At twelve, David F. Hyatt learned that the father he had believed dead for a decade had only just died. The revelation shattered the family story he had grown up believing—and ignited a lifelong determination to question what he was told.

A year later, he fashioned a microphone from a piece of paper and used it to host imaginary radio shows from his family’s garage. The Paper Microphone follows that boy from those make-believe broadcasts to a career reporting from the White House and across Europe, Africa, and Asia. By turns funny, poignant, and deeply personal, it is a memoir about family secrets, love and loss, and finding the courage to trust your own voice.