Episode 654 - ML Rio
The Virtual Memories Show
With her amazing new novel, (Simon & Schuster), author, critic, and inveterate road-tripper evokes the rock scene of the '80s and the travails of the not-quite-Almost-Famous band GIL AND THE KILLS. We talk about the redemptive & destructive power of rock & roll, how music is inseparable from her writing process, the challenge of writing about live performance, why it makes sense that "the girl with the Shakespeare degree is writing a rock & roll novel," and why she couldn't gloss over the sweatiness of touring and road trips. We get into the literature gap of people in their...
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Episode 653 - David Leopold
The Virtual Memories Show
Curator and archivist rejoins the show for a wide-ranging talk centered on the amazing new (Abrams ComicArts). We talk about David's decades as Hirschfeld's archivist, Sondheim's love of Hirschfeld's work, the process of making his first book of Hirschfeld's art that focuses on a single creator, the connections between Al & Sondheim in David's text pieces for the book, and the joy of getting an intro from Bernadette Peters. We get into the work that the does for regional theaters, why the drop-off of arts criticism is a disaster for culture, how younger people experience and appreciate...
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Episode 652 - Dmitry Samarov
The Virtual Memories Show
It's been a year since his last episode, so what's artist been up to? Plenty! We talk about his new project of redesigning and illustrating public domain books, why he started off with the , and why was next in line, what the common themes are among the six books he's illustrated since this project began, and how it all ties into his reaction to the 2024 election. We get into what it's like working with publishers after controlling his own books for years, how he discovered James Hogg's on SOME OTHER PODCAST (okay, it was ), how he's exploring visual interpretation and different tools with...
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Episode 651 - AMA
The Virtual Memories Show
No guest this week, so it's time for our first Ask Me Anything (AMA) episode ! Past guests and pals peppered me with questions about the podcast, my reading habits, menswear aesthetics, mental health, comics, hair care, keeping a journal, work/life balance or lack thereof, the one episode I think people are sleeping on, Star Trek vs. Star Wars, the superpower I wish I had, and a lot more. I dish some pod-secrets, talk about the episodes that will never air, and tell you where I buy my underwear, so go listen! Follow me on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or ,...
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Episode 650 - Dan Goldman
The Virtual Memories Show
With (Kinjin Storylab), writer/cartoonist brings us a wildly entertaining graphic novel of midlife, the afterlife, and the south Florida real estate market. We talk about how the concept for RLP grabbed hold of him 20+ years back & never let go, why the story had to take place in/around Miami, how his work in video games and TV/movies affected his world-building in comics. We get into the peak life experiences of making this book, the transition from digital to print, why he set the book in landscape, the role of the "invisible" elements of comics design, the impact Scott McCloud's had...
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Episode 649 - David Levithan and Jens Lekman
The Virtual Memories Show
With (Abrams Press), writer and singer-songwriter bring the collaborative alchemy, as 20 years of fandom/friendship lead to this wonderful novel about a Swedish singer-songwriter — J — who finds a side-career playing original songs at people's weddings. We talk about the power of a great song, how David & Jens traded writing prompts with each other — a wedding song leading to a chapter, a chapter leading to a wedding song —, discovered how differently they each look at love, and managed to fuse that tension into a story of how love changes over time. We get into the differences...
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Episode 648 - Sacha Mardou
The Virtual Memories Show
With (Avery), cartoonist brings us a phenomenal graphic memoir about the midlife process of overcoming lifelong traumas and anxiety. We talk about her decision to to make her therapy process (& sessions) public, first as and then as a Past Tense, the benefits of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, what it took to violate the English stiff upper lip and admit that she had problems and needed therapy, and her mother's Jehovah Witness conversion and how she's still sifting through the damage of that. We get into how therapy changed her relationship to her daughter, why corniness is no...
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Episode 647 - Oliver Radclyffe
The Virtual Memories Show
With his phenomenal debut memoir, (Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic), takes us on a journey into trans-selfhood. We talk about the gap between a trans narrator and a cis-het reader, the importance of trans visibility, how his understanding of masculinity and being male have changed, and how he faced down the risks and sacrifices in his life as he transitioned, despite the uncertainty of what lay ahead. We get into how he found the perfect voice for his memoir, the importance of on his writing process, his life-defining moment of seeing , why being raised in privilege explained why he knew so...
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Episode 646 - Eulogy
The Virtual Memories Show
No conversation this week, unless you count me talking to myself. This episode, I share some thoughts and memories about my father, following his death last week at the age of 88 — or 87, depending on who he was lying to — along with the eulogy I gave at his funeral. • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 645 - Rachel Cockerell
The Virtual Memories Show
How did Russian Jews wind up migrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1900s? How did the image of America as melting pot come into existence? How did a family memoir evolve into a forgotten history of Zionism? Find out during my conversation with about her amazing new book, (FSG)! We talk about the tightrope walk of composing a history solely out of primary sources and why she eschewed the author's voice for this book, her grudging acceptance of Robert Caro's maxim to , and how her perspective on Jewishness changed over the course of writing the book. We get into the once-titanic literary...
info_outlineCan LA private detective Happy Doll live up to the Four Noble Truths and escape the cycle of Samsara? Jonathan Ames returns to the show to help answer that question and celebrate his new novel, KARMA DOLL (Mulholland Books)! We talk about the joy of reading (& writing) page-turners, how his lead character Happy Doll has evolved over three novels (so far!), what it's like bringing Buddhism into a detective novel, and how his (& Happy's) LA has changed since he began this series. We get into how he managed to avoid writing about the worst days of the pandemic while keeping Karma Doll contemporary, how writing the Doll novels has affected his understanding of Buddhism, and how he's living up to the lesson he always gave students: write what you love. We also discuss TV writing and how it took him away from prose-writing for a decade or so, the need to make art and the transitoriness of bliss, how the LA fires left him driving all over the place like he was in a Lew Archer novel, his fave reads & TV shows, how we both played with dolls as kids in the woods of northern NJ, and a lot more. Follow Jonathan on Bluesky • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe, Patreon, or Paypal, and subscribe to our e-newsletter