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Honestly with Bari Weiss
A Holiday Treat with David Sedaris!
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A Holiday Treat with David Sedaris!
1HR 20M
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David Sedaris is a humorist and author of many best selling books: Calypso, Theft By Finding, Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Holidays On Ice, Barrel Fever… just to name a few. He’s also one of my favorite writers of all time. 

What makes Sedaris – who got his start on NPR back in 1992 with his, now famous, Santaland Diaries essay about the time he worked as a Christmas Elf at Macy’s – so mesmerizing and funny, is his ability to find something meaningful and true in the utterly mundane, the way he finds humor in the most horrific moments in life, and his commitment to the lost art of making fun of ourselves. 

Nowhere is that more clear than in his newest book, Happy-Go-Lucky. Like most of his writing, it’s a book about his beloved and crazy family. But it’s also a book about some of the most contentious societal issues of the last few years. For the writer who so many think of as a public radio darling, the pages of Sedaris’ new book are not like what you find on today’s member stations. He writes about observing Black Lives Matter protests and COVID lockdowns with such candor – and without agenda or moral ideology – which results in something not only hilarious and relatable, as usual, but also extraordinarily refreshing. 

So for today, if you find yourself tuning in from an overcrowded plane, a car full of bickering cousins, or maybe you miraculously get a quiet moment to yourself on a long and snowy walk, this is the perfect episode for you… and, hopefully, the perfect holiday escape.

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I was scared to listen because I just love David. His audiobooks were like a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea back in 08/09, when I could not find a job to save my life right after finishing grad school. I'd climb into bed with my headphones and listen to the books on repeat for hours. I worried that David would pull a Jon Stewart and start chastising white people for not #doingthework. I was delighted to see that David is still David. This episode kept my soul warm in a 40F bike ride. After I got home, I downloaded his latest book.

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As if I couldn’t love you more Bari! Then you go and have Sedaris on the pod. Thank you for this early Christmas gift!!

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