John and I have just started watching This American Life via Netflix. Since John worked at an NPR affiliate for eight years, we’re well acquainted with the wonderful radio version but we’ve just gotten the first disc of the Showtime TV series. Ira Glass is a spectacular story teller. I don’t know if his approach is the same for television,…
I met Rob Pasick years ago, when I was business editor at the Ann Arbor News and he was an interesting local character — a psychologist and executive coach and who was working the media not about his day job but about his book “Conversations with My Old Dog.” We’ve stayed in touch off and on over the years, and…
While I am a long way from dethroning Oprah’s media empire, I am still excited — August was Newvine Growing’s best month yet for visits. Thank you so much for spending time reading, and thanks especially to those of you who have shared your thoughts and feedback in comments. I find my August numbers especially satisfying because I expected people…
Some people don’t pursue their dreams for very practical reasons — they have to pay the rent and they worry that being a musician, artist, filmmaker or writer won’t make any money. A story in the New York Times this week introduced me to Kickstarter, based in our back yard here in Brooklyn. Earl Scioneaux III is not a famous music…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a blog post I stumbled onto headlined You can’t work harder than your clients. Diane Sieg, an emergency room nurse turned author and life coach, writes on her blog: As I start my second month of Life Coaching at the Wellness Treatment Center, I am reminded of a very important concept: You can’t…
Believe it or not, the Internet is good for more than watching videos of skateboarding dogs — you can find loads of help on your journey to become a better person. One consistently great site is called Zen Habits. Articles on their Web site include: 20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life Simple Living Manifesto:…
I love serendipity and coincidence. When we visited Ann Arbor last weekend, I was talking to Matt and Rene Greff about how much I’d enjoyed Eat Pray Love — a book I thought would be a lightweight beach read but instead turned out to be a thoughful self-examination of a woman’s journey to rediscover herself after a divorce. She travels to…
Making the rounds on the Internet the last month or two, fueled by graduation season and a story in the New York Times, is a beautiful commencement address the author David Foster Wallace gave back in 2005. The insights on how to live life become that much more profound after Wallace’s suicide last year. Maybe he knew what he needed…
Lara Zielin is my sparkly, cute author friend. I think that’s a big part of why her silly YouTube parody, Editing Letter, has become such a hit — she’s just doggoned likeable. Lara’s first novel, Donut Days, is due out this summer. She worked hard on lengthy revisions to get it ready for publication and poked fun at the writing…
