This is Love

Five years ago, on Valentine's Day, we started a show about the ways we’re connected to each other. Today, we’re catching up with some of the people we’ve met.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Bill Russell joined the NBA in the 1950s, he was the only Black player on the Celtics. He went on to win 11 championships, more than any player in basketball history. When President Barack Obama awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 2011, he said: “Bill Russell stood up for the rights and dignity of all men.” Today, former NBA player Spencer Haywood remembers his coach and friend.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A woman becomes a best-selling novelist by writing more than 100 books about her first romance.Find out more about Brenda Jackson’s books here.This episode contains adult material.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1983, Nelson Sullivan picked up a video camera and started filming everything – going to nightclubs in New York City, shopping at the grocery store, even waiting for a flight at the airport. "He became the narrator of his own life story.”Special thanks to Kino Library for for letting us share audio from Nelson Sullivan’s videos. You can watch more of Nelson Sullivan’s work on YouTube.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Delia Ephron has worked on some of the most famous romantic comedies of all time – like Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail – alongside her sister, Nora Ephron. In You’ve Got Mail, two people fall in love over email. Decades after writing that screenplay, Delia Ephron found herself in the middle of a very similar story. “I really did think I’d fallen into my own romantic comedy.”Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last November, George Linnane found himself at the bottom of a hole, deep inside a cave. He was badly injured after falling more than two stories. And the only people who could rescue him were his friends in the caving community. "If somebody is in trouble, we all know that we're the only ones who can get them out."Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grace Young remembers her parents were obsessed with food growing up — they went shopping every day for groceries and every night they cooked traditional Cantonese dishes for dinner. She started to learn to cook when she was young, but not from her parents. She learned from Julia Child. “She was a little jolly. She was always in a good mood. I was fascinated by what she was cooking. None of it was familiar to me. I didn’t know what a soufflé was or brioche or croissants, but she was just so appealing to me.”Today, Grace is known as the Stir Fry Guru, and she’s written three cookbooks about Chinese cooking.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meredith Goldstein started giving her mother dating advice when she was a teenager, and today she offers people advice as the author of the Love Letters column for The Boston Globe. She says: “My favorite letters are breakup letters because it doesn't matter who you are – if you have been dumped, it is awful."Meredith Goldstein’s podcast is Love Letters. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Packard makes a living fishing off the coast of Cape Cod. He catches mostly tuna and mackerel. He drags for clams. And for three months every summer, he dives for lobsters. "It's an extremely dangerous profession. I think about it a lot, but I try not to. I can't dwell on it,” he told us. “You know, this is what I love. It's a different world down there. It’s a whole different world." Last summer, he had an astonishing encounter with a whale. Two weeks later he was back in the water. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Margaret Dugan was 17, she ate lunch most days at a place called Little Venice where a young Domenico DeMarco would sing while he made pizza. “He would always be singing. And he had a beautiful voice,” she told us. Eventually, he asked her out on a date. At their wedding in 1965, she had no idea she was marrying the man who’d later be called “The Godfather of Pizza.” Today, a look at the man and the marriage behind the famous Di Fara Pizza. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop - we have a new This Is Love mug and T-shirt available to order now.Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices