Uncorking a Story

  "We do more damage to ourselves than any alien species could ever do to us. We kick our own asses every day." — Sal Amato ABOUT THIS EPISODE Sal Amato has spent almost five decades in entertainment — he started as a kid actor in a 1978 Betty Crocker commercial, became one of the youngest members ever at Chicago's Second City, and has film and TV credits including The Untouchables, My Best F...

"I'm about five years old and I'm so tired. I say, Abba, which is what I call my father, can you carry me? I'm so tired. And I remember him saying, Deanch, I can't carry you, but I'll carry you with my stories." — Dena Schusterman ABOUT THIS EPISODE Dena Schusterman was about five years old, walking a mile and a half to synagogue on Shabbat, too tired to go another step. She asked her father to ca...

"Everyone has that thing inside of them that they could nurture, but maybe some people have been taught that they can't or they shouldn't because it's not valuable in society. But to me, everyone has that." - Zara Marielle Zara Marielle was the kind of introverted kid who wrote plays and then talked everyone she knew into performing them. She'll tell you those plays were bad. What stuck was the im...

"It's not selfish to want to find a sense of self. It's not selfish to really be pushing the question of what is deeply etched in my heart that leads me to take the decisions I take." — Margaret Eastman Smith ABOUT THIS EPISODE Margaret Eastman Smith was born into a remarkable and complicated inheritance. Her parents met inside Moral Re-Armament — the Christian-based global movement once known as...

"What must it have felt like to be a white attorney defending a Black man in 1890, at the height of racism in the United States? I think there are lessons to be learned by those stories that we can tell about history in general." - Gerald Patnode ABOUT THIS EPISODE Gerald Patnode has lived many lives - Navy veteran, police officer, serial entrepreneur, television host, political analyst, universit...

"Good writing should help readers see their own experiences and feel their own emotions through the characters and ideally understand that they are not alone and that they can prevail, survive, triumph even. And the way that we do that is connection to other people." — Ginger Pinholster ABOUT THIS EPISODE Ginger Pinholster returns to Uncorking a Story to talk about her third novel, THE TRAIN TO SA...

"You really have to love the process. It can't be about, 'Oh, if I am an author, everyone will respect me so much.' You really have to love the process of it or there kind of isn't any point to doing it." — Carol Snow About This Episode Carol Snow is the author of ten books spanning romantic comedy, young adult fiction, and now psychological thrillers. She holds a BA in psychology from Brown Unive...

"You're not alone. You really have guidance and support available to you. For all those people that are sitting there in silos that are frustrated with life and feel like they could use a friend — they are there with you. You just need to open up to it." — Katherine Marie Katherine Marie spent decades as a computer technology analyst — a world of algorithms, software installations, and zeros and o...

"I've been at the bottom of the mountain and I've looked up and it looked like the top was a million miles away and it felt like I couldn't do it a hundred times over. And I've taken that step and sometimes I don't look up, I just keep stepping, and eventually I look back and I've gained a little ground." — Nikki Mammano Nikki Mammano's debut memoir Breaking Good is exactly what it sounds like — a...

"Imagine somebody who's been disconnected from this church and he's reignited. That fire is back, that spark is back. Imagine what that one person can do in his life. If that happens one time, the eighteen months it took to put this thing together will have been worth it." — Jim Carlon Jim Carlon is a lawyer, army veteran, and lifelong Catholic whose twenty-five years of practice have shaped a dee...

"It was just as important for me to write a love story where the woman falls back in love with herself as much as falling in love with a man." — Julee Balko Julee Balko is a returning guest — an author, poet, and freelance writer whose third novel, Square Hearts, dropped this past May from Black Rose Writing. Mike and Julee pick up where they left off two years ago (her last visit was for The Me L...

"It took me two and a half years to write a first draft. The second book? Six months. I think it is something that I became more comfortable doing — that confidence you get knowing that you can do it." — Jenn Bouchard Jenn Bouchard is a returning guest and award-winning author whose publishing journey could be a novel in itself. A high school social studies teacher of twenty-six years, she wrote P...

"Every AI agent has to have a happy history of growing up and cooperating with humans. That has got to be the guardrail." — Dr. Peter Solomon --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE Dr. Peter Solomon is back on Uncorking a Story. A Columbia-trained physicist, five-time company founder, and holder of twenty patents, Peter turned to fiction to warn the next generation about existential threats — and the AI threat is...

PULL-OUT QUOTE "I truly dreamed it up during my first nap as a new mom." — Dr. Kate Sorokas --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE Dr. Kate Sorokas holds a PhD in health education and is a writer, speaker, and advocate for maternal mental health. Her debut novel, Through Her Eyes, is a thriller inspired by her real-life struggle with new motherhood — a story she literally dreamed up during her first nap after hav...

"I wrote a book and tried to find an agent and did not succeed. I wrote a second book that got an agent and no sales. I wrote a third book — it didn't even get nice rejection letters. I wrote a fourth book and it sold in three days." — April Henry --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE April Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty mysteries and thrillers, including Girl Stolen, Girl Forgotte...

"I went to bed a victim and I woke up the next day and just something was different. I just surrendered. I knew that I couldn't do this anymore." — Marci Hopkins --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE Marci Hopkins is an award-winning television host, author, and mental health advocate. She's the creator and host of Wake Up with Marcy, which has earned three Telly Awards and two Anthem Awards for excellence in so...

"If you can raise your hand and say, I need a little help here — guess what? That expedites the process of getting better so much more." — Ralph Brewer --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE Ralph Brewer is the founder of Help for Men, creator of Dad Starting Over, and author of five books including The Dead Bedroom Fix — a top-rated Amazon guide for men facing sexless marriages and disconnection. His latest, Reb...

"I write for myself, but I edit for the reader." — Liz Lazarus --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE Liz Lazarus is an engineer by education, a GE Healthcare executive by experience, and an author by calling. Her fourth novel, Dawn Before Darkness, is a psychological thriller about a vet tech named Dawn Smith who escapes a toxic relationship only to find herself stalked, harassed, and dragged into a guardianship...

"Most Holocaust memoirs start in camps. This one begins in a Chinese restaurant." — Todd Diamond --- ABOUT THIS EPISODE Todd Diamond is an advertising copywriter turned memoirist, born in Queens, New York, who delivers narratives that are unapologetically raw and darkly humorous — a reflection of the borough that raised him. His book, Pass the Trauma, Please, is a comedy-drama memoir that tells th...

"Even though we're so diverse, we're all the same. We're all longing for the same thing — to belong, have a purpose in life, to understand why we are here on this planet." — Sonia Daccarett ABOUT THIS EPISODE Sonia Daccarett is a writer and communications professional born in Colombia to a Christian Palestinian father and a Jewish mother. She holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from the Un...

"I'm convinced that these experiences that we have, where we feel so alone, that there's a huge portion of the rest of the world who's feeling the exact same way at any given time. And it's so important to see those things reflected so that we just don't feel like there's something wrong with us." — Anne H. Putnam ABOUT THIS EPISODE Anne H. Putnam is a writer, editor, and teacher with an unending...

"Any pain that you have — when people meet those pains and collect them back into themselves, they experience incredible power and wisdom and compassion and capacity. For that reason, I consider trauma to be a treasure." — Lillian Eve Moore ABOUT THIS EPISODE Lillian Eve Moore is an author, executive coach, and self-described "psychonaut" whose new book draws on over 20 years of trauma-informed wo...

"This is a cautionary tale about how extremism and fascism can creep up on us. It always begins with hate speech and dehumanization... from verbal violence, it's a very short leap to physical violence." — Dr. Georgette Bennett ABOUT THIS EPISODE Dr. Georgette Bennett is an award-winning sociologist, widely published author, former NBC News correspondent, and founder of both the Tanenbaum Center fo...

"Just because the path of motherhood might not happen for me, it doesn't mean the nurturing goes away. I still want a seat at the table for how kids are raised." — Danielle Frank About This Episode Danielle Frank traded Hollywood red carpets for red wine — and now she's poured both passions into her debut book. After launching her career in entertainment publicity at Miramax International, where s...

"It's about family, it's about traditions, it's about a sense of place. Italy is more than just food and wine. It's a feeling, it's an experience." — J.A. Marz About This Episode J.A. Marz is a healthcare marketing strategist turned novelist whose Tuscany-set fiction has struck a chord with readers who love Italy as much as he does. His debut novella, Ciao, Amore Mio — The Tale of Gabby and Gio, f...