“Do you want to be Princess Leia’s assistant?” Byron Lane’s Life After News 🎙️✨

Author/playwright/former TV newsie Byron Lane talks origin stories, on-air anxiety, assisting Carrie Fisher, chasing the Northern Lights, indie films, best-selling novels, big love, and bigger reinventions. This one’s honest, funny, and full of heart. 💛

What you’ll hear

• 🚨 “I’m still just telling stories.” Why the news muscle never leaves
• 🏕️ Boy Scout tour → WWL legend. Byron’s “pharmacist moment”
• ⏰ Overnights + 8am classes. Grit that built a storyteller
• 😬 The cost of ‘live.’ On-air nerves, pressure, and knocking on doors at 2am
• 📡 Live shot disasters. Speakers blasting, trucks failing—lessons anyway
• ⭐ Pivot to Princess Leia. How Carrie Fisher changed everything
• 🌌 “Take your broken heart and make art.” Northern Lights with Carrie
• 🎬 Herpes Boy → Octavia Spencer + JVN cameo. News rules that power scripts
• 💍 Proposal in the acknowledgments. Yes, really—book as ring
• 🎭 Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist. Why the play still has another life
• 🌈 Big Gay Wedding. A mom’s “coming out,” Polite Society Ranch, and small-town love
• 🌴 Palm Springs life. Community, creativity, and signed books at Best Bookstore

Pull quotes

• “It’s not just before all that—I still feel like I’m just telling stories.”
• “Take your broken heart and make art.” —Carrie Fisher
• “News taught me to find the headline of a scene.”
• “I proposed to Steven… in the acknowledgments.”

About Byron 📚

• Author of A Star Is Bored and Big Gay Wedding
• Playwright of Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist
• Former local TV reporter/producer/writer; past assistant to Carrie Fisher
• Partner to author Steven Rowley (The Guncle, The Celebrants)

Mentioned

• Books: A Star Is Bored, Big Gay Wedding, The Guncle, The Celebrants, Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters
• Projects: Herpes Boy (indie), Last Will & Testicle (web series), Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist (play)
• Shop local: Best Bookstore in Palm Springs — ask for signed copies of Byron’s books ✍️

🎧 Listen • Share • Support

• ❤️ If this resonated, text it to one newsroom friend.
• ⭐ Rate & review the show—helps more people find these stories.
• 🛍️ Buy Byron’s books from your indie—if you’re in Palm Springs, request signed at checkout.
• 🌐 Go to our website for new episodes, essays, and behind-the-scenes.
• 👥 Know a great guest? Pitch me.

Let Life After News inspire your next chapter. Because leaving the news doesn’t mean the story’s over—it means a new one’s just beginning.