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As Told To

As Told To

Written by: Daniel Paisner
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 Everybody's got a story to tell. Sometimes they need a little bit of help. Veteran ghostwriter Daniel Paisner talks shop with his fellow collaborators and shines a light on what it means to pursue a writing life on the back of someone else's story. Art Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Episode 110: Alan Eisenstock

    Episode 110: Alan Eisenstock
    Apr 21 2026
    "Did I do that?" Yes, in fact, he did. After a successful career as a writer on hit sitcoms like "Mork and Mindy," "The Nanny," and "Married with Children," podcast guest Alan Eisenstock managed to step from television writing rooms and reinvent himself as one of the publishing industry's most sought-after collaborators. His most recent books include New York Times best-selling memoir Life's Too Short, written with Darius Rucker; Hang Time: My Life in Basketball, with NBA legend Elgin Baylor; the crime novel Flipping Boxcars, with Cedric the Entertainer; and the just-published memoir Arsenio, with comedian and pioneering talk show host Arsenio Hall—an immediate New York Times best-seller. "It was great, it was lucrative," he writes of his television career, which included a memorable turn behind the scenes of the ABC sitcom "Family Ties," where he came up with one of the most famous catch-phrases in television history—delivered in almost every episode by the show's breakout character Urkel, played by Jaleel White. "But I longed to return to my first love, writing prose, seeing my words in print, full-time." Join us for a conversation on what it takes for a writer to leap from the top of the Nielsen ratings to the New Releases table at the local bookstore, and to give enduring voice to some of our leading artists, athletes, newsmakers, and influencers. Learn more about Alan Eisenstock: WebsiteRaiders: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the GhostsRitani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon DogDaniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television PilotHeaven Help Us by John KasichUnforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey JacobellisFilm Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountLibro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membershipFilm Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef SuttonEveryday Shakespeare podcastA Mighty Blaze podcastThe Writer's Bone Podcast NetworkMisfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountWizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Between the Lines: The Girl in the Green Sweater

    Between the Lines: The Girl in the Green Sweater
    Apr 14 2026
    We're trying something new here at the pod shop – a kind of palate cleanser to follow our latest full episode. What gives? Well, we keep hearing from our listeners that they'd like to sample one or more of the books under discussion in each of our every-other-weekly conversations with writers and creatives who write and create in collaboration, so we thought we'd offer a brief reading in this space between episodes. Here, in this inaugural installment of a segment we're calling "Between the Lines," we're pulling a book from the shelf and sharing a short passage that hopefully illuminates our most recent pod chat. Our latest guest, Doron Keren, is the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors. He's just out with a new English-language translation of a memoir written by his grandfather, Ignacy Chiger—which, as it happens, covers a lot of the same ground in the best-selling memoir As Told To host Daniel Paisner wrote with Doron's mother, Krystyna Chiger, in 2008. Listen, and consider not only what it's like to grow up beneath the shadow of the Holocaust, but also what it means to reassemble the stories of your life in a way that honors the different points of view of those sharing these stories, and to find truth and meaning in those differences. Links:
    • The Girl in the Green Sweater
    • Beneath the Lightless Sky
    • Beneath the Lightless Sky Facebook page
    • Beneath the Lightless Sky Instagram page
    • "In Darkness" official trailer
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    6 mins
  • Episode 109 Doron Keren

    Episode 109 Doron Keren
    Apr 7 2026
    "Memory without responsibility is just nostalgia," reflects podcast guest Doron Keren, the keeper of his family's harrowing Holocaust survival story. "Someone has to make sure that stories like this live and are experienced by future generations." Keren, a retired dentist, has determined to do just that, working tirelessly to help shepherd first his mother's story (The Girl in the Green Sweater, by Krystyna Chiger, co-written with podcast host Daniel Paisner), and now his grandfather's memoir, (Beneath the Lightless Sky, by Ignacy Chiger), to bookstore shelves. His grandfather's gripping, historically significant account, just published by Amsterdam Publishers, revisits Ignacy Chiger's desperate struggle to evade Nazi persecution in wartime Lvov, Poland, where he hid with his family for 14 months in the city's underground sewers, with the help of an unlikely hero. The book stands as a compelling companion piece to Krystyna Chiger's 2008 international best-seller, the inspiration behind the 2011 film "In Darkness," from acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss called the movie "a thrilling adventure picture—as if Anne Frank had found an Inglourious Basterd to help her make 'The Great Escape.'" In his foreword to Beneath the Lightless Sky, Keren calls his grandfather "a real-life superhero"—a description that is well-earned. "[He] outwitted interrogators," Keren writes, "evaded deportation, engineered the survival of a small underground community, and kept alive the faintest flicker of hope in a place where even light could not enter." Join us as Keren shares what it was like to grow up beneath the shadow of the Holocaust, and what it means to keep sharing the stories that give our lives shape and meaning. Learn more about Beneath the Lightless Sky: Facebook pageInstagram page Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the GhostsRitani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon DogDaniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television PilotHeaven Help Us by John KasichUnforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey JacobellisFilm Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountLibro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membershipFilm Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef SuttonEveryday Shakespeare podcastA Mighty Blaze podcastThe Writer's Bone Podcast NetworkMisfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountWizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
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