For the Love of Memoir
Calling all memoir junkies! 🎙️ This channel is dedicated to raw, honest conversations with memoir authors and industry insiders. We dig into the stories behind the stories—what it takes to write them, survive them, and share them. Whether you're an aspiring writer or just love a good, real-life narrative, you’re in the right place. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe and join the journey
🎥 Watch full interviews on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ForLoveOfMemoir
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @ForLoveOfMemoir
💬 Share your favorite memoir with us here: 4theloveofmemoir@gma
Kirsten O’Connor on Writing Through the Unthinkable
After her daughter Kalia died by suicide at 24, Kirsten O’Connor began writing through the first year that followed. Those journals became The Year After Kalia, a memoir that combines lived experience, reflection, and writing practices for people navigating grief.In this conversation, Kirsten talks about the invisible rules we place around grieving, the guilt that can follow devastating loss, and what hindsight can make us believe we should have known. We discuss why writing became a private witness for the things she could not always say aloud, how her relationship with Kalia continues, and why saying the name of someone who died can be an act of connection rather than a painful reminder.This is a conversation about grief without a timetable, the stories we tell ourselves about responsibility, and learning to move with loss rather than expecting ourselves to move on from it.Purchase a copy of The Year After Kahlia here:https://bookshop.org/a/127484/9780473764609https://a.co/d/03I4QySRhttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-year-after-kahlia-surviving-loving-and-writing-my-way-through-loss-kirsten-oconnor/1148894926?ean=9780473764609Follow Kirstins work here:https://thisisgrief.nz/
20 Sept 2026
A Life Measured by Impact: Dr. Abraham George
At eighteen, Dr. Abraham George survived a dynamite explosion while serving as an artillery officer in the Himalayas. The experience sharpened a question that would follow him through military service, graduate school, banking, entrepreneurship, and eventually back to rural India: what was his life for?
In this conversation, Dr. George discusses his memoir, Mountains to Cross, and the convictions behind the residential schools he has built in India. We talk about how Shanti Bhavan selects children from families facing extreme poverty, provides the stability and education needed to pursue college and professional careers, and uses one child’s opportunity to help transform an entire family.
We also discuss the opening of a second school, why he rejects the language of charity and sacrifice, and why compassion has no effect until it becomes action.This is a conversation about purpose, duty, and redefining success by the lives and institutions we leave stronger than we found them.
Purchase Mountains to Cross here:https://mountainstocross.com/
Support Dr. George's mission here:https://www.drabrahamgeorge.com/
6 Sept 2026
Jane Buyers: On Walking Away From Wall Street
Jane Buyers was working four blocks from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Seven years later, she made the final margin call on Lehman Brothers as the financial system moved toward collapse.
Those two Septembers became the bookends of her memoir, Eight Septembers: A Woman on Wall Street from 9/11 to Lehman. But the historic events are only the external story.
During those years, Jane lost both parents, watched her marriage unravel, and reached the limits of a life built around competence, compliance, and external validation.
We discuss the way professional success can conceal personal misalignment and the inner work that made the memoir possible.
Purchase Eight Septembers here: Eightseptembers.com
Follow Jane here: Janebuyers.com
Who has been a guest on For Love of Memoir
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Christine Reed
Penny Hawkins Smith
Jane Wong
David Crow
Mark Porro
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
313
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 55 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
83
Social presence
0
YouTube
66
Engagement
0
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Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Questions about For Love of Memoir
Who hosts For Love of Memoir?
host host the show. Published by Erin Swanson.
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Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
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