Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, it's Amy Austin.
So good to talk to you.
Normally this would be an episode of A Time to Thrill or Politics of justice, but neither are going up right now. Although I do plan to have a new Politics of Justice up this week.
It's been a hot and long summer and I've been busy trying to get a lot of administrative stuff done and traveling.
All that said, I'm so excited to pop up to share these 17 questions and answers with you.
About a year ago I saw a couple people on social media doing question and answers and I was like, oh my God, that's so cute. I should do it.
Took me a whole year and four months to do it.
All that said, first, I want to thank Marina Maddox for recording the questions and any issues with the audio of her questions is on me.
She does voiceover work now and she did a really good job on the recording, but I didn't decide how to do the question and answers until let's just say this. There was an issue with my editing and I decided not to redo it because it would have taken me more hours than it already did.
So second, I hope you enjoy it. I will say this, it was meant to be done on video and it probably comes across better on video. The link to the YouTube is in the show notes, but since I have thousands of audio listeners and like four YouTube viewers, I'm recording this intro just to let you know what's going on.
All that said, I will say this. So at the end of the video I did talk a little bit about what I'm reading and listening to because I usually do an audible plug here and I will again, so I will say this, I am really enjoying a book called the Unquiet grave by Dervla McTiernan. It is not my favorite book, as I like in the way the video comes across, but it's the one I'm enjoying now. I've had a DNF summer and it's finally good to read something great. It's actually the fourth book in a series.
The first three books I feel like came out a long time ago. There were issues with the rights and availability of this book in the US but I was able to finally download and enjoy it outside the us I will include the links. I think you can get it in the US now. I'm not 100% sure, but I hope you can.
And I don't think you need to read the other three books in the series to enjoy this one, but it has like this element of Irish Storytelling that I've loved, like with Maeve Vinci or even Tana French, where the storyteller or the author in this case, she weaves in all these like, disparate elements that you think have nothing to do with the story and then come together beautifully.
The only man I know who does this well is Philip Margolin. But it's sort of like a storytelling method that I love.
I tried to do it in one book, I think, and who knows if I achieved it? Neither here nor there.
But I do love listening to.
Listening to being told the story. But the issue audiobooks is they take a long time to listen to. I think this one's 11 hours.
So this morning I decided because it's hot as Hades this week again in Europe, to do my morning, like, exercise. But I had to do it like, you know, at the crack of dawn. So as soon as like the sun came up, I got up and out.
I went to like downtown. I live like farther out of the city. Not far out, but not downtown, not near the water for sure.
So I decided to get up, get down to the water. It is really, really, really low, the Danube. I've seen it flood two or three times. This is the first time I've actually ever seen it without water. You can see all sorts of things. And actually there's like a bomb squad that goes out and diffuses, finds and diffuses bombs from World War II when the water is low and they've been out there and active, diffusing bombs from World War II. I don't know what to say, but. So that was really low. I think I posted a picture on Instagram, on Facebook, if you want to look at that. I'll include a link in the show notes. But it was great to be able to get downtown, walk across the bridge from Pesto Buda.
It's a chain bridge. It's a beautiful walk.
It was 80 degrees. It was so early. It was so hot. But it was. It's a beautiful walk and to be able to listen to someone tell me a story. But I don't have 11 hours for listening. I really don't.
So as soon as I came home and made breakfast, I started reading, reading for a couple hours and. But it's great because then I can get through like a chunk of the book. I love listening, but it's just. It really is slow going storytelling.
And now I'm actually going to get to my work for the day.
But first I want to record this so that I can get the audio version of this up. Even though the video version is always up. So, without further ado, 17 questions and answers. I hope you enjoy.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Who has been your greatest teacher?
[00:05:23] Speaker A: My greatest teacher has been my son. Let me just tell you. Children will humble you.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: What's the last country you visited?
[00:05:32] Speaker A: The last country I visited was Estonia.
For years my son and I have been talking about visiting the Baltic states, and we chose Estonia. We also on that trip visited Finland.
And this year we also went to Korea. It's been kind of an interesting travel year.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: What's your favorite city?
[00:05:56] Speaker A: What's my favorite city is such a controversial question in my house.
So I'm recording this in Budapest, Hungary. And so right now I'll say that's my favorite city.
I also love Seoul, South Korea, where I went earlier this year.
But I was born and raised in New York City and that'll always have a place in my heart.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: What's your biggest fear?
[00:06:19] Speaker A: What's my biggest fear? Oh, wow.
So many fears.
I don't know. Used to be being homeless and living under a bridge, but maybe not that. Although given the economy, maybe that. What is my greatest fear?
Dying of suffocation.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Mornings or evenings?
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Always mornings.
There's nothing better than getting up at like 5am, having quiet time, reading, either riding my bike or going to the gym, and then getting home by like 7:30 or 8. Because it feels like I've had a whole day when other people's days are starting. I can't make it past 9pm I've tried for years and years, but I've just given up and love being a morning person.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Relaxing or adventurous vacations.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: The idea of a relaxing vacation is very interesting, but I actually just don't understand it. I don't understand why you'd go somewhere to lay down when you can just lay down at home.
So all my vacations are basically walking city tours.
So when I was in Tallinn in June, it involved walking around the city every day, taking a bike tour. Thanks, Jenny Gardner.
And visiting museums. I don't. Yeah, okay.
As a child, I was subject to Caribbean beach vacations. I will never do it again.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Heels or sneakers?
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Sneakers. I gave up heels maybe 10 years ago or so. I think I wore heels for like maybe in my 20s, not in my teens. And then after my son was born, I put them all in boxes and donated them. So I actually had to go to a gala last year and I had to buy heels.
And I have one pair of platforms in a closet in a box that I will take out the next time I have to go To a gala
[00:08:23] Speaker B: your go to comfort meal.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: I actually go to comfort meal.
Okay. So I want it to be like something like macaroni and cheese or something, which every time I have it, I like it less. I think my go to comfort meal are probably breakfast foods, which I actually don't like to eat.
No, actually, that's not it. Okay. My go to comfort meal is Korean fried rice.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Last person you called?
[00:08:48] Speaker A: The last person I called is actually the person who's asking me questions, and it's Marina Maddox. She's, well, an author. Like, everybody's an author.
But that's the last person I was on the phone with. We were discussing the invasiveness of sunflowers.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Worst advice you ever received?
[00:09:10] Speaker A: The worst advice I ever received is you can change him.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Best advice you ever received?
[00:09:16] Speaker A: The best advice I ever received was actually in law school from a woman named Jennifer Senz. That's actually not her name anymore. But we were sitting in my kitchen in my apartment in Ithaca, and I was writing a letter by hand.
Oh, my God, I'm aging myself. And I had started the letter with I'm sorry. I think I said, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write back, or something like that. And she was like, don't ever start with I'm sorry. And it's actually, like, actually one of the best. The best advice I received because I wasn't sorry. I was regretful. But it wasn't a situation where you had to apologize. So whenever I'm thinking, thinking I'm sorry, or I'm writing I'm sorry, I go back and I delete it, or I don't say it, I just pause and say the thing I meant to say.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Favorite movie.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: I don't know if I have a favorite movie. I actually don't like to go to the movies. It's not.
I believe that movies are not the best storytelling media.
I think the best storytelling medium is obviously books, followed by actually probably a short episodic series for television. And after that, it drops off.
So I will say that the best movie I've seen in the last maybe 10 years is a movie called Gloria Bell, which is about a divorced woman in Los Angeles.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: One thing people don't know about you,
[00:10:45] Speaker A: One thing people don't know about me. I'm thinking what? I say it on camera.
There's lots of things people don't know about me. I'm an introvert, keeps about talking myself.
The one thing that people don't know about me is that I will read anything like it's just, it's. It feels like a sickness.
So anything that comes in, even like the mailbox. When I was a kid, I read cereal boxes. I don't eat cereal anymore. But like the, the other day the sixth district local magazine came which comes out twice a month. And I read it cover to cover. So now I know a great deal about free exhibits and the street fixes in my neighborhood. Budapest.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Biggest pet peeve.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: My biggest pet peeve. I'm going to be totally like honest because this drives me crazy is the fact that I cannot leave my house without men hitting on me.
I wish that I could just like move freely through the world and men never talk to me when I'm going about my business.
So the worst one was actually recently in Los Angeles. Not in Budapest. Well, actually in Budapest, the worst one. But I won't say it on camera because it was really offensive and I don't think you can repeat it out loud. So the. And my son was with me. It was actually horrible, horrible, horrible. Anyway, the previous to that, the worst one was a guy who followed me in his car trying to tell me that I needed to date him because he was a nice guy. And I was like, oh my God, I'm in an SUV that's clearly not armored and I can't even get away.
LA traffic doesn't really allow you to get away
[00:12:33] Speaker B: your guiltiest pleasure.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: My guiltiest pleasure. I'm not a guilty pleasure person. My guiltiest pleasure right now is I've never done this horrible reality tv. So I don't watch many reality TV shows. And I read a book years ago about reality TV and I realized I had never heard of them, nor did I realize they had taken over television.
All that said, currently my guiltiest pleasure is married. At first sight, it's awful.
It is a send up to like the awfulness of patriarchy and the excuses people will make for, for awful behavior. And yet I'm watching it.
Your favorite quote, My favorite quote is when people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Actually had it engraved on rings that I'm wearing on this hand.
And if I'd had that advice, oh, I don't know, 30 years ago, things would have been different. I used to believe in giving people second chances or that people could change.
People do deserve a second chance. Not from me. And people may be able to change, but not on my time.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: What's your favorite book?
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Okay, that is so not a fair question for authors. My favorite book, it used to be a tale of Two Cities by Dickens.
I also like to Thomas Hardy a lot.
But my favorite book, I don't, I don't have a favorite book. Although lately it has been like tana French. But right now, actually I'm reading like D' Hervla McTiernan and like, I love an Irish author. Let me just say that.
