My guest today is Mitch Albom - American author, journalist, and musician - whose books have sold 40 million copies worldwide. Having achieved national success as a sports writer in his early career, in 1997 he published Tuesdays With Morrie, an account of the weekly reunions with his old college professor Morrie Schwartz.

Morrie was dying when Mitch made contact with him and the book is a poignant recollection of the wisdoms passed down from teacher to former pupil. It went on to spend four years on the NYT bestseller list, became the bestselling memoir of all time and was made into an Emmy Award winning film, produced by Oprah Winfrey.

Mitch went on to write nine more bestsellers including his latest, The Stranger in the Lifeboat. He’s known for the inspirational stories and themes that weave through his work. and says: ‘I like to say that I don’t write about death, I write about life. Death just gets your attention’.

Here, we talk about:

-       The lessons he learned from Morrie

-       How a loss is an opportunity to wake up (and show up)

-       Why we should all slow down

-       ‘Losing your cynicism’

-       Howling at the moon and hard feelings

-       How death ends a life not a relationship

-       Giving back and acts of service

Follow Mitch on Instagram and Twitter @MitchAlbom and The Stranger in the Lifeboat is out now.

Follow Helen @MsHelenRussell and the paperback of How To Be Sad is out TOMORROW - January 20th - and you can pre order/pick up a copy wherever you like to get your books.

Thanks as ever to Joel Grove for production and Matt Clacher at HarperCollins – and if you like the podcast, please do rate, review and subscribe so you get a lovely ping from us each week when a new episode is released.