A woman becomes a best-selling novelist by writing more than 100 books about her first romance. Find out more about Brenda Jackson’s books here. This episode contains adult material. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ..read more

Grace Young remembers her parents were obsessed with food growing up — they went shopping every day for groceries and every night they cooked traditional Cantonese dishes for dinner. She started to learn to cook when she was young, but not from her parents. She learned from Julia Child. “She was a little jolly. She was always in a good mood. I was fascinated by what she was cooking. None of it was familiar to me. I didn’t know what a soufflé was or brioche or croissants, but she was just so appealing to me.” Today, Grace is known as the Stir Fry Guru, and she’s written three cookbooks about Ch ..read more

Meredith Goldstein started giving her mother dating advice when she was a teenager, and today she offers people advice as the author of the Love Letters column for The Boston Globe. She says: “My favorite letters are breakup letters because it doesn't matter who you are – if you have been dumped, it is awful." Meredith Goldstein’s podcast is Love Letters.  Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Ep ..read more

Michael Packard makes a living fishing off the coast of Cape Cod. He catches mostly tuna and mackerel. He drags for clams. And for three months every summer, he dives for lobsters. "It's an extremely dangerous profession. I think about it a lot, but I try not to. I can't dwell on it,” he told us. “You know, this is what I love. It's a different world down there. It’s a whole different world." Last summer, he had an astonishing encounter with a whale. Two weeks later he was back in the water.  Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: ht ..read more

When Margaret Dugan was 17, she ate lunch most days at a place called Little Venice where a young Domenico DeMarco would sing while he made pizza. “He would always be singing. And he had a beautiful voice,” she told us. Eventually, he asked her out on a date. At their wedding in 1965, she had no idea she was marrying the man who’d later be called “The Godfather of Pizza.” Today, a look at the man and the marriage behind the famous Di Fara Pizza.  Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal an ..read more

As a teenager, Kendra James had a crush on the actor Orlando Bloom. She decorated her room with pictures of him, she wrote stories imagining a romance with him, and she joined a message board dedicated entirely to him.  One day, someone on the message board had an idea to make contact with Orlando Bloom himself.  Kendra James’s book is Admissions: A Memoir Of Surviving Boarding School. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander ..read more

Evan Woodard explores the city of Baltimore from underneath. He searches for things buried underground—things that some people might consider trash. We decided to go to Baltimore and join him on a dig. Take our survey: vox.com/podsurvey Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ..read more

Nnenna and Phil met on a friend’s front porch in Carrboro, North Carolina in 1978. “It felt like I was meeting someone that I had known, but forgot that I knew,” she says. “It just was magic.”  You can listen to Nnenna’s podcast, Great Grief, here. We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you! Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by ..read more

A few months ago, Frank Dumas won his 4th grade class spelling bee. And then he just kept winning. We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you! Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices ..read more

Many years ago, Cathy Raven decided to build herself a small house on a large piece of land in rural Montana. She’s said, “I saw myself alone in the furthest future that I could imagine.” Then a red fox began to arrive, at the same time every day.  Cathy Raven’s book is The Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship. We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you! Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 ..read more