Jan 14, 2021

Janet Nordine knows the deep seated sense of abandonment felt by kids who were abandoned by their parents. She knows because she was one. Now she uses years of training as a therapist to get down on the floor and play with those foster and adopted kids. She connects with them in a way that’s really spiritual. Janet...

Jan 7, 2021

Marina Zenovich films documentaries in a way that celebrates the full complexity and nuance and humanity of superstars we thought we knew. Lance Armstrong, Roman Polanski, Robin Williams.

Stuart drives to Santa Monica to meet the two-time Emmy winner. She starts by pointing to a scar on her neck. Just listen.

Dec 31, 2020

Kenya Templeton performs! We sat masked in Adirondack chairs on her front walkway and she’d occasionally break into song. She talked about meeting her idol Al Jarreau and bursting into tears. Then I asked her what song she would sing for her own funeral and the hairs on my arms stood up. Wow. What a moment.

Dec 24, 2020

Jade Kurian is a rich woman. I don’t mean she’s sitting on a golden throne draped in jewels - although I can completely see her dressed as a rich goddess! Ha! That makes me kinda laugh. Jade began life anything but rich, living in a house by a river in southern India that had no indoor toilet and teamed with...

Dec 17, 2020

Ethel Smith, scholar and professor of literature, schools Stuart on what it was like to go to school without textbooks, teach kids great literature with the N-word, and why she thinks her son’s students are way too pampered. This podcast drops the week the New York Times treats her son’s school pretty harshly.