I'd Rather Be Reading

Today’s episode is truly a dream come true—I get to chat with one of my heroes in the magazine industry, Jean Godfrey-June, current beauty editor at Goop, former beauty editor at Lucky , a writer for Elle and Vanity Fair , and the author of today’s throwback pick, 2006’s Free Gift with Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup —her memoir. I am happy to tell you that, even though she’...

When we think of famous pairs, we’ve got Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Thelma and Louise, Bonnie and Clyde, and, per the topic of today’s discussion, Siskel and Ebert. These two film critics were fierce rivals working for competing newspapers in Chicago and never envisioned working together—when I say they were bitter rivals, put some emphasis on the bitter—but ended up uniting to form a partnership that cha...

Here’s the thing: whether we claim it or not, we all have a personal style. So why not take control of it and leverage it for the good? Our guest today, Allison Bornstein, will teach you how to do just that. There are so many quantifiable tips on this episode -- The AB Closet Editing System! The Three Word Method! The Nine Universal Pieces! -- that the only way you won’t learn something is if you...

The 1970s was a pivotal decade in the wide world of sports: Title IX and women and sports; widespread racial integration across athletics; athletes taking their power back and taking ownership of their careers; sports shifting to primetime television; and so much more. I don’t think any of us realize until author Michael MacCambridge put it all in writing just how much the 1970s changed sports for...

Just when you think you know everything there is to know about the Beatles, the most famous group in history—you’re wrong. Today on the show we have the Beatles expert himself, Philip Norman, here to break down George Harrison, as complex and complicated a character as they come. Just about as antithetical to fame as it gets, George never saw his talent like the rest of the world did, and his cont...

As ever in Hollywood, there are so many movies set to be released by the end of the year that are based on books, both nonfiction and fiction. Take a listen to what to expect when it comes to movie adaptations of fantastic memoirs, biographies, works of nonfiction, novels, and more -- and see which ones sound appealing to you.

If you’ve been looking for a book that clearly and concisely lays out how to live your best life—your happiest, healthiest life—you’re in luck, because this episode is about just that! Liz Moody’s latest book, 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships, and Success , came out this week and offers up 100 easily implementable tips to live a full life. A...

What a powerful episode we have for you today, listeners -- on the program we have former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas Nicole Avant, whose new book talks about working through grief after the murder of her mother, Jacqueline Avant, in December 2021, and the loss of her father, Clarence Avant, this past August. Grief is certainly not something any of us want to face, but when it's here, it he...

Talk about feeling seen—when I read Alicia Menendez’s book The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed As You Are four years ago, I thought, “Finally. Someone gets me.” And, listeners, I believe you will feel seen too through this conversation, though I wish that wasn’t so. So often women in particular have to choose between being successful and likeable. Why is it so difficult to like a s...

What are you most afraid of? Chances are, it's one of the nine fears that personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi encourages readers to face head on in her latest book, "A Healthy State of Panic." Instead of attempting to become fearless, she encourages us to stare fear in the face and embrace it as a gift. We are used to hearing from Farnoosh sound advice about all things money -- a...

Cindy Chupack is a multihyphenate -- a screenwriter, a director, an executive producer, a Golden Globe winner, an Emmy winner. She has written for iconic shows like Sex and the City (where I first became aware of her work -- she wrote more episodes of the show than almost anyone), Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond, Divorce, and so many more, and, for the past five years, she has been directin...

We have a fantastic episode for you today! In our first Yesteryear Pick of season eight, we have on the show Brian Stelter, who literally wrote the book on morning television. His 2013 book "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV" was the basis of Apple TV+'s hit series "The Morning Show" starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. The show's...

We're back! Season eight will be a bit of this, a bit of that -- I'm calling it my potpourri season. We'll have some fiction picks, some yesteryear picks, but still keep to our ethos of bringing you the best current nonfiction picks, like today's episode. Marisa Meltzer has just released the book of the season three days ago, and it dives into the rise of the beauty brand Glossier,...

Surprise! Only for Luke Russert would I come back from hiatus -- and what a great chat this was. Luke's book is a New York Times bestseller, and for good reason. It unpacks the grief he felt over losing his father, Tim Russert, at such a young age; traveling the world in search of himself; his relationship with his mother Maureen Orth, also an iconic journalist; nepotism in the workplace; and...

For our season seven finale, we're chatting with the wonderful Anna Kloots about rediscovering your magic. Magic, as you'll hear in our conversation, was a central theme in Anna's life -- her ex-husband was a magician. When they divorced, Anna lost her marriage, her home, and her job, and was forced to start over and build a life from the ruins. As you'll hear, she built a life she...

Two of my favorite topics to study -- sports and the American presidency -- are fused into one in this fascinating book, and I can't wait for you to learn how presidents from Eisenhower to Biden interface with athletics. Some, like Nixon, can quote stats like they're reciting the alphabet. Some, like Johnson, aren't big fans. Some, like Ford, played a sport and played it well. Some, li...

If you remember an episode from last summer I put out about the team, you know that I am a passionate, albeit new, fan of the New York Yankees. That fandom continues, and our conversation today about the 1998 Yankees -- one of the best Major League Baseball teams ever -- far predates my becoming a fan. But our guest today, Jack Curry, was very much there and covering it, and he's written a bea...

We certainly have read much about Jacqueline Kennedy (and have even done a couple of episodes about her on this show). We also know much about Jacqueline Onassis. But what about Jacqueline Bouvier, the woman before marriage, pursuing a career in Washington, D.C., falling in love with Paris, and attending Queen Elizabeth's Coronation as her last hoorah as a single woman during the late spring d...

Who knew that the generation you were born into -- obviously through no choice of your own -- could shape SO much of who you are? Today we're talking about a really interesting topic: The six currently living generations, spanning the Silents (the oldest of whom were born in 1925) to the Polars (who are being born even as you read this). Why does our generation have so much influence over us?...

Charlotte Fox Weber is a therapist, and from her practice, she's uncovered the 12 most common human desires and has written a book about all of them. Each desire gets its own chapter -- and I'll bet you share these desires, too. (No, we're not talking explicit sexual desires, although that certainly can be a part of it.) Listen in for a therapist's insight and one of the most brill...

Not just some of us, but ALL of us need a strong, effective personal brand. The good news is? My guest today can help you build just that. Not only is this book fantastic, but so is our guest, Aliza Licht -- she has enough experience to take a personal branding novice or a personal branding professional to the next level. Listen and prepare to learn! On Brand: Shape Your Narrative, Share Your Visi...

We have another memoirist on the show today! As you'll hear me say in the introduction, after reading Maggie Smith's book, I was flummoxed as to how I would ask her MORE questions about her life after she wrote such a candid, raw, vulnerable memoir. Hadn't she already given me enough on the page? But off the page, Maggie is just as dazzling, as you'll no doubt hear for yourself. A...

What we think of as self-care might not be self-care at all. In fact, what we've come to know as "self-care" -- think expensive wellness retreats and fad diets and juice cleanses and creams and serums and the like -- is part of a gigantic self-care industry that makes its profit on making people, and especially women, feel terrible about themselves. That is not self-care. In fact, RE...

Resiliency has become a problem in our society. If something gets too hard, we abandon it -- after all, there are many, MANY other options we can choose from that maybe won't be so difficult. The "swiping" culture -- think shopping online and dating apps -- has become habitual online but offline, too, meaning we continually disengage and never finish what we start. This has a human c...

The title of Dr. Henry Cloud's latest book is simple: Trust. But its subtitle (and the concept itself) is much more complex -- Knowing When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix It When It Gets Broken. Whew! Trust is vitally important in all of our lives, and Dr. Cloud gives a masterclass on it in today's episode. It's truly a must listen episode and a must re...