On this week’s episode, we talk to Mike Sacks - author, comedy writer, and host of the podcast, “Doin’ it with Mike” - about his summers at Camp Airy and Camp Seafarer in the 80s. Despite his tough exterior, Mike turns out to be quite the sentimental camp philosopher. Like most of our guests, camp had a big impact on how he sees the world and shares what we all know to be true: “Camp time is like living through amber.” Poetic, right?

An accomplished writer, Mike shares that the most precious and meaningful writing of his life hasn’t been his New York Times articles, but the love letters he and his girlfriend wrote back and forth the summer before his freshman year of high school. In fact, he still gets verklempt every time he hears Journey on the radio because Steve Perry’s voice brings him back right back to that summer of long-distance love. Mike also shares a great story about an extreme case of homesickness that set upon him the very moment he waved goodbye to his parents and how even the most experienced counselor could do nothing to snap him out of it. We also learn about Mike’s crab-whispering skills and that, even though Mike wishes that he was Nordic or Icelandic, he is, according to three DNA tests, 100% Lithuanian Jew.

Mike’s new novel, Stinker Lets Loose, is now available under the pseudonym James Taylor Johnston.