POPULARITY
Send us a text In this episode of Running Book Reviews, we had the pleasure of speaking with author Bill Donahue about his recent book, Unbound. Unbound is a collection of some of the best stories Bill has written about endurance sport for Runner's World, Outside, Backpacker, Washington Post Magazine and others. The stories are divided into 5 subcategories which make up sections of the book:RunningCyclingExplorationOn The SnowFrom The Margins of Endurance SportBill Donahue is a journalist. In reporting stories, he has searched for fallen meteorites in the Sahara Desert, snuck into Manuel Noriega's abandoned beach house, and camped out with Army soldiers in the minus 30 degree chill of the Alaskan Arctic. He has worked in over 20 countries while writing for publications ranging from The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine to Harper's, Wired, Bicycling, Runner's World, Outside and Harvard Public Health. Bill's work has been republished in several anthologies, including Best American Sports Writing and Best American Travel Writing and he has won the Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Adventure Travel Writing as well as the City and Regional Magazine Awards. Bill lives in rural New Hampshire where he goes out cycling or skiing almost every day.If you'd like to know more about Bill Donahue you can find his website here: https://billdonahue.netHe is also on Instagram and Twitter (now X) under the username @billdonahue13 Link for 20% discount on Caffeine Bullet https://caffeinebullet.com/RUNNINGBOOK Discount automatically applied and visible on checkoutSupport the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/runningbookreviews/Twitter: https://twitter.com/reviews_runningInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/runningbookreviews/ Podcast webpage: https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com If you have been enjoying the podcast and want more, you can find some extras on our By Me a Coffee site! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/runningbookreviews
The Washington Post sports reporter Kent Babb joins The Writer's Block to talk about his book "Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City," his process for writing the book, and advice he would give on writing a book about a high school football program and small town in Alabama. Babb has covered sports for The Washington Post since 2012 and is currently assigned to its Sports and Society enterprise team. Babb's work was included three times in The Best American Sports Writing anthology and was selected in the inaugural edition of The Year's Best Sports Writing. Sponsor the show: Gary.Lloyd87@gmail.com. #thewritersblock #podcast #washington #washingtonpost #neworleans #highschoolfootball #football #shooting #gunviolence #louisiana #Alabama #sports #sportspodcast #sportsreporter #sportsjournalist #book #books #author #authors #amwriting #KentBabb #river #AcrossTheRiver #NOLA #FrenchQuarter #BourbonStreet #NFL #Steelers #Packers
Notes and Links to Keith O'Brien's Work Keith O'Brien is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He has written four books, been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting, been longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and has contributed to multiple publications over the years. O'Brien's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and on National Public Radio. His radio stories have aired on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition, as well as Marketplace and This American Life. The Wall Street Journal calls his latest book, CHARLIE HUSTLE, "compulsively readable and wholly terrific." Publishers Weekly calls it "definitive and elegantly told, this is a home run," and Kirkus Reviews hails CHARLIE HUSTLE as a "masterpiece of a sports biography." A midwesterner by birth, O'Brien grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from Northwestern University. He now lives in New Hampshire with his wife, two children, two dogs and two cats. Buy Charlie Hustle Keith O'Brien's Website New York Times Review of Charlie Hustle At about 2:00, Pete asks Keith about the medium of radio, and Keith talks about how he loves radio and how it works different “muscles” At about 3:40, Keith traces his early reading and writing life and his love of sports stories, Sports Illustrated, and more, including David Halberstam's stellar work At about 5:45, Pete and Keith fanboy over great work from The Best American Sports Writing of the Century At about 7:05, Keith shouts out Mirin Fader and Andrew Maraniss and Jonathan Eig, among others, as writing inspirations At about 8:55, Keith talks about how work in Japan helped to ignite his love of and skill for writing At about 10:45 (13:50), Keith discusses how he views storytelling, showing/telling, as well as objectivity in writing, as well as expectations for readers At about 14:50, Pete quotes a meaningful excerpt from the beginning of Charlie Hustle, and Keith expands upon how “stunned” he was by the crying and emotional responses from those talking about Pete Rose's impact in their lives At about 17:20, Pete alludes to the Author's Note, and asks Keith about his childhood outlook on Pete Rose and the Reds as a native Cincinnatian At about 21:05, Pete gives some exposition from the book and summarizes the “high point” from the Introduction At about 22:00, Keith paints a picture of Pete Rose's childhood growing up on the Westside of Cincinnati, and talks about “Big Pete” Rose and his legendary exploits, including a At about 26:40, Keith explains the significance of two events in the summer of 1956 and how it shaped Pete At about 29:15, Keith recounts an emblematic story involving Pete Rose and boxing At about 30:45, Pete picks up on the aforementioned story and asks Keith if he sees the same mindset in Pete Rose in denying his betting later in life; Keith talks about a lack of vulnerability for Pete Rose At about 32:45, Keith charts the importance of Pete Rose's Uncle Buddy in jumpstarting Pete's career At about 37:15, Keith gives background on Pete Rose's iconic nickname and its “mythology” At about 39:55, The two reflect on the “juxtaposition” between those who gave Pete Rose his nickname and Pete Rose At about 41:10, Keith talks about racism and the treatment of Black players in the Major Leagues, as well as how Pete viewed/spoke about race At about 44:35, Keith expands on the ways in which Pete was seen as a “white, working-class hero” in the media and among fans At about 48:15, Keith reflects on the echoing importance of Pete Rose's collision with Ray Fosse At about 52:15, Keith responds to Pete's questions about how Pete Rose's upbringing may or may not have been “seeds” for his later gambling and vice At about 56:35, Decree Rule 21(d) and its ubiquity in baseball clubhouses is discussed At about 57:10, Pete talks about how skillfully Keith shows Pete Rose's impending fall at the end of Part III At about 58:35, Keith responds to Pete's questions about Pete Rose and whether he felt remorse over the way he treated women and his children At about 1:00:20, Keith reflects on how the same qualities that made Pete Rose great also were his downfall At about 1:01:40, The two discuss “credible allegations that Pete Rose had had a relationship with an underage girl in the 1970s and its impact on his baseball analyst job At about 1:03:20, Keith responds to Pete's questions about the importance of a homecoming in 1986 to Cincinnati At about 1:06:50, Keith expands upon the inextricable links between Bart Giamatti and Pete Rose At about 1:09:10, The two discuss Pete Rose's last years and prodigious autograph signing and the ways in which his fans continued to be moved by meeting him and talking to him; Keith shares his personal experiences in being amazed by the awe of the fans he witnessed in person At about 1:11:45, Keith reflects on the “crucial” and “poigna[nt]” ending of the book, an ending that Pete is highly complimentary of At about 1:13:30, Keith discusses how he felt upon learning of Pete's death and the sadness associated with Pete “being defined by his greatest mistakes” At about 1:15:00, Pete and Keith reflect on connections between Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull and Pete Rose and the “fleeting” nature of fame At about 1:16:15, shoutout to Ellen Adar for the audiobook At about 1:17:10, Keith shouts out places to buy the book, including Waterstreet Books in NH, and gives social media/contact info You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode. Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. This week, his conversation with Episode 255 guest Chris Knapp is up on the website. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting Pete's one-man show, his DIY podcast and his extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode will feature an exploration of the wonderful poetry of Khalil Gibran. I have added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show. This is a passion project of Pete's, a DIY operation, and he'd love for your help in promoting what he's convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 268 with Dax-Devlon Ross, who is the author of six books. His journalism has been featured in Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, and other national publications, and he won the National Association of Black Journalists' Investigative Reporting Award for coverage of jury exclusion in North Carolina courts. His most recent book, Letters to My White Male Friends, is a call to action and a reflection on race. The episode airs on December 31. Please go to ceasefiretoday.com, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Emily features a conversation with writer and art historian Bridget Quinn. Bridget discusses her latest book 'Portrait of a Woman,' which delves into the life of Adelaide Le Béliard, a pioneering 18th-century artist. She shares her journey of discovering Adelaide's work, her challenges in a male-dominated Royal Academy, and her rivalry with Marie Antoinette's painter, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. The episode also includes an exploration of how art and letters were used to reconstruct Adelaide's story and a touching discussion of how Bridget's own experiences shaped her writing. This episode highlights essential themes of art, feminism, rivalry, and the force of Adelaide's will against significant odds.About Author Bridget Quinn:Bridget Quinn is author of the books She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next, an Amazon Editors' pick for Best History books 2020, and the award-winning Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order), an Amazon pick for Best Art & Photography Books 2017 and a 2018 Amelia Bloomer List selection of recommended feminist literature from the American Library Association. Translated into four languages, in 2018 Broad Strokes was a national finalist for best art book of the year in Ukraine. NPR's Susan Stamberg calls it “a terrific essay collection” with “spunky attitudinal, SMART writing,” marking the second time “attitudinal” has been used about her work (first: Kirkus 1996). Her current book is Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry & Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, more than thirty years in the making.Raised on the high plains of Montana with six brothers, two sisters, a devout and sporty mother and a WWII Marine-turned-lawyer father, in a home surrounded by cows and nuclear missile silos, she's lived since in Norway, New York, Oregon and California. She's taught art history, history and writing for more than two decades; worked in museums and for galleries and private collections; worked at climbing gyms on both coasts, and was a researcher for the first several ESPN X Games, covering rock climbing, ice climbing, BMX freestyle and downhill mountain biking.A graduate of New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and a regular contributor to online arts magazine Hyperallergic, she's a nationally sought-after speaker on women and art. She is a contributing editor to On the Seawall, and the former co-host of The GrottoPod: Writers on Writing. An avid sports fan and Iron(wo)man triathlete, her Narrative magazine essay “At Swim, Two Girls” was included in The Best American Sports Writing 2013. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, dogs, and hella bikes.Visit Bridget's Website: BridgetQuinnAuthor.comFollow on Instagram: @BQuinnterestLearn more about and purchase Portrait of a Woman - CLICK HERE--About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women's Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWilFollow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast--CREDITS:Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson. Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions. For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
Notes and Links to Mirin Fader's Work For Episode 257, Pete welcomes Mirin Fader for her second Chills at Will visit, and the two discuss, among other topics, her love of contemporary fiction, how her second book's release is different than that of her first, seeds for her latest book-Dream, about the great Hakeem Olajuwon-coming from her previous blockbuster about Giannis Antetokounmpo, her finding stories within stories while researching the book, and the wonders and legends of Hakeem Olajuwon, from his start in handball and soccer to the ignorant and racist ways he was often viewed, to the role that discipline, creativity, and his faith play in his daily life. Mirin Fader is a senior staff writer for The Ringer. Her first book, Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion, was a New York Times Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, Wall Street Journal Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller. She has profiled some of the NBA's biggest stars, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, DeMar DeRozan, and LaMelo Ball, telling the backstories that have shaped some of our most complex, most dominant, heroes. Fader wrote for Bleacher Report from 2017 to 2020 and the Orange County Register from 2013 to 2017. Her work has been featured in the “Best American Sports Writing” series and honored by the Pro Basketball Writers Association, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the Football Writers Association of America, and the Los Angeles Press Club. Buy Dream Mirin Fader's Website See Mirin on Tour! At about 2:50, Mirin discusses her love of fiction and beloved contemporary texts, including Tommy Orange's latest, and Sudanese writer, Rania Mamoun's latest At about 4:40, Mirin responds to Pete's question about any sort of competitiveness within writers in Mirin's cohort, and Pete and Mirin stan Wright Thompson At about 6:30, Pete highlights Demar Derozan's recent book and Mirin's profile of him for The Ringer At about 9:45, Mirin gives background on her profile of Bronny James and what “lane” she focused on for the piece At about 12:30, Some all-time NBA rankings! At about 14:45, Pete cites the book about Giannis and its lasting greatness At about 15:05, Pete asks Mirin about the run-up to her second book and feedback At about 16:10, Mirin mentions the nostalgia associated with Hakeem Olajuwon At about 17:30, Mirin talks about the “unheralded” nature of Hakeem, as well as the emergence of international basketball players, particularly with African players, for which he was a “prequel” At about 19:25, Mirin gives background on Ben Okri's quote for her epigraph and its connection to Hakeem and devotion and creativity At about 20:10, The two discuss the book's Prologue and LeBron James famous trip to train with Hakeem in 2011 At about 22:40, Henri Yranndo and his importance to Hakeem and his spiritual resurgence is referenced At about 24:00, Mirin discusses her wonderful experiences in going to Hakeem's mosque in Houston At about 25:00, Pete asks Mirin to expand on Hakeem as a “hidden one,” and connections to a hadith quoted from the Koran At about 26:30, The two discuss the book's beginning, and Mirin talks about the bustling city of Lagos, Hakeem's childhood (and later American media racism in describing his youth), and how his father taught him to be proud of his size At about 29:10, Mirin talks about Hakeem's early athletic feats outside of basketball, and how he was “recruited” to finally give in and play basketball At about 31:20, Pete and Mirin reflect on the sad fact that so many interviewees for the book have died recently and how this affects her urgency to get stories on paper At about 32:35, Mirin responds to Pete's wondering about how Hakeem's 1980 Nigerian National Team appearance affected his growth At about 34:10, The “Dream Shake” and Yomi Sangodeyi's greatness and tutoring are explored At about 35:00, Christopher Pond and the supposed origin story of Hakeem's Univ. of Houston landing, as well as problematic parts of the story are probed At about 38:50, Mirin talks about Hakeem's time in Houston and the city's growing Nigerian population At about 40:10, Mirin expands upon the ignorant and racist ways in which Hakeem was written about, especially in his earlier years, and she shares the story of how him “changing his name” Was emblematic of his humble nature At about 42:55, Mirin highlights how Hakeem was never seen as a draft mistake, even though he was drafted over Michael Jordan, and Pete cites Frank Guidry's book on Houston and how the Forde Center helped Hakeem improve greatly as a Rocket At about 44:15, Pete cites Hakeem's moving letter referenced in the book, and how Mirin charts his rediscovering his faith through some amazing and makes it clear that he never “converted” to Islam At about 46:45, The two reflect on and express the amazement and respect for Hakeem's Ramadan fasting during his playing days At about 47:45, Pete and Mirin stan Hakeem's unforgettable series against David Robinson At about 48:45, Mirin talks about how Hakeem's faith calls for him to not display iconography and show humility and how the book's cover satisfied the requirements of being respectful At about 50:45, Mirin shouts out Brazos Bookstore and Skylight Books as good places to buy her book, and shouts out her first tour You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode features segments from conversations with Deesha Philyaw, Luis Alberto Urrea, Chris Stuck, and more, as they reflect on chill-inducing writing and writers that have inspired their own work. I have added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show. This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 258 with Porochista Khakpour, the critically acclaimed author of two previous novels, Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion; a memoir, Sick; and a collection of essays, Brown Album. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bookforum, Elle, and many other publications. Her latest book, a chaotic and satirical stellar work, is Tehrangeles. This episode will air on October 22. Lastly, please go to ceasefiretoday.com, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
Rolling Stone has implicated Snapchat in fueling a teen opioid crisis. Paul Solotaroff has been a Senior Writer at Rolling Stone for 25 years. He writes about the denial of justice, about people who have been horrifically abused, like NFL retirees with brain injuries, Iraqi veterans and unfortunately today, it's KIDS ON SNAPCHAT. In this conversation, Paul discusses the investigation into how drug dealers are using Snapchat to sell fake pills containing fentanyl to children, leading to poisonings and deaths across the country. Paul highlights the challenges that law enforcement faces in combatting this issue, including the ephemeral nature of Snapchat and the difficulty tracking down evidence. There is an urgent need to address this national health crisis, both in parental awareness and federal legislation to require tech firms (like Snapchat) to protect our kids online. Thank you to Amy Neville, Laura Marquez-Garrett, William Bodner and others for speaking up to protect our kids. Paul Solotaroff has been a senior writer at Rolling Stone for twenty-five years (and at Men's Journal for almost twenty). He covered the NFL concussion scandal, including the Aaron Hernandez story, was the first to report the horror-show conditions at Walter Reade Hospital, and has written a series of stories that helped free innocent men who were doing life without parole in state prisons. Winner of two Genesis Awards and more than a half-dozen selections to the Best American Sports Writing anthologies, Solotaroff is a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award finalist. Six of his earlier stories were optioned for TV dramas or films, including “Original Gangster,” “The Fixer,” “Living the Vida Macho,” “Not Guilty,” and “The Gangster in the Huddle.” This year, four of his stories will be reborn as TV series or prestige documentaries on Netflix, Showtime, the USA network, and Facebook View. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scrolling2death/support
Notes and Links to John Glionna's Work For Episode 236, Pete welcomes John Glionna, and the two discuss, among other topics, his journalistic awakenings and the writers who influenced him, his kinship with renegades and underdogs, what it was like embedding with a small town football team, the interesting characters and rich lives lived in rural areas, and salient themes like Native traumas, pride, declining enrollments in schools and on sports teams and the rises and falls of life in small-town América. John M. Glionna is an award-winning journalist who has traveled the world as a newspaper and magazine writer. After twenty-six years at the Los Angeles Times he now works as a freelance writer. He is the author of Outback Nevada: Real Stories from the Silver State. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and Outside and has been included in Best American Sports Writing and Best Los Angeles Times Foreign Reporting. Buy No Friday Night Lights: Reservation Football on the Edge of America John's Website At about 2:20, John talks about his winding road to becoming a big reader-a “lover of the word,” and some inspirational words that put him on the path to journalism At about 9:00, John talks about formative and transformative writers for him, including Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, and Rick Bass At about 13:00, John gives some tips on clever title choices At about 14:10, John details connections to Ernest Hemingway and lessons learned At about 16:10, John explains the greatness of Hunter Thompson, and talks about “being in the mind” of the great writers At about 17:30-don't follow the Hunter S. Thompson diet! At about 18:55, John charts his viewing of Brown Buffalo and his own “Gonzo Journalism” At about 20:00, John charts his time at The Los Angeles Times, including what made a “Glionna story” At about 24:00, Pete lays out the book's Preface and the two discuss Glenn Stout's influence and support for John At about 28:40, John talks about seeds for the book At about 31:20, Pete and John discuss McDermitt, Nevada, and John's connections to it and how the book developed At about 35:00, John highlights Coach Egan and Coach Smith and his admiration for them that led him to continue embedding with the McDermitt High School Football Team At about 37:40, John quotes Jane Smiley in talking about the vagaries of small town America-, including its true isolation and “Shakespearean” likeness At about 40:00, John charts how his book progressed, including real-time blogs and controversy that followed in the town At about 41:45, Pete and John lay out some of the book's plotline and exposition and complicating factors At about 47:15, Pete and John talk about some dynamic characters in the book: real-life coaches and players At about 48:30, John responds to Pete's question about writing about winners At about 51:10, Pete and John discuss the ways in which the football team coaches had to be accommodating At about 56:10, Herman Herford is discussed as an early chronicler of McDermitt, which helped John in his work, At about 58:50, “Cowboy Bob” is discussed At about 1:01:20, Jack Smith, coach, is discussed At about 1:02:25, Pete and John talk about the book's Epilogue and Native sites and the fight to restore dignity At about 1:06:25, The Crutcher family and their strength and contemporary changes in Paiute-Shoshone reservation life are highlighted At about 1:09:50, John describes giving each person in the book their “own story” At about 1:12:10, John gives out contact info and encourages readers to be in dialogue You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership! Look out for my interview with José Vadi, my most recent. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 237 with Ghassan Zeinnedine, professor of creative writing at Oberlin College, and co-editor of the creative nonfiction anthology Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging. His standout debut story collection is Dearborn. The episode will go live on June 4. Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
Notes and Links to Jesse Tovar's Work For Episode 235, Pete welcomes Jesse Tovar, and the two discuss, among other topics, his role as editor and poet, influences and inspirations in his own work, digital collections and his dynamic Substack, themes in his poetry, what he looks for in submissions, and his co-sponsoring of the reading series “Voices of California.” Jesse Tovar is the founding editor of Mobile Data Mag on Substack and Systemic Dreaming on Threads. Tovar's work can be found in various anthologies, including Zzyzx (Size-icks) Writerz Podcast. Jesse's Substack-Mobile Data Mag Jesse's Work with Los Angeles Literature At about 2:25, Jesse discusses his early reading and relationship with the written word, and his bilingual childhood At about 6:20, Jesse talks about transformative and formative works for him At about 8:50, Jesse details his work at bookstore and promoting poetry At about 11:00, Jesse cites Kazuo Ishiguro as a contemporary writer who inspires and thrills At about 12:20, Jesse talks about how Chen Chen has inspired his own Substack and his goals with the project At about 13:30, Pete and Jesse shout out Andrew Liu, a shared friend and standout At about 14:10, Jesse describes the benefits of his digital journal At about 15:30, Jesse responds to Pete's question about what it's like to be a submitter and a publisher At about 17:20, Pete and Jesse read and discuss a poem from his digital journal-by Sacred Mami At about 21:00, “Rackets and Grammy Origins,” a poem from Jesse, is read and explored At about 26:35, The two read and discuss “Inner City,” a piece by Jesse, emulating José Vadi's work for a prompt At about 33:15, Pete and Jesse discuss October 2024's “Voices of California, Part V,” set to be held at Medicine for Nightmares in San Francisco, the two shout out past guests and events, and shout out 2024's performers At about 38:40, Poetry and activism as inseparable is discussed by the two At about 41:00, Jesse talks about upcoming projects At about 42:20, Jesse discusses his recent collection as “super niche” At about 43:10, Jesse shouts out his projects and contact info and social media At about 46:25, Libros in Lincoln Heights and Pages Against the Machine are shouted out You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode. I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership! Look out for my interview with José Vadi, my most recent. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 236 with John Glionna, an award-winning journalist who has traveled the world as both a newspaperman and magazine writer; work has been included in such national anthologies as “Best American Sports Writing” and “Best Los Angeles Times Foreign Reporting”; author of No Friday Night Lights: Reservation Football on the Edge of America, was published today, June 1. The episode will go live today, June 1. Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.
William Meiners is a writer, editor, and teacher living in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He created Sport Literate as a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago in 1995. By day, he works as a reporter for the Gratiot County Herald, a family-owned weekly newspaper, and by night, he teaches academic writing courses at Mid Michigan College For the 25th anniversary of Sport Literate, Bill and his colleague Brian McKenna chose essays for a special anthology edition entitled Game: A Sport Literate Anthology (Pint-Size Publications, 2023). It features essays from across a wide array of sports: heavy hitters like baseball, football, and basketball, but also essays addressing bicycling, fishing, hockey, tennis and even roller skating. Given that Sport Literate essays have earned notable nods over 30 times in two Best American anthologies, Best American Sports Writing as well as Best American Essays, there was plenty of excellent material to choose from. The episode covers four different essays from the sports of baseball, bicycling, fighting, and hockey. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
William Meiners is a writer, editor, and teacher living in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He created Sport Literate as a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago in 1995. By day, he works as a reporter for the Gratiot County Herald, a family-owned weekly newspaper, and by night, he teaches academic writing courses at Mid Michigan College For the 25th anniversary of Sport Literate, Bill and his colleague Brian McKenna chose essays for a special anthology edition entitled Game: A Sport Literate Anthology (Pint-Size Publications, 2023). It features essays from across a wide array of sports: heavy hitters like baseball, football, and basketball, but also essays addressing bicycling, fishing, hockey, tennis and even roller skating. Given that Sport Literate essays have earned notable nods over 30 times in two Best American anthologies, Best American Sports Writing as well as Best American Essays, there was plenty of excellent material to choose from. The episode covers four different essays from the sports of baseball, bicycling, fighting, and hockey. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
William Meiners is a writer, editor, and teacher living in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He created Sport Literate as a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago in 1995. By day, he works as a reporter for the Gratiot County Herald, a family-owned weekly newspaper, and by night, he teaches academic writing courses at Mid Michigan College For the 25th anniversary of Sport Literate, Bill and his colleague Brian McKenna chose essays for a special anthology edition entitled Game: A Sport Literate Anthology (Pint-Size Publications, 2023). It features essays from across a wide array of sports: heavy hitters like baseball, football, and basketball, but also essays addressing bicycling, fishing, hockey, tennis and even roller skating. Given that Sport Literate essays have earned notable nods over 30 times in two Best American anthologies, Best American Sports Writing as well as Best American Essays, there was plenty of excellent material to choose from. The episode covers four different essays from the sports of baseball, bicycling, fighting, and hockey. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sports
This originally aired as Episode 244 on February 26, 2021.Jackie MacMullan is a long time sports writer for The Boston Globe, ESPN.com, and author of several best-selling books covering the NBA. She was the final guest editor of The Best American Sports Writing series.Newsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmShow notes: brendanomeara.comSocial: @creativenonfiction podcast on IG and ThreadsSupport: Patreon.com/cnfpod
Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference
Beyond the Page host John Burnham Schwartz talks with New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend, a longtime contributor to the magazine's Letter from California and the author of two funny, poignant family memoirs, Cheerful Money and In the Early Times. In a notable testament to Friend's curiosity, range, and talent, over the years his work has been chosen for “The Best American Travel Writing,” “The Best American Sports Writing,” “The Best American Crime Reporting,” and “The Best Technology Writing” – not to mention the James Beard award for feature writing he won in 2020. In this episode, a recent piece of Friend's in the magazine about “a conservation N.G.O. that infiltrates wildlife-trafficking rings to bring them down” becomes a conversational prism for a larger discussion about the writer's methodology and philosophy of long-form journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Get ready for another captivating episode of Ring Talk with Lou Eisen, where we delve deep into the world of boxing history. This week, we're honored to have author Mark Kram Jr. as our special guest. Winner of the prestigious 2013 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, Kram Jr. brings his expertise and passion to the table as we explore his latest work – a book that uncovers the untold story of Joe Frazier. www.talkinfight.com Join us for an insightful conversation as Mark Kram Jr. takes us on a journey through the life and legacy of the legendary Joe Frazier. From his early days in the boxing ring to his iconic matches against the likes of Muhammad Ali, Frazier's story is one of determination, courage, and indomitable spirit. Mark Kram Jr.'s literary prowess has been recognized not only with awards but also through his contributions to renowned anthologies like ""The Best American Sports Writing."" His upcoming inclusion in ""The Great American Sports Page"" speaks to his ability to capture the essence of sports history. As we uncover the layers of Joe Frazier's persona, join us in celebrating the legacy of this boxing icon. Whether you're a boxing enthusiast, a history buff, or simply a fan of captivating stories, this episode is sure to leave you inspired. Don't miss this chance to immerse yourself in the world of Joe Frazier with Mark Kram Jr. on Ring Talk with Lou Eisen. Like, comment, and share this episode to spread the love for boxing history and engaging storytelling. #talkinfight #loueisen #ringtalk #MarkKramJr #joefrazier #boxinghistory #LiterarySportsWriting #boxingicon #muhammadali #BoxingLegacy #sportswriting #TheGreatAmericanSportsPage #boxingenthusiast #storytelling #sportshistory #boxingnews #PENESPNAward #boxingfans #boxingshow #boxingvideo #inspiringstories #untoldstories
This week, author Jabari Asim discusses his novel Yonder with journalist Evan F. Moore. This conversation originally took place May 15, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Festival. About Yonder: The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century. They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors' tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals all their own. In a world that would be allegorical if it weren't saturated in harsh truths, Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation's quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. It's that cruel practice—the wanton destruction of love, the belief that Black people aren't even capable of loving—that hurts the most. It hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends, including William, who is like a brother; Margaret; Little Zander; and Milton, a gifted artist. There is also Pandora, with thick braids and long limbs, whose beauty calls to him. Their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence. He tells them that with freedom comes the right to choose the small things—when to dine, when to begin and end work—as well as the big things, such as whom and how to love. Do they follow the preacher and pursue the unknown? Confined in a landscape marked by deceit and uncertainty, who can they trust? In an elegant work of monumental imagination that will reorient how we think of the legacy of America's shameful past, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful, and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love? JABARI ASIM is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. He directs the MFA program in creative writing at Emerson College, where he is also the Elma Lewis Distinguished Fellow in Social Justice. His nonfiction books include The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why; What Obama Means: For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future; Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life; and We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival. His books for children include Whose Toes Are Those? and Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis. His works of fiction include A Taste of Honey and Only the Strong. EVAN F. MOORE is the co-author of the book, Game Misconduct: Hockey's Toxic Culture and How to Fix It. His work over time, which consists of topics at the intersection of sports, race, and culture, is featured in Rolling Stone, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, The Athletic, Chicago Reader, and ESPN, among many others. His hockey writing was featured in the 2019 edition of The Best American Sports Writing book series. Evan is an adjunct journalism professor at DePaul University.
In the late winter of 2023, I had just finished a workout with the 9a CrossFit class. A tall fella stood at the end of the gym - dressed in all black, with a fresh pair of J's on. I thought, “This is my guy.” This was Paul. Paul has been a senior writer at Rolling Stone for thirty years. He covered the NFL concussion scandal, including the Aaron Hernandez story, was the first to report the horror-show conditions at Walter Reade Hospital, and has written a series of stories that helped free innocent men who were doing life without parole in state prisons. He is the winner of two Genesis Awards and more than a half-dozen selections to the Best American Sports Writing anthologies, produced the Documentary hit “How to Fix a Drug Scandal” & has been a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award finalist. Over the next weeks after we met, Paul spent time in Southern Ohio to learn about the breadth of the opioid epidemic and the overdose crisis and the small town, grass roots approach to reintegrating individuals with substance use disorders back into the community. Paul told that story in the most recent drop of Rolling Stone magazine. In Ep. 036, Paul talks about his experience in shedding light in the stories that happen in the dark. Not Your Average IV User is streaming almost everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can help us out by telling all the people you love that this project exists.
Legendary Giants coach Tom Coughlin takes readers inside his coaching masterpiece: Super Bowl XLII when Eli Manning and the underdog Giants beat the undefeated, 18-0 Patriots of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Super Bowl XLII was the greatest upset in NFL history. In A GIANT WIN, Coach Tom Coughlin recounts the strategies and people that made it possible. Coach Coughlin reveals the intricacies of the game, revealing details only a coach would know. He also details, more than ever before, his relationships with some of the greatest, most iconic players of those Giants teams, like Eli Manning and Michael Strahan. A GIANT WIN also provides a frame for Coach Coughlin to discuss his life in football—including his years with the Giants as an assistant coach in the late 1980s and 1990, when he helped win a Super Bowl working under Hall of Fame Head Coach Bill Parcells and alongside the coach he'd oppose in Super Bowl XLII: Bill Belichick. A GIANT WIN is a self-portrait of one of football history's most successful coaches during his signature game. About The Authors: Tom Coughlin is a former National Football League head coach who was part of three New York Giants Super Bowl winning teams, twice as head coach. He won his first Super Bowl while an assistant to legendary coach Bill Parcells in 1990. In 2004, he joined the New York Giants for 12 seasons as head coach, leading the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, both times beating the New England Patriots. Coughlin ranks as the 14th winningest coach in NFL history with an overall record of 170 wins. Greg Hanlon is an editor at People magazine who has written for Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and Slate. His writing has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing. He was a 2015 finalist in national reporting for The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. He is the co-author of Watch My Smoke: The Eric Dickerson Story. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support
Our guest today is Tim Neville, a travel and adventure writer for the New York Times, Outside, Men's Journal, and SKI Magazine. His work has been included in anthologies like “Best American Travel Writing,” “Best American Sports Writing,” and “Best Food Writing.” He's traveled to roughly 90 countries and was named travel writer of the year in 2015. he joins us today from his home in Bend, Ore. Learn more about him on his website, or follow in on Instagram @Tim_Neville.
We surf waves, climb mountains, and dive into odorous media mixed zones with Elliott Almond. He has earned a reputation as one of the top Olympic writers and sports investigative reporters during his adventurous career of nearly 50 years. Elliott explains how Edwin Moses led him to break a major story about steroids before the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. He recalls the bunker mentality needed to report on the tragic death of Hank Gathers. Why did Marion Jones talk to Elliott after a failed relay despite despising him? Hear about the craziness of writing about figure skating on deadline, how surfing with quarterback Todd Marinovich led to Elliott taking the Wonderlic test, and how climber Alex Honnold paused to provide a unique perspective. And there's the time a Secret Service agent pointed a gun at Elliott when he was chasing Richard Nixon . . . For nearly 50 years, Almond has been a sports journalist on the West Coast, noted for his enterprise work and Olympic coverage at the Los Angeles Times (1974-1996), the Seattle Times (1996-98), and the San Jose Mercury News (1998-2021). He has been recognized by such organizations as the Associated Press Sports Editors, Best American Sports Writing, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Elliott has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times. He is currently an outdoor columnist for the Cascadia Daily News in the Pacific Northwest. Elliott covered 14 Summer and Winter Olympics, as well as the 1999 and 2007 Pan American Games. His investigative work includes reporting on the BALCO drug scandal, steroids in international track and field, Gathers' death, Magic Johnson and the issue of HIV, and cheating in college sports at Washington, USC, UCLA, and UNLV. He wrote about such diverse subjects as the Tour de France, social issues in sports such as abuse in women's sports, crime in college and professional sports, and concussions and the consequences of traumatic brain injuries. A life-long surfer, Almond spent much of his youth traveling the Southern California and Baja California coastlines. He is the author of the book “Surfing: Mastering Waves from Basic to Intermediate.” From 2009-13, Elliott was an instructor for San Jose State University, where he served as an editor overseeing the production of a broadsheet newspaper by teenagers participating in a high school journalism workshop. Elliott graduated from California State-Fullerton in 1975 with bachelor's degrees in communications and political science. He completed a master's program, except for the dissertation, at California State-Long Beach. Follow him on Twitter: @ElliottAlmond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Take a trip around the world with Alexander Wolff, one of the most lyrical writers of his era. He shares some gems from chronicling basketball's international growth during his 36 years at Sports Illustrated. We're in a car with him, Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra at 3 a.m. We tag along to remote Asia where royalty wasn't keen on man-to-man D. We hear about Jerry Tarkanian making an offer that Alex refused. Go to Tobacco Road and learn the differences between Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski. Alex recounts the college version of Michael Jordan, and how MJ helped spread hoops around the planet. We also talk a little football as Alex explains the backstory of his open letter to The U and its blowback from outraged Miami fans. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame recognized Wolff with its 2011 Curt Gowdy Media Award for lifetime contributions to the game as a print journalist. Alex joined Sports Illustrated as a researcher in September 1980 after earning a bachelor's degree in history with honors from Princeton, where he had served as a freelance writer for the Trenton Times. Wolff became a writer at SI in 1982, at age 25, and the magazine named him a senior writer in 1985. Besides basketball, Wolff also covered the Olympics, the World Cup, the World Series, every Grand Slam tennis event, and the Tour de France before leaving Sports Illustrated and SI.com in 2016 as the longest-tenured writer on staff. He reported from China, Cuba, Russia and Iran, and often wrote about issues where and sports and society intersect. Wolff's work has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing, Best Sports Stories, Sports Illustrated's Fifty Years of Great Writing, and The Princeton Anthology of Writing. In 1996, Alex collaborated with Hoop Dreams filmmakers Peter Gilbert and Steve James to make Team of Broken Dreams, which detailed the impact of the Yugoslav crisis on basketball players from the Balkans. The documentary, based on one of Wolff's Sports Illustrated articles and broadcast on NBC, was nominated for an Emmy and won the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Media Award. When he served as president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Wolff helped found the USBWA's Full Court Press journalism scholarship and seminar program. He is the former owner of the now defunct Vermont Frost Heaves, which won American Basketball Association championships in 2007 and 2008. Wolff is the author or co-author of seven books about basketball: Wolf also edited and introduced a collection of basketball writing for the Library of America in 2018 called “Basketball: Great Writing about America's Game.” “Endpaper: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home” is Wolff's latest book, published in 2021. He explores the lives of his grandfather and father, who were both born in Germany and later became American citizens. Check out Alex's website: https://alexanderwolff.com/ Read articles that Alex wrote for Sports Illustrated: https://alexanderwolff.com/stories-for-sports-illustrated/ Follow him on Twitter: @alexander_wolff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by John U. Bacon, author of The Greatest Comeback: How Team Canada Fought Back, Took the Summit Series, and Reinvented Hockey.. John U. Bacon is the author of the national bestseller The Great Halifax Explosion and five bestselling books about college football, including Three and Out, Fourth and Long, Endzone, and Bo's Lasting Lessons, co-authored with Michigan coach Bo Schembechler. A former feature writer for the Detroit News, his writing has been recognized three times in The Best American Sports Writing series. He appears often on NPR and national television, including ESPN's 2019 documentary series on college football. He has taught at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the University of Michigan. A popular public speaker, he lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and son. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who doesn't love booty? Finding gear on a route can make a climber's day, but what are the best practices for finding the owner's gear? Court's in order for your friendly podcast hosts as they debate the finer points of booty while litigating one listener's story of being accused of not doing enough to return booty to its “rightful” owner. Our main guest today is Jeff Jackson, aka “Jefe.” Jeff is easily one of climbing's most prolific route developers and greatest writers and storytellers. A former editor of Rock and Ice magazine and successful screenplay writer, Jeff currently teaches creative writing at the University of Hawaii Maui College. While living on Maui, Jeff has helped develop hundreds of new rock climbs and crags. Some of the more famous routes of his career, however, are located in Mexico and include El Sendero Luminoso in El Potrero Chico and El Gavilan on La Popa, which happens to be the subject of a new climbing film. Last and certainly least, “Whose PSSAT is this anyway?” returns for today's final bit. Show Notes Read “Paradox of Paradise,” by Jeff Jackson, which was originally published by Rock and Ice and appeared in Best American Sports Writing 2019. Read “A Climber's Ghost Story, Unexplained,” also by Jefe. Check out the trailer for the new El Gavilan film by Savannah Cummins. Become a RunOut Rope Gun! Support our podcast and increase your RunOut runtime. Bonus episodes, AMA, and more will be available to our Rope Guns. Thank you for your support! http://patreon.com/runoutpodcastContact us Send ideas, voicemail, feedback and more. andrew@runoutpodcast.com // chris@runoutpodcast.com
Johnette Howard has never been afraid to stand her ground while reporting and writing about sports for four decades. Hear what she told Bill Laimbeer and Kirby Puckett when they challenged her early in her career. Howard has also always followed her curiosity, which has led her to craft award-winning stories and best-selling books. She tells us about hockey goons, the Bad Boy Pistons, and dramatic Olympic moments that remain seared in her memory. She also takes us to Centre Court at Wimbledon, and through the years with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova – a rivalry unparalleled in sports. We finish by going from tennis to beyond with Howard as she recounts how Billie Jean King impacted sports and life for women everywhere. Howard worked as a columnist and on-air commentator for ESPN.com (2008-17), a general sports columnist for Newsday (1999-2009), and a columnist and enterprise writer for The Washington Post (1993-94). She was a senior writer for The National Sports Daily (1989-91) and Sports Illustrated (1994-98) after beginning her career at the Detroit Free Press (1982-89 and 1991-93) as an NBA and Olympics writer. Her long-form articles have been collected in nine anthologies, including “Best American Sports Writing of the 20th Century,” Sports Illustrated's “Great Football Writing,” and “A Kind of Grace: A Treasury of Sports Writing by Women.” Her newspaper columns for Newsday were nominated for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in general commentary. Besides ESPN, she has also frequently appeared on radio and television for NPR, CNN, HBO, FOX, BBC TV, and Spike TV. She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Athletic, Slate, The Times of London, House & Garden, Architectural Digest, and Golf for Women. Howard collaborated with Billie Jean King on King's autobiography, "All in", which was released in August 2021 and debuted at No. 5 on The New York Times Best-Seller List. The Christian Science Monitor called “All In” the best sports book of the year, and The Washington Post named it one of the 50 notable non-fiction books of 2021. She is also author of the book “The Rivals: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship,” which was published in 2005. Howard has won national and local recognition from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Best American Sports Writing (five times), the Women's Sports Foundation, the New York Headline Club, Long Island Press Association. Howard's account on Twitter: @JohnetteHoward Her website: www.johnettehoward.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Acclaimed long-form writer Tom Junod takes us behind “Untold,” the massive, 30,000-word immersive story of ‘the most dangerous player in the history of college football' recently released by ESPN Magazine. ESPN senior writer Tom Junod has written some of the most enduring and widely read longform journalism of the last 30 years. He joined ESPN in 2016 and has specialized in deeply reported stories on subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali's funeral to Tom Brady's desire to play forever. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on “The Hero of Goodall Park,” an E60 Film on the ancient secrets that were revealed when a car drove on a baseball field in Maine during a Babe Ruth League game in 2018. In his most recent story for ESPN, “Untold,” he and ESPN investigative reporter Paula Lavigne spent nearly two years uncovering the horrifiic crimes of Todd Hodne, a Penn State football player who in the late 1970s terrorized State College PA and Long Island NY as a serial sexual predator. Before coming to ESPN, Junod wrote for GQ and Esquire, where he won two National Magazine Awards and was a finalist for the award a record 11 times. For Esquire's 75th Anniversary, the editors of the magazine selected his 9/11 story “The Falling Man' as one of the seven top stories in Esquire's history. in 2019, his story on beloved children's TV host Fred Rogers, “Can You Say…Hero?,” served as the basis for the movie “A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys. His work has been widely anthologized in collections including The Best American Magazine Writing, the Best American Sports Writing, the Best American Political Writing, the Best American Crime Writing, and the Best American Food Writing. He has also written for The Atlantic. Junod has won a James Beard Award for an essay about his mother's cooking, and is working on a memoir about his father for Doubleday. Born and raised on Long Island, he lives in Marietta, GA with his wife Janet, his daughter Nia and his pit bull Dexter. Hosted by Jaci Clement, CEO and Executive Director, Fair Media Council. FMC Fast Chat is the podcast of the Fair Media Council. www.fairmediacouncil.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Acclaimed long-form writer Tom Junod takes us behind “Untold,” the massive, 30,000-word immersive story of ‘the most dangerous player in the history of college football' recently released by ESPN Magazine. ESPN senior writer Tom Junod has written some of the most enduring and widely read longform journalism of the last 30 years. He joined ESPN in 2016 and has specialized in deeply reported stories on subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali's funeral to Tom Brady's desire to play forever. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on “The Hero of Goodall Park,” an E60 Film on the ancient secrets that were revealed when a car drove on a baseball field in Maine during a Babe Ruth League game in 2018. In his most recent story for ESPN, “Untold,” he and ESPN investigative reporter Paula Lavigne spent nearly two years uncovering the horrifiic crimes of Todd Hodne, a Penn State football player who in the late 1970s terrorized State College PA and Long Island NY as a serial sexual predator. Before coming to ESPN, Junod wrote for GQ and Esquire, where he won two National Magazine Awards and was a finalist for the award a record 11 times. For Esquire's 75th Anniversary, the editors of the magazine selected his 9/11 story “The Falling Man' as one of the seven top stories in Esquire's history. in 2019, his story on beloved children's TV host Fred Rogers, “Can You Say…Hero?,” served as the basis for the movie “A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys. His work has been widely anthologized in collections including The Best American Magazine Writing, the Best American Sports Writing, the Best American Political Writing, the Best American Crime Writing, and the Best American Food Writing. He has also written for The Atlantic. Junod has won a James Beard Award for an essay about his mother's cooking, and is working on a memoir about his father for Doubleday. Born and raised on Long Island, he lives in Marietta, GA with his wife Janet, his daughter Nia and his pit bull Dexter. Hosted by Jaci Clement, CEO and Executive Director, Fair Media Council. FMC Fast Chat is the podcast of the Fair Media Council. www.fairmediacouncil.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald Freelance journalist Chloé Cooper Jones was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for ''Fearing for His Life,'' a profile of the man who filmed NYPD officers killing Eric Garner. Also a philosophy professor, she has published articles in a wide array of periodicals, including The Believer, GQ, Vice, and New York magazine. She is the recipient of the 2020 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and the 2021 Howard Foundation Grant from Brown University, and her work has been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Sports Writing. A memoir about motherhood, disability, and underlying societal expectations, Easy Beauty follows Jones's painful literal and figurative worldwide journeys to reclaim spaces she'd been denied. Isaac Fitzgerald appears frequently on The Today Show and is the author of the bestselling children's book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (winner of an IACP Award). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Boston Globe and numerous other publications. His debut memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts, is forthcoming in July, 2022. He lives in Brooklyn. (recorded 5/12/2022)
Kathryn Miles is the author of “Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders.” The book, published by Algonquin, officially goes on sale on May 3. “Trailed” is about the 1996 murders of Lolly Winans and Julie Williams. The two young women had entered Virginia's Shenandoah National Park to go on a week-long backcountry camping trip. When they didn't return, park rangers began searching and found a scene of horror at the women's campsite. The murders were never solved. Then, in 2016, on the 20th anniversary of the case, the FBI announced they wanted to reinvestigate. That's when Miles thought she had a magazine story on her hands. “As soon as I started working with the FBI on this case, as soon as I was able to access some of the case files from the court case, it was very obvious to me that this case was much more complicated,” Miles said. “That's when I realized that we weren't talking about a 5,000-word piece here. We were talking about a 100,000-word piece.” This is the second time Miles has been on the podcast. She was a guest on Episode 46 in September 2016, discussing her Boston Globe story about a woman got lost and died while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Miles is the author of five books, including “Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake” and “Super Storm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy.” Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, Outside, the Boston Globe, Politico, and more. She's been anthologized by “Best American Essays” and “Best American Sports Writing.”
Chloé Cooper Jones is a philosophy professor and freelance journalist who was a finalist for a 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing. Her work has appeared in publications including GQ, The Verge, and The Believer, and has been selected for both The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Sports Writing. She lives in Brooklyn. Her debut memoir is called Easy Beauty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
My motto: Any time spent with Vahe Gregorian is time well spent. You'll enjoy this hour with the sports columnist for The Kansas City Star as he shares highlights from his 35-year career. He puts us courtside in historic Allen Fieldhouse for the rivalry between Kansas and Missouri. He takes us to the Dominican Republic for the funeral of Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura. Go with Vahe to the home of Chicago Bears Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers, who was battling dementia before his death. Head to Australia where Vahe went behind the scenes of an agonizing Olympic loss. Spend time with Tom Watson and George Brett, icons of Kansas City. Hear how that city was galvanized in the past decade by the Royals and Chiefs winning championships. And we give a special nod to Vahe's late father, Vartan Gregorian. Vahe Gregorian will be one of five journalists enshrined in the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame this weekend at the Final Four in New Orleans. In 2017-18, he was president of the USBWA, which described him as “the ultimate teammate among his colleagues and a role model among his peers.” Gregorian has been sports columnist for The Kansas City Star since 2013 after spending 25 years covering a variety of sports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has covered 10 Olympics, three World Series, a Super Bowl, 22 Final Fours and multiple college football bowl games since the late 1980s. In 2017, the Associated Press Sports Editors named Vahe the national winner for column writing for large market newspapers. He earned another top 10 columnist award from the APSE in 2016, and his work was also recognized as part of a reporting team that was named one of the top 10 projects for that year. He was a Pulitzer Prize nominee in 2000, won several Football Writers Association of America awards, and has been named Missouri Sports Writer of the Year multiple times. His work has been published in “The Best American Sports Writing.” He has published two books: one about former Northwestern football coach Gary Barnett, and the other about former Michigan State football coach George Perles. Gregorian was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He played varsity football at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1983 with a degree in English. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Missouri in ‘88. In 2004, he was chosen as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he focused on history and the demise of sportsmanship. Follow Vahe Gregorian on Twitter: @vgregorian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mike Sielski is the author of “The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality.” Sielski, a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wanted to tell the basketball superstar's origin story after Bryant died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020. That's a story that takes place mostly in Philadelphia. Sielski interviewed more than 100 people for the book. He was also assisted by long-time friend Jeremy Treatman, who had been an assistant coach and confidant of Bryant's back in Kobe's high school days. At one point, Treatman and Bryant were working on a memoir focused on Kobe's rookie season in the NBA. As a result, Treatman recorded interviews with Bryant on microcassettes during his senior year. The book never happened, and then Treatman lost the cassettes. He found them just before Christmas in 2020, just three months before Sielski's book was due to his publisher. Hearing Kobe's voice as a teenager helped Sielski get more depth and details that he wouldn't have had otherwise, strengthening the narrative of the book. “The Rise” is Sielski's third book. In 2005, he co-wrote “How to Be Like Jackie Robinson” with Pat Williams. His second book, “Fading Echoes: A True Story of Rivalry and Brotherhood From the Football Field to Fields of Honor” was published in 2009. Sielski was voted Best Sports Columnist by the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2015. In 2010, his story “Dream Derailed” was included in “Best American Sports Writing.”
The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast with Ben Guest
There is an alchemy to editing.This is Part 3 of a Four-Part Miniseries on how to PLAN, WRITE, EDIT, and PUBLISH your creative work.My co-host for the series is Greg Larson. Greg has written and edited more than 80 books.In Part 1 we reviewed how to PLAN your book.In Part 2 we reviewed how to WRITE your book.Today we're going to review how to EDIT your book.TRANSCRIPTGreg Larson:Editing is everything that comes afterwards; with writing, that, I think, it's weightlifting. It's just showing up, putting in the reps, and pounding something out. That can be done by anyone who can hit a keyboard or who can write; but editing, I don't know, man; it's a certain alchemy to it, and I have no idea.Ben Guest:Hi, everyone. This is Ben Guest, and today is Part 3 of my Four-Part Miniseries on How to Plan, Write, Edit, and Publish Your Book. Today, Greg Larson and I are talking editing, and specifically, strategies to look at your book with fresh eyes. That's the key in the editing process, to be able to see your book new, and make changes based on seeing it "for the first time."Ben Guest:Greg is the author and editor of more than 80 books, and we discuss his memoir, Clubbie, in this podcast. And we also talk a little bit about my memoir, Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball. Enjoy the episode.Ben Guest:I guess there are two main components to editing. One is self-editing, and the other is working with an editor, either a trusted reader, group of readers, professional editor, et cetera. Let me start with a couple tips and tricks that I use.Greg Larson:Please.Ben Guest:And I got this from a guy named Glen Stout, who has written a number of excellent books, and was the series editor for The Best American Sports Writing, which I read growing up. It was really a seminal introduction to good writing for me. And so anyway, Glen told me, "When you get to a certain point, re-do the entire manuscript in a different font, preferably a font you don't like; and then print it out, and read it in the new font." Because there reaches a point, I think for all of us as writers, where we need to trick ourselves into being able to see the work in a fresh light, as new as we can. So tip or trick number one is, print it out in a different font, different size, et cetera. Yeah.Greg Larson:I love that, because that's... It's so true, man. Those little tricks, you're like, "What the... That's not going to do anything." That kind of s**t really does work. You're going to look at it like it's a completely book, and you're going to see nooks and crannies that you didn't before. I'm stealing the hell out of that times. F**k Times New Roman dude, I'm going Wing Dings on this next draft.Ben Guest:Comic Sans, in 14.Greg Larson:Particularly a font that you don't like, that you don't like. That, I think, is really key. I really like that.Ben Guest:It's great, isn't it?Greg Larson:Yeah.Ben Guest:And the other two, the second one is one that everybody will tell you from the beginning of time, which is to read it out loud. And reading it out loud, you can hear right away if a sentence isn't working.Ben Guest:And then the third one is, and I haven't tried this yet, but, and again, this was Glen recommended this; bought an older Kindle, and these ones you can put a PDF on here, and then do the read aloud function, where it reads it in that computer voice. So it's not an audio book; it's just that kind of funky computer voice that doesn't even know the correct pronunciation or grammar or anything. But by listening to it, say it's similar to printing it out in a funky font; by listening to it like that, and I haven't done this yet, but I'm going to with the memoir that I'm just finishing. Listening to it like that; again, you're hearing it in a new way.Greg Larson:When you said, real quick, the memoir that you're finishing; you're talking about the one you're working with, the basketball?Ben Guest:Oh no, sorry. I should have been clearer. So, I got... That project is, we're right in the middle of just interview, transcription, writing. The memoir is about meditation and coaching basketball. And that one is 95% done. Probably by the time, hopefully, that these podcast episodes come out, it'll be right around the time on publishing that book. So that one's just about done.Greg Larson:Wow.Ben Guest:It just needs a few more things here, and then a copy edit, and then it's good to go.Greg Larson:Dang, I didn't know that you were that close.Ben Guest:I have this phrase, "Are you 90% finished, or are you only 50% finished?" And again, it comes from my filmmaking background of doing documentary, where you just get so lost in the weeds, and you can't tell, "Am I... Is this almost?" And I'm just thinking about every last little bit or, "Eh, it's just not working. I got something, but it just needs, it's going to need a lot more."Ben Guest:And so, for a long time, I was in that, "I think I'm 90% done, but I'm not sure if I'm 50% done." And actually, going back to our episode, writing, what really cracked it open for me was going back and looking at some of the journals I'd kept as a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia, and having some I actual dialogue that I had quoted in my journal, that I could pull out and let the dialogue do the lifting, as we talked about in the writing episode. Because I was telling and not showing.Greg Larson:Yeah.Ben Guest:I was giving a laundry list of experiences that I had had, that sort of led to this epiphany of letting go of control, releasing control of trying to coach a team, and so on and so forth.Ben Guest:So anyway, long story short, it was by finding real-time dialogue that I had in my journal from years ago, that I could plug in that it really, "Okay. Now I'm more than 90% finished, and I just need to polish up a few things."Greg Larson:Yeah. So the previous version was probably a lot of summary, and not as much scene building.Ben Guest:Exactly. It was way too much. I've been working with Glen on this, and it was way too much... And he made the point of, "Okay, you have this background. How did you reach this point where you're letting go of the team, you're into meditation and so forth. How did you get there?" So then I wrote a chapter explaining how I got there. But it's the same thing we talked about last time, if you've got to explain that, you've already fucked up. Explaining it just made it boring. In some cases, I'm talking about being in the Peace Corps 20 years ago in Namibia; how do I make that come alive? And then fortunately, I kept some journals, and I found one of the journals, and bang, I had some dialogue in there that was perfect for what I'm trying to convey.Greg Larson:Backstory as exposition, was something that one of my professors in grad school really hammered in us: sprinkle in where it's necessary, but front-loading it all at the beginning, snoozefest, dude. Nonfiction memoirs in particular, I think make that mistake a lot; way too much background. "I was born in 1924." So nobody gives a s**t, dude, unless you're Teddy Roosevelt or whatever.Ben Guest:And I'm sure we'll get into this more in future episodes, where we talk the business side of it in marketing and promoting. But you have to think about who is the audience and who is the reader?Greg Larson:Yeah.Ben Guest:And I think a lot of times, especially for first-time authors, or for people that have an interesting story to tell, they want to tell their whole life, rather than, and we talked about this before, in the planning stage, there's a point to this writing. There's something you want to communicate. And if it's not related to that, it doesn't need to be in there.Greg Larson:Yes. Writing is entertainment. Even if it's art, it's entertainment. And if it's not entertaining and it's not informing, then what are you doing? It's just a journal.Ben Guest:And why am I reading your book? So going back to the editing process, for me, that's where we're making a reduction. Right? What does that look like for you?Greg Larson:For the handwritten novel that I'm doing, when I finish writing it handwritten, I'm going to have to go to a computer, and I'm going to have to transcribe it. That's like a free edit, because I get to think about it as not being an edit. I'm like, "Oh, I'm just transcribing it." But inevitably, who knows? That might be one of the times where I'm most in the weeds in the book ever, where I have it here on the page, and then I'm typing it on the computer. I've not thought about this out loud, explicitly, but was like, "Oh, will I make obvious changes while I'm doing the transcription?" I think, no. I'm going to honor exactly what's on the page, and I'm just going to write comments on the side for, "Oh, this has to change, because X happens in notebook 10, that kind of thing."Greg Larson:And then, I'm going to let it sit for six weeks. And in that process, I'm going to write something else, something completely different, probably something comedy, funny, silly stuff. And then after six weeks, I will go back through and read it. And I don't know if I'll have a pen in my hand or not, but I'm going to print it out. Not in a funny font yet; not in Wing Dings yet. I'll do that later, but I'm going to print it out and just read it like I'm a reader, and just see what the hell I have. And then, I will go back through, and then it's slash and burn time. I will print it out, and I will cut up different sections, like on a chapter-by-chapter level; I will cut up different sections and pieces of dialogue, and move it around physically, like on the ground. That has been actually really helpful.Ben Guest:What does your file management look like on your computer?Greg Larson:I have a Google Drive with a Notes document. That's just s**t I think of, that is in no order whatsoever. And that's just an ever-growing document. And then, I have a document of the actual prose; and then I have a bunch of articles, all that stuff. They're all in the same folder on Google Drive.Ben Guest:How often are you saving a new version of your draft?Greg Larson:I was just looking this up. I started writing prose in the middle of May, 2016, and I finished writing that first draft on September 1st, I believe. And so, I had a rough draft that included stuff that just said, notes, if you need seen here of what you look like. I left that alone in that document, copied it and pasted it to a new document.Greg Larson:So it is basically, I will start a new document once I've made one pass at the full manuscript; and then I'll just move on from there. I think for Clubbie, I did four heavy duty edits, and then the tweaking proofreading stuff, that who knows how to quantify that. I have no idea.Ben Guest:Yeah. I feel like I don't save enough new drafts. Now I know that I can always go back and find something, but I feel like I probably make a new draft once a week as I'm going through it. But probably need to do it more, just because you have a nice turn of phrase, and then you change it a little bit and then, "Ah, damn. What was that again? I can't remember it exactly."Greg Larson:Yeah. And doing it by a timeline like that, you're... It's arbitrary.Ben Guest:Yeah. Okay. So you said something earlier, that is the most important part of the editing process, which is, with the new book, you're going to put it in a drawer for six weeks, and then pick it up again. And so, those three tips and tricks about seeing the book in a new way that I gave at the beginning, basically, they're all variations of the process of letting it alone until you can see it with new eyes, with fresh eyes again. The author, Peter Olson, I interviewed him a couple months ago, and I asked him, I said, "How long do you like to let a draft sit?" And he said, "However long I let it sit, it's never long enough." And I thought that was the exact right answer. You want to just forget it. You want to forget what you wrote, so you can see it new again.Greg Larson:Yes. I look forward to that a lot, that feeling of... just that feeling of having those notebooks written, and letting it sit in a drawer, and just know that it's complete; the hard part is complete. There's other hard parts, but wow. It exists. Now, it's just a matter of polishing it up, and I'm not going to look at it. It's like waiting for Christmas. The way Stephen King described it, "You're reading something that was written by a soul twin. It feels that you can barely remember it, but it's like somebody who is you, but not you wrote it."Greg Larson:I've been doing yoga a lot lately, and at the end of you have the Shavasana, where you're in the corpse pose, and you're basically unwinding after all of the work of the last hour. I don't know what exactly, but there's something analogous there of, the work is complete; at least this phase, the work is complete. And I get to look back and see what the hell it is that I just created. It's kind of scary.Ben Guest:It's leaving $20 for yourself in your winter coat. And you're going to find it again six months from now. For me, the hardest part, although still fun, is the writing. Once it gets to the editing phase, the absolute hardest part is done. So, in addition to forgetting and then looking forward to what it is you wrote, it's also, this is the easier phase for me. So I can't wait to forget it, so I can rediscover it, and almost pat myself on the back a little bit for doing this well or doing that well. Even though I'm going to be critical about things, it is very much, you look forward to rediscovering your soul twin's work.Greg Larson:Yeah. You can surprise yourself; even us doing the breakdown in the last episode of the revision process for that piece I wrote for Clubbie; even there, I feel a pleasant surprise of, "Oh. I didn't even realize that I did that. That's pretty good." Because I can get really hard on myself, I think, like most authors. Just, "God, I have no idea what I'm doing." And then have to remember, "Nope. Not knowing what you're doing is the most important part of the process."Ben Guest:So, for the self-editing phase, the things we've talked about so far are, putting it in a drawer and letting it sit.Greg Larson:Yeah.Ben Guest:Print it in a different font, read it out loud, let your computer read it out to you. And for me, generally, in the self-editing phase, in addition into just reducing as much as possible, trying to get into the scene as quickly as possible, get out of the scene into the chapter, out of the chapter as quickly as possible. It's also going back to what we were saying earlier, of show, don't tell. Maybe it was the last episode; show, don't tell. I want to be mindful of, "Am I explaining to the audience what it is they should be feeling?" And any time I'm doing that, or nine times out of 10, if I'm doing that, I need to cut it.Greg Larson:Yeah. I talked about what I'm going to do with this handwritten draft; but I just realized going back through these old versions of Clubbie, that when I was banging out a first draft on Google Docs, what I would do immediately when I finished the first draft, once I let it sit for a bit and I went through it, I did the spell check tool. Yes. Spelling and grammar, spelling and grammar check. And I just accepted everything it told me. So then, all of a sudden I have this garbled mess. And when I accept everything it tells me, boom, all of a sudden it's like a new draft. And then I formatted it, and it's boom, it's like a new draft. And without doing any cognitive work whatsoever, I just gave myself a revision; and it felt like a free step-up. That was all... I had forgotten that I did that until I looked back.Greg Larson:But that was a really cheap way of getting a pat on the back for, "Oh, I already did a revision." And then I try to keep it to global stuff. If I get, even in the first revision, if I get too in the weeds of... If I get too into polishing weeds of every single word in the sentence, I will get lost. So I try to keep it global content edits first, of, "Oh s**t, I have a placeholder for content here. Let me just bang something out real quick." I try to do that, and then I try to do a full pass of content restructuring, organizing. And then when I go back through, then it's, "Okay. Now we're deep into polishing by sentence and word." And that takes who knows how many passes; a half dozen passes, maybe more sometimes.Ben Guest:Hi, everyone. Ben here with a quick commercial break, which is for Greg's company.Greg Larson:This episode is brought to you by Self-Publishing Sherpa. If you're a busy entrepreneur, coach or consultant, and you'd like to grow your business with a book, let's talk. Yes, this is Greg Larson, the guest of this episode, and here's the deal. Writing a good book is easy; but good books don't grow your business. Writing a great book that attracts new clients is hard, really hard. Editing is even harder. Add in cover design, interior layout, publishing and marketing, and it's enough to keep you from writing a single word at all.Greg Larson:Whether you already have your manuscript finished, or you haven't written since high school, let our team of experts handle everything for you in six months. Yes, just six months, you'll go from book idea to holding your book in your hands, ready to make you money. To learn more, visit self-publishingsherpa.com, where you can schedule a free no sales, extra nonsense BS call, a free outlining call to get started. That's self-publishingsherpa.com.Ben Guest:So that polishing phase, that refining every sentence, shaving syllables. What does that look like for you?Greg Larson:That's the point at which I start reading out loud. I don't read out loud until then. That's when I start reading out loud, and I just try to listen for things that get stuck in my throat; just for things that on a gut level, if I find myself trying to read past it too quickly, that's indicative of me trying to shoo something away from work. That's the only thing I know, dude. It's hard.Ben Guest:Mm-hmm (affirmative). I can spend two minutes on, "Da, da, da, said Greg."Greg Larson:Right.Ben Guest:Versus, "Da, da, da, Greg said."Greg Larson:Yes.Ben Guest:And so, for me, it's just... And actually, this probably goes back to being an English teacher. I don't want to repeat words, especially in a paragraph. I want to have a nice rhythm. And then the icing on the cake, is if I can have a little bit of alliteration or assonance in there, I'm going to sprinkle that in there. But it's that spooky process of, you're 1/3 aware of what you're doing, and 2/3 unaware.Greg Larson:This is the spookiest part of the process, the most unexplainable part of what exactly are you doing when you're doing those final polishes?Ben Guest:Yep. And so, another thing that I do, and I'm just going to open it on my computer so I can tell everybody. So I... Your computer has a dictionary. And I did this years ago. I uploaded Webster's dictionary from like 1910. So you can find the file, and upload it to your computer dictionary.Greg Larson:Huh.Ben Guest:You can upload any dictionary that's out there. And so, it's this great old-time dictionary, that if I get stuck, if I need a synonym, I'll punch a word into the dictionary, and see what comes up. So for example, in this autobiography that I'm working on with a retired NBA player, he played college at the University of North Carolina. And Dean Smith, his college coach, is sort of the hero of the book. And so, I'm working on the chapter about freshman year, University of North Carolina, and I'm going online and looking at photos of Chapel Hill, and trying to figure out how to describe it.Ben Guest:It's got Georgian architecture. And so, I just put Georgian in the dictionary, and stately comes up. And so now, stately, "Oh, that's a great word. I never would've thought of that." Now I put stately in there, and it's majestic. And then, in this Webster's dictionary, it gives you a famous quote. So it's a Shakespeare quote. "Here is a stately style, indeed." Shakespeare was always using alliteration.Ben Guest:So now, the stately campus of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, majestic and grand. I got it all from... It started with Georgian architecture, punched it into the old-timey dictionary, came up with stately, and then definition of stately included majestic and grand. Now I have my words that are a little bit different than I would have used if I'm just trying to come up with it on my own.Greg Larson:You're using the Mac, the home dictionary, the utilities dictionary that comes with the operating system?Ben Guest:Yeah. The way that I heard about this, is the famous author and writing teacher, John McPhee had a dictionary that he used. And actually, John McPhee published a book about three or four years ago called Draft No. Four, where he goes into this whole process. And it was in one of those articles that he mentioned this dictionary. So, let me see... So, the dictionary that comes with your computer, if you're on a Mac, is the New Oxford American Dictionary. Right? So this is my screen, and this is the New... If I click on dictionary, this is the New Oxford Dictionary.Greg Larson:Yeah.Ben Guest:But I added Webster's, and I got it from John McPhee, Webster's Revised, Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.Greg Larson:I like to use Desk Dictionary.Ben Guest:What's that? Tell me about that.Greg Larson:Webster's II New Riverside Desk Dictionary. Honestly, I like it just because the content is pretty thin; each entry is pretty short. But what I like about it is the size and the weight are perfect. I can... It's easy to carry. It's easy right here. And it's packed with enough words that it's very useful.Ben Guest:Yeah. So much of art is about making connections. And so, when we're talking about writing and editing and sentence construction, and really drilling down on what's the right word and the right sentence, I need to make a connection to a word that I'm not normally going to think of.Greg Larson:Yes.Ben Guest:So having a dictionary that has a bunch of words in it that are slightly out of time, so 1913, Webster's 1913 Dictionary, it's going to find words that I wouldn't normally associate with this other word that I'm trying to figure out, what's a synonym to use.Greg Larson:Yes. Yeah. The thesaurus work is done for you, just in the definitions.Ben Guest:Okay. So that's the self-editing process. Now, working with an editor; and you've done both. You've been an editor and a book coach, and you've worked with an editor. What are your thoughts about that?Greg Larson:As an author, I won't go to an editor until I'm at the copy, edit, and proofreading stage. When I say, "All right, I've polished it to the point where it's as good as I could possibly make it right now, in this stage of my career." If I... Okay. So my copy editor for Clubbie, she was amazing, Amanda Jackson. She gave me a lot of really good sentence-by-sentence, just grammatical stuff that needed to be changed; that was necessary and good.Greg Larson:But what she also did was she pointed out two really important narrative discrepancies, where she said, "Hold on a minute. This scene that happens on page 125, makes it seem like you are the messy roommate with your girlfriend. But the corresponding scene on page 74 makes it seem like it's the other way around. It's okay if there's a discrepancy there, but as a reader, it's confusing without at least a little bit of explanation."Greg Larson:And I was like, "Oh, s**t. Me just putting the facts forward, or putting the scene forward wasn't enough. I actually needed... We were talking about nine times out of 10, you don't need it. That was one of the one times out of 10 that I actually did need to explain a little bit more. And she pointed that out. And then she also pointed out that my ending was confusing. It still might be confusing; that the ending made it seem like I was going forward in time, instead of a flashback in time. And I was like, "Oh God. I didn't know that." Those two insights alone, even if I took away all the commas and all that kind of s**t, were well worth the entire... Those two insights were worth everything that she did for me.Ben Guest:Yeah. I think the two non-negotiables in writing and publishing your book are a thorough copy edit, and a good cover design.Greg Larson:Yeah.Ben Guest:Those are the things that you pretty much have to spend money on. It doesn't have to be a lot of money, but you need to allocate resources, in terms of money, for those two things.Greg Larson:Yes. If I'm thinking about self-publishing, if you have a publisher and a contract with them, royalties, all that kind of stuff, they'll take care of it. But if I'm talking about self-publishing, I'm thinking if you want to do it right, you have to be allotting $5,000 to those parts of the process, combined. Copy edits, that might be $500 to $1,000. Cover design might be $4k to $5k, something like that. $5k is minimum to get a high quality design like that.Ben Guest:So for me, in the editing process, working with an outside editor, I love... And this goes back to being in the film world. I love to work with an editor when I have final... I hate to work with an editor when they have final cut. So, in filmmaking, that means somebody's writing the check, then they're going to have... If a company or an organization has hired you to make a film about what they do, they have final say over the product. And that for me, I don't like not being able to control the final output. But when someone is giving you feedback, and then you can decide, or I can decide, "Okay. I am going to incorporate this feedback." Or, "I understand what they're saying, but I'm still going to make this choice, a different choice." That's when I feel really comfortable, and it's like having a great dance partner, when you're working with a good editor.Greg Larson:Yeah. Dude, I couldn't agree more; if I couldn't have final say. There was one thing that actually came up. Okay. Yeah. When I was doing the copy editing process, my copy editor changed a lot of my... She put in a lot of semicolons that were necessary. It's okay, two independent, but related clauses. Yes. Technically, that's supposed to be a semicolon. But every... I was like, "There are no semicolons in a minor league baseball clubhouse. This does not fit the ethos of this world."Greg Larson:So, by the book, technically you have it. But for the world that we've created, it's wrong. And luckily, my publisher and my editor were on board with that, and understood my explanation. I just cannot imagine these pieces of dialogue with semicolons instead of m-dashes; because that was my go-to; anywhere there would be a semicolon, it would be an m-dash. It just keeps the things, keeps stuff moving. But that's the kind of thing that you have to look out for in an editor; because their job is to be buttoned up and more binary. And you have to be on their ass; sometimes, it's not binary.Ben Guest:Yeah. If I'm editing, I want to point out you're making a choice here.Greg Larson:Yes.Ben Guest:Okay, great. You're a choice to use an m-dash instead of a semicolon. A good editor is helping you realize, "Did you realize that you're making a choice here?" And then, if you realized it, you're good with it. Half the time, it's, "Oh, s**t. I didn't realize I was making that choice. And that's actually not what I want." So to me, a good editor is pointing out, "Okay. Just want to make sure you were consciously intending to do this, or you're consciously making a choice to do this."Greg Larson:Yeah. That's where I was a professional editor only. There's a reason why I do book coaching instead and some ghost writing, although not as much. I'm just not, how to put it; I'm just not good at it. I can see through so much of proofreading. It gets in the way of the flow. Proofreading is necessary for the layout, but in copy editing, so much of proper copy editing gets in the way of the narrative flow. It's like stuff... I don't know, man. I think it should be sloppier than that, at least for my stuff. Again, the New Yorker, they're all buttoned up, all that; but you've seen the stuff I write. I like to chunk things together, and there's fragments all over the place. And I like that because it's, that's the flow.Ben Guest:One of the things that we keep coming back to, is the idea of juxtaposition, counterpoint. And so again, my training initially is in filmmaking; and the best book on film editing is called In the Blink of an Eye. You have a hierarchy of when to make a cut. The second level is to match Sam Jackson's holding a coffee cup in his left hand in scene A, and we cut to the over-the-shoulder shot. He needs to be holding the coffee cup in his left hand in scene B. But more important than matching continuity, is cutting for emotion. So if this cut, even if something is wrong in terms of continuity, but fits the emotion, then you cut for emotion. And what you're talking about is ultimately our job as writers, is to engage the reader. We're writing to create hopefully, an emotion in the reader. And that has to come necessarily before, "Is the semicolon here correct?"Greg Larson:Yes. And we have an advantage over a filmmaker, that we can change the scene if we want to.Ben Guest:Yes.Greg Larson:So we-Ben Guest:We can change the content.Greg Larson:We can put the cup in the metaphorical correct hand, and we can get the emotion right.Ben Guest:Exactly. Okay. Those are my thoughts on editing. Any more tips and tricks, any other thoughts on editing?Greg Larson:Here's the framework that I give my clients for self-editing; and it's just really, I call it the GLOW framework. You start four rounds, global edits, line-by-line edits, out loud edits, work with a professional.Ben Guest:I love that framework.Greg Larson:And then you have framework that glows.Ben Guest:I love that framework. Okay. I think that's the all I've got on editing.Greg Larson:Yeah. If I said anything else about editing, I'd be talking out of my ass even more. It's pure alchemy.Ben Guest:That's Part Three, The Editing Process. Next week, Part Four, Publishing Your Book. If you enjoyed this content, please subscribe to my weekly newsletter and podcast, at benbo.subststack.com. That's benbo.substack.com. B-E-N-B-O.substack.com. Have a great day This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benbo.substack.com
The Football History Dude is part of the https://sportshistorynetwork.com/ (Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear). NETWORK SPONSORS https://sportshistorynetwork.com/row1/ (Row One) - the vintage shop for sports history fans! EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, we get into the "rise and fall" of the National Women's Football League with authors of a recently released book - https://amzn.to/3Ith23g (Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League.) HAIL MARY is the story of the girl gridders who took America by storm. The women who thousands of people came to watch—perhaps to gawk at first but then, in the end, to cheer. Readers will meet Marcella Sanborn, the thirty-nine-year-old Clevelander who, in between raising her sixteen-year-old daughter and the hours she put in as a supply supervisor at the Ohio Bell Company, saw an announcement in the paper for a try out for a new women's football team and thought—as so many women had before her—Why not? There was Linda Jefferson, the best halfback to ever play the game, who had five straight seasons with the Toledo Troopers where she rushed for over 1,000 yards and averaged 14.4 yards per carry. She would go on to become the first Black woman inducted into the Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame and one of only four women in the American Football Association Hall of Fame. Rose Low of the Los Angeles Dandelions, a first-generation Chinese American and multisport athlete, legitimized the game during TV appearances alongside Billie Jean King. Then there is the highlight of the NWFL's most successful team—the Troopers, the winningest team in pro football history, men's or women's, and Trooper Mitchi Collette, a legend in the sport who has kept a women's football team going in Toledo for over fifty years. Get ahttps://www.newspapers.com/freetrial/?xid=2229&duration=semiannual&subtype=extra&ft=true ( 1-week free trial )and learn about this week's topic from first-hand accounts at Newspapers.com. Your paid subscription helps the production of this podcast and the other shows on the Sports History Network. AUTHOR BIOS Britni de la Cretaz is a freelance writer who focuses on the intersection of sports and gender. They are the former sports columnist for Longreads and for Bitch Media. Their work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, espnW, Vogue, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, The Atlantic, and more. Their work on racism in Boston sports media received the 2017 Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism from the Transformative Culture Project, and that story was also a Notable Story in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing. Their writing on the queer history of women's baseball for Narratively was nominated for a prestigious baseball writing award, the 2019 SABR Analytics Research Award. They live in the Boston area. Lyndsey D'Arcangelo writes about women's college basketball and the WNBA for The Athletic. Her articles, columns and profiles on female/LGBTQ+ athletes have previously appeared in The Ringer, Deadspin, espnW/ESPN, Teen Vogue, The Buffalo News, The Huffington Post, NBC OUT and more. She received a Notable Mention in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing anthology for her story, “My Father, Trump and The Buffalo Bills.” Lyndsey lives in Buffalo, NY. THE FOOTBALL HISTORY DUDE BACKGROUND https://sportshistorynetwork.com/podcasts/the-football-history-dude/ (The Football History Dude) is a show dedicated to teaching NFL fans about the rich history of the game we all know and love. I'm your host, Arnie Chapman, and I'm just a regular dude that loves football and is a nerd when it comes to learning about history. I created this show to share the gridiron knowledge nuggets I gain from researching various topics about the history of the National Football League. Each episode I welcome you to climb aboard my DeLorean to travel back in time to explore the...
In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Renowned for his ''signature blend of deep reportage and character-driven storytelling (The New York Times Book Review),'' Mark Bowden is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He is the author of 15 bestselling books of investigative journalism, including Blackhawk Down, adapted by Ridley Scott into a popular film; Killing Pablo, winner of the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for book of the year; The Three Battles of Wanat, a collection of his best long-form essays; and Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battle as told by participants from both sides. A contributor to National Geographic, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other periodicals, Matthew Teague is a former international and national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He is executive producer of the 2021 feature film Our Friend, and his writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Best American Travel Writing, Best American Crime Writing, and Best American Sports Writing. In The Steal, Bowden and Teague detail the 64 days in which Donald Trump and his allies attempted to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election. Employing detailed research, never-before-shared first-person accounts, and reports from all over the country, it offers a thorough account of this unprecedented attack on U.S. democracy. (recorded 1/12/2022)
In this episode I have a great conversation with Matt Crossman about doing hard things and the reason it is important to face challenges outside your comfort zone. Matt is passionate about the topic of developing grit and discipline. We talk about how shared suffering in a group environment forges deep relationships. Matt has been a journalist for 27 years and has written for a variety of publications including NASCAR.com, Success Magazine, and Cowboys and Indians Magazine. Matt has written over 50 cover stories for national magazines and has been cited by Best American Sports Writing and Best American Essays a combined eight times. Matt has won dozens of awards from regional, state, and national organizations, including writer of the year from the National Motorsports Press Associations twice. He is the only writer in the 125-year history of The Sporting News to appear on the cover. He has been married for 12 years and has two kids, 15 and 12. Connect with Matt: Website: mattcrossman.com Join Matt's Newsletter: https://mattcrossman.substack.com/ MABA summary 100 Burpee Challenge: https://mattcrossman.substack.com/p/happy-world-burpee-day My story on F3 from Men's Health: https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a25799601/f3-workouts-for-men/ My hole in one story (though you already know the best part!) https://issuu.com/mcrossman/docs/tgj-7-the-quest If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? Your feedback is important to me and it would also take less than 60 seconds and make a difference in getting those hard-to-get guests as we expand our reach. Join the Do Hard Things Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/158988156090630 Follow the Do Hard Things Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dohardthingspodcast/ Join The Forge Community: https://www.jaytiegs.com/offers/Xoozz5sR/checkout Connect with Jay: Website: www.jaytiegs.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/sjtiegs LinkedIn:
Britni de la Cretaz is a freelance writer who focuses on the intersection of sports and gender. They are the former sports columnist for Longreads and for Bitch Media. Their work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, espnW, Vogue, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, The Atlantic, and more. Their work on racism in Boston sports media received the 2017 Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism from the Transformative Culture Project, and that story was also a Notable Story in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing. Their writing on the queer history of women's baseball for Narratively was nominated for a prestigious baseball writing award, the 2019SABR Analytics Research Award. Lyndsey D'Arcangelo writes about women's college basketball and the WNBA forThe Athletic. Her articles, columns and profiles on female/LGBTQ+ athletes have previously appeared in The Ringer, Deadspin, espnW/ESPN, TeenVogue, The Buffalo News, The Huffington Post, NBC OUT and more. She received a Notable Mention in the 2018 BestAmerican Sports Writing anthology for her story, “My Father, Trump and The Buffalo Bills.” Lyndsey lives in Buffalo, NY. Britni and Lyndsey joined us to discuss their new book, HAIL MARY: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League. In their captivating book, they share the little-known, yet utterly fascinating story of the rise and fall of the National Women's Football League (NWFL), told through the players whose spirit, rivalries, and tenacity carried the league and furthered the legacy of women in sports. ___ Fluffy by Smith The Mister https://smiththemister.bandcamp.com Smith The Mister https://bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/stm-fluffy Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/OM9G3nyLT_w --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thebloompod/support
Chris Jones is an accomplished author, including writing for Esquire and ESPN. His work has also appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing and The Best American Sports Writing anthologies. Jones has a new book called "The Eye Test: The case for human creativity in the age of analytics." Jones joins to talk about Kirk Cousins and why he has an incredible quarterback rating but the Minnesota Vikings haven't won as much as you would expect compared to other quarterbacks with similar numbers. Jones uses examples from his book to try to hunt for an answer to this confusing question. Is it just the defense? Or is it something beyond the numbers? Get your football tickets at TickPick.com/insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tommy Tomlinson is a Journalist, Author and Podcaster and tells us why "you should keep your word"; how "life is like baseball" and why shouldn't "spend time with jerks". Hosted by Duff Watkins About Tommy Tomlinson Tommy Tomlinson spent 15 years as a prize-winning local columnist for the Charlotte Observer. He writes for magazines including Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, ESPN the Magazine, Southern Living, Our State and many others. He has also written for websites including Sports on Earth and ESPN.com. His stories were chosen for the books “Best American Sports Writing 2012” and “America's Best Newspaper Writing.” In 2005, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary. He has also taught writing at Queens University in Charlotte and at workshops across the country. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and was a 2008-09 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Tommy hosts a podcast called SouthBound, which he started in fall 2017 in collaboration with WFAE, the NPR station in Charlotte. It's an interview show where he talks to notable Southerners about how this part of the world shapes who they are and what they do. Episode Notes Lesson 1: Keep your word. Do what you're say you're going to do. Be where you say you're going to be 09m 38s. Lesson 2: Life is baseball. You'll take some losses 12m 40s. Lesson 3: What works in the short term rarely works in the long term 15m 48s. Lesson 4: Endings are more important than beginnings 18m 13s. Lesson 5: Look up at the world, not down at your phone 21m 06s. Lesson 6: The easiest way to get out of a rut is to change your routines 25m 45s. Lesson 7: When you can choose, don't spend time with jerks 30m 42s. Lesson 8: Nobody dies wishing they'd worked more36m 00s. Lesson 9: Call home on your sister's birthday (h/t Jason Isbell) 38m 46s. Lesson 10: Nobody does great work alone 41m 27s.
American football emerged in the last decades of the 19th century; today it is the most popular sport in the country, watched and played by millions of people — and at the professional level, generating billions of dollars in revenue — each year. While women's involvement in football has grown in more recent years, it is historically a sport played almost exclusively by men. But in 1967, a Cleveland businessman had an idea to start an American football league for women. Was it a publicity stunt to garner attention and entertain folks, much in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters? Or was it something more? In their book Hail Mary, authors Britni de la Cretaz & Lyndsey D'Arcangelo share the little-known story of the players behind the National Women's Football League that had a brief but bright life in the early 1970s. Hail Mary introduces us to the hard-playing, passionate women athletes who comprised teams like the L.A. Dandelions and the Toledo Troopers, names that most of us have never heard before. In the 115th episode of Town Hall's In the Moment podcast, Maggie Mertens interviews de la Cretaz and D'Arcangelo about the players who transcended a gimmick with grit, tenacity, and pure athleticism. Britni de la Cretaz is a freelance writer who focuses on the intersection of sports and gender. They are the former sports columnist for Longreads and for Bitch Media. Their work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, espnW, Vogue, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, The Atlantic, and more. Their work on racism in Boston sports media received the 2017 Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism from the Transformative Culture Project, and that story was also a Notable Story in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing. Their writing on the queer history of women's baseball for Narratively was nominated for a prestigious baseball writing award, the 2019 SABR Analytics Research Award. Lyndsey D'Arcangelo writes about women's college basketball and the WNBA forThe Athletic. Her articles, columns, and profiles on female/LGBTQ+ athletes have previously appeared in The Ringer, Deadspin, espnW/ESPN, TeenVogue, The Buffalo News, The Huffington Post, NBC OUT, and more. She received a Notable Mention in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing anthology for her story, “My Father, Trump and The Buffalo Bills.” Maggie Mertens is a writer, journalist, and editor located in Seattle. Her essays and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, ESPNw, The Guardian, Deadspin, VICE, Glamour, and others. Her work has been anthologized in Women and Sports in the United States, and is forthcoming in The Year's Best Sportswriting 2021. She edits and writes a regular column on sports and gender for The South Seattle Emerald. Buy the Book—Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League from Bold Type Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.
American football emerged in the last decades of the 19th century; today it is the most popular sport in the country, watched and played by millions of people — and at the professional level, generating billions of dollars in revenue — each year. While women's involvement in football has grown in more recent years, it is historically a sport played almost exclusively by men. But in 1967, a Cleveland businessman had an idea to start an American football league for women. Was it a publicity stunt to garner attention and entertain folks, much in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters? Or was it something more? In their book Hail Mary, authors Britni de la Cretaz & Lyndsey D'Arcangelo share the little-known story of the players behind the National Women's Football League that had a brief but bright life in the early 1970s. Hail Mary introduces us to the hard-playing, passionate women athletes who comprised teams like the L.A. Dandelions and the Toledo Troopers, names that most of us have never heard before. In the 115th episode of Town Hall's In the Moment podcast, Maggie Mertens interviews de la Cretaz and D'Arcangelo about the players who transcended a gimmick with grit, tenacity, and pure athleticism. Britni de la Cretaz is a freelance writer who focuses on the intersection of sports and gender. They are the former sports columnist for Longreads and for Bitch Media. Their work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, espnW, Vogue, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, The Atlantic, and more. Their work on racism in Boston sports media received the 2017 Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism from the Transformative Culture Project, and that story was also a Notable Story in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing. Their writing on the queer history of women's baseball for Narratively was nominated for a prestigious baseball writing award, the 2019 SABR Analytics Research Award. Lyndsey D'Arcangelo writes about women's college basketball and the WNBA forThe Athletic. Her articles, columns, and profiles on female/LGBTQ+ athletes have previously appeared in The Ringer, Deadspin, espnW/ESPN, TeenVogue, The Buffalo News, The Huffington Post, NBC OUT, and more. She received a Notable Mention in the 2018 Best American Sports Writing anthology for her story, “My Father, Trump and The Buffalo Bills.” Maggie Mertens is a writer, journalist, and editor located in Seattle. Her essays and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, ESPNw, The Guardian, Deadspin, VICE, Glamour, and others. Her work has been anthologized in Women and Sports in the United States, and is forthcoming in The Year's Best Sportswriting 2021. She edits and writes a regular column on sports and gender for The South Seattle Emerald. Buy the Book—Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League from Bold Type Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.
Kim H. Cross (@kimhcross) is the author of The Stahl House: Case Study House #22: The Making of a Modernist Icon (Chronicle Chroma). She is a best selling author and her work has been featured in The Years' Best Sports Writing and Best American Sports Writing, among many other places. Sponsor: West Virginia Wesleyan College's MFA in Creative Writing Patreon: patreon.com/cnfpod Social Media: @CNFPod (twitter) and @creativenonfictionpodcast (IG) Up to 11 Newsletter: brendanomeara.com
The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast with Ben Guest
Podcast Links: Apple/SpotifyThis story (Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball) is unlike any I've ever read.Glenn Stout (@GlennStout), series editor for The Best American Sports Writing, edited my new book, Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball, which comes out November 1st (you can read the first three chapters here).On Monday I wrote about the lessons I learned working with Glenn. Today's podcast is a companion to that piece.In this conversation, Glenn and I cover:-How Glenn approaches the editing process.-“I edit the way I wish it had been done for me.”-“You don't want the reader to stop reading.”-“We will solve more problems talking than in two days of email.”-“The text is trying to tell you something.”-“The really perfect poem has an infinitely small vocabulary.”-Character Introductions: Give the reader a hanger.-Why did Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) never make The Best American Sports Writing?-Calling Florence Shinkle, of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, to tell her '“Fly Away Home” was selected for the inaugural edition of BASW. Glenn goes into more detail here.-In the new iteration of BASW, The Year's Best Sports Writing, Glenn and I talk Kim Cross's (@KimhCross) story What Happens When Two Strangers Trust the Rides of Their Lives to the Magic of the Universe which is told in the structure of a palindrome.-Glenn shouts out The Year's Best Sports Writing Advisory Board: Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby), Alex Belth (@AlexBelth), Howard Bryant (@hbryant42), Kim Cross (@KimhCross), Roberto José Andrade Franco, Latria Graham (@LatriaGraham), Michael Mooney (@MooneyMichaelJ), and Linda Robertson (@lrobertsonmiami).-We end talking Glenn's latest book, Tiger Girl and The Candy Kid.If you are interested in my book that Glenn edited, Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball: Memoir of a Namibian Odyssey, it drops November 1st, as both print and e-book, on Amazon.The “big idea” is the way we think about coaching sports is all wrong, coaching doesn't have to be rooted in anger and intimidation and fear, and tools like meditation can super-charge learning and performance.Here's a photo of me coaching the team by not coaching the team.You can read the first three chapters of Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball here.If you haven't yet, please hit the “Subscribe now” button to stay up-to-date. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit benbo.substack.com
Welcome to A Good Place To Start, a podcast for anyone trying to level up in life. Personal growth is an ongoing process but if you're wondering where to get started in your own journey to success. This is "A Good Place To Start". In this episode Zachary & Christina Robb, joined by Shane & Katie Rojas, take a deep dive into the amazing TedTalk Success is Scarier Than Failure by Jemele Hill. Jemele Hill is a co-host for His & Hers, formerly Numbers Never Lie, with Michael Smith.Hill joined ESPN in November 2006 as a national columnist on ESPN.com. Before joining ESPN, Hill worked as a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel I and a sports writer with the Detroit Free Press. Hill began her career in 1997 as a general assignment sports writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.In 2007, Hill won the first annual McKenzie Cup, which is given in tribute to groundbreaking sports editor Van McKenzie, at the annual Poynter Media Summit. She also received an honorable mention in the 2007 edition of Best American Sports Writing. In 1998, Hill won first place in sports feature writing at the North Carolina Press Association. Hill is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.A native of Detroit, Hill attended Michigan State University and graduated in 1997 with a degree in journalism and a minor in Spanish.
Jake Gronsky is a former Minor League Baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals organization and has since become an author featured on ESPN, Best American Sports Writing, FOX Sports, and more. We dive deep into: why following your passion isn't the best advice and really tactical advice on what to do instead the importance of stability in a day job to give you freedom to take necessary risks in your other projects daily routine as a web-growth consultant by day and writer by night fiction, and particularly romance - recommendations and why fiction is just as important in the world to starting conversations and uncovering truths Full show notes at chrismcgrory.net
For the past decade the reality of concussions and the long term effects and consequences of brain injuries has finally received the attention needed. Playing football has its risks and if these risks are not taken serious there can be long term health problems for individuals who suffer from repetitive head trauma. Zac Easter could be your neighbor, your classmate, your son. In December 2015, Zac Easter, a twenty-four-year-old from small-town Iowa, decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against the traumatic brain injuries he had sustained as a no-holds-barred high school football player. For this deeply reported and powerfully moving true story, award-winning writer Reid Forgrave was given access to Zac's own diaries and was able to speak with Zac's family, friends, and coaches. He explores Zac's tight-knit, football-obsessed Midwestern community; he interviews leading brain scientists, psychologists, and sports historians; and he takes a deep dive into the triumphs and sins of the sports entertainment industry. Forgrave shows us how football mirrors America, from the fighting spirit the game has helped inscribe in our national character to the side effects of the traditional notions of manhood that it affirms. But above all, Love,Zac is a warning to parents and those entrusted with the care of our kids not to ignore concussions and warning signs of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). For parents struggling to decide whether to allow their kids to play football, this eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and ultimately inspiring story may be one of the most important books they will read. Reid Forgrave writes about sports and other topics for GQ, the New York Times Magazine, and Mother Jones, among other publications. He has covered the NFL and college football for FoxSports.com and CBS Sports, and he currently writes for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. The article in which he first wrote about Zac Easter is included in Best American Sports Writing 2018. Find the book here- LOVE, ZAC Visit CTEHOPE.COM to make a donation Learn more about the author at REIDFORGRAVE.COM
Show Notes and Links to Eric Nusbaum's Work and Allusions/Texts from Episode 63 On Episode 63, Pete talks with Eric Nusbaum about his freelance writing for such publications as VICE, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN the Magazine. The two then talk in great detail about Eric's powerful new book, Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, which deals with the communities forced to move to make room for Dodger Stadium. This discussion Eric Nusbaum is a writer and former editor at VICE. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, The Daily Beast, Deadspin, and the Best American Sports Writing anthology. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he has also lived and worked in Mexico City, New York, and Seattle. He now lives in Tacoma, Washington with his family. Buy Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between (Bookshop.org) Stealing Home Book and Eric Nusbaum Personal Website August 2020 Eric Nusbaum NPR Interview about Book "Dodger Stadium's Shameful Origin Story"-Interesting Info and Background on Abrana and Manuel Aréchiga At about 1:45, Eric talks about his early days writing for Deadspin At about 3:00, Eric talks about his reading life as a child, living in a “print-rich environment” and reading local and legendary Los Angeles Times writers like Jim Murray and Bill Plaschke and Sports Illustrated for Kids and Sports Illustrated At about 6:10, Eric discusses formative moments that led to him becoming a writer At about 6:55, Eric discusses texts and writers that have given him “chills at will,” including the USA trilogy of John Dos Passos At about 8:30, Eric details his Dodger fandom At about 10:45, Eric traces his evolution into a professional writer; he recognizes some of his great and inspiring professors/teachers along the way, including Richard Kenney and Lou Matthews; he also references a huge building block in his writing life-his and Ted Walker and Patrick Dubuque's baseball blog-Pitchers and Poets At about 13:10, Eric describes the piece he wrote that was included in 2010's The Best American Sports Writing-the essay was “The Death of a Pitcher” At about 13:45, Eric discusses the balance between reading for a pleasure and reading with a critical eye At about 15:00, Eric describes the “surreal” feeling of writing for magazines that he idolized as a kid At about 16:25, a random note about language and “realizarse” At about 17:00, Eric talks about his book Stealing Home and the importance of a descriptive subtitle At about 18:00, Eric details how a school visit by Frank Wilkinson and other events started the wheels in motion for Eric to write and publish Stealing Home At about 21:00, Eric outlines some background and history from the book, especially the three neighborhoods-La Loma, Bishop, and Palo Verde-that make up “Chavez Ravine” At about 21:50, Eric explains ideas of trust, burden, trauma, and responsibility in making sure that he got the important story correct At about 24:00, Eric talks about the research process and talking to family and friends of those involved in the book's events/history, as well as reconstructing dialogue and events from the 1940s/50s, etc. At about 27:00, Pete and Eric discuss the skillful ways in which Eric wove together so many apparently disparate stories-from that of General Santa Anna, Veracruz, MX, Abner Doubleday, etc. At about 28:45, Eric details the myriad connections between the events of the book and today's world At about 29:50, Eric recounts the anecdotes that link baseball, its origins, and General Santa Anna At about 32:20, Eric gives the rationale for his successful usage of 72 (!) chapters, mostly about “creating tension” and why he decided to avoid using academic-style footnotes At about 34:20, Eric reads from page five, the last paragraph in the book's Preface At about 36:50, Eric and Pete discuss the relationship between sports fandom and the need to acknowledge how society's inequities play out in sports as well-i.e., the shameful treatment of Colin Kaepernick, the shameful ways in which Dodger Stadium was built on others' homes At about 41:00, Pete and Eric discuss the shameful and racist histories often associated with early Los Angeles figures, many of whom are still memorialized today in street names, and in the book; Pete shouts out a book about 1900s LA-John Fante's Ask the Dust At about 43:00, Eric and Pete discuss the lack of salient villains in the book's storyline, and Eric discusses his focus on people's motivations in writing the book At about 45:00, Eric talks about the complicated legacy of Frank Wilkinson At about 49:00, Eric details the life in the three neighborhoods razed to make room for Dodger Stadium before the team even thought of moving them At about 52:00, Eric reads the end of the book, focused on Abrana Aréchiga, the matriarch of the pioneering family, and a symbol of the neighborhood pre-Dodger Stadium At about 54:25, reads from the last paragraph of Page 208, which serves as a wonderful summary of the myth of sport and its connection to the book At about 56:00, Pete recounts some great recent books, like Eric's, like Pete Croatto's From Hang Time to Primetime: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-Day NBA and Bradford Pearson's The Eagles of Heart Mountain: A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America, that are not just about sports You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Spotify, Stitcher, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this episode and other episodes on YouTube-you can watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.
Kavitha Davidson of The Athletic joins us to talk MLB's fraught and failed history simplifying and sanitizing Jackie Robinson, the exhausting harassment women in sports and sports media face and what allies can do to help make concrete and digital spaces welcoming, the intersections between sports, society and the rise in violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander peoples, and the difference between minorities being represented in a system versus safe from and within it. Matthew and Jonah also get their schadenfreude in as the Super League scandal crashes and burns. Kavitha Davidson (@kavithadavidson) is a sportswriter who's written for ESPN, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and been noted in Best American Sports Writing. She has appeared on SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC, co-hosted “The Lead,” The Athletic's daily podcast, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Yogi Berra Museum. Follow the Jacobin Sports Show on Twitter: @JacobinSports Email us: jacobinsports@gmail.com
Show Notes and Links to Jon Finkel's Work On Episode 37, Pete is honored to talk with Jon Finkel, the award-winning author of Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete, Heart Over Height, “Mean” Joe Greene and more. His books have been endorsed by everyone from Mark Cuban and Tony Dungy to Spike Lee, Kevin Durant and Chef Robert Irvine. He has written for GQ, Men's Health, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Times and has appeared on CBS: This Morning, Good Morning Texas, and hundreds of radio shows, podcasts and streams. Jon's 2020 book, Hoops Heist: Seattle, the Sonics, and How a Stolen Team's Legacy Gave Rise to the NBA's Secret Empire, can be found wherever books are sold. Jon Finkel's Website Article from 2013 about Nate Robinson's Incredible Leaping Ability Buy Hoops Heist here! (Bookshop) Buy Hoops Heist here! (Amazon) “Notable mention” in The Best American Sports Writing anthology in 2017: Basketball in the Driveway Authors/Books Mentioned and Allusions Referenced During the Episode: -at around 2:45-Jon Finkel talks about his love of reading as a kid, particularly sports biographies, and his family's love of sports -at around 5:15-Jon talks about the childhood athletic battles between he and his brother, echoed by Pete with he and his brothers' battles, especially in basketball -at around 7:00-Jon and Pete wax nostalgic and poetic about the “old days” and Sports Illustrated as a print magazine juggernaut and some of the great writers (Steve Rushin was Jon's favorite) -at around 10:45-Jon talks about his luck in growing up in Boston and reading all-star journalists like Jackie McMullen, Bob Ryan, Leigh Montville, and more -at around 11:45-Jon and Pete talk about SÍ for Kids icon Buzz Beamer -at around 12:35-Jon talks about “chills at will” in his own reading history, including Rick Reilly's “Life of Reilly” and Jim Murray's The Great Ones -at around 18:20-Jon talks about his college and post-graduate education in writing, both in the classroom and outside -at around 22:00-Jon talks about working in Hollywood through building sets on The Man Show and soon writing some for the show -at around 23:00-Jon talks about his self-education in writing a query letter and debuting with Men's Fitness after inquiring about writing an article in which he would train and learn to dunk -at around 24:50-Jon talks about the article that was published following his query -at around 25:55-Pete and Jon discuss story ideas of theirs that had great potential but have exceeded their statute of limitations; Jon talks about training for the NFL combine and competing in a high-level volleyball for prospective articles; Pete talks about his perfect setup for a book idea about dunking-one that got away -at around 31:35-Jon talks about his early writing for Men's Health and Men's Fitness and beginning by writing personal profiles that ended up becoming consistent cover stories -at around 34:45-Jon talks about the balance between commerce and art, particularly in writing aesthetically-pleasing prose and also satisfying advertisers -at around 38:45-Jon tells two incredibly unique Karl Malone stories, one involving a photo shoot, and one involving Kobe Bryant -at around 45:45-Jon talks about his personal relationship with Nate Robinson and how it led to his first book, Heart over Height -at around 48:45-Jon talks about Dadvantage: A Blueprint for New Fathers to Stay in Shape on No Sleep, with No Time and No Equipment and The Life of Dad: A Blueprint for New Fathers to Stay in Shape on No Sleep, with No Time and No Equipment; he also talks about -at around 52:45-Jon talks about how he and Isaiah Thomas' Slow Grind Media managed to write and publish his most-recent book, the outstanding Hoops Heist, in a pandemic year -at around 54:50-Pete and Jon talk about how the structure of the book (Part I as Seattle and Sonics history; Part II as the legacy of Seattle's close-knit basketball community) adds to its power -at around 57:45-Jon talks about the importance of using present tense to solidify perspective, including adding to the pathos when the reader experiences the last days of the Seattle NBA franchise as described in the book -at around 1:00:05-Jon reads from Hoops Heist and discusses Bill Russell, his greatness, his resentments, the media, and racism -at around 1:04:30-Jon discusses the iconic 90s Sonics -at around 1:05:45-Jon discusses the basketball camps and incredible cooperation and fraternity of Seattle basketball, and how Seattle truly is a special and welcoming basketball family -at around 1:10:05-Pete (cringe) drops a bar from a freestyle about Doug Christie -at around 1:10:30-Jon talks upcoming projects, including some cool ideas for “bite-sized bios” and a documentary based on Hoops Heist If you have enjoyed The Chills at Will Podcast, pause your podcast player right now, and go to Apple Podcasts to leave me a nice review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Spotify and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.
My guest today is Lisa Taddeo. She has contributed to New York magazine, Esquire, Elle, Glamour, and many other publications. Her nonfiction has been included in the Best American Sports Writing and Best American Political Writing anthologies, and her short stories have won two Pushcart Prizes. She lives with her husband and daughter in New England. The topic is her book Three Women. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Together we chat about how we as humans deal with desire – the thrills, the complications, the opportunity for misunderstanding. In a conversation, that I think, breaks new ground for this podcast, we really dive into the delicate nature of relationships and how we interact in them. Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!
http://austinmeyerfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/John-Branch-Social-Promo.mp4 John Branch is a sports reporter for The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2013 for “Snow Fall,” a story about a deadly avalanche in Washington State, and was a finalist for the prize in 2012 for his series of stories about Derek Boogaard, a professional hockey player who overdosed on painkillers. . John's work has been featured in The Best American Sports Writing; and his first book, BOY ON ICE, won the ESPN Prize for Literary Sports Writing. . In this conversation John and I discuss his journey from working at Costco to writing for The New York Times, how the evolving interconnectedness of sports, culture, and politics is changing the job for journalists, and how he uses sports as a backdrop to tell powerful human stories that often have tragedy as a central theme. . The CTE story we reference in the episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/sports/cte-football-hairston-super-bowl.html John's Pulitzer winning feature: http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/index.html#/?part=tunnel-creek John's latest book: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Cowboys-Pioneer-Family-West/dp/0393292347 . To support the show, visit www.patreon.com/austinmeyerfilms !
“Coyote Bros” by Flinder Boyd is about three hard-partying young men from Corpus Christi, Texas who made a small fortune smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States. Flinder and I talk about how he found this story and put it together for Rolling Stone. Flinder Boyd is a former professional basketball player who played 10 years in Europe. His writing has appeared in The Classical, Sports on Earth, Fox Sports, Newsweek, and BBC online. His story "20 Minutes at Rucker Park" appeared in "The Best American Sports Writing 2014." Up next week: "My Son's Mystery Medical Condition and Our Family's Brave New World" by Taylor Harris.