Challenges & Opportunities

New podcast with Rachel Shteir, my pharma-self, a little art & less

Intro

I’ll be heading out in an hour or so for the annual pharma conference I organize, host, and micromanage within an inch of its/my life. The main aggravation this time around was the threat of a government shutdown; until that was resolved on Saturday, my three presenters from the FDA were uncertain if they’d be allowed to present. I made some contingency plans, and I know none of the attendees (representatives from the member companies of my trade association) would have blamed me for something so out of my control, but I’d have found a way to blame myself. It’s one of my skills.

Earlier this week, I guested on a pharma-podcast and talked about “challenges & opportunities,” which is my catch-all title for anything I write or produce about the sector. Near the end, the host asked me about my Virtual Memories Show, and I talked about it and how it helps me balance my business and arts selves, but also helped me develop some conversational and public speaking skills that have benefited my pharma-advocacy career.

It’s funny that people on that side of my life are interested in what I do in this side of it, but people in the arts just glaze over when I even begin to explain what I do.

And now, on with The Virtual Memories Show!

Podcastery

This week, I posted Episode 557 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. Rachel Shteir for a conversation about her fantastic new biography, Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter (Yale University Press). We get into how Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is being erased or glossed over by contemporary writing about women, how the 50th anniversary of TFM sparked this biography, the challenge of balancing Friedan with her work and threading her life and the massive shift in women’s rights she helped cause. We talk about Friedan’s involvement in Esalen & Human Potential Movement and how it influenced her later work, why knowing her midwestern family upbringing is key to understanding her choices (good and bad), the battle between equal rights and sexual politics and how feminism got away from her, the intersection of Judaism and feminism, and how Friedan began to recognize her mistakes and try to correct for them over time. We also discuss “What Would Betty Do?” in relation to today’s politics and the Me Too movement (potentially not well), how Rachel finds synergies between biography and dramaturgy, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter

This week, I posted Episode 556 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. legendary cartoonist & artist Patrick McDonnell, who answers the question, “What’s it like to put out books with Jack Kirby and the Dalai Lama in the same year?” We get into the secret origin of his amazing new book, THE SUPER HERO’S JOURNEY (Abrams ComicArts), the joy of getting to play with the comic-book characters of his youth and remix 1960s panels & pages with his own art & story, and how he made a spiritual book disguised as a Marvel comic. We also talk about his collaboration with the Dalai Lama, HEART TO HEART: A Conversation on Love and Hope for Our Precious Planet (Harper One), how Patrick combined minimal (but gorgeous) art with the Dalai Lama’s words to tell a story of ecological survival, getting to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharmshala (& finding some bliss), and the struggle of drawing a cartoon version of His Holiness and his small nose. Plus we discuss the approaching 30th anniversary of his MUTTS comic-strip and how Patrick keeps finding inspiration & fun in making it, how making books and paintings allows him to flex and play with his art, the experience of showing his paintings at a big exhibition at OSU in 2021, and how purposefulness suffuses Patrick’s art & life. Give it a listen! And go read The Super Hero’s Journey and Heart To Heart

Other recent episodes: Keith Knight • Brett Martin • Peter Rostovsky • Bill Griffith • Jerome Charyn • Ron Rosenbaum

Art

I only made a couple sketches last week. One was of a big pillar in the lobby of the hotel where I was staying, because I wanted to figure out if I could do the marble base with the pocket-brush. YOU MAKE THE CALL! The other one was in my mini-sketch pad, on the flight home, in dim light, with my contacts in, from a photo on my phone. I have now provided enough excuses as to why this does not actually look like Daniel Clowes, but rather some generic seedy Englishman. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.

At least it’s a face.

Until Next Time

Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, and Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.

I could show you some of the people in my life,

—Gil Roth
Virtual Memories
Bluesky • Instagram • Flickr • YouTube • Linktr.ee