Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowery suffers from a rare liver condition that causes severe chronic itch. It led her to look into the stigma of itchiness, the itch-scratch cycle, and finding acceptance in her body. Also, we hear from screenwriter and author of one of the most anticipated novels of the season, Richard Price. His new novel, Lazarus Man, is about second chances. Price also wrote for the HBO shows The Wire, The Deuce and The Night Of. And Maureen Corrigan has two books to recommend if you're looking for inspiration, beauty, and humor.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
From WHYY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend. Today, itching. The kind that scratching only makes worse. The kind that can take over your brain.
Itching, it's just a little bit like disrespected. You look like a dog with fleas. It's like embarrassing to scratch yourself in public. It's inappropriate to scratch yourself in public. I think people just kind of don't take it very seriously.
Our guest Annie Lowry, a staff writer for The Atlantic, has written an article called Why People Itch and How to Stop It. She has severe chronic itch. Also, we hear from screenwriter and author of one of the most anticipated novels of the season, Richard Price. He wrote for HBO's The Wire and co-created HBO's The Night Of and The Outsider.
Several of his novels, including Clockers, were adapted into films. He has a new novel. And Maureen Corrigan recommends two books if you're looking for inspiration, beauty and humor. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Terry Gross. Stress and anxiety can lead to itch. So I would imagine a lot of Americans have done a lot of scratching over the past few months.
There's the kind of itch that you scratch and poof, no more itch. But sometimes, the more you scratch, the more you itch. And then there's the kind of itch that is so alive, explosive, persistent, and all-encompassing that nothing seems to help. And it hijacks your brain.
That's the kind of itch that my guest Annie Lowry writes about in her Atlantic Magazine article titled Why People Itch and How to Stop It. It's about what researchers are learning about itch and how that's opening the door to new treatments. Lowry suffers from itch so intense she's dug holes in her skin and scalp and once asked a surgeon to amputate her limbs.
Her issue is related to a rare and degenerative liver disease. Part of her article is about her own itch and the extremes it's led her to. Lowry is a staff writer at The Atlantic, focusing on the economy and politics. She's a former staff writer at The New York Times and New York Magazine. Annie Lowry, welcome to Fresh Air. Is today an itchy day for you?
It is. I have been itchy for about four days now. So we're talking during the daytime, so I'm not terribly itchy. But my feet are itchy, my scalp is itchy, and my hands are itchy. But it's a two out of ten. It's manageable.
So people are very dismissive of itch. And I want you to describe what your kind of itch feels like.
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Chapter 2: What personal experience does Annie Lowry share about chronic itch?
It was just my feeling. Yeah. But it's a very complicated thing that he's setting up here, which is to say, you know, it would be easiest for me if I could find in the book what he says.
Sure, yeah. No, absolutely.
Yeah, he's a little bit of a celebrity because he is the Lazarus Man. He has survived 36 hours in the rubble when no one detected any kind of sign of life. And yet he was miraculously found. This is what he's saying to people to give them hope, you know, at this funeral for a young kid who was shot trying to... Get in between two gangs to calm people down.
As I said before, I've never been a deeply religious individual. And I still don't consider myself one. But I feel guided now. And my purpose in being here today is to deliver to you a message that just might make it possible to accept your aching hearts and continue to live the life that he has given you. For a brief moment, he stood there speechless, amazed at what he was about to say.
What I have learned since that day in the rubble is that whatever befalls you in life, whatever appears to you as an impossible burden, an unbearable weight, in the end, if you persevere, if you hold fast, will turn out to be a gift. Whatever befalls you, no matter how heartbreaking or onerous, will turn out to be the best thing, the perfect thing, because of what is to come out of it.
In fact, it will be the best thing that could possibly happen to you.
There is a fair amount of gratitude in the novel. And I think gratitude and a gratitude practice has sometimes come to seem like a cliche. On the other hand, gratitude is a really important thing to have in your life and to be able to find gratitude in life. And I'm wondering for you as a writer, how do you take something that could be a cliche and turn it into something that's not?
When I read my reviews and they say what has resonated with them, they'll use words like gratitude. But I wasn't thinking, oh, I'm going to really use gratitude as a theme. I mean, the guy just survived everything. a miraculous thing. And you got to be grateful for that. And all of a sudden, in that gratefulness, you see how precious life is because you almost were not here anymore.
And if you're inspired, you want to spread that message, the getting of grace. He just says at some point, every minute of every day, everything is precious. When I was pulled out of that rubble and I could take my first undirt caked breath, all I wanted to do was to live and live and live. It just happened to me in a way that very low key happened.
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