Jamie Loftus spent the summer of 2021 criss-crossing America by car and visiting as many as five hot dog joints a day to research her new book, “Raw Dog.” It was a challenging venture in many ways, traveling during a pandemic and straining personal relationships. Not to mention the punishment that ingesting multiple dogs each day could deal to her insides.
So it’s mildly surprising that when the Globe catches up with the Massachusetts native to talk about “Jamie Loftus Presents: A Very Boston ‘Raw Dog’ Book Release Show” at Arts at the Armory in Somerville June 3, she is on her way back from a hot dog run in Philadelphia. She couldn’t resist the regional delicacy of the pretzel dog.
“I feel like my days are numbered for being able to business-expense hot dogs,” she says. “Kind of trying to run the clock out in that regard. And there’s a lot of good Philadelphia hot dogs I’ve never tried before, so I’ve been trying to run around and get as many as possible without getting sick.”
Loftus often immerses herself in her work, whether she’s writing for television shows like “Robot Chicken” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” or creating limited-run podcasts like “My Year In Mensa,” “Lolita Podcast,” “The Aack Cast” (about the comic strip “Cathy”), or “Ghost Church,” about American spiritualism. Even though “Raw Dog” is done, she still finds herself researching wherever she goes.
“I’m very used to exhausting myself on a topic and then kind of moving on to the next one,” she says. “But I’m still independently eating them and researching them and talking to people. If there’s more to say, I will absolutely continue.”
To read the full article, click here:
