Let's Talk Media with Vedant Akhauri

Host Vedant Akhauri welcomes author Lindsey Goldstein to discuss her debut novel, Gap Year (releasing February 3, 2026).

This novel explored the journey of Jane, a 46-year-old CPA who faces the perfect storm when her husband leaves, her daughter goes abroad for a gap year, and she is offered a promotion she doesn't want. Instead of leaning in, Jane quits her job to climb the Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador - an adult gap year to reclaim the adventurous spirit she put on pause decades ago.

We discuss:

• The Pivot from Non-Fiction: Lindsey discusses transitioning from writing personal essays for The New York Times Modern Love column to constructing a 320-page novel, and what she learned about the craft along the way.
• Indie vs. Big Five: An honest look at the realities of publishing. Lindsey shares why she chose the independent route with Egret Lake Books after navigating the agent query trenches, highlighting the creative control she retained over her title and cover.
• Second Chapters: The reality of figuring out what to do with your time and exploring forgotten parts of yourself as an empty nester.
• Career Burnout: Vedant doesn't claim to represent accounting or adjacent fields, but felt connected to the story after the surprise reveal that Jane's a CPA. Him and Lindsey dive into how the burnout common among CPAs compelled Jane's decision to take a gap year.
• Finding Levity in Loss: How to balance the heavy themes of divorce and empty nesting with humor.

Lindsey and Vedant discuss the heartfelt comedy of a Gen X woman navigating hostel life with travelers twenty years her junior.

Ultimately, it's a story about the psychology of second chapters and why Jane’s story is about self-discovery rather than just romance, despite the presence of a charming tour guide named Mark.

Lindsey also teases her next project, described as Sliding Doors meets Stranger Than Fiction.

Gap Year is available for presale now and releases officially on February 3, 2026.

• Pre-order the Paperback from Egret Lake Books
• Pre-order the Ebook on Amazon

Website: lindseygoldsteinauthor.com

Socials:

• Instagram @goldsteinlindsey
• TikTok @lindseygoldsteinauthor
• Substack: lindseygoldstein.substack.com

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

In this episode of Let's Talk Media, host Vedant Akhauri is joined by author, poet, and "Neurodiverse Language Wizard," William May. Together, they deconstruct the craft of writing through the lens of May’s new chapbook, Blaze Without Burning.

May details the collection's unique twinning structure, where the poems in the second half of the book mirror the first half in reverse order - a concept he compares to the duality found in William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

The conversation expands into a fascinating discussion on literary theory, where May argues that linearity is an illusion for the writer. He explains that while readers experience a book line-by-line, a writer must create it all at once, much like an architect designing a building rather than simply walking from room to room.

Beyond structure, the interview explores the intersection of neurodiversity and creativity. May shares his personal history of being diagnosed with severe dyslexia in the mid-80s and the emotional impact of a Reading is Fundamental commercial that made him feel he was going no place. He reveals how receiving help turned reading into a life-long gift and how his "outsider position" now influences his work.

Plus, learn about May’s own show, Not Another Podcast About Book Publishing, which helps writers navigate industry truths. This episode concludes with a live reading of the poem "I Knew It Was Not You".

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

In this episode, host and award-winning podcaster, Vedant Akhauri speaks with author and screenwriter, Leslie Anne Lee. We cover how one can turn their passion for writing into a viable, profitable career.

Discover Leslie’s proven strategies for defining her authorship as a business, demanding professionalism and investment, having learned that skimping on professionalism costs more in the long run. Learn how she uses social media for branding, adapting her approach from simple word-of-mouth in the early days to researching SEO and hashtags. She reveals her powerful technique for handling setbacks, viewing every no from a publisher or film festival as data for refinement, emphasizing that persistence is the essential ingredient for success.

We explore Leslie’s diverse works, from her early Historical Fiction pieces, including The Rock and the Wind, to her success in the Romantic Fantasy and Sci-fi genres. She recently pivoted as a screenwriter, adapting her novel Child of Dawn into an award-winning screenplay. She details the challenges of adapting a descriptive novel into the concise, visual screenplay format, mastering the brutal need to cut her 200-page first draft.

Leslie’s journey provides essential advice on adaptability and the necessity of courage in the creative field. She stresses the importance of partnerships and aligning yourself with people who will take your hand and help you out.

Tune in to understand why, for Leslie Anne Lee, you must simply just do it if you have a vision, and how to make your writing skills a sustainable career.

Leslie can be found on her website (https://www.leslieannelee.com/) and Instagram (@lepie21). Her published works can be found on Amazon. Her podcast, The Written World Podcast, is available on YouTube.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

Join host and award-winning podcaster, Vedant Akhauri as he interviews Sam Mitchell, the Executive Director of Autism Rocks and Rolls (ARAR). Sam, a podcaster, international speaker, and TEDx speaker, shares his journey of starting this 501c3 nonprofit corporation after falling in love with his high school media club. This essential episode dives into how ARAR uses media - including its own podcast and educational modules - to shift the conversation to inclusion for people on the autism spectrum and remove the stigma. Sam details his personal mission to prove that people on the spectrum do not need to be fixed. The conversation explores major misconceptions, like the myth that those on the spectrum do not like to socialize. Sam offers advice for navigating the workplace, addressing the challenge of 85% unemployment among those on the spectrum, and emphasizing the necessity of creating your own job if need be.

Plus, hear about ARAR's annual gala and other events held in Bloomington, Indiana. Sam and his mother, Michelle Mitchell (a twenty-year educator), also discuss their forthcoming children's book, Journee, which is a nature-themed story about a young girl finding acceptance and showcasing the positive sides of autism.

ARAR can be followed on their website (https://autismrocksandrolls.com/) and their podcast (Autism Rocks and Rolls) is available on all major streaming platforms.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

Join host and award-winning podcaster, Vedant Akhauri, as he dives into the rapidly developing story that Netflix has won the bidding war for the Warner Brothers side of Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD). This is a huge deal that involves Netflix strategically offering $28-$30 per share, valuing the enterprise at $70-75 billion.

Vedant breaks down why Netflix's bid seems attractive to WBD and what this merger means for Netflix's new place in the chess board that is the entertainment industry, but also the challenges up ahead. As someone who worked for WBD, he also details what this means for the Discovery side after the planned de-merger with Warner Brothers. If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

Join Let's Talk Media host and award-winning podcaster Vedant Akhauri for a comprehensive review of the latest film in the Knives Out movie franchise, Wake Up Dead Man.

In this threequel, Daniel Craig reprises his role as detective Benoit Blanc, investigating a murder at a church in a claustrophobic tiny town in Upstate New York. The cast also includes:

• Josh O'Connor as Reverend Jud Duplenticy.
• Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix.
• Josh Brolin as Monsignor Jefferson Wicks.
• Mila Kunis as Police Chief Geraldine Scott.
• Jeremy Renner as Dr. Nat Sharp.
• Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, Esq., a lawyer.
• Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, a best-selling author.
• Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane, a former concert cellist.
• Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven, an aspiring politician.
• Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt, the church's groundskeeper
• Jeffrey Wright as Langstrom
• Annie Hamilton as Grace Wicks
• James Faulkner as Reverend Prentice Wicks
• Bridget Everett as Louise
• Noah Segan as Nikolai
• A cameo by Joseph Gordon-Levitt

This episode discusses the movie's respectful yet relevant commentary on faith, politics, and cults of personalities. Discover why this mystery is considered an improvement over Glass Onion, provides yet another modern interpretation of the Agatha Christie whodunnit format, and is highly accessible to viewers of all backgrounds of belief (or lack thereof).If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

In this episode, we step back in time to explore early 20th-century Iowa through the pages of a century-old diary. Host and award-winning podcaster, Vedant Akhauri, welcomes author Sue E. Burns to discusses her book, A Common Life: A Voice from the Progressive Era.

Sue’s book brings to life the diary of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Briggs, offering an intimate portrayal of rural womanhood and everyday history. The diary entries, which date back to 1888, provide rich historical detail.

Sue E. Burns explains:

• Preserving History: How the diary pages, found tucked away in an attic, were beginning to disintegrate and how she and her mother transcribed the cursive, pencil-written notes on newsprint to preserve them in an electronic format.
• A Time of Rapid Change: The entries span the Progressive Era (1888 to 1922), a time of rapid technological and social changes. Mary Anne witnessed remarkable shifts, including the traffic on her dirt road changing from animal-drawn vehicles to automobiles. She also chronicled major national events like World War I and the devastating 1918-1919 flu pandemic—all occurring in a pre-antibiotic era.
• Female Resilience: The book highlights Mary Anne's self-sufficiency after her husband's death in 1903, when she took over the management of her farm, orchard, and livestock. She engaged in extensive canning to be self-sufficient and was an early version of female entrepreneurship for her time.
• Meticulous Research: Sue details her commitment to non-fiction, deciding not to novelize or fictionalize anything. She explains how she conducted a deep dive into the research, verifying Mary Anne’s accounts using historical documents such as court records, land deeds, and newspaper accounts from the era, tracing the original land ownership back to 1859.
• Relevant Themes: Sue explains that the book is organized around themes (not strict chronology) to show how topics, such as Mary Anne's reading habits or her evolving feelings about the war and the mandated Liberty loan bonds, changed over the course of the almost 40 years of documentation.

This episode is a testament to the power of seemingly ordinary people documenting their lives and how their records offer profound insights into the past.

A Common Life: A Voice from the Progressive Era is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle formats.If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

Award-winning podcaster, Vedant Akhauri, reviews Wicked: For Good, the highly-anticipated second installment of the two-part adaptation of the iconic musical, staring the magnetic duo of Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba/The Wicked Witch of the West.

While acknowledging the production's technical brilliance and the outstanding talent of its leads, this episode delves into the inherent flaws from its source material that make it a mixed bag in terms of plotting, pacing, and its incorporation of Dorothy's world from The Wizard of Oz.

This episode serves as a guide for listeners to gauge their anticipation for Wicked: For Good and includes a strong recommendation to re-watch the first movie before viewing the sequel.

Spoilers included.If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

Host Vedant Akhauri welcomes author, Julie Seyler, about her part memoir, part recipe book, Gluten for Punishment: Just Desserts for the Heartbroken, Lovesick, and Jilted.

Explore Julie's journey as she analyzes three decades of dating through inventive dessert analogies and baking analogies. Learn about the inspiration behind her book, which utilizes her experience as a classically trained chef, and how her personal blog, Two-Bit Tart, evolved into a food blog.

This episode delves into the six dating stories that formed the basis of the book, touching on relationships described as romantic, poetic, intense as well as toxic. Julie shares insights on the process of putting her relationships under the microscope, discovering a surprising pattern, and including funny stories and pallet cleansers to make the journey relatable.

The conversation also covers the changing dating landscape from the 1990s to 2020s, the importance of collaboration with an editor and illustrator, and how cooking can be healing and a form of moving meditation.

You can find Gluten for Punishment on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, bookshop.org, and at independent bookstores.

Content Warning: This episode discusses material related to toxic and narcissistic relationships, including personal experiences with manipulation. Julie's book does not sugarcoat anything and discusses uncomfortable things and situations she had been in. Listener discretion is advised.If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.

Host Vedant Akhauri interviews Michelle Steiner, a disability advocate, writer, photographer, and paraeducator supporting students with disabilities. Michelle shares her powerful journey of turning lifelong challenges - including dyscalculia, limited hand dexterity, and visual perception issues - into a platform for awareness and empowerment.

This episode delves into how Michelle defied critics who told her she couldn't succeed in college to achieve her bachelor's degree.

Key takeaways from our conversation include:

• Michelle's Mission: Her blog where she blends personal storytelling with photography to share the realities of living with an invisible disability.
• Invisible Disability Advocacy: She debunks common misconceptions about dyscalculia and shares how her published work, including her contribution to the anthology The Baggage We Carry, helps unpack the emotional weight of having a learning disability.
• Educational Call to Action: As an educator, Michelle advocates that professionals working with students who have learning disabilities must adopt a customized approach to them, not a cookie-cutter approach.
• Future Hope: Michelle reveals her plans to publish a children's book about dyscalculia and her dream of giving a TEDx talk to give others hope and share her story.

Michelle’s mission encourages listeners to embrace resilience, understanding, and inclusion in both education and everyday life.If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating to be notified of future episodes. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on Instagram @letstalkmediava.