About Me

I couldn’t figure it out.

Every night I would lay awake, looking up at the ceiling, wondering what I should do with my life.

I had recently returned from New York, where I had attempted to follow my dreams of becoming a magazine writer, but arrived to discover the print industry completely in shambles. Hiring freezes were in effect, budgets were constrained, and freelancing was an industry left to daredevils and the clinically insane. So instead I got a stultifying job as a paralegal, an unplanned fallback career that allowed me to turn both my brain and ambition off.

But now I was back in California and the fallback was not falling into place. I had shaved my beard, combed my hair, donned discomfiting clothing, and pretended to be passionate about filing, but the job interviews led nowhere. The feigned enthusiasm could not mask my very real dread about being in an office environment again.

My mom was beginning to worry and offered to teach me astrology, a career that had allowed her freedom and financial independence. I said I’d think about it, but the thinking did not last long. I found it vaguely interesting, and appreciated all the times she had explained what was going on in my life because of a planet’s movement, but it didn’t seem like it was for me.

Having said no to astrology, I started reading career books about colored parachutes, path finding, and about doing what you are. But who was I?

I love doing interviews, researching people, and figuring out what compels them to do what they do.

I have a journalism degree. By luck and perseverance I have been able to interview most of my favorite entertainers, including Zach Galifianakis, Blonde Redhead, and Michael Cera, but transforming that into a full time thing seemed completely unattainable.

The career research led me down many paths, but ultimately every one of them petered out. Invariably there were too many obstacles, too much training, too much schooling that I couldn’t afford. None felt right.

What the hell, I thought, let’s try the astrology.

I began with a predictive tool called The Star Caster that my mom had invented years ago to give readings to people.

To my surprise, it came easily.

After getting over the initial hurdle of learning all the symbols and terminology, everything started to make sense. I did readings for friends and they were just as shocked as I was at how quickly I had picked it up.

My mom taught me the intricacies of reading a birth chart, which is a document that is the cornerstone of astrology and shows exactly where all the planets were in the sky when someone was born. The planets’ location dictated things about people that I would have never imagined. I began studying my own chart and the charts of my friends.

I could suddenly see why people did the things they did.

Through a confluence of events, I ended up doing readings at a benefit party at Paramount studios. For five hours I gave readings and immediately knew that this was something I could do.

In fact, it came so easily that I began to devalue my abilities. All my life I had been taught to believe that a career is something that you have to spend years of practice on, that comes through many hard fought battles and a long gestation period.

I wasn’t entirely sure that astrology was it.

Suddenly, I felt lost again.

And yet astrology was not done with me. I started doing readings at more and more parties and the reaction was overwhelmingly favorable.

Friends asked for relationship consultations and I found I was able to explain inexplicable behaviors that immeasurably helped their partnerships. It hit me that it wasn’t so much that I had chosen astrology, as astrology had chosen me.

After finally getting over this mental hurdle, I decided to embrace it and that’s when the idea of this website and podcast dawned on me.

I had wanted to do a podcast for years, but could never figure out an original angle. Now I had it.

All the time I spent researching people could be put to good use, as it allowed me to cast my subjects in a new light.

Things then came together quickly.

Everyone I asked to be on the podcast agreed to it, even if they didn’t believe in astrology at all. After doing interviews for years, I found I was well prepared.

My friend Jeff, a truly talented designer, who had offered years ago to help me with a website, pitched in and ended up surpassing all my expectations.

And best of all, I can now talk with and help many others who were just like me, trying to find the answers to questions that seem incredibly unclear.

I had finally figured it out.