Have you saved treasures from your mom? Find and share them for a revealing -- and emotional -- tribute ------------ Here's a special Mother's Day ritual: Dig out the letters and other items that your mom gave you over the years, show them to someone, and tell the stories about her that relate to what you saved. That's what I did two years ago. It was the most meaningful Mother's Day since my mom died. Of course, I went a little overboard when it came to saving things. I kept all 104 cards an...

How I helped the long-haired, bare-chested model leap from the cover of romance novels to the cover of People Magazine -------- In 1993, I spent a week in L.A. and Hawaii with Fabio Lanzoni, "The King of Romance," as I wrote a People cover story, then I ghostwrote his official biography. Now, for the first time, I'm sharing my never-heard interview tapes with revelations about cheating on his one true love, losing his virginity, and the upsetting experience that led him to utter an expl...

Craving more Olympics? I Couldn't Throw It Out has staged its own world-class event: The Treasure Toss. In our first mini-episode, photographer and collage artist Joyce Seymore commits to the daring feat of throwing out an artwork and maybe one other possession. This is no easy feat, considering that Joyce has spent a lifetime saving just about everything, including a huge collection of art materials, books, shells, and more. The outcome is as tense as an Olympic snowboard half-pipe com...

Janny Scott explains how saving things helped her grieve – and preserve her connection with journalist Joseph Lelyveld --------------- When someone you love dies, the grieving process is different for each of us. But one thing is always the same: You've got to decide what to do with the things your loved one left behind. Janny Scott experienced this in January 2024 when Joseph Lelyveld, her partner of 19 years, died from complications of Parkinson's Disease. Joe had been a star at...

You heard how I smashed violins as kid (in a previous episode). Hear how I saved one as an adult. ----- These days, we all could use a story with a happy ending, right? Well, here's one that answers the question: What ever happened to a family heirloom I inherited from my father? When last we spoke of my father's treasured violin (previous episode: Listen up! A Violin Lesson with Strings Attached), I was headed off – once again – to learn how to play it. Did I find a way to make music that wo...

1991 flashback: Hear candid talk about female rappers, obscenity, sexism, and more with Salt-N-Pepa, 2025's newest members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ----------- When I interviewed Salt-N-Pepa for my 1992 book Break It Down, they were among the most successful rappers on the planet. One platinum album and another coming soon. Sell-out concerts around the world. But did I include them on my list of the top 5 hip-hop groups? Nope. Oops. That was a mistake. Now t...

The director and cast of the TV series Waack Girls (Amazon Prime) explain why saving stuff is so common in India, and around the world -------------- If you ever suspected that an obsession with saving things is a mostly American habit, here's proof that it ain't so. Sooni Taraporevala -- who wrote the screenplays for Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, Yeh Ballet, and other movies -- recently told me that she's been saving treasures in Mumbai, India since she was 5. Not only t...

Treasures saved from past jobs spark memories of a scientist, a porn star, The Pet Shop Boys, The Partridge Family, and long-lost websites ------------------------------- Man, do we ever spend a lot of time at work. That's one reason why I felt compelled to save things from the places I worked, to remind me how I spent so much of my time. I always suspected that I wasn't the only one who did this. And now, I have proof. Four friends -- who worked at various offices with me -- agre...

Nic Cage delivers another explosive performance in the new movie "The Surfer." But the actor I interviewed was somebody else. ---------- When I talked with Nicolas Cage on the phone for an hour in 1994, he already had a bit of a reputation for going ballistic in movies. Just the crazed cockroach-eating scene in Vampire's Kiss was enough to give a guy a reputation. But lo and behold, he told me a lot of things I didn't expect. For starters, he's very shy off-screen and he felt like...

Hear my never-shared 1995 talk with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant about their music, books, diets, girlfriends, hair loss, Led Zeppelin myths, and their Unledded reunion ----- If you find it hard to visualize Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in a People Magazine article, I’m with you. The People article I reported and wrote about them in 1995 was never published. So the cassette tapes of my interview went into a box, like a heavy metal time capsule. Until now. When I saw the rav...