Tag Archives: Memoir

10Jun/22

Veronica Carrera

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June 10, 2022

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Veronica Carrera as the guest on Season 7, Episode 23 – Veronica Carrera + Our Review of Tangerine!

Veronica Carrera joins us to discuss her memoir 140 Miles of Life: A Remarkable Journey to Self Acceptance & Love! We discuss how she framed her themes of immigration, loss, faith, identity, love, and self acceptance within the legs of her Ironman experience. Then Baz and Vance review Tangerine and share who won the week for them!

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Veronica’s story of triumphing over adversity, not only offers hope and inspiration for readers to discover true inner wisdom and acceptance but may save lives!

Hers is a story of love, loss, courage and healing.

Today, she is an avid triathlete and passionate advocate for human rights, a highly sought-after speaker and a successful sales leader at one of the top tech companies in the world. She is also the creator/producer of the LinkedIn Live show 30 Minutes of Wisdom-Rising in Consciousness & Mindfulness.

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25Mar/22

Shawn Hitchins

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March 25, 2022

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Shawn Hitchins as the guest on Season 7, Episode 12 – The Gurgle!

Shawn Hitchins joins shares his memoir The Light Streamed Beneath It. We discuss love, loss, and the journey back to comedy.

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Best known for sparking the global wave of Ginger Pride by marching hundreds of redheads through the streets of Edinburgh, Shawn Hitchins is an award-winning entertainer and author who has toured throughout Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. From stage to page, Hitchins moves his audiences with laugh-out-loud humor and devastating truth as he strives for a greater understanding of love, work, and family.

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24Dec/21

Emory Easton

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December 24, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Emory Easton as the guest on Season 6, Episode 51 – I’m Not That Person Someone Told Me I Was

Emory Easton joins us to share her debut memoir Mother, Can You Hear Me Now? We talk about her early years of abuse, her recovery, and her happy ending as a grandmother alongside her true love of 36 years.

Reach out to Emory:

  • If you are being abused and need someone to talk to, Emory has asked that you email her at emoryeaston86 @ gmail.com (remove spaces) and she will listen, and try to help you find the help you need to rewrite your life’s story.

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Emory Easton is a writer and mother based in Illinois where she lives with her partner of thirty-six years. Her debut memoir, Mother, Can You Hear Me Now? tackles the abuse she endured as a child and the love she rediscovered as an adult.

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03Dec/21

Mike Keren

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December 3, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Mike Keren as the guest on Season 6, Episode 48 – A Funny Book About Death & Dying!

Mike Keren brings us his memoir Four Funerals, No Marriage. We discuss his unique perspective as a health professional, caregiver, and patient as he unfolds his sense of humor relating to facing the end of life.

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Mike Keren is a clinical psychologist with advanced training in psychoanalysis and family therapy. He currently maintains a private practice for adults and couples in central New Jersey, though in the past he worked in a variety of community and correctional facilities. Although he has a general practice, he has a particular interest in working with caregivers as well as helping families talk about end-of-life issues.

Mike enjoys a challenge in his free time and has explored the world of competitive gay tournament bowling (several trophies and a bit of prize money), golf (bored to tears), and stand-up comedy. His foray into stand-up even became the subject of a friend’s senior thesis at film school. He eventually decided to leave the stage to the younger folks and channeled his humor into writing.

Mike is supported in his endeavors by his loving husband, Tom, and their two canine children, Carley and Clyde. They divide their time between central New Jersey and the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

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18Jun/21

D’yan Forest

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June 18, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome D’yan Forest and Stephen Clarke as the guests on Season 6, Episode 24 – Try Thinking The D’yan Way!

D’yan Forest & Stephen Clarke join us to talk about living a full life, creating both stand-up and written comedy, their co-authored memoir “I Did It My Ways” and asking the difficult questions.

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D’yan Forest has always done things her way – or her ways, because she’s lived a dozen different lives. She’s been a desperate Boston housewife, a New York night-club singer and a Paris swinger. She’s been the only Jewish girl in a Christian choir and the female pianist in a transvestite cabaret. She had day jobs teaching basketball, piano and sex education. She dated Paris’s second-ever female bus driver, a transsexual rock guitarist and a defrocked nun. She also managed to get German friends to visit Nazi concentration camps, on her personal quest to understand why her European relatives were massacred. At 86, D’yan is still a working stand-up comedian and musician, but she’s much, much more than that, as her hilarious but heartfelt memoir reveals.

Stephen Clarke grew up in Bournemouth (the Bondi Beach of England), where he played bass in some of the worst rock bands in musical history before leaving town to study French and German at Oxford. After university, he got a series of high-powered jobs – in the wine industry (grape picking), tertiary sector (washing up in a German hotel), and in international diplomacy (teaching English to bored French businessmen). Meanwhile I started writing novels, all of which remained unpublished due to a vast – and never before revealed – conspiracy in the global publishing industry. Deciding to self-publish, his Paul West series includes a sequel to a sequel. Stephen also does his bit for non-fiction, though still through his delightful comedic lens.

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18Jun/21

Stephen Clarke

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June 18, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome D’yan Forest and Stephen Clarke as the guests on Season 6, Episode 24 – Try Thinking The D’yan Way!

D’yan Forest & Stephen Clarke join us to talk about living a full life, creating both stand-up and written comedy, their co-authored memoir “I Did It My Ways” and asking the difficult questions.

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Bio:

D’yan Forest has always done things her way – or her ways, because she’s lived a dozen different lives. She’s been a desperate Boston housewife, a New York night-club singer and a Paris swinger. She’s been the only Jewish girl in a Christian choir and the female pianist in a transvestite cabaret. She had day jobs teaching basketball, piano and sex education. She dated Paris’s second-ever female bus driver, a transsexual rock guitarist and a defrocked nun. She also managed to get German friends to visit Nazi concentration camps, on her personal quest to understand why her European relatives were massacred. At 86, D’yan is still a working stand-up comedian and musician, but she’s much, much more than that, as her hilarious but heartfelt memoir reveals.

Stephen Clarke grew up in Bournemouth (the Bondi Beach of England), where he played bass in some of the worst rock bands in musical history before leaving town to study French and German at Oxford. After university, he got a series of high-powered jobs – in the wine industry (grape picking), tertiary sector (washing up in a German hotel), and in international diplomacy (teaching English to bored French businessmen). Meanwhile I started writing novels, all of which remained unpublished due to a vast – and never before revealed – conspiracy in the global publishing industry. Deciding to self-publish, his Paul West series includes a sequel to a sequel. Stephen also does his bit for non-fiction, though still through his delightful comedic lens.

This Podcast episode is available on these channels (in order alphabetical):
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21May/21

Alexander Watson

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May 21, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Alexander Watson as the guest on Season 6, Episode 20 – Is Madam Having Coffee?

Alexander Watson delights and entertains us with the story behind his book River Queens. We discuss everything from upending one’s life, meeting river folk who’ve never seen a gay man, and partner shenanigans that strengthened the relationship.

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The Harrises are strict teetotaling, sabbatarian farmers, but Dale drinks. The Watsons are urbane, philandering, wanton alcoholics, but Alexander does not drink. These are but two of the myriad incongruities which bind their thirty-year partnership together.

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29Jan/21

Christopher Zyda

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January 29, 2021

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Christopher Zyda as the guest on Episode 305 – Who Are You Texting At 2:32 In The Morning?

Chris Zyda shares his cathartic work, The Storm: One Voice From the AIDS Generation. Though a deep subject, our conversation focuses on the journey of writing a deeply emotional memoir and his approach to the work.

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Christopher Zyda was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1984. In 1989, he earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He served as Disney’s Chief Investment Officer, overseeing more than $4 billion of company investments. In 2007, he launched Mozaic, a boutique investment management firm. Chris serves on the Board of Visitors for the UCLA Department of English, the Advisory Board for Veterans in Media & Entertainment, and the Advisory Board for the Landing Zone Grace Warrior Retreat.

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27Nov/20

Andrew Faulk, M.D.

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November 27, 2020

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Andrew Faulk, M.D. as the guest on Episode 296 – Things Will Never Be The Same After This!)

Andrew Faulk M.D. joins us for a powerful and thought provoking conversation about his journey as a doctor during the hard days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. His book, My Epidemic: An AIDS Memoir of One Man’s Struggle as Doctor, Patient and Survivor shares personal memories of those he treated, takes a hard look at survivor’s guilt, and offers advice on saying goodbye. He currently blogs about the healthcare industry and state of COVID, and is someone you’re going to want to follow.

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ANDREW FAULK, M.D., a native of Seattle, received his B.A. from Columbia University where he graduated cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and his M.D. from the University of Washington. During the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, while still in medical school, Faulk saw his first AIDS patient. After training in San Francisco, an epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, in 1988 he moved to Los Angeles where he limited his practice to others with the disease. He now lives with his husband, Frank Jernigan, in San Francisco where he paints with shattered glass and is active in progressive politics.

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30Oct/20

Dr. Tim Seelig

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October 30, 2020

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Dr. Tim Seelig as the guest on Episode 292 – Waving My Arms at Gays!

Dr. Tim Seelig joins us to discuss his book, Tale of Two Tims, that documents his personal journey from the golden boy of the Baptist ministries, to being publicly outed and losing everything in his life, only to find a freedom in authenticity on the other side. This is one not to miss.

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Dr. Tim Seelig has lived two completely separate lives. During his first 35 years, he rose to lofty pinnacles of success as an opera singer as well as a Southern Baptist music minister. He performed on the great stages of the world. He was a University professor, father and husband. To his many admirers, everything seemed perfect.

Then, at the age of 35, his Jericho walls came tumblin’ down when he was outed to his family and church of 22,000 members. This was in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and he lost everything. He buried hundreds of friends and had to face his own positive diagnosis.

The subsequent 34 years have been spent building a new life as an LGBTQ and AIDS activist through music—music that soars through the likes of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Davies Symphony Hall during sold-out, transformative performances. His book describes his life as grand opera with a little Opryland thrown in along the way.

Dr. Seelig is now home at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, where his Texas charm and caring ways have made him a favorite among chorus members and audiences alike.

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