NYT Bestselling Author: When One Chapter Of Your Life Wants To Be The Whole Story | Soul Toll S1E4 episode artwork

EPISODE · May 20, 2026 · 29 MIN

NYT Bestselling Author: When One Chapter Of Your Life Wants To Be The Whole Story | Soul Toll S1E4

from Soul Toll with Anusia

NYT Bestselling Author: When One Chapter Of Your Life Wants To Be The Whole Story | Soul Toll S1E4 BAD HEADLINES There's a chapter of your life you didn't choose. Maybe you were born into it. Maybe it happened around you. Maybe it happened to someone you love and you've been carrying it ever since. This episode is about what to do when that chapter keeps trying to be the whole story. If you've been carrying a bad headline, this is the conversation. ABOUT THE EPISODE In this episode of Soul Toll, host Anusia Gillespie sits down with journalist and New York Times bestselling author Phyllis Karas for a conversation about the chapters of our lives we did not write — and what it takes to finally name them. Phyllis has spent her career writing other people's bad headlines. Whitey Bulger's mob. The Onassis women. The mob wives of South Boston. In her new book Curse of the Blumenthals, she finally turned the lens on her own family — a 1935 car accident that killed six of her relatives in an instant, and a 1956 murder that may not have been what everyone thought it was. What emerges is not a tidy story about turning pain into purpose. Phyllis pushes back on that. So does Anusia. What they land on instead is something more useful: how to let a hard chapter sit alongside the rest of your life without ruling it. ABOUT THE GUEST Phyllis Karas is a professor of journalism at Boston University and a stringer for People Magazine. She is the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestseller Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob and The Onassis Women, which was the subject of a Dateline NBC special. Her work has appeared in Vogue, the Miami Herald, Boston Magazine, and Moment Magazine, where her piece on kosher slaughter received the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence. Read Curse of the Blumenthals: https://www.amazon.com/Curse-Blumenth... SUBSCRIBE for new episodes of Soul Toll, dropping weekly. CONNECT Website: https://soul-toll.com Instagram: / anusiagillespie LinkedIn: / anusiagillespie Facebook: / anusia.gillespie.5 Business inquiries: [email protected] READ THE BOOK Soul Toll by Anusia Gillespie: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Toll-Anus... PRODUCTION Director: Michael Dynice Writers and Producers: Anusia Gillespie, Lady Unicorn Executive Producers: Johnny Ray, Richard Messinger Lighting and Scenic Design: We Roadie and Grip Inc. Post Production and Editing: Streamography Produced for Warwick TV at Johnny Ray's Music Emporium WITH SPECIAL THANKS Eat Well Kitchen of Marblehead Johnny Ray's Music Emporium We Roadie and Grip Inc. Chic Streets Mabel of Marblehead The Yoga Loft Marblehead Ghislain Viau of Creative Publishing Book Design

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published May 20, 2026

Embed this episode

Ready to play

NYT Bestselling Author: When One Chapter Of Your Life Wants To Be The Whole Story | Soul Toll S1E4

0:00 29:21

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Soul Toll with Anusia?

This episode is 29 minutes long.

When was this Soul Toll with Anusia episode published?

This episode was published on May 20, 2026.

Can I download this Soul Toll with Anusia episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!