Gretchen Cherington, author of the 2020 memoir "Poetic License," discusses her complicated relationship with her late father, Richard Eberhart, a Pulitzer-prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate. Growing up surrounded by literary titans, Gretchen idolized her father but experienced a disturbing shift in their dynamic during her teenage years. She eventually revealed the truth about her father's inappropriate behavior at a public event nearly five decades later, receiving unexpected support from her father's friends and hearing from other women who had similar experiences with him.
She also delves into her father's relationship with his own intimidating father, Alpha LaRue Eberhart, a Hormel Foods executive, and the strange embezzlement scandal chronicled in her newest book, "The Butcher, the Embezzler and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry." Throughout the episode, Gretchen explores the effects of abuse and secrecy, the power dynamics that enable abusers, and the lifelong journey of healing.
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