Corporate America keeps encouraging employees for authenticity in the workplace — but is anyone really prepared for it? Comedian Norm Macdonald once noticed a troubling trend among new stand-ups: the rise of “confessional comedy.” He saw entertainers that were way more interested in sharing cringeworthy, raw, ragged, look-how-brave-I-am anecdotes than…

A father’s reasons why this 70-year-old event may have run its course It’s four in the morning, my apartment looks like a war zone, and I hate The Absolute Everything™ about Scouting right now. Everything. And this is coming from someone who, once upon the 1990s, made it to “Life…

10 lessons learned after 6 years of producing a podcast that you’ve never heard What happens when your podcast ends? I’m not asking about the end of your favorite NPR or Ringer show, by the way. I’m asking if you know what happens when your own podcast ends — one…

How my job at a movie theater, 25 years ago, rescued me from the depression of unemployment and refocused my future pro·jec·tor (prəˈjektər), n. Apparatus or machine with a system of lenses that projects or throws filmed images onto a screen via a beam of focused light. “What’s been your…

All right, children. Time for a story. Sit down anywhere you like. There you go. Perfect. Now, I’m going to tell you someth— hey! You put that fidget spinner down. Right. Now. And you? Yes, you. Scooch closer. There. Like I said, I’m about to tell you a story —one…

Confession time: I have a serious book-buying problem. It’s never come with the consequences or soul-shattering fallout that my drinking problem did, but it’s three times older than my battle with the bottle. My shelves are crowded with more books that I’ll ever read in my lifetime: hundreds of paperbacks…

I don’t believe in ghosts but I absolutely, unquestionably, 100% believe in being haunted. Neighborhoods, vehicles, an office building, some random intersection, old emails, archived Facebook messages, scattered photographs, esoteric landmarks from my life — it doesn’t matter. I’m routinely haunted by my alcoholic past. In any given week, I’m staring at some reminder of an unkept obligation or a broken promise, thanks to…

“Oh, that’s so cute,” a co-worker says, pointing over my shoulder. “What’s that?” I absently ask, finishing up an email or a spreadsheet or something equally unimportant. “That little blue alien guy,” she says. “Did one of your kids give you that? A gift for Daddy?” I spin around in…

It’s an idea. It’s a dream. It’s a nightmare. — Everybody here’s got a story to tell, Everybody’s been through their own hell. There’s nothing too special about getting hurt, But getting over it, that takes the work. — Glen Phillips, “Duck and Cover” It’s just a matter of a time. Seconds, really. In a matter of moments, all the…