Why Lynn Nottage Cashed Out Her 401(k)

Why Lynn Nottage Cashed Out Her 401(k)

At the start of this year, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage achieved a feat. Three of her works—Clyde's, the musical MJ, and an opera adaptation of her play Intimate Apparel—were playing on New York City stages simultaneously. But three decades ago, during the height of the AIDS and crack epidemics, Lynn almost stopped writing plays for good. "I was watching many of my classmates and my professors get sick and die or succumb to drug addiction," she told me about her time at drama school. "And it was really hard to stay focused on writing and figure out, well, why am I writing? And what is it that I want to write about when there's so much trauma?" Lynn grew up in Brooklyn, where she now lives in her childhood home. She spoke with me from her living room about how bombing a test in college led her to theater, how quitting her day job and cashing in her 401(k) helped her return to it, and how she shares "marriage miles" with her filmmaker husband.

Episoder(150)

I Love My Dad, But I Don't Love Guns

I Love My Dad, But I Don't Love Guns

Back in the spring, we asked you to tell us about the hardest conversations you've ever had, and the ones you haven't had yet. A listener we're calling Jack wrote in about a conversation he wanted to ...

3 Nov 202134min

Order Up, Tapped Out: Life After Restaurant Burnout

Order Up, Tapped Out: Life After Restaurant Burnout

In the last few months, millions of restaurant and hospitality workers have left their jobs. Right now, there are more job openings in this field than ever before. For many of these workers, the pande...

27 Okt 202137min

Succession's J. Smith-Cameron On Old Haunts and New Normals

Succession's J. Smith-Cameron On Old Haunts and New Normals

A few weeks ago, I was back in New York City for the first time since 2019. It was great—I saw coworkers in person, and I had lunch at one of my old spots, the Waverly Diner, with actor J. Smith-Camer...

20 Okt 202134min

Dead People Don't Have Any Secrets

Dead People Don't Have Any Secrets

Three years into Amanda* and Sam*'s marriage, the couple found out that they were unexpectedly pregnant...with twins. Amanda says she took on the lion's share of the work at home while also juggling a...

6 Okt 202127min

Your Infertility Stories Have Many Different Endings

Your Infertility Stories Have Many Different Endings

Sometimes the path to parenthood isn’t a straight line. What happens when you hit speed bumps on the road to having kids? Earlier this year, I asked you about what happened when you realized becoming ...

29 Sep 202140min

"You Should Be Carrying This. Not Me."

"You Should Be Carrying This. Not Me."

When a listener named Chloe was in college, she says she was sexually assaulted at a party by a former classmate. She filed a police report, but her classmate was never charged with a crime. He left t...

22 Sep 202134min

When A Banker Became A Nun

When A Banker Became A Nun

Sister Josephine Garrett grew up Baptist and worked her way up the corporate ladder—eventually becoming a vice president at Bank of America, where she managed a few hundred employees. But after conver...

8 Sep 202125min

Decision Fatigue Is Real. We Called For Backup.

Decision Fatigue Is Real. We Called For Backup.

We recently asked you to tell us about the decisions you're struggling to make right now. There have been so many choices to make and risks to weigh lately, and after almost 18 months into this pandem...

1 Sep 202159min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
wolfgang-wee-uncut
alt-fortalt
grenselos
synnve-og-vanessa
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
min-barneoppdragelse
rss-dannet-uten-piano
fladseth
rss-frekvens-med-anine-olsen
opptur-med-annette-og-ingeborg