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Episode 65: Maria Burns Ortiz

As Told To

Release Date: 05/21/2024

Episode 81: Laura Morton show art Episode 81: Laura Morton

As Told To

“The work that we do is actually very difficult to detach from when you’re writing in somebody’s voice,” notes veteran collaborator Laura Morton on the emotional connection she often feels when channeling her clients’ stories.   Laura comes by this observation honestly, after spending more than thirty years helping to tell other people’s stories.  In that time, she has written more than 60 books, including 22 New York Times bestsellers. Her most recent bestseller , written with GoDaddy and PXG Golf founder Bob Parsons—was a publication of , her own imprint at Forefront...

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“You’d be amazed at how far you can get in life having no idea what the subjunctive mood is,” writes Benjamin Dreyer, retired managing editor and copy chief of the Random House division of Penguin Random House. “As if it’s not bad enough that English has rules, it also has moods.” Yes, it does. Happily, the mood of the room for writers in Benjamin’s good hands as a copyeditor was cheerful and patient and winning… and, for the most part, grammatically correct. Over the course of his 30+ years in publishing, he helped to shepherd the work of writers such as Michael Chabon, Edmund...

info_outline Second Printing: Peter Asher and David Jacks show art Second Printing: Peter Asher and David Jacks

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This episode originally aired June 20, 2023 First-time author David Jacks, a veteran video editor and music supervisor, ran into legendary music producer Peter Asher at a Santa Monica taco joint in 2003 and asked if he could interview him. Jacks, a long-time admirer of the man said to be the inspiration for Mike Myers’ “shagadelic” Austin Powers character, who first came to prominence as one-half of the hit-making British pop vocal duo Peter and Gordon and would go on to produce generation-defining albums for artists such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and...

info_outline Episode 79: Seth Rogoff Returns show art Episode 79: Seth Rogoff Returns

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Here at the podcast factory, we’re thrilled to welcome back novelist, translator, collaborator and cultural critic Seth Rogoff to talk about his new novel—a thrilling and unsettling coda to Franz Kafka’s unfinished masterwork The Castle. Seth joined us in Season 2 () to talk about the also thrilling and decidedly unconventional memoir he helped to write with ESPN basketball analyst and former NBA star Kendrick Perkins, , which took a critical look at racism in America, and in professional sports, and sounded a call for justice and social change—a book hailed by Kirkus Reviews as...

info_outline Episode 78: Mike Thomas show art Episode 78: Mike Thomas

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“In general, magazine profiles are to biographies as inland lakes are to oceans,” writes the late entertainment journalist and ghostwriter Bill Zehme in The New York Times best-selling . “Far less sprawling and easier to navigate.”   This is true—and readers need look no further than Zehme’s latest (and last) book, completed posthumously, for confirmation. Zehme, who collaborated on memoirs with Jay Leno and Regis Philbin and was a frequent contributor to Esquire, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Vanity Fair, worked on his Carson biography for over a decade, before a cancer...

info_outline Second Printing: Winnie Holzman show art Second Printing: Winnie Holzman

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This episode originally aired on Feb. 14, 2023 “I moved on to the next thing I was going to write,” says the noted dramatist and television writer Winnie Holzman, recalling the cancellation of her critically-acclaimed series “,” after just one season. “That’s what we do as writers.  We move on to the next thing.”  Indeed. In Winnie Holzman’s case, one of those “next things” turned out to be the book for the with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz—one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. The collaboration earned her a prestigious Drama Desk Award...

info_outline Episode 77: Hal Donaldson show art Episode 77: Hal Donaldson

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Hal Donaldson’s faith-based humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope is a magnificent agent of change.  In partnership with local churches, businesses, civic organizations, and government agencies, the organization is deeply committed to healing the world in all its broken places, through children’s feeding initiatives, community outreach and disaster response.    currently feeds more than 571,000 children worldwide each day—and has served more than 250 million people in total since Hal, together with his brothers and friends, started the organization in 1994. It’s the...

info_outline Episode 76: Aaron Philip Clark show art Episode 76: Aaron Philip Clark

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What does it take to help channel one of the most singular voices in rap in an entirely new medium? Join us as we chat with novelist and screenwriter Aaron Philip Clark, co-author of the just-published thriller , written in collaboration with rapper and entertainment mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.    Aaron is perhaps best known for his International Thriller Writers Award-nominated crime fiction series featuring Detective Trevor Finnegan (, ), as well as for his standalone novels.     His first book with 50 Cent introduces readers to Nia Adams, a New York-born,...

info_outline Episode 75: Betsy Lerner show art Episode 75: Betsy Lerner

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“Lots of ambitious books announce themselves,” writes Lauren Christensen in The New York Times Book Review of podcast guest Betsy Lerner’s debut novel . “This one doesn’t need to.” High praise for a first-time novelist, but that’s not surprising considering Betsy’s long and distinguished career as an editor and literary agent. A born storyteller (and, story-sharer), Betsy has helped to shape our literary landscape, as the guiding hand behind such cultural touchstones as Patti Smith’s and Elizabeth Wurtzel’s .  She’s also earned her As Told To stripes as the...

info_outline Episode 74: Jill Sobule show art Episode 74: Jill Sobule

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Over the course of her nearly forty-year career, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule has earned a singular spot in the American songbook. Best known for her breakout 1995 singles “” (from the “Clueless” soundtrack) and “” (which came out more than 10 years before the Katy Perry hit of the same name), her quirky, heartfelt, cheer-filled songs are difficult to categorize: she sings about the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, the French Resistance, LGBTQ issues and Mexican wrestling.  In another decade, Jon Pareles, the chief pop music critic of The New York Times, wrote that she...

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“You gotta be the best on your worst day.”

Words to live by from the mother of Ronda Rousey, the mixed-martial-artist-turned-professional wrestler known as “the baddest woman on the planet.” Rousey’s mother happens to be first American to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships, and she also happens to be the mother of podcast guest Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author of Rousey’s just-published memoir Our Fight.

The book is a follow-up to the sisters’ previous collaboration—the New York Times best-selling My Fight/Your Fight.   

Maria has taken her mother’s hard-won advice to heart, in an entirely different arena from her famous sister. A former columnist at ESPN.com, with an expertise in digital integration in sports media, she was honored as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Emerging Journalist of the Year in 2007 and has served as an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College. 

Alongside her work as a journalist, Maria is also a leader and innovator in the game development industry. She is the CEO and co-founder of 7 Generation Games, an award-winning developer of educational adventure games for children, and was recently named executive director of Global Game Jam, the world’s largest game creation event. 

Join us as Maria shares what it was like to give voice to a shared childhood and a family history that gave rise to one of the most celebrated female athletes of our time. 

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