15 Minutes: a podcast about fame, with Jamie Berger

A retired teacher and a recent high-school graduate muse about fame, from J. D. Salinger and Youtube stars and Instagram celebrity, to self-publishing a John Cougar Mellencamp bio and being famous among co-workers. Perhaps you can guess which one tells us about which.

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Because we're thinking we may have a few new listeners this week, and because our year anniversary just passed, here's an intro to the podcast, and pitch, but *not* for money!The name of this show pretty much says it, except that episodes aren't 15-minutes long - they range from five minutes to over an hour - from “Mini” anecdotes to in-depth conversations with everyone from a recent high-school grad in Western Massachusetts, to an arborist in the Bay Area,  to the likes of the famous, semi-famous, formerly famous, those who'd rather be just about anything than famous and those just now climbing the “Wall of Fame,” -  guests have included George Saunders, Eugene Mirman, Maeve Higgins, John Hodgman, Brooke Gladstone, and David Sedaris.Some episodes are lighthearted, some more serious, focusing on the perils of the Fame Culture we now exist in, some a mix of the two - as organic conversation as we can muster, on a topic that  can be entertaining, uncomfortable, enthralling.Email: [email protected]/twitter: @15minsjamieb.Ed Patenaude is our interpid engineer. Design by Anja SchutzOh, and here's a site that's needed updating for about half a decade with some info about Jamie Berger.Thanks/welcome!Oh, this week's guest? He's a bestselling writer, humorist, trash collector.What we didn’t talk about:- sex- drugs- alcohol- suicide- trash collectingSome of what we did talk about:- moms- embarrassment at success- a dirty joke about pizza- dread of going on TV- the graciousness of Whoopi GoldbergENJOY!!!

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Our guest from Episode 6, 15 Minutes Resident Psychiatrist Lois Parkison, grills me on our first year - Why podcast? Why fame? Why now? Why does this topic make people uneasy? Just why?!?!Enjoy, or if you find you don't want to hear me undergoing an hour of podcast therapy, tune in next week for David Sedaris! Thanks!-Jamie

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Here's Jessica Abel, whom we last spoke to back in Episode 16, reading from her new book "Growing GIlls: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily LIfe," based on her wicked awesome Creative Focus Workshop.Find her at: http://jessicaabel.comNext week: a year-anniversary check-in session with Dr. Lois Parkison, resident shrink.After that, on June 8th, will be a conversation with ...--- David Sedaris! ---Stay tuned!-Jamiehttp://15minutesjamieberger.com

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Brooke Gladstone... is co-host of the most essential radio show/podcast in my weekly listening, On The Media. She also has an incisive, insightful, and oddly comforting (you'll hear that word a lot in the episode) new book, The Trouble with Reality, A Rumination on Moral Panic in our Time. For more than that, give a listen!-Jamie

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Hello All!Today, May 14, is our one-year anniversary! Thanks for listening, donating, offering those ratings and reviews on iTunes, following us on the social mediae! (@15minutesjamieb on insta and twitter) . . . . Thanks!This episode is a two-parter.Part One - A George Saunders Coda Back in February, a few weeks after recording Episode 27 with George Saunders, in  I drove to Cambridge to see him read from his then brand-new novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, amid a month-long span in which he and the book were receiving the kind of attention and praise I don't remember ever seeing from a literary author: the novel debuted at #1 on the Times Bestseller list, he appeared on Colbert and Charlie Rose and other late-night shows, got rave reviews everywhere, was publishing terrific short pieces seemingly every other day, and seemed to be being anointed the White Male conscience of an unimaginably conscience-free Trump Presidency. As I drove, I listened to the end of the audiobook of the novel, and thought of a few questions I'd love to ask about the extreme onslaught of love he was receiving. So I did - well, I asked him a couple quick ones, anyway. Part Two - Voices A look back at the year, through the voices of our guests. A more in-depth year-in-review with our resident psychiatrist Lois Parkison will be coming up in a couple of weeks.Thanks for listening. Drop us a line about Year One and what you'd want to hear in year [email protected] - Ed and I would really love to hear from you!-Jamiehttp://15minutesjamieberger.com

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Kate Lorenz and Matt "The Suitcase Junket" LorenzAPR19Kate Lorenz and Matt "The Suitcase Junket" LorenzMatt and Kate Lorenz ...... are siblings and artists who’ve taken divergent paths since Rusty Belle, the now legendary band they formed with friends in Amherst, MA, in 2006, more or less stopped playing together in 2014.Now, Matt, who makes music as “The Suitcase Junket” is releasing his fourth solo album. The Suitcase Junket is often called a “one-man band” but that old chestnut somehow belittles what he accomplishes musically, which can range from blues to rock to folk and pop, from fuzzy garage-iness of White Stripes to Led Zeppelin to the somewhat more melodic sound and sweet harmonies on the new record. It ain't your average one-man band, is all I'm sayin'.Matt is also a visual artist, whose work adorns the covers of his albums. I have known the two of them as friends, through their music, as a fan, and as one of too many owners of a bar called the Rendezvous in Turners Falls, MA, where we’ve been lucky enough to host them in all of their musical incarnations and with a show of Matt’s large scrapwood-and-metal bird wall sculptures.When Matt started making solo records, Kate hit the books, going to grad school in Education. Now, a few years later, she has the degree and has started a teaching career, but is also ready to return to the stage and studio. Her solo debut will be out this fall.We talked in early March, at Matt’s house in rural Western Mass, amid his work on boiling down sap from his maples for syrup.Interspersed with the conversation, you’ll hear three songs: one from Kate, “Slide tackle into your heart,” one from Rusty Belle, “I’m Alive,” and one from Matt’s new Suitcase Junket album, “Piledriver” called “Beta Star”Kate’s album and related URLs will out later this year. Find Matt at thesuitcasejunket.com - All the albums are great, but, if you get the chance, catch Matt live sometime, what he does is amazing to witness. Rusty Belle, their former band can be found at rustybelle.com.***Find us at 15minutesjamieberger.com and everywherever you get your podcasts. Please consider supportng us with a pledge of as little as $1 an episode on patreon - just go to patreon.com/15minutesjamiebergerThanks!

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Episode 32 - Hearty White (see also episodes 8 and 31!)Here are the pretty much the same notes as our last episode (part 1 of this conversation), with one addition - here's a link to "super cenetnarian" Lillian Cox, who comes up.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Cox***Here’s the second of ***two*** new episodes with WFMU radio talker Hearty White (one longish conversation split in two. If you haven't listened to our first conversation back in Episode 8, DO! It might not be for you, but it is, it will be VERY much for you - I wish I could be right there with you to see how excited you'll be to meet him!Every week, (Thursdays at 7pm on WFMU or on the internet any time like the rest of us), listening to Hearty's show, Miracle Nutrition, I learn so much about artmaking and radio and comedy and improvisation and ego and kindness and all kinds of wonderful pop-culture and scientific and philosophical arcana from this man every time I listen to him.Back in episode 8, Hearty’s willingness to explain the magic of his show and the fine line and decisions involved in being "Hearty" as opposed to his non-radio human are endlessly fascinating, to me anyway, and I'm sure will be to many of you as well!Just a a couple things Hearty and I shot the shit about in this episode:CharoFoleyDora Hall, Solo Cup Heiress historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/do…-hall.htmlJane FondaBorges and IOn having/wanting an audience - “close friends don’t listen regularly” because they get to see you in real lifeVictor Borge (of course)AgeismThe Green ChildXavier CugatMy Dinner with AndreThe Sorites (“Heap”) ParadoxJohn Berger (Way’s of Seeing and Why we Look at Animals)www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/01/why…about-looking/www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk (Ways of Seeing)Meadowlark Lemon and the Harlem Globetrotters, how distant a cartoon version oneself can be from oneselfScatman CaruthersCartoon Michael Jackson’s pink snakeSelling one’s old embarrassing work - “If you keep saying no they just keep throwing [more] money at you.”Ricky Gervais, “Extras” . . . and the original “Office”ConfidenceImprovisation - “I’ll just let you hear me writing it.”Houdini and “pulling stuff out of your ass” re imrprovisation, “overriding self-doubt and self consciousness and letting it flow.” Point being, improvised work doesn’t come out of thin air, you’ve got it up in you there to pull out.Monologue vs. Conversation“I would write everything but I never get around to it, so I’ll just let you hear me writing it.”On the value of being “semi-interesting” and discursive as opposed to polished and tight on the radio.On making “Adult Swim” shorts and doing take after take and losing spontaneity, losing what makes Hearty White work work.www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5DjPQtuvi8 (adult swim clip)PsychicsDeceptionRicky JayWhich lead to Cameron EpisodeTed Turner***Ed Patenaude is our engineer, tootin' the horn and keeping the 15minutes Train rollin'!Find us at 15minutesjamieberger or here on soundcloud or in itunes or on facebook or on twitter/instagram (@15minsjamieb) or***Patreon*** (help us help you!www.patreon.com/15minutesjamiebergeror just about anywhere pods are cast - thanks!

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Episode 31 - Hearty White (see also episode 8!)Here’s the first ***two*** new episodes with WFMU radio talker Hearty White (one longish conversation split in two) coming up this week and next. If you haven't listened to our first conversation back in Episode 8, DO! It might not be for you, but it is, it will be VERY much for you - I wish I could be right there with you to see how excited you'll be to meet him!Every week, (Thursdays at 7pm on WFMU or on the internet any time like the rest of us), listening to Hearty's show, Miracle Nutrition, I learn so much about artmaking and radio and comedy and improvisation and ego and kindness and all kinds of wonderful pop-culture and scientific and philosophical arcana from this man every time I listen to him.Back in episode 8, Hearty’s willingness to explain the magic of his show and the fine line and decisions involved in being "Hearty" as opposed to his non-radio human are endlessly fascinating, to me anyway, and I'm sure will be to many of you as well! Just a a couple things Hearty and I shot the shit about in this episode:CharoFoleyDora Hall, Solo Cup Heiress http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/dora-hall.htmlJane FondaBorges and IOn having/wanting an audience - “close friends don’t listen regularly” because they get to see you in real lifeVictor Borge (of course)AgeismThe Green ChildXavier CugatMy Dinner with AndreThe Sorites (“Heap”) ParadoxJohn Berger (Way’s of Seeing and Why we Look at Animals)https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/01/why-look-at-animals-john-berger-about-looking/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk (Ways of Seeing)Meadowlark Lemon and the Harlem Globetrotters, how distant a cartoon version oneself can be from oneselfScatman CaruthersCartoon Michael Jackson’s pink snakeSelling one’s old embarrassing work - “If you keep saying no they just keep throwing [more] money at you.”Ricky Gervais, “Extras” . . . and the original “Office”ConfidenceImprovisation - “I’ll just let you hear me writing it.”Houdini and “pulling stuff out of your ass” re imrprovisation, “overriding self-doubt and self consciousness and letting it flow.” Point being, improvised work doesn’t come out of thin air, you’ve got it up in you there to pull out.Monologue vs. Conversation“I would write everything but I never get around to it, so I’ll just let you hear me writing it.”On the value of being “semi-interesting” and discursive as opposed to polished and tight on the radio.On making “Adult Swim” shorts and doing take after take and losing spontaneity, losing what makes Hearty White work work.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5DjPQtuvi8 (adult swim clip)PsychicsDeceptionRicky JayWhich lead to Cameron EpisodeTed Turner***Ed Patenaude is our engineer, tootin' the horn and keeping the 15minutes Train rollin'!Find us at http://15minutesjamieberger or here on soundcloud or in itunes or on facebook or on twitter/instagram (@15minsjamieb) or ***Patreon*** (help us help you!https://www.patreon.com/15minutesjamiebergeror just about anywhere pods are cast - thanks!

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Abbi Crutchfield is the co-host of Tru TV’s You can Do Better. She’s a comedian, currently touring as one of four funnywomen on the CAKE comedy tour (cakecomedy.com) and former host of People Magazine’s Now. She has been featured on MTV, VH1, CollegeHumor and in national commercials. She is a contributor to Someecards, and her jokes are listed among the Best Tweets of the Year by Huffington Post Comedy. She’s been living in L.A., to shoot the second season of You Can Do Better, but later this year will return to Brooklyn, where she co- produces the weekly stand-up hour The Living Room Show, Fridays at 8pm Postmark Cafe in Brooklyn.Those of you who’ve been listening to the show for a while will remember my conversation with my old friend Matthew Latkiewicz, her co-host, back in Episode 9. In that episode, Matthew rather extremely candidly expressed his cynicism about the show he was about to debut, along with just about everything about fame. Since watching the first season of the show, in which Abbi tends to play good cop to Matthew’s kind of geek bad boy, I’ve wanted to get her perspective on it all. So I finally did.After one botched recording, we spoke a second time, with much better results, at least in terms of audio quality, in February.Find Abbi on Twitter and Instagram @curlycomedyNote: “15 Million Merits” not "Credits" is the name of the "Black Mirror" episode I mentioned briefly (beware: spoiler!).

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