Posts by Benjamin
Kiss On Your List
For as long as I can remember, music has provided a light I cannot resist: goosebumps, tears, revelation; there is no stronger force. This has never been truer than the last twelve, impossible and inspiring months. I have written an album’s worth of new songs. But mostly, I’ve drafted off other artists’ like a sailor,…
Read MoreFriends & Neighbors Holiday Benefit
According to the Mayo Clinic, more than 3 million Americans suffer from seasonal affect disorder (SAD, obvs) a mood disorder characterized by depression that typically occurs in climates where there is less sunlight at certain times of the year. By this weekend, nearly ¾ of the calendar day will be cast in darkness. That dramatic…
Read MoreRob Markman: Triumph & Tears
Rob Markman impressed me from the jump. Born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Rob put himself through Hunter College working in the mailroom of a tween fashion catalogue. His supervisor dissuaded him from trying to move to the copy department despite the fact that he was moonlighting for The NY Post and XXL where he filed two…
Read MoreGive Thanks
At some point in the hours prior to the Thanksgiving dinners of our childhood, our mother would whisper to Chris and me to begin thinking about what we were thankful for. Soon, we were sprawled alongside our cousins, Kayla and Nancy, on the living room floor, fashioning crude, construction-paper kittens, trees and baseball mitts from…
Read MoreAmy Hollingsworth: The Glimmer
Long before the raft of high-profile Fred Rogers documentaries, biopics, books and remembrances, author Amy Hollingsworth’s, “The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers,” was the lone mainstream tome to explore the connections between his upbringing, faith, and luminous career. When Chris and I began making “Mister Rogers & Me,” Amy’s book was our North Star; it…
Read MoreVote “Yes”
This election has been different for me than any prior. But not in the way you think. Thirty years ago, on the afternoon of my eighteenth birthday, I drove my silver, two-door, four-speed Volkswagen Rabbit to the Devon, Pennsylvania, post office and registered to vote. My experience as a journalist to that point included little…
Read MoreCraig Mullaney: How To Be Human
Craig Mullaney’s bio is sort of ridiculous. High School Valedictorian. West Point Graduate. Rhode Scholar. Army Ranger. National Security Advisor. Tech Executive. Best Selling Author. You get it. I think of my friend, Craig, though, as one of very few guys with whom I can really talk to about really vulnerable things. Things like: trying…
Read MoreJason Walsmith: Just Say Yes
[feedburner name=”name”]Stepping onto Meat Loaf’s 45-foot-long, rust brown 1980 Eagle XLT tour bus for a week-long sprint across the Midwest was the realization of my sixteen-year-old self’s wildest dreams. Unfortunately, I’d arrived nearly 20 years too late. The songs were still coming, the performances snd recordings improving. But I was well past thirty, many albums…
Read MoreWhitney Matheson: Still Aways Away
It’s difficult to remember now, deep into the post-Kardashian Age, but — even in the early days of the Internet — it was unusual to write in the first person. I spent years as a young writer trying to convince my then manager that bylines could connect writers to readers, that the stories behind our…
Read MoreMeet Your “Friends & Neighbors”
Twenty years ago, children’s television pioneer, Fred Rogers, shared a sentiment with me that changed my life. “I feel so strongly,” he said on the back porch of his modest Nantucket summer home, “That deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.” After his death, my brother, Christofer, and I set out…
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