The night can bend a life. Tré Miller Rodriguez walks us through the moment everything changed—waking to find her husband gone—and the choice to pick up a pen before the pieces even settled. What starts as an obituary and a eulogy turns into a grief memoir that refuses to look away, from the strange etiquette of wedding rings after widowhood to the first shaky attempts at desire and dating. Along the way, Tré names “grief brain,” the fog that shields you while it steals your year, and shows how writing, friends who take clear direction, and unlikely moments of comedy make the unlivable livable.

The story widens with a reunion that feels cinematic: the daughter Tré placed for adoption finds her on Facebook at eighteen. Four years later, during a 21st-birthday bar crawl, Tré meets Jorge in a hidden speakeasy and the next chapter begins. We talk about what it takes to protect a true story when Hollywood tries to sand it down—why a network-friendly version can lose the texture that makes real lives matter—and how to say no until the right partner shows up. Tré also opens a window into ghostwriting and modern media: building thought leadership, drawing boundaries around your byline, and using AI as a tool without giving up your voice.

We end where joy sneaks back in: travel hacks from Tokyo to Seoul, asking bartenders for the real map, negotiating onsens with tattoos, and letting trips serve as relationship stress tests that make love sturdier. It’s a conversation about craft, honesty, and the courage to hold your own narrative—through loss, reunion, and the odd belly laugh that arrives right on time. If this resonates, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Listen to Tré read from her memoir Nov. 18th from 7-9pm as part of the Palace Reading Series (206 Nassau Ave., Brooklyn NY 11222)

Tré Miller Rodriguez:

Splitting the Difference: A Heart-Shaped Memoir

"When Other's Day Became Mother's Day" - Huffpost

"A Husband Lost, A Daughter Found" NYT

ModernLoss.com

Mentions:

Dying For Sex - tv show

Dead Like Me - tv show

Rick and Morty - tv show

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A wedding in Oaxaca. A chance meeting. A suitcase full of small-batch bottles that turned into an import company with a mission. We sit down with Julia Cuthbertson—founder of Las Chingonas Imports—to unpack how real mezcal is made, why labels can mislead, and what it takes to keep agave traditions alive without romanticizing them to extinction. Julia’s path winds from Connecticut and Spain to Brooklyn, where late nights at a mezcaleria and home tastings evolved into trusted relationships with families in Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Nuevo León. She explains the messy truth behind certification and denominations of origin, why many ethical producers choose the “agave spirits” label, and how corruption, cost, and geography shape what ends up on US shelves. We go deep on sustainability: thirty-year tepextate, deforestation, water scarcity, and viveros that replant seedlings back into the hills. The conversation gets candid about adulteration, lawsuits, and the “tequilaization” of mezcal—plus the quiet, practical steps small producers take to protect species, like semi-cultivating wild pups on rocky home plots. Along the way, we taste what makes this world so vivid: clay-pot distilled tepextate from Santa Catarina Minas made by Perla of Pasión Ancestral, and the pulque‑fermented profile of Pecho Tierra in the mountains of Nuevo León—spirits that bend your expectations and expand what mezcal can be. If you care about terroir, craft, and honest sourcing, this one’s for you. Come for the stories; leave with a buyer’s toolkit: ask who grows the agave, how it’s roasted and fermented, and whether the family owns the brand. Then choose bottles that keep the flame honest. Like what you heard? Follow the show, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a friend who geeks out on agave. Your support helps small producer families get the spotlight they deserve.

Website:

Las Chingonas Imports

Mentioned:

Mis Mezcales Tienda

Highlighted Spirits/Producers:

Pechotierra

Gozona

Pasión Ancestral

Rayo Seco

Lopez Real

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Email us! peopleatthecorepodcast@gmail.com

Ever wondered how someone builds a life around what they love? Elyssa Maxx Goodman offers a masterclass in turning passion into purpose. Born to New York natives transplanted to Florida, Goodman always felt the magnetic pull of the city where "the weirdos" gathered. By sixteen, she was already saving for her inevitable migration.

The path wasn't always smooth. After losing an office job just months after moving to New York at twenty-one, Goodman faced a pivotal moment. Rather than retreat, she began cold-emailing editors and professionals she admired. "I wanted my life to be my work," she explains, a philosophy that guided her through fifteen years of successful freelance writing for publications including Vogue, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

Throughout our conversation, Goodman reveals how her approach to journalism—particularly when covering subcultures from drag performers to sex toy testers—stems from a deep belief that knowledge dispels fear. This perspective shaped her bestselling book "Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City," which chronicles 160 years of drag history with both scholarly precision and personal passion.

What makes this episode particularly illuminating is Goodman's historical perspective on today's anti-LGBTQ+ backlash. Rather than seeing current challenges as unprecedented, she identifies them as part of a recurring cycle throughout history—one that, despite its difficulties, has seen the community gain more allies with each iteration.

Whether discussing her long-running Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading Series, her own performance work, or the writers who've influenced her, Goodman offers wisdom about creating authentic work and community. As she beautifully puts it, we're all "collages" who find tools in others' work but make them distinctly our own—"You go and get a hammer, but then you put rhinestones on it."

Listen now for an inspiring conversation about persistence, storytelling as bridge-building, and finding your own rhinestone-covered tools.

Elyssa Maxx Goodman:

Website

Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City by Elyssa Maxx Goodman

The Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading Series

Mentions:

The Last Resort (2018)

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless by Susan Jane Gilman

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