Relative Strangers
Poet and teacher Taylor Mali knows more about his family than anyone really needs to know, especially the branch that has lived in New York City for 400 years. However, they don't all know him or each other—they are relative strangers to each other—so getting all 450 of them to meet in person in the summer of 2024 is going to be a struggle or a train wreck.
Relative Strangers
8. "Drunk Cousin with an iPhone"
Taylor talks with his second cousin Sarah Elder (1947) about how to be a lady and the tribal nature of most of the world. They talk about privilege and whether you can hide it, the paucity of motherly love, and the "poor cousins" who had to attend The Chapin School. What do you have the strength to endure out of kindness alone? Taylor recites entirely too many poems in the course of the interview, but Sarah confesses to having sex in the maid's rooms of her grandmother's apartment. Interestingly, this is the first episode of the series in which the name John Taylor Johnston is never mentioned.
The founding sponsor of Relative Strangers is FamilyTreeChart.com. Use promo code METROPOLITAN to get 10% off your first order. Please follow the podcast on Instagram at RelativeStrangersPodcast, where Taylor is generally a little less dramatic.
