Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Stephanie Elizondo Griest to discuss her latest book Art Above Everything: One Woman's Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life, which is so up Dennis's alley. (Actually, a listener reached out to Dennis and said, "You need to check out this book. It's what you talk about all the time.") Stephanie talks about the through line that many of the women she profiled share, how the big things that happened in world while she was working on the book--COVID, her own cancer diagnosis, the #metoo movement, Trumpism--impacted her work and the question for artists that lies at the heart of the book; Is it worth it? Stephanie also talks about the alternative paths she could have chosen, how even the safe roads in life aren't safe anymore and what she's observed about young people since she started working as a writing professor in North Carolina. Other topics include: the boyfriend she had when she was living in Russia who was given an offer to kill someone for money, her complicated relationship to belly dancing, getting to spend time with one of her heroes. author Sandra Cisneros, the Ugandan playwright she interviewed who saw where Trumpism was heading way back in 2015, how various foreign countries support their artists and how American's Karen-esque sense of entitlement may be what ends up saving us all.

https://stephanieelizondogriest.com