Podcast king Danny Pellegrino’s new book is the perfect beach (or anytime) read.
If you’ve listened to Danny Pellegrino‘s podcast, Everything Iconic, you’ve probably already fallen in love with his warm, witty take on the world of Real Housewives and all things pop culture. If not, his new book, How Do I Un-Remember This?, should make you a convert. In it, Pellegrino shares the “unfortunately true stories” that’ve made him the beloved host and broadcaster he is today.
The memoir delves into his years growing up in Ohio, the TV he obsessed over, and the mortifying moments that he’s still trying to erase from his memory. The book has an extremely high laughs-per-page ratio — his mother’s blurb of the book, featured prominently at the beginning, reads, “This makes me nervous. I’m not sure I should read it” — and offers the feeling of sitting down to a conversation with one of your favorite friends. (And if he’s coming to your town on his book tour, we highly recommend grabbing a ticket.)
Since the book (a must-buy, in case you haven’t figured that out by now) focuses on the moments he’d love to forget, we asked Pellegrino to spend a little more time in nostalgia mode and answer some of our most pressing questions.
One of my favorite childhood memories…
I grew up in Northeast Ohio with two older brothers and about once a year, my family would gather in the basement where my parents would measure our height and mark it on a doorway. I have these very strong memories of all of us trying to wear extra socks to get a little bit taller. I just love the memory of all of us being together. My older brothers have their own families now and although I obviously love them, I do sometimes wish I could go back to a moment where it was just us.
My worst high school memory…
I mean, I was a closeted gay kid in Northeast Ohio and so there were plenty of embarrassing moments. The one that sticks out is when I was at a football game and thought I was in love with this girl there — spoiler alert, I wasn’t — so I was trying to ask her out. My parents were looking for me but couldn’t find me, and somehow they got to the person running the loudspeaker and gave them a message for me, complete with my nickname. So in front of the entire town and his girl that I had the biggest crush on, I hear, “THE DANSTER, YOUR PARENTS ARE LOOKING FOR YOU.” Then the cheer squad made a cheer out of that phrase. I tried my best to play it cool, but obviously I cried the whole way home.
The movie I wish I could forget having seen…
There are two: Blue Valentine and Requiem for a Dream. They’re both so heavy. I suffer from anxiety, depression, the whole nine, so I have trouble ingesting stuff that’s too dark. After I saw Blue Valentine with my boyfriend, we broke up in the lobby on the way out of the movie theater, because it made me crazy and made me think relationships can’t work. The whole movie is about this really horrendous relationship between Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, and it just affected the crap out of me. Thankfully, he and I got back together and we’re still together to this day. But if I watch a war movie, I will spiral for weeks.
The movie I remember all the dialogue from…
I know all of You’ve Got Mail by heart. It’s my all-time favorite movie, I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Growing up, it seemed so aspirational because they were in a big city in these apartments I couldn’t imagine living in. It was like, Oh my God, they’re working at their bookstores and they’re getting their Starbucks coffee and going on AOL. We only had Netscape Navigator and no Starbucks in our town. And I find the dialogue — by the tremendous Nora Efron — so brilliant and cozy. I think Meg Ryan’s performance is so underrated. I mean, I could go on and on. It’s just absolutely everything.
My favorite moments writing this memoir…
I tend to speak in pop culture, and I didn’t shy away from all of those 80s, 90s, and 2000s references in the book. That was probably the most fun, just sprinkling in references to toys, books, movies, TV, shows — everything from growing up that I loved that I hope other people will remember, too.
The hardest passages to write…
There’s a chapter where I discuss grieving and as I peeled back the layers, I realized that so much of that story was rooted in unprocessed grief over the passing of my grandmother Rose. She passed after I moved out of Ohio, so I wasn’t around while she was in the hospital. My grandma was just so warmhearted, couldn’t say a bad word about anyone. We used to go on what we would call our “dates”: She didn’t have a lot of money, so she would get these fast-food restaurant coupons from the Sunday paper and put them all in an envelope. Then she’d hand it to me and let me pick where we’d go. Outside of my mother, she was the best human I ever knew. I think grief is still one of those things that we don’t talk about enough.
My favorite celebrity interview memory…
I interviewed Miss Piggy on my show over Zoom, and that was a lifetime-goal moment. It was a very short interview but she’s a diva — she’s got places to go. And talking to Rosie O’Donnell and Cameron Diaz, both of whom were on my show. And Katie’s been on my show, of course, and talking to her was amazing. I remember hanging up with Katie and being so emotional afterwards, because I watched her every morning on the TODAY Show. I was sort of feeling outside of my body, like, I can’t believe that actually happened.
The most rewarding part of doing my podcast…
It’s been so great talking to a lot of the celebrity guests, but I’ve also had the chance to talk about mental health, and hearing from listeners on that topic has made me feel less alone. And it’s been so great to hear them say that they felt less alone, too.That has been more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined. Sometimes, depression or the anxiety can convince you that you’re the only one going through something, but now if a conversation about mental health comes up during an interview, I try to dive right in. I think we all can benefit from hearing about each other’s experiences.
