Uncorking a Story

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Nikki Mamanno on Breaking Good

August 04, 2026

"I've been at the bottom of the mountain and I've looked up and it looked like the top was a million miles away and it felt like I couldn't do it a hundred times over. And I've taken that step and sometimes I don't look up, I just keep stepping, and eventually I look back and I've gained a little ground." — Nikki Mammano Nikki Mammano's debut memoir Breaking Good is exactly what it sounds like — a play on Breaking Bad, but in reverse. Raised in the greater New York metro area, Nikki went t...

Jim Carlon on Keeping the Faith

July 28, 2026

"Imagine somebody who's been disconnected from this church and he's reignited. That fire is back, that spark is back. Imagine what that one person can do in his life. If that happens one time, the eighteen months it took to put this thing together will have been worth it." — Jim Carlon Jim Carlon is a lawyer, army veteran, and lifelong Catholic whose twenty-five years of practice have shaped a deep commitment to wellness in the legal profession. He founded the Fairfield County Bar Associat...

Square Hearts and Second Chances, with Julee Balko

July 21, 2026

"It was just as important for me to write a love story where the woman falls back in love with herself as much as falling in love with a man." — Julee Balko Julee Balko is a returning guest — an author, poet, and freelance writer whose third novel, Square Hearts, dropped this past May from Black Rose Writing. Mike and Julee pick up where they left off two years ago (her last visit was for The Me List) and dig into how grief becomes creative fuel, why she gave five chapters to a neurodiverg...