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Davy Rothbart

@davyrothbart

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FOUND MAGAZINE. THIS AMERICAN LIFE. 17 BLOCKS doc. MEDORA doc. MY HEART IS AN IDIOT + LONE SURFER books. Washington To Washngton. & more DIY mischief.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

!! 72 HOURS TO GO !!

LINK & MORE DETAILS IN BIO! 🌲🏕✨

Hi friends! We're in the final 3 days & need your help to bring 42 awesome kids from D.C., Baltimore and Detroit on a week-long outdoors adventure! Camping, hiking, swimming, canoeing, mountain biking, campfires, S'mores, and more!

MASSIVE THANKS to all who have helped out already — we're within reach of our goal but only have 72 hours left to make it happen. Hoping for a miracle here! Every dollar counts, so please chip in whatever you can... it all makes a GIANT difference, and you'll be giving these kids an amazing experience to cap their summer, some special memories, and a chance to broaden their horizons.

These pictures include many wonderful moments from last year's trip, and a couple from trips long ago -- together they help convey the magical outdoors adventures we've made happen over the years — thanks to your incredible support!

Thank you SO MUCH for your beautiful kindness and generosity!

LINK & MORE DETAILS IN BIO! 🌲🏕✨ by @davyrothbart

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2 months ago

Let's goooo! We've got 42 kids from D.C., Detroit and New Orleans headed to the Great Lakes for a week of outdoor adventure. ENORMOUSLY GRATEFUL for any support you can give to make this special trip happen for these wonderful kids! LINK & DETAILS IN BIO.

These pictures are all from our 2025 trip! HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE who has supported so generously over the years, and to those who can offer support this year! It means so much to the kids — and to me personally. ❤️ by @davyrothbart

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2 months ago

@found_zine 25th Anniversary Tour rolls on! SUNDAY, JUNE 28th, 8 PM, at the heralded ANN ARBOR Summer Festival!

FREE SHOW! FULL DETAILS BELOW. Come on down!

The festival this year features folks like my longtime mentor Ira Glass, the Avett Brothers, Mike Patton (Faith No More), and many others. Honored to be asked to curate a slate of programming in the Annex Tent!

We are gonna have so much fun and love for you to join us (and thanks for spreading word to your Michigan friends). Here's how it breaks down:

5 PM — Choose Your Own Adventure. Help make the choices in this spine-tingling tale (for brave kids)!

5:30 PM — Magic Show for kids! Join Ann Arbor Magic Club's Dan Jones, plus kids performing magic for grownups!

7:00 PM — Ultimate Trivia and Game Show! Featuring members of the A2 Ultimate scene, and music legend Brennan Andes & friends @mugscrumbly

8:00 PM — FOUND Magazine Live Show with Davy Rothbart... Marvel and the magic of found notes and letters!
"Riveting!" —NY Times.
"Utterly engaging!" —L.A. Times
"Unexpected as a tumbleweed." —The New Yorker.

9:00 PM — BANDEAU! Energetic performance and spritely songs from the amazing duo Greg McIntosh and Chad Thompson.

All programming is 100% FREE!

Ann Arbor Summer Festival Top of The Park, 915 E. Washington St.

See ya soon! XO. taken in Ann Arbor Summer Festival: Top of the Park by @davyrothbart

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4 months ago

Raucous hometown @found_zine show with my dear friend @samuelsethbernard on my parents' back porch. THIS SAT. JUNE 13th, 7 PM!

** Link with details in bio. **

Let's announce it 5 days ahead of time and see what happens LOL.

Check my dad's T-shirt in slide 4 -- and yes, he will be there this Saturday to rock it with us. Roll up! by @davyrothbart

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4 months ago

CHICAGO! Amped to bring our @found_zine live show back to town for one very special night — Weds. JUNE 10th, 7:30 PM, at THE HIDEOUT — 25 years to the day after our release party for the 1st issue of FOUND, back on June 10, 2001. Ticket link in bio and more details below!

Thanks so much for letting your Chi-town friends know about this really fun night of stories, music, Found magic, and festivity alongside old friends, new friends, and kindred spirits. We'd LOVE to see you there!

THE STORY:
25 years ago this week, friends and I set up shop with scissors and tape in the back of the Chicago video store where I worked and over a few nights put together the very first issue of FOUND. We Xeroxed 800 copies at a Kinko's, silk-screened 800 covers, and collated and hand-decorated each copy at my apartment on W. Augusta. Then on June 10, 2001, we held a release party where each person went home with a copy of the original FOUND Magazine.

All I wanted for our zine was to create a mechanism for people to share their great finds with each other, a celebration of our shared humanity. "People watching on paper," as one friend described it. But over the years FOUND caught on in a way I never expected and, as I see it, became a triumph of DIY publishing and community-based art.

At these shows, I share the latest hilarious, heartbreaking found notes and letters that have been sent in to us and also share stories from my work on public radio's This American Life. Plus some other surprises planned just for this show.

I'm traveling with legendary Michigan musician and activist Seth Bernard @samuelsethbernard. The New Yorker's Bill McKibben says, "His music not only rocks — it matters. It's the voice of a real community, with a sound and a message the world needs to hear."

Images here include the original FOUND zine, me and Peter on tour in the Rockies (2004), Marlo Stanfield reppin' FOUND, and a wild illustration of me scalping tix in Chi-town (my day job when we made the first issue of FOUND, as detailed in my This American Life story "Middlemen.")

Hope to see you and your friends soon!

CHICAGO - 6/10
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - 6/11
TOLEDO, OH - 6/12
ANN ARBOR, MI - 6/13

Xo. by @davyrothbart

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5 months ago

FOUND in BOSTON! This Friday, May 8th, 7:00 PM @wburcityspace - please let your Boston friends know we're headed their way, it's gonna be a special one!! Next stops for @found_zine : CHICAGO, INDIANAPOLIS, TOLEDO OH, ANN ARBOR MI, and beyond with the G.O.A.T. @samuelsethbernard (Boston and Chicago ticket links in bio.) We've got scintillating found notes to share, soulful, energizing music, and we can't wait to celebrate 25 years of road magic with y'all! See ya soon!!

MAY 8 — BOSTON, MA
City Space, 890 Commonwealth / 7 PM
presented by @wburcityspace

JUNE 10 — CHICAGO, IL
Hideout Chicago, 1354 W. Wabansia / 7:30 PM @hideoutchicago

[25 years to the day from our original Chicago release party in 2001! FOUND O.G.s and newbies all welcome!]

JUNE 11 — INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis @camimuseum, 1125 Cruft St / 7 PM
presented by @bigcarpix

JUNE 12 — TOLEDO, OH
at Dream Louder, 303 Morris / 7 PM
presented by @dreamloudermusic

JUNE 13 — PITTSBURGH, PA
Details TBA
Presented by @pghcitypaper

JUNE 14 — ANN ARBOR, MI
Details TBA - stay tuned!!

JUNE 28 — ANN ARBOR, MI
A2 Summer Festival / 8 PM

SEPTEMBER 8 - 15
Bring us to your town! Drop a line!

"Davy and Peter Rothbart are utterly engaging performers!" —L.A. Times

"Electrifying!" —N.Y. Times

"Hilarious and heartbreaking!" —WBUR

"Unexpected as a tumbleweed!"
—New Yorker

XO. by @davyrothbart

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5 months ago

FOUND TOUR "2026!" Hitting the road with my brother Peter, the legendary @samuelsethbernard, and a bursting bag of golden finds! BOSTON, WOODS HOLE (MA), and CHICAGO to start. (Boston ticket link in bio.) These are gonna be really special nights in every city, and we want to see you! Come rock it with us!! @found_zine

MAY 6 — WOODS HOLE, MA
Community Hall, 68 Water St. / 7 PM
presented by @transomradio

MAY 8 — BOSTON, MA
City Space, 890 Commonwealth / 7 PM
presented by @wburcityspace

JUNE 10 — CHICAGO, IL
@hideoutchicago
25 years to the dot from our original Chicago release party in 2001!

JUNE 11 — INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Details TBA
presented by @bigcarpix

JUNE 12 — TOLEDO, OH
at Dream Louder

JUNE 13 — PITTSBURGH, PA
Details TBA
Presented by @pghcitypaper

JUNE 14 — ANN ARBOR, MI
Details TBA - stay tuned!!

JUNE 28 — ANN ARBOR, MI
A2 Summer Festival / 8 PM

SEPTEMBER 8 - 15
Bring us to your town! Drop a line!

"Davy and Peter Rothbart are utterly engaging performers!" —L.A. Times

"Electrifying!" —N.Y. Times

"Hilarious and heartbreaking!" —WBUR

"Unexpected as a tumbleweed!"
—New Yorker

xoxo. by @davyrothbart

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6 months ago

Back on THIS AMERICAN LIFE this week -- another classic banger. Listen on NPR or on the podcast feed -- link in bio. For the full story, please read on! Episode is called "The Other Man"; my piece runs 30 minutes.

Picture me rolling east on I-94 one balmy day in April, 2001, headed from Chicago to my hometown Ann Arbor in my green '73 Ford LTD. Riding shotgun, shooting B-roll out the window, was filmmaker Bennett Miller, who had not yet made his Oscar-winning movies CAPOTE and MONEYBALL but had just directed a riveting doc called THE CRUISE. In the back seat was T.A.L. producer Julie Snyder, who later went on to create the SERIAL podcast with our colleague Sarah Koenig.

It was a gorgeous day and back then I had a lead foot. Near Kalamazoo we got pulled over. The cop saw Bennett's enormous video-camera and said, "What y'all doing with that thing?" And Bennett said brightly, "We're making a TV show!"

"It's called THIS AMERICAN LIFE," piped Julie from the back.

"Sounds neat," said the cop. "Can I be in it?"

"You already are," Bennett told him. "I'm still rolling." And the cop positively beamed. Soon we were on our way again.

Over the week that followed, we filmed what was intended to be the original THIS AMERICAN LIFE TV pilot, which explored a story very personal to me: the way my family had changed when an unexpected guest arrived -- a 2,000 year-old spirit named Aaron, who my Mom began communicating with when I was 12.

With Bennett filming and Julie nudging us deeper into the story, I had a chance to ask my family probing questions. Who exactly was Aaron? Was he real? Or was my Mom just plain crazy? As we kept filming, things got pretty wild. More spirits showed up at my parents' house, my brother Mike spilled meaningful secrets, and my brother Peter tried to right the ship. We went from laughter one moment to tears the next. A special, memorable week.

With help from Ira Glass, we tried piecing it all into a TV episode but couldn't quite crack it. Julie suggested we try a radio piece instead. And it worked! Certain moments still make me laugh and tear up. I hope you can give it a listen!

Recent pics here of my Mom and Dad, plus one of the LTD.

XO. by @davyrothbart

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6 months ago

A few weeks ago, my friend Mamady was snatched by ICE. I was there with him when it happened. Never felt so helpless, heartbroken, and infuriated. But there's hope! The whole story is in the LINK IN MY BIO.

Enormous THANKS for taking the time to read about Mamady and doing what you can do to help! ❤️ taken in Ypsilanti, Michigan by @davyrothbart

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8 months ago

The day I worked security for the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.

Fall, 1988. Jackson had run for President and even won the state of Michigan primary but fell short to Michael Dukakis. Still, he barnstormed the country in support of Dukakis in the weeks leading up to the election. One day, my brother Mike Forster Rothbart told me that the great Jesse Jackson was speaking that night at Pioneer High School and the local Democrats office was looking for volunteers to help with the event. After school, someone gave us a lift over to Pioneer. Immediately, the folks in charge put us to work — putting up posters, a literal run to the store to grab supplies and snacks for Jesse Jackson's green room (a math classroom). This was grassroots organizing at its finest: the speech had been scheduled last-minute and they were scrambling to get everything in place, with a huge crowd expected.

Then the woman in charge looked me up and down. "Can you say 'no' to people?" she asked. "Ummm... yes? I mean, no?" I wasn't sure what she was getting at. "Okay," she said. "I've got a job for you."

I was 13 and tiny; I looked more like 10. Once Jesse Jackson had entered the building and slipped into the math classroom, the woman from Jackson's advance team stationed me outside the door to his room and gave me a barely-official looking badge that said SECURITY. My job, she explained, was to keep EVERYONE out... the public, other volunteers, but most importantly, the local media crews. She told me that Jackson wanted to make some tweaks to the campaign speech he'd been stumping with, and needed an hour of uninterrupted focus. Her belief was that people would be more respectful of a determined kid than any grownups or traditional security personnel. "You've got this," she said. "You're ready for this."

STORY CONTINUED IN COMMENTS! by @davyrothbart

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8 months ago

Help us give 75 awesome kids a summer to remember! We're more than halfway to our goal but have just 9 days left to raise the last $13,000 we need. LINK WITH TONS MORE DETAILS IN BIO!

Our "Washington To Washington" trip includes camping, hiking, swimming, canoeing, and much much more. Your donation in any amount — $5, $25, $100, $500, or whatever you can chip in — is a huge boost to help us reach our goal. HUGE THANKS to those who have already supported, and big love to all of you who can help us make this special, meaningful trip possible for these wonderful kids!! by @davyrothbart

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a year ago

Here we go! We've got 75 kids from D.C., Detroit and New Orleans headed to national parks & forests for a week of outdoor adventure. EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for any support you can give to make this special trip happen for these wonderful kids! LINK & DETAILS IN BIO.

THANKS TO ALL who have supported so generously over the years! It means so much to the kids and a TON to me personally. ❤️ by @davyrothbart

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a year ago