The Writer: How one storyteller turned to a life of words

In today’s episode of Taste the Music, our host, Mark Griffin, tells his own story of becoming a writer. Why would anyone do such a thing in the first place? And why keep doing it? For Mark, it started with a dreaded blue exam notebook, refashioned into a weekly journal by his fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Brauer. Her assignment: write what’s going on with you. It was a fun activity that was better than rehashing the same math assignments over and over again. So he kept doing it.

One day, though, he just didn’t feel like completing the assignment. So he drew a picture of an ogre with a smirking jack-o-lantern mouth. Then he engaged in the time honored tradition of putting his head down on his desk after finishing an assignment early. This one act led to a cascade of events that ended up with Mark pursuing a career in science and culture writing. There was the story for his college newspaper (no edits) and a misunderstanding at a party with someone who thought he was a writer, at a time when he didn’t see himself as one.

Then there was Mark’s interview technique. When he was young, he noticed something about the way he could sense other people’s feelings through their facial expressions. Mark felt like he could almost read their minds. Developing this skill was a challenge for teenager Mark, but as an adult, he could use this skill to interview scientists, cancer patients, taco truck owners, and jazz bass players with the same ease.

Musician and today’s co-producer Whitney Mann then returns to grill Mark about his experiences in writing, revealing some insights into how we pass on those traits to our kids.