Picture this: You have a book to write, a memoir which contains so much raw truth that you'd rather write a lie instead.

Writer, author, and professor, Kiese Laymon, wrote about the weight: The weight of racism, the weight of obesity, and the weight of sex, gambling, and familial love. And addressed the whole thing to his mother.

But what would you do if publishing your book would mean naming all the secrets you’d spent a lifetime avoiding? Would you put your life on blast and let the whole world in? Or would you take the easier, softer way and write a lie that you could live with?

More From Kiese Laymon:

Visit his website: https://www.kieselaymon.com

Buy his book Heavy or check out some of his other books

Finding Kiese Laymon:

Instagram & Twitter: @kieselaymon

Be sure not to miss Scott Talks on Wednesdays, our Sunday release called SUNDAY EDITION & our brand new series On My Nightstand releasing on Fridays by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Join our Only One In The Room Facebook Group if you'd like to ask a question of any of our upcoming guests for this series. 

Also visit the website www.theonlyonepod.com for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like featured articles and more.

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All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

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How many people can say that they grew up on studio lots and learned one of Hollywood’s best-kept secrets from their mother? We’re truly excited to bring this conversation with Hollywood/literary legend, Jill Schary Robinson.

Jill Schary Robinson was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of two artists. Her father was Oscar and Tony winner Dore Schary, head of MGM during the ‘40s and ‘50s, the only writer to ever run a film studio. Her mother, the painter M. Svet, studied at the Art Students League in New York. During the ‘60s, she wrote on revolutionary women’s issues for Cosmopolitan and covered political trials for the Soho Weekly News. Her first memoir, With a Cast of Thousands, was a runaway hit. During the late fifties and sixties, she also interviewed political and film personalities on KPFK and had a talk show on KLAC. Jill was given a lifetime grant in 2005 to develop the non-profit Wimpole Street Writers program, which continues in London and Los Angeles, where she has run workshops for the Veteran’s Administration, working with Veteran’s with PTSD, encouraging them to release the stories they fear to tell. She also hosts workshops twice a week for all writers including playwrights and screenwriters. The only rule, “No pages, no dinner.” 

www.jillscharyrobinson.com 

www.wimpolestreetwriters.com 

Twitter: @JillSRobinson 

Instagram: @jillschary

Facebook: @jillscharyrobinson  

Be sure not to miss our weekly full episodes on Tuesdays, Scott Talks on Wednesdays and our brand new series On My Nightstand on Fridays by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Join our Only One In The Room Facebook Group if you'd like to ask a question of any of our upcoming guests for this series. 

Also visit the website www.theonlyonepod.com for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like featured articles and more.

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All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

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Today’s On My Night Stand-read, Enter-Racial, was written by Laura Cathcart Robbins. It is the story of when she flew to Richmond, Virginia to meet her boyfriend Scott’s father for the first time, while he lay dying in the ICU. You’ll hear her talk about the fear of being a Black woman walking into the seat of the confederacy and meeting a man on his deathbed, who up until that moment, had no idea that she was Black.

Laura Cathcart Robbins is an author, freelance culture writer, and host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room, living in Studio City, California. She has been active for many years as a speaker and school trustee and is credited for creating The Buckley School’s nationally recognized committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her recent articles in Huffpo and The Temper on the subjects of race, recovery, and divorce have garnered her worldwide acclaim. She is a 2018 LA Moth StorySlam winner and currently sits on the advisory board for the San Diego Writer’s Festival and the Outliers HQ podcast Festival. Laura is also a founding member of Moving Forewords, the first national memoirist collective of its kind. Find out more about her on her website, or you can look for her on Facebook, on Instagram, and follow her on Twitter.

Be sure not to miss our weekly full episodes on Tuesdays, Scott Talks on Wednesdays & SUNDAY EDITION every Sunday by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

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Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Rebecca Metz right after the show.

Don't miss our new On My Nightstand series releasing every Friday.

Be sure to join our Facebook Group for the most up-to-date info on guests, episodes and more.

You can also DM us on Instagram @theonlyoneintheroom or email us via the website at www.theonlyonepod.com

Also visit the website for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like live events, appearances, featured articles and more.

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

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What if, while growing up, you found that you preferred sneakers to heels and jeans to dresses? And because you didn’t really fit in with your peers, you thought maybe if things were different, if you were different, life might be easier.

Actress, Rebecca Metz, chimed in once on set and joined the chorus of women talking about going on a diet.

But what would you do if your co-worker wondered aloud why you would want to alter yourself for a part, when you were already working? Would you dismiss her comment as flattery and start counting calories? Or would you realize that being comfortable in your own skin is actually your greatest asset?  

More from Rebecca Metz:

Website: http://rebeccametz.com

Finding Rebecca Metz:

Twitter & Instagram: @therebeccametz

Be sure not to miss Scott Talks on Wednesdays, our Sunday release called SUNDAY EDITION & our brand new series On My Nightstand releasing on Fridays by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Join our Only One In The Room Facebook Group if you'd like to ask a question of any of our upcoming guests for this series. 

Also visit the website www.theonlyonepod.com for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like featured articles and more.

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

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In December of 2010, the House and Senate voted in favor of repealing and over-turning the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell." President Obama then signed it into law in December of 2010 and then the following year, the nation decided that homosexuals would no longer fear discharge from the military by admitting to their sexual preference. Over 13,000 servicemen and women were discharged for being gay while the don't ask, don't tell policy was in effect.

Today, we have Vaughn Rush, a male entertainer and Iraq War veteran who lives in San Diego California. Originally from Jamaica, Queens, New York, Vaughn grew up studying theater and dance. He served 7 years in the military as a Behavioral Health Specialist and Combat medic, deploying to Iraq in 2010 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

Facebook: seanvaughncarter 

Instagram: @deadliftdance

Be sure not to miss our weekly full episodes on Tuesdays, Scott Talks on Wednesdays & brand new series On My Nightstand on Fridays by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Join our Only One In The Room Facebook Group if you'd like to ask a question of any of our upcoming guests for this series. 

Also visit the website www.theonlyonepod.com for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like featured articles and more.

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

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I was one of those bookish kids who grew up to be a bookish adult.  I love to read almost as much as I love to write - and writing is like oxygen for me - it’s that essential.  But reading fills me up and makes me whole in a way that little else does. So as a result, I always have a pile of articles, blog posts, dog-eared chapters, memoirs and essays, stacked on my nightstand.

Every one of them is precious to me, to be cherished, read over and over, highlighted, and stickie noted.  I’m so excited that I’m going to get to share a reading with you every Friday, on our new segment of the Only One In The Room called On my Nightstand. Some of the readings will be mine, others will be from some of my favorite writers and authors, with their permission, of course.  And I hope you continue to listen every Tuesday and Sunday when we drop a new, incredible Only One story from one of our amazing guests.

Make sure you're subscribed to the show so that you don't miss the first episode of On My Nightstand on Friday February, 12th, 2021.

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Scott Slaughter co-host and producer of The Only One In The Room has a short and casual, yet deep conversation with our guest Cara Jones right after the show.

Don't miss our Now Normal series releasing every Thursday.

Be sure to join our Facebook Group for the most up-to-date info on guests, episodes and more.

You can also DM us on Instagram @theonlyoneintheroom or email us via the website at www.theonlyonepod.com

Also visit the website for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like live events, appearances, featured articles and more.

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

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Imagine being born into a cult, and being told that you were a rarity, a Blessed Child, born without original sin.

Cara Jones, story coach, writer, former Emmy Award-Winning journalist, and documentary filmmaker was raised in the Unification Church, and at nineteen years old, got married in a stadium along with 10,000 other couples to a man chosen for her by its leader, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

But what would you do if after leaving the church, you wanted to reexamine what it was like to grow up in the “moonies?” Would you spend seven years making a documentary about your life and your family? Or would you keep quiet and leave the past in the past?

More From Cara Jones:

Visit the website: http://cara-jones.com

Finding Cara Jones:

Instagram: @thisiscarajones

Be sure not to miss our weekly full episodes on Tuesdays and Scott Talks now released on Wednesdays by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Join our Only One In The Room Facebook Group if you'd like to ask a question of any of our upcoming guests for this series. 

Also visit the website www.theonlyonepod.com for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like featured articles and more.

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

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When I was a kid, everyone in our neighborhood knew about sickle cell disease. That is...we all knew that it made Black kids sick, sick enough to go to the hospital sometimes. We knew that it was painful and that the bouts came on suddenly, and caused kids to miss school, families to miss work. The parents of kids with Sickle Cell Disease made a big deal out of every single sneeze and canceled long-awaited sleepovers during flu season, out of what felt like an overabundance of caution. Looking back, I realize that we who didn’t deal with it first hand didn’t really know that much about it. In fact, until long after I was an adult, and Prodigy from the hip-hop duo, Mobb Deep died in 2017, I don’t think I really comprehended Sickle Cell’s fatality. 

In this very special episode of The Only One In The Room, we talk to Nahomie Acelin and Ronald Felix. Parents who have chosen to grapple with their family’s sickle cell disease in a very special way -- by making their three young sons the stars of a superhero comic book series.  

The book is available on Amazon in English: https://www.amazon.ca/BATTLE-OTTOGATZ-SUPER-FELIX-BROTHERS/dp/1777248612

And also in French: https://www.amazon.ca/Bataille-dOttogatz-Super-Brothers-French-ebook/dp/B08CKJSHVD

 Social medias :

 Ronald Facebook : facebook.com/ronald.felix.18

Nahomie Facebook : facebook.com/nahomie.acelin

Nahomie Instagram: instagram.com/nahomieacelin

Be sure not to miss our weekly full episodes on Tuesdays and Scott Talks now released on Wednesdays by subscribing to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Join our Only One In The Room Facebook Group if you'd like to ask a question of any of our upcoming guests for this series. 

Also visit the website www.theonlyonepod.com for the latest from our host Laura Cathcart Robbins like featured articles and more.

We love hearing from you in the comments on iTunes and while you're there don't forget to rate us, subscribe and share the show!

All of us at The Only One In The Room wish you safety and wellness during this challenging time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices