5 Things with Lisa Birnbach

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 130 - Patricia Morrisroe - Beethoven and His Muse Jan 01, 2021

Show notes

Lisa Birnbach unravels the secrets of Beethoven's love life with Patricia Morrisroe, author of The Woman in the Moonlight. Join us for this New Year's episode. Something to think about besides you know who.

Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. Great customer service, 2. Satsuma oranges, 3. My new chair pillow, 4. My Aunt Yona, who turned 94 this past week, 4. Our youngest family member: Sheila Evelyn. She’s a 10 week old Cavapoo.

Patricia Morrisroe’s 5 Things: 1. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony– Ode to Joy, 2. Dinner with my husband in front of a crackling fire, 3. Bringing up Baby, with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, 4. Gossiping with my sister, 5. Shakespeare in the Park .

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Ep. 129 - Joyce Carol Oates - 58 Novels... and Counting Dec 25, 2020

Show notes

Merry Christmas 2020. In November, Lisa Birnbach was invited to interview the incomparable author Joyce Carol Oates for the Covid challenged 2020 Miami Book Fair. This was their conversation. Unfortunately, this was not originally scheduled to air on 5 Things with Lisa - so even though we learn about Joyce's new book "Night. Sleep Death. The Stars." we didn't get to learn about the 5 things that make life better for her - but we bet that #1 would probably be her cats. Fortunately, for us, Lisa does share the 5 things that made her life better this week. Give it a listen.

Lisa's 5 Things: 1. Other peoples Podcasts - like "Smartless", & "Nice White Parents", 2. Chocolate covered almonds, 3. The joy of a new Puppy, 4. Dr. Anthony Fauchi, 5. Stella Artois Cider.

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Ep. 128 - Sharon Coplan Hurowitz & Amanda Benchley - Art for the Pandemic Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

Just in time for the holidays! Join Lisa Birnbach as she discusses Open Studio: Do-it-yourself art projects by Contemporary Artists. The new book and home art project book by Sharon Coplan Hurowitz & Amanda Benchley.

Sharon and Amanda's 5 Things: 1. The Met (Metropolitan Art Museum), 2. Central Park, 3. Sant Ambroeus 4. The Public (Theatre in NYC), 5. Friendships.

Lisa Birnbach's 5 Things: 1. The Vaccine, 2. The Electoral College, 3. Dr. Jill Biden, 4. Clogs, 5. Creativity.

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Ep. 127 - Dr. Bandy Lee - A Mental Health Warning about Trump Dec 11, 2020

Show notes

This week, Lisa Birnbach talks with psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee. She's the editor of the New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, and she has a warning about the mental health of Donald Trump. With all her worries about the country, she also has the optimism to identify the five things that make her life better.

Dr. Bandy Lee’s 5 Things: 1. Rembrandts, 2. Bach’s Chaconne, 3. Meditation, 3. Human thriving, 5. Learning to cook with my 8-year-old niece

Lisa Birnbach's 5 Things: 1. Noodles, 2. Elective officials who are not capitulating to Trump, 3. Lifetime-Kentucky Fried Chicken mini-moving trailer. 4. Chanukah, 5. Elizabeth W. Hand Sanitizer Spray

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Ep. 126 - Lawrence O'Donnell - Trumpism will die Dec 04, 2020

Show notes

You heard it here folks. Our guest, Lawrence O'Donnell from MSNBC's "The Last Word" promises our host, Lisa Birnbach, that Trumpism will surely die. Listen to find out why! They also talk about the Five Things that made their lives better this week.

Lisa Birnbach’s 5 Things: 1. The United States Postal Service, 2. Reading glasses sprinkled around my apartment like bouquets of flowers, 3 My gift-giving skills, 4 HBO’s “The Undoing”, 5 Her measuring tape.

Lawrence O’Donnell’s 5 Things: 1. Invention of the Teleprompter, 2. The cordless phone charger in his car, 3. Rudy Giuliani’s hair dye, 4. Air Conditioning, 5. COVID-19 Facemasks.

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Ep. 125 - Lisa Birnbach - The Thanksgiving Special Nov 27, 2020

Show notes

Happy Thanksgiving 2020. While there are so many crazy things going on in November 2020, there are still MANY things to be thankful for. There will be no guest this week, just you and me, the thing I'm most grateful for at this moment - my listeners. Of course I still have the 5 things that made my life better this week.

Lisa's 5 Things: 1. Rachel Maddow, 2. A cadre of good people in the Senate who get less attention than their colleagues, 3. Peking Duck, 4. Watching live conversations on her computer, 5. Zingerman’s pimento cheese spread.

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Ep. 124 - Chris Whipple - Gatekeepers and Spymasters Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

Chris Whipple, documentarian and author of Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency and The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future, joins Lisa Birnbach to talk about transitions - more specifically, White House presidential transitions. What could go wrong? Just in case they also talk about the 5 Things that make their lives better.

Lisa Birnbach's 5 Things: 1. The Queen’s Gambit, 2. Christopher Krebs, 3. Getting a medical appointment, 4. Return of Shtisel on Netflix and watching The Crown, 5. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s Inauguration January 20.

Chris Whipple’s 5 Things: 1. Family, 2. Friends, 3. First Responders, 4. The Deep State, 5. The Crown .

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EP. 123 - Dahlia Lithwick - Defining Justice In the Current Dystopia Nov 13, 2020

Show notes

Lisa Birnbach is joined by legal journalist, Sr. Editor at Slate, and podcaster Dahlia Lithwick to discuss the squirrelly goings-on at the DOJ and the White House. (Hint, they are supposed to be separate). Also an insider's look at SCOTUS - - Clarence Thomas as you never imagined him!

Lisa Birnbach’s 5 Things: 1. Joe Biden, 2. Kamala Harris, 3. The weather! 4. Tuna fish salad sandwiches, 5. Poll watchers, vote counters, Secretaries of state, and state election workers.

Dahlia Lithwick’s 5 Things: 1. Voters, 2. Arbie our new kitten (named after RBG natch), 3. Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper, 4. My parents, 5. "Team Tyranny".

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Ep. 122 - Barry Levine - The inside story of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell Nov 06, 2020

Show notes

Lisa and investigative reporter Barry Levine get down to the nitty gritty in their conversation about Barry's new book The Spider: Inside The Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. There are new facts, details and explosive correlations between Epstein, Maxwell, and many high-powered and well-known figures. It's a must listen episode! But all is not lost, there are still the 5 Things that made their lives better this week.

Lisa Birnbach’s 5 Things: 1. My Family, 2. My Health, 3. My Old Friends, 4. My New Friends! 5. The Resistance.

Barry Levine’s 5 Things: 1.Watching the animated Peanuts Charlie Brown Halloween and Christmas shows with my daughter, 2. Starting every single day, no matter where I am, with a visit to Starbucks for a Trenta black iced tea 3. Drinking dirty martinis at an old writers bar in Manhattan with former newspaper colleagues and telling war stories, 4. Going to the annual antiquarian book fair every spring at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, 5. Pulling out a reporter’s notepad and simply putting pencil to paper in this high-tech world.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ep. 121 - Alexandra Pelosi - Taking a hard look at 2020 America Oct 30, 2020

Show notes

A woman and her camera. Lisa talks with documentary filmmaker, Alexandra Pelosi, about her new film American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself. A look at America at a granular level in the midst of a presidential election and Covid-19.

Lisa Birnbach's 5 Things: 1. Voting, 2. Mom’s published humor article, 3. Decluttering, 4. Merino Wool, 5. Fake Melanias.

Alexandra Pelosi’s 5 Things: 1. YouTube series - Johnny Harris and his wife Iz Harris, 2. Justin Bieber - Lonely, 3. NYC’s Washington Square Park and the people that frequent it and help make NYC a better place, 4. Dashwood Books and other small businesses that make NYC NYC, 5. Cheap box cake.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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