TSTB pays a return visit to the remarkable Dani Shapiro -- author of eleven books, as well as host and creator of the hit podcast Family Secrets. Her most recent novel, Signal Fires, was named a best book of 2022 by Time Magazine, Washington Post, Amazon, and others, and is a national bestseller. The paperback edition of Signal Fires will publish in October, and Dani is currently working on a television adaptation of the book. Shapiro is also the author of a series of moving, insightful memoirs ...
Aug 12, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Over 20-plus years, Dani Shapiro made a name for herself as a best-selling author of deeply revealing and unforgettable memoirs -- including "Slow Motion," "Hourglass," "Devotion," and "Inheritance." But in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Shapiro discovered a forgotten manuscript for an unfinished novel in her office closet -- and her return to fiction, which had been her career focus early on, became essential. The result was "Signal Fires," a wonderfully intimate novel that spans more than...
Jul 10, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 15
In her early twenties, Yaffa Lerea found her calling, working at the heart of storytelling as a film and television editor. Starting her career at a post-production facility by day while taking a night course in film production at New York University, Lerea discovered her passion for editing. Since then she has been an editor on numerous films and TV series, including Ken Burns’ award-winning “Baseball,” CNN’s “The Movies,” "The Sixties," and “The Eighties,” “Project Runway,” MTV’s “The Real Wor...
May 13, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In a career of over 30 years, Yaffa Lerea has truly honed her craft as a story shaper through film editing. From her work on early episodes of MTV's "The Real World" to her efforts on Ken Burns' seminal "Baseball" documentaries, Lerea has become a sought-after video storyteller in her own right. But how did she get her start? It was all about being in the right place at the right time -- namely, a post-production house in 1980s New York City. There she encountered every kind of filmmaker, from t...
Apr 27, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 13
TSTB shares its full interview with acclaimed science writer, editor, and film producer Timothy Ferris. In this wide-ranging discussion, Ferris reflects on his early career with Rolling Stone magazine, his transition to science writing, his friendship with Stephen Hawking -- including his role in developing the physicist's classic "A Brief History of Time" -- his collaboration with Carl Sagan on the Voyager project, and his lifelong passions for stargazing and music. The author of a dozen books,...
Mar 23, 2023•53 min•Season 3Ep. 12
A founding writer and editor at Rolling Stone magazine, Timothy Ferris profiled rockers like Todd Rundgren and Sly Stone before finding his own groove in the world of science. Over the past 40 years, Ferris has written best sellers like "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" and "The Whole Shebang" and produced three groundbreaking PBS documentaries, including "The Creation of the Universe." He also was the creative visionary behind the Voyager "golden discs" -- compilations of Earth's music and natur...
Mar 11, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Born in London, Gered Mankowitz established his first photography studio in 1963, at age 17, as the British rock and blues movements were about to explode. He started working with the Rolling Stones soon after, touring the US with the then-fledgling band and producing several of their early album covers. Mankowitz quickly became a sought-after rock lensman, capturing timeless images of major stars from the 1960s through today – Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, Traffic, Marianne Faithful, Elton John,...
Feb 12, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In the 1960s and '70s, British photographer Gered Mankowitz worked with some of rock's greatest stars at the peak of their creative powers. In the mid-1960s, he served as the Rolling Stones' "official" photographer, and he took now-classic shots of Jimi Hendrix, Kate Bush, Free, Traffic, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, and dozens of other artists. In this excerpt from our forthcoming full interview, Mankowitz tells how his own collaborative approach evolved, and how he learned to help sometimes-...
Jan 29, 2023•5 min•Ep. 22
TSTB shares an insightful and candid discussion with Garrett Hongo -- celebrated poet, memoirist, and audio writer. Born in Volcano, Hawai’i, Hongo grew up in Kahuku and in Los Angeles. His poetry collections are Yellow Light, The River of Heaven – which received the Lamont Poetry Prize and was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize – and Coral Road. His most recent book is 2022’s The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo. His other non-fiction includes The Mirror Diary and Volcano: A Memoir of Hawaiʻi. ...
Jan 01, 2023•57 min•Season 3Ep. 8
A Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Guggenheim fellow, Garrett Hongo is one of the country's most respected writers of Asian descent, gifted at both verse and memoir. And, as an educator and scholar since the 1970s, he has witnessed both sides of the diversity movement and cultural awakening -- with Asian American authors gaining new visibility, but also facing resentment and outright prejudice. In this excerpt from our forthcoming full interview with Hongo, he speaks candidly about his experie...
Dec 27, 2022•3 min•Season 3Ep. 7
In the 1970s, John Gardner was a star in the world of literary fiction, often mentioned in the same breath as Norman Mailer, John Updike, and Kurt Vonnegut. He won huge acclaim for his 1971 novel, Grendel, a post-modern retelling of the Beowulf legend. And in 1976, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for October Light, the story of two elderly Vermont siblings waging a war of wills inside their ramshackle home. Gardner was also a leading force in the movement to establish creative writ...
Nov 16, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 6
At the age of 22, Glenn Gould burst onto the global music scene – an instant star, thanks to his virtuoso recording of a then-obscure Bach work, “The Goldberg Variations.” And from the beginning, Gould was not just a musician, but a character who might have stepped from the pages of a novel – cheerfully eccentric, an admitted hypochondriac who wore scarves in the summertime, and a loner who preferred to sleep during the day and work through the night. Doing things differently seemed to make life...
Oct 04, 2022•49 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Marking the 90th birthday of the late, great Canadian pianist and media artist Glenn Gould, we offer this preview of our forthcoming interview with Tim Page -- a journalist and radio host who became Glenn's close friend. Shortly before Gould's death at age 50, Page traveled north to take part in a discussion with him -- occasioned by the pianist's now classic 2nd version of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" -- that became Gould's last interview. In this excerpt from our full interview about Gould as ...
Sep 25, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 4
On September 14, 1982, the celebrated novelist and critic John Gardner died in a still-mysterious motorcycle crash on a remote Pennsylvania road. In the 11 years leading up to that moment, Gardner had seen his fame skyrocket — with the publication of his masterful short novel "Grendel" — and then decline again almost as rapidly. He had become a legendary teacher of creative writing, authoring two now-classic guides to the craft. He had also been accused of plagiarism and offended many of the mos...
Sep 14, 2022•5 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this first interview of our third year, TSTB pays a return visit to the person who kicked things off for us in 2020 -- award-winning author Dean Sluyter. A grateful student of Eastern and Western sages in several traditions, Sluyter has completed numerous pilgrimages and retreats in India, Tibet, Nepal, and the West. He has also taught meditation since 1970, from maximum security prisons to the Guatemalan rainforest. Sluyter's latest book, "The Dharma Bum's Guide to Western Literature: Findin...
Sep 01, 2022•45 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In our first interview of TSTB's third year, we return to the writer who got us started -- the wonderfully engaging author, meditation teacher, and dharma storyteller Dean Sluyter. In his latest book, "The Dharma Bum's Guide to Western Literature," Sluyter draws on over four decades of teaching -- and even more years of dharma studies -- to surface enlightenment lessons in everything from "Huckleberry Finn" to "The Cat in the Hat." in this unforgettable anecdote, Sluyter tells how he learned his...
Aug 28, 2022•4 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this session, TSTB talks to legendary psychiatrist Dr. Bertrand Cramer. Born in 1934 in Geneva, Switzerland, Dr. Cramer moved to New York City at age 26 and graduated from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. A pioneer in child and infant psychiatry, Dr. Cramer has maintained a private practice for the past 27 years. He has authored eight books, including "The Earliest Relationship" — co-written with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton — and "The Scripts Parents Write and the Roles Babies Play." His 100...
Aug 03, 2022•52 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Now 88 years old, Dr. Bertrand Cramer is one of the world's most respected child and adolescent psychiatrists. With his book "The Scripts Parents Write and the Roles Children Play," Dr. Cramer delivered breakthrough insights on the power of family stories to influence childhood development. He also collaborated with best-selling author and fellow psychiatrist T. Berry Brazelton on the now-classic work "The Earliest Attachment: Parents, Infants, and the Drama of Early Attachment." In this excerpt...
Jul 17, 2022•3 min•Season 3Ep. 17
TSTB talks to artist filmmaker Toby Amies. Based on the South Coast of England, Amies makes long and short films about the creative process in what he calls “a vain attempt to compensate for his inability to come to terms with time and its passage.” He is the director of the award-winning 2012 documentary “The Man Whose Mind Exploded,” and the widely praised 2022 film “in the Court of the Crimson King” — a revealing exploration of the extraordinary British prog rock band King Crimson and its 50-...
Jun 06, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Toby Amies' "In the Court of the Crimson King" is already being celebrated as a classic among rock music documentaries -- and it hasn't even been officially released. Amies spent months following legendary guitarist Robert Fripp and his latest incarnation of the extraordinary music collective known as King Crimson -- now more than five decades old. The film is a singularly personal and truly engrossing look at a band from the inside, with revealing commentary from over 20 past and present member...
May 28, 2022•3 min•Season 3Ep. 16
TSTB interviews Dr. Judith Ruskay Rabinor --- clinical psychologist, author, speaker, and writing coach. She is supervisor at The Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia and a consultant to The Renfrew Center Foundation. Dr. Rabinor is the author of "The Girl in the Red Boots: Making Peace with My Mother" … "A Starving Madness: Tales of Hunger, Hope and Healing" … and "Befriending Your Ex After Divorce: Making Life Better for You, Your Kids and Yes Your Ex." She offers psychotherapy on-line...
May 07, 2022•52 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Dr. Judith Rabinor is the author, most recently, of the powerful memoir "The Girl in the Red Boots: Making Peace with My Mother." As a psychotherapist practicing in New York City, Dr. Rabinor has made mother/daughter relationships one of her specialties -- but she still faced big challenges in coming to terms with the complex legacy of her own Mom. In this timely excerpt from our forthcoming full interview, Dr. Rabinor talks about coming to terms with her mother's refusal to acknowledge negative...
May 07, 2022•2 min•Season 3Ep. 15
TSTB interviews Bianca Stone -- gifted poet, visual artist, creator of 'poetry comics, and educator. Her brand-new verse collection, What Is Otherwise Infinite, has been featured on NPR and in The New York Times and has been called "extraordinary" by The Washington Post. Stone is also the author of The Mobius Strip Club of Grief (2018) and Someone Else's Wedding Vows (2014), as well as A Little Called Pauline (2020), a children’s book with text by Gertrude Stein. Stone teaches poetry and is Crea...
Mar 05, 2022•51 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Bianca Stone is a gifted poet, visual artist, and creator of 'poetry comics who affirms and celebrates life even as she acknowledges its dark, desperate moments. Her brand-new verse collection, What Is Otherwise Infinite, has been featured on NPR and hailed as "extraordinary" by The Washington Post. She is also the author of The Mobius Strip Club of Grief (2018) and Someone Else's Wedding Vows (2014). In this excerpt from our forthcoming full conversation with Stone, she talks about searching fo...
Feb 25, 2022•4 min•Season 3Ep. 12
TSTB interviews the legendary Jack Rabid -- music writer and critic extraordinaire. Hailed as the “godfather of punk rock journalism,” Rabid is the founder, editor, and publisher of New York music magazine The Big Takeover, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2020. His writing has appeared in Interview, the Village Voice, Creem, Spin, Paper, Trouser Press Record Guide, and Musichound, and he hosts "The Big Takeover Show" on realpunkradio.com every Monday at noon. Over the years, Rabid has i...
Feb 05, 2022•54 min•Season 3Ep. 11
At the age of 18 -- while still in high school -- Jack Rabid founded "The Big Takeover," a magazine devoted to the alternative music that had become his obsession. Over 40 years later, TBT (as its known by fans) has become a powerful force on the rock/punk landscape, and Rabid has become a legend in his own right. In this excerpt from our forthcoming interview, Rabid tells how his love of rock music began even before kindergarten, and why punk music was and is his central focus as a writer, publ...
Jan 29, 2022•4 min•Season 3Ep. 10
TSTB shares a wide-ranging interview with Richard Kostelanetz, a powerful presence in New York's avant-garde literary and art scenes for several generations. Born in New York City in 1940, Kostelanetz has published more than fifty books of criticism, cultural history, and creative work, in addition to editing over three dozen anthologies. Relentlessly experimental and productive, Kostelanetz is a “force of one” in the New York City avant garde scene – creating “visual poetry,” “audiotapographies...
Jan 01, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Since the 1960s, Richard Kostelanetz has been a distinctive voice for experimentation in poetry, fiction, and criticism. The author or editor of over 100 books, Kostelanetz has been an integral part of the New York City avant-garde scene for several generations, working in a seemingly inexhaustible variety of boundary-crossing genres -- among them “visual poetry,” “audiotapographies,” “foreshortenings,” and “kinetic writings.” He has also published anthologies and analyses of composer/author Joh...
Dec 26, 2021•2 min•Season 3Ep. 8
TSTB interviews the extraordinary Julie Lythcott-Haims -- author of the best-selling "How to Raise an Adult"; "Real American" -- a powerful poetic memoir of Black biracial life in white American spaces; and "Your Turn," a wise perspective on being an adult in today's complex world. Lythcott-Haims talks to us about becoming a source of white discomfort and confusion during her Midwest childhood; finding her voice -- and rediscovering her traumatic past -- through writing; and using her compassion...
Nov 19, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Born to a white English mother and African-American father, Julie Lythcott-Haims came to the US as a child and quickly discovered the powerful, enigmatic force of American racism. She beautifully -- and forcefully -- records this and other indelible life experiences in her celebrated memoir, "Real American." In this clip from our forthcoming interview with Lythcott-Haims, she talks about her inescapable feeling of being an "other" in a seemingly homogeneous racial landscape. #realamerican #julie...
Nov 16, 2021•2 min•Season 3Ep. 6
