The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author, comedian, and podcaster Jamie Loftus to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on the paperback release of her new book, Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs. Loftus will be in conversation with NYT bestselling author Jo Piazza.

This is a ticketed event. Every ticket includes a signed copy of the book and one general admission seat. Doors will open at 6:00pm for general admission ticket holders, and 6:45 for standing room only. The event will begin at 7:00pm. Book signing to follow presentation. Seating is general admission; first come, first served.

This event will be live-streamed. Every live-stream ticket includes one signed copy of Raw Dog and the live-stream link. The link will be sent at least 24 hours before the event begins. Please check your SPAM folder if you do not receive the link in time. The books will be shipped via USPS Priority. U.S. addresses only. Please include your shipping address at checkout.

About the Book:

Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.

Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog.

Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelogue documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today. From avocado and spice in the West to ass-shattering chili in the East to an entire salad on a slice of meat in Chicago, Loftus, her pets, and her ex eat their way across the country during the strange summer of 2021. It’s a brief window into the year between waves of a plague that the American government has the resources to temper, but not the interest.

So grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your local 7-Eleven.

About the Authors:

Jamie Loftus is a comedian, Emmy-nominated TV writer, and podcaster. She’s worked as a staff writer on Teenage Euthanasia, Robot Chicken, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, and wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central. She writes and hosts popular limited-run podcasts—“My Year In Mensa” (2019), “Lolita Podcast” (2020), “Aack Cast” (2021), and “Ghost Church” (2022)—and cohosts, with screenwriter Caitlin Durante, a podcast on the How Stuff Works Network called “the Bechdel Cast.” She has her baby teeth bronzed and loaded into a slingshot.

Jo Piazza is the international bestselling author of twelve books, including the Good Morning America Book Club pick We Are Not Like Them with Christine Pride. She’s also the host of the critically acclaimed Under the Influence podcast. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and three feral children.