- 25 minutes 17 secondsPam Sherman plays herself and so can you
Pam Sherman took her superpower of inspiring others in acting, speaking, and work to write a helpful handbook to put your best foot forward. As Pam says, "You want to be who you are, wherever you are, in order to ignite your audience.” As a board member of Jewish Women International, Pam supports women, inspires leadership and shows what it takes.
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7 May 2026, 8:00 am - 26 minutes 47 secondsLaurie Frankel’s hilarious take on aging in Enormous Wings
What if your grandmother got pregnant? That’s the premise behind Laurie Frankel’s witty, escapist narrative about an older woman who takes up with her retirement community next-door neighbor and unexpectedly gets more than she bargained for — much to the dismay of her adult children. We spoke about her complete rewrite of the book ("I do not believe a single sentence remains . . . I opened a new document and wrote it completely from scratch . . .”), aging, family, life, and more. As Laurie says, "You don’t have to give up at a certain age.”
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6 May 2026, 8:00 am - 29 minutes 50 secondsMega-bestselling author of The Help is back! Kathryn Stockett on The Calamity Club
I remember reading The Help in 2009 when it came out and absolutely loving it! Back then I was a stay-at-home mom of twins under age two. To think that by the time they graduated high school I’d be interviewing the author is insane; I wouldn’t have believed it. The Calamity Club is set in Mississippi in 1933 and spins an immersive tale about strong women who have to get through the Great Depression. It’s about a wealthy family’s fall from grace, a child’s never-ending resilience, loss, betrayal, family, hard work, and, ultimately, love. Kathryn and I spoke about it all including her own daughter’s influence on the characters. At the end of our interview, she said, "You are probably the best reader I've ever talked to.” Wow!
Key quotes:
- "How do we get through our darkest times without humor?”
- "As a writer, it is our job to truly imagine what it feels like to stand in someone else’s shoes."
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5 May 2026, 8:00 am - 26 minutes 26 secondsDr. Tara Narula and Jenny Bartoy Tackle Pain from All SidesDr. Tara Narula gives us a specific recipe in The Healing Power of Resilience: A New Prescription for Health and Well-Being, while editor Jenny Bartoy collects stories of others, like her, who have cut off contact with toxic people, sometimes even parents, in No Contact: Writing on Estrangement. Taken together, these two conversations arm us with the tools to get through challenges that might just be out of our control. How we respond to them isn’t.
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30 April 2026, 8:00 am - 31 minutes 28 secondsFriendship for the Win: Jessica George, Geneen RothJessica George takes on female friendship in her sophomore novel Love by the Book, which follows her hit Maame, which we also talked about on the podcast, as does Geneen Roth in her latest book Love, Finally: Untangling the Knot Between Mothers, Daughters, and Food. One woman made a huge difference in Geneen’s healing. (This book is for anyone who has ever been on a diet.)
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29 April 2026, 8:00 am - 20 minutes 54 secondsMarisa Renee Lee, Long Covid, and HopeMarisa Renee Lee shares her battle with long Covid on top of her other excruciating losses in Waiting for Dawn: Living with Uncertainty. We spoke at Totally Booked: Live at the Whitby Hotel, where she delighted the crowd with her big laughs, delightful personality, and optimism in the face of devastating circumstances.
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28 April 2026, 8:00 am - 55 minutes 42 secondsBONUS: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, When We See You AgainI had the immense honor of interviewing Rachel Goldberg-Polin about her book When We See You Again. Rachel, USA Today's Woman of the Year and one of the TIME 100, is the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin who was kidnapped on October 7th and later executed by Hamas. Her book is raw, beautiful, and important. A meditation on grief, love, and how to get through. Please listen. We spoke in front of 1,200 people thanks to the generosity of UJA-NYC.
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24 April 2026, 2:11 pm - 24 minutes 41 secondsBook of the Month Club pick Sally Hepworth’s Mad MabelYes, Sally Hepworth and I spoke about her new novel, Mad Mabel, which features an older, quirky protagonist whose neighbor dies in the opening, and the young friend who comes along. But we also spoke about Sally’s recent divorce and how she has been getting through that. Sally is such a good storyteller that anything out of her mouth is captivating. No wonder her latest book is a Book of the Month Club pick.
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23 April 2026, 8:00 am - 33 minutes 46 secondsBestselling Author Annabelle Gurwitch on Lung Cancer, Humor, and AdventureI’ve been a fan of actress and bestselling author Annabelle Gurwitch since I first read You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up. I’ve interviewed her on my podcast about her last book You’re Leaving When? and then got lucky enough to publish her new book, The End of My Life is Killing Me through Zibby Publishing — which has now been on the USA Today bestseller list for two weeks! You might have seen Annabelle lately because she has been all over the media with shout-outs from and interviews with Bill Maher, Drew Barrymore, Terry Gross at NPR, and Jenna Fischer. The book is hilarious and heartbreaking, fast-paced, thought-provoking, and a must-read. Hear from Annabelle and me at Totally Booked: Live in New York.
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22 April 2026, 8:00 am - 27 minutes 56 secondsGetting Through Grief — with Humor and HeartHear from two amazing women authors who have survived loss and learned to live with it by finding humor in the darkest times. Screenwriter Angela Nissel writes about the loss of her mother — who had been caught up in a deceptive relationship — in Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead. Content creator Leslie Harter-Berg shares how she survived the sudden loss of her 30-year-old husband while on vacation post-Disneyland with their family and small children in You’re So Strong. The two of them are funny, sensitive souls who should really be friends. Taken together, these two conversations highlight how writing is healing, how humor is necessary, and how we can get through the hardest things life throws our way.
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21 April 2026, 8:00 am - 23 minutes 11 secondsCelebrity Spotlight: Gina GershonActress Gina Gershon takes us through the unexpected, entertaining steps to becoming a star and the attitude it takes to do so in her memoir Alphapussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs.
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