Ep. 122 - Barry Levine - The inside story of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

November 6, 2020

Well that didn’t happen. And that other thing didn’t happen. And my faith in the American people has been bruised. But perhaps by the time you hear this podcast, we will have a legal and honest count of the Electoral College and be on the long road to a new administration.

I can’t wait. I’m running out of wine. (But I have plenty of whine. See what I did there?)

Election Day is over but the process of transformation is far from done. Even if we have our old, worn out, and self-dealing Senate Majority Leader, we will have a Senate that will have to learn to “play nicely”, as we said when our kids were in nursery school. If Joe Biden is president, you know he will encourage that, as working in a bi-partisan way was vital to his work as a United States senator. And Mark Kelley will serve the people of Arizona! And perhaps we’ll see another Democratic senator from Georgia.

Further, we are all bracing for a winter spike in coronavirus. I know people are trying to prepare for that without hoarding. We don’t actually know what it will feel like. If the imminent spike is anything like April and May in New York, we will have to stay home more than we’ve done, and be more conscientious about social distancing. If we’ve learned NOTHING ELSE IN 2020, it is to be patient.

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

Speaking of long games, the full story about Trump’s dead dreadful pedophile friend, Jeffrey Epstein is still murky. His BFF Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison, awaiting her trial in 2021. My guest this week is Barry Levine author of the new book The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. I’m fascinated by this story because I believe the reach of these two creeps goes far into the fortresses of power across the globe.

As promised in my podcast, here's the photo from Barry’s Book:

Epstein with Donald Trump and his children Eric and Ivanka, then nine and twelve, at the NYC Harley-Davidson Cafe opening in 1993

With difficulty, the five things that made life better for me this week.

1. My Family
2. My Health
3. My Old Friends
4. My New Friends! (Over the last couple of years I’ve been surprised to make new friends. I do feel grateful for them.)
5. The Resistance

Barry Levine’s 5 Things:

1. Watching the animated Peanuts Charlie Brown Halloween and Christmas shows with my daughter, now in high school, every year because she enjoys them as much as when I was a kid.

2. Starting every single day, no matter where I am, with a visit to Starbucks for a Trenta black iced tea with extra ice - no matter whether it’s summer or the coldest day in winter.

3. Drinking dirty martinis at an old writers bar in Manhattan with former newspaper colleagues and telling war stories. The stories get better and better with age like a fine wine.

4. Going to the annual antiquarian book fair every spring at the Park Avenue Armory in New York - and seeing the greatest modern literature first editions in perfect dust jackets.

5. Pulling out a reporter’s notepad and simply putting pencil to paper in this high-tech world with the very same enthusiasm all these decades later since I did it first for my high school and college papers.

More About Barry Levine

Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

Published by Crown | Penguin Random House.

Twitter @barryscoopking

Facebook @ barry.levine.792

Website: www.BarryLevineauthor.com

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

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Ep 121 - Alexandra Pelosi - Taking a hard look at 2020 America

October 30, 2020

Greetings, earthlings. I’m just debating with myself if I want to see the Aaron Sorkin version of the 2020 election or some kind of animated version. Right now I am just so sick of hearing Donald Trump’s voice that I might skip the movie entirely. We’ve lived through it and I feel like an unpaid extra, as I’m sure many of you do.

The election is imminent. By next week all who vote will have voted, and then we will know or we will wait. Let’s hope and maybe pray that Americans stay calm through the tabulation process. The pandemic prevents us from having Election Night parties, which is just as well. Some of my guests from Election Night 2016 still haven’t forgiven me for the outcome.

The documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi is my guest this week. And her newest movie, “American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself” encapsulates the various ideological siloes we have now in this country. Starting with the vanity of people of all ages and walks of life who spend vasts amount of time portraying their most favorable selves in pictures they post online, to the protests that have posited one side against another – immigrants, gun lovers, BLM protestors, and more in a travelogue of this year. What a year. What is particularly amazing is that this one guileless woman with a camera goes into crowds all alone – without a crew – and gets people to talk to her.

But before you meet Alexandra (and yes, her mother is the Speaker of the House), here is my list of 5 things that made my life better.

1. Voting. I always take voting seriously. We went to vote early last Saturday, the first day of early voting in New York. The lines lasted many hours. The vibe was positive. Intentional. Respectful. Democracy at Work.

2. My mother had a humor piece published. With my brother Norman’s help, she wrote FUNNY WOMEN: Sleep Tips by a 90-Year-Old Insomniac. I am reprinting it here. When I called to congratulate her, she was uncharacteristically modest, but then said she barely remembered writing it, which is kind of key. Please read it.

3. Decluttering. It’s now or never. I pick now. I have a million excuses of why I can’t, but I just have to. My desire to get rid of things has become almost a physical ache. Stay tuned to hear more about it.

4. Merino wool. I feel sorry for wool. It’s become such a stepchild since everything knitted is now knitted in cashmere. But before cashmere there was Merino, there was Shetland, there was mohair, virgin wool, Icelandic wool. These wools had textures and oomph. Now everything is cashmere and soft and glamourous and expensive. I’m liking those other wools. Fortunately I still have sweaters from the previous century.

5. Fake Melania. I don’t know if you heard, but people are looking at pictures of the Trumps from their campaign trips over last weekend, and many think that Trump traveled with a Melania stunt double. It’s crazy, so crazy, but maybe just possible. This version of Melania 2.0 smiles much more openly and broadly than the original and even holds Trump’s hand.

Alexandra Pelosi’s 5 Things:

YouTube series Johnny Harris and his wife Iz Harris
Justin Bieber - Lonely
NYC’s Washington Square Park and the people that frequent it and help make NYC a better place
Dashwood Books and other small businesses that make NYC NYC
Cheap box cake

More About Alexandra Pelosi

American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself

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

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Ep. 120 - Joe Conason - Shoe Leather & Guts; The Real Investigative Reporters

October 23, 2020

The urgency I feel every morning when I wake up is palpable. The clock is running out. Either the time is nigh or the end is near. I pray and hope it’s the former. I don’t think that Election Day will immediately solve all our problems. Like many of you, I believe it will take weeks or months until this country knows who will be in charge beginning January 21, 2021. And then of course, we will have to be patient as we await a vaccine or a treatment for COVID-19, as we await the reopening of our cities, and as we see how the administration is handling our intersectional crises.

I don’t pretend that I don’t have moments of utter banality – how does my hair look? I shouldn’t have eaten those potato chips. Why are my fingers riddled with paper cuts? Should I buy an ipad?

Life can’t always be lived at its extremes. We need to take breaks and recharge and do something mindless – read a fashion magazine (I’m assuming fashion exists somewhere) or watch a rerun of your favorite tv show, or organize your spice rack or sock drawer.

As I have discussed in other podcasts, I often praise the work of the great and dogged investigative journalists – women and men who will not stop a search until they’ve gotten to the bottom of things. I have two such reporters on the show today.

Actually, Joe Conason, an old friend from my Village Voice days has devoted the last 42 years to digging and reporting. There, he worked in tandem with Wayne Barrett, a legendary journalist who was really the first non-gossip reporter to look into Donald Trump’s career and catalogue his manipulations of prices, truths, and real estate laws. Wayne became one of Trump’s nemeses, and unfortunately died the night before Trump was inaugurated.

In addition to the Voice, Joe has written for The NY Observer, the National Memo, and The Investigative Fund – Type Investigations. He’s written books about Bill Clinton and George Bush. He joins me today to talk about Without Compromise: The Brave Journalism that First Exposed Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and the American Epidemic of Corruption – the work of Wayne Barret. Edited by Eileen Markey.

I am excited to bring these two smart and principled reporters to you all.

First, the five things that made my life better for this week.

1. Madewell jeans. I am deluged with ads for new blue jeans on all my social media. I guess that’s because I open them and look at them. I decided I needed to replace an old pair of corduroy jeans that I adored. WHY DID I GET RID OF THEM, or did I? They were high waisted and bootcut. Madewell makes them. In denim. I ordered them online and have barely taken them off since they arrived. I love their jeans.

2. The Vow – the documentary series on HBO. I find cults utterly fascinating – be they based in religion, politics, culture, or under the guise of self help. This is a series about Nexium, the hybrid self help/sex slavery group founded by a guy/guru called Keith Raniere outside of Albany, NY. It is animated by the actress Catherine Oxenberg (of Dynasty fame) and her efforts to wrest her daughter back from the cult. Spoiler alert: Rainiere is in jail now, but that doesn’t take away from the weirdo stuff in the film. The leader seems like a nebbishy guy who gets women to sleep with him and accept ridiculous rules in order to be close to him.

3. Speaking of cults, the word game I discovered a few years ago called Spelling Bee on the New York Times puzzle site has a rabid digital community that has grown around it. It’s not just me! And while I think I was a very early adaptor, this article (which doesn’t mention me) is a fun read.

4. Politics making strange bedfellows: I had no idea that some of the people I follow and retweet on Twitter were Republicans. It no longer matters to me. Who is Rex Chapman? A former basketball star and drug addict? Oh. Well I follow him too.

5. Nancy Pelosi. Whether you admire her – as I do – or not, she is a force with which to be reckoned. Wearing her masks, being steadfast and stubborn – caring about the have nots in the way this country was formed. We can’t forget that when she’s not in the news she is doing the work. Day in and day out. And she’s grandma’s age.

Joe Conason’s 5 Things

1. Proraso shaving cream (a satisfactory grooming moment when you haven’t been able to get a haircut for months)

2. CBD oil/balm for sleep and pain (It works! it’s harmless!)

3. Avatar: The Last Airbender with my daughter Eleanor (following Marvel Comics Universe, Harry Potter series, The Office, Parks and Rec, etc — movies and TV with kids)

4. Sailing on Sunfish and Quest with my son Edward (many of my happiest moments with this summer)

5. Instant Pot Duo (like the pressure cooker I’ve used for many years, except better — and I’ve unlearned my aversion to kitchen tech)

More About Joe Conason

Without Compromise: The Brave Journalism That First Exposed Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and the American Epidemic of Corruption,.

Wayne Barrett

Edited by Eileen Markey

Published by Bold Type Books

Twitter: @JoeConason
Facebook @JoeConason.

Website: JoeConason.org

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

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Ep. 119 - Will Haskell - The 24 year old Senator

October 16, 2020

Hello from Crazytown.

I don’t mean New York; I mean inside my head. I’m wondering if you feel the same way I do. My brain has been appropriated by the weird and terrible things happening in the world and this country in particular. Strange dreams – and I had strange dreams before Trump and the pandemic. I want to think about other things – like when I’m seeing my friends, and when my mom can come over for dinner, and what to wear to a party. I don’t like going to sleep after hearing some squeaky lie from Lindsey Graham. It’s not good. I feel stuck.

Well anyway, one way I’m dealing with my emotional stress is by writing letters to voters through votersfwd.org. Volunteers like me download an address list and letters to personalize – 5 at a time. You only have space to write why you care and will vote in this election. I find it’s very helpful to me. I hope it encourages my correspondents to vote. That is the point, after all.

I do believe that voting is our best way to feel empowered. I know the Constitution has its flaws and its framers were flawed, but boy oh boy it’s a great template for us. It makes me love my country.

Just like Will Haskell. My guest this week is the youngest state senator in Connecticut. Representing the 26th district – Fairfield County – he is 23 and is finishing his first two-year term now. I wanted to talk to someone of his generation and find out how and why he wanted to be a public servant.

He’s a polished gen zer, I must say.

But first, my five things that make life better.

Shipt. This is my grocery store – in lieu of Instacart. I had never heard of it but my bffs Dani and Amy recommended it. The shoppers are really impressive. I used them in Los Angeles and I use them here. It costs the same as Instacart, but I find it uses the stores I like and again, the shoppers are great communicators.

2. I bought a new green plant for the kitchen. I realized I spend a lot of time over the sink and counter and darn it, I can look at a pretty green plant. It honestly gives me pleasure every time I look at it. It felt like a splurge, but it isn’t compared to cut flowers.

3. Maya Rudolph. She’s back on SNL playing Kamala Harris and it’s so great to see her again. She’s one of those people – Will Ferell and Kristin Wiig are also – who I just smile when I see them. They are comedians who are willing to commit to an impersonation. Yay.

4. Boom Again. This is a brand-new board game intended for members of the Baby Boomer generation. Created by Brian Hersch, inventor of Taboo (about which I have a story, but about which I am sworn to secrecy) this is a trivia game meant for people who remember the 50s, 60s, 70s. Its container looks like a cigar box with pictures of Janis Joplin, Lucy and Desi Arnaz, JFK, and John Belushi as a killer bee. The game pieces are a Kennedy campaign button, a 45” record adapter, and so on. We played it outdoors with our friends Heidi and Robert and spent two hours laughing and arguing. That’s a good afternoon.

5. Dr. Fauci. He’s been sidelined by the administration, yet they are using his words out of context to look like he’s endorsing Trump in political commercials. How Dare They? He is a treasure.

Senator Will Haskell’s 5 Things:

1. Socks that match. An infrequent surprise.

2. His campaign interns. Most of the people who work in our campaign aren’t old enough to vote, and that makes me optimistic about our future.

3. Homemade hard cider. Because you can only go to the liquor store so often during a pandemic.

4. His brand new ring light, so that not every Zoom looks like a hostage situation.

5. His car. Serving in the state senate involves a ton of driving, and my Subaru Forester is there for me through it all.

More About Senator Will Haskell:

Website: https://www.willhaskell.com/

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

Instagram: @WillHaskellforCT
https://www.instagram.com/willhaskellforct/

Facebook: @WillHaskellforCT
https://www.facebook.com/WillHaskellforCT

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

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Ep. 118 - Andrew Weissmann - Inside the Mueller Investigation

October 9, 2020

I want to confess that I’m struggling with telling time. I can look at a watch and see the actual hour -- (and I wear an old fashioned analog wristwatch) – but I am no longer able to tell you whether something happened two years ago or six years ago.

Having school-aged children is very helpful in counting the days because of their development and their academic calendar. “We went on our ski trip when Toby was in 4th grade” or “that was last year at Peter’s 8th grade graduation.” Also parents tend to take a lot of photographs and videos.

The only markers I have that are real to me are the birthdays of my loved ones, and March 13th, 2020, when New York’s cultural institutions were quickly shut down. We had lunch with friends on the 14th, and then I didn’t leave my apartment for one month. Life is either before covid or post covid. That could not be more clear.

Furthermore, life pre-Trump was a relatively delicious one – the “good old days,” if you will. When I went to a concert or a play or a movie, I could fully immerse myself in what I saw and experienced, and I didn’t think of art so much as therapeutic. Post-Trump there was a good chance I couldn’t even focus on what was on the stage in front of me, so pissed off was I by the latest of the administration’s daily corruptions.

We have just a few weeks to try to staunch the hemorrhaging of infections brought on by the Superspreader and his gang, and their insistence that science is irrelevant – he seems to have rendered his own doctors irrelevant. Let’s not waste time!

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. To WATCH it on YOUTUBE - Click HERE. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO! It helps get my podcast noticed.

Lisa Birnbach and guest, Andrew Weissmann

I’m super excited that Andrew Weissmann, longtime Justice Department prosecutor and lead prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. He’s written a new account of that experience, “WHERE LAW ENDS: Inside the Mueller Investigation,” published by Random House.

But first, the five things that made my life better this week:

1. Journalism, real journalism performed by real reporters. I’m not talking about spin, I’m talking about digging up facts and then explaining them clearly. It is not an easy job; it is not a glamorous job. It is hard work, not well-paid, and certainly dangerous. There are a lot of unheralded heroes these days, and reporters are among them. (Look at people like David Corn of Mother Jones and Kurt Eichenwald, and Michael Shear of the NY Times, and Lachlan Markay & Lachlan Cartwright of the Daily Beast, and Julia Ioffe at GQ.)

2. Artists online. When you need a break – and we all do. Some friends on Twitter spend a lot of their energy tweeting paintings and poems. Not a bad way to remember there are other things in life than politics and division.

3. Facetiming with Le Bébé. Our schedules are very complementary. In other words, he eats early and I wake up late. I’ve been facetiming him while he eats breakfast, and we have a fun 5 minutes. I turn into a ridiculous sound making machine and enjoy it thoroughly.

4. Cornmeal. I have always loved corn muffins. They are my muffin of choice. I have never baked one (note to self: hmm?) but when cake recipes call for cornmeal they feel so modern and a tiny bit crunchy. Yum.

5. Hope. I know we have felt so much despair in these dystopic months. I have had had to drag myself many weeks to find my five things that make my life better. But I still have hope – and we all must hang on to it.

Author Photo -- credit Zachary Krahmer.jpeg

Andrew Weissmann’s 5 Things:

1. The FT weekend edition

2. Carnegie Hall

3. V&A Museum

4. The Adirondacks

5. The NY Subway

More About Andrew Weissmann

WHERE LAW ENDS: Inside the Mueller Investigation
By Andrew Weissmann
Published by Random House

Twitter: @AWWeissmann_

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

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Ep 117 - Malcolm Nance - Counter-terrorist Expert and Patriot

October 2, 2020

October! We’re just a month away from whatever the heck is going to happen to the democracy that was so precious to us we forgot to protect it. Like planet earth. Like my pandemic plans to learn a new language. We let good ideas languish and then we forget about them.

Well no more!

I’m texting voters in North Carolina. I’m sending money to Katie Porter and Joe Biden. I’m wearing my button whenever I go out. I’m wearing a mask whenever I leave my apartment! I’ve joined Writers Against Trump! I’ve sent money to Sara Gideon, Mark Kelley, Jaime Harrison, Katie Porter, Amy McGrath, Steve Bullock, Theresa Greenfield, M.J. Hegar, John Hickenlooper, Jon Ossoff, and every other Democratic candidate whose opponent has to go.

I’m activated. My exhibits™ are activated. This is the first presidential election since 1988 where I’m not outside leafletting or helping to Get Out the Vote. So I’m shouting into my laptop, my phone, my mask: we have to get rid of him before he gets rid of us.

Excuse me. Whoo. I’m riled up by the nightmare we had of a “debate.” I’m calming down – watch me. Gaining composure. Good. Our guest today is none other than Malcolm Nance, the smooth and expert Naval veteran you’ve seen on MSNBC who’s summoned whenever there’s an intelligence breach or a fear of terrorism. He speaks many languages, as one does in counterterrorism. He’s written several books including The Plot to Betray America: How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It. If this American experiment fails, he could always be a voice over star. You’ll see what I mean.

But first, the five things that made my life better this week:

1. Holidays online. I thought it would feel lonely watching the Jewish High Holiday services online, but I did feel the community watching the livestream. Every now and then the camera turned to some families at their houses, and with the cameras’ close ups, I was able to see our rabbis and cantors much better than in person. Did you observe holidays or ceremonies online? How did you feel?

2. Being home in New York with a whole closet instead of 10 heavily-rotated pieces, it feels like I have a whole new wardrobe. And even though I’ve been quarantining at home, I do get dressed every day. No sweats for me.

3. Peking Duck. I forgot how much I like this dish. It used to be much easier to find on Chinese restaurant menus. Now, not so much. Found good Peking Duck delivery for my partner’s birthday. Him and me and a bottle of red wine.

4. My mother – she’s 90 and still has her sparkle if not much energy. My exhibits ™ and I think she’s funnier and sharper than she was last year. I miss the person she used to be but I’m grateful for whom she is now.

5. Patriotism. No one group “owns” the flag. Wearing a little enamel flag pin doesn’t mean you are more patriotic than someone who doesn’t. If there is a shred of silver lining within this horrible administration, it is the recognition that the whistleblowers and the people inside government that we never knew about the Alexander Vindmans, the Sally Yates’es, the Fiona Hills, the Marie Yovanoviches, who risked their reputation to serve our country.

Malcolm Nance’s 5 Things:

1. My wife’s grave stone at Washington Crossing national cemetery

2. Radiant heated bathroom floors

3. Shostakovich Jazz Suite waltz number two in Nero Wolfe TV Series,

4. “The bad wolf“ my 1985 Land Rover defender

5. My French Foreign Legion issue Swiss Army knife.

EP 117 - MN - The Plot to Betray America.jpg

More About Malcolm Nance:

The Plot To Betray America
By Malcolm Nance

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

Instagram: @MalcolmwNance
https://www.instagram.com/malcolmwnance/

Facebook @MalcolmNance
https://www.facebook.com/MalcolmNance

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

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Ep. 116 - Claude Taylor - Witty Resister and Room Rater

September 25, 2020

This weeks’ podcast was conducted on video, over zoom. (Click HERE to watch on YOUTUBE). Why? Because this week’s guest, Claude Taylor is also known as the Room Rater - he rates the zoom backgrounds of pundits working from home. I felt it was appropriate to be one of his “rated”. (Note: I passed!). If you listen to the podcast, you’ll notice that the audio is not quite what you’re used to.

I am back in New York, and though I miss my exhibits ™ dearly (having left them yesterday), I am happy to be reinstalled in my own apartment. (My partner already misses the larger sized rooms in our California house. And the swimming pool.) I enjoy having real sidewalks everywhere and seeing masks on every person walking in my neighborhood.

I’m back in my actual office, which means business. I felt the days blurred in LA and I barely knew the date. Of course, I saw our stay there as a vacation, not as a real-life experiment. Should we ever move west, it would feel very different.

Anyway, I haven’t opened my mail or paid my bills so I have a lot to do this week, but as the news slithers out of Washington and as we mourn Ruth Bader Ginsberg, it feels odd to try to feel optimistic. To be perfectly honest, I do not feel optimistic at the moment, but I do feel grateful. I think you’ll understand why in a sec.

My guest is Claude Taylor, who has turned resistance and his anger towards Trump and his enablers into witty billboards and wonderful merch at MadDogPac. Then, as we were isolating and pundits had to work from home, he and his fiancée started the Twitter account called Room Rater, which now has over 312,000 followers.

Here are my five things that made my life better this week:

1. My partner and I spent a whole month away in California, to see my kids and g----son. It was all wonderful, after we quarantined and tested negative. We had a house with a pool, which was fantastic. Swimming with the baby was a pleasure I never imagined.

2. We had four distanced meals at friends’ gardens or restaurants. Each one was so special; a chance to practice our social skills. (Mine are rusty. Zoom just isn’t the same.) I apologize to Jamie, Laurie, Kath, Claudia & Shelly, and Mitch and MJ if I ate with my mouth open or interrupted you. I was just too excited to see you.

3. The baby. He never stops moving. He ricochets around the house like a bug captured in a jar. My friend Janis and her family had us over for a playdate and the kid never paused even for a snack. Whoah. Thanks to them for a great time.

4. Our residency overlapped with my birthday. Unlike many, I got to celebrate with my family. All I can say is I’m very grateful. And a few pounds heavier.

5. The beach. Longtime devotees of this podcast know that being on a beach – almost any beach—makes me insanely happy. We went to the beach in Santa Monica on our very last day in Los Angeles. It was a gorgeous day. It was perfect in every way. Again. Grateful.

Claude Taylor’s 5 Things:

1. His kids

2. His dog, Pipper

3. His friends

4. His Twitter friends

5. His fiancée, Jessie

More About Claude Taylor:

Website: www.maddogpac.com

Twitter @TrueFactsStated

Instagram: @MadDogPac

Facebook: @MadDogPoliticalActionCommittee

YouTube Claude Taylor.

Room Rater

Twitter @ratemyskyperoom.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020 — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020

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

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Ep. 115 - Amelia Nierenberg - Thoughtful Food, Food For Thought

September 18, 2020

Hi Friends,

First, if you observe the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, I wish you a happy and healthy new year.

You’ll never make money betting on New York versus Los Angeles. Just when I finished defending New York City from the obituary writers, the West Coast inferno gets magnified and even more biblical.

I am still in California, at the end of my month-long visit with the #Exhibits ™. I am very happy to be here, to get a sense of what their lives are like, and have more than a few days to luxuriate in our relationships. And to tell you the truth, I haven’t even minded the driving. I can drive to and from the baby’s house without using GPS.

But to get back to the true issues at hand, the West Coast is burning. Until this president took office, I always had the sense that America did things right. Our brilliant founders planned for every contingency and our Constitution served us well.

It was my American privilege, and I took it for granted.

Now, by disdaining and flouting science, this president and his team (his bodyguard, his son-in-law, and other untrained and unprepared donors) are playing the most dangerous game of Russian Roulette ever. You burn if you’re blue, and if you’re red you get to join a superspreading rally instead. This is the bad dream I wake up to and go to bed to every single day.

Conversations on the East and West coasts now include, “Where can we go?” Haze from the fires has traveled to the Atlantic coast – including Palm Beach -- and beyond. Even We are all suffering, no matter where we are. This president is harming the entire planet.

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!

What occasionally makes me hopeful is listening to and talking with the younger generation of doers. My admiration for the Parkland survivors, Greta Thunberg, Malala, and their peers knows no bounds. My guest this week is Amelia Nierenberg, the co-writer of the New York Times’ Coronavirus Schools Briefing newsletter. A member of the first class of New York Times fellows, she wrote on the Food Desk. After graduating from Yale with a BA and MA in Intellectual History, Amelia worked for the AP in Dakar, Senegal, in their West Africa Bureau.

Please listen to the interview with Amelia Nierenberg (click in the audio player above), in the meantime, here are this week’s five things that make my life better.

Enjoying the fruits and vegetables from one’s garden. I don’t have a garden or a green thumb, but there is a nice lemon tree in the backyard of our rented house in Los Angeles. What a pleasure to hop out of the kitchen at dinner time to pull of lemon for salad dressing from that tree. What a feeling of self-sufficiency! Having a small garden is on my wishlist for my next chapter, whether it’s a terrace in New York or a cottage in California.

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2. The Citizen App. I downloaded it per my stepdaughter to learn more about what was going on in my neighborhood in New York. In Los Angeles, with countless helicopters flying overhead, and twice finding myself rerouted by blocks being blocked by police cars, I feel a little more empowered. (And it’s not polite or prudent to ask a cop who they are looking for during a stake-out.)

3. Vegan and Gluten Free bakeries. #ExhibitB must avoid gluten; #ExhibitsA&A1 are trying to skip dairy. There are many places that bake beautiful breads and pastries that they can all eat. Good for you, Los Angeles.

4. Reading. Overwhelmed by the offerings of streaming series, rerun series that I never watched, old and new movies, and yes, am I ever going to watch “Breaking Bad”? I turn to books. We are watching documentaries frequently, but many nights I read instead.

5. Science. Take it from me, a person who hated going to science class in school. Science is behind the fires, the pandemic, global warming. Ignoring science has put the planet in peril. We need a president who believes in science. (Empirically, how do you disbelieve what is provable?). Please vote early.

AMELIA NIERENBERG’S 5 THINGS:

1. Crunchy Garlic with Chile Oil from H-Mart

2. Negative Underwear's Sieve Non-Wire Bra ... first wire-less bra for big boobs that works!

3. Rapid turnaround Covid testing ... my friends and I got tested and went away to Vermont for the week. It's almost Jan 2020 over here.

4. The movie Manto, which I'd never seen before. Just a really beautiful film, and a really helpful introduction to history that I don't know anything about.

5. Spending the first half-hour or so reading and drinking tea and just letting myself wake up slowly and languidly.

MORE ABOUT AMELIA NIERENBERG

Amelia Nierenberg is a newsletter writer for The New York Times on the Coronavirus Schools Briefing.

Instagram: @amelia.nierenberg

Twitter: @AJNierenberg

Facebook: @amelia.nierenberg

Website: www.AmeliaNierenberg.com

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

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Ep. 114 - Christopher Buckley - The Administration That Satirizes Itself

September 11, 2020

This is the first September 11th I believe I haven’t been in New York City since 2001. It’s a weird feeling. It’s just a fluke that I’m on the West Coast now. I don’t feel like I’ve bailed on New York, but I am kind of incredulous that I didn’t even realize it was the anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy this week. We have so many other tragedies to “monitor” at this moment.

Nevertheless, when one is away from home and from one’s tv pre-set to the news, it is relaxing. I hope you had a restful Labor Day wherever you were.

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!

Since we’ve been away we’ve been asked if we would like to move to California, something that happens on most trips I make to Los Angeles. Is it because the person asking me used to live on the East Coast too and finds it contrary to want to live with cold winters and slush and crowds and subways?

There is a new take on my choosing to live in New York, and this is that since COVID had such a profound impact on New Yorkers in the Spring, some press is now calling New York City “dead and over.” It’s true that my neighbors who have summer homes outside the city have transplanted themselves to that house – for a long haul that seems so pleasant they are thinking of it as a more permanent residence. Some families just decided to return home – wherever that was – for more space at a lower price, and at an easier pace. My particular NY neighborhood has been vilified as “increasingly squalid” and “filled with junkies and sex offenders.” The exaggeration is coocoo. Life is similar to what it was, though we are never without our 70% alcohol wipes or gels. We just have to be patient.

Meanwhile, this week’s interview was done on the East Coast and feels kind of East Coast. Could be because I was chatting with writer Christopher Buckley. The son of Conservative thinker, writer, and publisher William F. Buckley, Jr. who founded The National Review, Christopher was sitting in his family house in Connecticut, in his father’s study, I believe, surrounded by.. let’s call it Buckleyana. Christopher’s new satirical novel is called Make Russia Great Again. It’s published by Simon & Schuster. If there’s one thing you can say about the Trump administration: it’s more or less satire without the humor.

First, my five things:

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1. Burgers Never Say Die. It’s a burger stand essentially, that #ExhibitB introduced me to last year. It’s the only hamburger I have dreamed of or yearned for. Fried flat, with crispy edges, pickles, and I think some kind of Russian dressing. It’s in Silverlake, and it is not worth a plane ticket, but at half an hour on a freeway? Yes, yes, yes.

2. Kismet restaurant. This terrific Middle-Eastern cuisine restaurant in West Hollywood sent out an email to their patrons (I’d eaten there once or twice on earlier visits) talking frankly about how hard it was to stay in business during the pandemic. (Los Angeles restaurants have been closed except for pickup and delivery and some outdoor tables for months.). It was a poignant letter. And we ordered dinner from Kismet, and it was good.

3. Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles. Founded in Hollywood, in 1975 by Herb Hudson, a Harlem expat, there are eight branches of this fried chicken restaurant in Southern California. This fried chicken is so good. And you know how I feel about fried chicken.

4. We did something that felt “normal” in the sense of “a fun thing we used to be able to do before the pandemic without worrying about it” this past week. We had an afternoon visit with another family in their house and back yard. Conversation! Laughs! Parents and exhibits! Fruit trees! Pastries! It was a huge highlight. Thank you to M, MJ, M, and P.

5. #ExhibitBaby

Christopher Buckley Credit-Katy Close.jpeg

Christopher Buckley's 5 Things:

1. Wife Katy

2. Air conditioning

3. Julian’s borscht soup.

4. Movie: Dr. Strangelove

5. Pear’s Soap

More About Christopher Buckley

Make Russia Great Again
By Christopher Buckley
Published by Simon & Schuster

Website: ChristopherBuckley.com

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

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Ep. 113 - Chef Kwame Onwuachi - The Future of Eating Out

September 4, 2020

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!

Hey Friends. I’m taping my introduction in Los Angeles, where I’ve been huddling with my Exhibits™. Without realizing it, I’ve been smiling that big ear to ear grin that I haven’t displayed or felt much in the last year.

We have rented an old Hollywood house which probably has a cool history, though so far I haven’t been able to find it’s provenance other than it was built in the 1920s. It’s Spanish and is made of stucco with stained glass windows and nice wood floors. But best of all is the yard, which allows us to be together outside. Surrounded by green and sky and sun.

My guest this week was named to the 30 Under 30 list by Forbes Magazine in 2019.. Kwame Onwuachi was also named Esquire Magazine’s Chef of the Year, and he was anointed as the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year. Kwame wrote Notes From a Young Black Chef, which was published by Knopf in 2019. He was a contestant on tv’s Top Chef in 2015. He ran several prestigious kitchens in Washington, D.C. until recently. Kwame’s story is a powerful one, and he is a charming conversationalist.

The five things that made Lisa’s life better this week:

1 Everyone of our far-flung exhibits gathered at our house this week. It took many months, some money, and a lot of effort and numerous COVID tests, but 4 of us flew out from New York, and joined with the 5 others who live here. We are all so grateful to be together. Now I know what all my friends whose kids have joined them feel like. Cooking and bartending together.

2. A morning swim. Something I cannot do in Manhattan.

3. Mexican food. It’s just so good here. And there’s so much of it.

4. Privacy. No elevators to take, and while I like seeing my neighbors and the fellows who work in the building, it’s nice to just be us. It’s nice to sequester in a house, and not stay in a hotel. This has been very nice.

5. Dinner at Ken and Lorrie’s. The best wine, the best lamb, the best apple pie. Thank you so much for inviting us.

Kwame Onwuachi’s 5 Things:

1. Family and Friends

2. Mentorship

3. Thoughtful Conversations

4. Food

5. Fashion

More About Kwame Onwuachi

My guest this week has been James Beard Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi and author of Notes From A Young Black Chef - A Memoir

You can follow Kwame on Instagram @chefkwameonwuachi and on Twitter and Facebook @ChefKwame.

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

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Lisa's Blog'n'Pod

Ep. 122 - Barry Levine - The inside story of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

With difficulty, the five things that made life better for me this week.

Barry Levine’s 5 Things:

More About Barry Levine

Ep 121 - Alexandra Pelosi - Taking a hard look at 2020 America

Alexandra Pelosi’s 5 Things:

More About Alexandra Pelosi

Ep. 120 - Joe Conason - Shoe Leather & Guts; The Real Investigative Reporters

Joe Conason’s 5 Things

More About Joe Conason

Ep. 119 - Will Haskell - The 24 year old Senator

Senator Will Haskell’s 5 Things:

More About Senator Will Haskell:

Ep. 118 - Andrew Weissmann - Inside the Mueller Investigation

Andrew Weissmann’s 5 Things:

More About Andrew Weissmann

Ep 117 - Malcolm Nance - Counter-terrorist Expert and Patriot

Malcolm Nance’s 5 Things:

More About Malcolm Nance:

Ep. 116 - Claude Taylor - Witty Resister and Room Rater

Claude Taylor’s 5 Things:

More About Claude Taylor:

Ep. 115 - Amelia Nierenberg - Thoughtful Food, Food For Thought

Ep. 114 - Christopher Buckley - The Administration That Satirizes Itself

Christopher Buckley's 5 Things:

More About Christopher Buckley

Ep. 113 - Chef Kwame Onwuachi - The Future of Eating Out

Kwame Onwuachi’s 5 Things:

More About Kwame Onwuachi

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