Life Stories

Jenny Lawson, a.k.a. The Bloggess, talks about her memoir, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, how blogging has connected her with her readers in very powerful ways, and how she uses humor to write about the painful experiences in her life as well as the ludicrous ones.

Burn Down the Ground is Kambri Crews' account of growing up as the hearing child of deaf parents in a rural Texas community -- and watching as their marriage fell apart and her father's domestic abuse went unchallenged by local law enforcement, with disastrous results years later.

In the mid-1990s, Cheryl Strayed hiked solo from the Mojave Desert to the Oregon-Washington state line. Why did she do it, and what did she learn about herself when she decided to write about the experience a decade later?

Tim Anderson decided he needed to get out of North Carolina. So he accepted a job teaching conversational English to Tokyo residents -- even though he wasn't even remotely fluent in Japanese. Hijinx ensue.

A conversation with Rachel Shukert (Everything Is Going to Be Great) and Rev Jen (Elf Girl) about life and art in New York City. Recorded live at the Wix Lounge.

A conversation with actress/musician Storm Large about growing up with the fear that she was destined to inherit her mother's mental illness -- and how she was finally saved by rock'n'roll.

A conversation with the star of The Blair Witch Project about reaching a turning point in her acting career, and moving to Northern California to become a medical marijuana grower.