Happy To Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser

What Fresh Hell podcast host Wilson (When Did I Get Like This??) conversationally narrates her latest memoiristic essay collection, describing her need to please everyone around her, sometimes to her detriment. In elementary school, Wilson avoided raising her hand out of fear of being labeled a brainiac. However, she became embarrassed when her teacher called her out because she knew the answers but kept them to herself. Then, as a personal assistant for a seasoned Broadway actress, Wilson had to juggle her own auditions and rising status with keeping her employer content. Later, when she got a role on a network television show, she kept second-guessing herself as producers frequently changed her character. For most of the audiobook, Wilson speaks with an upbeat tempo, even as she learns lessons the hard way. She becomes more somber when reflecting on when her family caught COVID at the beginning of the pandemic. She laments how, as the most prepared one, even she wasn’t ready for the disease’s impact and the long-term effects it has had on her daughter.