THE BLIZZARD OF OSBORN PODCAST

The Blizzard of Osborn Podcast

This is the audio version of a book I wrote in 2018 with the same title. Essentially the book is an homage to The Wizard of Oz.

Over the years I came to love L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s story so much I often wondered what it would be like to try retelling his story, but with different characters updated to recent times.

Imagining new variations, I began with the same point of departure: an extreme weather event (“act of god”) tears a little girl away from her home and family. Then, finding herself in a strange, dazzling new world, she meets, in turn, three peculiar characters: a talking snake, a self-absorbed Eggman and a wrong-thinking donkey. Like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, these four characters also set out together on a daunting quest of self-discovery.

While sketching various parallels, I happened to read Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements, which sparked an outlandish thought: what if, in The Blizzard of Osborn, the four main characters also happen to embody aspects of Ruiz’s Agreements (1. Be impeccable with your word; 2. Don’t take anything personally; 3. Don’t make assumptions; 4. Always do your best).

The premise was so absurd I couldn’t resist running with it. The more I ran, the more fun I had. I hope you have fun listening to this podcast version now!