Life Changing with Dori Fern

Introducing Life Changing with Dori Fern, a soon-to-launch podcast about the messy middle between when you hit pause and what comes next...
Join host Dori Fern each week for short, 10-20 minute, stories that take an unvarnished look at her personal and professional midlife evolution. In some episodes, she will interview guests to talk through a particular topic or issue; in others, it'll just be Dori.
Life Changing with Dori Fern is a show for anyone open to change, at any (st)age.

Text Me!

Connect with me!
Instagram: @dorifern
LinkedIn: Dori Fern
Email me: [email protected]
Visit https://dorifern.com for more about Dori's coaching services and to sign up for a complimentary call.

Dori talks with writer and music storyteller Piotr Orlov, exploring themes of identity, the immigrant experience, and the transformative power of community. Piotr, whose grandmother was a classical musicologist and father, a prominent, American basketball-loving sportswriter, came here from Leningrad to New York at 7-3/4 years old, fully bought into the American Dream story. He shares how his cultural background shapes his perspective and how that lens has changed over time. His first, indelible (and timely!) New York City memory proves how the truth we see isn't always THE truth. The discussion delves into the significance of community in music, the challenges of building new institutions when the ones that formed us are no longer sustainable...or relevant, and the legacy we leave through our stories.
Piotr's writing has appeared in New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and the Village Voice. He was director of special projects at AFROPUNK, senior editor at NPR Music, and editorial director at MTV.
He helped produce the Red Bull Music Academy in New York. He is an adjunct teacher of writing and history at NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and at Columbia University. Peter is also the founder of Dada Strain, a platform grounded in rhythm, improvisation, and community.
Subscribe to Dada Strain to get Piotr's weekly, mostly independent, mostly jazz, electronic and house music event picks in the NYC area -- with a heavy Brooklyn focus.

Text Me!

Connect with me!
Instagram: @dorifern
LinkedIn: Dori Fern
Email me: [email protected]
Visit https://dorifern.com for more about Dori's coaching services and to sign up for a complimentary call.

Season 2 of Life Changing with Dori Fern opens with an intimate conversation between Dori and James Beard Award-nominated food writer, Nicole Taylor, the author of cookbooks including the modern Juneteenth classic, Watermelon & Red Birds. Dori and Nicole met around 2010 at BK Swappers, a popular Brooklyn-based food swap that helped put the borough's foodie-ism on the map and paved the way for today's social food culture. They talk about that time and Nicole shares surprising details about her life and journey in the food industry, including the role timing, intuition, and confidence played in her path. The Georgia native also discusses the activism that has shaped her life and opens up about her family, including her relationship with her incarcerated brother. At its heart, this is a conversation between two very different, self-defined outsiders in food media: one (Taylor) who still sees herself that way even from the inside, and the other (Fern), who no longer works in the food industry but has come to peace with where she -- and it -- fits into her life. This is what community looks like.

Text Me!

Connect with me!
Instagram: @dorifern
LinkedIn: Dori Fern
Email me: [email protected]
Visit https://dorifern.com for more about Dori's coaching services and to sign up for a complimentary call.

Dori and Jennie Baird talk about resilience, grief, and the role of timing in their lives. Jennie works as the Chief Product Officer at BBC Studios and is also a certified mental health first aid and volunteer suicide bereavement support facilitator, among her many professional and personal roles and pursuits.
They reflect on their childhoods and the influence their parents played, particularly their fathers. And Dori updates listeners about what happened to her father after this interview with Jennie was recorded.
They talk about their time at Aol, when Jennie hired Dori in 2006 for her first job after a decade as a stay-at-home mom, producing a branded contest sponsored by Dove called Chief Everything Officer. She shares the five words she looks for in all job candidates. Jennie also reminds Dori what she learned from our host about cooking. In admitting that she is not much for looking back and evaluating the past, Jennie reveals much about herself, yes, but also about resilience itself. This is an episode you won't want to miss.
From Dori:
This episode is dedicated to the too many fathers my family and friends lost in 2024, many in this year's very challenging summer. I name some but, in my community alone, there were more. Too many. Much love and care to those in the complex, life-changing process of grief and mourning.
TW: This episode contains a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, please listen with care or consider skipping this episode. In the United States, the suicide help line to call is the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can reach them by dialing 988

Text Me!

Connect with me!
Instagram: @dorifern
LinkedIn: Dori Fern
Email me: [email protected]
Visit https://dorifern.com for more about Dori's coaching services and to sign up for a complimentary call.

Ep 3: Dori talks about the big latke-making popup she did over the holidays. It didn't go as planned.
Read more about her latke venture here.
Here's Dori's recipe for her Life-Changing Latkes, an adaptation of the recipe published after she won the 2011 Edible Brooklyn Latke recipe contest, which she forgot to mention in the podcast - whoops!):
Ingredients:

• 3 large russet potatoes (about 2 pounds)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1T kosher salt or to taste
• Freshly ground black or white pepper or a combination of both
• 1 large egg
• Duck fat and/or vegetable oil for frying. (A mix of the two is fine. Or if you’re vegetarian, can’t find duck fat, or are on a duck-free diet, just use vegetable oil.)

Directions:

1. In medium bowl, grate onion on the large holes of a box grater.
2. Peel and grate potatoes into the onion (this helps prevent the potato from discoloring).
3. Add salt and pepper and mix thoroughly, tasting a strand of potato and adding more salt and/or pepper to taste.
4. Scoop the potato-onion mixture with your hands, squeezing out excess liquid and placing dry mixture into another medium-large sized bowl. Repeat until all the “dry” potato-onion mixture is in one bowl, and save the potato liquid in the other. Let the liquid sit about 10 minutes, giving the potato starch time to settle to the bottom of the bowl.
5. Add egg to potato-onion mixture and mix well (hands are the best mixing implement here!).
6. Pour off the liquid squeezed from the potato and onions. There should be a nice layer of potato starch accumulated at the bottom of the bowl (the starchier the potatoes, the more you’ll find). Scoop out the starch and incorporate it into the potato mixture.
7. In a heavy, good-quality skillet or cast iron pan, add about an inch of oil (you’ll want the latkes about halfway submerged in fat while frying) and heat over medium-high flame. You’re ready to go when a strand of potato sizzles when added to the pan.
8. Scoop out a small handful of the potato mixture, and press between your hands to flatten and squeeze out any excess liquid. Make sure the pancakes are even, not too thick in the middle, and about 3 inches around for an average-size latke. Gently add to skillet and cook, making sure not to crowd the pan, for about two to three minutes per side or until golden brown. Take care not to fuss with them while they’re cooking or they may fall apart.
9. Add more fat after each batch as necessary. Too little will cause the latkes to burn on the outside before cooking inside.
10. Remove from pan and place on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet rack.

Text Me!

Connect with me!
Instagram: @dorifern
LinkedIn: Dori Fern
Email me: [email protected]
Visit https://dorifern.com for more about Dori's coaching services and to sign up for a complimentary call.