So You Need to Decide

“Lightbulb moments, blinks, are exciting. But it’s the long slow burn of gazing and grazing, the stare, that makes these sparkly instantaneous decisions possible. If this were a more self-helpy book, I’d have a cute pull-out exercise called think about your blinks. I’ll go first.”

How many decisions do you make each day? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? How often do you think about the way each of those little and not-so-little decisions reverberate through your life? And how often do you regret a choice you made and wish you could simply choose again? Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as the “godmother of alternative comedy”, Beth Lapides, creator of LA’s long-running UnCabaret, delivers a funny and heartfelt meditation on the power of decisions, the place for regret, and the space for grace in the Recorded Books Original So You Need to Decide. This series of intimate conversations with a diverse group of comedians, writers, and cultural icons revolves around five universal experiences: family, work, love, moving, and spirituality. The decisions that come through in each of these moments are not about the rigidity of control, it’s about the fluidity of dancing with the chaos. Lapides invites us to join her and her friends in reflecting on how each decision changes us, altering our path and creating a wholly new journey.

Featuring original interviews with Margaret Cho, Isaac Mizrahi, Bob Odenkirk, Phoebe Bridgers, Baron Vaughn, Aparna Nancherla, Merrill Markoe, and Josh Gondelman, and with research assistance by Mathew Klickstein, So You Need to Decide ultimately challenges the listener to choose how they want to live - bigger or smaller, with artifice or authenticity.

Would you rather plumb the depths or float near the surface? That’s a decision only you can make.