Ada Calhoun

NYTBR on Two Acting Memoirs

Ada Calhoun — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:22:00 +0000

Just did a double-review of two new acting memoirs for the New York Times Book Review.

Two new actor memoirs follow a similar script, from regional dues-paying to career triumph. Both authors learn their craft on small stages throughout America, spend time at Harvard, occasionally talk about themselves in the third person and grow apart from their first wives. But where one book is warm and generous, the other is cold and bleak.

Read it here.

My Level of Junior High Popularity Was Fact-Checked by the NY Times

Ada Calhoun — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:28:40 +0000

…. For this New York Times Magazine Lives piece: “Geekdom Revisited.” Alas, they stopped there, and did not dig up the answers to a whole host of questions George and I had about our former classmates. Here’s the piece:

Instinctive Parenting on Curtis Sliwa’s Radio Show

Ada Calhoun — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:01:41 +0000

Early Saturday morning, in a radio studio in the mostly empty Empire State Building, Curtis Sliwa, the original Guardian Angel, told me that I had “good street credibility.” That’s kind of like the Pope calling you a good Catholic, so I was pretty psyched.

Hanging out with Sliwa in-studio for “The Curtis Sliwa Show” on AM 970 The Apple is the talk-show equivalent of riding the Coney Island Cyclone.
He can weave together the Flying Wallendas, murder, gentrification, Joan Jett, dirty water hot dogs, SpongeBob, perp walks, the Wiggles, circumcision and much more into a single morning. At 9 a.m. I stumbled out (past the “Yankees Fans Only” sign) onto 34th Street in a daze. But a pleasant one!

You can listen to our whole one-hour conversation here. And you of course can buy Instinctive Parenting here.

NYTBR Review on Filial Piety and Cary Grant

Ada Calhoun — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:55:15 +0000

Here’s the link. And here’s an excerpt: Ultimately, Jennifer’s life of paternal indulgence left her unprepared for a world full of men who are not Cary Grant. His death all but destroys her: “Dad’s death was war on my heart the way 9/11 brought war to my doorstep.”

Talking about Male Strippers with Judah Friedlander

Ada Calhoun — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:17:59 +0000

…on VH1′s fun morning show (where my friend Brendan works), via ’90s Woman. The clip is up here.

Fancy Encyclopedia People Interview Us About Fashion

Ada Calhoun — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:25:47 +0000

It is surprisingly fun to chat about ripped T-shirts with Oxford University Press ladies in the NYPL library green room.

Speaking at the NYPL April 5th

Ada Calhoun — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:55:30 +0000

An Argument for Bad Behavior, in Redbook

Ada Calhoun — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:23:07 +0000

Doing this article for the April issue of Redbook was like getting paid to go to therapy.

Redbook, April 2011

Could “Instinctive Parenting” Have Saved the Cyrus Family?

Ada Calhoun — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 15:22:27 +0000

I think that’s what this awesome article “Why I gave up trying to be a perfect mother. . .Miley Cyrus’s dad has admitted to struggling with parenthood. But there is no right or wrong way of raising children” by Caitriona Palmer in the Irish Independent suggests.

Read the whole thing here.

WFMU’s “Too Much Information”

Ada Calhoun — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:20:00 +0000

Benjamen Walker had me on his WFMU show “Too Much Information” to talk about my Salon article. He’s a great interviewer. And he was a very good sport when I found an old MySpace photo he thought he’d deleted in which he’s being groped by sexy nurses.

Listen here. I’m on second, right after the British guy talking about how the internet is evil.