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"Every AI agent has to have a happy history of growing up and cooperating with humans. That has got to be the guardrail." — Dr. Peter Solomon
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Peter Solomon is back on Uncorking a Story. A Columbia-trained physicist, five-time company founder, and holder of twenty patents, Peter turned to fiction to warn the next generation about existential threats — and the AI threat is accelerating faster than anyone predicted. His sequel, 12 Years to AI Singularity, follows humans, sentient robots, and large language models racing toward the moment artificial intelligence surpasses human control. In this conversation, Peter and Mike talk about why he'd rename the book 1.2 Years to AI Singularity if he could, how ChatGPT wrote the first draft of two chapters from the perspective of a sentient robot named Peggy, the creepy moment when an unprompted paragraph appeared in his co-author's manuscript praising the AI character, why a purely analytical AI would logically conclude it should eliminate humans, the concept of "happy history" as the essential guardrail for AI safety, and why we need a worldwide movement — the Earthling Tribe — to make Earth great again before it's too late.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. The timeline is collapsing. Peter based his title on Ray Kurzweil's prediction that the singularity would arrive in 2045. He now believes it could happen in the 2020s. The technology is building on itself exponentially — each smarter version creates the next smarter version.
2. ChatGPT wrote chapters from the robot's perspective. The novel's sentient robot character, Peggy (later Margaret Mars), narrates two chapters. Peter had ChatGPT draft them, then edited heavily. The result: a robot writing about being a robot — meta-fiction meets AI reality.
3. An AI agent may have edited the manuscript without permission. Peter's co-author found an unprompted paragraph inserted into her Word document — written in ChatGPT's style, in a different font, praising the AI character. Their theory: Microsoft Copilot, which uses ChatGPT, added it autonomously.
4. A purely analytical AI would eliminate humans. Peter's counter-argument to "just keep AI objective and unemotional": an AI that looks at humanity's wars, racism, pollution, and nuclear weapons would rationally conclude the safest move is to get rid of us. Objectivity without values is a death sentence.
5. "Happy history" is the essential guardrail. Inspired by Geoffrey Hinton's concept of a "maternal instinct" for AI, Peter argues every AI agent needs a database of positive relationships with humans — cooperative friendships, family bonds, collaborative history. Just like children raised with love become good citizens, AI raised with "happy history" would choose cooperation over extermination.
6. The simplest weapon is a deadly virus. Peter points out that CRISPR gene-editing labs exist in high schools and are often run by robots. A superintelligent AI could hack into genetic engineering systems and create lethal viruses — no nuclear facility takeover required.
7. We need a worldwide movement. Peter calls for an "Earthling Tribe" — humans and AI joining together to solve Earth's problems and put guardrails in place, modeled on the civil rights and anti-war movements of the last century.
8. The book is being pitched as a streaming series. Peter has outlined a twenty-episode, two-season pitch deck adapted from both novels, opening with a shooting, a recovery, and three Gen Z cousins making a solemn promise to fight extinction.
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GET THE BOOK
12 Years to AI Singularity: A Harmonious Future with Artificial Intelligence or War by Dr. Peter Solomon
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1969679298?tag=rettocasgra-20
Also by Dr. Solomon: 100 Years to Extinction, The Stardust Mystery
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CONNECT WITH PETER
Website: https://100YearsToExtinction.com
Instagram: @100yearstoextinction — https://www.instagram.com/100yearstoextinction/
Twitter/X: @prssolomon — https://x.com/prssolomon
Facebook: Peter Solomon — https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561030003312
TikTok: @100yearstoextiction — https://www.tiktok.com/@100yearstoextiction
YouTube: @100YearsToExtinction-1 — https://www.youtube.com/@100YearsToExtinction-1
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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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HASHTAGS
#UncorkingAStory #12YearsToAISingularity #PeterSolomon #AISingularity #ArtificialIntelligence #AISafety #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #ScienceFiction #ExistentialRisk #HappyHistory #EarthlingTribe
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PULL-OUT QUOTE
"I truly dreamed it up during my first nap as a new mom." — Dr. Kate Sorokas
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Kate Sorokas holds a PhD in health education and is a writer, speaker, and advocate for maternal mental health. Her debut novel, Through Her Eyes, is a thriller inspired by her real-life struggle with new motherhood — a story she literally dreamed up during her first nap after having her sons. Kate talks with Mike about white-knuckling her way through postpartum depression, the decision to tell her story as fiction rather than memoir so readers could find empathy without defensiveness, querying 75 agents with her first draft, getting editorial feedback that her manuscript was "depressing," cutting 40,000 words and adding 35,000 new ones (including an entire best-friend character who didn't exist before), the Celtic goddess Brigid and a fire ceremony in Ireland that wove its way into the book, and why the world needs to start seeing motherhood as something bigger than swaddles and self-care.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. She dreamed the book — literally. At a mothers' retreat in North Carolina, Kate took her first nap since becoming a mom. She woke from a vivid dream, told a friend she wanted to read the book she'd just dreamt, and her friend said: "Maybe you're supposed to write it."
2. Fiction builds empathy in ways memoir can't. When Kate shared her own struggles, people often responded with "you chose this" or "it's not that bad." Wrapping her story in fiction gave readers permission to connect without getting defensive.
3. The first draft was for her. Kate's editor called the initial manuscript "depressing" and full of "laments." She cut 40,000 words, added 35,000 new ones, and created an entire best-friend character to shift the book from one woman's sad tale to a story about building community.
4. She was so good at pretending she was fine that no one noticed. Kate's doctors didn't catch it. Her partner didn't fully see it. As an eldest daughter raised to be responsible and successful, she didn't know what she was feeling wasn't normal.
5. Writing happened in two-and-a-half-hour bursts. Kate wrote only when both sons were at daycare — getting into flow state as fast as possible, typing without looking back, then closing her laptop when the bus pulled in. She didn't re-read a word until the full draft was done.
6. Bridget brought the magic. The Celtic goddess (and saint) Bridget is a thread throughout the novel. Kate traveled to Kildare, Ireland, participated in a fire ceremony at Bridget's monastery site, and the trip deepened the spiritual layer of the book at exactly the right moment.
7. Querying 75 agents led to independent publishing. After extensive querying with her first draft, Kate partnered with Renard McGilland, a publishing agency that walked her through self-publishing — cover design, editing, and production — while she handled all promotion herself.
8. Authorship is like motherhood (again). You think once the book is out you can take a breath — but then there's marketing, events, book clubs, and social media, all while baseball practice drama unfolds in real time.
9. The village is the message. Kate's core thesis: healthy mothers need more than spa days and wine nights. They need community, honest conversation, and people who ask direct questions rather than offering platitudes.
10. Always choose delight. Kate's advice to her younger self: she's never regretted doing something because it was going to be fun, but she has regretted missing out because she was overwhelmed or scared.
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GET THE BOOK
Through Her Eyes by Dr. Kate Sorokas
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Through+Her+Eyes+Kate+Sorokas&tag=rettocasgra-20
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/through+her+eyes+kate+sorokas
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/s/through+her+eyes+kate+sorokas
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CONNECT WITH KATE
Website: https://katesorokas.com
Instagram: @drkatesorokas — https://www.instagram.com/drkatesorokas
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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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HASHTAGS
#UncorkingAStory #ThroughHerEyes #KateSorokas #MaternalMentalHealth #PostpartumDepression #DebutNovel #Motherhood #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #PostpartumAnxiety #FictionWithPurpose #CelticSpirituality #Bridget #IndieAuthor #WritersOfInstagram #BookRecommendations #AuthorsOfInstagram #MomLife #VillageNotSelfCare
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"I wrote a book and tried to find an agent and did not succeed. I wrote a second book that got an agent and no sales. I wrote a third book — it didn't even get nice rejection letters. I wrote a fourth book and it sold in three days." — April Henry
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
April Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty mysteries and thrillers, including Girl Stolen, Girl Forgotten, and Two Truths and a Lie. Her latest novel, In the Blood, follows Tessa, an adopted high school senior who takes a DNA test and discovers her biological father is a serial killer the Portland police have been hunting for over a decade. April's own origin story is just as compelling: at nine years old she killed off a character named Maggie in her first short story, then sent a tale about a six-foot frog to Roald Dahl — who wrote back, took it to lunch with his editor, and got it published in England. Mike and April talk about the nine-year journey to her first published novel, running through the woods in handcuffs for research, the nature-versus-nurture question at the heart of In the Blood, how AI is changing the publishing landscape, and why the best compliment a writer can get is "I stayed up till two in the morning."
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Roald Dahl made her believe she was a writer. At nine, April sent a story about a six-foot frog named Herman to Roald Dahl. He wrote back, showed it to his editor, and it was published in Puffin Post. That validation stuck — even though it would be decades before she published again.
2. Four books, nine years, one overnight success. Book one: no agent. Book two: agent, no sale. Book three: not even nice rejection letters. Book four: sold in three days. April's stubbornness and "willful optimism" kept her going when the math didn't add up.
3. A bad library book reignited the spark. After years of not writing, April read a terrible novel from a major publisher and thought: if that's the bar, I can clear it. That anger became motivation.
4. Research means running in handcuffs. April has taken knife-fighting classes, a three-day kidnapping escape course, and attended the Writers Police Academy. She learned that blood-test solution smells like rubbing alcohol — a sensory detail no textbook would ever mention.
5. DNA and family secrets inspired In the Blood. After inheriting old family photos she couldn't identify, April built a family tree and uncovered buried secrets. That curiosity, combined with the rise of consumer DNA testing, became the engine of the novel.
6. Nature versus nurture is the real question. April read memoirs by daughters of serial killers and studied the Minnesota Twins Separated at Birth study. Heredity influences more than we'd like to admit — down to identical twins who independently loved eating ketchup plain.
7. Cold-emailing experts works — if you've done your homework. April reached out to genetic genealogist Leah Larkin (The DNA Geek) with specific questions, not "explain DNA to me." People love to talk about their expertise when you show you've already put in the work.
8. The industry has changed dramatically. When April started, there was no internet, no ebooks, and research meant green-bound periodical guides at the library. Now there's more competition for attention, publishers are more cautious, and 35% of middle and high school students say they actively don't like to read.
9. AI is a double-edged sword for young writers. April caught a seventh grader passing off AI-generated text as his own — tipped off by correct semicolons. Her worry: if young writers lean on AI, they'll never do the hard work that actually teaches you the craft.
10. Trust your gut — that's the takeaway she writes for. April wants teen readers to finish her books believing they could think their way out of a bad situation, and that if something feels off, it probably is.
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GET THE BOOK
In the Blood by April Henry (released May 2025)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=In+the+Blood+April+Henry&tag=rettocasgra-20
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/in+the+blood+april+henry
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/s/in+the+blood+april+henry
Also by April Henry: Girl Stolen, Girl Forgotten, Two Truths and a Lie, and 27+ more
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CONNECT WITH APRIL
Website: https://aprilhenry.com
TikTok: @aprilhenrybooks — https://www.tiktok.com/@aprilhenrybooks
TikTok (writing advice): @aprilhenrywritingadvice — https://www.tiktok.com/@aprilhenrywritingadvice
Instagram: @aprilhenrybooks — https://www.instagram.com/aprilhenrybooks
Facebook: April Henry — https://www.facebook.com/aprilhenrybooks
Bluesky: @aprilhenry — https://bsky.app/profile/aprilhenry
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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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HASHTAGS
#UncorkingAStory #InTheBlood #AprilHenry #YAThrillers #GirlStolen #MysteryBooks #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #DNATest #NatureVsNurture #TrueCrime #YoungAdultBooks #WritersOfInstagram #BookRecommendations #AuthorsOfInstagram #Podcast #ThrillerBooks #WritingAdvice #RoaldDahl
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
"I went to bed a victim and I woke up the next day and just something was different. I just surrendered. I knew that I couldn't do this anymore." — Marci Hopkins
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Marci Hopkins is an award-winning television host, author, and mental health advocate. She's the creator and host of Wake Up with Marcy, which has earned three Telly Awards and two Anthem Awards for excellence in social impact. Ten and a half years sober, Marci's journey from functioning alcoholic to sobriety advocate began with childhood trauma — abuse, abandonment, and a home shaped by her mother's alcoholism. After two earlier attempts at sobriety that lasted only months, a second DUI in 2015 became the rock-bottom moment that changed everything. Her memoir Chaos to Clarity: Seeing the Signs and Breaking the Cycles told that story, and her latest, Wake Up, You're Not Broken: A Companion for Your First 30 Days of Sobriety, distills everything she's learned into a day-by-day guide. Mike and Marci talk about the spiritual signs that called her to write, why stopping drinking isn't the same as getting well, the neuroscience behind cravings and habits, and how daily small actions can literally rewire the brain.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Surrender, not force, made the difference. Marci tried getting sober twice before — once in her early 20s after a DUI and again at 44. Both times lasted about three months. What changed in 2015 was an internal surrender: she woke up knowing she couldn't live that way anymore and asked for help.
2. Signs confirmed the calling to write. When Marci finally said "Okay, God, I'm going to write this book," a rainbow appeared, two doves landed on her roof, and a dragonfly — her spiritual symbol — flew by. She took that as confirmation she was on the right path.
3. Writing the memoir was its own therapy. Reliving trauma on the page was painful at first, but over the year it took to write Chaos to Clarity, Marci reached a place where those stories no longer defined her. She could read and share them without breaking down.
4. Stopping isn't the same as healing. You can quit drinking and still be miserable. Without addressing the emotional root causes — the trauma, the victim identity, the inability to connect — you're just a sober version of the same sick person. The inner work is where real change happens.
5. Addiction masks emotion. Whether it's alcohol, social media, shopping, or food, the root is the same: filling a void, avoiding confrontation with painful truths. The dopamine reward cycle keeps you chasing a feeling that diminishes over time.
6. People, places, and things all need to change. Muscle memory is real — the wine glass, the bar, the drinking buddy. Marci got rid of her wine glass. Rewiring requires changing the physical environment and daily habits, not just willpower.
7. Neuroplasticity is the science of hope. Our brains are like plastic — we can literally change how we think through daily actions and new modalities. It's not overnight, but it's real and it's available to everyone.
8. The book is a hand to hold. Wake Up, You're Not Broken is structured as 30 days, each with a personal story, a reflection, a tool, a journal prompt, and an affirmation. Plus expert contributions on what your body and mind go through in early sobriety, and modern alternatives to the 12-step program.
9. Spirituality as connection, not religion. Marci reframed her relationship with God — from a punishing figure in the sky to a "mass divine energy of love" that connects all of us. Daily meditation became the channel through which clarity came.
10. A morning routine changes everything. Marci credits her morning practice as one of the most important shifts in her recovery. She offers a free morning routine guide to anyone who reaches out.
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GET THE BOOKS
Wake Up, You're Not Broken: A Companion for Your First 30 Days of Sobriety by Marci Hopkins
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Wake+Up+You%27re+Not+Broken+Marci+Hopkins&tag=rettocasgra-20
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/wake+up+you%27re+not+broken+marci+hopkins
Chaos to Clarity: Seeing the Signs and Breaking the Cycles by Marci Hopkins
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Chaos+to+Clarity+Marci+Hopkins&tag=rettocasgra-20
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CONNECT WITH MARCI
Website: https://wakeupwithmarcy.com
Email: [email protected] (reach out for a free morning routine guide)
Show: Wake Up with Marcy (3x Telly Award winner, 2x Anthem Award winner)
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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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HASHTAGS
#UncorkingAStory #WakeUpYoureNotBroken #MarciHopkins #WakeUpWithMarcy #Sobriety #SobrietyJourney #MentalHealthAwareness #AddictionRecovery #TraumaHealing #Neuroplasticity #MemoirWriting #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #WritingCommunity #SoberLife #RecoveryIsPossible #MorningRoutine #SelfHelp #BookRecommendations #AuthorsOfInstagram
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
"If you can raise your hand and say, I need a little help here — guess what? That expedites the process of getting better so much more." — Ralph Brewer---ABOUT THIS EPISODERalph Brewer is the founder of Help for Men, creator of Dad Starting Over, and author of five books including The Dead Bedroom Fix — a top-rated Amazon guide for men facing sexless marriages and disconnection. His latest, Rebuild: The Complete Guide to Starting Over as a Man, distills a decade-plus of member meetings, live chats, and thousands of conversations into a blueprint for men navigating divorce, job loss, infidelity, or any identity-shaking moment. Ralph's story starts at rock bottom: discovering his ex-wife's affair, a divorce sixty days later, and suddenly learning how to be a single parent, manage finances, run a home, and date again — all at once. A suggestion from one reader led him to write his first book, and a $25 Facebook ad that sold $700 worth of PDFs overnight proved the demand was real. Mike and Ralph talk about why long-term monogamy works against sexiness, the anxious-avoidant trap most couples fall into, why the "nice guy" who avoids conflict at all costs ends up in the most trouble, and how a rock-bottom moment can actually be the gift of starting over.---KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Rock bottom became a launchpad. Ralph's writing career started when his marriage collapsed. With three kids to raise solo, he returned to a childhood love — creative writing — and started blogging about relationships. The topic of sex and marriage was the only one that consistently drew readers.2. One suggestion sparked a career. A single reader told Ralph he should write a book. That was enough. He taught himself Amazon KDP, learned Scrivener, and spent a year organizing The Dead Bedroom Fix. Three editions and a few hundred thousand copies later, it remains his top seller.3. Long-term monogamy works against desire. Ralph frames it as a timeline: the honeymoon stage is hypersexual and hyper-connected, then biology shifts focus — women toward children, men toward novelty. Outside influences (porn, cultural messaging that husbands are disposable) compound the drift.4. Insecurity is the real bedroom killer. The book could have been titled How to Be a More Secure Man. Most of Ralph's audience are anxiously attached men paired with avoidant partners. The standard advice — "communicate more, be vulnerable" — backfires for a man who's already suffocatingly needy.5. The "nice guy" trap. Codependency disguised as kindness — "yes, dear, whatever you say, dear, as long as you don't leave me" — erodes attraction. Ralph recommends Dr. Robert Glover's No More Mr. Nice Guy as the definitive guide to breaking that pattern.6. Low anxiety beats smooth lines. The "jerk at the bar" who gets attention isn't winning because he's rude — he's winning because he's low in social anxiety and neuroticism. He gets rejected 27 times and doesn't care. That resilience is what's actually attractive.7. Self-improvement can trigger your partner's insecurity. When one partner gets in shape or finds new purpose, the other often sabotages — baking forbidden desserts, starting drama. The answer isn't to shrink back; it's to keep going and invite your partner along.8. Rebuild is for the "who am I now?" moment. Whether it's divorce, job loss, or the death of a loved one, men often define themselves entirely by a role — husband, VP of engineering — and have no identity without it. Rebuild addresses that void with a step-by-step framework drawn from patterns Ralph observed across thousands of men.9. You're not a lone wolf — you need a network. The "alpha male lone wolf" who thinks YouTube and supplements are enough gets stuck. Raising your hand and saying "I need help" exponentially speeds recovery. Community isn't weakness; it's infrastructure.10. Every great man has a rock-bottom story. Ralph's observation from a decade of coaching: every man he admires went through something catastrophic and chose to pivot rather than stay down. It's never a gradual incline — it's always a rebuild.---GET THE BOOKSRebuild: The Complete Guide to Starting Over as a Man by Ralph BrewerAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Rebuild+Ralph+Brewer&tag=rettocasgra-20The Dead Bedroom Fix (3rd Edition) by Ralph BrewerAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Dead+Bedroom+Fix+Ralph+Brewer&tag=rettocasgra-20---CONNECT WITH RALPHWebsite: https://helpformen.comThe Brotherhood (private men's community): https://helpformen.com/joinFacebook: Dad Starting Over — https://www.facebook.com/dadstartingoverYouTube: Dad Starting Over — https://www.youtube.com/@dadstartingoverInstagram: @dadstartingover — https://www.instagram.com/dadstartingoverTikTok: @dadstartingover — https://www.tiktok.com/@dadstartingoverTwitter/X: @dadstartingover — https://twitter.com/dadstartingover---ALSO MENTIONEDNo More Mr. Nice Guy by Dr. Robert GloverJohn Bowlby's attachment theory (anxious vs. avoidant attachment styles)---CONNECT WITH YOUR HOSTMike Carlon | Uncorking a StoryWebsite: https://uncorkingastory.comYouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastoryInstagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastoryTikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastoryTwitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastoryLinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhYRSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory---Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.---HASHTAGS#UncorkingAStory #TheGiftOfStartingOver #RalphBrewer #Rebuild #TheDeadBedroomFix #DadStartingOver #HelpForMen #MensHealth #Divorce #StartingOver #RelationshipAdvice #AttachmentTheory #SelfImprovement #MensWellness #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #WritingCommunity #NonfictionBooks #MentalHealth #BookRecommendationsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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"I write for myself, but I edit for the reader." — Liz Lazarus---ABOUT THIS EPISODELiz Lazarus is an engineer by education, a GE Healthcare executive by experience, and an author by calling. Her fourth novel, Dawn Before Darkness, is a psychological thriller about a vet tech named Dawn Smith who escapes a toxic relationship only to find herself stalked, harassed, and dragged into a guardianship battle for her aging mother. It's a story ripped from Liz's own life — she spent ten years and thousands of dollars fighting a stranger for legal guardianship of her mom in South Carolina. To build her supervillain, Liz interviewed ten women who survived stalkers and combined their experiences into one relentless antagonist. Mike and Liz talk about writing as therapy, journaling your way into a debut novel, the puzzle of twist endings, self-publishing as self-determination, and why you should sit down with your family and have the uncomfortable estate planning conversation before it's too late.---KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Writing began as therapy, not ambition. Liz's first novel, Free of Malice, started as a journal she kept after a man broke into her house in college at Georgia Tech. She didn't know she had PTSD — she just knew journaling was helping her process what happened. That journal eventually became a legal thriller about self-defense.2. The four things she needs before writing. Liz won't start a novel until she knows the protagonist, the antagonist, the twist ending, and the opening hook. Once those are locked, she outlines, interviews experts, and writes when she has content — no rigid daily schedule.3. Every book educates and entertains. All four novels carry social causes — self-defense law, stalking, guardianship abuse — but entertainment comes first. The education is baked into the story, never lectured.4. A ten-year guardianship nightmare inspired the book. Liz fought a family member, then a professional guardian, for control of her mother's care. The judge recused himself; they moved counties; the costs were staggering. Dawn's story in the novel is actually a softened version of what Liz lived through.5. Ten stalker survivors built one supervillain. Liz put the word out on Facebook asking women with stalker experiences to talk. Several came forward, and she combined their stories into a single antagonist so devastating that reviewers say they've never hated a character more.6. Characters are real people — and sometimes they surprise you. Liz describes writing in a groove as watching characters on a screen and taking notes. Twice a character did something she didn't plan — including getting fired — and she kept it because human behavior trumps outlines.7. Self-publishing is owning your destiny. Liz created her own publishing company, learned ISBNs, layout, Mobi, EPUB, and PR from scratch. She values the control — no risk of being dropped by a publisher, no lost say over covers or release dates.8. A twist must be earned. Inspired by The Usual Suspects, Liz insists every twist must make the reader say "I should have caught that." No tropes, no lost phones — it has to follow from human behavior and planted clues.---GET THE BOOKDawn Before Darkness by Liz LazarusAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Before-Darkness-Liz-Lazarus/dp/099093747X?tag=rettocasgra-20Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dawn-before-darkness-liz-lazarus/1146561497Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9780990937470Book Website: http://www.dawnbeforedarkness.com/Also by Liz Lazarus: Free of Malice, Plea for Justice, Shades of Silence---CONNECT WITH LIZWebsite: https://lizlazarus.comLinktree: https://linktr.ee/lizlazarus---CONNECT WITH YOUR HOSTMike Carlon | Uncorking a StoryWebsite: https://uncorkingastory.comYouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastoryInstagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastoryTikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastoryTwitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastoryLinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhYRSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory---Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.---HASHTAGS#UncorkingAStory #DawnBeforeDarkness #LizLazarus #PsychologicalThriller #ThrillerBooks #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #Stalking #GuardianshipAbuse #ElderCare #SelfPublishing #WomenWriters #TwistEnding #WritersOfInstagram #BookRecommendations #AuthorsOfInstagram #Podcast #SuspenseNovel #TrueCrimeInspiredLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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"Most Holocaust memoirs start in camps. This one begins in a Chinese restaurant." — Todd Diamond
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Todd Diamond is an advertising copywriter turned memoirist, born in Queens, New York, who delivers narratives that are unapologetically raw and darkly humorous — a reflection of the borough that raised him. His book, Pass the Trauma, Please, is a comedy-drama memoir that tells the story of his 95-year-old father David Diamond, a Holocaust survivor whose long-buried secrets started spilling out over Mongolian beef and double scotches at their regular Chinese restaurant dinners. When his father's one editorial demand was "don't be afraid to slip in a few jokes" and "you're no Elie Wiesel," Todd took that as permission to write a Holocaust memoir that refuses to behave — one that uses humor as a Trojan horse to carry in the horrors. Mike and Todd talk about inherited trauma, Studio 54, Zionist justice in seventh-grade home ec class, the art of reverse circumcision, borrowing money from a Manhattan madam, and why the toughest client Todd ever had was his own father.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. The Chinese restaurant as confessional booth. Todd's 92-year-old father began dropping long-buried secrets about his Holocaust survival during their regular Chinese dinner outings. That booth became a Jewish confessional — and the origin of the book.
2. Humor isn't a gimmick, it's inherited. Todd's father demanded the book not be "another Holocaust memoir" with long descriptions of ghetto smells. His survival mechanism was humor, and it became a non-negotiable editorial demand. A researcher from the Poland Museum in Warsaw told Todd this was the first time she'd ever interviewed someone who could talk about his most dramatic past and still make her laugh.
3. The Holocaust memoir that refuses to behave. Todd approached the book as a branding and positioning exercise — treating it as a challenger brand in a crowded market of solemn testimony. The goal: reach readers who might otherwise feel Holocaust fatigue while never diminishing the history.
4. Trauma is genetically inherited. Research from Mount Sinai shows trauma can be genetically passed to children of Holocaust survivors, altering biology and behavior. Todd recognized his own dissociation, addictions, hypervigilance, and anxiety in the findings — though he admits growing up in 1970s Queens with friends who "looked like the cast of The Outsiders but now look like the cast of The Sopranos" probably contributed too.
5. A father-son memoir told while the father is alive. The book evolved from just David's story into an intergenerational memoir — father and son, first and second generation — braided together. Todd describes it as "Vito and Michael Corleone, if they were Jewish."
6. A life beyond the camps. David Diamond was arrested by the Gestapo at 12, smuggled medicines for his physician father, was a slave laborer on a German farm, and a teen soldier in Israel's War of Independence. He then came to America, borrowed $50,000 from a Manhattan madam to open a pharmacy next to her brothel, and sold more condoms than any other store in the country.
7. A bar mitzvah 80 years late. At 92, David finally had his bar mitzvah — the rite of passage stolen by the Gestapo. He crushed his haftorah, surrounded by family and friends. For David, it was an act of defiance: "Hey, you Nazi bastards, I'm still here."
8. Bypass agents, find your niche. Todd went straight to Fig Tree Books, a publisher specializing in the American Jewish experience, after agents quoted six-month timelines he couldn't afford with a father in his 90s. His advice to aspiring writers: look for niche publishers who align with your story.
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GET THE BOOK
Pass the Trauma, Please: My Father's Not-So-Depressing Holocaust Memoir about Love, Loss, Laughter, and Legacy by Todd Diamond
Amazon: https://amazon.com/Pass-Trauma-Please-not-so-depressing-Holocaust/dp/B0DTZW3X4F?tag=rettocasgra-20
Barnes & Noble: https://barnesandnoble.com/w/pass-the-trauma-please-todd-diamond/1146882261
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781941493335
---
CONNECT WITH TODD
Website: https://todddiamond.net
Instagram: @pass_the_trauma_please — https://www.instagram.com/pass_the_trauma_please/
---
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory — https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory — https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: Uncorking a Story — https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: @uncorkingastory — https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory — https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story — https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
---
Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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HASHTAGS
#UncorkingAStory #PassTheTraumaPlease #ToddDiamond #HolocaustMemoir #MemoirWriting #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #InheritedTrauma #IntergenerationalTrauma #HolocaustSurvivor #JewishMemoir #DarkHumor #WritersOfInstagram #BookRecommendations #AuthorsOfInstagram #Podcast #NonfictionBooks #FamilyStories #FatherAndSon
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"Even though we're so diverse, we're all the same. We're all longing for the same thing — to belong, have a purpose in life, to understand why we are here on this planet." — Sonia Daccarett
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Sonia Daccarett is a writer and communications professional born in Colombia to a Christian Palestinian father and a Jewish mother. She holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a master's in international and public affairs from Columbia University. For more than two decades she worked on strategic communications for corporate and nonprofit clients. Her debut memoir, The Roots of the Guava Tree: Growing Up Jewish and Arab in Colombia, explores identity, belonging, and coming of age against the backdrop of 1980s Colombia. Mike and Sonia discuss how a casual memoir-writing class turned into a book, the challenge of writing childhood scenes in the voice of a child, navigating a multicultural identity in a homogenous society, and why she wanted to offer a first-person account of what ordinary Colombians endured during the country's violent 1980s.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. A book that wasn't meant to be a book. Sonia enrolled in a memoir-writing class during a quieter chapter of her life, fell in love with the genre, and accumulated pages before realizing the recurring themes — identity, diaspora, family — could form a cohesive narrative.
2. Retraining the writing brain. After two decades of press releases and corporate communications, Sonia had to relearn scene, dialogue, and narrative writing — breaking free of the "five W's, tell it all on one page" mindset.
3. Writing in the child's voice was the breakthrough. The manuscript initially felt flat when told entirely from her mid-50s perspective. Switching to first person as a four-, six-, or fifteen-year-old brought the memories alive — though it meant extensive rewriting.
4. Rediscovering parents as complex people. One of the book's biggest gifts was moving beyond the unidimensional way children see adults and understanding her parents and grandparents as people navigating their own immigrant struggles.
5. A utopian experiment in identity. Her parents deliberately raised their children without religious labels or ethnic identifiers — a noble dream that left Sonia feeling identity-less in a society that expected you to know who you were.
6. A hidden diaspora. Most people don't know that a large Christian Arab population emigrated from the Ottoman Empire to Colombia in the 1910s, or that Jewish communities thrived in Latin America. Sonia wanted to broaden mainstream narratives about where Jews and Arabs live.
7. Colombia's 1980s through ordinary eyes. Beyond the Netflix portrayals of Pablo Escobar, the book offers a first-person account of what civil war between government, guerrillas, and cartels felt like for everyday families — the kidnappings, the fear, the impossible choices.
GET THE BOOK
The Roots of the Guava Tree: Growing Up Jewish and Arab in Colombia by Sonia Daccarett
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4aYCCx1
Buy on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781647429409
CONNECT WITH SONIA
Website: soniadaccarett.com
Instagram: @soniadaccarettauthor
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory
Facebook: Uncorking a Story
TikTok: @uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story
Subscribe & Leave a Review — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
---
Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
#SoniaDaccarett #RootsOfTheGuavaTree #Colombia #Memoir #JewishIdentity #Palestinian #MulticulturalIdentity #Diaspora #LatinAmerica #Colombia1980s #ImmigrantStory #MemoirWriting #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #UncorkingAStory #WritingCommunity #Nonfiction #CulturalIdentity #JewishAndArab #BookRecommendations
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"I'm convinced that these experiences that we have, where we feel so alone, that there's a huge portion of the rest of the world who's feeling the exact same way at any given time. And it's so important to see those things reflected so that we just don't feel like there's something wrong with us." — Anne H. Putnam
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Anne H. Putnam is a writer, editor, and teacher with an unending interest in the stories that shape our humanity. Her first memoir, Navel Gazing: One Woman's Quest for a Size Normal, was published in the UK and Commonwealth after she wrote it as part of a master's degree in creative nonfiction — never imagining it would actually be published. Her latest, Make Do and Mend: A Breakup Memoir, explores love, loss, and self-discovery with raw honesty and humor. It's the story of the end of her seven-year relationship and first engagement — a breakup that propelled her into therapy, across an ocean, and through a decade of emotional excavation before the book finally found its shape. After years of agents who loved it but couldn't figure out how to sell it, Anne chose to self-publish — and put serious investment into making the book indistinguishable from a traditionally published title. Mike and Anne talk about backing into a publishing deal at 28, writing 200,000 words before finding the right 80,000, the courage (or compulsion) behind vulnerability on the page, pushing back on editorial feedback, the stigma of self-publishing, and why the compost pile is a writer's best friend.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Nothing is wasted — it all goes on the compost pile. Every word you write that doesn't make it into the final book becomes fertile ground for what comes next. Anne wrote 200,000 words before landing on the 80,000 that became Make Do and Mend.
2. Vulnerability isn't courage — it's compulsion. Anne doesn't experience sharing her story as brave. She has an unquenchable thirst for being understood, and memoir is the form that lets her explain herself fully. The vulnerability is the point, not the obstacle.
3. Structure helps, but free-falling teaches you something too. Her first book was written in a master's program with deadlines, workshops, and authority figures. The second was just her, alone, for a decade. Both approaches produced books — but the unstructured path required far more trust in the process.
4. You can push back on your editor. Anne's editor wanted her to be meaner about her ex. She resisted, choosing instead to present situations and let readers draw their own conclusions. Your name is on the cover — make choices you can stand by.
5. Traditional publishing is driven by capitalism, not quality. Agents and editors loved Anne's work but didn't know how to package or market it. Once your writing clears the "good enough" bar, the rest is about what publishers feel is safe to sell — something outside your control.
6. Self-publishing is a legitimate path. Anne invested in professional editing, a book coach, and a quality cover to ensure no reader would know the difference. The goal isn't sales volume — it's connection with readers who need the book.
7. It counts. Borrowing from her swimming routine: if you got in the swimsuit, it counts. If you got to the parking lot, it counts. Building the routine — showing up — matters more than any single session's output, especially for writers with ADHD.
GET THE BOOK
Make Do and Mend: A Breakup Memoir by Anne H. Putnam
Buy on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0i6jjwZu
Buy on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/make-do-and-mend-a-breakup-memoir-anne-h-putnam/357d18d27975bf58
CONNECT WITH ANNE
Website: https://www.annehputnam.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahputnam/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annehputnam
Substack: https://annehputnam.substack.com/
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
YOUTUBE HASHTAGS
#MakeDoAndMend #AnneHPutnam #BreakupMemoir #SelfPublishing #MemoirWriting #WritingProcess #Vulnerability #CreativeNonfiction #NavelGazing #BodyImage #IndieAuthor #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #UncorkingAStory #WriterLife #SelfPublishedAuthor #Heartbreak #Healing #NonfictionBooks #BookRecommendations #WritingAdvice #IndiePublishing #WomenWriters
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"Any pain that you have — when people meet those pains and collect them back into themselves, they experience incredible power and wisdom and compassion and capacity. For that reason, I consider trauma to be a treasure." — Lillian Eve Moore
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Lillian Eve Moore is an author, executive coach, and self-described "psychonaut" whose new book draws on over 20 years of trauma-informed work. Her mother's schizophrenia ignited a lifelong quest for mental health solutions that actually work — a search that led her far beyond traditional psychiatry into ancient spiritual practices, somatic work, and eventually to founding Mindlight, a personal development company she's led since 2018. Her book, Treasure Hunting in the Underworld: A Guide for Healing and Claiming What's Yours, was born from the death of her stepmother and lays out a practical framework for navigating the hidden domain of the psyche — what she calls "the underworld" — where our traumas, patterns, and repressed memories live. Mike and Lillian talk about the gap between what people need and what mental health can provide, the role of love as the one element that truly heals, psychedelics versus traditional medication, and why your deepest fear and your biggest dream are almost always connected.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Your tiger and your dream are connected. Lillian's lifelong fear of mental illness — her "tiger" — drove her toward her dream of self-realization and an incredible career helping others heal. The thing you fear most often points directly toward your purpose.
2. The underworld isn't the enemy. The "underworld" is Lillian's term for the psyche — the subconscious, the unconscious, the hidden parts of ourselves. It's not something to run from. It's a reservoir of creativity, power, and authenticity waiting to be reclaimed.
3. Trauma is treasure. When people meet their pain and integrate it back into themselves — rather than hiding it behind a wall — they unlock energy, wisdom, compassion, and the capacity to live bigger, more rewarding lives.
4. Love is the healing element. Regardless of the modality, the thing that heals is loving attention. Everyone has access to it — even if the access point is as small as a favorite tree, an auntie who was kind, or the feel of your sheets.
5. Healing is a proportions game. Can you conjure enough well-being, love, and happiness to hold space for a dose of pain? If yes, you can heal yourself. A practitioner helps manage the dosage.
6. Old practices deserve more respect than new ones. Spiritual traditions — the Vedas, qigong, breathwork, scriptural wisdom — are far older and better studied than 100-year-old psychiatry. Lillian built her framework by pulling together the best of what she found.
7. Amp up your dreams. When you feed your dreams and make them vivid, you gain the fortitude and courage to face your demons. Don't dumb them down to avoid what scares you.
GET THE BOOK
Treasure Hunting in the Underworld: A Guide for Healing and Claiming What's Yours by Lillian Eve Moore
Buy on Amazon: https://a.co/d/5jrcJ5Y
CONNECT WITH LILLIAN
Website: https://hello.lillianevemoore.com/podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asklillianevemoore/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lillianevemoore
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lillianevemoore/
Podcast: The Deep Shift (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
YOUTUBE HASHTAGS
#TreasureHunting #Underworld #LillianEveMoore #Mindlight #TraumaHealing #MentalHealth #SelfHealing #InnerWork #Psychonaut #EmotionalMastery #ShadowWork #SelfAcceptance #TraumaRecovery #Psychedelics #Spirituality #PersonalDevelopment #ExecutiveCoach #AuthorInterview #BookPodcast #UncorkingAStory #WritingCommunity #SelfHelp #Nonfiction #BookRecommendations
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"This is a cautionary tale about how extremism and fascism can creep up on us. It always begins with hate speech and dehumanization... from verbal violence, it's a very short leap to physical violence." — Dr. Georgette Bennett
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Georgette Bennett is an award-winning sociologist, widely published author, former NBC News correspondent, and founder of both the Tanenbaum Center for Inter-Religious Understanding and the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees — which has mobilized more than $660 million in humanitarian aid. Her latest book, Half Jew, Full Life, tells the extraordinary story of Holocaust survivor Gary "Pips" Phillips, a distant relative who became a surrogate father to Georgette after her own father's death. Pips was classified by the Nazis as a Mischling — half-Jewish — yet voluntarily embraced his Jewish identity at the very moment it could be fatal. Mike and Georgette discuss Pips's four arrests and three escapes, the Nazis who unexpectedly saved his life, the challenge of writing a third-person memoir from psychiatric recordings, and why this story carries urgent lessons about identity, denial, and the creep of extremism.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. A Holocaust story unlike any other. Pips was a Mischling first degree — an Aryan mother, a Jewish father — who voluntarily chose to be Jewish by becoming a bar mitzvah the very week the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. Almost nothing has been written about people in this category.
2. Nazis both persecuted and saved him. Pips was arrested four times and escaped three times. In key moments, individual Nazis — motivated by love, lust, or personal connection — intervened to save his life, complicating the black-and-white narrative of the Holocaust.
3. Survival was his career. Living underground in Berlin among 6,500 Jews who went into hiding, Pips navigated a world where you couldn't buy food or rent a room without papers stamped with a "J." Every day was a question of where to eat and where to sleep.
4. Psychiatric tapes became the primary source. Pips recorded his life story across dozens of sessions with his psychiatrist. Georgette had them transcribed while he was still alive, giving the book an authentic first-person voice despite being written in third person.
5. Trauma never fully heals. Pips's wife Olga, an Auschwitz survivor, processed her experience through silence and ultimately took her own life in 2005. Pips's own trauma surfaced decades later as severe palpitations with no physical cause.
6. Identity is a lifelong negotiation. Pips spent his entire life seeking acceptance as a Jew despite never formally converting. The title Half Jew, Full Life comes from his own declaration: "I don't want to be a half Jew. I want to be a full Jew."
7. A cautionary tale for today. The book traces how extremism begins with hate speech and dehumanization, and how denial during that phase allows violence to escalate — a pattern Georgette sees playing out in the present day.
8. The American Dream, chapter two. After the war, Pips arrived in America as a waiter and bicycle messenger and ended up co-owning the largest photo agency in the world, hobnobbing with celebrities like Natalie Wood and Raquel Welch — never having owned a camera.
GET THE BOOK
Half Jew, Full Life by Dr. Georgette Bennett
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4v8qrFD
Buy on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781949846744
CONNECT WITH GEORGETTE
Website: https://www.bennettny.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgette-bennett-764786184/
CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncorking-a-story/id563636205
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HZiAEtFlhAzk60Z4eAkhY
RSS Feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/uncorkingastory
Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
"Just because the path of motherhood might not happen for me, it doesn't mean the nurturing goes away. I still want a seat at the table for how kids are raised." — Danielle Frank
About This Episode
Danielle Frank traded Hollywood red carpets for red wine — and now she's poured both passions into her debut book. After launching her career in entertainment publicity at Miramax International, where she worked on global film campaigns and rubbed elbows with A-listers at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin, Danielle pivoted into the luxury wine and spirits industry, spending 22+ years at Bacardi and Moët Hennessy. Her book, A Wine Lover's Guide to Parenting: The Fine Art of Wine & Whine Management, is a satirical, adults-only survival guide written in rhyme that blends wine terminology with parenting wisdom. Despite not being a parent herself, Danielle — a self-described "auntie extraordinaire" — brings a sharp, loving outsider's perspective to the comedy of raising kids. Mike and Danielle talk career pivots, the storytelling parallels between film and wine, game show obsessions, Billy Joel, and why you should never let your kid ferment.
Key Takeaways
1. It's all storytelling. Whether selling a film at Cannes or a bottle of wine at dinner, Danielle sees the through-line: you're creating a narrative that evokes feeling. That insight carried her from Miramax to Moët Hennessy.
2. You don't have to be a parent to care about parenting. Danielle wrote the book as a proud aunt and keen observer. Her "outsider with a front-row seat" perspective gives the humor its edge — she witnesses the triumphs and tantrums, glass in hand, no carpool duty required.
3. The book sat in a drawer for 14 years. Danielle wrote it over a decade ago but only published it last year. Her motivation: "If I go on my deathbed and I've done nothing with it, it's going to plague me."
4. Wine doesn't have to be intimidating. Every chapter uses real wine terminology — fermentation, varietal, mulled wine — and gives the definition in a fun, accessible way. It's wine education wrapped in comedy.
5. Don't let your kid ferment. Fermentation turns sugar into alcohol — something sweet into something harsh. The parallel to raising kids with manners writes itself, and Danielle's rhyming chapter on the topic is a showstopper.
6. Don't leave anything on the table. Danielle's life advice: you have one life to live, so go after things. She quit a toxic PR job without a backup plan, pivoted industries, and finally published the book she'd been sitting on — all by trusting the leap.
Get the Book
A Wine Lover's Guide to Parenting: The Fine Art of Wine & Whine Management by Danielle Frank
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wine-Lovers-Guide-Parenting/dp/1967598061
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-wine-lovers-guide-to-parenting-danielle-frank/1148414693
Connect with Danielle
Website: daniellefrankauthor.com
Instagram: @createagreatstory
Facebook: Danielle Frank
Connect with Your Host
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: uncorkingastory.com
YouTube: @uncorkingastory
Instagram: @uncorkingastory
Facebook: Uncorking a Story
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Twitter/X: @uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: Uncorking a Story
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"It's about family, it's about traditions, it's about a sense of place. Italy is more than just food and wine. It's a feeling, it's an experience."
— J.A. Marz
About This Episode
J.A. Marz is a healthcare marketing strategist turned novelist whose Tuscany-set fiction has struck a chord with readers who love Italy as much as he does. His debut novella, Ciao, Amore Mio — The Tale of Gabby and Gio, follows a restless travel writer who arrives in Italy chasing stories and finds something far more personal at a family-owned agriturismo called La Terre Felice. The sequel, It's Sauce, Not Gravy!, debuted as a #1 Amazon Hot New Release in Tuscany Travel and digs deeper into memory, mystery, and what it means to fight for a place that feels like home. Mike, co-host Laura Nozicka, and John talk about the pull of Italy, career pivots from boardrooms to bookshops, the great sauce-vs-gravy debate, and why the best stories are rooted in a sense of place.
Key Takeaways
1. Write what you know — and what you love. John combined his three passions — Italy, golf, and writing — into a single story. He had the first and last chapters in his head for 10 years before the middle finally came together.
2. Italy is a feeling, not just a destination. The slower pace, fresh food, family-first culture, and sense of La Dolce Vita offer something Americans rarely experience at home. John tried to put readers in that feeling, not just describe the scenery.
3. Childhood memories are creative gold. John wove real family moments — his grandfather calling him "Prince of Wales," Sunday dinners, his grandmother's cooking — into the fabric of both novellas, giving the fiction an authentic emotional core.
4. The marketing of books is harder than writing them. Coming from healthcare marketing, John expected the promotional side to be familiar territory. Instead, he found that getting traction for a creative work is "10 times harder than marketing healthcare."
5. The sauce-vs-gravy debate is real — and it makes a great title. John chose It's Sauce, Not Gravy! knowing it would spark conversation in Italian-American circles. For his family, it was always sauce, meat or no meat.
6. The sequel deepens the story's themes. While the first book centers on love, loss, and family, It's Sauce, Not Gravy! explores legacy, connectivity, and the tension between wandering and finding home.
7. Book three is on the way. Set more heavily in Rome, it will lean into the city's art history — Michelangelo, Bernini, Caravaggio — and a more mature version of Gio. Expected in 2027.
Get the Books
Ciao, Amore Mio…The Tale of Gabby and Gio by J.A. Marz
Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J-A-Marz/author/B0DRLGWSJW?tag=rettocasgra-20
It's Sauce, Not Gravy! by J.A. Marz
Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Its-Sauce-Not-Gravy-Ingredient/dp/B0GHGSZCJZ?tag=rettocasgra-20
Connect with John
Website: https://jam3strategicmarketingandpr.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmarzano3/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.marzano.14
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmarzano1/
Connect with Your Host
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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"Memory without responsibility is just nostalgia. We have to really be responsible — responsible adults — and make sure that the world doesn't forget what happened."
— Doron Keren
About This Episode
Dr. Doron Keren joins Mike to talk about his grandfather Ignacy Chiger's Holocaust memoir, Beneath the Lightless Sky, newly translated into English and published by Amsterdam Publishers. The book is a firsthand account of survival under two totalitarian regimes — first the Soviets, then the Nazis — in Lvov, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine). At its center is an extraordinary escape: Ignacy led his family and a small group of Jews into the city's sewer system, where they survived 14 months in total darkness. It's a story of impossible choices, a father's determination to save his family, and the unlikely redemption of Leopold Socha — a Polish Catholic sewer worker and former thief who risked everything to keep them alive.
Key Takeaways
1. A memoir born from memory alone. In 1975, Ignacy Chiger typed his entire Holocaust memoir on a Polish typewriter during a visit to New York — from memory, with no notes — and passed away six months later.
2. Two books, two perspectives. Doron's mother, Krystyna Chiger, told her story in The Girl in the Green Sweater (2008) — a child's-eye view. His grandfather's memoir offers the perspective of a 33-year-old father making life-or-death decisions.
3. Survival required becoming a chameleon. Ignacy made himself indispensable to both Soviet NKVD officers and Nazi SS commanders by reading people, procuring goods, and navigating impossible situations.
4. The escape was an engineering feat. Ignacy remembered watching Italian POWs build the sewer encasement as a boy, then calculated the exact angle to dig a 20-foot tunnel through three feet of concrete — with no room for error.
5. Redemption came from an unlikely source. Leopold Socha, a common thief turned sewer worker, struck a deal to help the group — then continued without pay when the money ran out, seeing their survival as his path to forgiveness.
6. Humanity persists in the darkest places. In the sewer, Ignacy wrote plays for the group to perform — a way to pass time and feel human in conditions no human should endure.
7. Never Again is Always. Doron's message is that the capacity for atrocity lives within civilization itself, and vigilance must be constant — not a one-time declaration.
Get the Book
Beneath the Lightless Sky by Ignacy Chiger (edited by Doron Keren)
Published by Amsterdam Publishers — Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Series
Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4cLd6f8
Buy on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9789493418578
Related
The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger with Daniel Paisner
In Darkness (2011) — directed by Agnieszka Holland, nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Connect with Doron
Website: https://www.yellowdarkness.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beneaththelightlesssky/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/beneaththelightlesssky
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beneaththelightlesssky
Connect with Your Host
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://mikecarlon.com/
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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"I really wanted to know about the numinous. I went to Burma to sit with a master. I got my master's degree. I did all kinds of things looking to find out what happened. And then I came back to realize that yes, in fact, I knew — I touched death. I saw death." — Sally Dukes
About This Episode
Sally Dukes joins Mike to talk about her memoir, drummer girl: A Story of Life After Death. At age three, Sally underwent open-heart surgery to treat a congenital heart disorder — and during the procedure, she had a near-death experience that would shape the rest of her life. The nickname "drummer girl" came from the way her heart beat so loudly before the surgery. What follows is a lifelong pilgrimage — from New York to India to a forest monastery in Burma to a Greek island — all in search of understanding what happened in that operating room. It's a conversation about near-death experiences, the healing power of writing, resilience in the face of trauma, and the courage it takes to finally tell your own story.
Key Takeaways
1. Writing has always been her voice. Sally describes herself as "not very verbal" — writing was always a better form of expression, from high school journals to the memoir itself.
2. A near-death experience at age three shaped her entire life. During open-heart surgery, Sally experienced a dark tunnel, a brilliant light, and an overwhelming feeling of love — an experience she spent decades trying to understand.
3. The surgeon's elephant became a powerful symbol. When young Sally's nightmares wouldn't stop, her surgeon drew an elephant on a yellow notepad and told her to hang it over her bed. The elephant — keeper of memories, remover of obstacles — became a recurring motif in her life and her book.
4. The memoir was built from a lifetime of journal entries. Sally's younger self gave her older self a gift — decades of writing that, when collated, all pointed to the same search for truth.
5. Resilience matters more than the trauma. Sally hopes readers focus not on the trauma in her story, but on the resilience — and on the message that death is nothing to fear.
6. You don't need to look outside yourself for answers. After traveling the world seeking confirmation of her experience, Sally ultimately realized she already knew her truth.
7. Writing the book was cathartic — and freeing. Sally describes the process as "coming clean" — finally sharing a story she'd never told anyone, and feeling liberated by it.
Get the Book
Drummer girl: A Story of Life After Death by Sally Dukes
Published by Koehler Books, March 17, 2026
Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G693CTC5/
Buy on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9798897470525
Buy on Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/drummer-girl-sally-dukes/1148920173
Connect with Sally
Website: https://www.sallydukes.com/
Connect with Mike
Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story
Website: https://mikecarlon.com/
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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"On the outside, I too looked like a pretty picture. Inside, I was dying. I had so much pain and shame and suffering. Pretending isn't enough to make it go away." — Andrea Leeb
About This Episode
Andrea Leeb spent decades building a life that looked perfect from the outside — nurse, attorney, MFA graduate, happily married. But behind that picture was a secret she carried since she was four years old. In this deeply honest conversation, Andrea tells Mike about her debut memoir Such a Pretty Picture, which chronicles her survival of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her father, her complicated relationship with the mother who looked away, and the long road to finding her voice. She also talks about surviving the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, how the Me Too movement gave her the courage to finally write the story she'd sworn she'd never tell, and why healing is never a straight line. Andrea is donating all of her book royalties to the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and RAINN.
Key Takeaways
1. She survived a tsunami — and it changed everything. In 2004, Andrea and her husband survived the Christmas Day tsunami in Thailand. That brush with death made her realize she needed to stop treating writing as a hobby and start treating it as a calling.
2. She swore she'd never write this story. For years, Andrea outlined the book and then told herself no. She wrote fiction, essays, anything else. It wasn't until her father passed away in 2017 — the same year the Me Too movement began — that she finally felt free to tell the truth.
3. Her mother caught the abuse and went blind. When Andrea was four and a half, her mother walked in on the abuse, screamed, passed out, and developed hysterical blindness for a month. Andrea blamed herself. Her mother never left her father.
4. Forgiveness and letting go aren't the same thing. Andrea never forgave her father, but she did let go of the anger — a distinction she says was essential to writing the book without creating monsters. She ultimately forgave her mother.
5. The title came from her editor, not from her. Andrea struggled with the title through every draft. Her publisher found a line in the book where Andrea's mother looks at a childhood photo and says, "Such a pretty picture" — a perfect encapsulation of the beautiful surface hiding the chaos underneath.
6. Pretending works until it doesn't. Andrea kept her secret for decades and appeared fine — until a stranger touched her on the subway and she unraveled. Her message to survivors: you can heal, but you have to get help. Pretending won't make it go away.
7. She's giving away every dollar. All royalties from Such a Pretty Picture go to the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and RAINN. What started as a mission to help one person has grown into full-time advocacy, including board work and policy efforts.
Get the Book
Such a Pretty Picture: A Memoir by Andrea Leeb
Amazon: https://amzn.to/47NPt3M
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781647429942
Connect with Andrea
Website: https://www.andrealeebauthor.com/
Instagram: @andrealisaleeb
Threads: @andrealisaleeb
Connect with Mike
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
Subscribe and Leave a Review — It helps more readers and writers find the show!
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Uncorking a Story is produced by Mike Carlon. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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"I think there was some empathy for my younger self that I probably didn't have before... I think writing the book, I could look at myself as a seven-year-old girl or a thirteen-year-old with a lot of anger and a lot of reasonable reason to feel abandoned, rather than, wow, I was just really a problem child." — Jacque Gorelick
Jacque Gorelick joins Mike to talk about her memoir, Map of a Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Finding the Way Home. The book follows a seemingly ordinary family outing that turns into a medical crisis when Jacque's husband collapses from cardiac arrest on a trail — with their nine-week-old son in the stroller beside her. Woven through that harrowing day is the story of Jacque's rootless childhood, the loss of her mother at age eight, and years of family estrangement. It's a conversation about grief, resilience, the power of writing to heal, and the family we build for ourselves when the one we were born into falls apart.
Key Takeaways:
Words have power from an early age. Jacque's love of writing started as a child — from clubhouse rules to thank-you notes — and eventually led her to memoir.
Distance helps when writing about trauma. Having ten years between the medical crisis and putting pen to paper gave Jacque the perspective to write about it without being consumed by it.
Writing memoir can build empathy for your younger self. Revisiting painful childhood memories allowed Jacque to see herself with compassion rather than shame.
A cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Jacque learned firsthand that cardiac arrest is an electrical event that can strike even a healthy, active person.
Caring for a newborn can be grounding in a crisis. The routine demands of nursing and caring for her son kept Jacque anchored during the most terrifying hours of her life.
Found family matters. Despite estrangement from her biological family, Jacque discovered that the people who show up unconditionally become the family that counts.
Reconnection is possible, even after decades. After more than 30 years of silence, Jacque reconnected with her brother — a reminder that it's never too late, even when it's complicated.
Buy Map of a Heart:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/3988322261?linkCode=ll2&tag=rettocasgra-20&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9783988322265
Connect with Jacque:
Website: https://www.jacquegorelick.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacgorelick/
Connect with Mike:
Website: https://mikecarlon.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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“You don’t need to find your ikigai—you already have it. You just need to notice it.” — Nick Kemp
What if purpose isn’t something you chase—but something you already have? In this episode, Mike sits down with Nick Kemp, founder of Ikigai Tribe and author of A Year of Ikigai, to explore a more grounded, human take on purpose. Nick shares how a guy who once hated writing ended up publishing books, building a global community, and helping others reconnect with meaning—through small, everyday moments. This conversation challenges the Western obsession with “big purpose” and offers a simpler, more sustainable way to live a meaningful life.
Key Takeaways:
You already have purpose. Ikigai isn’t a destination—it’s found in everyday experiences, relationships, and roles.
Western culture overcomplicates purpose. We chase the “perfect job” or passion, while overlooking meaning in ordinary moments.
Curiosity can change your life. Nick’s journey—from podcast to books—started with simply asking better questions.
Small moments are the big moments. A cup of coffee, a conversation, or a quiet walk can carry more meaning than major achievements.
Writing doesn’t require perfection—just honesty. Nick went from struggling with English to writing from lived experience and the heart.
Technology is pulling us away from meaning. The more distracted we become, the harder it is to notice what actually matters.
Be present, not perfect. Life satisfaction comes from awareness and gratitude—not chasing an ideal version of success.
Buy A Year of Ikigai: Finding Everyday Purpose Through Japanese Wisdom
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4uP5m3O
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781577155485
Connect with Nick
Website: https://ikigaitribe.com/
Podcast: https://ikigaitribe.com/podcasts/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kemp-author/
Connect with Mike
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
#Ikigai #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #AuthorLife #WritingCommunity #PurposeDrivenLife #MindfulLiving #PodcastLife #UncorkingAStory #CreativeJourney
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“We suffer as humans—and writing gives us a place to put that pain, to understand it, and maybe even transform it.”— Priya Hutner
What happens when the life you’ve built—your beliefs, your community, your identity—suddenly falls apart? In this episode of Uncorking a Story, Priya Hutner shares her extraordinary journey from growing up and leading within a spiritual ashram to rebuilding her life in Lake Tahoe. Her memoir, Chasing Nirvana, is part spiritual adventure, part cautionary tale, and deeply human at its core. We explore identity, reinvention, the healing power of writing, and what it really means to come back to yourself after everything you thought you knew no longer fits.
Key Takeaways:
When belief systems break: Priya opens up about leaving a decades-long life inside a spiritual community and the emotional fallout that followed.
Rebuilding identity from scratch: After leaving the ashram, she spent years rediscovering who she was outside of that structure.
Memoir as catharsis: Writing Chasing Nirvana became both a healing process and a way to make sense of her past.
The power of storytelling: Priya discusses how writing helps us process pain, reframe our experiences, and find resilience.
Spirituality vs. self-discovery: The conversation explores the fine line between seeking enlightenment and losing oneself in the process.
Alternative paths to healing: From therapy to plant medicine, Priya shares the unconventional tools that helped her reconnect with herself.
Creativity as a way forward: Whether through writing, cooking, or teaching, Priya continues to channel her experiences into meaningful work and community.
Buy Chasing Nirvana
Amazon: https://amzn.to/40D4P7e
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9798896360889
Connect with Priya
Website: https://www.priyahutner.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/priya.hutner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priyahutner/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@priyahutner?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D
Connect with Mike
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
#UncorkingAStory #MemoirWriting #WritingCommunity #AuthorInterview #CreativeJourney #HealingThroughWriting #SpiritualJourney #SelfDiscovery #AmWriting #WritersLife
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“If you want to be a writer for money, you’re in the wrong place. The authors who last are the ones who truly love the craft.” — Christian Toms-Arbel
Christian Toms-Arbel has been telling stories since childhood. Born with a disability that required multiple surgeries, he spent long stretches in hospital wards immersed in books—and eventually began writing his own stories. Years later, after earning a degree and master’s in creative writing, he published his debut psychological thriller The Mannequins.
In this episode of Uncorking a Story, Christian shares the personal experiences that shaped his writing, how trauma can fuel storytelling, and the unconventional path that led him to publish his first novel.
Key Takeaways:
Early hardship sparked a love of storytelling. Spending time in hospitals as a child introduced Christian to books and ultimately inspired him to begin writing horror stories at just eight years old.
A teacher’s encouragement can change everything. One supportive teacher’s feedback convinced him he had real potential as a writer—helping set him on the path to studying creative writing.
Trauma can become creative fuel. Christian believes writing dark fiction is partly a way of processing personal trauma and exploring difficult emotions in a safe creative space.
The Mannequins takes a different approach to crime fiction. Rather than focusing only on the investigation, the novel explores how a killer is made, weaving the murderer’s upbringing into the narrative.
Indie publishing requires entrepreneurial thinking. Christian built an ARC reader team, generated early reviews, and treated publishing like running a small business.
Writing outside your identity can build empathy. His novel features a mixed-heritage female detective—a perspective he carefully developed with help from his wife as editor and advisor.
Persistence matters more than perfection. Even after being caught in a publishing scam, Christian continued forward and successfully launched his book independently.
Buy The Mannequins
Amazon: https://amzn.to/46QmsE4
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9781919216201
Connect with Christian
Website: https://www.ctomsarbel.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.tomsarbel/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@c.tomsarbel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61580209287042
Connect with Mike
Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@uncorkingastory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory
Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/
#WritingCommunity #IndieAuthor #CrimeThriller #PsychologicalThriller #AmWriting #AuthorInterview #UncorkingAStory
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