Susan Burton on Saying the Thing She Was Most
Scared to Say

Bookable features established authors and emerging talent in conversation with host and author Amanda Stern, perhaps best known for creating the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series at New York’s famous Joe’s Pub and Symphony Space. With an immersive sound experience designed around each episode, Bookable takes you on an audio exploration of a book—usually new, sometimes classic and occasionally obscure but always worth knowing about.

Sometimes we hold a secret inside that feels so big and so overwhelming that it distorts the way we see and move through the world. In the memoir Empty, Susan Burton explores an eating disorder she had kept hidden from everyone in her life for nearly 30 years, and how that process of exposure and exploration helped her move through the shame—revealing her biggest secret to family and other loved ones—and how that opened up whole new worlds to her.

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Susan Burton’s writing has appeared in Slate, Mother Jones, New York, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. She is a former editor of Harper’s and a producer of This American Life. Her radio documentaries have won numerous awards. The film Unaccompanied Minors is based on one of her radio essays. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two sons.