Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Asking for a Friend
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.jessicaweisberg.com/
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017069497
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017069497
HEADING: Weisberg, Jessica
000 00300nz a2200109n 450
001 10610566
005 20171120102750.0
008 171120n| azannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a n 2017069497
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC
100 1_ |a Weisberg, Jessica
670 __ |a Asking for a friend, 2018: |b ECIP t.p. (Jessica Weisberg)
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Attended Brown University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Education reporter, producer, and author. New Yorker, New York, NY, editorial staff, 2007-2010; Page1 Productions, story editor and producer, 2014-2016; Serial, producer, 2015-2016; VICE Media, supervising features producer, 2016-2017; Gimlet Media, podcast creator, 2017–.
AWARDS:Edward Murrow Award. Emmy nomination.
WRITINGS
Also contributor to periodicals, including Guardian, New Yorker, Atavist, Harper’s, Elle, and New York Times.
SIDELIGHTS
Jessica Weisberg predominantly works within the media industry. She has been affiliated with the New Yorker, where she served as an editor, as well as with Page1 and HBO, acting as a producer. She fulfills the same role with Gimlet Media. In addition to her work as a producer, Weisberg has also published several pieces of writing in such periodicals as the Guardian, New Yorker, Atavist, and Harper’s, among several others. Weisberg has previously been bestowed with the Edward Murrow Award, as well as a nomination for an Emmy Award and the National Magazine Award.
Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed is Weisberg’s first book. It serves as a timeline of what is known as the advice column which, according to Weisberg’s research, first gained traction during the 1600s. Weisberg starts from the very beginning of the rise of advice columns all the way up to the modern era, in turn profiling each of the most prominent advice givers of each century. Some of the columnists featured in the book include Dear Abby, Benjamin Franklin, and Dale Carnegie, among several others. In the process of discussing the ideologies and histories of each advice columnist, Weisberg offers critique of the ideas they express, all through a more modern lens. She also underlines how their views were shaped by the era they lived in, and that all of the columnists mentioned lent their expertise to try and benefit those looking for their help to the best of their ability. Weisberg also compares different advice columnists across different eras to show how history (and attitudes) repeat themselves. Some of Weisberg’s analysis comes from more personal experiences with professional columnists. She speaks one-on-one with some of the columnists she talks about, and goes to events held by specific columnists for a more close-up glimpse of their methods and ideas. In the concluding chapters of the book, Weisberg takes a look at the most modern forms of advice seeking, such as Quora and similar websites.
Booklist contributor Kathleen McBroom remarked that the book “doesn’t seek to answer any of life’s pressing questions, but it sure offers an enjoyable ride.” A writer for Kirkus Reviews called the book “a swift account of an industry that bubbles with bluster and marinates in money.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer recommended the book to “both those devoted to and bemused by self-help literature.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Kathleen McBroom, review of Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, & Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed, p. 4.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2018, review of Asking for a Friend.
Publishers Weekly, January 22, 2018, review of Asking for a Friend, p. 72.
ONLINE
Hachette Book Group website, https://hachettebookgroup.com/ (June 18, 2018), author profile.
Jessica Weisberg website, https://www.jessicaweisberg.com (June 18, 2018), author profile.
I'm an award-winning writer, producer, and editor focused on narrative nonfiction.
My writing has been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, The New York Times, Elle, The Atavist, The Guardian, and many other publications. In 2017, I was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for public interest journalism.
My first book, Asking for a Friend, comes out in 2018 from Nation Books/Hachette.
I currently work at Gimlet Media. Previously, I was a supervising producer at Vice News Tonight on HBO, where I oversaw the program's feature stories. Before that, I was a producer on the award-winning podcast Serial and at Page1. My producing work has received an Emmy nomination and won an Edward Murrow Award.
I started my career on the editorial staff of The New Yorker, and have also worked as an education reporter in Chicago.
I studied comparative literature at Brown University and fiction writing at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
Please send story tips, feedback, secrets, dog photos, etc. to jessicaweisberg[at]gmail.com and on Twitter @jessicaweisberg
My agent, Nat Jacks, can be reached at nathaniel@inkwellmanagement.com
Asking for a Friend, publicist: Kristina.Fazzalaro@hbgusa.com
Headshot by Cassandra Giraldo
Jessica Weisberg is an award-winning writer and producer. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, Harper’s, and Atavist, among other publications, and been nominated for a National Magazine Award. She was a producer on the podcast Serial and runs the features unit at Vice News Tonight on HBO, for which she’s been nominated for an Emmy. She lives in Brooklyn.
Experience
Asking for a Friend
Author
Company NameAsking for a Friend
Dates EmployedOct 2017 – Present Employment Duration9 mos
LocationBook out April 2018!
Gimlet Media
Making Podcasts
Company NameGimlet Media
Dates EmployedOct 2017 – Present Employment Duration9 mos
VICE Media
Supervising Features Producer
Company NameVICE Media
Dates EmployedApr 2016 – Oct 2017 Employment Duration1 yr 7 mos
LocationVice News Tonight on HBO
Serial
Producer
Company NameSerial
Dates EmployedJun 2015 – Apr 2016 Employment Duration11 mos
Page1 Productions
Producer/Story Editor
Company NamePage1 Productions
Dates EmployedJan 2014 – Apr 2016 Employment Duration2 yrs 4 mos
LocationNYC/LA
The New Yorker
Editorial Staff
Company NameThe New Yorker
Dates Employed2007 – Jun 2010 Employment Duration3 yrs
Show less
Education
Brown University
Brown University
University of Iowa Writer's Workshop
University of Iowa Writer's Workshop
Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life,
Love, Money, & Other Burning Questions from a Nation
Obsessed
Kathleen McBroom
Booklist.
114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p4.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, & Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed. By Jessica Weisberg.
Apr. 2018. 320p. Nation, $27 (9781568585345).070.
Why is it we bristle at advice from close relatives yet eagerly seek guidance from anonymous strangers (with sometimes dubious credentials)?
This engaging, documented, and thoughtfully presented overview of advice givers begins in 1691, with British "seers" who dispersed counsel on
various topics, and culminates with Quora, a user-sustained website where anyone can weigh in on queries. Along the way, readers meet a
succession of self-proclaimed gurus, many addressing the complexities of love and relationships and others wading into morality, finance, selfimprovement,
parenting, astrological destiny, acceptance of death, life coaching, or nutrition (such as the Inuit diet of raw fish and caribou
promoted in the 1920s). Some names should be familiar (Dear Abby, Miss Manners), while others may have faded from public memory
(Dorothea Dix, Joan Quigley). Author Weisberg provides historical context that frames trending angsts within bygone eras, explaining the
consuming popularity of these pundits. This journey through collective incertitude doesn't seek to answer any of life's pressing questions, but it
sure offers an enjoyable ride.--Kathleen McBroom
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
McBroom, Kathleen. "Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, & Other Burning Questions from a Nation
Obsessed." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 4. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250738/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e1df17fb. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250738
Weisberg, Jessica: ASKING FOR A FRIEND
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Weisberg, Jessica ASKING FOR A FRIEND Nation Books (Adult Nonfiction) $27.00 4, 3 ISBN: 978-1-56858-534-5
A social history of and commentary on the extremely lucrative enterprise of dispensing advice.
Realizing she cannot possibly deal with all, or even many, of three centuries' worth of professional advice-givers, Weisberg, formerly a producer
of Serial as well as Vice News Tonight, narrows it down to a comfortable number and arranges her discussion chronologically. She begins and
ends with commentary on Americans' fondness for obtaining advice from newspapers, books, conferences, and the internet and then takes us back
to the late 17th century and John Dunton, whose Athenian Gazette debuted in London in March 1691. As the author writes, this periodical, which
"delivered harsh and clear determinations of what was acceptable and what was not," was the beginning of it all. She then proceeds forward in
fairly formulaic fashion: an introduction to each adviser, a bit of biography of the person, explorations of current practitioners who follow a
similar approach, and comments about the strengths and failures of the techniques. Quite a few of the names will be familiar to general readers,
including Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dale Carnegie, and Dear Abby. But Weisberg also focuses on less-well-known figures,
including William Alcott and Joan Quigley, "Nancy Reagan's astrologer." The author is not afraid to deliver some zingers. She sees hypocrisy in
Dr. Spock; marriage counselors Harville Hendrix and Helen Hunt are "old-fashioned"; Miss Manners (Judith Martin) is "a blend of a Jane Austen
heroine and Anna Wintour." The most engaging chapters are those in which Weisberg participates in some fashion. She attends a Dale Carnegie
workshop, interviews advisers, and brings personal perspective. She also provides plenty of historical nuggets, reminding us that Dear Abby and
Ann Landers were estranged identical twins and that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross helped found the hospice movement. The tone is generally
informative, though sometimes critical and even cynical.
A swift account of an industry that bubbles with bluster and marinates in money.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Weisberg, Jessica: ASKING FOR A FRIEND." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959708/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=455875fc. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528959708
Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life,
Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a
Nation Obsessed
Publishers Weekly.
265.4 (Jan. 22, 2018): p72.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed
Jessica Weisberg. Nation, $27 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-56858-534-5
Self-help books may seem especially ubiquitous today, but as journalist Weisberg writes in her winning debut, the "American self-help empire
has been sprawling aggressively for decades." She recounts the evolution of professional advice giving via 16 different practitioners spanning
over three centuries, from late-17thcentury London publisher John Dunton through 21stcentury "life coach" Martha Beck. While cautioning that
some of the advice discussed is "extreme, outdated, or downright insane" (such as 19th-century diet guru William Alcott's strict no-tomatoes
rule), Weisberg stresses that her subjects were essentially well-intentioned, and not charlatans or hypocrites. Intriguingly, the book highlights
trends over time, including the emergence of secular advice givers from the late 17th to mid-19th century, the domination of the 20th by either
self-styled "confidants" or credentialed experts, and the current trend of striking a balance between approachability and professionalism. Weisberg
describes the distinctive traits of her book's subjects, such as Ben Franklin's use of pseudonyms, columnist Dorothy Dix's combination of
sympathy with tough love, and astrologer Joan Quigley's direct line to the Reagan White House. Both those devoted to and bemused by self-help
literature will profit from this insightful look into an ever-relevant and changing facet of American society. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed." Publishers
Weekly, 22 Jan. 2018, p. 72. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525839815/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c3a72369. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525839815