At 6 feet 8 inches, people say he could have been a basketball player. Instead, James Comey became the top law enforcement official when he was appointed FBI Director by former President Barack Obama. Comey inherited a case that would go on to haunt him and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Many people blame Comey for Hillary’s election loss.  Plus, he didn’t get along with his new boss Donald Trump who famously fired him. Now James Comey is a novelist. He spills the beans on “Now What?”

He likes pink flamingos.  He wrote a humor column in the Miami Herald for more than 20 years that earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Dave Barry also writes books. Barry also ran a mock campaign for President as a Libertarian. And did I mention he played lead guitar in a band called the Rock Bottom Remainders. His band mates included other writers like Stephen King and Scott Turow. Barry is a man of many talents. We have a lot of laughs on this episode of “Now What?”

In 2004, Nicole Daedone founded OneTaste, which calls itself a sexuality-focused wellness company dedicated to spreading the word about OMing or orgasmic meditation. Ten years later, OneTaste was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. But in 2022, the Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc. included allegations of abuse by some former OneTaste participants.  And in June federal prosecutors indicted Nicole Daedone on charges of forced labor conspiracy. The government alleges that she “intentionally recruited individuals who had suffered prior trauma.” Daedone pleaded not guilty and faces up to 20 years in prison. I first spoke to her in November. You won’t want to miss what she told me on “Now What?”

Andrew McCarthy was still a teenager when he acted in his first film and became a member of what’s called the Brat Pack. That’s the group of actors including Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald who starred in 1980s films like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire. There were a few bumps along the road like drinking too much alcohol and taking drugs before McCarthy became a travel writer. McCarthy also directs episodes of TV series like Orange is the New Black. And he walked 500 miles across Spain with his teenage son, an adventure he writes about in a new book called Walking with Sam.  

She’s a long-time activist for women’s rights and she’s also a Founding Editor of Ms. Magazine. Letty Cottin Pogrebin is the author 12 books including How to Make it In a Man’s World. Her latest is called Shanda which means shame in Yiddish. Shanda, Pogrebin’s book, is about the secrets families keep and the ones that Pogrebin uncovered that wound up changing her own life. It’s also about shame. She starts off by revealing a story about how she had to confront her own shame after she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. And why she felt she had to hide the news at all costs.

V (formerly known as Eve Ensler) had been on “Now What?” before telling stories from her remarkable life. But we’d never taped a conversation in front of a live audience. On April 19, we walked into the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, a beautiful space that celebrates writers. The room was full. My children Jon and Gabe were in the audience. So was my husband Steve, many friends and “Now What?” fans. And as the conversation unfolded, a sense of togetherness and community filled the room. Now you’ll get to be a part of it, too. 

Jeannette Walls’ memior, The Glass Castle, sold over 5 million copies and spent nearly 500 weeks on the New York Times best seller list. Walls grew up with unconventional parents. Her father Rex was an alcoholic who dreamed of inventing a gold-detecting gizmo that would make him rich enough to build a glass castle for his family to live in. They moved around a lot, usually before the rent came due. Then her parents left Jeannette and her siblings with their paternal grandparents where they were locked in a basement and often ate cat food or whatever they could scrounge from garbage cans. Now Walls is a novelist. Her latest book is called Hang the Moon. It’s a rollicking tale about a gutsy young woman who becomes a bootlegger during Prohibition. We talk about what it’s like to grow up poor and how your life changes when you become very, very rich. 

There’s no one quite like Gloria Steinem. But don’t call her an icon. She doesn’t like it. Gloria thinks of herself as a writer and an activist. She was an important leader of the wave of feminism that changed the world in the 1960s and 70s and she’s the co-founder of Ms. Magazine. Gloria is also the author of numerous books including Revolution from Within and My Life on the Road. She’s a world traveler and an adventure seeker who went to Africa to ride elephants for her 80th birthday.

She comes from a famous musical family. And she’s always felt like she was number 4 on the totem pole behind her brother Rufus, her father Loudon Wainwright III and her mother Kate McGarrigle. These days Martha has come into her own, talking about her life in a memoir called Stories I Might Regret Telling You. She also talks about her talent as a singer and a songwriter, how she got comfortable in her own skin and how much she loves being the mother of two boys. In a conversation that’s honest, funny and raw Martha Wainwright bares all.

Tig Notaro had been doing stand-up for more than 10 years when she got up on stage on August 3, 2012, grabbed the mic and began her set with these words: “Hello, Good evening. Hello. I have cancer.” Many critics called the set historic and ground breaking. In her Netflix special “Boyish Girl Interrupted” Tig went further. She unbuttoned the cuffs of her white shirt, sharing her mastectomy scars with the audience. Now she’s married and has twin boys and remains an unusual comedian.