B-Side Tales: Quiet Renegades

Right after college, Sally Schwager booked a one-way ticket to Japan, speaking not a single word of Japanese. Remarkably, she stayed twelve years, training in Noh theater and hosting a national radio show. But the more fluent and famous she became, the more she felt like a “celebrity freak.” So she booked another one-way flight back to Manhattan, where she fell into a deep depression. That collaps...

"I felt I was the stupidest man on the planet." After 18 years as a Gannett staff cartoonist, David Jacobson walked away from a prestigious job and a steady paycheck to pursue glassblowing in rural Maine, a decision even he thought was foolish. In this first episode of B-Side Tales, Marcia Heath talks with David about what it really costs to start over later in life. He opens up about his struggle...

One weekend, Marcia Heath lost her memories. Not metaphorically—completely. When they came flooding back, she realized her high-pressure career was making her sick and miserable. So she left. B-Side Tales begins there, a show about quiet renegades. In this podcast, Marcia sits down with people who walked away from conventionally successful lives to build something more honest, improvisational, and...