15 Minutes: A Podcast About Fame, With Jamie Berger

A retired teacher and a recent high-school graduate muse about fame, from J. D. Salinger and Youtube stars and Instagram celebrity, to self-publishing a John Cougar Mellencamp bio and being famous among co-workers. Perhaps you can guess which one tells us about which. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Because we're thinking we may have a few new listeners this week, and because our year anniversary just passed, here's an intro to the podcast, and pitch, but *not* for money!The name of this show pretty much says it, except that episodes aren't 15-minutes long - they range from five minutes to over an hour - from “Mini” anecdotes to in-depth conversations with everyone from a recent high-school grad in Western Massachusetts, to an arborist in the Bay Area,  to the likes of the famous, semi-famous, formerly famous, those who'd rather be just about anything than famous and those just now climbing the “Wall of Fame,” -  guests have included George Saunders, Eugene Mirman, Maeve Higgins, John Hodgman, Brooke Gladstone, and David Sedaris.Some episodes are lighthearted, some more serious, focusing on the perils of the Fame Culture we now exist in, some a mix of the two - as organic conversation as we can muster, on a topic that  can be entertaining, uncomfortable, enthralling.Email: info@15minutesjamieberger.com.F

Our guest from Episode 6, 15 Minutes Resident Psychiatrist Lois Parkison, grills me on our first year - Why podcast? Why fame? Why now? Why does this topic make people uneasy? Just why?!?!Enjoy, or if you find you don't want to hear me undergoing an hour of podcast therapy, tune in next week for David Sedaris! Thanks!-Jamie See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Here's Jessica Abel, whom we last spoke to back in Episode 16, reading from her new book "Growing GIlls: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily LIfe," based on her wicked awesome Creative Focus Workshop.Find her at: http://jessicaabel.comNext week: a year-anniversary check-in session with Dr. Lois Parkison, resident shrink.After that, on June 8th, will be a conversation with ...--- David Sedaris! ---Stay tuned!-Jamiehttp://15minutesjamieberger.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brooke Gladstone... is co-host of the most essential radio show/podcast in my weekly listening, On The Media. She also has an incisive, insightful, and oddly comforting (you'll hear that word a lot in the episode) new book, The Trouble with Reality, A Rumination on Moral Panic in our Time. For more than that, give a listen!-Jamie See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello All!Today, May 14, is our one-year anniversary! Thanks for listening, donating, offering those ratings and reviews on iTunes, following us on the social mediae! (@15minutesjamieb on insta and twitter) . . . . Thanks!This episode is a two-parter.Part One - A George Saunders Coda Back in February, a few weeks after recording Episode 27 with George Saunders, in  I drove to Cambridge to see him read from his then brand-new novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, amid a month-long span in which he and the book were receiving the kind of attention and praise I don't remember ever seeing from a literary author: the novel debuted at #1 on the Times Bestseller list, he appeared on Colbert and Charlie Rose and other late-night shows, got rave reviews everywhere, was publishing terrific short pieces seemingly every other day, and seemed to be being anointed the White Male conscience of an unimaginably conscience-free Trump Presidency. As I drove, I listened to the end of the audiobook of the novel, and thought of a few quest

Kate Lorenz and Matt "The Suitcase Junket" LorenzAPR19Kate Lorenz and Matt "The Suitcase Junket" LorenzMatt and Kate Lorenz ...... are siblings and artists who’ve taken divergent paths since Rusty Belle, the now legendary band they formed with friends in Amherst, MA, in 2006, more or less stopped playing together in 2014.Now, Matt, who makes music as “The Suitcase Junket” is releasing his fourth solo album. The Suitcase Junket is often called a “one-man band” but that old chestnut somehow belittles what he accomplishes musically, which can range from blues to rock to folk and pop, from fuzzy garage-iness of White Stripes to Led Zeppelin to the somewhat more melodic sound and sweet harmonies on the new record. It ain't your average one-man band, is all I'm sayin'.Matt is also a visual artist, whose work adorns the covers of his albums. I have known the two of them as friends, through their music, as a fan, and as one of too many owners of a bar called the Rendezvous in Turners Falls, MA, where we’ve been lucky

Episode 32 - Hearty White (see also episodes 8 and 31!)Here are the pretty much the same notes as our last episode (part 1 of this conversation), with one addition - here's a link to "super cenetnarian" Lillian Cox, who comes up.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Cox***Here’s the second of ***two*** new episodes with WFMU radio talker Hearty White (one longish conversation split in two. If you haven't listened to our first conversation back in Episode 8, DO! It might not be for you, but it is, it will be VERY much for you - I wish I could be right there with you to see how excited you'll be to meet him!Every week, (Thursdays at 7pm on WFMU or on the internet any time like the rest of us), listening to Hearty's show, Miracle Nutrition, I learn so much about artmaking and radio and comedy and improvisation and ego and kindness and all kinds of wonderful pop-culture and scientific and philosophical arcana from this man every time I listen to him.Back in episode 8, Hearty’s willingness to explain the magic of

Episode 31 - Hearty White (see also episode 8!)Here’s the first ***two*** new episodes with WFMU radio talker Hearty White (one longish conversation split in two) coming up this week and next. If you haven't listened to our first conversation back in Episode 8, DO! It might not be for you, but it is, it will be VERY much for you - I wish I could be right there with you to see how excited you'll be to meet him!Every week, (Thursdays at 7pm on WFMU or on the internet any time like the rest of us), listening to Hearty's show, Miracle Nutrition, I learn so much about artmaking and radio and comedy and improvisation and ego and kindness and all kinds of wonderful pop-culture and scientific and philosophical arcana from this man every time I listen to him.Back in episode 8, Hearty’s willingness to explain the magic of his show and the fine line and decisions involved in being "Hearty" as opposed to his non-radio human are endlessly fascinating, to me anyway, and I'm sure will be to many of you as well! Just a a cou

Abbi Crutchfield is the co-host of Tru TV’s You can Do Better. She’s a comedian, currently touring as one of four funnywomen on the CAKE comedy tour (cakecomedy.com) and former host of People Magazine’s Now. She has been featured on MTV, VH1, CollegeHumor and in national commercials. She is a contributor to Someecards, and her jokes are listed among the Best Tweets of the Year by Huffington Post Comedy. She’s been living in L.A., to shoot the second season of You Can Do Better, but later this year will return to Brooklyn, where she co- produces the weekly stand-up hour The Living Room Show, Fridays at 8pm Postmark Cafe in Brooklyn.Those of you who’ve been listening to the show for a while will remember my conversation with my old friend Matthew Latkiewicz, her co-host, back in Episode 9. In that episode, Matthew rather extremely candidly expressed his cynicism about the show he was about to debut, along with just about everything about fame. Since watching the first season of the show, in which Abbi tends to

Tom Pappalardo is a writer, comicsmaker, graphic designer, musician, and, well, a lot of other great stuff you can learn about at http://tompappalardo.com/The Hampshire Gazette calls him "a pretty well-known name in these parts." We talked about the usual famey stuff, and coffee, and he read from his new and much heralded book, "One More Cup of Coffee." I asked Tom his thoughts about that particular beverage and YOU WON’T BELIEVE HIS RESPONSE!! Wait, that’s clickbait without a link to click. I wish I had asked Tom more about his absolutely amazing rock-show and other posters and the bands and other entities he made them for, but I forgot - next time! But see them here!https://standard-design.squarespace.com/print/Last, buy many great items Pappalardo here:http://tompappalardo.com/buy/***Also, in the episode, as much as I cringe at doing, I make a plea for you yes YOU to help us survive, grow, thrive using your ability to click stuff and/or money! by going to http://patreon.com/15minutesjamiebergerOr here:htt

Shonali Bhowmik https://shonalibhowmik.com/does a LOT:She’s the leader of the indie rock band Tigers and Monkeys (http://tigersandmonkeys.com) for which she is the songwriter, singer, and guitar player. She was one of the leaders of Atlanta’s Ultrababyfat which was featured on tour with David Cross in the DVD “Let America Laugh.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_America_LaughIn the past, her bands have shared the stage with PJ Harvey, Ted Leo, Pavement, The Shins, and Sleater Kinney. Based in NYC for the past several years, Shonali cohosts the Podcast We Don’t Even Know (http://wedontevenknow.libsyn.com/)with her friend Christian Felix, which they record monthly in front of a live audience at Hifi in the East Village. Guests - as on this here show - range from the supercool unfamous to more recognizable names such as Jeneane Garafalo, Ambery Tamblyn, Starlee Kine, David Cross, Amy Ryan, Todd Barry, Jena Friedman . . . .She has a comedy web series called “Shayla Hates Celebrities”https://shaylahatescelebritie

George Saunders is as famous as contemporary literary fiction (let alone short-story) writers get, to the extent of being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2013. His first novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” comes out February 14th, 2017 and is receiving glowing reviews. The audio version of the novel is read by an unarguably star-studded cast of 166, including Susan Sarandon, Jeff Tweedy, David Sedaris, Ben Stiller, Lena Dunham, Keegan Michael-Key, Julianne Moore, and Saunders’ parents.He’s also one of my favorite writers ever. I’ll let his short autobiography on his site tell you more about him.http://www.georgesaundersbooks.com/about/We talked about fame’s perks and pitfalls, artmaking, humility, kindness, the president (just for a minute, promise), beans, and much, much, so much more.Here are the two nonfiction pieces of his we referred to in our conversation: “Congratulations, by the Way” (a graduation speech from 2013 on kindness - also available as a lovely audio minib

Mystery writer, journalist, satirist Neal Pollack and Jamie talk about everything from Hollywood to Gawker, with a little weed, Jeopardy, Hipsters and McSweeneys in between.Neal Pollack has written ten bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction that have been published in multiple languages around the world. A 1992 graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School Of Journalism, Pollack spent seven years as a staff writer at the Chicago Reader. In 2000, he published his first book, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, as the inaugural volume in Dave Eggers’ McSweeneys book imprint, and started satirically calling himself The Greatest Living American Writer.Believing his own press, Pollack quit his job and embarked on a successful freelance career. His articles, satire, and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Esquire, The New Republic, The Nation, and pretty much every other American publication except for The New Yorker. Pollack has since been a columnist for Vanity Fair, The

David C. Brock is an historian of technology, and Director of the Center for Software History at the Computer History Museum. He focuses on histories of computing, electronics and instrumentation, as well as on oral history. He's also my (Jamie here) friend and from a town over, who's so unassuming I didn't know what he did for a living for the first five years or so I knew him. He has fascinating thoughts on fame and acclaim in the world where all but a few (Jobs, Ellison, Gates, Zuckerberg, . . . ) who've make huge changes in our world remain anonymous. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Maeve Higgins has performed all over the world, including in Edinburgh, Melbourne and, most recently, Erbil. Now based in New York, she’s made a name for herself there too. In a good way! She co-hosts Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk on National Geographic and has appeared in Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer. Maeve hosts a live show every month with author Jon Ronson and is a frequent guest at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival. She is writing a book of funny essays for Penguin, due for publication in late 2017 (or perhaps a bit later). Maeve also makes great radio and is currently hosting a terrific(!) podcast about immigration called ‘Maeve In America’ for First Look Media. You can find out more about all that stuff at http://maevehiggins.comShe'll also be performing at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls, MA (where this podcast just so happens to be based) on February 9th. For info and tickets (which are going FAST), see http://sheatheater.org.For the rest of our minutes: http://15minutesjamieberger.comEd P

Cameron Bossert is a filmmaker. His first full-length directorial debut (also his and friends' production company Third Wing, LTD's feature debut, "Jewtah," will be out in 2017. We talked about that film, Cameron's ambitions for it, and about everything from the etymology of "fame" to working among celebrities (Denzell Washington and Sharon Stone, to namedrop just a couple) and the difference between film and stage actors, to the magic of charisma in the super-famous, to online success versus the satisfaction of the response from a live audience. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gordon Gebert is my friend D'arcy Gebert's father. He's the Dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College of New York. But, more interesting for 15 Minutes purposes, he was also a child film actor in the 1950s. See clips and links to Gordon Gebert films and more at http://15minutesjamieberger.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nora Murphy is a member of the former-Pioneer Valley now Boston-area band Bulldog, and a friend whom I first met at the legendary Lady Killigrew Cafe (at the Montague Bookmill) when it was under the management of the legendary Jason Tuttle, whom we briefly discuss, among other notables.Find more about Bulldog, the picture of Nora and Ben and their pal Marc M., and the track by Ainslie Wills of which Nora spoke at http://15minutesjamieberger.comBulldog!http://www.getembulldog.com/Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/15minutesjamiebergerHelp us make this our JOB!Call the!Fameline!(872) 215-6467THANKS! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Conversation with Tina Antolini, a Peabody-Award-winning storyteller and radio producer. She serves as the host and producer of Gravy, a podcast with the Southern Foodways Alliance, which was named the James Beard Foundation's Publication of the Year for 2015.Tina's worked in public radio for more than 10 years, including NPR’S State of the Re:Union (SOTRU), where she won a Peabody and a national Edward R. Murrow Award, and New England Public Radio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.