A Million Little Pieces
Book by James FreyWikipedia
13
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
7
PODCASTS
Search complete. 13 mentions across 7 episodes found for "A Million Little Pieces".
Sep 8, 2026
KaiHOST
He claimed he had a PhD in various teaching positions at university that had no record of him.
KaiHOST
The exposure occurred during a period of heightened scrutiny for the publishing industry because this was shortly after the scandal involving A Million Little Pieces.
KaiHOST
The James Frey book.
KaiHOST
That was the one that got onto the Oprah's Book of the Month Club.
Vinay PrasadHOST
And then finally he was punished, but he picked himself back up and he threw himself in whatever his new company is and he's making some money.
Vinay PrasadHOST
You remember James Frey? I don't, who is that? In like 2004, Oprah was like, we're having a Oprah book club and it was called- A million little pieces.
Zubin DamaniaHOST
Yeah, a million little pieces.
Zubin DamaniaHOST
It turns out he plagiarized or made it up or something.
Vinay PrasadHOST
Yeah, so I was like, so this could have been the Jason Arday story.
Vinay PrasadHOST
He's richer than you.
Zubin DamaniaHOST
That's easy to do.
Vinay PrasadHOST
And you didn't even have a million little pieces, but apparently his story had like, you know, but I guess my point is that- I had a million
speaker_3HOST
And then there is perhaps the most jarring and fascinating sidebar of all.
speaker_3HOST
It notes that James Frey's A Million Little Pieces has been named one of the best books of the 21st century by Goodreads.
speaker_3HOST
Now, for anyone who doesn't remember, the article specifically provides the context.
speaker_3HOST
This is despite the fact that it was a highly controversial 2003 memoir.
BeccaGUEST
Very into fantasy.
BeccaGUEST
I took a turn getting into high school and started reading things like A Million Little Pieces by James Fray, which I know is incredibly controversial.
BeccaGUEST
There was a lot of stuff around that.
BeccaGUEST
I haven't read it.
ScottHOST
... describing it just now, I was wrong.
ScottHOST
So I was mixing it up with the story that, uh, the real life story that I remember is about a different guy named James Frey, who wrote a book called A Million Little Pieces.
GraceHOST
Yes, 'cause he wrote some other stuff.
GraceHOST
Um-
Josh SaakGUEST
I always get this one mixed up.
Josh SaakGUEST
Is it like a million little pieces? I
Jen JazwinskiGUEST
don't
Josh SaakGUEST
know.
Josh SaakGUEST
Is it something like that?
Jen JazwinskiGUEST
It is.
Jen JazwinskiGUEST
It is something like that, but I cannot remember if it's a million little pieces or a million little things.
Josh SaakGUEST
I feel like pieces is part of it.
Vinay PrasadHOST
And then the next point I'd make, completely separate from all this, is that had Jason Arday not tragically decided to take his own life, he actually probably could have been super successful.
Vinay PrasadHOST
You know, when I was growing up, there was this writer named James Frey, and he wrote a memoir called, what, A Million Little Pieces, and it was about his road to recovery, and it was full of what ultimately turned out to be false things.
Vinay PrasadHOST
And he was also elevated, just like Cambridge elevated this guy, Oprah elevated James Frey.
Vinay PrasadHOST
And if Oprah hadn't picked his book, nobody would care twice about it.