This week we discuss Rich Girl with our local Rich GUY Douglas Russell! If you’ve ever wondered about the debutant scene in St. Louis and beyond, this episode is for you!
Like a narrator in a Jane Austen novel, Doug Russell grew up the “poor cousin” in a family whose social influence and wealth have spanned three continents, 9 decades, three contested wills, and has affected the St. Louis debutante season, the development of Kodachrome color photography, the commercialization of Root Beer, Communism in Laos, the emergence of Vietnamese war babies, the making of Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon, the Home Shopping Network, and four closed sessions Congressional Hearings. The Prodigal Son of a Prodigal Son of a Prodigal Son, Doug’s path has bounced him from the American Mississippi delta, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Bangkok, Thailand, Los Angeles, and Austin, TX, but his heart was always in San Francisco, CA, where he now works as a Harm Reduction Peer Counselor for the Post Overdose Response Team with SFDPH, and promulgates joy as Sister Celine Dionysus in the San Francisco order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. His special skills include writing the perfect thank you notes, knowing which fork to use, pouring the ideal Sazerac, the filmographies of Buster Keaton and Douglas Siri, and negotiating threesomes and cocaine. He thanks Agatha Christie novels, methamphetamines, disassociation, and Vipassana meditation for getting him to where he is today.
