Magic Lessons Ep. 205: “Call Your Real Life By Its True Name” featuring Gary Shteyngart

08/26/16 • 78 min

This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert advises Colleen, an advertising executive in New York City, who dreams of being a storyteller but fears it's a frivolous pursuit. Colleen hopes to create a one-woman show, mining stories from her childhood growing up in an Irish Catholic family that ran and owned a bar. Liz calls up the writer Gary Shteyngart for additional expertise on the pain and relief that comes with telling family stories.

Special Guest: Gary Shteyngart is the award-winning author of the novels Super Sad True Love Story, Absurdistan, and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook. Born in Leningrad, his memoir Little Failure is a candid and moving account of growing up as a Russian emigre in America. Find out more about him and his work at garyshteyngart.com.

This week's sponsors: Audible, The Great Courses Plus, and Stamps.com Use the promo code: Lessons

This week's sponsors: Audible, The Great Courses Plus, and Stamps.com Use the promo code: Lessons

Previous Episode

Magic Lessons Ep. 204: “Who Gets To Decide Whether You're A Legitimate Artist?" featuring Mark Nepo

This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert talks with Cecilia, a young poet in Florida. Cecilia fell in love with poetry in college and applied to a dozen MFA programs. She got rejected from every one. Devastated by the rejection she fell into great despair and wondered if she could still call herself a poet when these MFA programs deemed her talents insufficient. For extra guidance Liz brings in her friend, the poet and storyteller Mark Nepo, who has soulful advice for Cecilia. And later we hear from Cecilia about what she's been up to since her first magic lesson.

Special Guest: Mark Nepo is a poet, teacher, storyteller and the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening. His most recent books include The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom that Waits in your Heart (Atria, July 2016), and Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness (Sounds True), selected by Spirituality & Health Magazine as one of the top ten best books of 2015. Find out more about him at MarkNepo.com

This week's sponsors: Casper, The Great Courses Plus, and Stamps.com And use the promo code: Lessons

Next Episode

Magic Lessons Ep. 206: "Dancing From the Heart" featuring Amy Purdy

This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert advises Penelope, a dance teacher in New Jersey, who wants to create a dance performance to mark her 60th birthday. Even though she’s been dancing her whole life, she’s having trouble finding the courage to pull this off. For expert guidance, Liz calls up one of the most courageous dancers she knows: Amy Purdy — a Paralympian snowboarder and semifinalist on Dancing With the Stars.

Special Guest: Amy Purdy is a snowboarder, Paralympian, dancer, model, actor, and speaker. Her memoir On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs To Learning The Dance Of Life is published by HarperCollins. You can find out more about her at amypurdy.com

This week's sponsors: Casper, The Great Courses Plus, and Stamps.com Use the promo code: Lessons