipman, has authored five books that are all about advancing womanhood. The bulk of our conversation today centers around The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance — What Women Should Know , addressing specifically the confidence gap between men and women, which is keeping women from achieving their full potential. Confidence is something that matters ...
Dec 15, 2023•32 min•Season 9Ep. 4
There are so many details when it comes to planning a wedding: what dress code will your guests wear? How about the flowers? Should you get a photographer, a videographer, or both? What do you want your wedding theme to be? (I honestly didn’t even know there was such a thing.) There are so many details to planning a wedding that it can be enormously overwhelming, but it will be decidedly less so with my guest today’s new book. Terri Pous had only been on one date with her now fiancé when she sta...
Dec 13, 2023•36 min•Season 9Ep. 3
Some episodes of this show are more niche, and some apply to us all—and this is an example of the latter. No matter where you’re at in your personal finance journey—whether you’re debt free and have it all figured out or are in a rock bottom moment financially—my guest today is here to teach you something. I am so excited to introduce you to my personal finance heroine Tiffany Aliche, also known as “The Budgetnista,” whose new book, Made Whole: The Practical Guide to Reaching Your Financial Goal...
Dec 07, 2023•42 min•Season 9Ep. 2
Today’s season nine opener is so fun—I could have talked to Rob Harvilla forever! We are going back to our mutual favorite decade, the 1990s, specifically to talk the decade’s music. And what a random grab bag assortment that decade was in terms of music: grunge. Ska. Swing. The Latin explosion. Bubblegum pop. Hip-hop—perhaps some of the best of the genre, ever. MTV still played music videos (!), and played them all the time. We all knew every song on the Top 40. The 1990s were magic, as Rob wri...
Dec 05, 2023•58 min•Season 9Ep. 1
For our season eight finale, I had the honor of speaking to the editor-in-chief of Guideposts , a faith-based magazine I grew up reading, as my grandparents were subscribers. If you’ve listened to past episodes, you know that Alzheimer’s disease has profoundly affected my family, my grandparents, in particular—and that is the topic of conversation today, as I speak with Edward Grinnan about his mother’s battle with the disease and his fear of one day falling victim to it, too. This beautiful con...
Dec 03, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 21
Samantha Harris—a broadcaster who you know from co-hosting Dancing with the Stars alongside Tom Bergeron for seven seasons and hosting shows like E! News , Entertainment Tonight , and so many more—is the picture of health, and even wrote the book on it back in 2018. She’s also a breast cancer survivor and learned firsthand that, at the end of the day, if your health is compromised, not much else matters. Today we have a wide ranging conversation about diet, exercise, and getting to our healthies...
Nov 26, 2023•47 min•Season 8Ep. 20
Who knew that a text about blueberries could nearly end a marriage? Eve Rodsky received a text from her husband, Seth, asking why she didn’t pick up blueberries at the store—and it sparked a movement that has saved countless marriages and made women’s time and the value of it a topic in the forefront of conversation. A Harvard-educated lawyer, Eve is the author of two of my favorite books: Fair Play: A Game Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) and Find Your ...
Nov 23, 2023•47 min•Season 8Ep. 19
This conversation lit a fire in me, and I knew I’d Rather Be Reading was nowhere near finished. Mitch is the author of my favorite work of fiction of all time, The Five People You Meet in Heaven , and his latest, The Little Liar , is just as powerful. It takes us back to the Holocaust, a beautiful tale during an awful time told masterfully by the well-researched and thoughtful Mitch Albom. This show is about nonfiction books, so you know if we have a fiction pick on the show, it’s special. That’...
Nov 18, 2023•44 min•Season 8Ep. 18
The Murdaugh saga (there is no better word I can find for it than that) gripped the nation earlier this year, as patriarch Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two life sentences for the brutal murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul. As horrific as that crime alone is, that’s nowhere near where the Murdaugh saga begins or ends. In 2019, a boat driven by Paul crashed and killed friend Mallory Beach; an upcoming hearing about the Murdaugh finances is what I believe killed Paul and Maggie jus...
Nov 13, 2023•58 min•Season 8Ep. 17
It’s very rare I know my guests on the show personally, but for today’s episode, I do. I have been proud to know Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd since our days as students at the University of Kansas, where we all graduated from journalism school in the same class—the class of 2009. (As the senior class president of the class of 2009 back in my glory days, to that I say a heartfelt Rock Chalk.) Mark and Rustin have gone on to have extremely successful careers, both in sportswriting; Mark is now workin...
Nov 10, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 16
It's January 15, 1978. Kathy Kleiner is a student at Florida State University and is asleep in her room at the Chi Omega sorority house. Unbeknownst to her, a serial killer named Ted Bundy has discovered the sorority house’s back door is accessible—the lock is broken. That night, he broke into the house, murdered two of her sorority sisters, savagely injured Kathy and her roommate, and changed so many lives forever. Today, Kathy gets to tell her story. It is harrowing and terrifying, and please ...
Nov 08, 2023•44 min•Season 8Ep. 15
From beauty in our last throwback pick episode to fashion in this one, I have another of my heroes, Robin Givhan, on the program today. Robin is a fashion critic at The Washington Post and is a Pulitzer Prize winner, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2006—the first time that award was given to a fashion writer. Just as she herself has made history, her 2015 book The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History talks about a night that...
Nov 05, 2023•40 min•Season 8Ep. 14
Today’s episode is truly a dream come true—I get to chat with one of my heroes in the magazine industry, Jean Godfrey-June, current beauty editor at Goop, former beauty editor at Lucky , a writer for Elle and Vanity Fair , and the author of today’s throwback pick, 2006’s Free Gift with Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup —her memoir. I am happy to tell you that, even though she’s interviewed everyone and seen everything, she is so down to earth and relatable—the ultimate cool ...
Nov 02, 2023•41 min•Season 8Ep. 13
When we think of famous pairs, we’ve got Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Thelma and Louise, Bonnie and Clyde, and, per the topic of today’s discussion, Siskel and Ebert. These two film critics were fierce rivals working for competing newspapers in Chicago and never envisioned working together—when I say they were bitter rivals, put some emphasis on the bitter—but ended up uniting to form a partnership that changed the way we see movies forever. Here to talk about it all is Matt Singer, whose new book explore...
Nov 01, 2023•41 min•Season 8Ep. 12
Here’s the thing: whether we claim it or not, we all have a personal style. So why not take control of it and leverage it for the good? Our guest today, Allison Bornstein, will teach you how to do just that. There are so many quantifiable tips on this episode -- The AB Closet Editing System! The Three Word Method! The Nine Universal Pieces! -- that the only way you won’t learn something is if you don’t listen. When you look good, you feel good, and, as Allison will teach us, fashion is a tool fo...
Oct 29, 2023•35 min•Season 8Ep. 11
The 1970s was a pivotal decade in the wide world of sports: Title IX and women and sports; widespread racial integration across athletics; athletes taking their power back and taking ownership of their careers; sports shifting to primetime television; and so much more. I don’t think any of us realize until author Michael MacCambridge put it all in writing just how much the 1970s changed sports forever. He is here to talk about it all with me today—and stick around until the end of the episode, w...
Oct 26, 2023•42 min•Season 8Ep. 10
Just when you think you know everything there is to know about the Beatles, the most famous group in history—you’re wrong. Today on the show we have the Beatles expert himself, Philip Norman, here to break down George Harrison, as complex and complicated a character as they come. Just about as antithetical to fame as it gets, George never saw his talent like the rest of the world did, and his contributions to music are vast: “Something.” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” “Here Comes the Sun.” “My ...
Oct 24, 2023•44 min•Season 8Ep. 9
As ever in Hollywood, there are so many movies set to be released by the end of the year that are based on books, both nonfiction and fiction. Take a listen to what to expect when it comes to movie adaptations of fantastic memoirs, biographies, works of nonfiction, novels, and more -- and see which ones sound appealing to you.
Oct 21, 2023•10 min•Season 8Ep. 8
If you’ve been looking for a book that clearly and concisely lays out how to live your best life—your happiest, healthiest life—you’re in luck, because this episode is about just that! Liz Moody’s latest book, 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships, and Success , came out this week and offers up 100 easily implementable tips to live a full life. As I start to implement some of the 100 tips into my own life, I am already noticing a difference, an...
Oct 20, 2023•39 min•Season 8Ep. 7
What a powerful episode we have for you today, listeners -- on the program we have former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas Nicole Avant, whose new book talks about working through grief after the murder of her mother, Jacqueline Avant, in December 2021, and the loss of her father, Clarence Avant, this past August. Grief is certainly not something any of us want to face, but when it's here, it helps to follow the lead of others who have navigated it and are navigating it, too, and the lessons and w...
Oct 18, 2023•40 min•Season 8Ep. 6
Talk about feeling seen—when I read Alicia Menendez’s book The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed As You Are four years ago, I thought, “Finally. Someone gets me.” And, listeners, I believe you will feel seen too through this conversation, though I wish that wasn’t so. So often women in particular have to choose between being successful and likeable. Why is it so difficult to like a successful woman? And why do we care if we are liked at all? We dig into everything in this Throwback...
Oct 11, 2023•35 min•Season 8Ep. 5
What are you most afraid of? Chances are, it's one of the nine fears that personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi encourages readers to face head on in her latest book, "A Healthy State of Panic." Instead of attempting to become fearless, she encourages us to stare fear in the face and embrace it as a gift. We are used to hearing from Farnoosh sound advice about all things money -- and while that component is in the book, too, the book is so, so much more than that. It destigmatizes fear and, on...
Oct 04, 2023•43 min•Season 8Ep. 4
Cindy Chupack is a multihyphenate -- a screenwriter, a director, an executive producer, a Golden Globe winner, an Emmy winner. She has written for iconic shows like Sex and the City (where I first became aware of her work -- she wrote more episodes of the show than almost anyone), Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond, Divorce, and so many more, and, for the past five years, she has been directing, as well. In addition to that -- and serving as an executive producer -- Cindy has written three b...
Sep 30, 2023•57 min•Season 8Ep. 3
We have a fantastic episode for you today! In our first Yesteryear Pick of season eight, we have on the show Brian Stelter, who literally wrote the book on morning television. His 2013 book "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV" was the basis of Apple TV+'s hit series "The Morning Show" starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. The show's third season premiered this month, and Brian is on the show today to talk about it, why morning television will always be import...
Sep 27, 2023•28 min•Season 8Ep. 2
We're back! Season eight will be a bit of this, a bit of that -- I'm calling it my potpourri season. We'll have some fiction picks, some yesteryear picks, but still keep to our ethos of bringing you the best current nonfiction picks, like today's episode. Marisa Meltzer has just released the book of the season three days ago, and it dives into the rise of the beauty brand Glossier, its mysterious founder Emily Weiss, and the beauty industry as a whole in the U.S. It is a must read, even if you'r...
Sep 15, 2023•55 min•Season 8Ep. 1
Surprise! Only for Luke Russert would I come back from hiatus -- and what a great chat this was. Luke's book is a New York Times bestseller, and for good reason. It unpacks the grief he felt over losing his father, Tim Russert, at such a young age; traveling the world in search of himself; his relationship with his mother Maureen Orth, also an iconic journalist; nepotism in the workplace; and so much more. This will be our last episode for a while, so I hope you enjoy it -- and pick up this book...
Jun 20, 2023•39 min•Season 7Ep. 20
For our season seven finale, we're chatting with the wonderful Anna Kloots about rediscovering your magic. Magic, as you'll hear in our conversation, was a central theme in Anna's life -- her ex-husband was a magician. When they divorced, Anna lost her marriage, her home, and her job, and was forced to start over and build a life from the ruins. As you'll hear, she built a life she is proud of -- one that is, well, magic. As I announced in the last episode, at the close of season seven I'd Rathe...
May 16, 2023•31 min•Season 7Ep. 19
