I'd Rather Be Reading

For our season eight finale, I had the honor of speaking to the editor-in-chief of Guideposts, a faith-based magazine I grew up reading, as my grandparents were subscribers. If you’ve listened to past episodes, you know that Alzheimer’s disease has profoundly affected my family, my grandparents, in particular—and that is the topic of conversation today, as I speak with Edward Grinnan about his mother’s battle with the disease and his fear of one day falling victim to it, too. This beautiful conversation has ugly facts embedded into it, like that, in the absence of a cure, Alzheimer’s will have a $355 billion economic impact by 2050. I was not given a brain for science to help cure this—but I am able to do my part to spread awareness of it. I am proud to use any platform I have to advocate for a cure for this terrible disease—and I want to dedicate this season eight finale (and all of my work) to my grandparents, who I miss every day of my life.   A Journey of Faith: A Mother’s Alzheimer’s, a Son’s Love, and His Search for Answers by Edward Grinnan

Samantha Harris—a broadcaster who you know from co-hosting Dancing with the Stars alongside Tom Bergeron for seven seasons and hosting shows like E! News, Entertainment Tonight, and so many more—is the picture of health, and even wrote the book on it back in 2018. She’s also a breast cancer survivor and learned firsthand that, at the end of the day, if your health is compromised, not much else matters. Today we have a wide ranging conversation about diet, exercise, and getting to our healthiest healthy—and don’t forget to reach out to her via Instagram or Facebook for her clean beauty products PDF, which she has graciously offered to all of you listeners. Just DM her @samanthaharristv for this great resource.   Your Healthiest Healthy: 8 Easy Steps to Take Control, Help Prevent and Fight Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life by Samantha Harris

Who knew that a text about blueberries could nearly end a marriage? Eve Rodsky received a text from her husband, Seth, asking why she didn’t pick up blueberries at the store—and it sparked a movement that has saved countless marriages and made women’s time and the value of it a topic in the forefront of conversation. A Harvard-educated lawyer, Eve is the author of two of my favorite books: Fair Play: A Game Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) and Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too Busy World. Both books, at their core, are about time: in Fair Play, how to create a more equitable division of labor within a household, and in Find Your Unicorn Space, how to create—period. Creativity, as Eve argues, is not optional—it is essential, and makes us more interested and interesting. This is an interview I’ve wanted to have for years and am so thankful to have made it happen, hence its release on Thanksgiving. Both books are essential to modern womanhood (and personhood, really), and are groundbreaking in their respective approaches. Two must reads, and a must listen.   Fair Play: A Game Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life In a Too Busy World by Eve Rodsky

This conversation lit a fire in me, and I knew I’d Rather Be Reading was nowhere near finished. Mitch is the author of my favorite work of fiction of all time, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and his latest, The Little Liar, is just as powerful. It takes us back to the Holocaust, a beautiful tale during an awful time told masterfully by the well-researched and thoughtful Mitch Albom. This show is about nonfiction books, so you know if we have a fiction pick on the show, it’s special. That’s what this book is, in a nutshell—special, and worthy of a spot on your bookshelf.   The Little Liar by Mitch Albom

The Murdaugh saga (there is no better word I can find for it than that) gripped the nation earlier this year, as patriarch Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two life sentences for the brutal murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul. As horrific as that crime alone is, that’s nowhere near where the Murdaugh saga begins or ends. In 2019, a boat driven by Paul crashed and killed friend Mallory Beach; an upcoming hearing about the Murdaugh finances is what I believe killed Paul and Maggie just three days prior. There’s also the 2015 murder of Stephen Smith on a rural road in Hampton County, South Carolina, and the 2018 alleged “accidental” death of the Murdaugh housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. Three months after Paul and Maggie were murdered in June 2021, Alex was shot in the head in a failed assisted suicide that September. He was eventually arrested for Paul and Maggie’s murders and convicted on March 2, 2023. Alex is also believed to have embezzled up to $20 million, mostly from his clients he was paid to help, all in support of a rampant opioid addiction. Today on the show we have the reporter who covered the Murdaughs from the 2019 boat crash forward, Mandy Matney. In addition to covering the case, she also hosts the extremely popular Murdaugh Murders podcast, and if you know anything about the Murdaugh saga, you’ve likely heard of her or her podcast. Her new book about the Murdaugh trial comes out November 14, and it’s a must read if you’re even 1 percent interested in this wild “truth is stranger than fiction” saga. Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty by Mandy Matney

It’s very rare I know my guests on the show personally, but for today’s episode, I do. I have been proud to know Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd since our days as students at the University of Kansas, where we all graduated from journalism school in the same class—the class of 2009. (As the senior class president of the class of 2009 back in my glory days, to that I say a heartfelt Rock Chalk.) Mark and Rustin have gone on to have extremely successful careers, both in sportswriting; Mark is now working in the business and tech sector. (You’ll hear all about what they’ve done with the past 14 years on the show.) These longtime friends just wrote a book together, Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback, which zooms in on the quarterback of a generation, Patrick Mahomes, and how the Kansas City Chiefs have gone from struggling to winning their first Super Bowl in 50 years in 2020, made another Super Bowl appearance in 2021, and won this year’s Super Bowl, as well. (And more to come.) In addition to being about Mahomes and the Chiefs, the book is just as much about Kansas City—a love letter of sorts to the place where Mark and Rustin grew up. And if you’re wondering about the Kansas City Chiefs elephant in the room—Taylor Swift—yes, we do talk about her, and her connection to the so-called “greater Kansas City area” goes even deeper than you think. Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback by Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd

It's January 15, 1978. Kathy Kleiner is a student at Florida State University and is asleep in her room at the Chi Omega sorority house. Unbeknownst to her, a serial killer named Ted Bundy has discovered the sorority house’s back door is accessible—the lock is broken. That night, he broke into the house, murdered two of her sorority sisters, savagely injured Kathy and her roommate, and changed so many lives forever. Today, Kathy gets to tell her story. It is harrowing and terrifying, and please be forewarned that this conversation contains graphic descriptions of violence that is very difficult to listen to. Bundy was ultimately convicted of murder in Florida and executed by electrocution on January 24, 1989; his total victim count is unknown, but it numbers over 30 women across seven states from 1974 to 1978. Kathy is the first confirmed survivor of his to write a book, and it is a beautiful one, though the subject matter is ugly. As Kathy put it, she didn’t just want to survive—she wanted to live. And that she has. This book is her offering to honor Bundy’s victims who never got the chance to tell their story. One of the most, if not the most, powerful conversations I’ve ever had.   A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy by Kathy Kleiner Rubin

From beauty in our last throwback pick episode to fashion in this one, I have another of my heroes, Robin Givhan, on the program today. Robin is a fashion critic at The Washington Post and is a Pulitzer Prize winner, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2006—the first time that award was given to a fashion writer. Just as she herself has made history, her 2015 book The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History talks about a night that was so culturally impactful it forever changed the history of fashion, specifically American fashion. The Battle of Versailles took place 50 years ago this month, and saw five French designers (Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, Marc Bohan, and Hubert de Givenchy) pitted against five American designers (Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, Halston, Bill Blass, and Anne Klein) in a competition concocted to raise money for the restoration of the Palace of Versailles. The deck was more than stacked against the American fashion designers—it was all but assured that victory would go to the French. But then, lo and behold, the Americans stole the show, and not just the American fashion industry but the global fashion industry changed forever. It is a fantastic conversation about a game-changing moment in history with one of the most respected journalists in the fashion stratosphere. I can’t wait for you to listen.   The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled Into the Spotlight and Made History by Robin Givhan

Today’s episode is truly a dream come true—I get to chat with one of my heroes in the magazine industry, Jean Godfrey-June, current beauty editor at Goop, former beauty editor at Lucky, a writer for Elle and Vanity Fair, and the author of today’s throwback pick, 2006’s Free Gift with Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup—her memoir. I am happy to tell you that, even though she’s interviewed everyone and seen everything, she is so down to earth and relatable—the ultimate cool girl. A legend in the beauty space and in the magazine industry (and she is currently cringing as she reads this), Jean takes us inside the golden era of magazines, what its like to be inside the beauty closet at one of the world’s biggest fashion magazines, and we pay very much due homage to the dearly departed Lucky magazine. This is a conversation not to be missed, my friends. Free Gift with Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup by Jean Godfrey-June

When we think of famous pairs, we’ve got Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Thelma and Louise, Bonnie and Clyde, and, per the topic of today’s discussion, Siskel and Ebert. These two film critics were fierce rivals working for competing newspapers in Chicago and never envisioned working together—when I say they were bitter rivals, put some emphasis on the bitter—but ended up uniting to form a partnership that changed the way we see movies forever. Here to talk about it all is Matt Singer, whose new book explores the team of Siskel and Ebert, how they changed the game, and what their legacy is, 25 years after Gene Siskel unexpectedly passed away in early 1999.   Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer