Dedicated with Doug Brunt

Tony Lyons: whiskey sour (2 1/2 ounces rye, 1/2 ounce lemon juice, sugar in shaker with ice, served up with cherry and dash bitters) Tony tells the wild story of meeting in Woody Allen’s apartment in person to sign the deal to publish Woody’s ‘banned’ book, what it was like working with Melania Trump on her memoir, how he personally got the audio recording of Alan Dershowitz’s Epstein accuser that exonerated Dershowitz, the extensive fact checking involved with publishing RFK Jr.’s book, his mission for Skyhorse Publishing, and the type of employee at Meta/Facebook whose book he’d pay big money to publish.

Seth Wickersham: Johnny Walker Blue (pour over 3 ice cubes) ESPN senior writer Seth Wickersham discusses the extreme difference in the way Belichick handles the media today compared to his days in New England, the different ways elite athletes sometimes struggle in retirement, Tom Brady’s evolving fashion as well as the reason and inspiration for it, recounts America’s first ever sports power couple - long before Swift/Kelce - that resulted in the Rams moving from Cleveland to L.A., and explains why the NFL is the most secretive of all professional sports leagues.

Michael Connelly: Old Fashioned (2 1/2 ounces rye, bitters and sugar over large ice cube with cherry and orange peel) Michael Connelly describes his first meeting with Clint Eastwood who was playing piano throughout their discussion of an upcoming movie project, reveals the biggest difference between working with Netflix and Amazon, remembers the strange and unsolved crime he witnessed when only 16 years-old that that helped inspire him to become a crime novelist, names the novels and movies that most influenced him, offers a terrific piece of advice.

Cheryl Hines (dry vodka martini: 3 ounces vodka, dash dry vermouth, olives) Cheryl names which actor should play her husband Bobby in an inverted version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, describes her most embarrassing audition ever (hint: involves a famous horror movie franchise and Michael Jackson), reveals her thoughts on religion and spirituality, offers her prediction whether Ethel Kennedy would have put down the current Kennedy civil war, muses whether this memoir will make anyone come to like her and Bobby more or less, casts the actors to play Trump, Vance, Biden, Harris, Waltz in the docudrama.

Ken Follett (champagne) Ken names the #1 event in history that he wishes he could witness (hint: it occurred in 16th century London), declares the worst century in history to be alive, describes the secret door to his home library/office and the reason he uses three computer screens concurrently in his writing process, lists his favorite writers, and makes the offer to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce that he and his rock band will play their wedding for free.

Megan Marshall: Caipirinha (lime, sugar, cachaca) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, Megan discusses the distinctions between biography and narrative history, her frustration with historical fiction that is irresponsible and inconsistent with the historical record, her own transition from poetry to biography and the mentors who helped along the way, the evolving notion of feminism, and her favorite book from childhood that she often rereads.