BUCKiT® #56-Davy Rothbart: Professional People Watcher, National Bestselling Author and Emmy Award Winning Filmmaker

BUCKiT with Phil Keoghan

On a snowy winter night in Chicago, 2000, a 25-year old budding writer finds a note on his windshield. It reads “Mario, I f***ing hate you, you said you have to work then why’s your car HERE at HER place?? You’re a f***ing LIAR. I hate you, I f***ing hate you, Amber. PS Page me later.

This eloquent, misplaced missive would soon join scores of other found notes and abandoned letters, eventually landing Davy Rothbart on David Letterman and kick starting a professional people watching on paper, career.

Davy Rothbart is a national bestselling author and a frequent contributor to public radio’s This American Life. He writes regularly for GQ and Los Angeles Magazine and his work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, to name just a few publications.

Davy is also a well respected filmmaker. Medora, a documentary he produced about an underdog high-school basketball team who fight to end their losing streak, won an Emmy in 2015 and his latest powerful passion project “17 Blocks”, which follows a Washington DC family dealing with a harsh life in a neighborhood plagued by poverty, drugs and violence, recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to strong reviews.

But impressive professional credits aside for one moment, the best way to describe Davy, is he’s a brilliant story teller who delights in observing human nature and presenting it in an insightful, humorous, heart warming and refreshingly candid way. His style strikes a chord with just about everyone – because somehow you either recognize yourself or someone you know, especially in “My Heart’s An Idiot”, a book about Davy trying to find love in all the wrong places. We can all relate.

Phil had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Davy recently, when he poked his head up from his writing, producing and people watching – Phil wanted the chance to get inside the curious mind of this fascinating person who clearly has an insatiable appetite for meeting people, spontaneous adventures and for life!