Podcast appearances and mentions of jesse kornbluth

This week we travel back to 1960s Mississippi with Mississippi Burning! Join us as we learn about the epic tale of the integration of Ole Miss, murderous Klansmen, civil rights activist training, and more! Sources: "James Meredith at Ole Miss" https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/ole-miss-integration  Debbie Elliott, "Integrating Ole Miss: A Transformative, Deadly Riot," NPR Morning Edition (1 Oct 2012). https://www.npr.org/2012/10/01/161573289/integrating-ole-miss-a-transformative-deadly-riot  CW Eagles, "The Fight for Men's Minds: The Aftermath of the Ole Miss Riot of 1962," The Journal of Mississippi History (2009). http://www.jasonklodt.com/s/eagles-fightmensminds.pdf  Charles W. Eagles, The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss, (University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 319-71. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807895597_eagles.22  "Lawrence A. Rainey, R.I.P.," The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 38 (2003): 125. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3134229  Renee C. Romano, Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America's Civil Rights Murders (Harvard University Press, 2014), 26, 46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qdswt.4  Howard Ball, Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights (University Press of Kansas, 2004), 7-8, 23, 94-99, 122, 135-40. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1mmfsn9  Kent Spriggs (ed.), Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers: Reflections from the Deep South, 1964-1980 (University Press of Florida, 2017), 177, 180-83, 198, 223, 280-1.  https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/mississippi-burning  "Investigation of the 1964 Murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman," File No. DJ 144-41-686 https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/micheal-schwerner-james-chaney-andrew-goodman  "Mississippi Burning (MIBURN) Case Part 1 of 9" FBI Records: The Vault, p73-6. https://vault.fbi.gov/Mississippi%20Burning%20%28MIBURN%29%20Case/Mississippi%20Burning%20%28MIBURN%29%20Case%20Part%201%20of%209/view  Irv Letofsky, "Another Case of Murder in Mississippi: TV movie on the killing of three civil rights workers in 1964 tries to fill in what 'Mississippi Burning' left out," Los Angeles Times (4 Feb 1990): H8.  Jesse Kornbluth, "The Struggle Continues," New York Times (23 July 1989): SM16.  "Mississippi cleric resigns over hiring of ex-sheriff," Chicago Tribune (24 April 1989): 3.  Phyllis Messinger, "Slow Change Marks Town 20 Years After Civil Rights Killings," Hartford Courant (31 July 1984): A7. Paul Hendrickson. "20 Years Ago, in the Heat of the Night: On the Anniversary of the Murders, Mississippi Guards its Memories Mississippi's Longest Summer the Summer of '64." The Washington Post, Jul 10, 1984. "Ex-Sheriff Hits TV for Job Loss." Chicago Defender (Big Weekend Edition), Mar 01, 1975.  "Ex-Sheriff Rainey: He's Haunted by the Past." Boston Globe, Sep 22, 1974.  Craig Smith, "Western Pennsylvanians Recall Their Route to the March on Washington," TribLive, https://archive.triblive.com/local/local-news/western-pennsylvanians-recall-their-route-to-the-march-on-washington/ Jennifer Taylor, "The 1965 Freedom Patrols and the Origins of Seattle's Police Accountability Movement," Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, available at https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/freedom_patrols.htm Interviews with Sam H. Bowers Jr. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, available at https://da.mdah.ms.gov/bowers/ "Samuel Bowers, 82, Klan Leader Convicted in Fatal Bombing, Dies," New York Times, November 6 2006: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/us/06bowers.html "Klan Leader Sentenced to Life," Southern Poverty Law Center, available at https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/1998/klan-leader-sentenced-life US Department of Justice Report, Referral to the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi: https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/1041791/download Roger Ebert, "Mississippi Burning," 9 December 1988. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mississippi-burning-1988  Seongyong Cho, "Looking Back at Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning," 9 Sept 2020. https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/looking-back-at-alan-parkers-mississippi-burning  Robert Brent Toplin, "Mississippi Burning Scorches Historians," Perspectives (1 April 1989). https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/april-1989/mississippi-burning-scorches-historians  Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Burning 

Jim starred as Henri Matisse in Jesse Kornbluth's new play THE COLOR OF LIGHT at the Schoolhouse Theater in North Salem, NY. Tim last appeared on Broadway in the role of Monsieur Firmin in Broadway's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the role he was selected to play in 2004 when PHANTOM became Broadway's Longest-Running Show. He returned to the role in 2012 for PHANTOM's 25th Anniversary. Prior to that, he was Dick Latessa's understudy inThe Lyons. He was seen very briefly in the Off-Broadway revival of Dracula following a somewhat longer run in the rather more successful revival of Flamingo Court at New World Stages. He starred as Alfred P. Doolittle in the acclaimed U.S. national touring production of the London revival of My Fair Lady for which he received the Carbonell Award and a Helen Hayes Award nomination. On Broadway, prior to his run in Phantom of the Opera, he played Jane's father, Professor Porter, in Disney's Tarzan and Belle's father, Maurice, in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. He performed leading roles in the original Broadway casts of Grand Hotel, The Moony Shapiro Songbook, Arthur Miller's Creation of the World and Other Business, The Rothschilds, and was nominated for the 1987 Drama Desk and Tony Awards for his performance as The Family Solicitor in Me and My Girl. He is the Founding President of National Music Theater Network, Inc. In 1983, he designed its core programs. NMTN, which promotes new musicals, is responsible for launching several successful programs featuring new works, notably The Songbook Series (monthly at the Donnell Library for 17 years); BroadwayUSA! (1998-2004: the prototype of MainStreet Musicals), and the annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (launched in 2004, winner of the 2004 Jujamcyn Award). In 2004 he created Mainstreet Musicals a national consortium of theater professionals and their non-profit, commercial, and educational partners. Thanks to the generosity of professional directors and educators, MainStreet provides a valuable script evaluation service for writers and composers. Utilizing performance competitions, concert-readings, and (coming soon) radio-theater, MainStreet promotes development opportunities for original stage musicals throughout regional America. www.mainstreetmusicals.org

 Jesse Kornbluth has written or collaborated on 14 books and a dozen screenplays. He has worked with Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, ABC, PBS, and Warner Bros.   After stints at The New York Times Magazine, New York and Vanity Fair, he discovered the Internet. In 1997, a few months after co-founding bookreporter.com, he became editorial director of America Online.   He launched Head Butler in 2004 as a cultural concierge “for people with more taste than time.” He admits he  thought he would write a few reviews and move on, yet  2,000 reviews later he is still sharing his favorite books, music and products through the week. He is finishing a novel.  His  most recent novel is JFK and Mary Meyer, A Love Story (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020).  

There’s an important bias to avoid: Survivorship bias. Unfortunately, people who might otherwise do something with their lives hide behind survivorship bias. Just as important as knowing when survivorship bias matters is knowing when survivorship bias does not matter. Survivorship bias has a fatal flaw. Example: Abraham Wald avoided survivorship bias to bring back more survivors In WWII the US military was trying to improve their planes. Each time a plane came back from a mission, they made a record of the bullet holes. Since most bullet holes were on the wings and tails of the planes, the military concluded they needed to add more armor in the wings and tails. But statistician Abraham Wald said, No – that’s not where you want to add more armor. You want more armor around the engine. That seemed weird. Their map of bullet holes showed very little damage to the engine compartment.   What Wald noticed that the military hadn’t noticed is they were only seeing bullet holes on planes that returned from missions. The bullet holes they weren’t seeing were the bullet holes on planes that did not return. And the bullet holes on planes that did not return were the ones bringing the planes down. Abraham Wald was cleverly taking into account what would become known as survivorship bias. Example: How survivorship bias can be used by an investing con artist In his book, Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Taleb tells a story of a con artist. He’d send out 10,000 letters. Half the letters predicted the stock market would go up in the next month. Half the letters, down. The next month, the con artist would send not 10,000 letters, but only 5,000. The following month, 2,500. Then 1,250, and on and on. Why did he keep sending fewer and fewer letters? Because he only sent follow-up letters to those who had received correct predictions. After enough letters, he had 150 or so victims hanging on his every word, eager to have this mystery genius invest money for them. Of course once the con artist received their money, they never heard from him again. They had been “fooled by randomness.” They had been fooled by survivorship bias. Survivorship bias doesn’t account for ergodicity Both these stories are useful examples of survivorship bias. In the first case, Abraham Wald used an awareness of survivorship bias to avoid getting a false signal from the data. In the second example, the recipients of the letters didn’t realize they could be getting a false signal from the letters. Survivorship bias is an important phenomenon to understand, but survivorship bias has a fatal flaw: Survivorship bias doesn’t account for ergodicity. What is ergodicity? What is ergodicity? Imagine you enter a dimly-lit bar just as it opens. A table of patrons across the room light up cigarettes. You can see the cascading trails of smoke rising. When they’re done with their cigarettes, they don’t smoke anymore the rest of the night. When you get home, you realize your clothes smell like smoke. How could this be? You were nowhere near the trails of smoke. Well, after the trails of smoke rose from the cigarettes, they dissipated around the room, until a faint haze of smoke filled the entire room. Randomness eventually touches everything That’s ergodicity. The smoke was rising from the cigarettes in a random pattern. But when a random pattern continues for long enough, that random pattern eventually fills the entire space it could have filled. The smoke spread randomly, until it filled the whole room. Ergodicity is why it’s not only 1% of Americans who are in the top 1% of income. As time passes, people enter and leave the top 1% of income. In a lifetime, 10% of Americans spend a year in the top 1%. More than half will spend a year in the top 10%. Ergodicity is why – even though life expectancy is about 76 – a 76-year-old only has a 4% chance of dying. The small risks of dying each year of life accumulate over time. Not every game is do-or-die Next time some entrepreneur or creative gives advice, or is profiled in an article, look at the comments or responses. You’ll probably see something like this: Don’t forget about survivorship bias! You didn’t hear from the thousands of others who followed that same advice, but didn’t succeed! Sometimes this is useful. More often than not, this is as damaging as survivorship bias itself. Example: Survivorship bias in Russian Roulette Imagine Russian Roulette was a spectator sport (thank God it’s not, but imagine). Chances are, there would be some “Michael Jordan” of Russian Roulette. Through mere chance, this person has survived hundreds of Russian Roulette matches. It just so happens that of the thousands of times this “champion” has spun the cylinder on the revolver, pointed the gun at their temple, and pulled the trigger, the chamber hasn’t had a bullet in it once. If there were millions of Russian Roulette players in the world – playing college Russian Roulette and little league Russian Roulette, hoping to make it to the Russian Roulette big leagues – a person like this would probably exist. Just like there is today in entrepreneurship and creativity, there would be an entire cottage industry of journalists and courses and Russian Roulette podcasts, all touting the advice from this Russian Roulette champion. How to spin the chamber, what thoughts to think while pulling the trigger, how much pressure to use, what gear like like gloves and jerseys to wear, and exercise programs for strength and conditioning. That would be survivorship bias at its finest – or worst. It’s all random. This “champion” has no skill. All their advice is useless. The Queen’s Gambit was not a “survivor” – then it was In 1983, Walter Tevis published a novel. He soon after optioned the screenplay rights to Jesse Kornbluth. Then Tevis died, and the project was cancelled. Nine years later, in 1992, Kornbluth could no longer afford to keep the option. Allan Scott bought the screen rights. Fifteen years later, in 2007, plans were underway to make a feature film out of this novel. Then the director died. (That director, Heath Ledger.) Finally, in 2020, the story from this novel was released as a Netflix series. At least 60 million people watched it. It’s Netflix’s most popular limited series ever. That series: The Queen’s Gambit. For the first time, the novel, The Queen’s Gambit, became a New York Times bestseller. This overnight success was almost 40 years in the making. For 37 years, The Queen’s Gambit was one of the “thousands of others who never made it.” In 2011, Kornbluth – who had the screenplay option before Scott had rights – said the rights had been bought by “people who will never get the film made.” The Queen’s Gambit was not a “survivor.” In fact, it went out of print. Not to mention at least two people literally did not survive to see it on the screen. Creative work is not Russian Roulette When you play Russian Roulette and lose, you are out of the game forever. Fortunately, as creatives, we are not playing Russian Roulette. If you build a company that fails, you can try again. If you write a blog post that falls flat, you can try hundreds or thousands more times. Creative work happens in Extremistan When someone says “Don’t forget survivorship bias,” what they’re really saying is, “Show me the exact steps to follow that guarantee success.” In creative work, there are no exact steps that guarantee success. Those only exist in Mediocristan. Even The Queen’s Gambit, which was wildly successful, wasn’t guaranteed success. It could have just as easily stayed out of print. Creative work happens not in Mediocristan, but Extremistan. No failure will come from pure lack of skill. No success will come from pure good luck. Creatives are like poker champions I have a friend who is a professional poker player. He knows if he plays poker online eight hours a day, he’ll average 100 dollars an hour. But he also knows for long stretches of time he’ll be losing money. It will look as if his career is over. On the contrary, he’ll also sometimes be flush with cash. It will look like he’s making way more than 100 dollars an hour. His career only works if he has one critical thing: “bankroll.” He needs a certain amount of money – a certain amount of padding – to help him weather losing streaks. If he goes bust, he’s out of the game entirely – he’s lost Russian Roulette. He has tremendous skill. That’s how he can survive as a professional poker player. But there’s no fighting randomness. His bankroll allows him to let randomness run its course long enough for ergodicity to even things out. The creative career is riding randomness Your results in creative work are not a direct reflection of your skill. Even if you’re “So good they can’t ignore you,” you could be toiling in obscurity for a while as you wait for your big break. If you aren’t cut out for that, fine. But admit it to yourself and don’t use survivorship bias as your scapegoat. Stay in the game long enough to survive But if you’re willing to try something that, as Seth Godin says, “might not work,” go ahead and try that advice. Maybe it will improve your odds a little. What’s important is you stay in the game long enough to let ergodicity give you more shots at a win. That could be literally having the bankroll to stay in the game. That could be making sure you make small enough bets – with high enough potential upside – that you don’t go bust, but have a chance to hit the jackpot. You have to watch your eggs long enough for a Black Swan to hatch. My Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays. About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is author of Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast, his Love Mondays newsletter, and self-publishing coaching David helps you make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher YouTube RSS Email Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/survivorship-bias/

Lisa Birnbach is joined by author Jesse Kornbluth to talk about Jesse's new book "JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story" and the 5 Things that made their lives better this week.Lisa’s 5 things: 1. Screening of spam calls 2. “Inheritance” on Broadway 3. Her encounter with the Buttigieges, 4. Writing assignments, 5. Two of her Exhibits™ birthdays.Jesse Kornbluth’s 5 Things: 1. Driving his17 year-old daughter 20 blocks to school, 2. Reading real books - not kindle, movies with subtitles, movies in the theatre and Turner Classics, 3. The off-season, 4. Whatever he’s writing now, 5. Whatever he’s about to write.

Former Vanity Fair and New York Magazine journalist Jesse Kornbluth joins Joan to talk his new book JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story.

Jesse Kornbluth is an author and journalist who has contributed to Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times and more. Today he is the cultural concierge at HeadButler.com. He also is Carol's business partner and together they founded The Book Report Network back in 1996 when the internet as a communications medium was in its early days. In this interview, Carol and Jesse talk about his new book, a fictional diary from the perspective of JFK's fondest lover, Mary Meyer. As Jesse puts it, what would otherwise be a footnote in historical books about John F. Kennedy takes center stage in this tragic love story; perhaps the greatest love story never told. Discussed in this episode: JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story by Jesse Kornbluth Sign up for the weekly Bookreporter.com newsletter here: FOLLOW US Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookreporter Website: https://www.bookreporter.com

The #1 New York Times Bestseller AN INVISIBLE THREAD By Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski PRAISE FOR THE #1 New York Times BESTSELLING MEMOIR AN INVISIBLE THREAD: “An Invisible Thread is like The Blind Side, but instead of football, it’s food. These are two people who were brought together by one simple meal, and it literally changed the course of both of their lives. This is a must-read . . . you can read it in a day because it’s impossible to put down. If you read it and find it as moving as I did, pay it forward: buy a copy and give it to a friend.” – Rachael Ray, host of The Rachael Ray Show “If you have a beating heart—or if you fear you’re suffering a hardening of the emotional arteries—you really ought to commit to this book at the earliest possible opportunity . . . read this book. And pass it on. And encourage the next reader to do the same.” – Jesse Kornbluth, Huffington Post From #1 New York Times bestselling authors Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski comes the young readers edition of an inspirational memoir about an unlikely friendship between a busy sales executive and a homeless eleven-year-old boy. One Monday afternoon, on a crowded New York City street corner, eleven-year old Maurice met Laura and asked for spare change because he was hungry. Something made Laura stop and offer to take Maurice to lunch. They met for dinner on the following Monday, and the Monday after that, and wound up getting together on m0re than 100 Mondays, forging an unlikely friendship that changed both their lives forever. Based on the true story of Laura Schroff and Maurice Mazyck, An Invisible Thread chronicles the bond between an eleven-year-old boy and a busy sales executive; a heartwarming journey of hope, kindness, adventure, and love—and the power of fate to help us find our way. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Laura Schroff is a former advertising executive who helped launch three of the most successful start-ups in Time Inc. history— In Style, Teen People, and People Style Watch. Schroff has also worked as the New York Division Manager at People magazine. Since the release of An Invisible Thread, Schroff has been a keynote speaker at over 300 schools, libraries, charities and bookstores, encouraging people to find for their own invisible thread connections and appreciate the power of small acts of kindness. Lives in Westchester, NY

A compilation show celebrating our first anniversary! Superstars Neil Gaiman, George Saunders and Richard Ford at their most endearing; surprising discoveries from from Sarah Hepola, Lily King and Jessica Knoll; and Desert Island picks from Tom Mischke, Tom Folsom and Jesse Kornbluth.

Martha Frankel’s guests this week are J. Ryan Stradal, Judy Brown and Jesse Kornbluth.

Martha Frankel’s guests this week are Meg Wolitzer, Melissa Holbrook-Pierson and Jesse Kornbluth.      

Jesse Kornbluth is a force. Engaging, smart and deeply-invested in exploring life, ideas, people and art. Not just the art you hang on the wall, but the art of living. Full contact. Totally engaged. Life.If you ask him what he does, he may tell you he founded HeadButler.com. But that's really just a label that makes starting a conversation easier.In truth, he devours existence, curates conversations, experiences and media, filters them through the lens of his intellect and emotion, then shares them with the world. The form his creative output takes spans nearly every medium and has landed him on nearly every media channel over a career defined by ruthless honestly, relentless service and pursuit of something bigger than "just" a paycheck.In this wide-ranging, provocative conversation, Jesse and I dive into his fascinating life (I was about to use the word "journey," but in the episode, you'll see why I may never use that word again, lol). We explore creativity, greatness, community, scaling, fascination, writing and so much more.

Today we chronicle the life and times of Jesse Kornbluth, the Head Butler. Jesse Kornbluth is a writer, critic, and author. He’s written for Vanity Fair, Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker and many other publications. At headbutler.com, he is a personal concierge for your head reviewing movies, books, and music. We go through the ups and downs of his career as a writer. Continue Reading→