Life Lessons
From the Ashes: Podcast Interview
From the Ashes Ep 56: One-Legged Mongoose with Marc Straus Poet, writer, medical oncologist, and art collector Marc Straus joins the show to talk about memoir – One-Legged Mongoose: Secrets, Legacies, and Coming of Age in 1950s New York. He’ll share some of his stories about the contemporary art scene in New York City. Through…
Read MoreWhen is an Immigrant No Longer an Immigrant? A Discussion From Experience
My forthcoming memoir, One Legged-Mongoose: Secrets, Legacies and Coming of Age in 1950s New York, is narrated by my 10-year-old self in the 1950s when I was between the ages of 10 and 12. My dad was an immigrant who escaped abject poverty in Ukraine at the age of 15. He went to work 16…
Read MoreArtists and Writers as Activists: Remembering the McCarthy Hearings
I was just a pre-teen in the early 1950s, but I was old enough to remember quite vividly the McCarthy hearings on TV. In the midst of the Cold War, Senator Joseph McCarthy sought to identify Soviet spies and sympathizers who worked in the U.S. government and other high-profile industries, particularly Hollywood filmmaking and television. …
Read MoreShould We Mandate COVID-19 Vaccinations? Lessons From The British Virgin Islands
In One-Legged Mongoose: Secrets, Legacies, and Coming of Age in 1950s New York, my memoir to be published this September, I recount the sudden onset of polio when I was 11 years old. It was a hot June day, and as I attempted to walk downstairs in our Long Island home, my legs couldn’t hold…
Read MoreIs Left Brain vs. Right Brain A False Choice? Yes. Here’s Why…
My forthcoming memoir, One Legged-Mongoose: Secrets, Legacies and Coming of Age in 1950s New York, recounts the years I was 10 to 12 years old, narrated by the boy. My father was an immigrant who came to the U.S. from Ukraine at age 15, impoverished and orphaned. He went to work and, in his twenties,…
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