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Jo Maeder

Author

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Recent Posts

  • PASSION ALWAYS WINS: How Lenny Horowitz Helped Transform Me and Miami’s South Beach Almost Fifty Years Ago
  • WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE JAPANESE
  • MY TRAIL CAMERA OBSESSION: Tips and Triumphs from Spying on Wildlife
  • SUMO WRESTLING: How I unexpectedly fell in love with an ancient Japanese tradition
  • MASKS FOR LIFE: Wearing a mask is liberating. I’m not saying good-bye for good to mine yet.

Archives

PASSION ALWAYS WINS: How Lenny Horowitz Helped Transform Me and Miami’s South Beach Almost Fifty Years Ago

July 14, 2025 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

    It was 1977. I didn’t think Barbara Capitman and Lenny Horowitz could throw a tea party much less transform the decrepit lower end of Miami Beach into the “Riviera of the South.” Through my flippant 21-year-old eyes it was where hippies went to score pot, the downtrodden bet on greyhounds, and old people […]

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Filed Under: Blog, Entertainment, Fundraising, Non-profits, Pop Culture, Radio Tagged With: Art Deco, Barbara Capitman, Leonard Horowitz, MDPL, Miami Design Preservation League, South Beach

Q&A: Jill McCorkle on dolls, dollhouses, tiny objects and what they have to do with writing and life

September 9, 2020 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

    “I have always loved dolls. And yes, there are still within the love, those that have creeped me out!” – Jill McCorkle Jill McCorkle is a bestselling, award-winning author of unforgettable novels and short stories. She was a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Fiction at Harvard, where she also chaired the department of creative writing. […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Blog, Dolls, Entertainment, Family, Love, Pop Culture Tagged With: Baby Thumbelina, Charlie McCarthy, Danny O'Day, dollhouses, Dolls, Dr. Ruth, Japanese wig doll, Jill McCorkle, Liddle Kiddles, Nancy Anne Storybook. Wednesday's Child Doll, Thoreau dollhouse

DAMAGE CONTROL: When A Video of Someone You Know Goes Viral (in a bad way)

March 4, 2018 by Jo Maeder 4 Comments

It was bound to happen. Someone I knew and consider to be a nice person behaved badly, a bystander made a video, it went viral, this person lost their job and now must mentally wear the scarlet letters IPH (Internet Public Hanging). I don’t want to leave a clue to their identity by saying “he” […]

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Filed Under: Entertainment, Pop Culture, Technology Tagged With: Jon Ronson, regrets, Shaming, trolling, viral video

CHUCK BERRY, AUTHOR: takes out the trash and dishes it, too

March 19, 2017 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

I confess, I probably wouldn’t have read Chuck Berry’s autobiography had I not seen Bob Dylan reading it backstage. I immediately bought it and devoured it. Not long after, Berry played a club in New York City and I was asked to introduce him onstage as part of my DJ duties as “The Rock and […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Pop Culture, Radio, Relationships Tagged With: Autobiography, Chuck Berry, memoir, Rock and Roll, Themetta Berry

Behind NAKED DJ, the audiobook

October 10, 2016 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

  I’m thrilled Rachel Butera has been nominated for a SOVAS Voice Arts Awards for her narration of NAKED DJ, as have I for my narration of WHEN I MARRIED MY MOTHER. Known as “The Oscars of Voice Acting” it’s indeed an honor. The awards ceremony is Nov 13, 2016 at the Warner Brothers Studio […]

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Filed Under: Blog, Books by Jo, Essay, Pop Culture, Radio Tagged With: audiobook, Howard Stern, NAKED DJ, Rachel Butera, radio

Q&A: Daniel De Vise on Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Mayberry misfits and affairs, and unusual gifts from fans

March 14, 2016 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

On behalf of all of The Andy Griffith Show fans, I’d like to thank Daniel de Visé for writing Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show. It’s extremely well-researched and includes 35 great photographs. Not a surprise given all the awards (including a Pulitzer) de Visé has earned. […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Pop Culture Tagged With: Andy Griffith, Daniel de Vise, Don Knotts, Mayberry

Q&A: Candace Bushnell on KILLING MONICA, what Hollywood needs to do, privacy, reinvention, Mom, and more

December 14, 2015 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

Photo by Marion Ettinger                 It’s indeed a pleasure to welcome Candace Bushnell to my ongoing author Q&As. Ms. Bushnell, of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle and The Carrie Diaries  fame, talked to me about her new novel Killing Monica (Grand Central Publishing, 2015). Killing Monica  is classic […]

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Filed Under: Author Q&A, Family, Pop Culture, Writing Advice Tagged With: Candace Bushnell, emoji line, female empowerment, Killing Monica, privacy, stationery line

CASEY KASEM: His End-of-life Family Drama and Avoiding Something Similar Yourself

June 16, 2014 by Jo Maeder Leave a Comment

In 1997, I was honored to present a prestigious radio industry award to one of my heroes in the business, Casey Kasem. The sordid drama that has unfolded recently around his death made headlines around the world. As author of a memoir about caring for my mother at the end of her life, I’ve become […]

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Filed Under: Essay, Family, Pop Culture Tagged With: Alison Steele, Casey Kasem, dying with dignity, end-of-life family drama

SHIRLEY TEMPLE: The girl, the woman, the dolls

February 19, 2014 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

I’ve now been in the doll adoption business about 18 months. If I had to pick the one doll with the most universal, indestructible appeal, it would be Shirley Temple in all her various sizes and outfits. Barbie is too polarizing. Madame Alexander dolls too prissy. No one dislikes Shirley Temple. She appeals to a […]

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Filed Under: Dolls, Essay, Family, Pop Culture Tagged With: grief, Mama Jo's House of Dolls, Shirley Temple autobiography, Shirley Temple Black, Shirley Temple dolls, The 700-doll question

CUTE OR CREEPY? Mama Jo’s House of Dolls Captivates Media

October 5, 2012 by Jo Maeder 2 Comments

Do you think dolls are cute or creepy? Most people fall in one camp or the other. Yet every culture has dolls. Why? My theory is they go back to when a cave woman made one to amuse her kid while she rubbed two sticks together to make a fire. Or perhaps she lost a […]

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Filed Under: Dolls, Pop Culture

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