EP 92 – with Tim Gunn – The Future of Fashion and “Making The Cut”

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Of course you can always listen right here, or for more episodes: at lisabirnbach.com/welcome .

Hi Friends.

It’s a sad day when coming up with five good things is impossible.  I know I have an optimistic nature, and I admit buying a bunch of fresh basil put me in a better mood, until I looked at my phone to read the latest dire predictions in the COVID world.  You could say, “don’t look at the news.  Severely restrict your news intake.”  Emotionally I could agree with you, but realistically I cannot.  I am a communicator.  I need to know what’s happening.  And I can’t and won’t be an ostrich for the next 18 months.  As a mother and a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a partner, a mother-in-law, and a friend, I have too many responsibilities to hide this one out.  We’ve had friends and loved ones who have already been hospitalized and released, sick as dogs at home, and this is only the beginning.

Lisa Birnbach and Tim Gunn

As we know we’ll be hunkering down for much longer than was originally foretold, I wanted to present this interview with fashion mentor, teacher, and writer Tim Gunn.

You probably know Tim Gunn from his tenure on “Project Runway,” the 16 seasons-long fashion design competition show, winning an Emmy award and the admiration of myriad fans in the process.  This month, Tim and his co-hosting and co-producing partner Heidi Klum are at the center of a new competition, that makes Project Runway look like small potatoes.  The show is called “Making The Cut”, and this time the contestants are already professional designers, who travel around the world on assignments.  The final prize is $1 million dollars. The show is available on Amazon Prime, where you can also buy the winning designs each week.   The show is great fun and a great diversion now that you are, I hope, staying home.

Tim and I taped this podcast in late January, when we did not have a pandemic hanging over us like a permanent dark cloud.  In retrospect, those were easy, happier days.  Even so, Tim Gunn was tender and affecting, and let me just say, tears were shed.  I am proud to share this interview with you all.

In the meantime. Stay home.  It’s not hard to do. 

The Five Things that made me happy this week:

1.  More phone calls with more friends.  Staying in much closer touch with my family.

2.  Depending on my partner for so much, and his dependence on me.  It’s a test, I suppose, which he is passing with flying colors.

3.  Parmigiana cheese.  It really goes on or in almost everything.  Who knew?

Governor Andrew Cuomo and his brother CNN host, Chris Cuomo

4.  The Cuomos.  They are really filling the information gap with real facts, unlike the seepage of lies from the top of the federal government.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/

https://www.cnn.com/shows/cuomo-prime-time

Randi Rainbow

5.  Randy Rainbow, the clever, hilariously-funny political song parodist who records new songs every week.

Tim Gunn. Photo credit: ScottMcDermott

Tim Gunn’s 5 (7) Things

1.  A curious mind

2.  Books

3.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art

4.  Empathy

5.  Microwave popcorn

6.  Dressing up

7.  Fitness

Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn “Making the Cut”

MORE ABOUT TIM GUNN

Twitter:  @TimGunn

Facebook: @TimGunn

Instagram:  @TimGunn

Making the Cut TV Series:

Twitter: @MakingTheCutTV

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced by The Field in NYC

EP 91 – with Chris Lu - Surviving a pandemic.

Lisa Birnbach with Chris Lu, recording her podcast via a “Zoom” video call

If we turn our gaze to the more distant future, the future which is unknown both to you and to us too, we can only tell you this: when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same. I take this (non-paying) job seriously.  I also take this COVID seriously.  It’s bigger than all of us, and aggressive as hell.  So at the moment, finding five good things isn’t too easy.

I have friends who are on the far side of this disease; have come out of the hospital and are recovering.  I have loved ones who were sick at home.  I have an old dear friend on a ventilator in a Connecticut hospital.  And this is just the beginning.  I am praying for you all and us all, and hoping one day we can look back to the time of COVID and know it was eliminated for good.

Chris Lu

On the plus side, my guest this week, Chris Lu, is very knowledgeable about all things pandemic.  As the Secretary to the Obama Cabinet, and later the Deputy Secretary of Labor, Mr. Lu was part of the team who helped in the transition to the Trump White House.  Under his purview, he helped lay out “what to do in the event of a global pandemic” scenario to the incoming senior staff.

NOTE: I recorded my podcast from home, via the Zoom application, which has emerged as the go-to app for video conferencing, business meetings, family get-togethers, and podcasting. For the first time ever, you can actually watch the video interview on my YouTube channel HERE: https://bit.ly/LB91YouTube

If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Before I list my five things, I want to repost something I found on Facebook (a place I visit less and less).  It was posted by my friend Naomi Foner, and it was written by the Italian writer Francesca Melandri. It’s a trenchant heads-up from Italy (two weeks ahead of us) on what to expect when we reach the apex of the disease. 

Here’s the link to Francesca Melandri’s article as it appeared in English in The Guardian, and below it the full text. Read it:   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future

I am writing to you from Italy, which means I am writing from your future. We are now where you will be in a few days. The epidemic’s charts show us all entwined in a parallel dance.

We are but a few steps ahead of you in the path of time, just like Wuhan was a few weeks ahead of us. We watch you as you behave just as we did. You hold the same arguments we did until a short time ago, between those who still say “it’s only a flu, why all the fuss?” and those who have already understood.

As we watch you from here, from your future, we know that many of you, as you were told to lock yourselves up into your homes, quoted Orwell, some even Hobbes. But soon you’ll be too busy for that.

First of all, you’ll eat. Not just because it will be one of the few last things that you can still do.

You’ll find dozens of social networking groups with tutorials on how to spend your free time in fruitful ways. You will join them all, then ignore them completely after a few days.

You’ll pull apocalyptic literature out of your bookshelves, but will soon find you don’t really feel like reading any of it.

You’ll eat again. You will not sleep well. You will ask yourselves what is happening to democracy.

You’ll have an unstoppable online social life – on Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom…

You will miss your adult children like you never have before; the realization that you have no idea when you will ever see them again will hit you like a punch in the chest.

Old resentments and falling-outs will seem irrelevant. You will call people you had sworn never to talk to ever again, so as to ask them: “How are you doing?” Many women will be beaten in their homes.

You will wonder what is happening to all those who can’t stay home because they don’t have one. You will feel vulnerable when going out shopping in the deserted streets, especially if you are a woman. You will ask yourselves if this is how societies collapse. Does it really happen so fast? You’ll block out these thoughts and when you get back home you’ll eat again.

You will put on weight. You’ll look for online fitness training.

You’ll laugh. You’ll laugh a lot. You’ll flaunt a gallows humor you never had before. Even people who’ve always taken everything dead seriously will contemplate the absurdity of life, of the universe and of it all.

You will make appointments in the supermarket queues with your friends and lovers, so as to briefly see them in person, all the while abiding by the social distancing rules.

You will count all the things you do not need.

The true nature of the people around you will be revealed with total clarity. You will have confirmations and surprises.

Literati who had been omnipresent in the news will disappear; their opinions suddenly irrelevant; some will take refuge in rationalizations which will be so totally lacking in empathy that people will stop listening to them. People whom you had overlooked, instead, will turn out to be reassuring, generous, reliable, pragmatic and clairvoyant.

Those who invite you to see all this mess as an opportunity for planetary renewal will help you to put things in a larger perspective. You will also find them terribly annoying: nice, the planet is breathing better because of the halved CO2 emissions, but how will you pay your bills next month?

You will not understand if witnessing the birth of a new world is more a grandiose or a miserable affair.

You will play music from your windows and lawns. When you saw us singing opera from our balconies, you thought “ah, those Italians”. But we know you will sing uplifting songs to each other too. And when you blast I Will Survive from your windows, we’ll watch you and nod just like the people of Wuhan, who sung from their windows in February, nodded while watching us.

Many of you will fall asleep vowing that the very first thing you’ll do as soon as lockdown is over is file for divorce.

Many children will be conceived.

Your children will be schooled online. They’ll be horrible nuisances; they’ll give you joy.

Elderly people will disobey you like rowdy teenagers: you’ll have to fight with them in order to forbid them from going out, to get infected and die.

You will try not to think about the lonely deaths inside the ICU.

You’ll want to cover with rose petals all medical workers’ steps.

You will be told that society is united in a communal effort, that you are all in the same boat. It will be true. This experience will change for good how you perceive yourself as an individual part of a larger whole.

Class, however, will make all the difference. Being locked up in a house with a pretty garden or in an overcrowded housing project will not be the same. Nor is being able to keep on working from home or seeing your job disappear. That boat in which you’ll be sailing in order to defeat the epidemic will not look the same to everyone nor is it actually the same for everyone: it never was. 

At some point, you will realize it’s tough. You will be afraid. You will share your fear with your dear ones, or you will keep it to yourselves so as not to burden them with it too.

You will eat again.

We’re in Italy, and this is what we know about your future. But it’s just small-scale fortune-telling.

We are very low-key seers.

If we turn our gaze to the more distant future, the future which is unknown both to you and to us too, we can only tell you this: when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same.

 ©️ Francesca Melandri 2020

This week my top five things are charities which are quickly deploying resources during COVID-19.

1.   1199 Home Care Workers:

      Home Care Fund contact: Edwin Prosper: edwin.prosper@1199funds.org - (646) 473-8320

2.  HELPUSA

https://www.helpusa.org/
     Contact: Scarlet Watts     SWatts@helpusa.org

3.   New York State CoronaVirus - NY Health

      https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/home

4.  National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. - Dr. Fauci’s organization

     www.NFID.org

     https://nfid.z2systems.com/np/clients/nfid/donation.jsp 

5.   No Kid Hungry

      https://www.nokidhungry.org/coronavirus

     (https://www.nokidhungry.org/blog/how-your-donations-help-kids-affected-coronavirus)

Chris Lu - Senior Fellow, University of Virginia Miller Center

Chris Lu’s 5 Things

1. 10K steps every day

2.  Twitter

3.  Paid media subscriptions

4.  Small businesses

5.  Career government employees

More About Chris Lu

Twitter:  @ChrisLu44

Senior Fellow - University of Virginia Miller Center

FiscalNote - Senior Strategy Advisor 

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced by The Field in NYC

EP 90 – with RAGE BAKING authors Katherine Alford and Kathy Gunst

Honestly, I feel a little foolish trying to continue the exercise I began in the good old days of 2018.  The reason I started this blog/pod combo was because I was so disappointed and feeling so useless in the days when Trump and his cronies were just always opting to do the wrong thing – always poised to help themselves and their investments first, and then maybe would pretend to think about working American (not immigrant) people second.  NOTE: IF MY OPINION OFFENDS YOU, PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE TO THIS RIGHT NOW.  I WON’T BE INSULTED. 

I’m writing this on March 23rd, and at this point 4 or maybe 5 people I know have been struck with COVID-19.  And I’m sure the number will have risen since I typed this.  I live in New York City, and we have become the epicenter of Coronavirus over the past week, our numbers tripling in as many days.  I’ve been homebound since March 14.

That was the week I conducted this week’s interview with Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford, who wrote this fantastic cookbook/reader:  Rage Baking.  They were enraged before it became trendy!

Do I mind staying home?  No.  It’s not a big sacrifice for me at all.  It is, however, to many people in my life who need other people with them to do their jobs.  What I object to is the attitude of the president, for whom no consequence will matter unless or until he ends up in prison (if he can’t figure out a way to pardon himself first).   He makes me so angry I could bark.

Help corporations?  How dare he!  Help the people who are cowering in fear – with or without medical insurance – who have lost their wages and are having to do triage over food vs. medications for their family.  Not to mention pay rent.

The good news comes from other places:  a slew of doctors flew to Spain from Cuba, all to volunteer in that country’s hospitals; companies like Tito’s vodka and Estee Lauder, who are now manufacturing hand sanitizer, and Tesla, which promised to make ventilators.  My friend Sara is using her time at home sewing face masks, as are other generous people with sewing machines.  Then there are all the artists who are performing on Instagram and YouTube from their homes, singing in their bathrobes or sweatpants, giving, and giving, and giving – though they may not know when or where their next paying gig will occur. 

There are good people, wonderful people.   They constitute my top five of the week:

1.  Governors Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom.  The two most populous states are fortunate that they have capable, compassionate people as their governors.  These are men who believe in science and math, so they actually understand the enormity of this pandemic.  Further they cherish human lives over the chance to make some money.  They have become the leaders we need.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

California Governor Newsom

2.  The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which sends out a newsletter every day, which records the numbers of casualties and fatalities around the world.  Numbers don’t lie.

3.  My mom’s team.  My wonderful mother is dependent on health care aides who live with her, and they are taking very good care of my progenitress.  As I tell them, I am so grateful to them.

4.  Rufus Wainwright.  I don’t know him, but I love his music and his voice.  Every day he makes a video of himself singing a song in his bathrobe.  (I’ve seen 3 or 4 so far.) He calls these his “quarantunes,” and they help to pass the time. 

Rufas Wainwright on Instagram

5.  Religious and meditation leaders on Zoom.  I tuned into a prayer service last weekend, and found the experience moving.  Watching the people congregating from their homes, participating in their own way, reminded me again, how we’re all in this together.  Whether you are a believer or not, some of the zoom gatherings are helpful to buck us up, especially for those who live alone.

Kathy Gunst’s 5 Things:

1. Family, 2. Friendship, 3. Outdoors, 4. Food. Baking. Cooking. Chopping. Eating. Repeat. 5. The written word. 

 Katherine Alford’s 5 Things:

1. Being by/in/or on the water, 2. Quaker Meeting, 3. Cooking with/and for Friends, 4. NY's Chinatowns, 5. Spa Castle Korean spa in NYC.

Kathy Gunst:

Instagram  @kathygunst

Twitter: @Mainecook

Katherine Alford:

Instagram:  @katherine_alford

Katherine Alford

Kathy Gunst

Lisa and Katherine taste Lisa’s Rage Baking experiment.

RAGE BAKING:  The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury and Women’s Voices - A Collection of Recipes and Conversations for Our Time

By Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Rage-Baking/Katherine-Alford/9781982132675

Website:  www.RageBakers.com

Instagram:  @ragebakers

The authors have kindly allowed us to reprint one of their recipes here on the 5 Things That Make Life Better blog. Thank you Kathy, Katherine and Ruth! From Rage Baking:  Oatmeal Cookies from Ruth Reichl

2 ½ cups instant oats

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of fine salt

1 stick unsalted butter, melted, plus more for buttering

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Brush two cookie sheets with butter.

Mix the oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Add the melted butter and stir together with a wooden spoon.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix until evenly moistened.

Drop slightly heaping tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared pans and flatten them with the back of the spoon.  Bake until the edges of the cookies begin to brown, about 8 minutes.  Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for a minute or two, then use a metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack and let cool completely.  If they stick to the cookie sheets, put them back in the oven for a minute, then try again.  These cookies will keep in a tightly sealed container for up to 5 days.

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Lisa Birnbach’s 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is produced by The Field in NYC

EP 89 – Lisa Birnbach’s Coronavirus Update

Lisa Birnbach in the home “studio”

There is nothing funny or uplifting or better about life under the threat of the quicksilver spread of Coronavirus.  Yes, we are all in the same fear together.  COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate between nations, religions, socioeconomic levels, race, gender, environment, or species.  It is after us all. 

Writing this from home there is so much I want to tell you.  I want to say that if we obey the agreed-upon protocols, we should be alright, but I know that doesn’t remove the terror.  It doesn’t remove the worry about family members who are sheltering away from us.  It doesn’t protect us against the sadness over missing key milestones in our loved ones’ lives:  birthdays, graduations, bar & bat mitzvahs, weddings, funerals. 

What’s most frightening to me is the information crisis.  In a country that has to constantly ask itself, “Is the president lying?”, we have no idea what the true story of this disease is.  We do know that this administration undid the epidemic funding that was in place under President Obama.  We know that Trump lied when he said there were only five cases in this country and they were all “getting better.” 

If we knew we were going to be homebound for six months, wouldn’t it be better to know now, rather than getting information in dribs and drabs – 2 weeks -- no 5 weeks -- no through the summer—no, till Christmas?  Then we wouldn’t book flights that will be cancelled, we could titrate our expectations, and perhaps rejigger our patience for the isolation that has only just begun.  (I don’t know about you, but in the good old days, I’d rather know that a flight was running 3 hours late before I headed to the airport, than hear about it in quarter hour increments, in an overcrowded airport waiting area.)

Flying.  Vacations.  Parties.  Movies.  Concerts.  Meeting a friend for coffee.  Going to the gym.  Working with your colleagues at the office.  These pleasures are gone for now, and we will have to make the best of that.  For now, let’s do something safe and call one another on our phones (their OG purpose, after all), because hearing a loved one’s voice can be so reassuring.  Let’s connect by letter (post offices are still open), and use the social and cybermedia that we have to check in with one another.

Being angry and afraid is fine, but in the long-run, not sustainable.   Know that I’m thinking about you, and will be here, online, for fans of the podcast and the 5 Things blogs. 

****        ****      ****      ****      ****         ****       ****       ****

Read a book !

Now, sheepishly, I offer my five things for this week:

1.  If you like opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York is streaming operas daily.

2.  The 92nd Street Y, with its storied talks, readings, and celebrity interviews is streaming those programs online as well.

3.  Various museums are offering virtual tours of their galleries online for free.

4.  Books!  Make a new stack of the books you have at home that you always meant to read, and start reading them.

5.  Love.  It transcends phone lines and ethernet.  It will sustain us through hard times.

Next week we’ll be back with our interview format. Our guests will be the authors of Rage Baking - The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices, Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford.

This podcast is produced by The Field, in NYC

Ep. 88 – with Jesse Kornbluth - Sex, Lies and JFK

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. If you enjoy LISTENING to the podcast, please SUBSCRIBE, RATE and REVIEW the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. Every positive review helps new listeners find our show. THANK YOU!

Lisa Birnbach and Jesse Kornbluth in the Studio at The Field

I have 2 months’ worth of oat milk in my fridge and am awaiting a delivery of 5 bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer.  Am I crazy?  Wait.  Don’t answer that.  We are entering even a more dystopian period than I have ever known, and my brief, my assignment to come up with five things that make my life better – an exercise that I have grown to appreciate – is going to be harder than usual.

Our guest this week is writer Jesse Kornbluth, long time magazine writer, novelist, screenwriter, and man about town.  His new novel is about President John F. Kennedy and his alleged long-time mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer.

I really really want to give you my list of five things that made my life better this week.  I’m going to need a moment. 

The 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1.  I like that my iphone or is it AT&T notifies me when a telemarketer calls and even screens many spam calls.  That’s a time and annoyance saver that I appreciate.

2.  I saw the first half of the play “Inheritance” on Broadway this past Sunday.  In a whirlwind 3 hours and 15 minutes I experienced the excitement, hilarity, rage, and despair of a group of gay male friends in 2017 and 2018.  The writing, by Matthew Lopez and Stephen Daldry’s direction made it riveting and moving. 

3.  And move I did, like a banshee when I recognized Mayor Pete and Chasten Buttigieg a couple of rows in front of us.  I stepped on my boyfriend’s foot and trampled a couple of other people sitting next to us in order to go and pay my respects to this wonderful patriotic couple.  It made the play even richer for me.  And frankly I was glad that the Buttigieges made time for themselves to enjoy this play.  It’s closing this weekend (March 15).  If you can see it somehow, do.

4.  Writing Assignments.  I’m writing a couple of feature stories right now; one for a magazine, and one for The New York Times.  I am enjoying the experiences so much.  It’s a different kind of pleasure to conduct interviews off the air.  But I feel lucky when I get to write for a large audience.

5.  Two of my exhibits ™ are celebrating their birthdays this week.  Exhibit A and Exhibit C are interesting, vibrant, original, intelligent people.  Happy birthday my loves!

Jesse Kornbluth

JESSE KORNBLUTH’S 5 Things

 1. Driving his17 year-old daughter 20 blocks to school.

2. Reading real books - not kindle, movies with subtitles, movies in the theatre and Turner Classics.

3. The off-season.

4. Whatever he’s writing now.

5. Whatever he’s about to write.

MORE ABOUT JESSE KORNBLUTH

His Book: JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story - By Jesse Kornbluth

Website:  www.JesseKornbluth.com

Twitter:  @JesseKornbluth 

Twitter:  @headbutler

Facebook:  @JesseKornbluth

Facebook:  @headbutler

Instagram:  @jessekornbluth

The 5 Things That Make Life Better with Lisa Birnbach podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

Ep. 87 – with Joe Lockhart – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. If you enjoy LISTENING to the podcast, please SUBSCRIBE, RATE and REVIEW the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. Every positive review helps new listeners find our show. THANK YOU !

Joe Lockhart and Lisa Birnbach

What are you looking forward to?  I mean aside from stockpiling anti-bacterial wipes and the election to be over?  Just kidding, but sometimes the world seems to be intruding on our private joys and woes.  I look at pictures of past presidents and remember how shocking it was to see how profoundly they’d aged – visibly aged – in their four or eight years in the Oval Office.  That’s how I feel about the last three years about myself. 

Today’s guest knows that office space well. Joe Lockhart was Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary during Clinton’s last two years, as you recall, the really really difficult ones.  A fascinating career followed (not that it was shabby before), and he worked with John Kerry, the NFL, Facebook, and his own consulting and lobbying firm, Glover Park.  These days Joe Lockhart hosts a wonderful podcast, “Words Matter” and is a contributor to CNN.

The 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1.  Pete Buttigieg’s speech about withdrawing from the presidential race.  It was so measured and so eloquent. He never seemed as presidential as then; so did his husband, Chasten, whose moving introduction, filled with emotion seemed like the perfect “First Spouse” or whatever we will call him one day.  If a Democrat does win the 2020 election, I would not be surprised to see Mayor Pete as our Secretary of Defense or Ambassador to the United Nations.  He’s a patriot and a hero to me.  I know this is just the beginning of his trajectory.

2.  Cooking with Ghee.  Exhibit B ™, who may be lactose intolerant, first told me she cooked with ghee, which is clarified butter, known as something used by the Ayurvedic in India.  It has much less lactose than regular butter, and Ghee has a higher burning point than standard clarified butter, which means it is ideal for frying or sautéing foods. 

3.  The New Yorker.  I read one issue almost cover to cover on my flight to Los Angeles and another one on my flight to Washington, D.C.  You don’t necessarily know what will interest you; often it’s the writing that draws you in, regardless of the subject matter. 

4.  Community in tough times:  Monday morning I went to the supermarket to stock up in case Coronavirus closes down our city.   Even though our huge supermarket (by Manhattan standards) was packed; even though many of the shelves were picked clean – (pasta, pasta sauce, and sodas in particular) – there was a sense of camaraderie which I never feel there.  Often people push and are rude.  This time we became buddies.  “Should I buy Fritos?”  “Why the hell not?” We waited on a very long line to pay for our groceries and it was a kumbaya experience.

5.  Youth.  Not my waning youth, but spending time with college students, now a group that’s pretty much younger than my own exhibits ™.  I spent the weekend at Georgetown University for an article I’m writing, and I enjoyed their earnestness.  And I met some very funny kids.

Joe Lockhart’s 5 Things

1.   His family 

2.   Maine

3.   Political passion

4.   Friends

5.   Cold beer 

MORE ABOUT JOE LOCKHART

Twitter:  @JoeLockhart          https://twitter.com/joelockhart

Twitter @WMM_podcast       https://twitter.com/WMM_podcast

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

Ep. 86– with Congressman Harley Rouda – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Lisa Birnbach and Congressman Harley Rouda

I’ve been thinking about the debate over a free press.  On the one hand, democracy and our Constitution demand it.  On the other, those who don’t like what the press writes denounce journalism as fake news.  And then, there are the tabloids, which are absolutely unethical, and really aren’t considered journals of record.  They are trashy entertainment, for readers who love to take swipes at their idols and watch them crumble.  Tabloids – even if they are written or edited by graduates of accredited journalism schools – should not be confused with journalism.  They are sensationalist purveyors of schadenfreude and thrills.  Real journalists like Julie K. Brown at the Miami Herald, Twohey and Kantor at the NYT, Bob Woodward, Philip Rucker at The Washington Post … there is just no comparison.  What the tabloids do in the UK is so much worse, if possible than mere catch and kill, as Ronan Farrow has explained in his book of that name.  They hound celebrities and physically crowd them so that they cannot pass a street, a door, a car without being almost trampled.  That is no way to live.  Sensibly, the British have admitted they must rethink laws surrounding paparazzi.

My guest this week is freshman Congressman Harley Rouda, Democrat of California’s 48th District in Orange County.  He defeated the longtime incumbent Dana Rohrabacher in a very close race in 2018.  He is a good man.

The 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1.     “My Name is Lucy Barton”, the play, based on the book by the same title.  A tour de force of Laura Linney, a respected actress who I think is still undervalued.  She’s remarkable as Elizabeth’s Strout’s heroine.  The adaptation is wonderfully faithful to the book and the show is on Broadway.  Just before the lights dimmed, I heard someone in the audience say, “I hear they brought the whole cast here from London.”  Well that is true, but the whole cast is Laura Linney.

2.     Democracy.  It feels so good when it works.  When you gather with people who know right from wrong.  Who know how the system works, and feel a collective ache when it’s misused or abused.  The 100 people who gathered with me in Los Angeles were just like any 100 people who could have gathered in a New York living room too.  They were also wearing black.

3.     Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman. I have learned through the digital grapevine that his synagogue is now accepting mail for him, if you feel like writing.  The address is here: execdirector@adatreyim.org

4.     Harvey Weinstein’s guilt.  He didn’t get the most severe sentence, but thank goodness he will be in jail for the foreseeable future.   He will probably also be tried in the courts of Los Angeles and in London.  This is a message to all predators out there.  You may feel you can do what you want to whom you want.  You may hire the most expensive goons to harass and intimidate your victims.  But in the end, if you treat people miserably, you may face karma.   Also, no one fell for your prop walker.

5.     My friend Heidi.  One of the most positive and joyful friends I have, who’s gotten hit with a bevy of crises all at once.  She’s strong, she’s smart, and she will pull through.  I know it and I want her to feel proud of herself as I am of her.

Orange County, CA Representative - Harley Rouda

Rep. Harley Rouda’s 5 Things

1.     Kaira Rouda and their four amazing kids

2.     Dress sneakers aka cool shoes

3.     The iPhone

4.     Nespresso (Red Bull)

5.     Food delivery apps: Postmates / UberEats / GrubHub / DoorDash / Caviar

More about Rep. Harley Rouda

 Official Page - U.S. Congressman Harley Rouda – Representing The 48th District of California - https://rouda.house.gov/

 Harley for Congress - https://harleyforcongress.com/

Twitter:  @RepHarley - https://twitter.com/RepHarley

Instagram: @RepHarleyRouda - https://www.instagram.com/repharleyrouda/

Instagram: @harleyrouda. - https://www.instagram.com/harleyrouda/

Facebook: @RepHarley - https://www.facebook.com/RepHarley/

Ep. 85 – with Actor Richard Kind – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Lisa Birnbach and actor Richard Kind

I feel a bit like a yoyo – swinging from delight and pride in my exhibits ™ and their achievements and their own contentment – to a miserable pessimist when I read the news.  I am trying so hard to swing in the positive direction, but sometimes the current is too strong in the other direction.  That’s why I started this podcast – to help nudge us all a bit to the brighter side.  I will not give up, or give in to the cynics.  Our caring matters.

Talking with actor Richard Kind was a tiny bit like looking in the mirror.  Not that we look alike, but he is so familiar!  He’s been in over 230 tv shows and motion pictures.  You know him from “Spin City”, “Mad About You”, “Gotham”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Inside Out”, “A Serious Man” and at least one episode on what feels like every show on tv and streaming tv over the last 15 years. He is happy and so grateful for his career and his life, his kids and his friends – (as I am).  When it comes to politics, he is angry, but reasonable.  When it comes to knowing how to have a conversation, he’s a strong participant.

Hope you enjoy today’s podcast.

Here are the 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1.  Happy Returns.  It’s not a birthday wish, or a sexy tv show.  it’s a great service I discovered when I wanted to return something to Everlane.  It’s this:  https://www.happyreturns.com/  Instead of packing up your returns and schlepping them to the post office, you can return them to a nearby facility (in my case a store – not Everlane) a few blocks away, and you get your refund that day.  You don’t even need to keep the box the item(s) came in.  Whoo! Check the link to see which retailers use this service.

2.  Director Paul Mazursky.  Though he died in 2014, his feature movie directing career, spanning the years 1962-1996 was full of the texture and the fizziness of the times.  Whether it was “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” about sexual freedom in the suburbs in the 60s, or “An Unmarried Woman” about a woman regaining her self-esteem after being knocked down by her husband’s affair and ensuing divorce, or “Down and Out in Beverly Hills”, the preposterousness of what makes a rich life in a materialistic community.  They make us laugh at ourselves, in the best way, and stand the test of time.

3.  The reason I celebrate Paul Mazursky is because of the delightful new musical adaptation of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” in previews at The Group theater.  Written by Jonathan Mark Sherman, with a score by Duncan Sheik, it is, probably as the film critics once said, “a delightful romp” in 1969.  Ingeniously, in addition to the four principals, singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega leads the band, and plays all the other parts too.  Music is great, acting is bubbly, costumes are outtasight!

4.  Olivela.  Here is a store I discovered online that sells everything a chic woman could want, but 20 % goes to charity with every purchase.  It’s easier to stomach fashion’s high prices when in includes philanthropy.  Olivela, pronounced… ah - li- VAY – lah was started by a young woman who visited refugee camps in Kenya and Rwanda with Malala. Realizing that it was relatively inexpensive to fund school for young girls, and that an education could lift a young girl out of profound poverty, she saw her mission.   On the website, every garment, accessory, and lipstick is priced as it would be elsewhere – you pay no extra for that Ray & Bone sweater – and the best part is each price is given the equivalent in how many school days it will finance.  Monies go to more than the Malala Fund.  A list of the charities is on their website.  

5.  My lemon zester.  I have waxed earlier about my newfound love of spiking food with lemon zest.  I confess I used to use a cheese grater to scrape the skin off lemons.  Now I have a zester.  How could I live this long without one?  Don’t even say it.

Actor Richard Kind

Richard Kind’s 5 Things

1. His children,

2. Love of his vocation,

3. Golf,

4. His friends,

5. His modicum of fame and his drive of ambition to keep working.

More about Richard Kind

Twitter:  @realRichardKind

Instagram:  @realRichardKind

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

Ep. 84 – with Daniel Jones – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Daniel Jones, editor NY Times “Modern Love” with host Lisa Birnbach

Is love in the air for you?  I feel such warmth and empathy towards old friends, ailing friends, new friends, and of course my family.  I think in particular because times are difficult and frightening, the connections we have to our people are important.  But romance just seems heightened around Valentine’s Day, which is why I asked Daniel Jones, the head of Love – well actually the editor of “Modern Love” – the New York Times column, the WBUR podcast, and now the Amazon  tv series to be this week’s guest.

And now, my five things:

1.  Lunch with friends.  What a phenomenal idea!  Very often I spend whole days alone at home writing.  Don’t feel sorry for me. I could never be too productive at a coffee shop or co-working space where every time someone crossed the threshold I would look up, (even knowing that I wouldn’t recognize the person).  So I feel fortunate I can do what I do – other than the podcast tapings themselves – in my apartment.  But I can forget that I’m allowed to break up the day and my solitude, and it’s kind of exciting.  It’s so nice to get a jolt of warmth from a friend’s energy.  Or get a jolt of oxytocin from socializing.  *Special runner up:  Dinner with friends and breakfast with friends.

2.  This Thread, on Twitter:  By Cindy Otis

How I needed to read this!  A question I’ve been asking a lot is how do we separate ourselves from the awful events of the last few weeks?  Trump’s retaliatory and inflamed rhetoric and deeds are despicable.  But thinking about them seems to bring me down to a place of despair.  Ms. Otis’s words brought me comfort; and note they are from 2018.  (She has agreed to visit our podcast.) (read the full tweet here)

3.  Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman.  Hero.  Patriot.  Brave.  Purple Heart winner.  Honest public servant.  In my book these things elevate him way above a coward who avoided service.  We all know it.

4.  Your Feedback.  For the moment, those of you who have been writing in your opinions about the format of the program have had me change or change back some of my ideas for going forward.  I appreciate that you take the time to write; that you care enough to want to invest in the podcast, and I hear you.

5.  Resistors.  People who have altered the course of their lives and careers to say they won’t go along with a terrible despot.  People like Claude Taylor (@True Facts Stated and Mad Doc Pac), Professor Laurence Tribe, Diana Weymar, Molly Jong-Fast, George Conway, Richard Painter, Holly Figueroa O'Reilly, the people behind theoutrage.com, and many, many others.

Daniel Jones, editor of The New York Times column “Modern Love”

Daniel Jones’ 5 Things:

1. Google Earth app

2. Ben & Jerrys Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream

3. Fort Tryon Park 

4. Open office plans

5. Metro North New Haven line

More about Daniel Jones

Twitter:  @danjonesnyt

“Modern Love” column in The New York Times

Author of "Love Illuminated"

Consulting producer for Modern Love series @AmazonStudios

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and Produced by The Field in NYC.

Ep. 83 – with James Poniewozik – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

James Poniewozik and Lisa Birnbach

I began this blog while on hold with United Health care for 32 minutes.  The constant beeping is their way of telling me that no one has hung up on me yet.  Somehow I think if companies allowed human beings to answer phones as they once did, and outsourced less to robots and AI gizmos, more Americans would be employed in gainful, transparent ways.  It’s harder to lie to a person than it is to a system.  And what we’re seeing in Washington is system after system being gamed.

But I apologize.  This is my upbeat, optimistic blog.  Let me reposition myself.  Okay then.

For an adult who basically skipped tv in my 20s other than reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and morning tv and spent her 30s watching Thirtysomething and LA Law other than some news and late night talk shows for year – I am overwhelmed by the amount of tv I must watch to keep up.  I’m not someone who turns on the tv when I walk in my empty house – not that there’s anything wrong with that; it’s just not my thing.  (I also don’t take off my shoes when I come home. I know that could seem odd to you, but you want honesty?  This is honest.)

James Poniewozik and Lisa Birnbach

I still haven’t watched The Wire or Breaking Bad or Homeland or Game of Thrones– I grovel for your forgiveness.

But ever since Trump became president, I have felt that it was my civic responsibility to watch the news obsessively – like the little Dutch boy who tried to close the leak in the dike – I had to manage through thinking and focusing on each new day’s disappointment or catastrophe – rolling back EPA provisions, or Trump persuading Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to step down from his lifetime appointment in order to push angry, unjudicial partial Brett Kavanaugh into position, or Wilbur Ross saying the new pandemic would be good for American business, or the giant hypocrisies of the GOP.

Meanwhile scripted tv has become so good!  The Crown, Shtisel, (very similar in some regards), The Americans, Succession, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Silicon Valley, VEEP, Transparent, Wild Wild Country, Fosse/Verdon, and so on and on and on.  It is hard to keep up.  Not to mention all the documentaries and one-offs.  And the competitions.  And when they’re good they allow us some escape.

Happily for us our guest is James Poniewozik, the Chief TV critic for the New York Times.  He keeps up and then some.  His new book is Audience of One – Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America.

Lisa’s 5 Things:

1.  I never used to talk about cooking.  I didn’t cook and couldn’t stay awake during a conversation about ingredients and recipes.  Seems like that’s changed.  On Monday I emceed a cool evening for the joint benefit of Navigators USA and PANY, and backstage, sitting with a half dozen great actors we discussed two things:  politics and food! As actress Barbara Rosenblat recommended, sprinkle sesame oil on steak before cooking.  Actress Mary Testa recommends salting olive oil before using it as a salad dressing.  Who knew?

2.  Walking through Central Park.  I used to think of crossing the park on foot as a herculean task that could take half a day.  That is just so 20th century thinking.  Twice recently I’ve walked through – even on very cold days – and enjoyed the quiet and the surprising views so much.  A woven wooden bridge I’d never noticed.  The dialectical beauty of the green trying to work itself out of the earth near some frost.  I highly recommend a walk through nature wherever you live.

3.  My exercise place.  It’s a tiny downstairs studio that offers both Gyrotonics and Pilates lessons and classes.  I love the teachers too.  They are all dancers who find the physics of moving a body through space interesting.  I need to concentrate on my shoulders, my breathing, and so on, so being there is also a respite from the noise that’s constantly in my head.  The studio is so nearby that if it offered sumo wrestling, I’d probably be doing that. 

4. Adam Schiff

5.  Nancy Pelosi

James Poniewozik’s 5 Things:

1.  My Escali digital kitchen scale. It was hard not to make all 5 of these cooking-related items. This is my best bang-for-the-buck kitchen item—it cost me like 20 bucks, I use it for most recipes, and it’s even good for measuring coffee in the morning.

2.  Tivo. People expect me, as a TV critic, to have a lot of fancy TV-tech suggestions for lists like these, but my TV setup is more or less as boring and basic as anyone’s. But Tivo has been around almost exactly as long as I’ve been a critic, it’s still the best DVR, and I can’t fathom how I would have done the job before it.

3.  March Mammal Madness. My family's favorite end-of-winter ritual, it's an annual bracket run by scientists in which a field of animals compete on the simple basis: who would win in a (theoretical) battle? A great sports substitute for the non-sportsy:

4.  Bob's Burgers. I also could have done a list entirely of TV series, but making TV lists is actually very stressful for me. I'm rewatching the entire series with my younger son, and it's just the perfect joyful escape at the end of the day.

5.  Epiphone FT-85 Serenader acoustic 12-string guitar. It’s older than me and I am not good at playing it, but it sounds beautiful and it’s therapeutic for anyone to be able to play any instrument, even a little.

New York Times Chief TV Critic, James Poniewozik

More about James Poniewozik

Chief television critic for The New York Times

AUDIENCE OF ONE – Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America. - By James Poniewozik

Published by Liverwright Publishing Corporation / An imprint of W.W. Norton & Company

 Twitter: @poniewozik

 The 5Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC