Talk Louisiana host Jim Engster chatted with author Jeremy White about his upcoming nonfiction book, The Little Girl at the Bottom of the Picture: A Journey of Selfless Discovery. Originally airing on April 17, the nearly ten-minute radio segment represents White’s first live interview about his hopeful memoir detailing how his wife, Edie, who was adopted at birth and raised by a loving family, discovered her biological family after altruistically submitting her DNA in early 2018.
White opens by explaining how the longtime satirist and former football official shed much of his identity—represented by his social media handle, comicref—just before the pandemic to focus on this deeply personal literary project about his wife of over 30 years. “It’s nothing short of a miracle,” White tells Engster and his audience, “that someone as private as Edie has come to see that her story is one that the world is begging to be added to the human narrative right now.” Edie’s husband goes on to describe her as “the last person to ever bust into somebody’s life like the Kool-Aid Man.”
“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” White tells Engster and his audience, “that someone as private as Edie has come to see that her story is one that the world is begging to be added to the human narrative right now.”
Engster then brings up the bombshell that propelled the two college sweethearts into this beautifully insane, life-altering adventure. White describes to listeners how AncestryDNA’s iPhone app sucker-punched Edie at work with news that John Hart—a beautiful, complicated man—is her biological father. The former teenage missionary was fragged in Vietnam before becoming a grad student at LSU, where the devout pacifist crossed paths with David Duke at Free Speech Alley in 1969. The headline-making incident is cited in two books about the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard.
Talk Louisiana connects listeners with Louisiana newsmakers through live interviews. Hosted by award-winning journalist and broadcast veteran Jim Engster, Talk Louisiana airs live every weekday at 9 a.m. on WRKF-FM, where it is later rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Listeners can hear White’s interview on the show’s podcast episode from April 17.
Jeremy White is a tenured cynic who penned this hopeful book. He founded South Louisiana’s premier satirical publication in 2004, eight years before relaunching the award-winning Red Shtick Magazine as its all-digital progeny, The Red Shtick. The passionate Cajun can often be heard on various popular radio shows as either a guest or a guest host. A longtime football official and Mardi Gras krewe captain, Jeremy earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at LSU, where he and Edie met. They’ve been happily married since 1992 and live in Baton Rouge with their cat, Waffles.
White Lines Press (an imprint of Red Stick Comedy, LLC) is publishing the 468-page hardcover edition of The Little Girl at the Bottom of the Picture on July 1, but readers can pre-order signed copies at LittleGirlBook.com, where 1 in 20 customers will win a signed “lagniappe” copy. Signed hardcover editions are also available through partnered indie bookstores across the country, including Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs and Red Stick Reads in Baton Rouge. For more information and resources, visit our media center. Inquiries should be sent to media@redstickcomedy.com.