What surprising job have you had in the past?

I was a body parts model. Among my most memorable commercials were four for Playtex bras and two for Playtex panties. I was also the Fruit of the Loom pantyhose girl with only my legs sticking out of the top of a giant apple. I ended up doing 72 commercials, including a Wisk ad shot in Venice, Italy, with a gondolier singing “Ring around the coll-la-la.”

What would you want to be doing if not your current profession?

A doctor of integrative medicine. Most of the 10 books I’ve written have to do with looking at health as a total picture and using the best points of view from traditional and alternative medicine.

What do you hate that everyone else loves?

Dairy products. I gave up dairy on August 15, 1979. It was a Wednesday.

What do you love that everyone else hates?

Organizing. It centers me in the most productive ways.

What was the last book you finished?

Graydon Carter, When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines.

What was the last book you recommended to a friend?

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne. He’s an insanely talented actor and writer with a fascinating career. I did the film Johnny Dangerously with Griffin during the trial of his sister’s murderer.

What UChicago course book left the biggest impression on you?

I don’t know the name of it, but the economics textbook we used freshman year. It was a course I never would have taken had it not been part of the Core curriculum, but I remember its terms and theories to this day.

What person, alive or dead, would you want to write your life story?

I’ve already written mine, so I guess it’s me, but if Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to make it a musical, I’m all in.

What’s your least useful talent?

I can put my fist in my mouth. David Letterman made me do it once.

Tell us the best piece of advice you’ve received—or the worst.

Always have a spare—my mother’s advice for everything, including lipstick, sneakers, and boyfriends. You can decide for yourself whether it was the best or the worst.

What advice would you give to a brand-new Maroon?

The University of Chicago is one of a kind. You’ve chosen this school because you are too. You will celebrate your individuality for the rest of your life, because UChicago teaches you how to own it.

What did you learn at UChicago that still benefits you today?

My third and final husband is someone I met freshman year. Every day we talk about the benefits of having gone to UChicago, whether it’s our love of learning, our panoramic view of life, or our ability to argue.

What’s your most vivid UChicago memory?

This question is torturous for someone who has my memory. I mean, I remember every class, every teacher, every boyfriend, every coat, so many things. Even when Melba Phillips told me I was too flamboyant for a College student, I knew this was a great place to be.