#35 Heather Havrilesky (Columnist ”Ask Polly”) - On Writing, Giving Advice & Not Being A “Guru”

She is the sweary big sister of the Internet who gives brilliant and thought-provoking weekly advice via her column “Ask Polly” for New York Magazines “The Cut”. She answers all sorts of questions from “How do I dump my crappy best friend?” to “I’m broke and I hate my job” to “My sister has cancer and I can’t go on.” It’s my favourite weekly column and every week I’m excited to read it. I always learn something important. She has a book that’s just come out called “How To Be a Person In The World” which has a whole load of #AskPolly columns in there, both new and old ones and has had amazing reviews including the New Yorker. She is also the author of the memoir DISASTER PREPAREDNESS (published by Riverhead, 2011) and she was Salon.com's TV critic for 7 years. We talk about writing, standing out from the crowd, writing a column, what advice we take and why being "guru" doesn't appeal.