Showdown
A new podcast with Glenn Kurtz about the men who built the Empire State Building, my last trade show of 2025, the oncology vibration, a new Instax, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 664 of my Virtual Memories Show, where Glenn Kurtz tries to answer the question: Who were the men who built the Empire State Building? We talk about his new book, MEN AT WORK: The Empire State Building and the Untold Story of the Craftsmen who Built It (Seven Stories Press) and how he accidentally fell into this project, how “turn every page” led him to a key discovery about Lewis Hine‘s photos of the Empire State construction, how his experience researching and writing THREE MINUTES IN POLAND helped him with this book, his childhood connection with the Empire State, and how identifying their subjects affects the mythic aura of Hine’s photographs. We get into the corporate perspective of the building and how it dehumanizes the workers who built it, and similarly how that heroic collectivist notion of The Worker devalues workers as people, whether craftsmanship and artisanship survived the transition into mass production during the skyscraper era, Hine’s authorial fallacy and the genius of his portraits, and what the Empire State says about the immigration-dynamics of the workforce and the role of unions. We also discuss the question of context and how the question, “What are we looking at?” can reveal the world, the resonance of Hine’s Icarus/Sky Boy pic, the messiness of history, the joy of Virginia Woolf’s diaries, why Glenn just wants to write a novel without it inspiring a nonfiction project, and more. Give it a listen! And go read MEN AT WORK!
Last week I posted Episode 663, where Jennifer Hayden rejoined the show to celebrate her new graphic memoir/anti-cookbook, WHERE THERE’S SMOKE, THERE’S DINNER: Confessions of a Cartoonist Cook (Top Shelf), share comedic tales of domestic mess, and rebel against the expectations of wife/motherhood. We talked about the lifetime of bad cooking that led to this new book, how she found a unique form to tell her story, and how a youthful reading of Babar left her with a lifelong phobia of mushrooms. We got into how she was reverse-inspired by Lucy Knisley’s Relish, what this book taught her about storytelling, and how her daughter diagnosed her as “expectation-allergic.” We also discussed how she’s been cheating on comics with spoken word storytelling, what life after memoir is like, how her breast-cancer memoir doubled as a last will & testament for her family, the process of finding a new creative process and narrative voice, the significance of the tarot card she repeatedly draws when she’s hard at work on a book, why the folk names of herbs are like edible emotion, and more. Give it a listen! And go read WHERE THERE’S SMOKE, THERE’S DINNER!
Recent episodes: Rian Hughes • Josh Neufeld • Dean Haspiel & Whitney Matheson • Ron Rosenbaum • Lance Richardson • Tom Tomorrow • Kayla E
Showdown
Just like last week, I had a virtual negotiation session with FDA and some industry trade groups. Unlike last week, I didn’t feel the need to get this email out before the 9:30 start time. Which is maybe a sign that I’m mellowing.
Tomorrow I check-in with the oncologist, where another world will flicker around me briefly in the moments before they give me the news about my on-site blood test. Then everything will turn out fine and I’ll resolve back into this singular fractured self.
I had my last trade show/conference of the year on Monday, up in Boston. It’s not the end of my 2025 work-travel — I’ve got three in-person negotiating sessions down at FDA HQ in Silver Spring, MD in December, two of which may become overnights so I can do some Hill/Agency meetings the following day — but I don’t have to be Trade Show Gil until March in NYC, which is nice. It’s been A Year.
The travel’s tougher on me than it used to be, but I’m trying not to let it wallop me too much. With the train trips, I mainly just listen to music — 256gb iPod touch, AirPods — and let my head drift. This Sunday-Monday round trip was kinda rough on my brain, due to the first anniversary of losing our greyhound Benny, and because the drive to the Stamford train station conjured up some memories about my dad. (But hey: the latter gave me some ideas for a year-end monologue episode.)
On top of that, at the trade show I had to relive all those times in grade school and middle school when I wound up sitting alone at the lunch table:
(Okay, a couple people sat with me a few minutes into lunch.)
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Instaxery
A couple weeks ago, the eye clinic called about the appointment for my dad’s 6-month cataract followup, and I had to tell them he died in July. They gave condolences, and I let them know that, fwiw, he really did get a quality-of-life improvement from that first cataract surgery, even though he griped and bitched about it, and decided not to get the second eye done because he was afraid they would screw up and leave that one blind. A few days before we had his final hospitalization, he told me he’d changed his mind and wanted to get the other eye done. I said, “Let’s get this stuff straightened out first, and then we’ll schedule that.” Anyway, on Saturday I took a pic of Glenn Kurtz’ post-cataract sunglasses for our at-home podcast.
Artistry
Didn’t draw anything, sorry. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far. I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-/meditation-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art & a new Instax.
Look I gotta go, yeah, I'm running outta change; / There's a lot of things if I could I'd rearrange,