Zackary A. Graham talks with Asha Dore about Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad

Kim Griffin Talks about Dick Bunny with Totally Biased Reviews Host, Asha Dore

Our host, Asha Dore, talks with Kim Griffin about her award-winning web series, Dick Bunny Find it here: https://www.dickbunny.com/ [https://www.dickbunny.com/] About the series: Max Griffin was a high-powered lawyer with a great marriage, total freedom, and friends who understood her. That was before. Now, Max has a baby, and her extreme isolation, anxiety, and desperate attempts to keep up with LA mom culture are taking her to a pretty dark place. When a mysterious British children's book appears on her doorstep, Max begins to hallucinate Dick Bunny–a sarcastic man-rabbit who is precisely the ally Max needs as she navigates her new life. DICK BUNNY explores anxiety and loneliness and an unraveling psyche through the lens of modern motherhood. About Kim: I was born in Oklahoma, escaped at 17 to go to college in Boston, and have since lived in San Diego, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh with stops along the way to study and perform in London, Chicago, D.C., Louisville and the Berkshires. In 2017, we decided to relocate to California for better access to services and supports for our family. You may have seen or heard something about Dick Bunny, which is a delightful comedy series that I co-Executive Produced, and in which I star. Dick Bunny has screened at the Austin Film Festival, HollyShorts, Dances With Films, and SeriesFest - where we received the awards for Best Director and Best Individual Performance in a Digital Series. I also produce and host a podcast called Off the Fucking Rails with Kim Griffin that deals with mental health, and highlights sharing resources and collective rage. (Find it wherever you get your pods!) I'm available for teaching and coaching classes, or workshops for actors, influencers, creatives, and other humans looking to enhance their communication, connection and performance skills. Hire me if you want results, and know that I will meet you every step of the way with compassion, personalized strategies, and exercises designed to catapult you into your next chapter. Find Kim here: https://thekimgriffin.com/ [https://thekimgriffin.com/] Totally Biased Reviews is a Parley Lit production in collaboration with Parley Productions. Hosted and Edited by Asha Dore and Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. Music by Nuclear Peasant. Find more at www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com [https://www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com] Find Asha at www.AshaDore.net [https://www.AshaDore.net]

Zackary A. Graham talks with Asha Dore about Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad

Our host, Asha Dore, talks with Zackary A. Graham about his 2026 book, Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad Find it here: https://uncpress.org/9781469685731/crayfish-crawfish-crawdad/ [https://uncpress.org/9781469685731/crayfish-crawfish-crawdad/] About the book: DWhatever you call them—crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads—these small crustaceans are a vital piece of the larger ecosystem, and though they're found nationwide, the American Southeast and Appalachia are among the most biodiverse places for these animals. Biologist and crayfish expert Zackary Graham takes readers on an informative journey, following crayfish from the coalfields of Central Appalachia to the spring-fed water of Northern California, and in roadside ditches everywhere in between. He discusses crayfish habitats—the muddier the better—anatomy, and coloration, which runs the gamut from dull grays to vivid blues, reds, and even bright white. Most important, Graham shows how necessary crayfish are to our ecosystem and rallies a call for protection as nearly 200 of the 400 unique species of crayfish in the United States are threatened by development, pollution, and other human-made factors. A love letter to a common crustacean, this book shows nature lovers that crayfish are diverse, important, and in need of our help. About the Author ZACKARY A GRAHAM is assistant professor of biology at West Liberty University. Totally Biased Reviews is a Parley Lit production in collaboration with Parley Productions. Hosted and Edited by Asha Dore and Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. Music by Nuclear Peasant. Find more at www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com [https://www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com] Find Asha at www.AshaDore.net [https://www.AshaDore.net]

Emily Rapp black talks about her book I Would Die If I Were You | Totally Biased Reviews w Asha Dore

Our host, Asha Dore, talks with Emily Rapp Black about her 2026 book, Find it here: https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/i-would-die-if-i-were-you/ [https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/i-would-die-if-i-were-you/] About the book: Drawing upon her previous work and over two decades of teaching, New York Times bestselling memoirist Emily Rapp Black explores how art can move us through moments of grief and loss while celebrating the spirit-lifting potential of all creative acts To be disabled is to be exiled; to have a terminal illness is to be isolated in one's time-limitedness; to grieve is to be annihilated; and to live is inevitable: all of these, together and at once, form the core of the truth of being human. As most artists know, approaching their "hard" stories in a way that feels joyful, redemptive, and meaningful can be difficult to near impossible. With I Would Die If I Were You, celebrated author Emily Rapp Black has designed a guide that will help creative people working in any medium make meaning out of loss. For her entire life, she has been answering awkward questions in elevators: "What's wrong with you?" "What happened to your body?" And, in the case of her son's terminal illness and death, she's been told more times than she can count: "I would die if I were you." Rejecting such cruel and casual conclusions, Rapp Black posits that part of the human project is to experience grief and loss, and nobody gets out alive, and no writer—or person—survives anything alone. We need empathy, and for that we need community, and we need all the stories told within them to reach our fullest potential. I Would Die If I Were You is a bold and bracing blueprint—part memoir, part craft book—for how art making can lead us to our fullest truths. About the Author EMILY RAPP BLACK is the author of the New York Times bestseller book Poster Child, The Still Point of the Turning World, Sanctuary, and Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg. A former Fulbright scholar, Guggenheim Fellow, and graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she is Professor of Creative Writing at University of California-Riverside, where she also teaches in the School of Medicine. Find Emily here: https://www.emilyrappblackauthor.com/ [https://www.emilyrappblackauthor.com/] Totally Biased Reviews is a Parley Lit production in collaboration with Parley Productions. Hosted and Edited by Asha Dore and Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. Music by Nuclear Peasant. Find more at www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com [https://www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com] www.AshaDore.net [https://www.AshaDore.net]

Girl Gone Wild — Courtney Kocak on Her Debut Memoir, Sex Work & Reproductive Rights | Totally Biased Reviews

Courtney Kocak reviews her debut memoir Girl Gone Wild with Totally Biased Reviews host Asha Dore. A candid conversation on 1990s girlhood, reproductive rights, and writing personal truth. Find Girl Gone Wild here: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Gone-Wild-Courtney-Kocak/dp/1949487547 [https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Gone-Wild-Courtney-Kocak/dp/1949487547] GIRL GONE WILD is a collection of exploits and delusions about chasing your dreams with reckless abandon and what happens when their pursuit becomes a new kind of trap. In this memoir-in-essays, Kocak takes readers along on her heady metamorphosis from girl to woman and from dreamer to professional artist, as she is transformed in this unwitting feminist coming-of-age. It's a wild, cringeworthy, and often heartbreaking tale, but with Kocak's wry wit and clear-eyed accounting, it's nothing short of captivating. More about Courtney: https://www.courtneykocak.com/about [https://www.courtneykocak.com/about] Courtney Kocak is a writer, podcaster, and comedian who splits time between Austin and Los Angeles. She originally hails from a rural farming community in Minnesota, home to more cows than people. As a writer, Kocak wrote for Amazon's Emmy-winning animated series Danger & Eggs, voiced by Aidy Bryant, and Netflix's Know It All. Her bylines include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Cosmopolitan, Slate, HuffPost, The Sun, Catapult, BUST, Bustle, Business Insider, InsideHook, and more. She's a regular contributor to Descript's Creator HQ blog. Courtney reports on gender, sexuality, psychedelics, reproductive rights, sex work, and sustainability. Her debut memoir with Trio House Press was published April 2026. Totally Biased Reviews is a Parley Lit production in collaboration with Parley Productions. Hosted and Edited by Asha Dore and Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. www.AshaDore.net [https://www.AshaDore.net] www.parleyproductions.com [https://www.parleyproductions.com] Music by Nuclear Peasant. Find more at www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com [https://www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com]

Body of Work: The Journo Series — Jacqueline LeKachman & Andrea Javor on Journalism & Creative Nonfiction | Totally Biased Reviews

Jacqueline LeKachman and Andrea Javor discuss Body of Work: The Journo Series with Parley Lit — where journalism meets literary nonfiction. Welcome to our first episode where we focus on a body of work in journalism, featuring Andrea Javor and Jacqueline LeKachman talking about their incredible and prolific careers. Andrea Javor is a freelance writer based in Chicago whose work has been featured in Vogue, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The LA Times, Town & Country, USA Today, McSweeney's, and more. As a multi-decades marketing professional and amateur poker player, Andrea is an expert at telling stories using data, personal anecdotes, research, and even cards. Her memoir, Ace of Hearts: What Poker Taught Me About Love, is currently agented and seeking a publisher. Connect with her at https://www.andreajavor.com/ [https://www.andreajavor.com/] or on Instagram: @AndreaEJavor. About Andrea's work-in-progress, Ace of Hearts: In this voice-driven memoir I use the strategic language of poker to explore how women navigate risk, identity, and emotional labor in life and love. It's a multidisciplinary inquiry written to teach women how to wager our worth in a system stacked against us. Some of Andrea's work we talked about in this episode! * https://www.vogue.com/article/what-getting-divorced-in-my-20s-taught-me-about-love [https://www.vogue.com/article/what-getting-divorced-in-my-20s-taught-me-about-love] * https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/a68927383/high-stakes-poker-luxury-guide/ [https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/a68927383/high-stakes-poker-luxury-guide/] Jacqueline LeKachman is a New York-based writer and editor who writes about family, sex, and other things that keep her up at night. Her essays appear in The Washington Post, The Guardian, HuffPost, Women's Health, Business Insider, Newsweek, Salon, Slate, and more. Formerly a NYC public high school English teacher, she's now a freelance copyeditor for Penguin Random House and for individual writers. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from The New School and a masters in journalism from the CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. Connect with her via her website: https://www.jacquelinelekachman.com [https://www.jacquelinelekachman.com] About Jacqueline's work-in-progress: My nonfiction book explores how living with my mom's compulsive hoarding and losing my virginity to sexual compliance led me to become celibate for over two years in my twenties. During that time, I educated myself on the nuances of consent and investigated the long-hidden family secrets that made me desperate for control. In giving up sex, I found what I had lacked for most of my life: understanding and agency. Some of Jacqueline's work we talked about in this episode! * https://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-love/a63539594/sexual-compliance-personal-essay/ [https://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-love/a63539594/sexual-compliance-personal-essay/] * https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mom-daughter-strained-relationship-photo_n_669959a0e4b0e9707971f108 [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mom-daughter-strained-relationship-photo_n_669959a0e4b0e9707971f108] Totally Biased Reviews is a Parley Lit production in collaboration with Parley Productions. Hosted and Edited by Asha Dore and Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. www.AshaDore.net [https://www.AshaDore.net] www.parleyproductions.com [https://www.parleyproductions.com] Music by Nuclear Peasant. Find more at www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com [https://www.TotallyBiasedReviews.com]