Fresh Air (NPR): ‘Morrie’ Writer Mitch Albom On Second Chances

Aired: December 24, 2025
Host: Tonya Mosley
Guest: Mitch Albom
Main Focus: Exploring Albom’s new novel, Twice, the impact of Tuesdays with Morrie, and Albom’s lifelong themes of love, loss, second chances, and philanthropy.

Episode Overview

In this reflective interview, Tonya Mosley speaks with Mitch Albom about his new novel Twice, a story about the power—and price—of second chances. The conversation traverses Albom’s formative years as a sports columnist, the seismic effect of Tuesdays with Morrie, and his philanthropic work, especially his deep engagement with an orphanage in Haiti. Albom and Mosley openly discuss the nature of regret, the irreplaceability of love, grief, and the urge to give meaning to one's life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Twice: The Allure and Limits of Second Chances

• Premise of the Novel: Protagonist Alfie can revisit any moment in his life, but can neither change matters of the heart nor fate/death.
• Why this Story?
  • “When you're younger, if you want to try something different, you do it…as people get older…the concrete settles a little bit more, and it's harder to just switch out. And so those...start to turn into regrets…” (03:00, Albom)
  • Albom wanted to explore what happens if you get “one more crack at it” and whether the second chance brings real improvement or new complications.
• Ironclad Rules of Alfie’s Ability:
  • You can't make someone love you again.
  • You can't stop death when it’s ‘their time.’
• Choosing These Limits:
  • “Mortality...that was easy, because you can't change mortality..." (04:42, Albom)
  • The rules about love: “It's not the last shot of a basketball game, you don't go back and just change the play…Love starts with the ignition, but you have to keep it going…You could no more go back and start all over again and get that same thing back than you could take water that had run downstream from a river and say, let's put it back upstream.” (06:47, Albom)
• Regret and Learning:
  • “If you kept getting second chances, you wouldn't learn a damn thing. And, you know, really, even if you get one, sometimes you don't learn anything.” (09:48, quoting the character Alfie’s grandmother)

2. Personal Roots and Universal Themes

• Autobiographical Resonance:
  • Albom’s need to rewrite a childhood regret—his mother dying while he was in-flight—deeply influenced the novel’s first chapter.
  • “My mother died while I was trying to fly...for all my wishing, I knew I couldn't make her come back.” (07:29, Albom)
• Growth and Acceptance:
  • “If you said to me, in doing them over, you have to surrender whatever you've learned…then I wouldn't trade it.” (09:20, Albom)

3. Tuesdays with Morrie: A Life Pivot

• Career Changer:
  • The chance reconnection with his dying professor, Maury Schwartz, redirected Albom’s “ambitious animal” path from sports journalism to spiritual inquiry and empathy.
  • “If my life were a graph, that would be the...point where you put the pencil in and you start drawing the line the other direction, because it was a huge pivot for me.” (11:45, Albom)
• Immediate Impact:
  • “Here he is on television telling an interviewer that he's about to die...When I saw him in person…it was so moving...he was 10 times happier with his life than you are. And something's wrong with that picture.” (13:14, Albom)
• Changing Public Perception:
  • “…People would come up to me with a different sort of tone. They would say, ‘You're Mitch Albom, right?’ …‘My mother died of cancer, and the last thing we did was read Tuesdays with Morrie together. Can I talk to you about her?’ …I began to become a listener.” (15:16, Albom)

4. Writing about Grief and Critique

• On Emotional Storytelling:
  • Some critics called Albom’s work “feel-good fairytale fluff” or “emotionally manipulative.”
  • Albom’s view: “I think it's kind of cynical to look at something that moves people and say, oh, you're just manipulating them...I wouldn't know how. And in fact, what's funny is Tuesdays with Morrie...I had one goal...don't overdo it.” (17:01, Albom)
  • Kept the book succinct and simple: “…when I turned the book in, it was supposed to be 300 pages...it was only going to be like 175 pages. And I said, ‘Well, that's all I got.’” (18:35, Albom)

5. Sports Writing, Empathy, and Storytelling

• Sports as Metaphor:
  • Albom never intended to specialize in sports, but saw it as “a great tapestry to talk about human emotion…there’s always a winner, a loser, the agony of trying…”
  • Example: The 1992 Derek Redmond Olympic story, where a father runs onto the track to help his injured son finish the race:

    “He said, well, I taught him how to run when he was a little boy...And that's what I did again.” (24:38, Albom)

• Detroit Context:
  • Writing during Detroit’s tough years made him “feel...how we sort of felt about our teams…and the shock” both of triumph and hardship.
  • Reflecting the full reality: “I would write a series every winter called Dreams Deferred…about athletes who were cut short or had their dreams cut short because of something that happened in our city…” (28:05, Albom)

6. Philanthropy and Haiti

• Fifteen Years in Haiti:
  • Albom was drawn to Haiti post-2010 earthquake, rebuilding an orphanage, and fell in love with the children’s spirit and joy.

    “When I went back, I started writing stories about it, and I gathered up a group of guys in Detroit…we built the first toilets, the first showers, the first kitchen, the first school eventually.” (32:10, Albom)

• Personal Commitment:
  • “I've been going there for, coming on 16 years in January, and we've had over 100 kids come through...Life in Haiti at the orphanage is brutal...Our kids haven't been outside of the orphanage in over four years. They have not set foot outside. Imagine that. It's not safe.” (34:43, Albom)
  • Deeply moved by the children’s resilience: “You just look at these children and your heart is open...It’s a gift to be able to take care of children.” (39:11, Albom)
• Loss and Parenting:
  • Albom’s book Finding Chika details adopting a Haitian orphan with a terminal illness: “We got these two amazing years in our 50s to be parents of this beautiful...kid...And when I try to look at our kids now that way...it’s a gift to take care of children.” (40:29, Albom)

7. Aging, Legacy, and Lasting Influence

• Considering Mortality and Influence:
  • “I'm a lot closer to Maury's age now than my age when that all happened. And I am trying to leave a legacy of the people that I touch...and I'd be very content with that.” (43:14, Albom)
• Personal Impact:
  • In a poignant closing moment, Mosley reveals Albom’s profound influence on her own career and childhood, describing learning to write by mimicking his columns.

    “You gave me a vision for what my future could be.” (45:01, Mosley)

  • Albom, touched:

    “You are the answer to that question. You’re a ripple from my stone that you’ll create ripples of your own and affect other people...So what a gift this has been to me.” (45:32, Albom)

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “You can't make someone love you twice. …you don't get to take that love with you. …It's not just the first blade of grass. It's the whole lawn that you have to do all over again.”
  — Mitch Albom (06:57)
• “If you kept getting second chances, you wouldn't learn a damn thing. And, you know, really, even if you get one, sometimes you don't learn anything.”
  — Mitch Albom, quoting Alfie’s grandmother (09:48)
• “If my life were a graph, that [meeting Maury again] would be the...the point where you put the pencil in and you start drawing the line the other direction, because it was a huge pivot for me.”
  — Mitch Albom (11:43)
• On being called manipulative: “I think it's kind of cynical to look at something that moves people and say, oh, you're just manipulating them.”
  — Mitch Albom (17:01)
• Derek Redmond’s story: “I taught him how to run when he was a little boy. I'm getting choked up telling this story. …They don't remember his name…But they remember that a father found his son and helped him in his time of need.”
  — Mitch Albom (24:49)
• “Our kids haven't been outside of the orphanage in over four years. …Imagine that. It's not safe.”
  — Mitch Albom (35:24)
• “It's a gift to take care of children.”
  — Mitch Albom (40:37)
• “If I can somehow influence people positively, get them to think…Then I've created a little ripple in the pond and I'd be very content with that.”
  — Mitch Albom (43:16)
• “You are the answer to that question. You’re a ripple from my stone that you’ll create ripples of your own and affect other people. …So what a gift this has been to me.”
  — Mitch Albom to Tonya Mosley (45:32)

Important Timestamps

• 00:16: Introduction and context for Twice
• 02:08: Albom explains the inspiration behind the book’s darker exploration of second chances
• 04:22: Discussing mortality and love as “unchangeable forces”
• 09:48: The limits and lessons of repeated second chances
• 11:43: How meeting Maury Schwartz changed Albom’s life and career direction
• 14:59: Realizing Tuesdays with Morrie’s impact on readers
• 17:01: Albom addresses criticism of his “emotional” writing
• 24:38: Retelling the Derek Redmond Olympics story
• 28:05: Writing about Detroit’s pain and resilience
• 31:50: The origins and realities of Albom’s orphanage work in Haiti
• 39:11: On the emotional toll and gift of caring for children
• 43:14: Reflections on approaching Maury’s age and leaving a legacy
• 45:01–46:11: Mosley shares her personal connection; Albom’s moving response

Tone & Language

• The conversation is intimate, reflective, and candid, with warmth and mutual respect. Both Albom and Mosley use accessible language and storytelling to explore profound, universal themes.

This episode offers a heartfelt exploration of the cost and gift of second chances, the irreplaceable nature of love, and the ripple effect one life can have on others—punctuated by moving personal anecdotes from both Albom’s writing career and his life of service.