A Father’s Pride, a Daughter’s Lesson: Roller Coasters and Family Bonds

About this episode

Lyzette Wanzer reflects on childhood memories of roller-coaster rides with her father and family, exploring themes of laughter, ritual, and belonging.

This episode of In The Telling (Season 5, Episode 37) is about family, memory, and the places where we once felt safest without fully understanding why. Through memories of roller-coaster rides shared with her father and extended family, writer Lyzette Wanzer revisits a childhood shaped by laughter, ritual, and belonging—moments that helped define what family felt like at its best. Lyzette Wanzer is a San Francisco writer, editor, and writing workshop instructor. Her work appears in over thirty literary journals, magazines, books, and newspapers. Library Journal named her book, TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives … a Top 10 Best Social Sciences Book. Her articles have appeared in Essay Daily, The Naked Truth, and the San Francisco University High School Journal. Her research interests include professional development for creative writers, Black feminism, critical race theory, and the lyrical essay form. Lyzette is a contributor to LYRIC ESSAY AS RESISTANCE: Truth from the Margins and THE CHALK CIRCLE: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays . You can learn more about Lyzette and her work by visiting her website: www.lyzettewanzermfa.com 📺…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sean Bempong, Christopher Stalling, Tanya M. Beltran

Topics covered

• family
• memory
• roller coasters
• belonging

Keywords

• childhood
• family bonds
• laughter
• ritual

Mentioned in this episode

Products: TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives, LYRIC ESSAY AS RESISTANCE: Truth from the Margins, THE CHALK CIRCLE: Intercultural Perspectives

Books & works: In The Telling, TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives …, The Naked Truth, LYRIC ESSAY AS RESISTANCE: Truth from the Margins, THE CHALK CIRCLE: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays, the Full Conversation

Places: San Francisco

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