We explore with writer and journalist Juan Carlos Hernández the nature of memoir, the connections made over cooking, and the importance of staying grounded.

Episode artwork: Footballer André Roosenburg in Florence, 1953. Image with no known copyright restrictions courtesy Nationaal Archief and Wikimedia Commons.

Intro and outro music: "Your Love Hip Hop" courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay

Want to learn more about the books—and films!—we talked about on this episode? Check out the list below. You can also find us on LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Mastodon—and show your support at Liberapay!

Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Confidential

Anna Burns Milkman

Mary Karr The Liars' Club

Mary Karr The Art of Memoir

Rachel Cusk The Outline Trilogy

Lisa Dordal Next Time You Come Home

Xuan Carlos Hernández Lost and Found on the Camino de Santiago

Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth

Stephen King On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Karl Ove Knausgaard My Struggle series

Mario Levrero The Luminous Novel

Valeria Luiselli Lost Children Archive

Alejandra Márquez Abella A Million Miles Away

Rigoberta Menchú I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien In the Lake of the Woods

Jordan B. Peterson Twelve Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Thomas Piketty Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Sally Rooney Beautiful World, Where Are You

Maurice Sendak Where the Wild Things Are

Michelle Zahner Crying in H Mart: A Memoir