Bookable Space with Hillary S. Webb

In this episode, we're joined by Hillary S. Webb reading from The Friendliest Place in the Universe: Love, Laughter, and Stand-Up Comedy in Berlin.

About the author: Hillary S. Webb, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and mixed-media storyteller. A professor at Goddard College in the United States, she is the author of The Friendliest Place in the Universe, Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World, Traveling Between the Worlds, and Exploring Shamanism.

About the book: Dismayed by the divisiveness of the Trump/Brexit era, anthropologist Hillary S. Webb began to fear that the better angels of our nature had deserted us entirely—if they had ever existed at all. In the fall of 2017, Webb traveled to Berlin, Germany, where she found renewed hope at Cosmic Comedy—an international stand-up venue described as “The Friendliest Comedy Club in Europe.” 

There, she watched as demographically diverse comedians and audience members were transformed from strangers into allies through laughter. Convinced that Cosmic Comedy offered a model of togetherness that could help heal the divisions between us, Webb returned to Berlin with the intent of uncovering the club’s recipe for communitas  or "collective joy." The result is a humorous and hopeful examination of the nature of human togetherness.

About the host: Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Remembered, is an author, academic, host, creative producer, and presenter. Yvonne also writes short stories, personal essays, a writing column in Mslexia, and screenplays and hosts storytelling and literature events. 

For information about Yvonne's books, events, and more vist https://www.yvonnebattlefelton.com/ or sign up to Yvonne's Substack https://yvonnebattlefelton.substack.com/

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