Faith Salie is a natural interviewer. She gives instructions on it in her new book, Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much. So it’s not surprising when she answers the phone for this interview, she immediately starts a conversation before I can get to the first question. She is on my Facebook page, and asking me about a photo in which I am playing harmonica and guitar. Then we’re comparing notes about interviewing Joan Rivers. Just like that, we’re talking as if we are catching up instead as journalist and subject.
It’s one of her many skills. Salie contributes regular commentaries to CBS Sunday Morning, co-hosts a monthly series called Science Goes to the Movies, and is a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! She’s also a Rhodes scholar and an actress, and now an author. Part of what has driven her to accomplish so much is a need for approval. “I realize that more people don’t get as happy as I do when you go to the doctor’s office and they take your blood and they’re like, ‘You have beautiful, juicy veins!’ ” she says. “I get outsized happiness from compliments.”
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Kirkus Interview: Faith Salie, Approval Junkie