Davy Rothbart

FOUND in BOSTON! This Friday, May 8th, 7:00 PM @wburcityspace - please let your Boston friends know we're headed their way, it's gonna be a special one!! Next stops for @found_zine : CHICAGO, INDIANAPOLIS, TOLEDO OH, ANN ARBOR MI, and beyond with the G.O.A.T. @samuelsethbernard (Boston and Chicago ticket links in bio.) We've got scintillating found notes to share, soulful, energizing music, and we can't wait to celebrate 25 years of road magic with y'all! See ya soon!! MAY 8 — BOSTON, MA City Space, 890 Commonwealth / 7 PM presented by @wburcityspace JUNE 10 — CHICAGO, IL Hideout Chicago, 1354 W. Wabansia / 7:30 PM @hideoutchicago [25 years to the day from our original Chicago release party in 2001! FOUND O.G.s and newbies all welcome!] JUNE 11 — INDIANAPOLIS, IN Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis @camimuseum , 1125 Cruft St / 7 PM presented by @bigcarpix JUNE 12 — TOLEDO, OH at Dream Louder, 303 Morris / 7 PM presented by @dreamloudermusic JUNE 13 — PITTSBURGH, PA Details TBA Presented by @pghcitypaper JUNE 14 — ANN ARBOR, MI Details TBA - stay tuned!! JUNE 28 — ANN ARBOR, MI A2 Summer Festival / 8 PM SEPTEMBER 8 - 15 Bring us to your town! Drop a line! "Davy and Peter Rothbart are utterly engaging performers!" —L.A. Times "Electrifying!" —N.Y. Times "Hilarious and heartbreaking!" —WBUR "Unexpected as a tumbleweed!" —New Yorker XO.

FOUND TOUR "2026!" Hitting the road with my brother Peter, the legendary @samuelsethbernard , and a bursting bag of golden finds! BOSTON, WOODS HOLE (MA), and CHICAGO to start. (Boston ticket link in bio.) These are gonna be really special nights in every city, and we want to see you! Come rock it with us!! @found_zine MAY 6 — WOODS HOLE, MA Community Hall, 68 Water St. / 7 PM presented by @transomradio MAY 8 — BOSTON, MA City Space, 890 Commonwealth / 7 PM presented by @wburcityspace JUNE 10 — CHICAGO, IL @hideoutchicago 25 years to the dot from our original Chicago release party in 2001! JUNE 11 — INDIANAPOLIS, IN Details TBA presented by @bigcarpix JUNE 12 — TOLEDO, OH at Dream Louder JUNE 13 — PITTSBURGH, PA Details TBA Presented by @pghcitypaper JUNE 14 — ANN ARBOR, MI Details TBA - stay tuned!! JUNE 28 — ANN ARBOR, MI A2 Summer Festival / 8 PM SEPTEMBER 8 - 15 Bring us to your town! Drop a line! "Davy and Peter Rothbart are utterly engaging performers!" —L.A. Times "Electrifying!" —N.Y. Times "Hilarious and heartbreaking!" —WBUR "Unexpected as a tumbleweed!" —New Yorker xoxo.

Back on THIS AMERICAN LIFE this week -- another classic banger. Listen on NPR or on the podcast feed -- link in bio. For the full story, please read on! Episode is called "The Other Man"; my piece runs 30 minutes. Picture me rolling east on I-94 one balmy day in April, 2001, headed from Chicago to my hometown Ann Arbor in my green '73 Ford LTD. Riding shotgun, shooting B-roll out the window, was filmmaker Bennett Miller, who had not yet made his Oscar-winning movies CAPOTE and MONEYBALL but had just directed a riveting doc called THE CRUISE. In the back seat was T.A.L. producer Julie Snyder, who later went on to create the SERIAL podcast with our colleague Sarah Koenig. It was a gorgeous day and back then I had a lead foot. Near Kalamazoo we got pulled over. The cop saw Bennett's enormous video-camera and said, "What y'all doing with that thing?" And Bennett said brightly, "We're making a TV show!" "It's called THIS AMERICAN LIFE," piped Julie from the back. "Sounds neat," said the cop. "Can I be in it?" "You already are," Bennett told him. "I'm still rolling." And the cop positively beamed. Soon we were on our way again. Over the week that followed, we filmed what was intended to be the original THIS AMERICAN LIFE TV pilot, which explored a story very personal to me: the way my family had changed when an unexpected guest arrived -- a 2,000 year-old spirit named Aaron, who my Mom began communicating with when I was 12. With Bennett filming and Julie nudging us deeper into the story, I had a chance to ask my family probing questions. Who exactly was Aaron? Was he real? Or was my Mom just plain crazy? As we kept filming, things got pretty wild. More spirits showed up at my parents' house, my brother Mike spilled meaningful secrets, and my brother Peter tried to right the ship. We went from laughter one moment to tears the next. A special, memorable week. With help from Ira Glass, we tried piecing it all into a TV episode but couldn't quite crack it. Julie suggested we try a radio piece instead. And it worked! Certain moments still make me laugh and tear up. I hope you can give it a listen! Recent pics here of my Mom and Dad, plus one of the LTD. XO.

A few weeks ago, my friend Mamady was snatched by ICE. I was there with him when it happened. Never felt so helpless, heartbroken, and infuriated. But there's hope! The whole story is in the LINK IN MY BIO. Enormous THANKS for taking the time to read about Mamady and doing what you can do to help! ❤️

The day I worked security for the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. Fall, 1988. Jackson had run for President and even won the state of Michigan primary but fell short to Michael Dukakis. Still, he barnstormed the country in support of Dukakis in the weeks leading up to the election. One day, my brother Mike Forster Rothbart told me that the great Jesse Jackson was speaking that night at Pioneer High School and the local Democrats office was looking for volunteers to help with the event. After school, someone gave us a lift over to Pioneer. Immediately, the folks in charge put us to work — putting up posters, a literal run to the store to grab supplies and snacks for Jesse Jackson's green room (a math classroom). This was grassroots organizing at its finest: the speech had been scheduled last-minute and they were scrambling to get everything in place, with a huge crowd expected. Then the woman in charge looked me up and down. "Can you say 'no' to people?" she asked. "Ummm... yes? I mean, no?" I wasn't sure what she was getting at. "Okay," she said. "I've got a job for you." I was 13 and tiny; I looked more like 10. Once Jesse Jackson had entered the building and slipped into the math classroom, the woman from Jackson's advance team stationed me outside the door to his room and gave me a barely-official looking badge that said SECURITY. My job, she explained, was to keep EVERYONE out... the public, other volunteers, but most importantly, the local media crews. She told me that Jackson wanted to make some tweaks to the campaign speech he'd been stumping with, and needed an hour of uninterrupted focus. Her belief was that people would be more respectful of a determined kid than any grownups or traditional security personnel. "You've got this," she said. "You're ready for this." STORY CONTINUED IN COMMENTS!

Help us give 75 awesome kids a summer to remember! We're more than halfway to our goal but have just 9 days left to raise the last $13,000 we need. LINK WITH TONS MORE DETAILS IN BIO! Our "Washington To Washington" trip includes camping, hiking, swimming, canoeing, and much much more. Your donation in any amount — $5, $25, $100, $500, or whatever you can chip in — is a huge boost to help us reach our goal. HUGE THANKS to those who have already supported, and big love to all of you who can help us make this special, meaningful trip possible for these wonderful kids!!

Here we go! We've got 75 kids from D.C., Detroit and New Orleans headed to national parks & forests for a week of outdoor adventure. EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for any support you can give to make this special trip happen for these wonderful kids! LINK & DETAILS IN BIO. THANKS TO ALL who have supported so generously over the years! It means so much to the kids and a TON to me personally. ❤️

HOMETOWN PREMIERE! Tues. March 18th — 6 PM — Ann Arbor's historic Michigan Theater. FREE, but must RSVP, LINK IN BIO! Please join us for a very special, memorable, and meaningful night. . . . @umwallacehouse @michstatetheaters @fordschool @17blocksfilm @__bigbeach

Hi friends – first, we are safe and far from the destruction. Thanks to all who've been sending texts and messages, each check-in means a lot to me. Devastated for the 25+ friends who lost their homes, and our entire beloved communities of Altadena & Pasadena. PLEASE READ ON for many more thoughts. Although our home is 5 miles away, in L.A. on the South Pasadena border, Altadena is our adopted home since we’re there several times a week. Mainly, hiking the trails in Millard Canyon. But also: joyful outdoor concerts at Farnsworth and Loma Alta Park, a weekly juggling club, disc golf, biking the North Arroyo, and hanging at friends’ houses. It’s home to us. So to see the scale of the destruction and loss of life is truly heartbreaking. This week has been especially crushing for those of us who knew and loved @jeffbaena . I’ll post separately about him soon, but I know his death and these wildfires will always be linked in my mind. The loss of our beloved forests and neighborhoods pales next to those who lost everything in the fires, who face an uncertain and challenging future. Our hearts are with them. But I want to take time to mourn a place dear to my heart: Millard Canyon. The San Gabriel Mountain foothills are glorious, and Millard Creek is a majestic place. Desi and Birdie and I have visited so ritualistically the past few years, 1 - 3 times a week, that we had a name and memory associated with nearly every rock and tree from Millard Trail Camp to Millard Falls. There’s Story Rock, where we ate snacks and quietly read books in the afternoon shade, while “laughing birds” giggled in branches high above. There’s Bobcat Tree, a fallen pine where we once, mesmerized, watched a bobcat perch for 10 minutes, while the bobcat watched us, curious and unafraid. And Bended Tree, with a long low branch that begged to be navigated like a 50-foot balance beam. There’s Squirrel Rock, where we cracked acorns open and left the insides as treats for squirrels and chipmunks. And of course, Boulder Slide, where the kids slipped and slid for hours, as the creek splashed and gurgled past. [PLEASE READ PART 2, 3 & 4 IN THE COMMENTS!]

If you'd like to VOTE today but could use a ride to a polling place, please send me a DM with your city/state. I'm arranging rides for people anywhere in the U.S. 🎉

Hey friends, we need your help to bring 22 awesome kids from D.C. and Detroit on a week-long outdoors adventure! Camping, hiking, swimming, caving, campfires, S'mores, and much more! We're down to our LAST TWO DAYS, so please chip in whatever you can. It all makes a HUGE difference, and you'll be giving these awesome and deserving kids a truly AMAZING experience, and a chance to broaden their horizons. Thank you so much!! ** LINK & MORE DETAILS IN BIO! **

Please help make our 15th Annual Washington to Washington camping trip a reality! LINK and tons of details IN BIO. And HUGE THANKS to those who have already supported! Every dollar truly makes a difference to help us bring 22 awesome kids into the Blue Ridge Mountains for a transforming week of camping, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and much more. I'm extremely grateful to be part of such a special, supportive, and can-do community. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! ❤️