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Daniel Paisner Daniel Paisner - author, collaborator, podcaster

Daniel Paisner is an author, collaborator and podcaster. He is the author or co-author of over 80 books, including four novels and numerous works of non-fiction, and he is the ghostwriter behind 17 NYT best-sellers, written in collaboration with such celebrated personalities as Whoopi Goldberg, Serena Williams and Denzel Washington. He is the host of the podcast “AS TOLD TO: The Ghostwriting Podcast,” a production of the Writers Bone Podcast Network, which features conversations with his fellow ghostwriters, as well as songwriters, speechwriters, screenwriters and other artists who work in service of someone else’s voice or vision.

Recent Content

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Episode 115: Elisa Ung &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Episode 115: Elisa Ung

Best-selling ghostwriter Elisa Ung credits her lifelong Love of musicals with gifting her the tools she relies on in her collaborative work. "They've taught me to listen for rhythms and cadences in au…

Best-selling ghostwr…

Best-selling ghostwriter Elisa Ung credits her lifelong love of musicals with gifting her the tools she relies on in her collaborative work. "They've taught me to listen for rhythms and cadences in authors' voices," she writes. "They help me understand how to respect readers by telling the most powerful story in the least amount of time." Elisa's path to this type of storytelling might seem familiar to As Told To listeners, but she has walked it with a song in her heart… and an appetite for the stories we share at the Family table, and in our family kitchens. A former news reporter for The P…

Listen · 1:10:57
Between The Lines: Phases &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Between the Lines: Phases

"Sometimes my memories feel like a dream," writes Brandy, the Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, and actress, in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author and As Told To po…

"Sometimes my memori…

"Sometimes my memories feel like a dream," writes Brandy, the Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, and actress, in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author and As Told To podcast guest Gerrick Kennedy. In this "Between the Lines" episode, we revisit a passage from Brandy's just-published memoir Phases, in which she reflects on the inspiration for her title. As you listen, consider what it takes for an accomplished journalist to help give singular voice to such a singular voice, while working to stitch a lifetime of dream-like memories into a compelling narrative. Pl…

Listen · 5:32
Episode 114: Gerrick Kennedy &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Episode 114: Gerrick Kennedy

"You're a co-pilot, you are a therapist, you are an archivist," reflects journalist and cultural critic Gerrick Kennedy of his role as a ghostwriter. Kennedy is the co-author of the just-published mem…

"You're a co-pilot, …

"You're a co-pilot, you are a therapist, you are an archivist," reflects journalist and cultural critic Gerrick Kennedy of his role as a ghostwriter. Kennedy is the co-author of the just-published memoir Phases, from singer, songwriter and actress Brandy—an immediate #1 New York Times best-seller. He is the author of two previous books, and his work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ, Men's Health, Spin, and Playboy. A former staff writer for The Los Angeles Times, where he covered pop music and culture, Kennedy was honored in 2012 with an Eme…

Listen · 1:10:00
Between The Lines: When The Garden Was Eden &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Between the Lines: When the Garden Was Eden

In this "Between the Lines" episode, we look back at Harvey Araton's 2011 classic When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks. In any other NBA…

In this "Between the…

In this "Between the Lines" episode, we look back at Harvey Araton's 2011 classic When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks. In any other NBA post-season, Harvey's latest book, The Goal of the Game, a soccer novel for young adults about a seventh-grader who discovers the power of the beautiful game to hurt and to heal, would be spotlighted here. But as the 2025-26 Knicks continue to fight for an NBA championship, we turn our attention to Harvey's thrilling reflection on the Franchise's championship teams from the early 1970s. As many b…

Listen · 8:48
Episode 113: Harvey Araton &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Episode 113: Harvey Araton

Harvey Araton is not quite ready to set down his pen. After covering sports for more than 40 years for the Staten Island Advance, the New York Post, the New York Daily News and The New York Times, whe…

Harvey Araton is not…

Harvey Araton is not quite ready to set down his pen. After covering sports for more than 40 years for the Staten Island Advance, the New York Post, the New York Daily News and The New York Times, where he served as a "Sports of the Times" columnist for more than 15 years, he continues to write. His latest book, The Goal of the Game, a soccer novel for young adults about a seventh-grader who discovers the power of the beautiful game to hurt and to heal, was just published by Koehler Books. The book takes its place on Harvey's ever-expanding bookshelf alongside one of his best-known books, When…

Listen · 1:09:32
Between The Lines: The Maple Crew &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Between the Lines: The Maple Crew

Join us for our "Between the Lines" feature, as we shine an extra shaft of light on the work of our podcast guest. In this installment, we're highlighting a memoir entitled The Maple Crew, by pioneeri…

Join us for our "Bet…

Join us for our "Between the Lines" feature, as we shine an extra shaft of light on the work of our podcast guest. In this installment, we're highlighting a memoir entitled The Maple Crew, by pioneering filmmaker Jessie Maple, written in collaboration with As Told To podcast guest E. Danielle Butler. The book stands on Danielle's bookshelf as a compelling example of her work, and her commitment to capturing the voices of men and women who inspire her and crafting those voices into stories that can inspire others. For more on the life and career of Jessie Maple, you can check out her New York T…

Listen · 6:49
Episode 112: E. Danielle Butler &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Episode 112: E. Danielle Butler

Narratives that matter. That's the lane currently occupied by "collaborative storyteller" E. Danielle Butler, co-author of more than two dozen books, many of them written with business executives, pio…

Narratives that matt…

Narratives that matter. That's the lane currently occupied by "collaborative storyteller" E. Danielle Butler, co-author of more than two dozen books, many of them written with business executives, pioneering artists, and faith leaders, helping to translate lived experience into lasting Legacy. It's a path she didn't know she was meant to walk. In fact, she didn't even know what a ghostwriter was until she became one. "But what I can trace throughout my life are threads of Black writers and storytellers weaving humanity and justice together," she writes. "Our words are creation. For centuries, …

Listen · 59:36
Between The Lines: We The Women &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Between the Lines: We the Women

In our latest "Between the Lines" installment, we shine a light on the best-selling collection of inspirational profiles by former "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell – the New York Times best…

In our latest "Betwe…

In our latest "Between the Lines" installment, we shine a light on the best-selling collection of inspirational profiles by former "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell – the New York Times best-seller We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America, written with journalist and author Kate Andersen Brower. Brower, our current podcast guest, a former White House reporter for Bloomberg News, has written for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, and The Washington Post. She is also the author of several books of her own, including the #1 New York Times best-seller The Residence, which w…

Listen · 7:41
Episode 111: Kate Andersen Brower &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Episode 111: Kate Andersen Brower

What happens when a ghostwriter/collaborator looks on as the subject of her latest book becomes the lede of a story neither one of them set out to tell? That's the question at the heart of this conver…

What happens when a …

What happens when a ghostwriter/collaborator looks on as the subject of her latest book becomes the lede of a story neither one of them set out to tell? That's the question at the heart of this conversation with journalist Kate Andersen Brower, co-author of the New York Times best-seller We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America, written with "60 Minutes" correspondent and former "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell. We the Women presents a vivid portrait of the unsung women throughout American history who have changed the ways we work and live—a book Melinda French Gates calls…

Listen · 1:14:17
Episode 110: Alan Eisenstock &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Episode 110: Alan Eisenstock

"Did I do that?" Yes, in fact, he did. After a successful career as a writer on hit sitcoms like "Mork and Mindy," "The Nanny," and "Married with Children," podcast guest Alan Eisenstock managed to st…

"Did I do that?" Yes…

"Did I do that?" Yes, in fact, he did. After a successful career as a writer on hit sitcoms like "Mork and Mindy," "The Nanny," and "Married with Children," podcast guest Alan Eisenstock managed to step from television writing rooms and reinvent himself as one of the publishing industry's most sought-after collaborators. His most recent books include New York Times best-selling memoir Life's Too Short, written with Darius Rucker; Hang Time: My Life in Basketball, with NBA legend Elgin Baylor; the crime novel Flipping Boxcars, with Cedric the Entertainer; and the just-published memoir Arsenio,…

Listen · 1:05:21
Between The Lines: The Girl In The Green Sweater &Raquo; As Told To Wbpn
Between the Lines: The Girl in the Green Sweater

We're trying something new here at the pod shop – a kind of palate cleanser to follow our latest full episode. What gives? Well, we keep hearing from our listeners that they'd like to sample one or …

We're trying somethi…

We're trying something new here at the pod shop – a kind of palate cleanser to follow our latest full episode. What gives? Well, we keep hearing from our listeners that they'd like to sample one or more of the books under discussion in each of our every-other-weekly conversations with writers and creatives who write and create in collaboration, so we thought we'd offer a brief reading in this space between episodes. Here, in this inaugural installment of a segment we're calling "Between the Lines," we're pulling a book from the shelf and sharing a short passage that hopefully illuminates our…

Listen · 5:35