About Me

I'm a podcast host, novelist, culture critic, radio maker, interviewer, Twitter liker, Twitter fearer, dog owner, former lawyer, one-time college a cappella singer, occasional bread baker, photography dabbler, and very lucky weirdo. 

My dog’s name is Brian. He was rescued in Spain, where they have a surplus of speedy dogs like him, so he was brought to the United States where he had a better chance of being adopted. He was named Brian by the rescue (which seems to give all its dogs people names), and when I adopted him, it seemed like he’d had enough upheaval, so he kept his name. I take a lot of pictures of him.

I'm the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR's roundtable culture and entertainment podcast. I also created its pop culture blog, Monkey See, which I edited from 2008 until 2018, when it was reorganized as part of Pop Culture Happy Hour’s world. I've worked with most of the radio shows at NPR in some capacity: I've talked about pop culture on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition. I once spent a week writing for Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, have taken a few turns guest-hosting Jesse Thorn's wonderful interview show Bullseye, and did a terrible job answering questions about music on a bonus episode of Ask Me Another. I do local live radio and other people’s podcasts whenever they let me. 

I have written two novels: Evvie Drake Starts Over and Flying Solo, and I have another one in the works for 2025.

My side hustle is moderating live events where I interview people in front of audiences. I've talked to TV and movie folks like Shonda Rhimes, Ron Howard, Connie Britton, Lauren Graham, Trevor Noah, B.J. Novak (also a writer, of course), and Joe and Anthony Russo. I've also talked at the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Sixth & I synagogue to authors like Jane Smiley, Maria Semple, Elizabeth Strout, the hosts of Welcome To Night Vale and, in a moment that my 12-year-old self still doesn't quite believe, Judy Blume. 

I'm also a public speaker, both on panels (which I've done at places like South By Southwest) and at conferences (I've given keynote addresses in Philadelphia and Bowling Green, Ohio; I'm going one state at a time). I once gave a presentation (complete with slides) about becoming a person who wears colorful dresses. I even co-hosted an awards banquet once, which made me much more sympathetic to everyone who has to host awards on television.

I used to write about TV, much of it reality, at the wonderful and now retired site Television Without Pity. I've also written for MSNBC and Vulture and TV Guide. 

In a former life, I was an attorney, which is where I developed my great love of arguing. That's how I once successfully persuaded some very intelligent people to vote the "Honeymoon In Metropolis" episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman into their Canon of great television episodes.