true stories

I Grieved For My Mother On the Set of Nancy Grace

I went to New York to interview for a job on HLN’s Nancy Grace in September of 2008, fewer than 48 hours after my mother’s funeral. When I tell people that, they always widen their eyes. I can tell what they want to ask me: “So your mom’s funeral wasn’t even the worst day of that week?”

How West Virginia Lost the Workers' Revolution

I had only been in West Virginia for a day when Josh Sword, the head of the state AFL-CIO, told me casually that a revolution is coming. He is not a particularly radical guy. He was just giving an honest, matter-of-fact reading of the political situation. “I don’t know how bad things have to get. In West Virginia, it…

The BMW Addiction That Completely Destroyed This Man’s Life

“Before we get to your car questions,” my former next door neighbor, Terrance, said, “I need to tell you both something. My wife left me. My kids won’t talk to me. I lost my job. I embezzled almost a half a million dollars because I’m addicted to BMWs, and have been hiding them all over the state. I’ll probably be…

"If You Are Looking For A Sign This Is It"

On inauguration day in DC, the souvenir business was slow. I asked a vendor wearing a huge Bob Marley hoodie while hawking Trump hats and scarves and keychains whether he might not have had better luck selling Obama gear, and he shrugged. “It’s too late.”

Goldman Sachs Does Not Want To Talk About It

If someone came to your house and camped in your front yard and screamed all day and night about how bad you are, you would want to correct the record somehow. Right?