My Unlived Life

Leslie and Miriam discuss what Leslie's life might have looked like if on a trip to Las Vegas she hadn’t married the man who became her husband and, ultimately father of her daughter, and instead had returned home to New York un-hitched. Along the way they talk about having a complicated relationship with uncertainty, how underlining in books is a love language, and writing at truck-stops at 2am.Leslie Jamison is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Recovering and The Empathy Exams; the collection of essays Make It Scream, Make It Burn, and the novel The Gin Closet, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. She writes for numerous publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. She teaches at Columbia University and lives in in Brooklyn and Splinters, her extraordinary memoir of the end of a marriage and the beginning of motherhood - is out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 5 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karen and Miriam discusss what Karen's life might have been like if she’d returned to her native US after what was supposed to be a short trip to London, instead of staying put and building her life there. Along the way they talk about the weight of cultural norms & expectation, what it means to live far from family, and how painting and writing can help locate us, wherever we are.Karen Raney is an academic, painter, former editor and a writer of fiction. Her novel All the Water in the World was the recipient of the 2017 Pat Kavanaugh Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award in 2020, and for two Society of Authors prizes in 2021. She is currently at work on her next novel.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 5 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa speaks to Miriam about what her life might have looked like if she hadn’t gotten married at the age of 30 and moved with her husband to Lagos - the setting of her incredible novel - and had instead moved to LA to pursue a dream of screenwriting. Along the way they discuss the way place can change you; ways to change your life, step by tiny step; and how the women of Selling Sunset manage to sell houses in those ridiculous stilettos.Vanessa Walters has a background in international journalism and playwriting and is a Tin House and Millay Arts resident. She is the author of two previous YA books and film rights for her novel The Lagos Wife have been optioned by HBO. Born and raised in London, she currently lives in Brooklyn. The Lagos Wife is out now and can be found in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 5 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, recorded live at the Margate Bookie Literary Festival, Karrie and Miriam go right back to the beginning and discuss what might have happened if she’d been born a boy instead of a girl. Along the way they try to examine our own gender biases, talk about whether it’s easier for men to take up space in the world, and also whether it’s easier for women to express themselves creatively. They also closely examined Karrie’s wardrobe choices…Karrie Fransman is a comic creator and artist who tells visual stories in books, newspapers, animations, sculptures, on Ipads and in virtual reality. Her comics strips and graphic stories have been published everywhere from The Guardian to the Times and the Telegraph, and her art has appeared in the Southbank Centre, National Portrait Gallery and the Manchester Art Gallery. She is the creator of several graphic novels and her most recent incredible books, Gender-Swapped Fairytales and Gender-Swapped Greek Myths are out now and available in your local bookshop and at Bookshop.orgMake sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joanna and Miriam discuss what her life might have looked like if she’d studied and then pursued a career in dance, as opposed to following what she considered to be a more traditional, intellectual route for her education. Along the way they talk about the intelligence of the body, gendered attitudes to both success and competition, and the romantic dalliances of Sylvia Plath and Simone de Beauvoir.Joanna Biggs is an editor at Harper's Magazine, and previously was associate editor at the London Review of Books. She has also written for the New Yorker, the FT and the Guardian, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4. Her first book, All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work, was published in 2015, and was one of the Observer's books of the year. Her new book, A Life of One’s Own, is a piercing blend of memoir, criticism and biography, interspersing her own life story with an examination of how women writers across the centuries carved out intellectual freedom for themselves. It’s out now and available in your local bookshop and on Bookshop.org.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andy and Miriam discuss what might have happened if his father - who was incarcerated when Andy was 12 - had in fact not gone to prison, and stayed in his life throughout his teenage years. Along the way they talk about what it means to break intergenerational cycles, the fine line between our lives and those of others, male friendship and a little something called positive catastrophising. Andy West has taught philosophy in prisons since 2015. He holds a BA in philosophy from the University of London and has written for 3AM, The Guardian, The Times Education Supplement, The Millions and more. His first book THE LIFE INSIDE: A memoir of prison, family and learning to be free is out now and available in all good bookshops.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Jandel Allen-Davis and Miriam discuss what might have happened if, only a few years ago, she’d walked away from her highly successful career to pursue her art full time. Along the way they talk about what it means to risk it all for your passions, the difference between seeing and looking, and whether it’s always necessary to pick a lane. Jandel is also a wildly prolific artist, and so they talk about pretty much every material under the sun.Dr Jandel Allen-Davis is the President and CEO of Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, a world-renowned rehabilitation hospital that specializes in patients with spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injuries. Before this, she was Vice President of Government, External Relations and Research for Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Jandel is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and was in active practice for 25 years. She is also one of Miriam's mother’s closest friends, who she's known since she was a teenager, which made this episode a particularly special one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jackie and Miriam discuss what might have happened if Jackie had learned to play the violin as a teenager, and used her skills to busk as a traveling storyteller across Spain, Africa, Mongolia and beyond. Along the way they discuss what it takes to become an artist, the joys and perils of traveling alone and how learning languages is a lot like inhabiting other lives. Jackie also encounters a lot of fabulous wildlife, and learns to ride a motorcycle.Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Art and Bath Academy and has illustrated many books, and written some. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane, won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019, and she was nominated again for The Unwinding in 2021. Her accordion books - Fox and Otter - are out now with Unbound.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she hadn’t accepted a job offer in Poland in her twenties, and had stayed living and working in London instead. Along the way they talk about the perspective you get from travel, how to step back and examine the system you're living in and the pros and cons of mainstream publishing. Alice also has a very scandalous home counties affair.Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright Alice Jolly. She won the 2014 V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize with one of her short stories, ‘Ray the Rottweiler’, and her memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns won the 2016 PEN Ackerley Prize. Her novel Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. In 2021, Jolly was awarded an O. Henry Prize for her short story ‘From Far Around They Saw Us Burn’ and the story collection of the same name is out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*LIVE EPISODE*Lawyer and author Hafsa Zayyan and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she’d stood up to her parents at the age of 16, and insisted on attending her local school with all of her friends, as opposed to the exclusive grammar school two hours from home where she ultimately went. Along the way they talk about the friends we lose and the friends we keep, the weight of parental expectation and some particularly salient marriage advice.Hafsa Zayyan is a writer and dispute resolution lawyer based in London. She studied Law at the University of Cambridge and holds a masters’ degree from the University of Oxford, and she won the inaugural #Merky Books New Writer’s Prize in 2019. We Are All Birds of Uganda is her debut fiction novel, inspired by the mixed background from which she hails, and is available in your local bookshop.This episode of My Unlived Life was recorded live, at the Merky Books Literature Festival at the Roundhouse in London.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The poet Maggie Smith and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she’d left her native Ohio to go to graduate school in Tucson, and thus also left the man who ultimately became her husband. Along the way they discuss the impossible questions one gets asked in the aftermath of divorce; how writing your trauma can help you through, though not necessarily in the way you might think, and ways to find yourself when you’re far from home. Maggie also teaches Miriam a very important lesson about band t-shirts.Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The Best American Poetry, and more. Her memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, is out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maxine and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she had followed her heart and studied English Literature at university, as opposed to following a path which she said allowed her to stay a bit more hidden. Along the way they talk about the unrealistic and damaging pressure society puts on mothers, why we tend to want people to be just one thing, and how, in her words, communities can put the fire out on shame. In her unlived life Maxine also makes some very savvy property decisions.Maxine Mei-Fung Chung is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and writer with over fifteen years of clinical experience. She lectures on gender and sexuality, trauma and attachment theory at the Bowlby Centre and was presented with The Jafar Kareem Award for her work supporting people from ethnic minorities experiencing isolation and mental health problems. What Women Want is her first work of non-fiction and is out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom and Miriam discuss what might have happened if, at the age of 17, he’d come out to his parents when an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself at a school picnic, instead of waiting until the age of 23 to tell them his truth. Along the way they talk about full moon parties in Thailand, the impact of hiding your identity at a formative age and how often others can see you more clearly than you see yourself.Tom Rob Smith's bestselling novels in the Child 44 trilogy were international publishing sensations. Among its many honours, Child 44 won the International Thriller Writer Award for Best First Novel, the Galaxy Book Award for Best New Writer, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the inaugural Desmond Elliot Prize, and is now a major motion picture. Tom’s new novel, Cold People, about a colony of global apocalypse survivors trying to reinvent civilisation under the most extreme conditions imaginable, is to my mind an intimate and hopeful look at how people can and do come together against all odds. Crucially, it’s out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caro and Miriam talk about what might have happened if she had attended a traditional university as opposed to going to drama school, which she describes as an 'intense and edgy place'. Along the way they discuss being two opposing things at once, the impossibility of actually having it all, and how tricky it is to find a good harp.Caro Giles is a writer based in Northumberland, whose words are inspired by her local landscape. She writes honestly about what it means to be a woman, a mother and a carer and about the value in taking the road less travelled. Her writing has appeared in journals, press and periodicals and she was named Countryfile magazine’s New Nature Writer of the Year in 2021. Twelve Moons, her stunning, enveloping memoir about finding yourself and your voice, is out now and available in all good bookshops.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sophia and Miriam discuss what her life would have been like if she’d received an offer to work as assistant private secretary to the Queen, a job she was asked to apply for but which ultimately went to someone a bit older. Along the way they discuss what one wears to an interview at the palace, the bravery of female artists, the liberation that comes on the other side of the menopause and some very romantic trees.S.J. Bennett was a strategy consultant and startup manager before turning to writing. She has published ten books for teenagers, winning The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition in 2009 and the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2017. The Windsor Knot was her first novel for adults, and Murder Most Royal -her most recent book and the third in the Her Majesty The Queen Investigates series - is out now and available in all good bookshops.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Journalist & writer Emma Hughes and Miriam what might have happened if, after going through a rigorous application process, she’d received and taken an offer to work at M!5. Along the way they discuss the things we learn as we get older, the way society privileges certain types of intelligence and whether or not we need to be a bit more serious.Emma Hughes is a London-based freelance writer and editor who covers everything from food to travel, relationship advice to romcoms, for everyone from Time Out to Wired and the Guardian and many more. Emma's first novel, No Such Thing As Perfect, was published in 2021 and is available in all good bookshops and on Bookshop.org. Her second novel, It's Complicated, is out in July 2023.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason #MyUnlivedLife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Davina and Miriam discuss the moment in her life when her father was diagnosed with lung cancer, a moment that is central to her book. She and her husband were living with her parents at the time, and while she continued to be very involved in her father’s care, she chose to move out of the house in his final months, one of several moves that would take her away from suburban London and deeper into the British countryside. Together they explore what life might have looked like had she stayed living there, along the way examining the ebb and flow of grief, the unexpected impact of wartime trauma and the resilience we can find in the most challenging times.Davina Quinlivan is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing at The University of Exeter. She taught at Kingston School of Art for over a decade and regularly leads the ‘F: For Flânerie' film and literature seminar series at The Freud Museum. She lives in a rural hamlet on the outskirts of Exeter with her family. Her new book Shalimar: A Story of Place and Migration is published by Little Toller and has been co-published in audio by Spiracle Audiobooks. She is currently working on a book about rivers and migration, mothers and daughters, as a loose follow-up to Shalimar. Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason #MyUnlivedLife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Helen and Miriam explore what might have happened if - at the age of 26 - she’d not moved from Australia to the UK with the man who became her husband (and who she ultimately divorced). Along the way they discuss finding joy after divorce, the wounds left by infidelity and the lifesaving magic of really good girlfriends.Helen Thorn is an award-winning comedian, podcaster and author widely known for her honest and hilarious take on parenthood, being single in her 40s and body positivity. Together with Ellie Gibson she is the co-host of hugely popular The Scummy Mummies podcast, and has performed to packed out theatres around the UK. Helen’s book Get Divorced: Be Happy is a joyful guide to going it alone, showing you that divorce is not the end but very much the beginning, and is out now in paperback in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason #MyUnlivedLife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John and Miriam discuss what might have happened if he’d followed in his parents’ footsteps and run his own restaurant instead of pursuing a career in physical therapy, before he began writing. Along the way they discuss how waiting tables increases empathy, the ethics of combat sports, and why restaurants are an excellent training ground for authors.John Vercher is a writer on race, identity and social justice currently living in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He holds a BA in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. His debut novel, Three-Fifths was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Award and was a Sunday Times, Guardian and Financial Times Book of the Year. His new book, After the Lights Go Out, is out now and available in all good bookshops.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason #MyUnlivedLife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A.M. and Miriam discuss what would have happened if, during high school, a particular mentor had encouraged her to study medicine, and she’d gone on to become a doctor. Along the way they discuss the AIDS epidemic, being penpals with Pete Townshend and the importance of being truly seen, both within medicine and in life.A.M. Homes is the author of the novels May We Be Forgiven, which won the Women’s Prize in 2013, This Book Will Save Your Life, a Rickhard and Judy pick in 2007, Music for Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack; three collections of short stories and the highly acclaimed memoir The Mistress’s Daughter, as well as the travel memoir Los Angeles. A Washington DC native, she currently teaches at Princeton University and lives in New York City. A.M.’s new novel, The Unfolding, is out now from Granta Books and is available in all good bookshops.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason #MyUnlivedLife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.