Faith Salie

Faith Salie is a comedian, journalist, actor, and radio and television host whose work combines cultural observation with self-scrutiny. Approval Junkie, published by Crown in 2016, collects essays about her long pursuit of praise in school, performance, relationships, work, and family life. The book moves between comic set pieces and more vulnerable accounts of divorce, grief, body image, and motherhood, asking when ambition becomes dependence on other people's judgment. Salie's experience as a panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me! and a contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning gives the prose a performer's attention to timing and voice. She studied at Harvard and Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then worked across acting, interviewing, public radio, television, and live storytelling. Approval Junkie later became an Off-Broadway solo show, extending the memoir's episodes into performance. The collection is therefore central to Salie's career, linking her broadcast humor, personal essays, and stage work through one recurring question about validation.