Show and tell club

Last week, my friend Ali hosted the inaugural meeting of our Show and Tell club (the name is being worked on, since it sounds a little weird and porn-y and not at all representative of how brilliant and awesome our club is!). My friends from home once attempted a book club, but the problem with book clubs is that they fizzle as soon as there's a book that not everyone is invested in--which is bound to happen. Ours ended with Olivia's choice of Steve Jobs' biography. 

The idea of the show and tell club is that every member brings something to share. This can be a book, a podcast, a brilliant idea, a hilarious story, the new vest you just bought at Anthropologie...

We had so much fun and I felt so empowered and motivated by sharing ideas with such smart, talented women. I invited a few friends, none of whom knew each other beforehand, and Ali invited her friend Becca, who was also new to the group. 

I can't wait to share the amazing things I learn at show and tell club here on the blog, so here's what we covered last week! 

Paige started us off by talking about Super Freakonomics (she's an elementary school teacher so she pulled a book out of a backpack and it really felt like show and tell). She focused on an excerpt about the availability heuristic regarding shark attacks, which segued into Rachel telling us about her friend's shark bite (I told you this is a cool group of chicks).

Next, Ellen told us her engagement story. Which I know doesn't sound exciting since we're inundated with these via FB daily, but she is such an amazing storyteller! Not to mention that her fiance, my friend David, killed it. 

Which naturally led nicely to my share -- a podcast about murder. It's called Serial and it's hosted by This American Life producer Sarah Koenig. The season follows one story, of a man who supposedly murdered his ex girlfriend back in 1999, and I find that I change my mind every few minutes as to whether or not he actually killed her. it's fascinating and so well done, and the show and tell group is hooked! I loved getting a text from Paige on Friday saying, "he obviously did it!"...it took me a few minutes to figure out what she was talking about. 

Then Becca read a short story of her own, about a topic most San Franciscans can relate to: bikes. How cool, to read your own work in front of a room of people you met an hour ago! 

And finally, Ali talked about a topic about which I've written: StoryCorps. This organization is amazing and I highly encourage everyone to check out their site, or their booth at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. 

I tried to keep this short, but as you can see, there were just too many cool and interesting things to write about. Maybe for my next post I'll have to focus on just one person's presentation, but I had to give each member her due credit for making our first meeting such a success. I can't wait to learn more from each of you! 

I'm already brainstorming for our next meeting, so please share any amazing books/podcasts/stories/articles, etc.!!