Dedicated with Doug Brunt

Ruth Ware: dry white wine

#1 bestselling author Ruth Ware names the two greatest fictional detectives ever, describes the gratitude a former bookseller feels to be a published author, why she made the switch from writing YA fantasy novels to adult crime fiction, her milestones throughout the year to keep an annual publishing pace, how Agatha Christie inspired her own approach to creating an atmosphere for her novels, what she loves about America.

Megyn Kelly: Special Mother’s Day episode (martini: 3 ounces gin, dash dry vermouth, olives)

Megyn recommends three books for Mother’s Day and why she chose each, discusses her love for Dateline and the Real Housewives shows, reveals the identity of the famous actor at a Hollywood Oscars party that Doug mistook for a homeless person, reviews the Barbra Streisand memoir, and offers a piece of Mother’s Day advice.

Erik Larson: Manhattan (2 1/2 ounces Michter’s rye, 1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth, dash bitters, cherry, served up)

Erik names the person he’s written about that he’d most like to be able to meet, talks about what he looks for in a subject for a new book, the stories behind finding the titles to his books so far, the conversations he had with his agent in the 1990s that helped him to find the path to writing his first ever historical narrative nonfiction, the secrets to what he does once inside the archives, the journalistic approach to non-judgment of the people in his books, and gives a clue to the subject for his next book.

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss: Espresso

Liz Truss discusses her preference for the emergence of independent journalism and death of traditional media in America as opposed to Britain where the BBC is still dominant, names her favorite few states in America, names the two places in Britain that every American should visit, talks about the stress of the weekly ‘Questions to the Prime Minister’, credits JK Rowling for courage under woke fire, recounts her strangest moment in politics.

Admiral James Stavridis: Negroni (1 ounce gin, 1 ounce sweet vermouth, 1 ounce Campari, garnish with orange peel)

Admiral Stavridis names the two most terrifying moments of his military career, describes how naval warfare will look in fifty years (or less), the classified military report meant to predict the future that was most off, the Russel Crowe movie that best captures life at sea, how his speculative (not predictive) work of fiction, 2054, describes a looming technological threat to humanity, and names one of the best political books ever written (which is not, on its face, a political book at all).

Andrew Duplessie: Dark N’ Stormy (2 1/2 ounces Goslings rum with ginger beer over ice, 2 lime wedges)

One of the most popular authors in the world on BookTok, Andrew discusses the ins-and-outs of publishing fiction in new media, as well as contrasts the experience with his debut TOO SCARED TO SLEEP, published by (traditional media) Harper Collins, how he used Flowcode’s QR codes on the pages of his hardcover book so that he could include short films/videos as companions to the stories in the printed book, the future convergence of AI, Virtual Reality and book publishing and what possible user experiences could be, how he toggles between writing grisly horror fiction to then joining his wife for dinner, and the authors who inspired his writing career.

Keith O’Brien: Old Fashioned (cube of sugar, dash water, dash bitters, 2 1/2 ounces Knobel whiskey, garnish with cherry and orange peel)

Author of the new biography of Pete Rose, CHARLIE HUSTLE, discusses the Ohtani baseball gambling scandal, why the partnerships between professional sports leagues and gambling services are fraught, how the characteristics and that made Pete Rose a great baseball player have made him a failed person, whether the Hall of Fame can treat the personal lives of players separately from their art as players on the field, compares and contrasts the way Pete Rose and Lance Armstrong behaved once caught in lies, and who is the greatest sports announcer of all time.

You can watch all of our video episodes on YouTube as well: https://www.youtube.com/@DedicatedwithDoug

James Ellroy: coffee

James offers an alternative introduction for the show that makes for an interesting contrast, reveals a sexual dalliance between his father and Rita Hayworth, gives honest feedback about the film LA CONFIDENTIAL, discusses his writing process and why he thinks ‘closure is BS’.

Zibby Owens: Aperol Spritz (3 ounces Aperol, 3 ounces prosecco, 1 ounce club soda, garnish with orange slice)

Zibby gives the origin story of her hit podcast MOMS DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ BOOKS, the mission of her publishing imprint that has already published more than a dozen books (several bestsellers!), the sneaky "writer's retreat" where she wrote much of her novel BLANK, her writing process, and her approach to new media for the book world.

Edoardo Ballerini: vodka martini, three olives

Award-winning audiobook narrator and actor Edoardo discusses how he went from studying Latin at the Vatican to joining an acting troupe then making his NYC acting debut on LAW & ORDER, identifies which areas of the arts are most immediately under threat from artificial intelligence, tells how the audiobook business has evolved since his first narration in 2007, and how the nuance of reading characters of a different age/race/gender has changed in recent years, explains the goals of the university course on audiobook narration that he teaches, reveals his favorite place in Italy, and tells why we should not go faster than 1x.