Only One In The Room

“It was very early and I was still in bed when I heard someone yelling from my backyard. When I pulled the curtain back and saw a bunch of armed men jumping into my backyard, I first thought I was dreaming. But before I could figure out what was going on, they started shooting at my house. I froze by the window and my heart was coming out of my chest but I gathered all my strength and ran into my...

I love this book so much by first-time novelist, Gabriel Bump, that I chose to read not one, but two of its chapters to you today.   Gabriel Bump grew up in South Shore, Chicago. He received his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His debut novel, Everywhere You Don't Belong, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020 and has won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Exc...

In this unique episode of Scott Talks, we feature a special reading created and also read by Jeff Kober. A former The Only One In The Room guest and friend of the show.  A little about Jeff Kober: As an actor, Jeff has appeared in many TV series, General Hospital and recently recurring on NCIS: Los Angeles, Shameless, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, and New Girl, and many others. Film work incl...

Once there was a girl who discovered that while period products seemed to be widely available to everyone, there were still many girls and women who were forced to use trash to absorb their menstrual flow every month. Twenty-Three year-old Harvard graduate, Nadya Okamoto founded PERIOD.org at the age of sixteen and in 2020 she co-founded August, a lifestyle brand working to reimagine periods.   Bu...

Right now there are thousands of Haitian immigrants encamped at Del Rio, Texas after entering the U.S. through the Rio Grande who are awaiting either deportation from U.S. authorities or a decision to stay put and seek asylum. Here to speak with us today is M.J. Fievre who grew up in Haiti and now lives in the US. M.J. has authored nine books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French...

I’m excited to share this personal essay with you (my 17th published HuffPost essay). I’ve received so many uplifting comments and direct messages from people who have said, “This is exactly how I feel, thank you.” Laura Cathcart Robbins is an author, freelance culture writer, and host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room, living in Studio City, California. She has been active for many...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Robert Kabera right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Voyage et Cie: Voyage et Cie's curator Melanie Apple has cultivated a passion for notable moments using the sense of smell. Voyage et Cie is the ultimate luxury blend of travel, fragrance, and design. Each...

Picture this, you’re five years old and your mom is cooking dinner, like she does every night. Suddenly the air around your home is filled with screams and gunfire. Robert Kabera, Stanford graduate, co-founder, and COO of Sync Energy A.I., survived the 1994 Rwandan Genocide with his family by hiding in tunnels, evading soldiers, and spending six years in refugee camps.  But what would you do if af...

Parental alienation occurs during a high-conflict divorce in which the child identifies strongly with one parent, usually the custodial parent. The alienating parent programs the child to despise their other parent by criticizing the alienated parent and interfering with their relationship.  Here to dive into this with us is Dr. Petra Deeter. Dr. Deeter is an award-winning film director and a soci...

On this final Friday of Suicide Prevention Awareness month, we wanted to bring you this powerful piece that my friend, writer, writing coach, speaker, and editor, Lisa Cooper Ellison wrote for Huffpo. Lisa Cooper Ellison is a speaker, writing coach, and editor with an Ed. S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a background in mindfulness. Her life story and essays have appeared on NPR’s With...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Ever Gonzalez right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: We love our new sponsor, ReadySlim! Say Hello to a better, brighter you. And right now, for a limited time, you can save 25% on your first order of ReadySlim’s 28-day Detox tea kit, plus you get a FREE coll...

What if, after crossing the US border with your mother, you joined the Mormon church and began to reject the clichés associated with immigrants, deciding that handouts were not for you and with hard work, anything was possible for anyone. Ever Gonzalez, podcaster, and founder of Outlier HQ media and events company, found that his morals and principals were better aligned with more traditional valu...

In this very special episode we turn the tables with our dear friend and former Only One In The Room guest from Season 1 episode 2 Dr. Troy Byer. Troy interviews hosts Laura Cathcart Robbins and Scott Slaughter (aka Hon) on all things relationships and what it's been like working together in creating this podcast. More from Troy Byer: Explore the many titles by Troy Byer here Check out Mindology F...

Tomorrow, September 18, is National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day, and to honor all those that are living longer and even thriving with a disease that has killed so many of us, I wanted to read this beautiful essay by my friend, author/writer, Melanie Brooks.  Melanie Brooks is the author of Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches...

The Only One In The Room is extremely proud to partner with 19-year old poet, Valyn Lyric Turner. From time to time, we will be bringing you her phenomenal spoken word poetry. Scott and Laura feel that today’s presentation, Race In The Classroom: Seeing Color could not have come at a better time in our history. You’ll want to share this episode with the students, parents and educators in your life...

Imagine if, as a teenager, you saved every journal entry, every voicemail and filmed every moment with your friends, including, smoking weed and doing mushrooms, including epic late-night phone calls, including -- their cries for help? Actor, director, and writer, Soleil Moon Frye, who began her career at age seven as the iconic Punky Brewster, recently released KID 90, a documentary about her tee...

Imagine responding to an emergency call on September 11, 2001 and finding yourself at the base of the south tower as it collapsed. Tim Brown, retired, decorated 20-year FDNY firefighter and a survivor of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, lost 93 of his friends on Sept. 11th, including his two best friends. So what would you do if you’d survived the most horrific attack ever to t...

After interviewing Allison about her soon-to-be-launched book, I couldn’t wait to read you from the first two (riveting) chapters. Allison is a Taiwanese immigrant in Utah. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has won both national and international awards. Her memoir, Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops is available on Sep. 21, 2021. Visit her at allisonhongmerrill.com, where you can s...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Allison Hong Merrill right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Best Fiends: Join us and the millions of Americans who are already playing this game. Download Best Fiends for FREE on The Apple APP store or Google Play. That’s friends without the R, Best Fiends. V...

Imagine if as a kid you were chased by your parent with a butcher knife, and instead of intervening, all the other adults just sat around and watched.  Author, Allison Hong Merrill grew up in Taiwan and never felt secure in her home until Mormon missionaries arrived, so she married one, and against her father’s wishes, moved back to Texas with him, thinking he was her knight in shining armor. But...

Dr. Miller is an entrepreneur, international best-selling author, inspirational speaker, a mental health professional with a Ph. D. in clinical psychology and Holocaust survivor. In each of her books, The Dr. Erica Miller Story: From Trauma to Triumph, Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Do It and her most recent, Chronologically Gifted: Aging with Gusto, she inspires people with her charisma, enthusiasm for li...

Today is the first weekend of National Recovery Awareness Month and I’m excited to read you a piece written by my dear friend Holly. A woman whose name, in the last couple of years, has become synonymous with sobriety. This is actually the introduction to Holly’s book, Quit Like A Woman (we all call it QLAW for short) and when I first read it I felt seen in a way that I hadn’t in years. Holly is t...

Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Peter Sage right after the show. Special thanks to our sponsors: Voyage et Cie: Voyage et Cie's curator Melanie Apple has cultivated a passion for notable moments using the sense of smell. Voyage et Cie is the ultimate luxury blend of travel, fragrance, and design. Each ori...

Imagine going to court on a civil matter and then finding yourself being sentenced to prison - for contempt of court. Motivational Speaker, Tedx Speaker and best-selling author, Peter Sage, thought he’d be back in time to finish his workday when he went to court in January of 2017, but instead, he was sent to Pentonville, the UK’s most violent prison. So what would you do if you were wrongfully im...

Ariel D. Smith, M.Ed is the founder of The Food Truck Scholar and the host of its podcast of the same name. She is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in American Studies, where her research examines the role of the food truck industry in American Culture and African American entrepreneurs’ experiences and involvement in the mobile food industry specifically. Instagram: @thefoodtruckscholar Facebook: @Ari...