Conversations with authors and storytellers since 2002. DuShane is the author and screenwriter of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, directed by Eric Stoltz, available on Amazon Prime.
Los Angeles, CA
Jon Ronson is the author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed. I interviewed him in 2015 when the book came out and it's pretty mind blowing where cancel culture has […]
Lucinda Berry is the author of One In Four: A Thriller. We chat child psychology, running marathons, how the brain works, and her transition to full time author. New creative […]
Rachel Paris is the author of See How They Fall: A Novel. We discuss the humiliating vulnerability of writing and why everyone should do it, why we should never write […]
Chuck Klosterman is the author of tons of books. This is a tape from my interview with him around 2012 when he was promoting The Visible Man. We met at […]
Matthieu Ricard is the author of Happiness. I interviewed him around 2003 and he introduced the idea of mindfulness to me. He is also assistant and translator for the Dalai […]
Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. I caught up with him in 2005 when he was touring his first book […]
Colum McCain is the author of Twist: A Novel. We had a great time talking NYC, Ireland, the obsessive structure of writing environments for novels, and his really cool organization […]
Richard Hell is the author of Godlike. And this interview is old, like 2003 or 2004 taping. We met at a bar called The Argus in San Francisco, he was […]
Miranda July, two interviews from the archives. The first one is from 2015 regarding her novel The First Bad Man. The second one is from 2005 regarding her film Me […]
Alex Higley is the author of True Failure: A Novel. We do a deep dive into the novel writing process and how we're always being manipulated by stories. On March 1st […]
Angela Brown is the author of Some Other Time. We discuss how her and her husband met at 14 in high school, writing speculative fiction, do magic moments happen in […]
William Boyle is the author of Saint of the Narrows Street. We chat Brooklyn Dodgers, Oxford Mississippi, James Joyce, the fun of NOT organizing personal libraries to indulge in the […]
Paul Ollinger is the author of Reasonably Happy: The Skeptic's Guide to Achievable Contentment. He's also a podcaster and standup comic. We discuss specific details of when I lost my […]
Francesca Lia Block is the author of House of Hearts and many other books. We discuss love and heartbreak, her moment with David Byrne. LA punk rock and how The […]
Craig Clevenger is the author of The Contortionist's Handbook, re-issued by Datura Books. On this episode we discuss the glorious holy temple where we worship which is the public library, […]
Kim Dower is the author of What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria. We chat channeling our characters, why poetry gets a bad rap, visiting Baudelaire's grave, and […]
Joe Clifford is the author of Shadow People and many other books. We discuss the esoteric ways of writing novels, what success and failure in life can be, how high […]
Hal Hartley is one of the kings of indie cinema with films like Henry Fool and The Girl From Monday. I taped this about 20 years ago at Dalva in […]
Tony DuShane is the author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. This week I dive into greedy eyeballs of actors at industry screenings, how to make left turns in […]
From the author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk comes Tony DuShane's Book Smash. It's my rundown on my favorite books of the year, my complaints about society and […]
David Leo Rice is the author of The Berlin Wall: A Novel. We discuss Tim O'Brien's Short Story “On the Rainy River”, Flo from the Progressive commercials and how to […]
Diego Gerard Morrison is the author of Pages of Mourning. We chat the ups and downs of translating novels, the literary scene in Mexico City, how living on a remote […]
Jean-Paul L. Garnier is the author of Cardboard Spaceship. He also owns Space Cowboy Books in Joshua Tree. We talk Czech writers, starting a bookstore and publishing company, why living […]
Sacha Mardou is the author of Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy, A Graphic Memoir. We discuss growing up in crazy families and religions, Internal Family […]
Kes Trester is the author of To The Nines, Book 3 of The Nine series. We discuss how to safely chat with grocery clerks about suicidal thoughts, how to find […]
Gabriel Hart is the author of On High At Red Tide. He's also the lead singer of Jail Weddings and The Starvations. October 5th is the first Drinks with Tony […]
Krystal Kenney is the author of Paris, A Life Less Ordinary: A Memoir. We discuss tourist scams of Paris, where are the best neighborhoods, how Krystal moved to Paris from […]
Marianne Leone is the author of Five-Dog Epiphany: A Memoir. Marianne is an actor you may know from shows like The Sopranos. Her book tackles the grief of losing her […]
Colleen McKeegan is the author of Rip Tide: A Novel. We discuss what to do when you have a major brain crush on an author, training for mascots of sports […]
Jessica Maguire is the author of The Nervous System Reset: Heal Trauma, Resolve Chronic Pain, and Regulate Your Emotions with the Power of the Vagus Nerve. We discuss the micro-communications […]
John A. Dailey is the author of Tough Rugged Bastards: A Memoir of a Life in Marine Special Operations. We discuss the subconscious mind work of repetitive drills, the emotional […]
Bobi Conn is the author of Someplace Like Home. We discuss doing psychedelics, her family heritage of moonshiners, how to get out of the way of our characters, collective anger […]
Alexander Boldizar is the author of The Man Who Saw Seconds. We discuss living in a refugee camp after fleeing Slovakia in the 1979, the art of learning new languages, […]
Peter Houlahan is the author of Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn. We discuss his coverage of Sagon Penn's case of being found not-guilty […]
Paul Cody is the author of Walk The Dark. We take a deep dive into his time teaching in prison, what landed him in the psych ward and how it […]
Nicholas Belardes is the author of The Deading. We chat how a novel should feel like a song, approaching novel writing like an athlete, how to set yourself up before […]
Joyce Maynard is the author of How the Light Gets In. She's a best selling author and her books To Die For and Labor Day have been adapted to films. […]
Joe Clifford is the author of A Moth To Flame. His novel Lamentation was recently translated to Italian and he just came back from an author tour of Italy. We […]
Danielle and Kyler join my spontaneous writing course. We discuss being uncomfortable as a writer, the importance of journaling, the intimacy we have with our characters, how to rewrite, and […]
Ann Leary is the author of I've Tried to Be Nice: Essays. Join my Summer Online Novel Writing Workshop June 23 – August 4. We're all innate storytellers, learn how […]
Matthew Daddona is the author of The Longitude of Grief: A novel. We discuss cafe culture in Sarajevo, the virtues of Philly, writing compelling characters, how to hit a deer […]
Nicolás Medina Mora is the author of América del Norte. We discuss being a debut novelist, the literary scene in Mexico City, the culture shock of living in the United […]
Ari Gold is the co-author of Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems, with his late father and author Herbert Gold, and his brother Ethan Gold. Herbert died when he […]
Sasha Vasilyuk is the author of Your Presence is Mandatory. We discuss the generations of her family's experience in Ukraine, researching a novel based in true events, how pregnancy is […]
Alex Kazemi is the author of New Millennium Boyz. We discuss social hierarchy, living the authentic artist life, book censorship, Kabbalah, Woodstock ‘99, when writing is emotionally damaging, and so […]
Jeff Zentner is the author of Colton Gentry's Third Act: A Novel. Jeff started as a musician, then hung it up to work with organizations helping teenagers. That's when he […]
Andrew Miller is the author of Namaste Mart Confidential. We discuss: Sexy masculinity. How to take a punch. Why the year 2013 is important to his novel. Crime fiction…and so […]
Cat Howell is the author of Magic Source Codes: The Craft of Reality. We start the 8-Week Novel Writing Workshop on Monday, this is your last call. TWO spots left. […]
Cara Black is the author of Murder at La Villette. It's the 21st novel in her Aimée Leduc Investigation series. Join my free Novel Writing Workshop March 9th at 10am […]
This week I answer a few questions from our listeners about outlining, finding the ending to your story, and more. I also include my interview with Robert McKee from last […]