In this episode, meet reporter Monica Potts, author of The Forgotten Girls, comedian Kountry Wayne, author of Help is On the Way, and writer Elisabeth Sharp McKetta, author of Edit Your Life. Go behind the mic with each of these authors to see what inspired them to write their books, what it was like to narrate their own work, and who described the recording process as “twisted” (in the best of ways).
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Listen to clips from the audiobooks mentioned in this episode:
Growing up gifted and working-class poor in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. They pored over the giant map in their middle-school classroom vowing to escape Arkansas. In the end, Monica left for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci did not. The Forgotten Girls pinpoints the choices that sent her and Darci on such different paths and then widens the lens to explain why those choices are so limited, compassionately looks at a population in trouble and the way inheritance, education, religion, and politics shape individual lives.
Before he was a comedy sensation, Kountry Wayne found few options for a poor Black man in a small-minded Georgia town. For many years he resorted to running his own game, but thankfully friends and family (and one patient probation officer) convinced him that he had talent beyond hustling. In Help is On the Way, Kountry hopes to help others see that no matter where you started from or how stuck you feel right now, the possibilities for living a rich, full life are limitless.
Life is noisier, messier, and more complicated than ever. In our quest to keep up, we can lose sight of what we care about most, and instead try to do it all—with mixed results. In Edit Your Life, writer Elisabeth Sharp McKetta shares eight simple ways to cut through the clutter, drama, and overwhelm of modern life to live with more intention and joy.
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