Episode description

Author Michael Lent visits Google to discuss his book "Christmas Letters from Hell: All The News We Hate from the People We Love."

Who doesn't love to open the mailbox during the holidays and find a newsletter? Whether it's a letter from an old college roommate inadvertently revealing her husband's wandering eye, a self-congratulatory account of a cousin's rise to power at the local fast-food joint, or a mind-numbingly detailed account of a year's medical ailments from a coworker, they're always entertaining.

"Christmas Letters from Hell" skewers holiday letters of all shapes and sizes, from the ones that come crammed with cheesy graphics or written from the perspective of the recently neutered family dog to those filled with stories of "perfect" family vacations that were clearly anything but. Here Santa uses his holiday letter to let the elves know that he'll be outsourcing their roles overseas…effective immediately; a bipolar mom tells two very different versions of the year's events; and Osama bin Laden touches base with his high school host family in Minneapolis.

"Christmas Letters from Hell" serves up a steaming, savory blend of the holiday cheer, humor, and twisted truth in our well-intended attempts to stay in touch gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Originally published in December of 2007.

Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.