5 Things with Lisa Birnbach

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 110 - Daphne Merkin - Writing about obsessive sex and love Aug 14, 2020

Show notes

Lisa Birnbach and author Daphne Merkin have a frank talk about obsessive sex and love, and Daphne's new book "22 Minutes of Unconditional Love". Strangely enough neither sex nor love are one of Lisa's or Dahpne's 5 Things that make life better. Listen to find out why.

Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. Her friend Shelley’s sour cherry pie, 2. Her mother’s 90th birthday dinner, 3. Her Exhibits™, 4. Not wearing high heels anytime soon, 5. Dr. Fauci.

Daphne Merkin’s 5 (ok, 6) Things: 1. Discovering a great new book, 2. Lying in the sun by a pool or on the beach, 3. Listening to Patty Griffin, 4. That moment in writing when she is so absorbed, she forget about the time, 5. 5. Laughing hysterically about something with her daughter that only they'd get, 6. Breyer’s mint-chocolate cup ice cream.

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Ep. 109 - Jamie Lee Curtis and Boco Haft - "Letters From Camp" - the podcast Aug 07, 2020

Show notes

Actress and creator Jamie Lee Curtis, and Lisa's own "Exhibit B", Writer Boco Haft, join Lisa Birnbach to talk about their new scripted podcast Letters From Camp. Hear how a long lost letter Boco wrote to Jamie from summer camp when she was 12, became the inspiration for their new family friendly podcast from Audible. And then - the 5 Things about summer camp that made their lives better.

Lisa's 5 Things: 1. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health - Center for Public Safety COVID-19 Newsletter. 2. A fresh plum, 3. Marigolds, 4. Receiving packages, 5. Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Jamie Lee Curtis’s 5 Great Things About Camp: 1. Lanyards, 2. Trunks, 3. Bug juice, 4. Camp songs-The cat came back, 5. The camaraderie.

Boco Haft’s 5 Great Things About Camp: 1. Campfire Songs, 2. Friendship Bracelets, 3. No parents, 4. Color War, 5. Camp Routine.

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Ep. 108 - Chef JJ Johnson - Cooking while Black, being an American Chef in 2020 Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

Harlem Chef JJ Johnson joins Lisa Birnbach in a far ranging conversation about being a Black Chef in America in 2020. Join their conversation about the joys of cooking, the beauty of rice (yes RICE!) and what it means to be a black Chef in the year of the Pandemic, his restaurant - FieldTrip, and his cookbook Between Harlem and Heaven.

Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. A great talk with Exhibit C, 2. Paying bills on time with checks, 3. No manicure in the time of Corona Virus, 4. No one is unreachable, 5. Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Chef JJ Johnson’s 5 Things: 1. Family, 2. Real friends, 3. Good partners, 4. Focus, 5. Being true to yourself

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Ep. 107 - Sheila Nevins - The Queen of Documentary Filmmaking Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

If you watch film or television documentaries , you've seen one produced by Sheila Nevins, long time president of documentary film at HBO and this weeks guest on 5 Things That Make Life Better with Lisa Birnbach. Join Lisa and Sheila as the discuss Sheila's new book "You Don't Look Your Age... and Other Fairy Tales" and the five things that made their lives better this week. lisabirnbach.com/welcome

Lisa’s 5 Things:

1. Lloyd's Carrot Cake, 2. Method Antibacterial Spray, 3. Blue Light Cancelling Reading Glasses, 4. Competence, 5. Dr. Fauci

Sheila Nevin’s 5 Things:

1. Money in the bank, 2. My dog, 3. The tree outside my window (realizing nature has outsmarted me, 4. Eating cake without gaining weight, 5. Making people laugh / being outrageous in expressing the unexpressed - carefully, of course

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Ep. 106 - Andy Slavitt - Pandemic expert. Believer in science. Jul 17, 2020

Show notes

Health expert Andy Slavitt joins Lisa Birnbach on a wide ranging conversation about Health Science, the Covid-19 pandemic, health insurance, and Andy's podcast (with his son Zach) "In The Bubble". Of course they also discuss the 5 Things that made their lives better this week.

Lisa’s 5 Things:

1. Sitting at my desk, 2. Frozen pastry crust, 3. Reading offline, 4. Throwing out dead pens, 5. Dr. Fauci and Science.

Andy Slavitt’s 5 Things:

1. A morning with nothing he has to do, 2. Friends who let him have their back and have mine, 3. When the dog rests his head in his lap, 4. When there are people who need him and he can help without doing a lot of work, 5. A great 80s pop song.

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Ep. 105 - Kari Lizer - Comedy writer, animal lover Jul 10, 2020

Show notes

Kari Lizer - Comedy writer ('Will and Grace", "The new adventures of old Christine"), memoirist, and animal lover joins Lisa Birnbach for a far reaching conversation about kids, empty nests, and chickens. What ! Oh, and they talk about Kari's new book "Aren't you forgetting someone - Essays from my mid-life revenge" Of course they also talk about the 5 things that make their lives better.

Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. Framing mementos and souvenirs, 2. Covid Skin, 3. Preppy Face Masks from Rowing Blazers, 4. Rosé Wine, 5. Dr. Fauci.

Kari Lizer’s 5 Things: 1.Her dogs, 2. Always having a trip in the works, 3. Notebooks (and Uniball pens), 4. Saying No, 5. Ugly underwear.

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Ep. 104 - With Susanna Styron - Migraine: The film that explains it all. Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

If you're like Lisa, you suffer from Migraine. Guest filmmaker Susanna Styron joins Lisa Birnbach to discuss her new film "Out of my head - Migraine. It's not just a headache" and explain why this condition that affects nearly a billion people world wide remains so deeply misunderstood.

Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. Rhubarb 2. Going to the hair salon, 3. The Lincoln Project, 4. Shtisel, 5. Dr. Fauci.

Susanna Styron’s 5 Things: 1. Coffee, 2. My daughter and her partner quarantining with me, 3. Heather Cox Richardson, 4. Large bodies of water, 5. Protest.

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Ep. 103 - With Stephanie ("Sweetbitter") Danler - Author, Memoirist, Survivor Jun 26, 2020

Show notes

"Sweetbitter" author Stephanie Danler joins Lisa Birnbach to talk about her new Memoir "Stray", Surviving her early life. Family, Neglect, Love and Life, it's all so complicated!

Lisa’s 5 things: 1. Family, 2. Extended family, 3. Early voting, 4. Her kitchen scale, 5. Cured of shopping via Instagram disease.

Stephanie Danler’s 5 Things: 1. Poetry, 2. Meditation, 3. Marcella Hazan 4. Sequoia National Park, 5. Her Meyer lemon tree

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Ep. 102 - with Alan Zweibel - Comedy writer, friend to the stars. Jun 19, 2020

Show notes

Lisa talks to funnyman Alan Zweibel. He's written for Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal, and Gilda Radner among many others, and now he's written a new book LAUGH LINES: My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier.

Lisa’s 5 Things: Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. Structure, 2. Regularly scheduled Zoom and conference calls, 3. Writing and receiving mail, 4. Buying books from independent bookstores, 5. Supreme Court Decision Bostock v. Clayton County

Alan Zweibel’s 5 Things: Alan Zweibel’s 5 Things: 1. His wife Robin, 2. Marx Brother movie, DUCK SOUP, 3. Nectarines, 4. Words, 5. Empty baseball fields.

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Ep. 101 with Jeff Vespa - Documentary evidence: VOICES OF PARKLAND Jun 12, 2020

Show notes

Lisa speaks with photographer and director Jeff Vespa about his new film Voices of Parkland. With no distractions, the film allows survivors of the Parkland school shooting to express what they did and how they felt in that moment. February 14, 2018. (This interview was conducted in February 2020)

Lisa’s 5 Things: 1. The Press, 2. Emotional Support, 3. Alan Arkin, 4. Farm To People, 5. Learning about being black.

Jeff Vespa’s 5 Things: 1. Students and Families from Parkland, 2. Omakase Sushi, 3. Los Angeles Dodgers, 4. Great Artists: Marcel Duchamp, Eugene Atget, 5. Making art and telling stories.

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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