Pass the Trauma, Please, with Todd Diamond
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What inspired Todd Diamond to start writing his father's Holocaust memoir in a Chinese restaurant?
My father knows I'm attempting to write his story. He did have one request. He said please just not another Holocaust memoir with the long-lived descriptions and elaborate accounts of the smells and the ghetto, the corpses. Everyone knows this already. So do something different. Don't be afraid to slip in a few jokes. My father concluded his appeal by saying, and besides, you're no Eli Wee Zel.
Well, hello and welcome to Uncorking a Story. I'm your host, Mike Carlin, and today I'm joined by Todd Diamond. Born in Queens, New York, Todd delivers narratives that are unapologetically raw and darkly humorous, a reflection of the burrow that raised him. Whether it's the tales from his advertising career or stories about his family's Holocaust experiences, he resonates with those who prefer their prose served with a healthy dose of cynicism. and unsweetened insight. His memoir Past the Trauma Please is a comedy drama that presents the most brutal moment of Jewish history in an unorthodox manner, honoring the stories and life lessons of a Holocaust survivor shared over meals oozing with MSG. Welcome to Uncorking a Story, Todd.
Thank you. Yeah, no, I appreciate you you uh coming here, letting me do a little uncorking on you. But uh I'm curious where where does your story as an author begin?
Let's see. There there are two parts actually. Uh part one is my advertising career. Which started when uh I went to with a friend to visit his dad in in a swinging seventies ad agency in New York. Uh and Playboy was was one of their clients. So I'm sitting there in his office, swanky office, and his dad, uh Don Silverstein, he points to a copy of Playboy magazine. on his on his coffee table and he says, you know, turn to page eighty, you know, whatever it was. And there he was standing at the Playboy mansion between Sammy Davis Jr. and James Conn. And I thought, man, whatever this profession is, I want in. No. I never made it to the grotto. And I have absolutely no regrets about that because I'm a s serious germaphobe and you can never get me in there.
Uh and then there's a part two, you know, part two is the author thing. Uh and that began, you know, just a few years ago, uh, in a Chinese restaurant. My uh ninety-two year old father, he starts dropping these long buried secrets about his survival during the Holocaust. And at that moment I I realized that now this guy had built a completly rebuilt his completely busted life. And the story should be told. And then of course, you know, the panic sets in because, oh crap. Uh I'm not a author. I'm a I'm a copywriter and I've never written a book. Uh and suddenly I'm being drafted into uh being the family biographer and documentarian. And that was kind of terrifying. And you know, all the insecurities, you know, started started coming out.
Because it was completely new territory for me. But I thought, you know, okay, maybe my father's story could inspire some other people. So While I was in the in the restaurant with him, you know, I I reached into my backpack and pulled out a couple of notebooks and started writing something. Other than uh snappy headlines. Uh between the courses of of the male. So it kind of all comes together.
So I mean it it begins in a in a Chinese restaurant.
Yeah, in fact, you know, I like to say that most Holocaust memoirs start in camps and this one begins in a Chinese restaurant.
Do you remember what you were eating?
Yeah, well, definitely Mongolian beef. Because that's my dad's favorite. Uh the poo poo platter, anything fried. And for my mom, we always have. sweet and sour chicken or we call it sweet and sour in memoriam or for my mom who who passed away. Uh but I haven't had a Chinese meal with my father or brother where we we haven't ordered the sweet and sour in memorium.
It's a nice thing we do that for my mom passed away as well and we uh we always try to order something for uh our car, as we like to call her.
Okay.
It's uh yeah, it's hard. Losing a mom, it's not uh not easy. But w when you were growing up, uh how aware were you of your father's experiences?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What inspired Todd Diamond to start writing his father's Holocaust memoir in a Chinese restaurant?
0:00–9:49
2
How did Todd’s father’s editorial demand shape the tone and humor of the book?
9:49–18:03
3
What are the most surprising stories Todd uncovered about his father's life after the war?
18:03–27:23
4
How did Todd transition from copywriting to writing a long‑form intergenerational memoir?
27:23–35:29
5
Why did Todd choose to blend comedy, irreverence, and Holocaust history in his narrative?
35:29–43:52
6
What does recent research say about inherited trauma in children of Holocaust survivors?
43:52–52:31
7
How did Todd navigate publishing, marketing, and finding the right niche for his book?
52:31–1:00:16
8
What pop‑culture memories and personal anecdotes does Todd share that shaped his storytelling?
1:00:16–1:05:22