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Do you save stuff? So does former People Magazine reporter Michael Small. But he and co-host Sally Libby can't throw it out till he shares the stories behind his celebrity interview tapes and other treasures.
Jan. 9, 2023
Hear the 1984 interview tape with this random trio: REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin, painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Gong Show host Chuck Barris
Dec. 28, 2022
A 45-year-old tape recording leads to revelations about Michael's family, including a kidnapped rabbi, a Johnstown drowning, and Joe Biden's junior high baseball team
Dec. 17, 2022
In 1983, 16-year-old Kiefer Sutherland met me in Nova Scotia to discuss his first big movie role. Hear how he felt about actor dad Donald -- and how I messed up my People Magazine article.
Nov. 26, 2022
Inspired by saved cards and letters, Michael and his wife Cindy share the tale of her survival – and their daily lives – as lupus led to kidney failure and her first two transplants.
Nov. 26, 2022
The tale of Michael's 30-year error – and Cindy's miraculous third kidney transplant – leads to their latest challenge: Can they toss what they saved from a life-changing event?
![Gangsta rapper Eazy-E and Me – Part I [Explicit]](https://images.podpage.com/https%3A%2F%2Fs3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fredwood-labs%2Fshowpage%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2F718a00c4-bd6a-4bb3-b870-fc65de0ae977.jpg?auto=format&dpr=1&q=75&w=350&s=1605c0597685a4a28548aff895afe8e7 "Gangsta rapper Eazy-E and Me – Part I [Explicit]")
Nov. 5, 2022
Compton's rap mogul and NWA founder Eazy-E hanging out with Michael? Unlikely. But it happened in 1991. Hear Dr. Dre (former Yo! MTV Raps co-host) explain Eazy's huge cultural impact, then hear Eazy's candid interview.
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Need a phrase to express yourself when you're getting ripped off, when it's bed time, or when it's too hot? Use these from my grandmother Clara Levitt
Hear the songs we loved before and after my wife's three kidney transplants, by Ben Folds, Sinead O'Connor, Radiohead, Elvis Costello, and others.
Watch John Oliver's 2017 expose of for-profit dialysis units. We hope it'll inspire you to sign up to donate your organs after you die.
Host
Michael Small, the host of I Couldn't Throw It Out, can be seen on Youtube in the NYC storytelling show Tale. He and BT McNicholl co-wrote the book for the musical The IT Girl, which debuted Off Broadway in 2001 and is now performed regionally. His new musical The History of Light, which updates Gilbert and Sullivan songs with pop and hip-hop, was performed in a public reading at L.A.'s La Mirada Theater. His plays have been presented in the New York International Theater Festival and The HOWL Festival.
After 15 years as a reporter for PEOPLE Magazine, Michael became a manager of websites for Wired, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone, among others. Most recently, he was a product manager at MSNBC.com and NBC News Digital.
Michael's 1992 book Break It Down: The Inside Story of Rap included interviews with more than 60 hip-hop artists. And, yes, he also ghostwrote the biography of the superhunk Fabio. If you need a copy, let him know.
Co-Host
Sally LIbby, the co-host of I Couldn't Throw It Out, has a book of humorous verse in the works about the movers and shakers in world history. She and Michael Small co-wrote a parody of tax preparation manuals called Up Your Income Tax. (Unfortunately, the publisher went out of business when the book was being printed. More on that in the podcast.) After college, Sally worked at ad agencies in Boston and Miami before deciding to focus on raising her two children, including the podcast's art director Riley Welsh. Sally is a life-long lover of puns and dogs, and an inveterate question asker, which earned her a major role on I Couldn't Throw It Out.