Lisa Birnbach and Nancy Jo Sales

Lisa Birnbach and Nancy Jo Sales

My guest today is the award-winning journalist Nancy Jo Sales.  I’ve been reading her pieces for years, particularly in Vanity Fair, and she has written a new book which is a memoir with a strongly reported essay within it.  It’s called Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno.  It is juicy and disturbing, and it is published by Hachette and coming out next week.

My usual weekly thoughts and reactions to our times and my life have been disrupted this week.  A dear friend who I’ve known since we were teenagers, has entered hospice care after years of dealing with a grave disease.   I’ve been able to visit with her and her family, for which I feel deeply privileged, but it puts everything else into a vague fuzz.  Her beautiful family is handling their fears and grief so well, with so much love and courage.  What is there after all, but courage and love?

Meanwhile I have been sidelined by a relatively minor health situation, and I’ve spent more time in medical offices this week than I have at my desk.  I am fine and I will be fine, but I haven’t paid much heed to what is going on in the world.  In between appointments I hear of more senseless shootings.  I wish America were better than that. 

 Maybe we really are two Americas, and the one with guns is populated by the Huns.  I know that sounds glib.  But it does seem like the moment enough of us had been vaccinated so that we could return to the marketplace, mass shootings were the first cultural activity that made a comeback as well.

Maybe I should take another pain killer and shut up?

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Here are my five things that make life better:

1. Medical insurance.  I have the luxury of medical insurance.  I get to see specialists and get tests and I know there are so many Americans that don’t have equal access.  At this point, most of my body parts have their own doctors, and I am so grateful for them.  But I’m hoping that within the next year more people will have improved insurance, and won’t have to choose between food, rent, or medicine in their lives.

2. The sourdough bread my friend Fred introduced me to at Winner in Brooklyn.  I will say no more as the line to buy it is already long.

3. Digital book tours.  That’s what keeps this podcast fed.  I know authors would rather meet their readers and interviewers in person, but for now, this works.  And a podcast or a webinar can be more intimate than a live reading or event.

4. An old leather coat I have in the back of my front hall closet.  I haven’t worn it in at least a year and a half, but as much as I try to clean out my closets, I often find I give away the thing I should have kept.  I’m ashamed to say I got rid of a classic Burberry trench coat years ago.  Was I thinking?  So I saw a picture of a chic black leather coat today that made me want it, until I remembered that I have something similar.  Which I will hold onto.

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5. New York City’s endless scaffolds.  I hate them.  I love them.  I hate them.  They block so much light and architectural interest from the streets.  But on rainy days – and we’ve had plenty of those recently – they are a godsend for dog walking.  They are like mini dog parks.  (Seriously though, real estate companies…. Can’t you just do the repairs already?)

Nancy Jo Sale’s 5 Things:

1. Sake Bar Satsko

2. Edibles

3. Zazie, my daughter

4. Sturdy bookshelves

5. My treadmill

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC. My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft.The Field in NYC.

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