Shows
LongformEpisode 584: Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates is an author and journalist. His next book is The Message.“I don’t think we have the luxury as journalists of avoiding things because people might say bad things about us. I don’t even think we have the luxury of avoiding things because we might get fired. I don’t think we have the luxury of avoiding them because somebody might cancel some sort of public speech that we have. I then have to ask you, what are you in it for? Like, why did you come here? Did you come here just to make a...
2024-06-1950 minLongformEpisode 583: Jay Caspian KangJay Caspian Kang is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a co-host of Time to Say Goodbye.“At some point, you have to kick it out the door, and it’s never finished to the degree that you would finish a magazine piece. But it, in some ways, is more interesting because it is produced in a short amount of time, and it’s read as something that is not supposed to be complete. It’s just meant to provoke or to provide thought or whatever, to provide some sort of context on a certain issue or no...
2024-06-1254 minLongformRerun: #429 Vinson Cunningham (Feb 2021)Vinson Cunningham is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His novel, published in March 2024, is Great Expectations.“I think the job is just paying a bunch of attention. If you're a person like me, where thoughts and worries are intruding on your consciousness all the time, it is a great relief to have something to just over-describe and over-pay-attention to—and kind of just give all of your latent, usually anxious attention to this one thing. That, to me, is a great joy.”Show notes:
@vcunningham
vinson.nyc
Cunningham on Longform
Cunningham's New Yorker a...
2024-04-1053 minLongformEpisode 544: Casey Newton and Kevin RooseCasey Newton writes the Platformer newsletter. Kevin Roose is a technology columnist for The New York Times. Together they co-host the podcast Hard Fork.CN: “People actually like to be a little bit confused. They like listening to things where people are talking about things they don’t quite understand, which was very counterintuitive to me. I think a lot of editor-types would scoff at, but I’ve come around.”KR: “We can revisit subjects and we do. We can change our minds. Print pieces feel so permanent, they feel so definitive. Podcasts, we can just sort of s...
2023-08-0259 minLongformRerun: #531 David Grann (Apr 2023)David Grann is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His latest book is The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.“I became very haunted by the stories that [nations] don't tell. Nations and empires preserve their powers not only by the stories they tell, but also by the stories they leave out. … Early in my career, if I came across the silences in a story, I might not have highlighted them, because I thought, Well, there's nothing to tell there. And now I try to let the silences speak.”Show notes:
@DavidGrann...
2023-07-051h 08LongformEpisode 531: David GrannDavid Grann is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.“I became very haunted by the stories that [nations] don't tell. Nations and empires preserve their powers not only by the stories they tell, but also by the stories they leave out. … Early in my career, if I came across the silences in a story, I might not have highlighted them, because I thought, Well, there's nothing to tell there. And now I try to let the silences speak.”Show notes:
@DavidGrann...
2023-04-191h 08LongformEpisode 525: Sam FragosoSam Fragoso is a writer, filmmaker, and the host of the podcast Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso.“We have an hour together. We may not have another. We're here for a brief moment and then, you know, we die. And I want this thing to be as good as it can be. If if it's anything less than that, I'm just not interested. … And that, to me, is why you keep doing it: because that feeling when you really feel like you've put someone's life on the record in a way that is beautiful and painful and idios...
2023-03-081h 03LongformEpisode 511: Taffy Brodesser-AknerTaffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer at the New York Times and the creator of the new Hulu television series Fleishman Is in Trouble, based on her bestselling novel.“I took the cast out to dinner … And the way they began talking to each other, which was very intimate, was like a punch in the stomach. Because I had always thought that I got people to open up to me [in celebrity profiles]. And I was like, Oh, no, I got them to answer questions differently than maybe they had before. … And that was a little devastating to me.”
2022-11-0952 minLongformEpisode 495: Evan RatliffEvan Ratliff, a co-host of the Longform Podcast, is host of the new podcast Persona: The French Deception.“One of these big scams is like a story. And in the story, what they're doing is they're manipulating you to be a participant in the story, and they're getting you so hooked that you will not just do anything they say, but you will invest yourself in bringing the story to its conclusion. And like, isn't that what you're doing if you're trying to get someone to listen to eight episodes, spend that much of their life listening to...
2022-07-2047 minLongformEpisode 461: Jay Caspian KangJay Caspian Kang is a contributor at New York Times Magazine. His new book is The Loneliest Americans.”I have a lot of thoughts and talk to people to make sure my thoughts are right, or change them because I think they're wrong. What more does one want out of an intellectual life? It's good work.”Show notes:
@jaycaspiankang
Kang on Longform
Kang on Longform Podcast (Apr 2013)
Kang on Longform Podcast (Aug 2017)
Kang’s New York Times Magazine newsletter
5:00 "The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the H...
2021-10-2047 min
LongformEpisode 447: Aaron LammerAaron Lammer is a co-host of the Longform Podcast and the host of the podcast Exit Scam: The Death and Afterlife of Gerald Cotten.“Something I got from a number of reporters that I’ve interviewed on the Longform Podcast is letting the story guide you, and ultimately that led me to an ambiguous ending. Early on, I was like, the pinnacle achievement is to solve this case. But ultimately, I felt like an ambiguous ending was the most honest to what I actually experienced in reporting it.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
00:30 Exit Scam Podcast
00...
2021-07-0758 min
LongformEpisode 443: Katherine EbanKatherine Eban is an investigative journalist and contributor to Vanity Fair. Her latest article is ”The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins.””You can't make a correction unless you know why something happened. So imagine—if this is a lab leak—the earth shattering consequences for virology. For the science community, for how research is done, for how research is regulated. Or if it is a zoonotic origin, we have to know how our human incursion into wild spaces could be unleashing these viruses. Because COVID-19 is one thing, but we're going to be looking at COVID-25 and C...
2021-06-0950 min
LongformEpisode 433: Elon GreenElon Green is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Awl, New York, and other publications. His new book is Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York.“The murders and the murderer should not be the driver. It should simply be the catalyst for the other story. And the other story is the victims. And the other story is the political backdrop and the environment that they are walking through.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
@elongreen
elongreen.com
Green on Longform
00:00 Last Call: A Tru...
2021-03-1743 min
LongformEpisode 429: Vinson CunninghamVinson Cunningham is a staff writer for The New Yorker.“I think the job is just paying a bunch of attention. If you're a person like me, where thoughts and worries are intruding on your consciousness all the time, it is a great relief to have something to just over-describe and over-pay-attention to—and kind of just give all of your latent, usually anxious attention to this one thing. That, to me, is a great joy.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
@vcunningham
vinson.nyc
Cunningham on Longform
Cunningham's New Yorker archive
04:00 "’The Suit’ at BAM" (Brooklyn Paper •...
2021-02-1754 min
LongformEpisode 426: Mirin FaderMirin Fader is a staff writer for The Ringer.
“Nobody ever makes it makes it, right? You make it, and every day, you have to keep making it. That’s how I feel. Would I be the reporter I am if I wasn’t like that? I’m afraid to see what happens if I’m not. I’m afraid what type of reporter or writer I’ll be if I take my foot off the gas.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
@MirinFader
mirinfader.com
Fader on Longform
03:00 Fader's Orange County Register archive
04:00 Lee Jenkins’ Sports Illustrated...
2021-01-271h 00
LongformEpisode 424: Kenneth R. RosenKenneth R. Rosen has written for The New York Times, Wired, The New Yorker, and many other publications. His new book is Troubled: The Failed Promise of America's Behavioral Treatment Programs.
“When I report, I keep two journals. … I keep my reporting notebook, which is sort of an almanac of dates, times, names, quotes, phone numbers. And then I have my personal notebook, which has all my fears and anxieties. And it invariably makes its way into the reporting … which is sort of an amalgamation of those two journals, of those two experiences, the internal and the external.”
Thanks to Mailchim...
2021-01-1350 min
LongformEpisode 408: Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates is an author and journalist. He served as guest editor for the September issue of Vanity Fair, titled "The Great Fire."“There’s this pressure to say something. Say something. The world’s burning, say something. But I try to stay where I’ve been or where I’ve tried to be in my career. ... Good things take time. You gotta let things cook. You can’t insta-bake something like this.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
ta-nehisicoates.com
Coates on Longform
Longform Podcast #7: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Longform Podcast #97: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Longform Podcast #168: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Longform Podcast #2...
2020-09-0351 min
LongformEpisode 405: Jason ParhamJason Parham is a senior writer at Wired.“I think of myself some days as a critic. Some days I think of myself as a journalist. But I essentially mostly think of myself as an essayist, somebody who is trying to bridge those two traditions. My approach to writing now is kind of simple…I’m always writing about things I like and want to hear about.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
@nonlinearnotes
jasonparham.com
00:45 "TikTok and the Evolution of Digital Blackface" (Wired • Aug 2020)
1:00 Spook
1:45 Evan (@henrylittleboots) on TikTok
18:30 "The Reality of Dating White Women When You're Black" ...
2020-08-1256 min
LongformEpisode 403: Seyward DarbySeyward Darby is the editor-in-chief of The Atavist Magazine and the author of Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism.“The most enlightening thing I learned in working on this book ultimately was that when we think of hate we think of animosity. Hate means I do not like someone or I do not like something. I deplore it. I despise it. But hate as a movement is actually a lot more like any social movement where it’s providing something to its supporters, members, acolytes that they were seeking but didn’t necessarily know where the...
2020-07-291h 09
LongformEpisode 391: Cheryl StrayedCheryl Strayed is the author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. Her new podcast is Sugar Calling.
“I think that we have this limited idea of what ambition is. All through my twenties, you wouldn’t necessarily have looked at me and been like, ‘she’s ambitious.’ I mean, I was working as a waitress. I was goofing around and doing all kinds of things. But I was always writing. And I was always really sure and clear and serious about my writing. My ambition was this secret thing within me that I dedicated myself to.”
Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers...
2020-05-0652 min
LongformEpisode 385: Charlie WarzelCharlie Warzel is a writer-at-large for The New York Times opinion page.
“I’m relying on my morals more than I normally do, but less on my gut. The stakes are just so high.”
Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@cwarzel
Warzel's archive at The New York Times
Longform Podcast #291: Charlie Warzel
Warzel on Longform
[05:08] "Please, Don’t Go Out to Brunch Today" (New York Times • March 2020)
[10:52] "Please, Listen to Experts About the Coronavirus. Then Step Up." (New York Times • March 2020)
[29:57] "They Went off the Grid. They Came Back to Coronavirus." (New York Times • March 2020) Lear...
2020-03-2545 min
LongformEpisode 384: Jon MooallemJon Mooallem is a journalist, author, and host of The Walking Podcast. His latest book is This is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, A Voice That Held It Together.
“There is this impulse that we have, this very clearly documented impulse that people everywhere have, to help. It sounds tacky, but when the bottom drops out, when ordinary life is overturned and there’s this upheaval or this disruption—if it’s a natural disaster or even something like this, that there’s ... in the book I call it a ‘civic immune response.’ People do spontaneously help each other, they wo...
2020-03-181h 03
LongformEpisode 374: Cord JeffersonCord Jefferson is a journalist turned television writer whose credits include Succession, The Good Place, and Watchmen.
“I’m a fearful person. I’m afraid of a lot of things. I’m afraid of how people perceive me, I’m afraid of hurting myself, I’m afraid of heights. I’m afraid of a lot. Bravery does not come naturally to me. But the moments when I feel like I’ve done the best in my life and been the proudest of myself are when I’ve overcome that fear to do something that scares me.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and Squares...
2020-01-081h 13
LongformEpisode 373: Mina KimesMina Kimes is a senior writer at ESPN and the host of the podcast ESPN Daily.
“What I’ve found, and this is something I did not know would be the case going into it, is that sports stories—and, at the risk of sounding a bit self-important, maybe someone like me writing sports stories or talking about it in particular—can have an impact in other ways that have revealed themselves to me over time.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and Native Deodorant for sponsoring this week's episode.
@minakimes
minakimes.tumblr.com
Kimes on Longform
Longform Podcast #12: Mina Kimes
ESPN Daily...
2019-12-181h 01
LongformEpisode 370: James VeriniJames Verini is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. His new book is They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate.
“War is mostly down time. War is mostly waiting around for something to happen.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and "Couples Therapy" for sponsoring this week's episode.
jamesverini.com
Verini's archive on Longform
Longform Podcast #147: James Verini
[4:19] They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate (W.W. Norton • 2019)
[12:12] “The Prosecutor and the President” (The New York Times Magazine • 2016)
[37:11] Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost...
2019-11-2753 min
LongformEpisode 368: Leslie JamisonLeslie Jamison is the author of The Empathy Exams, The Recovering, and the novel The Gin Closet. Her new essay collection is Make It Scream, Make It Burn.
“My writing is always basically asking: what does it feel like to be alive, and how do we ever try to understand what it feels like for anybody else to be alive? In that sense, on the intellectual level, I’m always going to keep chasing the same unanswerable things.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, Mythology for sponsoring this week's episode.
Apply to the University of Pittsburgh's Writing Program
@lsjamison
lesliejamison.com
Jamiso...
2019-11-1359 min
LongformEpisode 362: Andrew MarantzAndrew Marantz is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His new book is Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation.
“Some nonfiction can be reduced to a bulletpoint primer, but a good book is a good book. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, it should create a feeling, it should create a world, it should be a feeling that you want to live in and that tilts the way you see things. Isn’t that the point?”
Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@andrewmarantz
andrewmarantz.com
Marantz on Longform
[01:34] Antisocial (Random H...
2019-10-021h 06
LongformEpisode 360: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Chris JacksonTa-Nehisi Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me. His new novel is The Water Dancer. Chris Jackson is Coates's editor, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of One World.
“I don’t think an essay works unless I can pin a story to it. You don’t want people to just say, ‘Oh that was a cool argument.’ You want people to say, ‘I could not stop thinking about this.’ You want them to nudge their wives and husbands and say, ‘You have to read this.’ You want them to be bothere...
2019-09-181h 03
LongformEpisode 359: Paul ToughPaul Tough is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the author of The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us.
“The nice thing about a book as opposed to a magazine article is that it’s less formulaic. As a writer, it gives you more freedom — you’re trying to create an emotional mood where ideas have a place to sit in a person’s brain. And when people are moved by a book, it’s not by being told, ‘Here’s the problem, here’s the answer, now go do it.’ It’s by having your visio...
2019-09-111h 04
LongformEpisode 358: Mike IsaacMike Issac covers Silicon Valley for The New York Times. He is the author of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.
“People try to use journalists all the time. Your job as a journalist is to figure out who’s using you, why they’re using you, and whether you can do something legitimately without playing into one side or another.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Pitt Writers, and Wolverine Podcast for sponsoring this week's episode.
@MikeIsaac
Isaac on Longform
[00:14] Wolverine Podcast
[02:09] Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (W. W. Norton & Company • 2019)
[02:20] Issac’s New York Times archive
[03:57] Issac’s Paste Magazine archive
[06:15...
2019-09-0454 min
LongformEpisode 354: Jia TolentinoJia Tolentino is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion.
“I feel a lot of useful guilt solidifying my own advantages at a time when the ground people stand on is being ripped away. And I feel a lot of emotional anxiety about the systems that connect us - about the things that make my life more convenient and make other people’s lives worse. It’s the reality of knowing that ten years from now, when there are millions of more climate refugees, that you’ll be okay. It...
2019-08-071h 12
LongformEpisode 353: Baxter HolmesBaxter Holmes is a senior writer for ESPN. He won the James Beard Award for his 2017 article, “The NBA's Secret Addiction.”
“If there’s anything I’m really fighting for it’s people’s memory. I love the notion of trying to write a story that sticks with people. And that requires really compelling characters. It requires in-depth reporting — you have to take people on a journey. It needs to be so rich and something they didn’t know. I look for a story that I can tell well enough that it will hold up, that it will earn someone’s memory.”
Thanks to...
2019-07-311h 04
LongformEpisode 351: Josh LevinJosh Levin is the national editor at Slate. He is the host of the podcast Hang Up and Listen and the author of The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth.
“I think it’s a strength to make a thing, one that people might have thought was familiar, feel strange. And reminding people —in general, in life—that you don’t really know as much as you think you know. I think that carries over into any kind of storytelling.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Squarespace, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@josh_levin
Levin on Longform
[01:48] The Queen: The F...
2019-07-1750 min
LongformEpisode 350: Taffy Brodesser-AknerTaffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer at the New York Times and the author of Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel.
“As a profile writer, the skill I have is getting in the room and staying in the room until someone is like, ‘Why is this bitch still in the room? Get her out of there?’ It’s a journalistic skill that is not a fluffy skill. There are people who are always actively trying to prevent your story, prevent you from seeing it, from seeing the things that would be good to see. There’s a lot of convincing, comforting...
2019-07-101h 02
LongformEpisode 348: David EpsteinDavid Epstein has reported for ProPublica, Sports Illustrated, and This American Life. His new book is Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
“You can’t just introspect or take a personality quiz and know what you’re good at or interested in. You actually have to try stuff and then reflect on it. That’s how you learn about yourself—otherwise, your insight into yourself is constrained by your roster of experiences.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Time Sensitive, Read This Summer, The TED Interview, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@DavidEpstein
davidepstein.com
Epstein on Longform
[02:20] Epstein’s Sports Illus...
2019-06-1953 min
LongformEpisode 340: Linda VillarosaLinda Villarosa directs the journalism program at the City College of New York and is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. Her article "Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" was one of Longform's Top Ten of 2018. She is at work on a new book, Under the Skin: Race, Inequality and the Health of a Nation, due out in 2020.
“I think at the beginning I was afraid to say it right out, so I think I was saying ‘racial bias’ or something like that. Then I stopped. ... I think how I learned about it...
2019-04-2454 min
LongformEpisode 337: Casey NewtonCasey Newton covers technology for The Verge and writes The Interface newsletter.
“I remember one time a Facebook employee told me when I wrote something critical and I said something like, ‘Yeah, I know that one was a little harder on you.’ I remember he said to me, ‘Please understand that this helps to make the case internally for changes we want to make.’ When this type of criticism get published when we know that this is the conversation, we can push for these kinds of changes on the inside. If you believe that these platforms are going to be around and...
2019-04-0357 min
LongformEpisode 336: Wesley MorrisWesley Morris is a critic at large for The New York Times, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, and the co-host of Still Processing.
“I think that the taking of extra time to be more thoughtful and less reactive is, to the extent that I have any wisdom to impart, that is it. Just wait a second. Because someone’s going to get there before you get there anyway.”
Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019)
@Wesley_Morris
Morris on Longform
Morris's New York Times archive
[1:55] Still Processing...
2019-03-2754 min
LongformSpecial Episode: Evan Ratliff, author of The MastermindEvan Ratliff, a co-host of the Longform Podcast, is the author of The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.
“We’re all less moral than we think we are, including myself. I’m interested in the justifications people provide for themselves to get deep into something that starts as one thing and ends up as a murderous criminal cartel. Paul Le Roux, sure—but also doctors and pharmacists. It’s interesting to think about where the pressures in our lives create moral ambiguity that we didn't think was there, and why we do things that we’ve said we'll never do. We look at s...
2019-03-251h 20
LongformEpisode 334: Patrick Radden KeefePatrick Radden Keefe is a New Yorker staff writer. His latest book is Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.
“What was strange for me was that it was before I was born, almost a half-century ago. I went to Belfast and asked people about it and you could see the fear on people’s faces. So this notion that this event that’s older than I am still felt so radioactive in the present day was challenging from a reporting point of view, but it also, at every step along the way, made me feel a...
2019-03-131h 03
LongformEpisode 330: Thomas MortonThomas Morton is a writer and former correspondent for HBO's _Vice News_. He was at Vice from 2004-2019 and is a major character in Jill Abramson's _Merchants of Truth_.
“You have to go with your gut and I feel like that’s one of the most essential qualities in doing anything of the nature of what we did. Of making documentaries or reporting news or current events, you really have to have a good sense of intuition for who you’re dealing with, what they’re telling you, what you’re telling them, how you’re behaving. It’s all human interact...
2019-02-131h 05
LongformEpisode 329: David GrannDavid Grann is a staff writer for the New Yorker. His new book is The White Darkness.
“I do think in life, and in reporting, that reckoning with failure is a part of the process. And reckoning with your own limitations. I think that’s probably the arc and change I have made as I get older. Just as O’Shea doesn’t get the squid, failure is such an integral part of life and what you make of it. Too often we’re always focused on the success side, and I don’t always think the successes teach us as much as t...
2019-02-061h 10
LongformEpisode 328: Tommy TomlinsonTommy Tomlinson, a former newspaper columnist, is the host of Southbound podcast. His new book is The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America.
“The thing that galvanized me was the death of my sister. I signed the contract November 2014, she died Christmas Eve of that year. She had been overweight just like me. She was older than me and died from complications, an infection that was directly connected to her weight. And that more than anything made me think if I don’t deal with this now, I’m not going to be...
2019-01-301h 00
LongformEpisode 327: Julie SnyderJulie Snyder, one of the first producers at This American Life, is the co-creator of Serial and S-Town. Serial Season 3 is out now.
“I am constantly second-guessing myself. I am full of regret and recrimination all the time. I don’t pride myself on it cause it probably goes too far, but in other ways I do feel like I am a person who is very flawed and I make mistakes and I try and learn from them. And I try to be very open to other people’s thoughts and input and everything like that. So to be that open t...
2019-01-231h 24
LongformEpisode 326: Doug Bock ClarkDoug Bock Clark has written for GQ, Wired, and The New Yorker. His new book is The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life.
“I think for me the answer has always been you just find the people. You just listen to their stories. I think we're all microcosms, right? We're all fractals of the bigger world. Whether it's my own life or your life or the Lamalerans or other people I've encountered reporting. I think one of the things I'm constantly aware of is how these sort of gr...
2019-01-1655 min
LongformEpisode 324: Malcolm GladwellMalcolm Gladwell is a New Yorker staff writer, the author The Tipping Point and Blink, and the host of Revisionist History. His new podcast is Broken Record.
“The loveliest thing is to interview someone who’s never been interviewed before. To sort of watch them in a totally novel experience. Particularly when you’re interviewing them about things they never thought were worthy of an interview. That’s a really lovely experience. It’s like watching a kid on a roller coaster for the first time. But a celebrity is a very different kind of experience. The bar for them is quite h...
2019-01-0249 min
LongformBonus Episode: Dan TaberskiDan Taberski is the host of Missing Richard Simmons and Surviving Y2K.
“Why would you walk into podcasting, where not a lot of rules have been written yet, why would walk into that space and be like, I'm just going to stick to the rules over here. It doesn't make any sense. ... Sourcing, respect for privacy — all these rules are here for a reason. And there's a line you shouldn't cross. But I don't see the point of not walking up to that line and looking over it. Because that is where interesting stuff is happening. ... To be able to ea...
2018-12-1452 min
LongformEpisode 321: Nicholas SchmidleNicholas Schmidle is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His latest article is "Virgin Galactic's Rocket Man."
“I think there’s a lot more pressure that I’ve put on myself to make sure that the next [article] is better than the last one. To make sure there are sourcing standards and expectations I have for myself now that I might not have had earlier. I’m putting even more priority on building long-term relationships in which I trust an individual. ... I feel like the pieces coming in are tighter in terms of sourcing, but story selection becomes a lot more...
2018-12-051h 01
LongformEpisode 310: Eli SaslowEli Saslow is a Pulitzer-winning feature writer for the Washington Post. His new book is Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist.
“If I'm writing about somebody once for 5,000 words in the Washington Post — someone who's addicted to drugs, say — I am choosing in the public eye where their story ends. Like, that's it. People aren't going to know any more. That's where I'm going to leave them being written about. And of course, that is inherently artificial — nothing ends, their life is continuing. This is just where the narrative ends. I recognize the weight in ways that...
2018-09-191h 05
LongformEpisode 309: Jeanne Marie LaskasJeanne Marie Laskas writes for GQ and the New York Times Magazine. Her new book is To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope.
“I hate saying this out loud, but it’s true: I’m really shy. Fundamentally, I'm 100% scared most of the time. I’m scared and wondering how I can not be noticed because I don’t know what to say and I’m shy. If you say I’m a good listener, that's why … I become more invisible so I’m more comfortable.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Techmeme Ride Home Podcast, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@jml...
2018-09-121h 03
LongformEpisode 305: Nathaniel RichNathaniel Rich is a novelist and a writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine. His most recent article is "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change."
“There’s a huge opportunity with climate change because we talk a lot about the political issue with it, the industry story and the scientific story, but we don’t talk about the human story. And I would say that not only is it a big human story, but it is the human story. ... With every step of the ladder that we’ve advanced, we’re borrowing from our future. I don’t think we’v...
2018-08-081h 05
LongformEpisode 304: Laura JuneLaura June is author of Now My Heart Is Full.
“Parenting wasn’t considered literary fodder for a long time. I think women in particular are raised not to complain. Which is not what I was doing. If you have to boil it down, it’s base emotion. Then you’re complaining about how hard it is. Or, the opposite end, you’re bragging. There’s no in between. Most of my writing is in between.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Read This Summer, Google Play, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@laura_june
June on Longform
[1:25] June on The Verge
[1:25] "...
2018-08-0156 min
LongformEpisode 303: Rukmini CallimachiRukmini Callimachi covers ISIS for The New York Times and is the host of Caliphate.
“My major takeaway that I have come away with in this work is go to the enemy. Talk to the enemy. I think that the way that Al Qaeda and ISIS is typically covered is by reporters who just speak to officials in Washington. ... That’s only one side of the story. And I have learned so much by seeking out their documents, reading their propaganda ... speaking to them themselves.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Read This Summer, Google Play, and Stitcher Premium for sponsoring this week's episod...
2018-07-251h 43
LongformEpisode 260: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Pulitzer-winning author of "A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah is an essayist. Her 2017 GQ piece “A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof” won the National Magazine Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
“I remember feeling like ‘you’re playing chess with evil, and you gotta win.’ Because this is the most terrible thing I’d ever seen. And I was so mad. I still get so mad. Words aren’t enough. I’m angry about it. I can’t do anything to Dylann Roof, physically, so this is what I could do.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Read This Summer, and Netflix for sponsoring this week's episode.
the-rachelkaadzighansa...
2018-07-0454 min
LongformEpisode 300: May JeongMay Jeong is a magazine writer and investigative reporter.
“I don’t have kids, I don’t have an expensive drug habit. Everything that I do right now at this moment in my life is to serve the story. That means that sometimes I’m not the best partner. I’m not the best friend. I’m a really terrible daughter probably. If my parents had a satisfaction survey, I don’t think I’d rank really high. I have friends who are buying houses and stuff. I’m very far away from that. What else have I sacrificed? I don’t know. Someti...
2018-06-2750 min
LongformEpisode 299: Helen RosnerHelen Rosner is a food correspondent at The New Yorker.
“I believe the things that are really important to me are structure over all and—forgive me, I’ve said this on other podcasts before—if I were going to get a tattoo this is what I would get a tattoo of is that it doesn’t matter what you say, it only matters what they hear. It’s my job to make sure the gulf between those two things is as narrow as possible and there’s as little ambiguity between what I say and what you hear. It’s never easy, bu...
2018-06-201h 18
LongformEpisode 297: Elif BatumanElif Batuman is a novelist and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her latest article is “Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry.”
“I hear novelists say things sometimes like the character does something they don’t expect. It’s like talking to people who have done ayahuasca or belong to some cult. That’s how I felt about it until extremely recently. All of these people have drunk some kind of Kool Aid where they’re like, ‘I’m in this trippy zone where characters are doing things.’ And I would think to myself, if they were men—Wow, this person has devised this really...
2018-06-061h 08
LongformEpisode 296: Leon NeyfakhLeon Neyfakh is a writer and the host of Slow Burn.
“We didn’t want to be coy about why we were doing the show. We wanted to be up front. We’re interested in this era because it seems like the last time in our nation’s history where things were this wild and the news was this rapid fire and the outcome was this uncertain. That was the main parallel we were thinking about when we started. It was only when we started learning the story and identified the turning points we kept running into these obvious parallels. We mostl...
2018-05-3057 min
LongformEpisode 295: Deborah Fallows and James FallowsJames Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, and Deborah Fallows, a linguist and writer, are the co-authors of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.
“The credo of reporting—you know, what you don’t know till you show it—that’s my 'this-I-believe.' That’s the reason I’ve stayed in this line of work for this many decades because there’s nothing more fascinating that you can do but to serially satisfy your curiosity about things. What’s it like on an aircraft carrier? What’s it like in a Chinese coalmine? What’s it like in a giant d...
2018-05-231h 06
LongformEpisode 293: Adam DavidsonAdam Davidson is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
“I am as shocked this moment that Trump was elected as I was the moment he was elected. That fundamental state of shock. It’s like there’s a pile of putrid, rotting human feces on a table and like six of the people around the table are like, ‘That is disgusting.’ And four are like ‘Oh it’s so delicious. Oh, I love it. It’s delicious.’ And I keep saying, ‘Well, why do you like it?’ ... Trump is not a very interesting person in my mind. He’s a very simple, one of th...
2018-05-0955 min
LongformEpisode 291: Charlie WarzelCharlie Warzel is a senior tech writer for BuzzFeed.
“Part of the big tech reckoning that we’re seeing since the election isn’t really about the election, it isn’t really about Trump or politics. It’s more about this idea that: Wow, these services have incredibly real consequences in our everyday lives. I think that realization is really profound and is going to shape how we try to figure out what it means to be online from here on out. To keep stories relevant, we have to keep that in mind and try to figure out how to speak to t...
2018-04-2547 min
LongformEpisode 290: Michelle DeanMichelle Dean is a journalist and critic. Her new book is Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion.
“There isn’t one answer. I wish there was one answer. The answer is: You just have to wing it. And I’m learning that — I’m learning to be okay with the winging it. ... I guess the lesson to me of what went on with a lot of women in the book is: You have to be comfortable with the fact that some days are going to be good, and some days are going to not be good.”
Tha...
2018-04-181h 08
LongformEpisode 289: Craig ModCraig Mod is a writer and photographer. His podcast is On Margins.
“You pick up an iPad, you pick up an iPhone—what are you picking up? You’re picking up a chemical-driven casino that just plays on your most base desires for vanity and ego and our obsession with watching train wrecks happen. That’s what we’re picking up and it’s counted in pageviews, because—not to be reductive and say that it’s a capitalist issue, but when you take hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital, and you’re building models predicated on advertising, you are gonna crea...
2018-04-1150 min
LongformEpisode 285: Chana Joffe-WaltChana Joffe-Walt is a producer and reporter at This American Life. Her latest story is "Five Women."
“I felt like there was more to learn from these stories, more than just which men are bad and shouldn’t have the Netflix special that they wanted to have. And I was interested, also, in that there were groups of women, and that somehow, in having a group of women, you would have variation of experience. There could be a unifying person who they all experienced, but they would inevitably experience that person differently. And that would raise the question of: Why? And...
2018-03-1459 min
LongformEpisode 283: Sean FennesseySean Fennessy is the editor-in-chief of The Ringer and a former Grantland editor. He hosts The Big Picture.
"What I try to do is listen to people as much as I can. And try to be compassionate. I think it’s really hard to be on the internet. This is an internet company, in a lot of ways. We have a documentary coming out that’s going to be on linear television that’s really exciting. Maybe we’ll have more of those. But for the moment, podcast, writing, video: it’s internet. [The internet] is an unmediated space of angst and...
2018-02-281h 10
LongformEpisode 282: Jenna WorthamJenna Wortham is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and a co-host of Still Processing.
“I feel like I’m still writing to let my 10-year-old self know it’s okay to be you. It’s okay to be a chubby androgynous weirdo. You know what I mean? Like this weird black kid. It’s okay. There are others like you.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, "Food: A Cultural Culinary History," and "Tales" for sponsoring this week's episode.
@jennydeluxe
www.jennydeluxe.com
Wortham on Longform
[02:00] Wortham’s New York Times archive
[02:00] Still Processing
[02:00] Longform Podcast #95: Wesley Moris
[02:00] Longform Podcast #218...
2018-02-211h 00
LongformEpisode 281: Michael IdovMichael Idov is a screenwriter, journalist, and the former editor-in-chief of GQ Russia. His latest book is Dressed Up for a Riot.
"It just goes to show that the best thing you can possibly do as a journalist is to forget you’re a journalist, go out, have some authentic experiences, preferably fail at something really hard, and then write about that."
Thanks to MailChimp and Mubi for sponsoring this week's episode.
@michaelidov
Idov on Longform
[01:15] "The Movie Set That Ate Itself" (GQ • Oct 2011)
[02:00] Idov’s Archive at NY Mag
[02:25] Dressed Up for a Riot (Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2018)
[06:35] “Samizdat”
[14:00] "Bitter Brew"...
2018-02-1445 min
LongformEpisode 277: Kiera FeldmanKiera Feldman is an investigative reporter. Her latest article is "Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection."
"I used to have a lot of anxiety that I don’t seem like an investigative reporter. Utlimately, my reporting personality is just me. It’s just, I want to be real with people. And the number one rule of reporting is to be a human being to other people. Be decent. Be kind."
Thanks to MailChimp, RXBAR, and Tripping.com for sponsoring this week's episode.
@kierafeldman
kierafeldman.com
Feldman on Longform
[00:45] "Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection" (Pro...
2018-01-1757 min
LongformEpisode 276: Azmat KhanAzmat Khan is an investigative reporter and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.
"For me, what matters most is systematic investigation, and I think that’s different than an investigative story that might explore one case. It’s about stepping back and understanding the big picture and getting to the heart of something. It doesn’t have to be a number’s game, but being able to say: Look, I looked at a wide enough sample of whatever this issue is, and here is what this tells us. That is what I crave and love the most."
Thanks t...
2018-01-101h 01
LongformEpisode 210: Ben Taub, New Yorker Staff WriterBen Taub is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
“I don’t think it’s my place to be cynical because I’ve observed some of the horrors of the Syrian War through these various materials, but it’s Syrians that are living them. It’s Syrians that are being largely ignored by the international community and by a lot of political attention on ISIS. And I think that it wouldn’t be my place to be cynical when some of them still aren’t.”
Thanks to MailChimp and Tripping for sponsoring this week's episode.
@bentaub91
Taub on Longform
[01:45] David Remnick on t...
2018-01-031h 16
LongformEpisode 275: Tina BrownTina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, is the founder of Women in the World. Her latest book is The Vanity Fair Diaries.
“I believed that my bravado had no limit, if you know what I mean. I see limits now, let’s put it that way. I do see limits. But you know, I’m still pretty reckless when I want something. That’s why I don’t tweet much. I’ll say something that will just cause me too much trouble.”
Thanks to MailChimp and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
@TinaBrownLM
[00:00] Longform Best of 2017
...
2017-12-2051 min
LongformEpisode 271: Kara SwisherKara Swisher is the executive editor and co-founder of Recode.
“I do the work. I just work harder than other people. I really do. I work harder, I interview more people, I call more people, I text more people. And so I find out, and they can not talk to me — fine. I know anyway. I’d like to talk to you, I’d like to give you a chance. I’d like to be fair. I’d like to hear your side of the story. And the most important thing is, I think smart people – and these are very smart people —...
2017-11-221h 03
LongformEpisode 269: Jodi KantorJodi Kantor is a New York Times investigative reporter and the author of The Obamas.
“Being a reporter really robs you of self-consciousness and shyness. You realize that it’s this great gift of being able to ask crazy questions, either really personal or very probing or especially with a powerful — to walk up to Harvey Weinstein, essentially and say, ‘What have you been doing to women all these years, and for how long? All of these other people may be afraid to confront you about it, but we are not.’ That is our job.”
Thanks to MailChimp and Eero for sponsori...
2017-11-0856 min
LongformEpisode 268: Jim NelsonJim Nelson is the editor-in-chief of GQ.
“One of the things that was initially a challenge was we would all think of ‘the print side’ and ‘the digital side.’ Now what we all think about is, ‘Okay, stop saying GQ.com and GQ the print edition. It’s just GQ!’ And once you cross that line, you don’t ever want to go back to it. I can’t imagine. The job has changed so much, even in the last three years, that when I look back, I think, ‘God, I was just such a quaint little fucker.’”
Thanks to MailChimp and Squarespace...
2017-11-011h 04
LongformEpisode 267: Sarah EllisonSarah Ellison is a special correspondent at Vanity Fair and the author of War at the Wall Street Journal.
“There’s no lack of stories. ... There’s always an element where you’re going to be parachuting into something that someone has likely written about, to some degree. You can’t shy away from going into something that’s a crowded field.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Quip, and BarkBox for sponsoring this week's episode.
@Sarahlellison
sarahlellison.com
Ellison on Longform
[00:15] 11/15: Longform Podcast, Live in Chicago with Kara Swisher
[00:45] 11/12: Longform Podcast, Live in Chicago with Zoe Chace
[03:00] Longform Podcast #111: Anne Helen Petersen
[03:00] Longform Podca...
2017-10-2545 min
LongformEpisode 266: Patricia BosworthPatricia Bosworth is a journalist and biographer. Her latest book is The Men in My Life.
“The [acting] rejections are hellish and ghastly. At least they were to me. And I got tired of being rejected so much and also tired of not being able to control my life. And as soon as I became a writer, I had this control, I felt more active, more energized. But it was a decision that took a long time coming.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, and Heaven's Gate for sponsoring this week's episode.
@p_bosworth
pbosworth.com
Bosworth on Longform
[00:05] Heaven's Gate
[00:25] Snap Judg...
2017-10-1840 min
LongformEpisode 263: Jelani CobbDr. Jelani Cobb is a New Yorker staff writer and the author of three books, including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress. He teaches journalism at Columbia University.
“Ralph Wiley — the sports writer, late Ralph Wiley — told me something when I was 25 or so, and he was so right. He said I should never fall in love with anything I’ve written. … The second thing he told me was, ‘You won’t get there overnight, and believe me, you don’t want to.’ I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t get it when he told me that. I was...
2017-09-2758 min
LongformEpisode 259: Ellen BarryEllen Barry is the former New York Times bureau chief for South Asia.
“Every time you leave a beat—and this is something that I think as foreign correspondents we rarely communicate to our readers—you’re walking away from a story which has really been your whole life for four or five years. And it’s hard to walk away…The majority of us live a story for a certain number of years, and then we just turn our backs on it.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Of a Kind for sponsoring this week's episode.
@EllenBarryNYT
Barry on Longform
[01:15] Barry’s New Yo...
2017-08-3045 min
LongformEpisode 257: Jay Caspian KangJay Caspian Kang is a writer at large at The New York Times Magazine and a correspondent for Vice News Tonight.
“I make a pretty provocative argument about how Asian American identity doesn’t really exist—how it’s basically just an academic idea, and it’s not lived within the lives of anybody who’s Asian. Like you grow up, you’re Korean, you’re a minority. You don’t have any sort of kinship with, like, Indian kids. You know? And there’s no cultural sharedness where you’re just like, ‘oh yeah…Asia!’”
Thanks to MailChimp, "Mussolini’s Arctic Airship", Blinkist and...
2017-08-1654 min
LongformEpisode 255: Matthew KlamMatthew Klam is a journalist and fiction writer. His new novel is Who Is Rich?.
“The New Yorker had hyped me with this “20 Under 40” thing…and when the tenth anniversary of that list [came], somebody wrote an article about it. And they found everybody in it, and I was the only one who hadn’t done anything since then, according to them. And the article, it was a little paragraph or two, it ended with ‘poor Matthew Klam.’”
Thanks to MailChimp, Casper, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
@MatthewKlam
matthewklam.com
[01:00] Sam the Cat: and Other Stories (Vintage • 2001)
[01:00] Who Is Rich?: A Novel...
2017-08-0253 min
LongformEpisode 249: John GrishamJohn Grisham is the author of 38 books, including his latest novel, Camino Island.
“A Time to Kill didn’t sell. It just didn’t sell. There was never any talk of going back for a second printing. No talk of paper back. No foreign deal. It was a flop. And I told my wife, I said, ‘Look, I’m gonna do it one more time. I’m gonna write one more book…hopefully something more commercial, more accessible, more popular. If this doesn’t work, forget this career. Forget this hobby. I’m just gonna be a lawyer and get on with it.”
Thank...
2017-06-1452 min
LongformEpisode 244: Nick BiltonNick Bilton is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and the author of American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road.
“I’ve been covering tech for a long, long time. And the thing I’ve always tried to do is cover the people of the tech culture, not the tech itself. … I've always been interested in the good and bad side of technology. A lot of times the problem in Silicon Valley is that people come up with a good idea that’s supposed to do a good thing—you know, to change the world and ma...
2017-05-101h 00
LongformEpisode 233: Alexis C. MadrigalAlexis C. Madrigal is an editor-at-large for Fusion, where he’s producing the upcoming podcast, Containers.
“Sometimes you think like, 'Man the media business is the worst. This is so hard.' When you spend time with all these other business people, you probably are going to say, ‘Capitalism is the worst. This is hard.’ Competition that’s linked to global things is so hard because global companies are locked in this incredible efficiency battle that just drives all of the slack out of the system. Like media, there’s no slack left, and I don’t know where things go after that...
2017-02-2259 min
LongformEpisode 225: Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me and a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His latest cover story is “My President Was Black."
“[People] have come to see me as somebody with answers, but I don’t actually have answers. I’ve never had answers. The questions are the enthralling thing for me. Not necessarily at the end of the thing getting somewhere that’s complete—it’s the asking and repeated asking. I don’t know how that happened, but I felt like after a while it got to the point where I was seen as having unique...
2016-12-211h 02
LongformEpisode 213: A.J. DaulerioA.J. Daulerio is the former editor-in-chief of Gawker.
“The choices they’ve given me are take back everything that you loved about Nick [Denton], Gawker, and your job, and we’ll give you your $1,000 back or your ability to make money. You can walk away from this, but you just can’t talk about it ever again. I don’t see there’s any question for me. I definitely thought long and hard about it, and I’ve talked to a lot of people about it. It’s just not in me. Some days I absolutely wish I could say, ‘Is there a...
2016-09-281h 03
LongformEpisode 210: Ben TaubBen Taub is a contributing writer at The New Yorker.
“I don’t think it’s my place to be cynical because I’ve observed some of the horrors of the Syrian War through these various materials, but it’s Syrians that are living them. It’s Syrians that are being largely ignored by the international community and by a lot of political attention on ISIS. And I think that it wouldn’t be my place to be cynical when some of them still aren’t.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
@bentaub91
Taub on Longform
[02:45] D...
2016-09-071h 18
LongformEpisode 204: Malcolm GladwellMalcolm Gladwell is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His new podcast is Revisionist History.
“The amount of criticism you get is a constant function of the size of your audience. So if you think that, generously speaking, 80% of the people who read your work like it, that means if you sell ten books you have two enemies. And if you sell a million books you have 200,000 enemies. So be careful what you wish for. The volume of critics grows linearly with the size of your audience.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
@Gladwell
Gladw...
2016-08-0352 min
LongformEpisode 201: T. Christian Miller & Ken ArmstrongChristian Miller, senior investigative reporter at ProPublica, and Ken Armstrong, staff writer at The Marshall Project, co-wrote the Pulitzer-winning article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape.”
“I won’t forget this: when T. and I talked on the phone and agreed that we were going to work on [“An Unbelievable Story of Rape”] together, T. created a Google Drive site, and we decided we’d both dump all our documents in it. And I remember seeing all the records that T. had gathered in Colorado, and then I dumped all the records that I had gathered in Washington, and it was like each of u...
2016-07-1354 min
LongformEpisode 185: Ben SmithBen Smith is the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed.
“I do think as a reporter in general, most of what we deal in is ephemera. And I love that. I mean that’s the business, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I think that’s a plus and something that shapes how you succeed at the job because you realize that this thing you’re writing is about this moment and right now, and about its place in the conversation. It’s not some piece of art to hang on the wall.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Harry's, and Rev...
2016-03-231h 00
LongformEpisode 171: Adrian ChenAdrian Chen is a freelance journalist who has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Wired. His latest article is "Unfollow," about a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church.
“Twitter and social media get such a bad rep for being full of hate and trolls. And, you know, a lot of the stories I’ve written have probably bolstered that stereotype. I think a lot of people have a lot of anxiety and ambivalence about social media even though they love it—they’re on it all the time—and they’re kind of thinking of it as a v...
2015-12-0950 min
LongformEpisode 168: Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His latest book, Between the World and Me, just won the National Book Award.
“When I first came to New York, I couldn't see any of this. I felt like a complete washout. I was in my little apartment, eating donuts and playing video games. The only thing I was doing good with my life was being a father and a husband. That was it. David [Carr] was a big shot. And he would call me in, just out of the blue, to have lunch. I was so low at that poi...
2015-11-251h 08
LongformEpisode 123: Nicholas CarlsonNicholas Carlson writes for Business Insider. His book Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! came out this week.
“To me people are what’s really interesting. Marissa Mayer is a once in a lifetime subject. She’s full of contradictions. … There are a million business stories, but if you don’t have that character at the center then you’re lost.”
Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show Notes:
@nichcarlson
Carlson on Longform
[6:00] Longform Podcast #81: Kevin Roose
[13:00] "What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs" (New York Times Magazine • Dec 2014)
[16:00] "Viacom Takes Google, You...
2015-01-071h 14
LongformEpisode 67: Evan WrightEvan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill.
"When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'"
Thanks to our sponsor, TinyLetter.
Show notes:
@evanscribe
Wright on Longform
[3:45] Generation Kill (2004)
[10:00] "Scenes From My Life in Porn" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2000)
[12:15] A.J. Liebling’s New Yorker archive
[14:15] "Big Red...
2014-12-241h 10
LongformEpisode 97: Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic. His latest cover story is "The Case for Reparations."
"The writer hopes for change, but writers can't assume that their work is going to cause change."
Thanks to TinyLetter andI Am Zlatan, the international bestseller published by Random House, for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show Notes:
@tanehisicoates
Coates's blog for The Atlantic
Coates on Longform
"The Case for Reparations" (The Atlantic • May 2014)
[4:20] "Longform Podcast #7: Ta-Nehisi Coates"
[4:35] "Fear of a Black President" (The Atlantic • Aug 2012)
[7:05] "The Case for Reparations: An Intellectual Autopsy" (The Atlantic • May 2014)
[8:05] "For Asians, School Tests Are Vital Steppingstones" (Kyle S...
2014-06-181h 05
LongformEpisode 90: Susan DominusSusan Dominus is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine.
"A lot of reporting is really just hanging around and not going home until something interesting happens."
Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
@susandominus
Dominus on Longform
[7:00] Longform Podcast #31: Emily Nussbaum
[9:45] "Santa's Little Helper" (New York Times • Dec 1999)
[10:00] "The Allergy Prison" (New York Times Magazine • Jun 2001)
[11:00] "Shabana is Late for School" (New York Times Magazine • Sep 2002)
[16:00] "Everybody Has a Mother" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2003)
[17:30] "What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy?" (New York Times Magazine • Mar 2012)
[25:15] "Eve Ensler Wants to Save the World" (Ne...
2014-04-301h 01
LongformEpisode 84: Sabrina Rubin ErdelySabrina Rubin Erdely, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, has also written for GQ, Philadelphia and SELF.
"I think that people are, by their nature, good and want to act rightly. So I'm very interested in why people do these things that result in really bad actions. My lack of outrage actually is one of the things that probably helps me in my reporting because I really am propelled by this pure curiosity. ... I just want to know, 'Where did that come from?'"
Thanks to TinyLetter and PillPack for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show notes:
@SabrinaRErdely
sabrinaerdely.com
Erdely on...
2014-03-191h 10
LongformEpisode 83, Part 1: Pamela Colloff & Mimi Swartz, Live from AustinPamela Colloff and Mimi Swartz are executive editors of Texas Monthly.
Colloff: "That sense of loss, that sense of normal life turning on a dime is something that, in a very different way, I’ve experienced. And I carry that with me into some of the more difficult stories."
Swartz: "Here’s this great [public interest] story that nobody’s ever told. Now how can I write it so the maximum number of people want to read it? I try to make the homework part as interesting and compelling as possible."
Thanks to TinyLetter and PillPack for sponsoring this week's episod...
2014-03-1244 min
LongformEpisode 80: Wil S. HyltonWil S. Hylton, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of Vanished.
"I despise the fucking nut graf. I think it's a joke, a cop out. The story probably should be about something larger than itself but if you have to tell people what that is, you've failed form the beginning. If they can't find it, you didn't put it there and you shouldn't be beating them over the head with it."
Thanks to TinyLetter and The Fog Horn for sponsoring this week's episode, and to the Writing Department at the University of Pittsburgh for...
2014-02-1854 min
LongformEpisode 67: Evan WrightEvan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill.
"When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'"
Thanks to this week’s sponsors: TinyLetter and HostGator.
Show notes:
@evanscribe
Wright on Longform
[3:45] Generation Kill (2004)
[10:00] "Scenes From My Life in Porn" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2000)
[12:15] A.J. Liebling’s New Yo...
2013-11-061h 09
LongformEpisode 56: Joshuah BearmanJoshuah Bearman is the co-founder of Epic Magazine and a freelance writer. His latest story is "Coronado High."
"People who know me well will realize that parts of this story are actually about me. … It's about loss of innocence and getting to a certain point in your life where you realize the excitement of youth is over. Life at a certain point gets complicated and there are consequences and things get hard. These are people who dealt with those consequences in a way that I never did — they had to go to prison or destroy their friends lives — but that's what I li...
2013-08-2150 min