Uncorking a Story
Listen in to Uncorking a Story, where we pop the cork on hidden narratives and delve deep into the brilliant minds of your favorite authors. Get ready to unlock the magic behind your favorite books, one unforgettable story at a time. Hit that subscribe button and never miss a sip of inspiration!
When Small Towns Censored Hollywood, with Glenn R. Miller
"These people from small towns across the country had the power to go up against Hollywood directors and Hollywood producers, demanding that changes be made to those films."
— Glenn R. Miller
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Glenn R. Miller started out as a unit manager on NBC soap operas and game shows. He went on to journalism, public television and decades of agency work, and he finally took a swing at fiction with his award-winning comic novel Doorman Wanted. His new novel, Rough Cuts, grew out of a conversation with his mother-in-law, who had found boxes of...
Living Your Own Truth, with Machan Taylor
"At the end of the night after you've been performing in front of thousands and thousands of people, you go to your hotel room and you're alone and you have to deal with that."
— Machan Taylor
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Machan Taylor never meant to write a book. She was born in Japan, uprooted to New Jersey as a child, and spent four decades as a professional singer, touring stadiums with Pink Floyd in the eighties and Sting on the Brand New Day tour in 1999 and 2000. Years of talk therapy for childhood trauma had taken he...
From Newsroom to Novelist with Neal Lipschutz
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"Even people who have been writing fiction for a long time feel that from book to book they have a lot to learn."
— Neal Lipschutz
About This Episode
Neal Lipschutz grew up in Brooklyn as a big reader with a strong urge to write, and as a teenager he fell in love with the New York newspapers. Practicality won out: he spent more than four decades in journalism, first as a reporter and then mostly as an editor, including a stint as deputy editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal. Only after ret...
What I've Learned from 500 Authors
"The show started as a way for me to prove that I can get a stranger to tell me their story. And 500 episodes later, I think strangers have taught me more about mine." — Mike Carlon
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
For the 500th episode, Mike turns the microphone on himself. He goes back to 2011, when he was a brand-new focus group moderator who started a podcast because he couldn't show clients his proprietary work, and to the publicist who told him to make the show about authors. From there he walks through what 500 conversations have taught hi...
Bouncing Back, with Ellen Holtzman
BOUNCING BACK, WITH ELLEN HOLTZMAN
"It's confusing, it's awful, it's terrible, but you can survive it and you could actually have an even better life than you ever imagined."
— Ellen Holtzman
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Ellen Holtzman didn't grow up writing. She was a history graduate student who taught herself to write by working through The Elements of Style page by page. When her husband decided he didn't want children, and then that he didn't want the marriage, her plans for an academic career fell apart along with it. She couldn't find a...
Our Own Worst Enemy, with Sal Amato
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"We do more damage to ourselves than any alien species could ever do to us. We kick our own asses every day." — Sal Amato
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Sal Amato has spent almost five decades in entertainment — he started as a kid actor in a 1978 Betty Crocker commercial, became one of the youngest members ever at Chicago's Second City, and has film and TV credits including The Untouchables, My Best Friend's Wedding, Chicago Overcoat, and Chicago Fire. On this episode he talks about his debut novel, Hidden Powers Disclosure from Within, a political sci-f...
Some Stories Carry You, with Dena Shusterman
"I'm about five years old and I'm so tired. I say, Abba, which is what I call my father, can you carry me? I'm so tired. And I remember him saying, Deanch, I can't carry you, but I'll carry you with my stories."
— Dena Schusterman
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dena Schusterman was about five years old, walking a mile and a half to synagogue on Shabbat, too tired to go another step. She asked her father to carry her. He told her he couldn't — but he'd carry her with his stories, and by the time...
Everyone is Creative, with Zara Marielle
"Everyone has that thing inside of them that they could nurture, but maybe some people have been taught that they can't or they shouldn't because it's not valuable in society. But to me, everyone has that." - Zara Marielle
Zara Marielle was the kind of introverted kid who wrote plays and then talked everyone she knew into performing them. She'll tell you those plays were bad. What stuck was the impulse. After undergrad she cycled through three barista jobs and a stint as an assistant talent agent for film and TV in San Francisco...
The Search for Self, with Margaret Eastman Smith
"It's not selfish to want to find a sense of self. It's not selfish to really be pushing the question of what is deeply etched in my heart that leads me to take the decisions I take."
— Margaret Eastman Smith
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Margaret Eastman Smith was born into a remarkable and complicated inheritance. Her parents met inside Moral Re-Armament — the Christian-based global movement once known as the Oxford Group — and Margaret grew up with no home of her own, moving between continents, living in com...
Gerald Patnode on History, Empathy, and Untold Stories
"What must it have felt like to be a white attorney defending a Black man in 1890, at the height of racism in the United States? I think there are lessons to be learned by those stories that we can tell about history in general." - Gerald Patnode
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Gerald Patnode has lived many lives - Navy veteran, police officer, serial entrepreneur, television host, political analyst, university professor, academic dean - and now, bestselling author. His debut novel The Stirling Defense transforms a largely forgotten true story from 1889...
Cowboys, Pottery, and Broken Things
"Good writing should help readers see their own experiences and feel their own emotions through the characters and ideally understand that they are not alone and that they can prevail, survive, triumph even. And the way that we do that is connection to other people." — Ginger Pinholster
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Ginger Pinholster returns to Uncorking a Story to talk about her third novel, THE TRAIN TO SANTA FE. A Pushcart Prize nominee and former science writer who spent nearly four decades at institutions like AAAS and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Gi...
Carol Snow on The Girl on the Beach
"You really have to love the process. It can't be about, 'Oh, if I am an author, everyone will respect me so much.' You really have to love the process of it or there kind of isn't any point to doing it."
— Carol Snow
About This Episode
Carol Snow is the author of ten books spanning romantic comedy, young adult fiction, and now psychological thrillers. She holds a BA in psychology from Brown University and a master's in teaching English from Boston College. Originally from New Je...
Downloads from Spirit, with Katherine Marie
"You're not alone. You really have guidance and support available to you. For all those people that are sitting there in silos that are frustrated with life and feel like they could use a friend — they are there with you. You just need to open up to it." — Katherine Marie
Katherine Marie spent decades as a computer technology analyst — a world of algorithms, software installations, and zeros and ones. Then a road trip to Sedona, a book that fell into her lap, and a growing sense of intuition she couldn't ignore led her down a very...
Nikki Mamanno on Breaking Good
"I've been at the bottom of the mountain and I've looked up and it looked like the top was a million miles away and it felt like I couldn't do it a hundred times over. And I've taken that step and sometimes I don't look up, I just keep stepping, and eventually I look back and I've gained a little ground." — Nikki Mammano
Nikki Mammano's debut memoir Breaking Good is exactly what it sounds like — a play on Breaking Bad, but in reverse. Raised in the greater New York metro area, Nikki went to Hawa...
Jim Carlon on Keeping the Faith
"Imagine somebody who's been disconnected from this church and he's reignited. That fire is back, that spark is back. Imagine what that one person can do in his life. If that happens one time, the eighteen months it took to put this thing together will have been worth it." — Jim Carlon
Jim Carlon is a lawyer, army veteran, and lifelong Catholic whose twenty-five years of practice have shaped a deep commitment to wellness in the legal profession. He founded the Fairfield County Bar Association's Wellness Committee and serves on the board of the Care Co...
Square Hearts and Second Chances, with Julee Balko
"It was just as important for me to write a love story where the woman falls back in love with herself as much as falling in love with a man." — Julee Balko
Julee Balko is a returning guest — an author, poet, and freelance writer whose third novel, Square Hearts, dropped this past May from Black Rose Writing. Mike and Julee pick up where they left off two years ago (her last visit was for The Me List) and dig into how grief becomes creative fuel, why she gave five chapters to a neurodivergent child's poin...
From Friends to Lovers, with Jenn Bouchard
"It took me two and a half years to write a first draft. The second book? Six months. I think it is something that I became more comfortable doing — that confidence you get knowing that you can do it." — Jenn Bouchard
Jenn Bouchard is a returning guest and award-winning author whose publishing journey could be a novel in itself. A high school social studies teacher of twenty-six years, she wrote Palms on the Cape five years ago — but when her original publisher closed, the manuscript sat on the shelf while she found a new home a...
12 Years to AI Singularity, with Dr. Peter Solomon
"Every AI agent has to have a happy history of growing up and cooperating with humans. That has got to be the guardrail." — Dr. Peter Solomon
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Peter Solomon is back on Uncorking a Story. A Columbia-trained physicist, five-time company founder, and holder of twenty patents, Peter turned to fiction to warn the next generation about existential threats — and the AI threat is accelerating faster than anyone predicted. His sequel, 12 Years to AI Singularity, follows humans, sentient robots, and large lang...
Through Her Eyes, with Dr. Kate Sorokas
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"I truly dreamed it up during my first nap as a new mom." — Dr. Kate Sorokas
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Kate Sorokas holds a PhD in health education and is a writer, speaker, and advocate for maternal mental health. Her debut novel, Through Her Eyes, is a thriller inspired by her real-life struggle with new motherhood — a story she literally dreamed up during her first nap after having her sons. Kate talks with Mike about white-knuckling her...
In the Blood, with April Henry
"I wrote a book and tried to find an agent and did not succeed. I wrote a second book that got an agent and no sales. I wrote a third book — it didn't even get nice rejection letters. I wrote a fourth book and it sold in three days." — April Henry
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
April Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty mysteries and thrillers, including Girl Stolen, Girl Forgotten, and Two Truths and a Lie. Her latest novel, In t...
You're Not Broken, with Marci Hopkins
"I went to bed a victim and I woke up the next day and just something was different. I just surrendered. I knew that I couldn't do this anymore." — Marci Hopkins
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Marci Hopkins is an award-winning television host, author, and mental health advocate. She's the creator and host of Wake Up with Marcy, which has earned three Telly Awards and two Anthem Awards for excellence in social impact. Ten and a half years sober, Marci's journey from functioning alcoholic to so...
The Gift of Starting Over, Ralph Brewer
"If you can raise your hand and say, I need a little help here — guess what? That expedites the process of getting better so much more." — Ralph Brewer
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Ralph Brewer is the founder of Help for Men, creator of Dad Starting Over, and author of five books including The Dead Bedroom Fix — a top-rated Amazon guide for men facing sexless marriages and disconnection. His latest, Rebuild: The Complete Guide to Starting Over as a Man, distills a decade-plus of member meetin...
When Art Imitates Life, with Liz Lazarus
"I write for myself, but I edit for the reader." — Liz Lazarus
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Liz Lazarus is an engineer by education, a GE Healthcare executive by experience, and an author by calling. Her fourth novel, Dawn Before Darkness, is a psychological thriller about a vet tech named Dawn Smith who escapes a toxic relationship only to find herself stalked, harassed, and dragged into a guardianship battle for her aging mother. It's a story ripped from Liz's own life — she spent ten years and...
Pass the Trauma, Please, with Todd Diamond
"Most Holocaust memoirs start in camps. This one begins in a Chinese restaurant." — Todd Diamond
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Todd Diamond is an advertising copywriter turned memoirist, born in Queens, New York, who delivers narratives that are unapologetically raw and darkly humorous — a reflection of the borough that raised him. His book, Pass the Trauma, Please, is a comedy-drama memoir that tells the story of his 95-year-old father David Diamond, a Holocaust survivor whose long-buried secrets started spilling out over Mongolian beef and double scot...
The Roots of the Guava Tree, with Sonia Daccarett
"Even though we're so diverse, we're all the same. We're all longing for the same thing — to belong, have a purpose in life, to understand why we are here on this planet." — Sonia Daccarett
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Sonia Daccarett is a writer and communications professional born in Colombia to a Christian Palestinian father and a Jewish mother. She holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a master's in international and public affairs from Columbia University. For more than two decades she...
An Unquenchable Thirst, with Anne H. Putnam
"I'm convinced that these experiences that we have, where we feel so alone, that there's a huge portion of the rest of the world who's feeling the exact same way at any given time. And it's so important to see those things reflected so that we just don't feel like there's something wrong with us." — Anne H. Putnam
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Anne H. Putnam is a writer, editor, and teacher with an unending interest in the stories that shape our humanity. Her first memoir, Navel Gazing: On...
Feed Your Dreams, Face Your Tiger, with Lillian Eve Moore
"Any pain that you have — when people meet those pains and collect them back into themselves, they experience incredible power and wisdom and compassion and capacity. For that reason, I consider trauma to be a treasure." — Lillian Eve Moore
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Lillian Eve Moore is an author, executive coach, and self-described "psychonaut" whose new book draws on over 20 years of trauma-informed work. Her mother's schizophrenia ignited a lifelong quest for mental health solutions that actually work — a search that led her far beyond traditional psychiatry into ancient spiritual practi...
The Voluntary Jew, with Georgette Bennett
"This is a cautionary tale about how extremism and fascism can creep up on us. It always begins with hate speech and dehumanization... from verbal violence, it's a very short leap to physical violence." — Dr. Georgette Bennett
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Georgette Bennett is an award-winning sociologist, widely published author, former NBC News correspondent, and founder of both the Tanenbaum Center for Inter-Religious Understanding and the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees — which has mobilized more than $660 million in humanitarian aid. Her latest book, Half Jew, Full Life, tells the extr...
From Red Carpets to Red Wine, with Danielle Frank
"Just because the path of motherhood might not happen for me, it doesn't mean the nurturing goes away. I still want a seat at the table for how kids are raised." — Danielle Frank
About This Episode
Danielle Frank traded Hollywood red carpets for red wine — and now she's poured both passions into her debut book. After launching her career in entertainment publicity at Miramax International, where she worked on global film campaigns and rubbed elbows with A-listers at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin, Danielle pivoted into the luxu...
It's Sauce, Not Gravy, with J.A. Marz
"It's about family, it's about traditions, it's about a sense of place. Italy is more than just food and wine. It's a feeling, it's an experience."
— J.A. Marz
About This Episode
J.A. Marz is a healthcare marketing strategist turned novelist whose Tuscany-set fiction has struck a chord with readers who love Italy as much as he does. His debut novella, Ciao, Amore Mio — The Tale of Gabby and Gio, follows a restless travel writer who arrives in Italy chasing stories and finds something far more pers...
Fourteen Months in Darkness , with Doron Keren
"Memory without responsibility is just nostalgia. We have to really be responsible — responsible adults — and make sure that the world doesn't forget what happened."
— Doron Keren
About This Episode
Dr. Doron Keren joins Mike to talk about his grandfather Ignacy Chiger's Holocaust memoir, Beneath the Lightless Sky, newly translated into English and published by Amsterdam Publishers. The book is a firsthand account of survival under two totalitarian regimes — first the Soviets, then the Nazis — in Lvov, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine). At its center is an extraordinary escape: Ignacy led...
Touching Death with Sally Dukes
"I really wanted to know about the numinous. I went to Burma to sit with a master. I got my master's degree. I did all kinds of things looking to find out what happened. And then I came back to realize that yes, in fact, I knew — I touched death. I saw death." — Sally Dukes
About This Episode
Sally Dukes joins Mike to talk about her memoir, drummer girl: A Story of Life After Death. At age three, Sally underwent open-heart surgery to treat a congenital heart disorder — and during the procedure, she ha...
Such a Pretty Picture: Andrea Leeb on Shattering Silence, Surviving Abuse, and Writing the Story She Swore She'd Never Tell
"On the outside, I too looked like a pretty picture. Inside, I was dying. I had so much pain and shame and suffering. Pretending isn't enough to make it go away." — Andrea Leeb
About This Episode
Andrea Leeb spent decades building a life that looked perfect from the outside — nurse, attorney, MFA graduate, happily married. But behind that picture was a secret she carried since she was four years old. In this deeply honest conversation, Andrea tells Mike about her debut memoir Such a Pretty Picture, which chronicles her surv...
Map of a Heart, with Jacque Gorelick
"I think there was some empathy for my younger self that I probably didn't have before... I think writing the book, I could look at myself as a seven-year-old girl or a thirteen-year-old with a lot of anger and a lot of reasonable reason to feel abandoned, rather than, wow, I was just really a problem child." — Jacque Gorelick
Jacque Gorelick joins Mike to talk about her memoir, Map of a Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Finding the Way Home. The book follows a seemingly ordinary family outing that turns into a me...
Revealing Purpose, with Nick Kemp
“You don’t need to find your ikigai—you already have it. You just need to notice it.” — Nick Kemp
What if purpose isn’t something you chase—but something you already have? In this episode, Mike sits down with Nick Kemp, founder of Ikigai Tribe and author of A Year of Ikigai, to explore a more grounded, human take on purpose. Nick shares how a guy who once hated writing ended up publishing books, building a global community, and helping others reconnect with meaning—through small, everyday moments. This conversation challenges the Western obsession with “...
Writing Through the Fire, with Priya Hutner
“We suffer as humans—and writing gives us a place to put that pain, to understand it, and maybe even transform it.”— Priya Hutner
What happens when the life you’ve built—your beliefs, your community, your identity—suddenly falls apart? In this episode of Uncorking a Story, Priya Hutner shares her extraordinary journey from growing up and leading within a spiritual ashram to rebuilding her life in Lake Tahoe. Her memoir, Chasing Nirvana, is part spiritual adventure, part cautionary tale, and deeply human at its core. We explore identity, reinvention, the healing power of writing, and what it really...
Writing Without Limits, with Christian Toms-Arbel
“If you want to be a writer for money, you’re in the wrong place. The authors who last are the ones who truly love the craft.” — Christian Toms-Arbel
Christian Toms-Arbel has been telling stories since childhood. Born with a disability that required multiple surgeries, he spent long stretches in hospital wards immersed in books—and eventually began writing his own stories. Years later, after earning a degree and master’s in creative writing, he published his debut psychological thriller The Mannequins.
In this episode of Uncorking a Story, Christian shares the personal experiences that shaped his wr...
Healing, Class, and Coming Home with Leigh Shalloway
“The story came out of me when it was supposed to come out of me—after living a whole life.” – Leigh Shalloway
In this episode of Uncorking a Story, Mike Carlon sits down with novelist and holistic care practitioner Leigh Shalloway to explore the long, winding journey behind her debut novel, Journey Back to You. From a third‑grade writing setback to decades of professional work in psychology, hospice care, and healing touch, Leigh shares how lived experience, perseverance, and compassion shaped both her voice as a writer and the emotional depth of her story. Together, they discuss cl...
The Infinity Within: Kris Land on Souls, Cheat Codes, and the Game of Life
“Maybe what Jesus really wanted was to show us what we’re all capable of—and that we’ve simply forgotten our own power.” — Kris Land
In this mind‑expanding conversation, Mike sits down with author, spiritual thinker, and serial entrepreneur Kris Land to explore the provocative ideas behind his book The Infinity Within. Kris shares his extraordinary lifelong experiences—from childhood out‑of‑body moments to a near‑death incident that shattered his assumptions about reality. Along the way, he offers a bold framework for understanding the soul, reincarnation, emotion as the driver of existence, and life...
Healing, History, and the Power of Story with Jane Loeb Rubin
"Writing made me feel like I mattered — like I was taking up space in the universe that could be shared..”
In this episode, Mike uncorks the story of historical fiction author Jane Loeb Rubin, whose career as a writer began with an unexpected catalyst: an ovarian cancer diagnosis. What started as a therapeutic memoir evolved into a multi‑book, award‑winning series exploring immigrant life, women’s rights, early medical practices, and the tumultuous decades that shaped modern America. Jane shares how uncovering her great‑grandmother Tilly’s forgotten story led her deep into history — from 19th‑century New York t...
