27: Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

27: Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

Author: Jennifer Taub & Politicon LLC May 28, 2023 Duration: 1:06:53
This week for the book club, we have poet Maggie Smith talking about her tell-most own new bestselling memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful.

You know Maggie from a poem she wrote in an Ohio coffee shop in 2015. That poem “Good Bones” was so deeply true and beautiful that readers passed it around. And it went viral a year or two later. Poems don’t go viral, but this one did, so much so that the unimaginable happened. First. In April of 2017, Meryl Streep read that poem, “Good Bones” at a Lincoln Center gala. But there’s a next. Next, her husband –– the father of her two young children –– the fellow writer, turned lawyer she met in a creative writing class in college. That guy. He blew up the marriage with a postcard and a pine cone. 

Joining us in this conversation is one of Maggie’s and my mutual friends, activist and writer Charlotte Clymer. You know Charlotte from her regular appearances on the Mary Trump Show. She was previously the press secretary for rapid response at the Human Rights Campaign and director of communications and strategy at Catholics for Choice.

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Get More from Maggie Smith
Twitter | Website | Author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Get More from Charlotte Clymer
Twitter | Website | Charlotte’s Web Thoughts Substack

Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY

For anyone who’s ever finished a great book and immediately wanted to dissect it with a smart friend, Booked Up with Jen Taub is that conversation. Hosted by author and legal commentator Jennifer Taub, this podcast digs into the ideas, arguments, and narratives shaping our world, all through the lens of what we’re reading. It’s less a formal book review and more a lively, critical exploration. Episodes weave together themes from politics, culture, and current events, treating books as vital source material for understanding the bigger picture. You’ll hear Taub’s insightful commentary and analysis, often drawing connections between an author’s work and the real-world issues it illuminates. The discussion feels urgent and relevant, whether tackling a new release or a classic with renewed significance. Listening to this podcast is like joining a book club where the conversation is always sharp, informed, and unafraid to challenge conventional wisdom. It’s for readers, thinkers, and anyone curious about the power of stories to explain our complicated present.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 59

Booked Up with Jen Taub
Podcast Episodes
39: Connie Schultz: She’s every genre [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:50
Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Connie Schultz is Jen’s guest today. Connie is the author of two memoirs. Her first Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths and second …And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside…
38: A PLACE FOR US with Brandon Wolf [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:57
Brandon Wolf, author of the memoir A Place for Us joins Jen on Booked Up today. Brandon is a survivor of the 2016 horric domestic terror attack at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida where his best friends, Drew Leinonen…
37: WHY SINÉAD O'CONNOR MATTERS with Allyson McCabe [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:50
Today’s Booked Up guest is Allyson McCabe, author of the deeply felt, carefully researched book, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters, which was published in May two months before the musician’s passing. Allyson interviewed Sinéa…
36: BARBIE Book club with George Hahn & M.G. Lord [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:47
Today is all about BARBIE. The new film, the doll, the legend. Too much hype? No, not enough. This month’s new blockbuster film directed by Greta Gurwig starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has more than just the best…
35: Ben McKenzie [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:22
Jen’s guest today is Ben McKenzie, author of the new book EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD. In this incredibly fast-paced, relatable book, Ben, joined by journalist Jacob Silverm…
34: FANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING: Scott Shapiro [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:27:59
Jen’s guest today is Professor Scott J. Shapiro, author of the new book FANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING. That’s phishing with a PH. But Fancy with an F, as in Fancy Bear, the Russian hack. Subtitled THE DARK HISTORY OF THE INFO…
33: Kathy Griffin is back, bitches! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:04
Kathy Griffin is Jen’s guest today. They cover everything from her life on the D-List to her cameo in Pulp Fiction (while she was dating Quentin Tarantino) to how Donald Trump tried to destroy her, to her SOLD OUT show i…
32:  A MINOR REVOLUTION with Adam Benforado [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:28
This week Jen’s guest is Adam Benforado, author of the compelling new book A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All. The Atlantic said A Minor Revolution is “An extremely sympathetic and worthy attempt t…
31: E. Jean Carroll and Mary Trump on their Backstory Serial [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:43
As featured in The New York Times, Mary Trump and E. Jean Carroll are collaborating with Jen on a serialized romance novel called THE ITALIAN LESSON. Mary is writing the novel, Jen is editing, and E. Jean is advising and…
30: YES, I CAN SAY THAT by Judy Gold [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:16:07
They kvetched, they kvelled, they talked about Hitler. Naturally. What did you expect? This week Jen’s guest is two-time Emmy-Award winning comedian Judy Gold. Judy fit Booked Up into her busy schedule. This spring she f…