Mitch Albom

So what a gift this has been to me just to, what a thing to hear.

Oh, it's been a pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Tanya Mosley, and my guest today is Mitch Albom.

It was 30 years ago that he wrote Tuesdays with Maury, a tender, true story about the lessons he learned from his old college professor, Maury Schwartz, who died of ALS.

The book became one of the best-selling memoirs of all time, with its simple but profound reflections on living.

and that experience set Albom on a path he's walked ever since, writing stories about love and loss and the search for meaning in the face of mortality.

His latest novel, Twice, starts with a question most of us have probably daydreamed about.

What if you had the power to redo any moment of your life?

In the book, a man named Alfie is born with the ability to go back and relive any moment he chooses.

But with every second chance comes a cost.

He can't change matters of the heart, and he can't stop someone from dying when it's their time.

Since Tuesdays with Maury, Albom has written eight bestsellers, including The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The Stranger in the Lifeboat, many of which have been adapted for stage and screen.

He's also been a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press for over 40 years.

But those visits with Maury didn't just shape the writer Albom became.

They also changed how he moved through the world.

Maury once told him that giving makes you feel more alive than taking.

a lesson Albom took to heart.

He runs nine charities in Detroit that supports veterans, students, and people in need of housing and medical care.