This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert advises Colleen, an advertising executive in New York City, who dreams of being a storyteller but fears it's a frivolous pursuit. Colleen hopes to create a one-woman show, mining stories from her childhood growing up in an Irish Catholic family that ran and owned a bar. Liz calls up the writer Gary Shteyngart for additional expertise on the pain and relief that comes with telling family stories.

Special Guest: Gary Shteyngart is the award-winning author of the novels Super Sad True Love Story, Absurdistan, and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook. Born in Leningrad, his memoir Little Failure is a candid and moving account of growing up as a Russian emigre in America. Find out more about him and his work at garyshteyngart.com.

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