WBEZ | interview

The Jon Ronson interview

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:01:00 -0500

Jon Ronson is one of those writers who embodies what creative nonfiction is all about by demonstrating just how strange and wonderful the world can be. A Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, his books include Them: Adventures With Extremists, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry and most recently Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries. His book The Men Who Stare At Goats was turned into a movie starring George Clooney. You can learn a lot more about him here.

I saw that you have a standing reply on your website that you will not investigate people’s claims that they are victims of mind control. Aside from that, what personal information do your readers tend to volunteer to you most frequently?

That they are married to psychopaths. Or that they're worried they may be psychopaths. There is an adage in psychology that if you're worried you may be a psychopath that means you aren't one. Because psychopaths never worry about being psychopaths. They're FINE with it. Which makes me suspect that psychopathy is the most pleasant feeling of all the mental disorders.

Isn't it interesting that so many people share the exact same delusion - that they're being mind controlled by the CIA. When our brains go wrong they go wrong in uncannily similar ways. It shows that we aren't all individual snowflakes. My guess is that some of the people who believe they're mind control victims actually suffer from a rare disorder called Delusional Disorder. The symptoms include 'non-bizarre' delusions. That delusion is non-bizarre because some people over the years HAVE actually been mind controlled by the CIA.

Of the different cultures you’ve written about, what have been some that seemed most tempting to join up with, even if just in theory?

I had a good time writing the story Running Through Cornfields for my first book, Them, about Rachel Weaver, one of the survivors of Ruby Ridge. But that's just because I liked Idaho and Montana. The rivers and mountains. But I guess that's not a great reason to become a white separatist. Anyway, they'd never have me.

How can you tell which media are right for which subjects (what works well for radio, web, books, etc?)

Sometimes it's just whoever is interested in having me work with them at any particular time. I go in and out of favor with different people. For instance, British nonfiction TV has no interest in me at the moment. Sometimes the subject matter dictates it. I once made a documentary about the band The Shaggs that I knew had to be for the radio. There was no way I could do that story without getting to play their music. Here it is:

But the thing I'm always looking for is an adventure that might become a book. Whenever I do a documentary or a feature I'm always wondering if it could be a rabbit hole that takes me to a book.

I remember asking Christiane Kubrick - when I was making my film Stanley Kubrick's Boxes - what her husband was looking for during those ever lengthening gaps between films. She said, "The magical moment of falling in love with a story." I know that feeling well. Whenever I start a story I look for that magical moment of falling in love with it enough that it may become a book.

Who are some of your "favorite" criminals ("favorite" of course meaning compelling, not as in you’d want to move in with them).

I loved my adventures with David Icke and Alex Jones in Them, infiltrating Bohemian Grove with Alex. Not sure he counts as a criminal. Tony in The Psychopath Test. I liked him personally, and also he was mysterious. He claimed to have faked madness to escape a prison sentence and now he was stuck in a hospital for the criminally insane and nobody believed he was sane. I loved trying to work out if he was insane or not. It opened up such an interesting area about how we view and judge other people, how we read between lines, how morally corrosive it can be.

If you had to teach a ten-minute course on interviewing, what advice would you be sure to impart upon your students?

This could be terrible advice, but don't plan any questions in advance. That way you have to listen. You have to be a twig in the tidal wave of the conversation. But not preparing any questions doesn't mean don't do research. Do lots of research, just assimilate it, rather than plan and structure the interview. As I say, that might be the worst advice.

You immerse yourself so fully in the stories you write. What have been some scenarios where you were conducting research or interviews and then found yourself in a potentially unsafe environment?

The most recent time was writing The Amazing Adventures of Phoenix Jones, which is in my new collection, Lost At Sea. He's the real life superhero I was patrolling with in Seattle. He took me to Belltown to break up a gang of armed crack dealers. They were, "What the f*ck are you doing coming here in your costumes? This is not fun and games to us. If you don't get off our block we're going to shoot you." And Phoenix said, "We're staying."

What are you reading right now?

Nothing. I'm watching Freaks and Geeks on Netflix. I think it's just about the best thing I ever saw. It breaks my heart that they only made one series. It makes me feel so helpless that I can't go back in time and fix it so they made more. It's like finding out someone died. Although I did notice one or two jumping the shark moments in the last episode or two - like James Franco liking Dungeons and Dragons. So maybe it was for the best that it died young and left a good looking corpse.

Do you stay in touch with anyone you write about?

I would like to stay in touch with everyone. I consider it a real honor and compliment if people want to stay in touch with me after I've written about them. Even if we massively disagree with each other politically, I always think we've been thought something intimate together when we've had some kind of encounter or adventure. They feel like family members.

What have been some of your most recent obsessions, even if they were only fleeting? (I for instance spent part of today googling Aleister Crowley and his ilk.)

Ha. Last few days I've looked at the disappearance of Maura Murray, workplace bullying and Amanda Palmer.

What’s a potential story topic you figured would be rich for material but turned out to be relatively banal, and then another where you stumbled upon a wormhole in an unexpected place?

The saddest example of a story that went nowhere was the months trying to write a book about the credit card industry. This was before the crash. I realized was that all these people who work in the credit industry – the list brokers, all these people who’ve got these devious tricks to keep us ensnared – are really important. But they are also incredibly boring. They couldn't light up the page for me. So I abandoned the book. And instead I went to Alaska to write my story Santa's Little Conspirators, that ended up in Lost at Sea, my new collection. That was about shenanigans in a Christmas theme town.

The opposite - a story I wasn't into but turned out to be extraordinary - was going to Hawaii to interview a soldier called Glenn Wheaton. He had been part of the US Military's remote viewing program. The psychic spies. I really didn't have any interest in them. The writer Jim Schnabel had already written a very intricate book about them called Remote Viewers. I felt like I was telling a story that was already known. It was really miserable for me. While I was interviewing him we got talking about the 'other stuff' they were doing. He said they were trying to become invisible and kill goats just by staring at them. So the wormhole opened up. And I ended up writing The Men Who Stare At Goats.

Factchecking your work must be thrilling and exhausting. Which stories of yours were the most difficult to clear before publishing?

I don't remember ever having much of a problem. I'm pretty assiduous when I'm gathering the stories. So fact checking is usually fine.

How does it feel to be the 348th person interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?
It feels good!

Q&A with Julie Klausner, author of 'Art Girls Are Easy'

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:13:00 -0500

You probably know Julie Klausner from my 2010 interview with her. If not for that, maybe her memoir I Don't Care About Her Band or her personable podcast How Was Your Week. Starting Tuesday, you will also know her for her role as Young Adult author, as her new book Art Girls Are Easy, a funny and romantic summer camp romp with an artsy twist, will be released May 7. I asked Julie what it's like wearing a new YA hat, and below that, check out an excerpt from the book.

How hard or easy was it to switch gears into YA writing? What challenges did it pose?
It's completely tough to write a book, period. But switching gears into fiction was absolutely challenging, if only because I had to make sure I wasn't using my own voice the whole time when I was writing—whether it was in the description or in the dialogue. I don't have a lot of experience writing fiction. Part of that is because I have such a loud nonfiction voice. I am who I am. Another element of the challenge of having to sit down and make sh*t up is imagination. As I grow older, I become more and more fearful that I have little to no imagination. The kind of abilities I had as a little kid to just play and make things up as you went along. So, I had to get past that fear to crack the story, and then to write in the voices of the kids I invented. But as far as it being a challenge from a YA perspective, I honestly have to say that I just tried to be true to the material, and I didn't think of the audience as being below or necessarily less sophisticated than somebody I would usually write for. I didn't dumb down my prose—or, I tried not to.

You don't have to give us details (but feel free to), but how much of the book was inspired by your own young adulthood?
I absolutely relate to the main character in the book. I was a very emotionally intense adolescent, very interior. I was eaten alive by my own passions, which were equal parts artistic drive and sexual madness. That's where I drew the inspiration for Indigo's tumult. Her conflict is more internal than it is a concrete struggle with her best friend. She does have some love affair gone sour stuff with her best friend Lucy, but the main plot exists within Indigo, I think. As far as the setting, I did go to a Fine and Performing Arts sleepaway camp, but it wasn't like Silver Springs at all, insomuch as the counselors were NOT sleazy and I will go on record as saying nobody ever tried to make out with me at the time. Which is still disappointing.

What YA books have inspired you, either when you were a young adult or now in your general adulthood?
The first Gossip Girl novel, by Cecily Von Ziegesar, was a huge inspiration, in terms of when I was first researching the genre and my agent suggested I see what was out there. I was so impressed by its satire and humor and its references, as well as by its structure. It read like a television show in how it was laid out; each scene introduced a couple of characters and they all converged in the middle and at the end. I mean this as a huge compliment. So, that absolutely encouraged me to write one of my own. AS far as growing up, like everybody else I was shaped by Judy Blume's opus, but I also want to give a shout-out to Paula Danziger. She wrote some steamy—for me, at the time—novels about teenage girls making out with dudes and coming of age, and I plowed through every one of her novels. Also, if you Google her, you'll find some pretty incredible photos of her wearing a jaunty headband, which I guess, along with her purple glasses, was a trademark. She's dead now, which is very sad. A fellow redhead, too! Redhead Hall of Fame for her, no doubt.

What are your plans for celebrating your first YA book's release?
None as of yet! But I will probably overeat that night.

Who is currently your favorite animal? (Neither your nor my pets qualify.)
Well, that is unfair to disqualify Briscoe and Jimmy Jazz, but I'll play along. I'll go with most recently adored instead of utmost overall pet. Yesterday I met Marc Spitz's two basset hounds, Jerry and Joni. Jerry dazzled me, with his vocal displays of neediness and alpha-tude, but Joni ultimately won me over with her nuzzles and her plaintive, God-like eyes. I love them both. They are good hounds.

[Editor's note: Both Marc Spitz's and my dogs are named after Jerry Orbach.]

Now please enjoy an excerpt from Art Girls are Easy:

“Wake up!” Eleanor hissed. Sure enough, the bus was pulling up to campus, and the sign welcoming motorists to Silver Springs elicited cheers and general rabble from the peanut gallery of young campers at the front.
Indigo felt disoriented and groggy. She rubbed her eyes carefully so as not to smudge her mascara and looked out the window.They were just pulling up to the front of the camp.Indy could make out the lush lawn and blue buildings with sloping gray roofs in the near distance. Massive shady trees were spaced evenly throughout the campus, and the Silver Springs camp flag, which bore a feminized coat of arms that represented each discipline taught at camp above the Latin phrase ArsGratiaArtis (“Art is the reward of art”), danced lightly in the breeze. The overall effect was quite ethereal. Indigo began to imagine which colors she would mix to achieve the specific shades of the scene if she were to paint a landscape right now. Chartreuse and goldenrod. Maybe some cerulean.
“You were snoring.”Eleanor smirked, her thin lips a line graph of contempt under her Lancôme burgundy matte stick. “It was pretty annoying.”That was rich, coming from her. Indy gathered her things: she couldn’t wait to get off this bus and avoid Eleanor for the rest of the summer.
As the girls lined up like elegant, talented cattle down the bus aisle, the camp director, Lillian Meehan, greeted each camper as she exited with a lei made from organic peonies tied together with red kabbalah string. Lillian was tall and amiable, and thin enough to look great in clothes, though not necessarily pretty. Basically, she was Glenn Close with dark hair and a whistle around her neck.
Lucy looked back at a still-sleepy, rumpled Indigo before getting off the bus. As the two girls made eye contact for the first time since their light dish session about Tyler or Taylor or whoever, Lucy smiled and winked at her friend, and Indy felt the warm rush of camaraderie wash over her. She smiled back and soon enough emerged from the bus into the warm kiss of sunlight on the grassy patch, where Lillian greeted her with a lei. And when she lifted her face to take in the familiar postcard of the sprawling green campus before her, Indigo found something small and sublime in its composition.
There, on the lawn of the main sprawl of Silver Springs, right near the office, stood Nick Estep, holding a blowtorch to a life-size rectangular metal sculpture. Goggles rested over his longish hair, which trickled onto the collar of his Nirvana T-shirt in the Berkshires sunlight.Indigo’s heart rocketed to every point on the surface of her skin. He was here after all.

Follow Claire Zulkey @Zulkey.

Interview with 'Sexy Feminism' co-author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:54:00 -0500

I chat with a homegirl today, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs before moving to New York, where she spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly, cofounded SexyFeminist.com, and now writes for several publications, including Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Writer’s Digest, Fast Company, and New York‘s Vulture. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, is coming out on Tuesday, while her collaboration with Heather Wood Rudulph, Sexy Feminism, was released earlier this year. She has provided pop culture commentary for CNN, VH1, A&E, and ABC and teaches for Gotham Writers' Workshop. You can learn a lot more about her here.

I’m guilty of this myself but often, women criticize other women’s definitions of feminism. What were some criticisms you anticipated people lobbing towards Sexy Feminism that you wanted to head off at the pass and address within it?
We knew when we named our website Sexy Feminist (and then our book Sexy Feminism) that we were being a little, you know, provocative. But we knew it would start specific discussions, and we were right. Our thing is that we're definitely NOT delineating ourselves from other feminists somehow—you know, we're sexy feminists, and the others aren't—but we're saying that, despite continued misperception, ALL feminism is sexy. And we'll stop calling our website Sexy Feminist when everyone gets that. The idea is to stop people who have not necessarily identified as feminists but who are feminist-curious to look at the book or the site and want to learn more.

Tell me about the cover of the book: what were some other possibilities (if any) that were considered?
The only other possibility we got from the publisher was a very straightforward cover with no photos or graphics, which we thought was a little ... less than exciting, given the provocative name. This was the alternative we ended up with after sharing that feedback with them, and we felt okay about it. It's attention-grabbing, and that lipgloss is so fantastic that I ended up going out to hunt down anything I could find at Sephora that came close. (Hot tip: Tarte's lip crayon in "Enchanted" is my new favorite toy, and Tarte is one of our feminist-friendly cosmetic companies named in the book. Win win!)

What do you think are examples of pop culture that got feminism right both in terms of definition/idealism but also by demonstrating it in an everyday, practical way?
I feel a professional obligation to say this, but I also believe it: The Mary Tyler Moore Show. They weren't trying to be feminist, but the movement was so much in the air at the time, and they had so many feminist-identified women writing for the show, that it came through. I always say Mary Richards was the original Sexy Feminist. She really came into her empowerment throughout the series, and we saw her argue for equal pay to her male predecessor, we saw her talk about the pressures of being the only woman in the newsroom, and we saw her (mostly in later years) assert herself strongly with men. In one of the last episodes, she even asked Lou Grant out. It didn't work out, but still.

You’ve written books about The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the Mickey Mouse Club. What are some books about shows you’d read if they were written (but don’t want to write yourself?)
I love this question, because I can tell you that when figuring out my next book (which is now officially Seinfeld) I basically just pored over lists of TV shows. The ones I feel like I definitely can't tackle are sci-fi shows: I love some of them but don't have the geek-level knowledge required. So I think about stuff like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Lost. Those are the two that I think could hold up to book treatment, but I'm not necessarily the right author for them.

Tell me about what you do as a career coach/consultant. And what do you do when you feel like you need consulting?
I'm very good at running other people's lives! Actually, I have to admit I think I've had a pretty good run in my own career so far, and I really do like helping other people figure out how to make those key decisions that can make a difference. Most of the time, it's that people are simply frozen into inaction by fear—fear of failing, fear of succeeding. And writing, in particular, is such a baffling career path full of constant decisions. You don't just take the corporate job and then wait 50 years so you can get your gold watch. So I can talk to clients about everything from getting their first few publication credits to moving to the next level of publications to getting an agent or going freelance full-time. It's funny you ask about what I do when I need consulting, because I've just recently started feeling that itch, like, okay, what now? I've started looking for mentors to befriend so I can ask them for a little advice in exchange for a few rounds of drinks; I also went to a great conference last week run by ASJA, and got tons of ideas for ways to advance my career more.

What’s something really unfeminist that you like? (Sometimes I dance to really misogynistic music.)
Oh, man, I do love me some "In da Club" and "Big Pimpin.'" They're just good songs. I also happen to really enjoy watching The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I always say I will allow myself to watch them because I have studied media and feminism enough that I watch them with a (very) critical lens, and because I don't personally have a Nielsen box, so I'm not actually affecting the ratings. If I get a Nielsen box, it must stop immediately.

When you worked at Entertainment Weekly, which fanbases tended to respond most rabidly when you wrote about their favorite show/artist/movie etc?
Well, despite my claims that I couldn't write a whole Lost book, I did do some reporting on Lost in my day, and, you know, you can imagine that fan base. But more surprisingly, people get just as into their Grey's Anatomy, for instance. I used to recap that and couldn't ever read the message board comments. They were very, very passionate, and channeled that passion into being not-always-kind to me.

Who are some of your favorite sexy feminists in pop culture (and you cannot name either Tina Fey or Amy Poehler.)
Ha! Those ladies do rule, but I've been totally enamored of Lena Dunham of late. If you watch or read her interviews, man, that girl is scary smart. And a totally out-and-proud feminist. She takes the loads of criticism of her work quite beautifully, and I think her constant nakedness onscreen really is revolutionary the way she does it. We truly do need to see more body types besides 90 pounds and 5-foot-10 with Olympic-level abs. I also adore Mindy Kaling, and her show does a lot of subtly feminist things: Her character is great at her job and clearly smart, even though she's a little boy crazy and talks like a teenager. But more importantly, she has this insane sexual confidence that I think makes her a strangely wonderful role model to young women. Also, she's unbelievably funny, in her own way.

You’ve worked with Heather Wood for a long time (back when I interviewed you for MBToolBox about Sirens Mag.) Why do you two work so well together and what tips do you have for working with a longtime collaborator?
We definitely just have that mind-meld thing happening. We're each totally comfortable letting the other speak on our behalf as a team. I'm an independent spirit, but it's nice to have a collaborator to fall back on sometimes when your life gets crazy with book deadlines or personal stuff. It's the best when I log onto the site and see that she's posted new content or edited a piece I'd been neglecting. We can talk each other off professional ledges sometimes, too. The main thing is to treat it almost like a romantic relationship. Keep lines of communication open and constantly express appreciation. One of the things I've noticed we automatically do, and I like, is to always thank each other. If she sees that I put up a new post, she thanks me. If she does our taxes, I thank her. I've actually carried this over into my romantic relationship, and it works wonders!

How does it feel to be the 347th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
I feel really good about that number. There's something auspicious about it.

Follow Claire Zulkey @zulkey, check out previous interviews here or see her at Funny Ha-Ha tonight.

The Emily Bazelon interview

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:31:00 -0500

You'd think that with the It Gets Better project and a lower tolerance for bad behavior, bullying would be on its way out as a social phenomenon. Unfortunately, it seems like every day another story comes out about someone who took his or her own life due to torment they received from their peers. Today's interviewee has been very busy discussing what she learned while researching her book Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. In addition to that, she is a writer and senior editor of Slate, where she edits the legal column, "Jurisprudence", is co-editor of its blog on women's issues, XX Factor and regularly appears on Political Gabfest, a weekly Slate podcast with David Plotz and John Dickerson. She is also a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and her writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, and other publications. You can find out more about her here.

If you had to choose between your child being a bully or being the victim of bullying, which would you pick?
If I had to choose—of course I would rather not--I would actually rather have my kids be targets. The reason is not actually that I think that would make their lives easier. When you look at the research, the targets of bullying (now, it doesn’t happen to everyone)—but most kids can overcome this kind of adversity, but there is a higher risk of psychological problems in the short term and long term. And there also is a link to low academic performance. And I just care enormously about my kids’ treating other people well. It would kill me if they were singling out another kid to persecute them, which is what I think bullying is--that’s the definition I think we should use. My book has made me think a lot as a parent about whether we collectively emphasize individual achievement and happiness more than we do moral development and the sense of the collective good as we’re raising our kids.

When I was a kid, I was really obsessed with my friends talking about me, and when you write online, that happens in real time. So I’ve sort of been amazed by the thick skin that I’ve been able to build up over time writing online because you can’t take it all to heart. I wonder whether you’ve noticed if kids have been able to develop any coping mechanisms in terms of dealing with online bullying, or whether being able to take it or ignore comes more with adulthood.
You know, I haven’t seen anyone compare adults and kids. My sense is that kids are not going to be as good at having a thick skin. I agree with you, I try to have a thick skin, but a lot of adults actually don’t. I think the issue with kids is that developmentally speaking, they’re just more vulnerable. They don’t have it all figured out. It’s harder sometimes for them to have perspective, even to separate the short term from the long term, right? I think that cyber bullying can be really damaging for kids. Luckily, as we were saying earlier, that’s not always the case, and most kids can make it through. But when you see some of the cruelty that goes on online, it’s not surprising to see findings for example, that 25% of 12 and 13-year-old girls say that they saw something written online that made them not want to go to school the next day. That kind of finding suggests we’re not talking about stuff that every kid can just shrug off.

How do you know, based on being a mom but also the research you’ve done, what’s the fine line between letting the kids work it out for themselves and when do authority figures intervene?
I feel like, you take your cue from your kid. You listen and talk to your kid really carefully about what’s going on. If you feel like your kid is becoming withdrawn and depressed and it’s continuing over a significant period of time, then you have to step in. I don’t think that your first instinct should be to jump in and try to intervene in a really policing sort of way, because a lot of times kids do need space to solve their own conflicts. If you talk to your kid, they may not want you to take that kind of step, because they’ll be worried about what the consequences will be with their peers. Sometimes you have to override children about those types of instincts. But I think it’s a good idea to start off relatively cautiously. One thing I always say, is that parents should talk to kids about what they think the solution should be. Because then you end up often with both an attempt at a solution that makes more sense, but also you’re giving kids the capacity to problem-solve. One of the hallmarks of resilience is that you learn to believe that when you work hard to make a problem better and to overcome adversity, you’re going to succeed. So it seems like in here is an opportunity for parents to really help kids build up exactly the kind of skills they need later in life to overcome problems, because obviously they are going to face trouble and conflict later on.

Do you think bullied kids have it easier now, because more people have an eye out for them? Or is it harder, because of the internet?
I think the internet can make it harder because it feels very 24/7 and prevalent to kids, and they can feel exposed in front of a bigger audience. There’s the sense of the visibility of the bullying, and the permanence of it. But I think you’re also right about the heightened awareness--it just totally depends where you are. There is still a big problem with teachers turning a blind eye and underreacting. At the same time, we are seeing more vigilance and in some cases overreacting. It’s this weird moment culturally where both of those things are going on.

Is it realistic to try to raise your kids offline?
Forever? No. The way I think about it is this: As much delay as you can and then taking it step by step. So, I don’t think that having ten and 11 year olds on social media sites is a good idea, and I’m always amazed when parents just sort of seem to be like, “Oh, I couldn’t stop them!” Well, why not? Don’t they live in your house?

They didn’t want to try to stop them.
Yeah, exactly! I don’t really get that. At the same time there’s some point at which access to the technology becomes a really important form of social capital. When I was growing up, my parents hated that I talked on the phone, but if they had taken the phone away from me entirely, that would have left me out of all kinds of things, right?

I had parents who were strict with television—we didn’t have cable when I was a kid, and I wasn’t allowed to watch prime time TV until we were a certain age.
I think limit setting is really helpful in this context. Some of the examples I give are like, maybe you feel your 13 year old is ready for a phone. But does your teen need a smart phone or would a “dumb” phone, that doesn’t have the internet and doesn’t have a camera would be a better match for what he can really handle technologically. That is the choice we have been making for our own son, who just actually lost his dumb phone! Perhaps he’s not ready for the much more expensive item he would like to have. There are ways you can limit access in terms of hours of the day. One night, we realized our 13-year-old was sleeping with his phone under his pillow. It was innocent--he just wanted to know how a friend of his had done on her basketball game. But like, he doesn’t need to know that at 10:30 at night. And also, what if he had gotten an upsetting message late, after we were all asleep, then what, you know? It seems like nothing good can come of any of that. There’s no reason he needs the phone in the middle of the night. So we made a rule that the phones sleep downstairs and the people sleep upstairs.

Have you noticed since your book has come out any changes from any social media platforms, or schools that are in line with your book in terms of trying to counteract or prevent bullying?
I think schools are becoming more and more aware of this. I hear about things like the “delete day” idea that I wrote about, which isn’t my idea but I highlighted that idea—I’ve heard that other schools are taking that on. I think the social media companies have been studiously ignoring this whole conversation and the only way that’s going to change is if we their customers demand from them that they change how they deal with teenagers.

One thing that frightens me, with having a little baby, is that the whole conversation that’s happening right now about bullying is scary enough, but then I think, something will come along that will make it even easier for him to make someone’s life or have his life made into a living hell. Facebook and Twitter will be so over.
Well, it’s happening already--the kids are migrating on to Instagram and Twitter, as their parents are slightly more clued in. I don’t know what the next next thing will be—of course I don’t know that, I’m like the lamest early adopter ever. And also the whole point is that adults aren’t supposed to know, right? But, I do think this: The reason why I wrote in the Atlantic about Henry Lieberman (at MIT), about his idea of an algorithm to help prevent cyberbullying, is I think that right now we are being too passive about the underlying architecture of the web and just assuming there’s nothing to be done about it. The only thing we can do is throw up our hands. I just cannot believe that is true. These are sophisticated companies with an enormous level of resources. If they wanted to make these online environments take into account teenagers’ social welfare, they could figure it out how to do it. They could work with schools--they could just simply give school administrators and guidance counselors an email dropbox where they could send Hey! Help! kind of alerts. And none of that is happening right now. This is the Mark Zuckerberg line: privacy is an evolving standard, i.e. we will just have less and less of it--and that’s just the way it is? But no, we have control over these norms.

When you were on Stephen Colbert and you made him cry, I was just curious to know how that went down ahead of time: What you were told, how did the bit came together, who came up with it and so on?
I’ve been on Colbert a few times now. The producer had called me and we had talked about my book, but I didn’t know Colbert was going to ask that question. I have thought about it... I figured that either he was going to accuse me of being a bully or he was going to ask me whether he was a bully. It seemed like an obvious way for the show to go. They’re very wary of anything that sounds rehearsed or canned. I will say, having been on a few times, I realize it’s all about the situational, in-the-moment comedy. It’s because he’s incredibly quick, he’s really good at it. You just try to say your thing and see what comes of it.

You’ve talked about raising your sons to be feminists. What practical things have you told them so far about how they should interact with girls? I’m thinking back to when my brother was growing up my mom told him to always say yes if a girl asks him to dance.
Oh that’s great, I’m gonna steal that one! I love that! I have said to my sons, you have to treat girls and women well, as a basic baseline, and that boys who are good listeners... girls really value that. That’s something they should really make sure to try and develop. I don’t go around preaching about feminism very much in my house, just because “preaching”—I mean, my kids roll their eyes.

I read that poor Hanna Rosin’s son is sick of her it seems.
I know, I know, Jacob. I used to write a family column about my kids for Slate but then I stopped because they were getting old enough that people were starting to ask them about it and I felt it was enough. Which is too bad in some ways because they’re only continuing to be more and more hilarious as they get older. It’s not that I never mention them, I mean, I’m talking about them with you. So I would say that what I mostly feel about my kids, is that they are seeing their parents with not a whole lot of aplomb. My husband and I juggle things together all the time. He isn’t very involved in their lives and I don’t think they have the idea. They have been surprised when they have learned that women didn’t used to be able to vote, or women used to work less. Those are sort of revelations to them.

Your 2009 interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg was cited in the United States House of Representatives' Committee Report in support of the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2012 sex or race-based abortion. Some states are working on laws banning sex or raced-based abortion. Is that a thing that is happening very much?
My sense is, and I’m not hugely expert in this, is that this is something that happens to some degree in countries like India and China. And that there’s very little evidence that it’s happening here.

I think that sex selection laws are essentially symbolic because like you said, people are not going to give this reason. Even if they might feel it, they aren’t going to say it, right? And then when you look at the other laws about admission privileges, or there’s these one that are called “trap laws,” where the abortion clinic has to have the same specifications as an ambulatory surgical center. So that sentence is totally boring. But what that means in practice is that we’re going to shut down this clinic by making it so expensive to operate because we’re going to make it have all these “safety conditions” in place, but really it means it’s a lot of red tape and the clinic can’t operate any more. That’s what’s really going on.

What is going to be your next big project?
That’s a good question, do you have any ideas for me? I really am trying to figure that out, but I really don’t know the answer right now.

I think you should write Young Adult fiction!
You know it’s so funny, I wish that I could write Young Adult fiction novels--I have no reason to think I can do that well. There are a few different things I’m really interested in right now, but honestly I’m so depleted and I’m still talking about my book! So I think I need a couple months to get my bearings. But I’m really looking forward to having a new project!

How does it feel to be the 345th person interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?
It feels great! You ask such smart and interesting questions.

Follow me @Zulkey. To see previous interviews, go here.

The Jen Larsen Interview

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:52:00 -0500

Today I speak with beloved blogger Jen Larsen, whose recently-published memoir Stranger Here details her experience losing almost 200 pounds via surgery – and her discovery that weight loss is not a magic bullet for happiness.

Larsen was the featured blogger at Condé Nast's now-defunct Elastic Waist, and her columns have been syndicated on Yahoo!'s Shine Network for Women. She is a contributor to Big Fat Deal, a blog about weight in popular culture. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Word Riot, Emprise Review, and South Loop Review, among other publications. You can read a lot more about and from her here.

Why did you use a pseudonym when writing for Elastic Waist?

I was ashamed of being fat in the first place, and then I was ashamed of having felt so fat that I needed surgical intervention to fix myself. I was still at the point where I was half-convinced that weight loss surgery was the easy way out, that I was lying to people in real life about how and why I was losing weight. I couldn't stand the idea of someone knowing any of it, because it felt like they'd have a brutal, painful insight into me and parts of my psychology that I never wanted anyone to have access to.

It's so much safer to write under a pseudonym, and it helped me for a long time. I was able to be as honest as felt possible, and as true to myself and the story as I could. Of course, it became a fairly open secret not so long out, with all my friends and half my family reading. But I still clung to the name out of a sense of comfort.

It has to be more difficult now, with your book out there in the world, but do you have days when you simply don’t think about food, weight or size? What is going on that prohibits you from thinking about those issues on those days?

I wish I could say every day was sunshine, and every day I am just me, Jen, out in the world being Jen-like. But I think about it every day. I think about how my jeans fit and if my boobs are going to go off and disappear on me. I think about what other people think about my body, and if they think it's OK. But I'm happy to report that it's not a grinding, endless chorus in my head; they're fleeting thoughts that I chase down and kill as quickly as possible. I'm getting better at it.

Food, though . . . food I rarely think about, and that's always been the problem. My weight came from my food issues – not so much binge eating as endless, mindless, thoughtless consumption. Which pissed me off. Who wants to be an evil, f*cked-up cliche of the fat person used to dismiss and ridicule all fat people? I still struggle to be mindful about food, even though I kind of hate the word "mindful" because it makes me feel like I smell like patchouli and whole wheat flour. That's also something I'm working on getting better at.

One thing about the weight loss surgery: It forces me to be more aware when I'm eating mindlessly. My little stomach fills up quickly and I go oh, right, why don't we cut that out? But it doesn't always work, because the complex emotional insanity around food is an incredibly powerful force.

The Internet can be great at bringing people with weight issues together, but there’s a lot of disturbing and negative crap out there, too. What do you think are some of the worst weight and body image trends online?

The "obesity epidemic" shrieking is hideous. Oh, we're worried about the children! It's about health! Right. . . .

I guarantee you there's not a person on earth who has ever said, "Oh wait, I'm fat and that offends your aesthetic sensibilities? SH*T LET'S GET ON THAT RIGHT NOW," and goes and subsists on carrots for the rest of her days.

Let's turn the conversation away from shaming fat kids. Let's talk about that mindfulness thing. Let's talk about good food that isn't processed crap, about not feeling shame for eating, and about exercising to feel good about our bodies and to be as active, strong and bear-wrestlingly fit as we want to be. That would be rad.

I'd also really, really love to stop talking about our flaws. It's supposed to be a radical thing to say, "Well, you are beautiful despite your flaws! Love your flawed body, with all its flawed flaws and ugly bits!" The definition of "flawed" here is "not the body of an airbrushed swimsuit model." Your legs must be This Length to be unflawed and your ass This Wide and your t*ts This Perky; otherwise you have to force yourself to love those sad little misfits, and hope that someone else will accept them, too.

The fact that this is pushed as a positive, uplifting message – that pisses me off. How about we talk about how our bodies are awesome and how we need to have all sizes, shapes, scars, lengths and heights represented, so no one feels like there's only one real model of the human body, and all the rest are defects?

If you could go on a food binge right now without any physical consequences, what would you ingest?

I guess I lied when I said my weight loss surgery doesn't always stop me from eating beyond the point of comfort. The idea of a real-live food binge made me kind of cringe – the physical and emotional consequences and then the endless, sweaty nap. It is hard to pretend there aren't physical consequences. But I do like Oreos an awful lot.

Why do you think some people are so gullible about weight loss promises? Before I went to therapy I tended to believe anything that said “results guaranteed!” But I was infinitely more skeptical about anything else that made fishy promises like that.

The promise of weight loss is paired with the promise of happiness. It's supposedly a real, tangible path to actual happiness. Can't you see the lights shining bright in the eyes of the After Photo people? There's physical proof of the result: They are skinny and grinning, and you look at that, like, I could be skinny and grinning, and you believe it could actually happen. The Before and After Photos were what sold me on weight loss surgery. Those were the most powerful promises.

As you spend more time in your "new" body, do you find that it’s harder to recall life pre-surgery? If so, is that a good or a bad thing?

I remember what it's like every single time I notice a specific difference between then and now. I still think about it when I go through a turnstile. It's a flash of a memory, having to turn sideways to fit through. I remember when I'm on an airplane and the seats are narrow but I fit with room. I remember when I do my laundry and the pants still seem impossibly small. I try not to forget. I don't want to forget the person I was, especially because I was so cruel to her.

I’m curious whether you made a conscious decision to use the two pictures I see in your interviews and online. In your “before” photo you look like a wilder, more outgoing person than the “after.”

You are the first to notice that! Yes, I was really glad to use that "before" photo, because I was so tired of people assuming Before is bad and After is awesome. I wanted to use a Before photo that wasn't a cliche, that didn't pander to the idea that all the smiling has to start happening in the After photo. The fact that I look kind of terrified in the After photo is actually kind of an accident. I am really not good at taking posed pictures without looking stiff and awkward.

Did you view overweight people differently after you lost weight?

There was a point, not too long after I got the surgery, about 80 pounds down, that I was struck with this exhilaration. I felt lighter, like there was nothing better than that, and everyone should feel that way. And sometimes, sometimes I wanted to tell other overweight people about it. Not say, "You are overweight and you MUST be unhappy and HERE is a way to fix it." But to say, "Look, if you are sad and you think it's your weight, if you feel like you're trapped in your body, I found out about this thing. Let me tell you about this thing I am experiencing, these feelings I am feeling. I need to share this with you."

Now that I've experienced [life] in all the sizes you can be on the spectrum, I am angry for hating myself when I was fat, and for assuming everyone felt exactly the same. I don't assume that someone who is fat hates themselves the way I did. I don't think we were all in this together. I don't ever want to assume that I can decide how someone ought to feel in their body and what they ought to do about it. And it pisses me off that it happens so often – strangers deciding how other strangers ought to look and ought to feel.

I used to think that once you hit a certain weight you never had to worry about it again. I would look at thin girls and figure they lived on easy street and never had to torture themselves over whether or not to eat the cookie. Then there are starlets who blatantly lie and act like staying thin involves nothing more than the occasional hike in the canyon.

But we don’t think twice about going to work on days we don’t want to, or walking the dog when we don’t feel like it and so on. Why do you think struggling with making choices in terms of weight gets such a bad rap?

I think because weight and size have become so inextricably linked to your worth as a person, your moral strength and fortitude. You're told, "You want to be thin? Well you have to be disciplined. Those girls who don't freak out about cake? It's because they're stronger than cake and smarter than cookies. They're not as weak as you, with your craving for ice cream, you sad person. Your weakness shows in the size of your thighs and your envy of people who are more successful than you." (In this scenario, success = thin, natch.)

"Good people don't have issues with food because food isn't an issue. Your failings are the issue."

Etc., etc. flames on the side of my face, etc.

What did you feel most vulnerable about when you put the book out?

The mistakes I made. The book is essentially a catalog of the stupid sh*t I thought and the stupid sh*t I did and the ways I screwed up. It is also essentially an apology to the people I love and the people I hurt. And, I suppose, to myself.

Still, to this day (I guess not so many days later and it is likely to change, I hope) every time someone whose opinion is important to me reads [the book], I cringe a little, waiting for their opinion of me to change. My boss is threatening to read it right now. That's all kinds of nervewracking.

Does the book make you feel differently about food or weight? Do you feel more accountable, or is it time to celebrate?

I spent about two years writing the book and I thought a whole lot about my own story. Then I sent it off to the publisher and decided not to think about it at all. And then the book comes out and I have to talk about it every day, and it's becoming less and less about my own story and more and more about the issues of size and weight and self-acceptance and happiness and health. It's become this thing that's so much more important than just me and my feelings about weight loss surgery. I feel more accountable in that when people say, "Yes, what you said resonates with me and I am trying to be happy." I want to not disappoint people. I want to keep trying to be happy alongside them.

How many tattoos do you have, where are they and which one is your favorite today?

I have six tattoos! A beautiful sparrow on my foot, which nearly made me pass out and is still not colored in to this day; a stylized distelfink on my right calf; an anchor with a yellow rose on my inside right forearm, for my dad; a foo dog on my left forearm; a pirate ship on my right upper arm; and my pirate flag, on the back of my neck. I have a handful more planned. Right now and always, my favorite is my foo dog, which makes me feel fierce. But I love them all.

What are you working on now that is not Stranger Here related?

I meant to be a novelist, not a memoirist, so I am working on a few of novels: one young adult, two literary-flavored but with fantastical elements. And I want to write a book of hilarious essays, not just about food and body issues. Though food and body issues are pretty hilarious.

How does it feel to be the 342nd person to be interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?

It feels pretty goddamn awesome, since I've been a fan of the site and the site-writer for years. Thank you so much for having me!

The Teddy Wayne Interview

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:51:00 -0600

I bet if an even younger version of Justin Bieber came along, everyone would be incredibly annoyed, but in fictional form he's poignant and sad, as written by today's interviewee, the author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine.

The novel examines the insular life of a little boy who has to grapple with the knowledge that the millions of people who love him have no idea who he his while coming of age as he's being raised by a tough mom-ager. Wayne is a frequent contributor to other publications (including The New Yorker) and is also the author of the novel Kapitoil. You can learn a lot more about him here.

How did you ensure a level of believability for an 11-year-old kid (aside from marketing speak?) What changes did you make throughout the process to make sure that it was accurate?
In the earliest pages, his voice was a touch too infantile—an overreliance on slang like “fav,” for instance. Instead of focusing on a wholly diminished vocabulary, I decided to make Jonny’s grammar and sentence structures more kidlike; run-on phrasings, consistent (and subtle) syntax errors, as well as specific diction that he returns to.

What were some alternate covers suggested for the book? How did the current one get decided?
The current one is all I saw at first, though my publisher later floated a few alternates. But I was sold from the start on the reflective holographic foil, which is a perfect tongue-in-cheek self-critical design: a novel about the glitzy packaging of art is itself wrapped in a glitzy package.

Similarly, were there other names you considered for Jonny Valentine?
The book’s first germ of inspiration was as a parody of pop-star autobiographies, and in that version (I wrote one chapter, which later became the New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs piece Jonny reads about himself), the protagonist is named Tyler Beats—which would eventually become the megastar whom Jonny attempts to emulate. Once I threw out the parody and started over as a novel, Jonny Valentine came to me early on.

What other research did you do for the book? Did you read any child star biographies?
I read a number of autobiographies—from Drew Barrymore’s and Tatum O’Neal’s—as well as biographies and critical books on Jackie Coogan (the first American child star in movies) to Michael Jackson. And then I read the more superficial pop-star autobiographies I was initially trying to parody, such as Miley Cyrus’s and Justin Bieber’s, along with celebrity gossip publications, both teen- and adult-oriented.

What did you learn along the way about the relationship fans have with their pop idols? Did you hear from any Beliebers (or recovering adults who would have been Beliebers in their day?)
A number of adults reminisced about being crazed fans of David Cassidy and the like. And owing to the confusion and strangeness of the Internet, a few Beliebers started following Jonny’s Twitter account, @TheRealJonny, and some Tweeted at me, asking, for example, if I love chocolate as much as they do and telling me they’re passionate about my music. It’s unclear who is being pranked.

Either from a musical perspective or just because you like them in general, who are some of your favorite teenybopper acts now or from yore?
I confess to liking One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” and Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” If you go back further, I like a lot more, especially from the 1950s—Frankie Lymon, to name one, is as good as it gets.

Have you considered setting any of Jonny’s lyrics to music? I wonder, though, how much music like his starts with a hook and then the lyrics come in as an afterthought.
I recorded a version of his hit song “Guys vs. Girls” and posted it at The Morning News. Fortunately, I also asked Alina Simone, a real singer-songwriter (and novelist), to do her own, superior version as well.

What posters did you have on your wall when you were a kid?
I’ve never been much of an interior decorator, so my room was fairly poster-less, save a New York Mets poster. I didn’t really get into music until I was about 17, when I started listening to, among others, the Clash (which Jonny is exposed to by his opening band), and then I ranged much further afield in college.

What were some of the biggest surprises you encountered during your time at the Grammys?
I went with nominee Hunter Hayes and wrote about it for Rolling Stone, and I was impressed by how deftly he handled the constant scrutiny, particularly the interviews. The red-carpet gauntlet has dozens of TV crews looking for sound bites, and it requires tremendous fortitude and grace to negotiate it well. I couldn’t do it.

What do you listen to while you work?
Music I know well, so that I’m not distracted, but I’ll sometimes use Pandora. A lot of Bob Dylan, historically.

What’s the process like when it comes to publishing humor in the New Yorker? I’m about whether the editing/revision process is similar to nonfiction or fiction or if it’s a whole different ball of wax.
Generally, with publications anywhere, there’s not much editing when it comes to a humor piece, because if it’s not working, it’s simply not working. They might ask me to tighten up a thing or two, but it’s always accepted after the piece has already been written, and if it requires too much revision, it probably means it’s not meant to be.

What does one do with a fellowship?
You just hope someone will quote Young MC to you: “Come sit next to me, you fine fellow.” And it never happens.

How does it feel to be the 341st person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Exactly how it feels to be a cast member of the movie “300” and to be George H.W. Bush, whose nickname within the clan is “41.” I feel sorry for whoever is 343, since they’ll be more like W.

Editor's note: Wayne is actually 340, due to my problems counting. D'oh. Don't let that take away from the cleverness of his first answer.

Speaking with Read Between The Lynes' Owner Arlene Lynes: Woodstock's Hometown Bookstore

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:12:00 -0600

A few years ago when I was promoting my novel I was invited to the cleverly-named independent bookstore Read Between the Lynes in Woodstock to make an appearance. I was charmed by the lovely, warm store located in the town square, which feels like a shopping locale from another era (specifically, one that recurs again and again; Woodstock, as you may know, was where Groundhog Day was filmed.) As part of WBEZ’s closer look at Woodstock, I sent some questions to Read Between the Lynes owner and operator Arlene Lynes.

How and when did you come to Woodstock?
I came to Woodstock in March of 1997. We relocated here from New Jersey for a new position for my husband.

How has Woodstock changed since you first arrived?
Woodstock has grown with lots of new housing/retail developments in the past 16 years. Not all bad, but the flavor of agriculture is not as prominent!

What type of community is it to live and work in? Do you think it's friendlier to independent businesses than other cities?
Woodstock is an incredible community to work and live in. While we definitely are a small town community, we have so very much to offer. Of course I am biased, but yes, I believe Woodstock to be friendlier and more supportive to Independent businesses. Due to the size of our town, we know one another and enjoy doing business with our friend and neighbors.

Is there much of a tourist connection anymore to the movie Groundhog Day?
There is a HUGE tourist connection to Groundhog Days, still. It keeps getting bigger, it seems. Many European travelers stop in over the course of the year due to our being the filming location.

What are some of your favorite places/things to do in Woodstock?
I absolutely adore the Woodstock Opera House. It holds so many diverse programs, from the daytime Creative Living Series hosted by the Woodstock Fine Arts Association (of which Rick Kogan was one of their speakers a few years back), to Tribute Rock concerts, Community Theatre performances and nationally known performers, as well as The Mozart Festival. Stage Left Cafe' (adjacent to the Opera House) is run by the City of Woodstock as well and holds Open Mics, Jazz performances and Storytelling sessions with performers from around the world. I guess it's obvious I'm a fan of the Arts, and I love the diversity we have here. In the summer we have City Band concerts every Wednesday night on the town Square. They will be celebrating their 129th consecutive season this summer. Also, a Music Fest and Folk Music festival run as well.

What are some of your favorite other small businesses in town?
Expressly Leslie is a vegetarian restaurant conveniently located across the street from us. Ethereal Confections makes the best chocolate I may have ever had! Mixteca is an authentic Mexican restaurant that has amazing margaritas.

What's one thing (or two) you think could improve or update the town square?
I would love to see the Woodstock Square filled with a variety of independent up & coming retail and eateries. As we emerge from this economic challenge of times, I hope to see us grow in these areas.

What have been some of the most popular books that you sell?
We sell a lot of children's picture books and general fiction. That being said, we love to sell Chicago authors, Laura Caldwell is from this area, so she is always a big seller.

What have been some of the most memorable events you've hosted?
Hosting Orion Samuelson of WGN this past December was certainly memorable, as the line was down the sidewalk; also children's author/illustrator Tom Lichtenheld, he is an absolute genius and relates so well with children of all ages. But let us not forget Rick Kogan who has packed the house!

What tips would you recommend for someone considering bringing a gigantic dog to work with them?
This question made me laugh out loud. My recommendations for bringing a gigantic dog to work with them would be, make sure the dog is well trained and you have back-up to allow for walks and breaks. Also, don't be offended when most everyone comments, "that's the biggest dog I think I've ever seen!"

Read Between the Lynes will be hosting a 2nd birthday party for Nika, its store mascot on Monday, March 18th at 1 pm. Birthday cake will be available for humans. Read Between the Lynes is located at 129 Van Buren St. Woodstock, IL 60098, (815) 206-5967

The Jenny Lawson Interview

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:26:00 -0600

Today I talk with Jenny Lawson, the proprietress of the beloved and award-winning humor/parenting site The Bloggess, on which she based her bestselling debut book, the darkly funny memoir Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.

Tell me about how Hamlet Von Schnitzel the mouse became the cover of your book.
I just wanted to see if I could publish a book with a dead rodent on the cover. Turns out, you can.

I’ve read that one of the reasons you started your blog was so that you could write a book. Did your journey from blogging to book-publishing go the way you envisioned? What was harder about book-writing than you anticipated?
It was harder to write the book because it was longer than a blog post.

This is when you start to question why you asked me for an interview.

How is your novel coming along? Is fiction more of a challenge or a release when you write so much nonfiction?
Actually it's another memoir, and right now I'm having such writer's block that it's more of a small pamphlet.

I’m teaching a course on blogging this winter and was concerned when I learned I'd have to talk about setting revenue goals when starting a blog. Do you think it’s possible for a lone person to create a “successful” blog (either in terms of traffic or revenue) from the get-go, or is it something that has to be discovered and proven over time?
I think it's possible to make money immediately. Like, if you posted a lot of porn maybe.

What is your process or policy reading comments and interacting with your readers?
I read all the comments but I hardly ever respond to them because I feel a lot of pressure to be clever and I can't handle it.

How much do you keep your daughter in mind when you post online? What if anything have you held back in order to ease her future Googling?
I never write anything I think could be used against her by bullies as she gets older. It limits me A TON. But she's worth it.

Have you ever published anything online that in hindsight you wished you hadn’t?
I think you always see the flaws in your own writing and at some point you have to just let go and publish. I try to never write anything hurtful so that I won't ever feel regret. People can say I'm not funny, and that's fine. But it would bother me if people said I actually hurt their feelings.

Is “mom blog” a pejorative term or just a descriptive one to you?
Descriptive, although I prefer "parenting blog." I'm not a fan of the term "mommy blog," though. It seems a bit condescending.

If you were to change tack and blog about a completely different topic, what would you make your beat?
I've written a sex column and two advice columns and I enjoyed them, but I think it might be nice to do something more graphic. (Meaning illustrations — not that other kind of graphic.)

How often do you experience professional envy? And if you’re up for it, who is someone you experienced it towards lately?
As often as the next person, I suppose. It's hard to see people who writing comes to so easily. It takes me so long and I labor over every sentence. People like Stephen King — who are so prolific and talented — can make me a little frustrated as a writer.

How does it feel to be the 334^th person interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?
Blessed, happy and little bit gassy.

The Sara Benincasa Interview

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:14:00 -0500

Today’s interviewee is award-winning comedian and author of Agorafabulous! Dispatches from My Bedroom, a humorous memoir based on her critically acclaimed solo show about panic attacks and agoraphobia.

Sara’s television appearances include NBC's Today Show, the CBS Early Show, CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, MTV News, and CUNY-TV’s Brian Lehrer Live. During the 2008 election, she created a splash with her original Sarah Palin vlogs on Huffington Post's humor site, 23/6, a series for which she won an ECNY Award and was nominated for a Webby for best performance, alongside Isabella Rosellini.

From 2006-2008, she hosted Nerve.com’s hit Tub Talk with Sara B., a notorious web-based talk show in which she interviewed comedians and humor writers in her bathtub. She has since revamped the show into the web series Gettin' Wet with Sara Benincasa, and has interviewed guests such as Margaret Cho and Donald Glover. Each month she also performs the critically acclaimed live show Family Hour with Auntie Sara, to packed houses each month at the People’s Improv Theater.

Were there any other memoirs or books about mental illness that particularly inspired you before you wrote Agorafabulous?
I really enjoy books by SARK. She writes these wacky, loopy, colorful self-help/inspiration books, most of which are reproductions of her handwritten, hand-drawn work. She writes about depression, addiction, and other fun things. She also writes about taking joy in everyday life. She inspired me for years, and Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living continues to inspire me.

What are some examples of pop culture that got agoraphobia or mental illness incredibly wrong?
Remember when Jessie Spanow took too many pills and danced around in Zack's bedroom screaming, "I'm so excited! That I just can't hide it! I'm so -- SCARED." No one has ever actually had a breakdown while singing one of the Pointer Sisters' many thrilling jams. It's physically impossible.

What’s comfort food for you these days?
Cereal. Good Lord, does that take me to a special place. Especially Special K or Kix. I can't do Cap'n Crunch anymore because it's too dangerous. I can't believe they feed that to little kids. It's the sharpest cereal and will easily cut your gums. Oh, but it's so delicious.

Were there any other competitors for Agorafabulous in terms of a book title?
Nah, Agorafabulous! was pretty much it from the start. I enjoy a good invented word.

I heard you say in an interview that you needed to change a few things in the book for legal purposes (which is common for memoir). I’m not asking for specifics, but what types of things did you need to change?
Oh, names, exact locations, etc. Had to generalize some stuff. Memoir can't be journalism, because it involves other people's stories and lives and they didn't necessarily give me permission to turn them into book characters.

If you wrote another memoir, one say, about comedy or another aspect of your life, is there anything you learned in the process of writing Agorafabulous that you’d apply the next time around?
I'd stay on Prozac the whole time instead of deciding that I was totally fine, going off the drugs, and then having a mini nervous breakdown while completing the edits and having to move home to my parents' house for two months. Best to avoid that sort of thing (note: I'm on so much Prozac now. It's delicious.)

You shared a lot of intimate information about yourself in the book. Have there been any instances where it’s been uncomfortable to meet a reader/fan who knows so much about you?
Sometimes people overidentify and think that they really know you in totality when they only know a certain part of you. Like any author, I'm a lot more than just one book. But I consider it a real gift when somebody says "I feel like you're my friend" or "I relate to you so much" because I know it comes from a really good place. It means they've connected with the book on a deep emotional level, and that's what I wanted when I wrote it. I wanted to give people comfort and companionship.

I’ve been in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy myself, for different issues, and I liked that it definitely felt I was doing work on myself, but it could definitely feel like work. What were some of the most challenging discussions or “assignments” you were given in therapy?
Talking back to a voice that insists you kill yourself -- that's tough stuff. It gets tiresome, especially when that voice is in your head constantly while you're awake. But it's a really important task, and certainly a worthwhile one.

How do you know now the gray area between feeling a little antisocial and homey versus something leading to a slippery slope?
Well, when I haven't left the house for 48 hours, I know I need to force myself. I'm a freelance writer so this is a not uncommon occurrence, but surely there's some garbage I need to take out after two whole days of inside-ness. Or maybe I just ought to take a walk around the block. Sometimes it's enormously hard to get myself to do these basic things. Again, Prozac is my friend.

You have over 13,000 followers on Twitter. For Twitterers salivating at the thought of an audience that big, is there anything you can do to increase your audience, or is trying too hard instant death?
I'd say liveTweeting major events like the Oscars or a presidential debate -- those are good ways to pick up more followers. Join in on some mass social event, get into the conversation, and be funny or profound or relatable or all three of these things or any two of these things in combination.

How do you balance social networking time and work time?
For me they are often one and the same, particularly if I'm promoting a blog post I've done for, say, Vice or XOJaneor NewNowNext, or if I'm promoting a live appearance. I definitely spend too much time on social networking stuff. For example, I'm supposed to be working on a TV treatment for Agorafabulous! but instead I decided to Facebook chat my friend Hari Kondaboluin London. He's actually over there making TV, so our chat reminded me to get back on task with the treatment. Having highly motivated friends with whom to waste time online can sometimes end up being a good thing.

You got your masters in education but you ended up not teaching. What did you gain from that degree that helped you do what you do now?
I'd say I gained an enormous respect for public school teachers, not that that particularly influences what I do now. I gained a lot of time in front of captive audiences, so that was good for comedy. Learned about some popular YA literature -- also a good thing. Got to immerse myself in teen culture, which was excellent research for what I'm working on now.

I hear you’re working on a YA book. What challenges have you found working in that genre that’s different from memoir or comedy?
Kids are great B.S. detectors, and they can tell if you're talking down to them or if you're forcing a theme or a message. It's easy to be authentic and sound real when you're writing your own true (or mostly true) stories -- it's harder when you're inventing a world.

If you did a new one-woman show, what do you think the topic would be?
I used to think it'd be about sex, but now I co-host a podcast called "Sex and Other Human Activities" and I really get my fill of talking about that subject. Maybe it'd be about feeling like a lady-impostor because I'm bad at cooking and cleaning and I don't have a husband or a baby. But I totally want a husband and a baby and cooking and cleaning skills. I just don't have any of these things at present. Well, I'm working on cooking.

Who were some of your favorite interviewees that you had for Tub Talk and what made them so great?
Well, Tub Talk was on Nerve and I later revamped it as Gettin' Wet with Sara Benincasa on YouTube. Jonathan Ames was on Tub Talk, and he was delightful. Reggie Watts and I had pizza delivered to the bathtub on one Tub Talk episode. On Gettin' Wet, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer were pretty fun, and James Urbaniak was a delight.

Do you do any impressions aside from Sarah Palin?
Michele Bachmann is my spirit animal.

Who would you recommend as a comedian more people should know?
The aforementioned Hari Kondabolu is a delight. So is my amazing friend Mike Drucker.

I have a theory that there are a lot of women out there who are feminists but are just afraid to admit it, because they worry doing so would render them unattractive. What they need just to get used to saying it, and it thus loses its scariness. Thoughts?
I guess I've never worried about it. I'm a feminist, and I'm hot as sh*t. Hot as a fresh, steaming pile of dogsh*t on a freezing winter morning. Mmm, that's real sexy. But yeah, a lot of girls think that if they call themselves a "feminist" everyone will think they are uptight and boring and unf*ckable. This is patently untrue. I guess we extremely hot feminists just need to keep stating who and what we are in order to hopefully bring some of these other chicks out of the closet.

How does it feel to be the 307th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
It feels like my soul has been gently exfoliated. And I thank you for it.

Black and white and read all over

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:00 -0600

When I interviewed Timothy Douglas about his decision to resign as Artistic Director of Remy Bumppo, he said a series of gracious things about divergent artistic visions. These remarks were barely distinguishable from the equally gracious comments made by his successor Nick Sandys. So what is there to write about?

There’s this: When, at the end of the interview, I asked Douglas what else I should have asked him, this is what he said:

"Well, the question is bound to be, ‘Did this have anything to do with race?’ And yes, that was a part of the dynamic. There was no overt issue about that, but there are hard conversations to be had around race. As Artistic Director of the company, I found the daily conversation difficult. The profession remains primarily white, and though we talked initially about universality, when specifics come in, my approach as a black American male is going to be different from others’, and challenging to others. But if I’m not leading [from that perspective] a part of who I am is lost. . .

“It’s remarkable that Chicago, a major city, should find the conversation [around race] so difficult. But it’s an American conundrum, and an issue too big to fundamentally address at a company the size of Remy Bumppo. It took too much time from my leadership. "

Sandys' perspective was different. "We hiired him because he was the best director. His being an African-American wasn’t relevant."

How is it that two smart, educated, capable and good-willed people can experience a situation so differently? I guess that must be what's known as "diversity," and it turns out to be less anodyne than we might hope.

Anthropologists and sociologists have long observed that the issue of race is more salient in American culture to non-whites than to whites, because whiteness is the default position, what's expected, what passes without notice. The person in the minority is going to be aware of issues in a way majority-group members aren’t. Douglas himself said, “I understood where they were coming from, but how would they understand me?” This means not that the playing field isn't level but that the players aren't even in the same game, and the more race is ignored the less likely it is that the obstacles it presents can be removed. And thus Remy Bumppo's experience suggests that we have a long way to go before non-white artistic directors are able to operate in white companies without punching through a thicket of cultural assumptions of which most of their colleagues aren't even aware.

There was a time in my childhood (and probably in yours, too) when it was thought hilarious to stop a car in the middle of a block, have everyone jump out and run around it, and then jump back in and take off. When I referred to this process by its 1960s moniker “the Chinese fire drill,” a friend of Chinese descent laughed and asked, “Don't you mean a culturally-specific fire drill?”

The point? That transcending racial differences takes more than good faith and euphemisms. And that until we’re able to summon that “more”–which must include first an acknowledgment that those differences in culture, experience and expectations still exist–we’ll all just be running around in circles.

Read Jonathan Abarbanel's take on the Douglas resignation here.