'And Just Imagine If I'd Never Thought To Ask' 

- Podcast Interviews by Jamie Mason.

Some of the neatest things in life come to you by a circuitous route. For me, the most recent of these happy accidents was an invitation to co-host The NorthStar Guardians Podcast Series. 

If I hadn’t been a writer with a slightly vigilante bent, I’d never have made the editorial comments that caught the attention of a fellow writer and former cop.  If he hadn’t known that I was a lifelong Southerner, he’d probably not have asked me to join his writing group, ‘The Southern Syndicate’.  If he hadn’t started the Syndicate, we’d never have had reason to speak on the telephone.  And if we’d not chewed the fat, he’d never have thought of me when a recruiter asked for referrals for people who had reasonable voices and liked books enough to do audio interviews with authors.

For want of a horseshoe nail… but with a happy ending.

At any rate, I get books written by experts of all stripes and then I get to pick their brains.  It’s a great gig and I’m meeting absolutely fascinating and mega-talented people.  The parent project of this endeavor is PsychJourney, a repository of over three hundred podcasts on a vast array of topics.

(Back to top)

Heavy title. Buoying book. Go figure.

When Dr. John Izzo’s book, The Five Things You Must Discover Before You Die, came up as a suggestion for me to review and interview, it came with the phrase, “sounds like something you’d like, Jamie.”

Oh, really?

I don’t read those kinds of books. And I’m terrified of dying. Somebody’s messing with me. But I like a challenge. Heh. That which doesn’t kill me and all…

I didn’t expect to like it and I certainly didn’t expect to need it, but it came at a good time. I get the feeling nearly any time would be a good time for this book. It’s really very wonderful in concept and execution.  Did I just say 'execution' in a review of a book about death?  Oh dear.  I get a pass, because it's really about life.  It’s a comfortable, easy read that takes the cliché out of cliché by showing us five invaluable bits of wisdom as applied in the lives of over two hundred impressive and venerable men and women.

Dr. Izzo asked for nominations, from those on his international mailing list, for the one person who had influenced them as wise, as happy, as having found the secret to a sense of fulfillment in their life. Through questionnaire, this list was distilled down to the group that Dr. Izzo and his team interviewed in depth over the course of a year and a half.

What results is an amazingly useful look at what we’ll wish we’d known when – let’s not beat around the bush; Dr. Izzo doesn’t – when we die.

I got to speak to Dr. Izzo about the process of compiling this book, why the secrets aren’t secret, and why I’m now walking around with a few words on an index card in my pocket at all times.

(Back to top)

In my introduction of Dr. Yvonne Thornton, for our interview about her memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, I gave this synopsis of the book:

It’s the story of five girls born into a black family as World War II came to a close and America looked to its next challenge: the Civil Rights movement. Donald and Tass Thornton loved each other and they loved their children. That’s it. He was a laborer and she was a housekeeper. But, as often is the case, what we do isn’t always the true measure of what we are. They saw a country on the verge of change. Through astounding dedication and love, they wrung more hours than there are to be had out of a mere mortal’s day and boosted their daughters to regional musical fame and to accomplishment and security via the highest achievements in education. They ended up with two doctors, a dentist, a court stenographer, a teacher, and a nurse. Yeah, I know that’s six, but the plan only got bigger as this family pulled together and sent strong, successful woman out into the world, one-by-one, until the nest emptied.

And, indeed, that is what happens in The Ditchdigger’s Daughters. But as we talked, I was no longer sure that was what the book is about.

This week in my own little corner of the world, I titled my work-in-progress, a novel that I hope to present to an agent soon. To do so without a title feels like the hallmark of a rank amateur, so I’ve been tearing my hair out in avoidance of such a fate. I kept milling over what happened in my story, but I realized that the ‘what’ may not be as important as the ‘why’. This is how I came to my title and also how I came to the conclusion, by something she said during the interview, that Dr. Thorton’s memoir is a parenting book. And it’s about parenting with a goal in mind, about parenting in hard times, and about parenting with the conviction that education trumps all. The book’s not been out of print in thirteen years and it’s never been more relevant.

They had a hard time, and a long road to run, in getting this book published. It was said that it didn’t have enough conflict. Rubbish. It’s fascinating and enthralling and inspirational. And the Pulitzer Board thought so too, enough to consider it for the top prize in literary achievement in 1995.

It’s a great book.  Click below to hear us talk about it. And to learn more about Dr. Thorton, visit her website at www.doctorthornton.com.

My interview with Terri Cheney went better than I’d even hoped.
(Back to top)

Manic: A Memoir is Terri Cheney’s eloquent purge of her struggle with bi-polar disorder. While hospitalized for severe depression, Terri stewed in frustration, watching all of the patients around her Mrs. Ternot getting better, not getting help, because they couldn’t say what was straining at their temples and battering at their skulls from the inside. They couldn’t communicate what it feels like. The pressure of self-imprisonment welled in her, too. Then she remembered that being a lawyer was her occupation, but there was a writer, by vocation, in her soul.

The book’s chapters have a randomness in their order and a richness to their description that not only gives voice to those so afflicted, but draws every reader in. You get the information that will demystify manic-depression, but even more importantly, you gain understanding, through the experience of the right words. It’s the next best (worse) thing to being there. And through information wed to experience,we get wisdom.

That’s the power of Terri Cheney’s book, Manic: A Memoir.

It’s one of the best pieces of autobiographical work I’ve ever read and it’s not just me. Manic: A Memoir has vaulted into The New York Times Bestseller list this very week. Terri graciously spoke with me for half an hour about the book, the bi-polar effect at work in the Entertainment Industry, and her upcoming projects.

For more information, visit www.terricheney.com.

(Back to top)

I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Christopher Johnson on his book, Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face. Dr. Johnson is the former director of the Mayo Clinic’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and is currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a driving force behind the development of Pediatric Intensive Medicine as its own medical discipline, he currently attends patients and establishes protocol in PICUs around the United States.

Dr. Johnson’s book is a concise and compassionate primer on the processes and hurdles parents of drastically ill children will face once in the hospital. I selected the book for its information. I know there are parents out there, right now, scouring the Web for hope, for knowledge, and for a map to navigate a terrifying maze of lingo, red-tape, cost and anguish. This is such a book.

But it turns out, it’s also a book that anyone can absorb, and be glad of the experience. He reveals the workings of the PICU system within parables of real patients and real parents. And, just like in his daily experiences, there is fear, fascination, tragedy, hope and miracles between its covers.

For more information on Dr. Johnson’s books, upcoming projects, and his excellent ongoing blog discussions of pediatrics and the state of medicine in America, visit www.chrisjohnsonmd.com.