Paula Poundstone, comedian and cat devotee

What this episode covers

NOTE ABOUT THIS SHOW: I’ve had better mornings. As many know, each Wednesday, around dawn, I drive from my home on the east coast of Florida to the west coast, landing at WMNF in Tampa, where I broadcast “Talking Animals.” The trek is long (later, I reverse course, and drive home), but usually uneventful. Today, while tooling along Highway 60, an often two-lane, mostly-rural route teeming with trucks, something flew out of the back of the truck in front of me, I couldn’t avoid running over it, and—BAM!—blow-out in my right, front tire. By the time I could find a safe place to exit, the tire was shredded, the car undriveable. (It’s a Prius, with no spare tire.) So the next few hours involved AAA calls, buying a new tire over the phone, getting towed to the place that eventually would take delivery of the new tire, and install it. And, wondering if there’d still be any way to do “Talking Animals,” recognizing that traveling to WMNF in time was already ruled out. But thanks to good luck and great help from WMNF colleagues Jessica Greene—deftly juggling guests, Zooms, phone calls, texts from me, and more—with additional assistance from Joe Remo, and Sean Kinane, the show did go on: Live From Johnny’s Automotive in Lake Wales! (Sure, it was jagged around the edges, lacking the usual music beds and bumpers, and fundamental features, like the Comedy Corner and Name That Animal Tune—but we did the best we could, without access to those audio elements, and flying by the seat of our proverbial pants!)   Comedian Paula Poundstone–who’s elevated improvisational whimsy to a high art, is a longtime panelist on NPR’s quiz show “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me,” and hosts her own weekly podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone,” amidst a zillion notable credits—seems all too happy to play along when I mention, in hosting this animal show, I’m constitutionally obligated to ask about her cats. She jumps right in, providing the current cat count at her house: 11 (last time I interviewed her, it was 16), launching into a wonderful story about how the feline populace had dipped into single digits, but started to rise again. As a tonic for feeling blue about “the Presidential election Kamala Harris didn’t win,” Poundstone headed to her local shelter, and adopted a kitten. She figured you can’t stay in a bad mood around a kitten, and that proved correct. She recounts that sometime later, she thought to herself, if one kitten made her feel this much better, what would two kittens do? Back to the shelter! In short order, she segues into the portion of the new-kitty-occupant narrative where Larry is introduced, starting at the shelter, where, Poundstone recalled, this cat “waddled” out of his enclosure. Although decidedly not a kitten, Larry—”the biggest cat I’d ever seen”– -appealed to Paula in some profound way (probably that his stoutness put him in peril), and she adopted him, too…with a clear goal to help him lose weight; the result when she first weighed him: 23.9 pounds! She offers an account of Larry’s weight-loss regimen, including rigging a tin pie plate so she could put food in, and tow it—and Larry would run, chasing the plate. Much of Larry’s tale is chronicled in short video clips on Poundstone’s website, collectively entitled “The Larry Experience.” (https://paulapoundstone.com/rx-laughter-videos/) We also spend a few minutes discussing “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me,” where Poundstone has appeared as a panelist for a quarter century. She tells the story of receiving a cassette tape from the show—hoping to interest her in participating—noting the tape sat untouched on her kitchen’s island for a long time. But one day, the guy working as the family’s nanny spotted the tape, raved about “Wait, Wait,” exhorting her to do it. Thus, a 25-year relationship with the show was born. The final portion of our conversation involved my [...]

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