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For almost 20 years, Spalding Gray has been shining a spotlight-sharp sense of humor on the areas of his life that most of us would keep hidden. This 56-year-old monologuist, writer, and actor has turned his fear of death, pain over his mother’s suicide, and angst over romantic betrayal into fodder for 14 traveling monologues. A cult hero who won a 1984 Obie special citation for his show Swimming to Cambodia, Gray has most recently been touring with a new work, It’s a Slippery Slope (to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux this fall). In it, Gray chronicles his struggles with fatherhood, overcoming his “me” decades, and his remedy for life’s ills: learning to ski.

Here’s what he had to say about performance artist Danny Hoch, who’s touring this fall with a new piece entitled Evolution of a Homeboy:

“Hoch is a street kid from Queens — a kind of Eric Bogosian, but with heart. He does a series of street characters that are somewhat disturbed, somewhat passionate. And he has a kind of Joycean approach to language. His work is filled with a lot of heart, not just psychosis.”

Also recommended by Gray:

Shawn Colvin’s most recent album, A Few Small Repairs. “It’s just fresh and new for me, very lyrical. It’s a tone I haven’t heard before, very original.” ! Columbia Records, 1996

Raymond Carver’s Where I’m Calling From on audiotape. “These make great bedtime stories. Carver can take material images and sketch them in a way that makes them spiritual. And actor Peter Riegert, who reads the stories, has got the perfect working-class Raymond Carver tone. One of the stories, ‘Cathedral,’ is probably one of the greatest short stories ever written.” ! New York: Random House Audiobooks, 1989

Continental Drift by Russell Banks. “He bounces between a working-class man from New Hampshire who’s trying to get established in Florida, and Haitian refugees on a boat headed toward Florida. It’s so beautifully structured, it moved me to tears.” ! New York: HarperCollins, rereleased 1994

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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