As Told To

"I moved on to the next thing I was going to write," says the noted dramatist and television writer Winnie Holzman, recalling the cancellation of her critically-acclaimed series "My So-Called Life," after just one season. "That's what we do as writers. We move on to the next thing."

Indeed. In Winnie Holzman's case, one of those "next things" turned out to be the book for the hit Broadway musical "Wicked," with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz—one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. The collaboration earned her a prestigious Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, as well as a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical.

Prior to her Emmy-nominated work on "My So-Called Life," which she created for executive producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, Winnie wrote several scripts for the Zwick-Herskovitz drama "Thirtysomething," and she would go on to serve as executive producer of "Roadies," created by Cameron Crowe, and as co-creator of the series "Huge," with her daughter Savannah Dooley.

Join us as Winnie reflects on her wickedly successful career writing for the stage and the small screen, the many ways writers measure their successes, and the give-and-take that has fueled her collaborations with some of the most creative minds in theater and television.

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• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil
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• Writer's Bone, hosted by Daniel Ford

Veteran speechwriter and communications strategist Dan Gerstein has been a champion of ghostwriters and collaborators for the past decade. As founder and CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, an industry-leading agency that matches writers with clients seeking help telling (and selling!) their stories, he brings unique insight into what it takes to write a successful book, screenplay, white paper or family history. He comes by his work from an organic place. As a speechwriter and policy advisor to Sen. Joe Lieberman, and a contributing columnist for such publications as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Politco, Dan was often asked by friends and colleagues to collaborate on a speech or position paper, and he found himself making referrals across his network of fellow scribes and political analysts. Those referrals led to a business—a business that in ten years has grown to support the work of over three thousand writers. Join us for a freewheeling conversation on the art and commerce of ghostwriting.

Learn more about Dan Gerstein and Gotham Ghostwriters at the following:

• Gotham Ghostwriters website
• Follow Dan on Twitter
• Follow Dan on LinkedIn
• Follow Gotham Ghostwriters on Twitter
• Follow Gotham Ghostwriters on Facebook

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
• Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount
• Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership
• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil
• Pop Literacy, hosted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Kimberly Potts
• Writer's Bone, hosted by Daniel Ford

"I'm interested in projects to which I feel I can make a genuine contribution and from which I can learn," Ellen Daly writes—and to look at the bookshelf of titles she's assembled over the years as one of the publishing industry's leading collaborators, she's put herself in a position to learn a whole lot. As a co-author, editor and book coach, Ellen has helped to write over thirty books, with luminaries in the fields of business, finance, health, diet, relationships and self-help. She's even worked with a horse whisperer and a convicted insider-trader—gaining two unexpected perspectives she can now add to the mix.

Join us as we talk with Ellen about the particular pleasures she finds in writing in collaboration, and in working alongside her husband and fellow writer Carter Phipps, and helping to give voice to pioneering individuals who help to change the ways we think, the ways we eat, and the ways we interact with each other.

Learn more about Ellen Daly:

• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Think Like a Horse, with Grant Golliher
• Mind Without Fear, with Rajat Gupta
• The State of Affairs, with Esther Perel
• Good Company, with Arthur Blank

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
• Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount
• Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership
• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil
• Pop Literacy, hosted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Kimberly Potts
• Writer's Bone, hosted by Daniel Ford

What's in a name? Quite a lot, according to Amy Ephron, Maia Wapnick and Anna Ephron Harari, co-authors of The Amazing Baby Name Book: A (Possibly) Helpful and Slightly Amusing Guide from A to Z, a witty and wise and altogether wonderful compendium of baby names for would-be parents. And when that name is Ephron, and it comes attached to a writing family that's lived by its wits and wisdom and abundant sense of wonder for three generations…well, then that name signals that our podcast listeners are in for a rollicking conversation about writing and storytelling.

Join us as we visit with Amy, Maia, and Anna to discuss how their mother-daughter(s) collaboration came about, and what it was like to grow up in a household where the written word was something to nourish and celebrate. Then stay with us as we continue the conversation with Amy, as she reflects on her childhood, as the daughter of successful screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron, and younger sister to the writers Nora, Delia, and Hallie, and on her own eclectic career as a novelist, screenwriter, journalist and film producer.

"When you're a writer you put yourself out there," notes Amy, author of several books, including the novels A Cup of Tea, Bruised Fruit, and The Other Side series of novels for children, and a longtime contributor to Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New York Times, and Air Mail. "People who have other jobs don't necessarily understand what that means, that in a way you're selling your own voice, you're selling your own vision. And I don't mean to make it more than it is, it's just that we are indelibly freelance, and you don't know what your next job is. And at the same time, you have the ability to create your own next job, but you don't know how that will land. So it's a brave choice to be a writer, I think. For anyone."

No matter your name.

Learn more

• Amy Ephron's official website
• Amy on Facebook
• Amy on Post
• Amy on Twitter
• Maia Wapnick on LinkedIn
• Anna Ephron Harari on LinkedIn

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
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• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil
• Pop Literacy, hosted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Kimberly Potts
• Writer's Bone, hosted by Daniel Ford

This episode originally aired April 12, 2022.

"Nobody should ever take a band for granted," writes the justly-celebrated rocker, songwriter, actor, producer, activist and music impresario Steven Van Zandt in his wild ride of a memoir, Unrequited Infatuations: Odyssey of a Rock and Roll Consigliere (A Cautionary Tale). "Bands are miracles. They're rarely perfect, but if a band has that magical chemistry, it should not be fucked with… Every great band is a matter of individual eccentricities blending in different ways with unpredictable, inconsistent, occasionally glorious results."

Here at the As Told To office, we believe the same could be said for the pairing of subject and collaborator, and at the risk of putting our host and our guests out of business we humbly suggest that there are some artists who are meant to go it alone in the memoir-writing department. Little Steven, the shape-shifting guitarist of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes who helped to stamp the Jersey shore sound, is one of those artists. His memoir—published in September 2021 and due out in paperback in September 2022—puts a brilliant exclamation point on a singular career, and he does so in a deeply personal way.

"If this book was a song, you'd want to crank up the volume," writes the noted film critic and screenwriter Jay Cocks. "It's one of the best rock memoirs ever. It's got soul, it's got humor, it's got some tough truths and some wild stories all wrapped up in battle scars and telling memories you'd usually need a backstage pass to catch… It's so much fun you can dance to it."

Indeed you can. We know. We tried. We suggest you do as well, but tune in to this episode first as a kind of palate cleanser and walk around in Little Steven's shoes for a bit, as he talks about what it was like to roll up his sleeves and sit down to write about his coming of age in the music business, his political activism, his unlikely star turn in "The Sopranos," his leap of faith in producing and starring in "Lilyhammer" (the first-ever show to stream on Netflix), his pioneering work as programming director and rock 'n roll curator, and an activist streak that has lately led him to launch his Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and TeachRock, which seeks to re-imagine a new K-12 national curriculum that makes room in our schools for an interdisciplinary focus on the arts.

Oh, and by the way, check out Stevie's late-career renaissance and the kick-ass new music he's been putting out with Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, including last year's "Summer of Sorcery" live album and the expanded edition of "Soulfire Live!"—we've been playing those babies on repeat since Stevie agreed to this interview.

Chef's recommendation: listen to author read his memoir in the audio edition of the book, available from our sponsor Libro.fm (code: ASTOLDTO).

Learn more about Stevie Van Zandt:

• Website
• Twitter: @StevieVanZandt
• Facebook
• Instagram: @Stevievanzandt | @littlesteven_ug

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Frank Santopadre is a veteran comedy writer and the longtime co-host of "Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast," with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. Prior to working with Gilbert, Frank helped to write jokes and supporting material for numerous awards shows (including the Daytime Emmys, the TV Land Awards, and the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize). He has also written comics for Bazooka Joe bubble gum, and mock ad copy, concepts, and character profiles for the Topps Company's popular Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards series.

Oh, and did we mention he also wrote for Mad and Cracked magazines? And the somewhat less zany The New York Times, The Washington Post, People, US Weekly, and Politico? Along the way, he has created comedy material for an eclectic line-up of celebrated personalities, including Bill Murray, Howard Stern, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, Martin Short, and Ben Stiller, and briefly served as a staff writer on what he proudly calls "the worst sitcom in television history"—a forgettable show from the late '90s called "Lost on Earth," hailed by The Los Angeles Times during its mercifully-brief run as "mirthless."

Join us for a somewhat more mirth-filled hour, as we talk about what it was like to help give voice to one of the most singular voices in the annals of American comedy—a joyful burden Frank kinda, sorta shared with podcast host Daniel Paisner, who collaborated with Gilbert Gottfried on his 2011 memoir Rubber Balls and Liquor.

Learn more about Frank Santopadre, visit his official website, like his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter. Tune into the final episode of "Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast," from Dec. 8 through Dec. 14. Proceeds from this ticketed event will help support Myotonic Dystrophy research.

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
• Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount
• Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership
• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil
• Pop Literacy, hosted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Kimberly Potts
• Writer's Bone, hosted by Daniel Ford

Jen Singer is a ghostwriter, speechwriter, writing coach and developmental editor with a whole bunch of stories to tell. As a writing coach at TEDx Cambridge, one of the world's largest independently-organized TED platforms, she has helped dozens of speakers get their stories "on their feet" in front of an audience. Whether writing for the page or the stage, she believes the message is the medium. "A good speech is a good performance," she says, "but it starts with good writing."

One of the original "mom bloggers," Jen wrote on parenting issues for over fifteen years on www.mommasaid.net – a gig that led to a two-year stint as the author of the "Good Grief" blog for Good Housekeeping. Over the years, she has also written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Parents, Woman's Day, and McSweeney's, while writing several books of her own and launching her career as a book doctor and collaborator. Somewhere in there, coinciding with her own diagnosis of Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, she shifted her focus from parenting issues to medical issues – a shift that came about while she was blogging on potty training issues for Pull-Ups.

"June is National Potty-Training Month," she recalls, "and I was in the hospital measuring my urine for my doctor…It was surreal."

Jen saw the humor in that surreal moment, but she also saw opportunity, and she started working as a medical writer for NYU Langone Health, Northwell Health, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Weill Cornell Medicine. Her experience as a cancer survivor led her to write a series of e-books called "The Just Diagnosed Guides: What You Need to Know Now (without Googling it)," designed to help patients and families navigate the uncertainty that finds them after a difficult diagnosis.

In addition to her work with TEDx Cambridge, Jen also works as a writing coach and editor for Heroic Public Speaking, a leading public speaking training program, where she has worked with a wide range of clients, including CEOs, Olympic athletes, educators, fighter pilots, marketing experts, physicians, psychologists, Ivy League researchers and professors, and undercover FBI agents.

For more on Jen Singer, visit her official website, like her Facebook page, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
• Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount
• Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership
• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil
• Pop Literacy, hosted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Kimberly Potts
• Writer's Bone, hosted by Daniel Ford

Jodi Lipper is the co-author of over twenty books with some of our leading influencers and game-changers in the fields of health and wellness and personal empowerment, including six New York Times best-sellers. Perhaps the biggest "game changer" among her clients is the "father of biohacking" and founder of Bulletproof Coffee Dave Asprey, with whom Jodi has collaborated on The Bulletproof Diet, Super Human, Head Strong, and the oh-so- appropriately titled Game Changers. She also collaborated on Fran Hauser's The Myth of the Nice Girl and Dr. Steven R. Gundry's The Longevity Paradox, as well as brutally honest inspirational memoirs from designer and entrepreneur Steve Madden (The Cobbler) and celebrity chef Jesse Schenker (All or Nothing).

Her latest collaboration, with a three-headed team of McKinsey & Co. veterans, asks readers to consider the pace of their lives from a unique combination of psychology, neuroscience, and consciousness practices. "I truly believe that this book can help everyone learn more about themselves and how to manage everyday stresses and major life crises," Jodi says of Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World, out later this month from Harper Business. Prior to finding her voice as a ghostwriter, Jodi collaborated with her friend Cerina Vincent on a series of saucy, sassy primers for young women—How to Eat Like a Hot Chick, How to Love Like a Hot Chick, and Live Like a Hot Chick. Join us as Jodi reflects on a writing life that has helped to shape the ways so many of us live and work.

For more on Jodi Lipper, visit her official website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
• Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount
• Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership
• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil

"He knew how pain kept inside multiplies, and how pain shared subtracts," writes podcast guest Jon Sternfeld in the opening bars of Michael K. Williams's haunting new posthumous memoir Scenes from My Life. Jon was midway through his work with the electrifying actor, known to television audiences for his career-defining turns as Omar Little in "The Wire" and Chalky White in "Boardwalk Empire," as well as for his Emmy-nominated roles in "The Night Of" and "Lovecraft Country," when Williams died in September 2021 from a drug overdose. It fell to Jon to complete the project on his own—an intimidating task the veteran ghostwriter was reluctant to take on at first. "I can't tell you how strange this is and has been," he says. "When Mike first passed, I was just dealing with the shock and grief. I wasn't even thinking about things like deadlines or promotion. And now, I'm speaking about his legacy, and while I feel outmatched by the responsibility of it, I do accept it."

Join us as Jon Sternfeld reflects on his relationship with the late actor and activist, as well as on his other collaborations, including A Stone of Hope, with the noted residential care advocate Jim St. Germain; Crisis Point, with former U.S. senators Trent Lott and Tom Daschle; and the forthcoming Marked For Life, with attorney Isaac Wright Jr., who defends the wrongly accused in the same courtroom where he was sentenced to life in prison.

For more on We Build the Block, the organization co-founded by Michael K. Williams to reduce violence and build community in our inner cities visit https://webuildtheblock.org/. For more on Jon Sternfeld, visit his official website and follow him on Twitter.

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order
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• Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
• The Thoughtful Bro podcast, hosted by Mark Cecil

"You need to have a lot of things go right in your life before you can become as miserable as Anthony Bourdain," writes noted journalist and biographer Charles Leerhsen in his headline-making new book, Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, hailed by Dwight Garner of The New York Times as "an unvarnished account of a turbulent life."

The "unvarnishing" of our legendarily turbulent public figures is one of Leerhsen's things, apparently, as readers have discovered in his books on Ty Cobb, Butch Cassidy, and the celebrated racehorse Dan Patch—a determination to get the story right that was instilled in him as a writer and editor at Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, and People.

As a ghostwriter, Leerhsen brought that same determination into his work with pioneering aviator Chuck Yeager (Press On!), entertainment mogul Brandon Tartikoff (The Last Great Ride), and a belligerent New York City real estate developer named Donald Trump (Trump: Surviving at the Top), a collaboration our guest would come to regret for the way it helped to establish the Trump persona.

Learn more about Charles Leerhsen by visiting his official website and following him on Twitter.

Please support the sponsors who support our show.

• Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order
• Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog
• Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount
• Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership
• Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount