Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
The 103rd dinner interview was my January 2018 meal with Mustafa Santiago Ali, an environmental justice expert. During a 24-year career at the Environmental Protection Agency, Mustafa Santiago Ali focused on environmental justice, which is addressing disproportionate adverse pollution impacts on low-income and minority communities. In March 2017 he quit…
For the 138th dinner interview, I met Manu Raju, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, at Pascual in D.C. We talked about covering Capitol Hill chaos, prepping for high-stakes interviews, breaking agenda-setting scoops, getting yelled at by politicians on live TV, and how he balances it all with family life. A generous,…
Character actor Kurt Fuller has been in countless movies and TV shows — Ghostbusters II, Wayne’s World, Psych, Midnight in Paris, much more — and yet people still come up to him asking, “How do I know you?” Kurt’s fine with being “that guy” people recognize but can’t quite place,…
Brian Acosta Arya didn’t set out to become TikTok-famous — but his heartfelt, funny, and often emotional videos about life at his family’s New Jersey motel have struck a chord with more than a million followers. For the latest dinner with a stranger, we met over Korean barbecue to talk…
Portraits of rabbis blessing basketballs. Llamas with fruit on their heads. Foreheads — just foreheads — painted alongside strange, thoughtful objects. Welcome to the wonderfully weird world of Jonathan Blum. For the 101st dinner in December 2017, I joined the Brooklyn-based artist for a meal at Rasika in Washington, D.C….
The 136th dinner interview is my meal with Doudgy “Dew” Charmant, a well-known Washington, D.C., artist. Painting in vibrant, warm colors with acrylics and oils, his works often focus on human expressions with startling depth — drawing the viewer in and keeping them engaged. His creations tell stories that can…
Since 1986, Frank Brigtsen has owned and operated the namesake restaurant Brigtsen’s, a New Orleans landmark. For the 100th dinner interview, in September 2017, Frank talked with me about how he got into cooking, training under the famous Chef Paul Prudhomme, and how he set up his own place —…
The first Bee Lady Day took place in Hull, East Yorkshire, last week to honor the life of fundraiser Jean Bishop. Jean, featured as the 69th dinner stranger in December 2014, was renowned in the region for her work. For decades, she’d dress in an eye-catching bumblebee costume to raise…
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Sebastian Arcos started to turn against the Castro regime in his late teens. His family, including his internationally noted dissident father, became targets of the government. For the 99th dinner interview, in Miami in July 2017, Sebastian told me about his eventual move to…
Emmy-nominated writer and standup comedian Alex English — recently a writer on “Saturday Night Live” and several years ago the 112th stranger featured on this site (I’ll let you decide which honor is most prestigious) — is performing in Austin, Texas, this coming weekend. He’ll be at the Cap City…