Louis Uber's guest appearances

Louis Uber

St. Louis on the Air

Kamala Harris

Donald Trump

Ashton Applewhite

Tennessee Williams

Zadie Smith

Michael McDonald

Bernie Sanders

Robert Campbell

Daniel Hill

William Morris

Nikki Glaser

Jimmy Carter

Mo Rocca

Ken Bone

David Cross

OwlTail

Donald Bouton started moonlighting as an Uber driver almost five years ago. That’s not so unusual. A lot of St. Louisans took up ride-sharing as a second job — or even a first one — after it debuted in St. Louis in 2015. It’s the project Bouton launched while he was driving that’s unusual. Beginning in April 2016, he began keeping pen and paper in the backseat of his car. He asked his passengers to share what inspired them and helped them pull through adversity. And what he found was a serious dose of inspiration — and, ultimately, a book. “Backseat Inklings: Driving Positivity into the World, One Rider at a Time” is Bouton’s self-published account of his guests’ responses, unexpurgated and in their own handwriting. Bouton talks about the project in this conversation with host Sarah Fenske.

St. Louis Uber Driver Shares Stories of How His Riders Got Through Tough Times