Charlie Berens

Charlie Berens turns his Midwestern background into comedy across sketches, live performance, podcasts, music, and writing. A former journalist and Emmy winner, he is best known for creating the Manitowoc Minute, whose Wisconsin voice and regional observations also shape The Midwest Survival Guide. William Morrow published the illustrated humor book in 2021. Organized as a tour through language, people, driving, college life, food, customs, and the region's famously extended goodbyes, it mixes personal stories with quizzes, charts, photographs, and practical jokes about everyday habits. The result is less a conventional travel manual than a comic portrait of belonging, built for both lifelong Midwesterners and readers trying to understand them. Berens's official biography identifies the book as his first New York Times bestseller and places it within a broader body of work grounded in Midwestern culture while aimed at a national audience.