In early September, the "remnants" of Hurricane Ida flooded metropolitan Philadelphia -- and took out the entire first floor of Jared Bilski's house. And like all good writers, he turned the resulting flood of neighborly goodwill into a front-page story about the diverse, dedicated community that came to his family's aid.

We talk with him about the writer's life, the close collaborators he met at Dad 2.0, and the psychology behind his initial difficulty to accept help when he so clearly needed it. And what exactly is Wawa bait?