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Uncorking a Story

Michael Carlon

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!

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20 episodes
weekly
Avg 37 min
English

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#504
Tuesday · 41 min
BECOMING YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND, WITH JANICE ERLBAUM
At 15, Janice Erlbaum gave her mother an ultimatum: take back the violent stepfather, and I'm leaving. Her mother took him back, and Janice walked out that night into New York City's shelter system. Twenty years after the publication of Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir, Janice joins Mike to talk about life at Covenant House and in group homes in 1980s Manhattan, and how being told she was a "bad girl" pushed her to become one. She also talks about the teachers who saw something worth saving,
#503
November 3 · 42 min
When Small Towns Censored Hollywood, with Glenn R. Miller
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 note cards in her grandfather's files. Her grandfather was a small-town Ohio minister who had served on the state's film censorship board in the 1920s, and
#502
October 27 · 38 min
Living Your Own Truth, with Machan Taylor
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 her only so far. When COVID hit, she began psychedelic-assisted therapy with a trained psychologist, and the journaling that came out of that work grew, over about three years, into 60,000 words
#501
October 20 · 33 min
From Newsroom to Novelist with Neal Lipschutz
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 retiring did he take up fiction full-time, treating it as a new job he showed up for every day. Neal talks with Mike about which newsroom habits carried o
#500
October 13 · 50 min
What I've Learned from 500 Authors
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 him: where writing careers really begin, why there's no such thing as an overnight success, and why it's never too late to start. He also gets personal about losing
#499
October 6 · 34 min
Bouncing Back, with Ellen Holtzman
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 tenure-track job and had to support herself, so she went back to school for a second doctorate and became a psychotherapist. Years later, after her son left for college, s
#498
September 29 · 44 min
Our Own Worst Enemy, with Sal Amato
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-fi thriller built around the alleged 1954 Eisenhower UFO meeting. Sal traces his fascination
#497
September 22 · 32 min
Some Stories Carry You, with Dena Shusterman
In this conversation, Dena and Mike talk about the oral tradition both of them grew up inside, what happens when a writer traces a coping mechanism back four generations and finds it still running in her own kitchen, why rejection never derailed her, and what it costs to look at the people who came before you with compassion instead of judgment.
#496
September 15 · 33 min
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 a
#495
September 8 · 43 min
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,
#492
September 1 · 26 min
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
#493
August 25 · 30 min
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 in
#492
August 18 · 42 min
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 Jersey, she
#491
August 11 · 39 min
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
#488
August 4 · 35 min
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 H
#489
July 28 · 44 min
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
#488
July 21 · 26 min
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
#487
July 14 · 27 min
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 t
#486
July 11 · 49 min
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 --- 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
#485
July 7 · 38 min
Through Her Eyes, with Dr. Kate Sorokas
PULL-OUT QUOTE "I truly dreamed it up during my first nap as a new mom." — Dr. Kate Sorokas --- 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 way through postpartum depr

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