I'd Rather Be Reading

We are back today with another fantastic episode, and for my 38th birthday today, I’d like to give you a gift — a conversation about a book that really touched me. We’re chatting today about Dr. Mary E. Anderson’s book The Happy High Achiever: 8 Essentials to Overcome Anxiety, Manage Stress, and Energize Yourself for Success—Without Losing Your Edge, which came out September 24. She writes that we are experiencing an epidemic of high achievers anxiety, which Mary explains in today’s episode. In the book, she writes “The bad news is that right now, you are likely not feeling your best. You may be overwhelmed and tired and frustrated by what feels like an insurmountable mountain of effort, and the truth is, if you continue on this track, you will burn out.” Sometimes achievement becomes a problem and becomes as much of an addictive behavior as maybe some of the more traditionally destructive behaviors. Mary writes of those with high achievers anxiety that they are “plagued with a feeling of inadequacy, no matter how high they soared” and I self-identify as one of these people. But Mary gives us hope, writing that “You can be happy and high achieving,” and that one can move from being an anxious high achiever to, as the book title alludes to, a happy high achiever. Today on the show we chat about Mary’s eight essentials to overcome anxiety, manage stress, and energize yourself for success, which are the roadmap to being a happy high achiever. We also talk about the “Troublesome Trifecta,” and what life as a happy high achiever looks like — and how, with this great book, we can get there. Here to guide us through it all is Dr. Mary E. Anderson, known affectionately as “Dr. A” by her clients, who is a licensed clinical psychologist and sought-after speaker with over a decade of experience helping patients become happier, healthier, and sustainably high achieving. I truly hope that you get as much out of this book and this conversation as I did. Take a listen!

The Happy High Achiever: 8 Essentials to Overcome Anxiety, Manage Stress, and Energize Yourself for Success—Without Losing Your Edge by Dr. Mary E. Anderson

I’m so pleased to have on the show today Megan Gorman, who wrote a very compelling book called All the Presidents’ Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money, which is out September 24. Before we get into the book — which isn’t that such a great idea and such a great title? — let me tell you a little more about Megan: she is the founder and managing partner of Chequers Financial Management, a female-owned high-net-worth tax and financial planning firm. Her clientele ranges from entrepreneurs to corporate executives to inheritors of family wealth. She is an attorney by training and is passionate about the problem solving required to work in the world of complex financial planning. She has been named to Forbes’ list of America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors and was a vice president at Ayco, a Goldman Sachs company, and BNY Mellon Wealth Management prior to launching her own firm. Megan is a senior contributor at Forbes, where she writes about personal finance and income tax, and she is frequently cited across prominent financial media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and CNBC. She has now written the brilliant All the Presidents’ Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money, where she dives deep into the personal finances of the presidents. As she writes, “most of their money problems are just like ours.” In the book, Megan teaches readers what president is the best at money (and he may surprise you!), and who is worst with money. Interestingly, Megan writes that, when it comes to solid financial advice, “if you ever asked me what is the best thing you could do financially, my answer would be quite succinct: get married and stay married.” We talk about First Ladies, too, and about financial advice for the presidents and for us; Megan writes about financial fragility and financial resilience, and how “In many of the presidents’ stories, financial fragility is a common theme.” We talk about what grit has to do with wealth, how the American dream is still there but much harder to attain in present times, and so much more. Studying the U.S. presidents and their personal money stories and how they built wealth — or didn’t — is incredibly fascinating. Take a listen.

All the Presidents’ Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money by Megan Gorman

Celebrating the giants of American history — the George Washingtons, the Abraham Lincolns, the Martin Luther King Jrs — is important, but behind every larger-than-life American icon is, as Sharon McMahon calls her new book, The Small and the Mighty. The full title of Sharon’s book, which is out September 24, is The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement, and all of these 12 unsung American heroes are extraordinary. As Sharon writes, “How many more Americans who changed the course of history are waiting to be discovered?” And in writing this book and telling the stories of these 12, I could tell with every page and Sharon’s poetic prose that she wanted to inspire the rest of us to do what we can in our corners of the world to make the world a better place, too. As she writes of the 12 she chose, “None of them could do it all, but they all could do something. These are the small and the mighty. And we can be too.” As she puts it, “It’s the small who truly are the mighty.” It’s interesting, because I find Sharon herself to be an unsung hero — although, as her profile rises and rises, she is very deservedly getting her flowers. Sharon has become known as “America’s Government Teacher” and is a podcaster, author, Instagram influencer, and law and government teacher. Sharon’s content on her podcast, Instagram, and other platforms mostly centers around civics and history-focused material, and she is particularly interested in combatting misinformation from both sides of the aisle and providing a nonpartisan explanation on the application of constitutional law to contemporary American politics. If you don’t already follow her work, you must. Sharon is a longtime high school law and government teacher and started publishing politics-oriented content to her Instagram during the pandemic back in 2020, mostly as a response to what she saw as rising misinformation on her own social media feeds amid not just the pandemic but also the presidential election that year. And there’s no better time to follow Sharon as we are once again in a presidential election year, just in case you weren’t aware. Kidding. Sharon then launched Government for Grownups, a workshop series about U.S. history and government, and is also deeply involved in philanthropy, as well, continually using her platform for good. Her podcast is called “Here’s Where It Gets Interesting,” and her Instagram is called “Sharon Says So.” She is a remarkable woman that I can’t wait for you to learn from today. Take a listen.

The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement by Sharon McMahon

I am a huge sports fan, and both the college football season and the NFL season are in full swing. Sports-wise, this is one of my favorite times of the year, and our guest today Joe Posnanski has written a book for all lovers of the game called Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments that you definitely won’t want to miss. Joe chose 100 moments because of the 100 yards in a football field, and talks to us today about how on earth he chose just 100 moments out of the hundreds and even thousands he could have chosen. He talks about what anecdote was most fun to write about, a player and a play that epitomizes football to him, why football matters to society and culture, and yes, even Taylor Swift. We also brought up some of my childhood memories with the Kansas City Chiefs, and it left me feeling very nostalgic. The book is out September 17, and follows Joe’s books The Baseball 100 and also Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments. Joe talks about simultaneously loving both college and pro football, and how you can also love multiple sports, just like he loves football and baseball, which he writes in the book is like living a double life. Joe is a former senior columnist for Sports Illustrated and columnist for The Kansas City Star and currently writes for his personal blog JoeBlogs. He’s one of the most well-respected sportswriters in the game and has written a number of other books in addition to the three already mentioned. In both 2002 and 2005, Joe was named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors, and has won numerous other awards for his work, including Sports Emmy Awards in both 2014 and 2016 as part of NBC’s Olympics coverage. He hosts his own weekly podcast, “The PosCast,” and he’s just a great guy. Trust me—if you weren’t already excited about football season being back, you certainly will be after this chat and this book. Take a listen.

Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments by Joe Posnanski

My guest today truly needs no introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, we are fortunate enough today to have the one, the only Connie Chung here with us to chat about her memoir, Connie, out September 17. Definitely stick around for the surprise Maury Povich pop in midway through the conversation—Maury, of course, is Connie’s husband of 40 years. Where to even start with Connie Chung and what an inspiration she is to female journalists like me? Connie is the youngest of five sisters, and she writes in her memoir she was a kid “who had no voice at home, never uttered a peep at school, never raised a hand to answer a teacher’s question,” and morphed “into someone who was fearless, ambitious, driven, full of chutzpah and moxie, who spoke up to get what she wanted.” She writes that her family was shocked when she pursued a profession that required speaking in front of millions of viewers. Connie, of course, is a legendary broadcast journalist. She also writes, “the truth is, being a reporter fit perfectly with my personality. I preferred to observe, watching what unfolded before me, never expressing my opinion.” As the fifth daughter, Connie was very aware that her parents kept trying for a son. She then went on to break into a very male-dominated business at the time where the white man was the ideal. In fact, she writes in the book about striving to be like a white man early in her career. She was told at one point “you’ll never make it in this business,” but guess what? She did! And actually, her dream of working at CBS, as she writes, “came true because of timing, a connection, and who I was—a woman and a minority.” And that was all thanks to the Civil Rights Act President Lyndon Baines Johnson passed in 1964. Connie is a legend in the broadcast journalism space. She has worked for CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC—truly remarkable. When she joined Dan Rather as the co-anchor spot of the CBS Evening News, there had been 17 long years from the time Barbara Walters co-anchored a network evening news program to Connie taking over the co-anchor spot with Dan Rather. Through this appointment, Connie became the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor any news program in the U.S. Though a mountaintop moment this certainly was, she writes “Still, the feeling of always having to prove myself weighed heavily on my mind.” She was let go from the CBS Evening News just two years later, and she writes “For two years, I had held what I’d thought was an equal seat at the table with three white men. But now I saw clearly that was never true. Losing all that was gut-wrenching, breaking my rock-solid confidence.” We talk about all of this and so much more in today’s episode, and I can’t wait for you to hear our conversation. Take a listen!

Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung

If you are as big of a Selling Sunset fan as I am, then you are going to love today’s episode. Season eight of Netflix’s massive hit reality series just dropped September 6, and here today to chat about her new book Selling Sunshine: Surviving Teenage Motherhood, Thriving in Luxury Real Estate, and Embracing My Voice is one of the show’s stars, Mary Bonnet. Mary has written an incredibly vulnerable book that takes us inside her struggles, her pain, her heartache, but also her joy, her happiness, and her success. In the book and in our conversation today Mary talks about finding out she was pregnant at 15 with her son, Austin; her relationship with Jason Oppenheim of The Oppenheim Group (the real estate agency that is the basis of Selling Sunset and where Mary has worked since long before the Netflix camera crews came into the office); her successful real estate career; how she felt when she learned her real-life workplace would soon become the subject of a Netflix reality show; when she knew she was famous; her very handsome husband Romain; and so much more. Mary writes about the “obstacles behind the smile”—not just getting pregnant as a teenager but also Mary’s experience as a sexual assault survivor. In the book, which is out September 24, Mary writes “My life has hardly been a linear journey.” But she also writes, “2024 is going to be an epic year, I can feel it!” and I certainly hope that for her (and for all of us). This book is proof that there’s always more to someone’s story than meets the eye, and I’m excited for all of you to read it and get to know Mary a little better today. Mary was named one of Variety’s 40 Most Powerful Women on Reality TV and, outside of Selling Sunset, is vice president at the Oppenheim Group and a prominent figure in the world of luxury real estate in Los Angeles. She’s sold over $140 million in real estate to date and is one of the leading real estate agents in the city, and just a lovely person. Take a listen to our conversation.

Selling Sunshine: Surviving Teenage Motherhood, Thriving in Luxury Real Estate, and Embracing My Voice by Mary Bonnet

Today on the show to kick off season 14 is a second-time guest: Kathy Iandoli, who we spoke to back in 2021 about her book on the legendary Aaliyah. And Kathy is back with a book she co-wrote with another legendary musician—Eve, who in a word, is just fabulous. In the book, we learn so much about this rapper, actress, talk show host, and multihyphenate, including that she felt cursed by being born with the name Eve—as in the first woman, Eve, according to the Bible. We talk today with Kathy about Eve’s childhood in Philadelphia and how that molded her into the woman she is today; how she opened so many doors for women in music—rap specifically—as the First Lady of Ruff Ryderz, and what it was like to be a female in such a male-dominated industry; the biggest obstacle she faced in her 25-year career; and what she’s really like when the spotlight is off of her. We also talk about Eve being 43 when she gave birth for the first time to her son, Wilde, and how that shifted her life. As she writes towards the end of Who’s That Girl?, which is out September 17, “The ride isn’t as rough anymore, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.” (“Who’s That Girl?” by the way, is probably my favorite Eve song.) You know who Eve is—she’s a Grammy-winning rapper and singer with singles like the aforementioned “Who’s That Girl?,” “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” and “Tambourine”; she’s an actress who has appeared in films like Barbershop and television shows like Queens; she’s a talk show host and has been on The Talk and The Real; and now she’s an author. She’s also a history maker, by the way—when she won the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” with Gwen Stefani, she was the first recipient ever of that award. I love that. Today on the show we have Eve’s fantastic co-writer Kathy Iandoli, who has written everywhere from Vibe to The Source, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Cosmopolitan, and so much more. Kathy specializes in music, specifically hip-hop, and has written books like God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop and the aforementioned Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah, among others. She’s also a professor of music business at New York University, a documentarian who has produced film projects on women in hip-hop for BBC and Netflix (including the award-winning Ladies First!), and one of my favorite guests. I’m so happy to have her back on.

Who’s That Girl?: A Memoir by Eve and Kathy Iandoli

Unbelievably, we’ve reached the season finale of season 13! What a season, huh? Don’t you worry, because we’ve got more conversations to come in season 14. But today we’ve got a great one for you—Julia Boorstin of CNBC is here to chat about her buzzy, powerful book When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them, which came out in 2022 but is still making waves today. The book is, in my opinion, a masterpiece about women, leadership, and business. And Julia knows what she’s talking about—she’s a longtime CNBC reporter and before that was at Fortune magazine, and her work covers business, tech, and entrepreneurship. The crux of the book centers around how and why women leaders thrive, and why women are essential to a successful workplace. Today we talk about what skillsets women specifically bring to a workplace; what women need to succeed in business and what needs to be changed in the modern workplace; women’s adaptability advantage and why resilience matters; and how, if companies care about making money, they’ll invest in women. When Women Lead zooms in on the stories of over 60 female CEOs and is, as Julia writes, a “radical blueprint for the future of business and our world at large.” It’s an absolutely necessary read and I can’t wait to talk about it with Julia today. Julia Boorstin is the senior media and tech correspondent for CNBC and is a graduate of Princeton; she worked at Fortune, has contributed to both CNN and CNN Headline News, and joined CNBC in 2006, and in 2013 created the CNBC Disruptor 50 list, an annual list that highlights private companies that are challenging established industries. She also helped launch the network’s “Closing the Gap” initiative, covering the people and companies closing gender and diversity gaps. This is the perfect conversation to end season 13 on. Take a listen!

When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them by Julia Boorstin

Today on the show, we’re talking about the history and power of hairdressing and how, as our guest Dr. Elizabeth Block puts it in her new book, how hair “contributed to the lived experiences of women.” Her new book Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing is out September 10 and looks at hair through an academic lens—and it’s totally compelling. We get into the cultural impact of hair; why hair is, as the title suggests, something that is beyond vanity; how choosing a hairstyle or color is much deeper than surface level; hairdressers, wigs, salons, hair products, hair tools, hair length, and so much more. We dig into when people realized that hair as an entrepreneurial venture could be profitable, hair throughout history, and what historians like our guest today might say about our hair 100 years from now. Walking us through it all is Dr. Elizabeth Block, who teaches us that studying hair and its importance is anything but frivolous. She is an art historian and a senior editor in the publications and editorial department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She is also the author of the award-winning Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion, and her work has appeared in Town & Country, Slate, BBC News, and BBC Woman’s Hour, among other prestigious places. I’m excited for you to hear what she has to say as we dig in.

Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing by Dr. Elizabeth Block

The 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, is once again our topic du jour today, as we’re talking about Max Boot’s new book Reagan: His Life and Legend, which comes out on September 10. In the fantastic 880-page book, Max quotes someone as having said of Reagan that “there was almost no one who did not succumb to his magic.” Today on the show we talk about what that magic was; about his love story with his wife, Nancy Reagan, who Max writes in the book without her Reagan “would never have been elected to anything”; how he and his presidency are perceived 20 years after his death in 2004; and if, as Max writes in the book, “Reaganism contain[ed] the seeds of Trumpism?” Max and I talk about the differences between Reagan the man and Reagan the public figure, how he was as a father to his four children (one of whom we’ve had on the show!), where his elevated sense of self-confidence came from, and, of course, his legacy. Much to get into, and here to delve into it all with me is Max Boot, an author, historian, and policy analyst who, in addition to writing 880-page definitive biographies, is also a columnist for The Washington Post, a global affairs analyst for CNN, and the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to this new book, Max has also written The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present. He has also written The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power and War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today. An impressive man who has certainly written an impressive book.

Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot