Podcasts about Creative nonfiction

"I feel like before I have the confidence to write in the way that I want to write, where I really own the material, I have to spend so much time with people. I will say at the outset, once I walk someone through what it's going to involve after they say yes to talking to me, I'll say I'm going to be around a lot and you're going to get sick of me," says Pamela Colloff, author of Catch the Devil.Today's guest, I mean, wow, from the bottom of the diaphragm up, wow. It's Pamela Colloff. You know her from her National Magazine Award winning work for Texas Monthly and ProPublica/The New York Times Magazine. She's THE premier investigative reporter in the country and she's now the author of Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast. It's published by Knopf.This book upends what you think a true crime story is about where the true villain isn't a person at all. It chronicles, among others, Paul Skalnik, a jailhouse snitch, whose non-credible testimony places numerous men on death row, Jim Dailey, in particular, and Pamela takes us through this riveting narrative and punishing commentary on capital punishment and why Florida seems hellbent on being No. 1 in executions.Here's just a slice of what Pam is about: She is a two-time National Magazine Award winner, once for reporting and once for feature writing. Her work has been adapted for narrative and documentary films including Tower, which was short-listed in 2016 for an Oscar. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Magazine Writing, Best American Crime Reporting, and Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. She joined ProPublica/The New York Times Magazine in 2017 after many years at Texas Monthly. Listen, I could go on. You get the gist.In this episode, we talk about: What drew her to Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson Speaking with Tom Junod The Boys Club of longform writing Her start at Texas Monthly Being a journalism dork The elation and despair How every story is a Rubix cube The Skip Hollandsworth Method Owning the material Knowing when to quote and when not to Idea generation Writing is hard How magazine writing and book writing are different animals Why Catch the Devil is her now-or-never moment Beginnings are the worst Being more disciplined with a book vs. magazine writing Writing in this attention economyPair this episode with Ep. 255 with Maddy Crowell and Ep. 414 with John Rosengren, and many other Atavist true crimey pods, too many to mention here. I'd also chuck in Ep. 224 with Patrick Radden Keefe. He'll be back on the show for the paperback run of London Calling.

Samina Najmi joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up under a military dictatorship in Pakistan, the colonial legacy in South Asia, writing about migration, race, and gender, teaching as a secular Muslim woman in the aftermath of 911, living displaced lives, leaning into bursts of memory, anchoring ourselves in moments, writing an essay collection over 10 years, learning from realistic fiction, lyrical essays grounded in research, allowing our writing to spill over into different categories, embracing an expansive literary community, how home is less a place than a moment in time, willing to be vulnerable on the page, building trust with readers, and her new memoir Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss, and a Home in Time.   Ronit's upcoming workshop: Writing Dynamic Memoir: From Lived Experience to Gripping Story https://www.lmcmurtrylitcenter.org/workshops/writing-dynamic-memoir-from-lived-experience-to-gripping-story   Also in this episode: - entering writing contests - our expansive literary community - the different kinds of displacement  - fragments that come together later   Books mentioned in this episode:  - Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall - The Names by N. Scott Momaday - The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston - You and Yours by Naomi Shihab Nye   Samina Najmi teaches multiethnic US literature at California State University, Fresno. Her memoir-in-essays, Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss, and a Home in Time, won the Aurora Polaris Award in Creative Nonfiction and was published by Trio House Press in Oct, 2025. It has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and is featured among Poets & Writers' five nonfiction debuts of the year and Debutiful's Best Nonfiction Debuts of 2025. The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) includes it among notable 2025 nonfiction debuts and its recommended reading lists for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month 2025 and Women's History Month 2026. Daughter of multiple migrations, Samina grew up in Pakistan and England, began her American life in Boston, and has called Fresno home since 2006.  Connect with Samina: Website: saminanajmi.com Instagram: samina.najmi Facebook: Samina Najmi Purchase book: https://www.triohousepress.org/samina-najmi – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 693, my conversation with Candace Jane Opper, author of the debut memoir Certain and Impossible Events (Kore Press). Air date: February 17, 2021. Candace Jane Opper is a writer, a mother, and an occasional visual artist. She grew up in the woods of Southern Connecticut, in a house that alarmingly resembles the one from The Amityville Horror, where she learned to embrace the value of unconventionality. She holds an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Portland State University and spent her undergraduate years in Providence studying Film History—a discipline her college advisor fondly described as the second most pointless major next to Art History, which she promptly declared as her minor. Opper's essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Longreads, Guernica, Creative Nonfiction, LitHub, Narratively, Brevity, and Vestoj, among others. She is a Creative Nonfiction Foundation Fellowship recipient and a member on the advisory council for Write Pittsburgh, a program collective that empowers writers to amplify their voices and strengthen their communities. Certain and Impossible Events is her first book. *** ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Otherppl with Brad Listi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, etc. Get ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠How to Write a Novel,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brad's email newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠proud affiliate partner of Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"I love talking with people. I also like that process of trying to shape messy reality into some kind of story, or that moment when you're alone with your notes, and you're trying to figure out how to organize it, and how to bend it into something that works as a story that will carry readers. That's the probably that's the kind of calmest moment for me," says Matthew Wolfe, author of Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and Secret History of Eco-Sabotage.Hey, CNFers, another LIVE podcast recording, this at Hodgepodge Books & Taps in Eugene, where I spoke to author and journalist Matthew Wolfe and about the art and craft of telling true stories. Pretty great. I love bringing my rig to places and gigging the podcast. This was a standing-room only event and they sold out of books, and two kegs were kicked. Is it the CNF Pod effect? You tell me.Matthew was on the show last year when he had an Atavist story so I HAD to talk to him, haha, but he reached out to me several weeks ago wondering if I'd be willing to interview him as part of a book event and I was like, I know a venue and we'll make it a podcast. HIs book is Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage. It's published by Viking.I cut out the Q&A portion of this because you couldn't hear the question and I wasn't assertive enough to repeat the question into the mic. I'll be better about that in the future, but also, that's the ephemeral part of the live experience: part of why we attend live events is because it's here and then it isn't.So in this live podcast, Matt and I talk about: The ledger of invisible debts Asking questions in a stakeless way How Matt interviews Shaping messy realities How research is like cooking Broad stroke outlining Writing through quotes Why he's still drawn to this kind of work Competing with the phone And the blood, flesh, and messiness of human existenceDo enjoy.

"One of the things that Patrick Radden Keefe told me was, when I'm doing interviews, I'm always thinking about the anecdote that I will tell someone later at a bar, this is the thing I talk about. That's helpful because there's so much to work with even in one interview or one scene, and the those little gems that you pull out instinctively when you're talking to other people have value, and so I'm often thinking about that in terms of writing," says Alex Ronan, who wrote "The Extremist in the Family" for the Atavist Magazine.Today we welcome Alex Ronan who wrote The Extremist in the Family: The Kerrs were devoted to one another and to their faith. But when one of their own rejected modern medicine in the name of God, they faced a dire question: What if her children ever needed a doctor to save their lives?There's a note as well: This story contains descriptions of child abuse and death. It draws from testimony given by many of the named subjects and extensive court records.That sets the table, no? It reminded me of the Metallica song “The God That Failed.” You should check it out. It's what happens when people who believe in divine healing reject medical treatment on religious grounds and die. This story has newborn deaths in it, wholly preventable with a little vaccine that addresses Rh incompatibility. Essentially, when an Rh negative mother conceives a child with an Rh positive father, and the fetus is Rh positive, the mother creates antibodies that attack the fetus's blood cells, which will lead to a potentially fatal case of jaundice, if untreated within a day or so after birth. Abigail, the baby, was Rh positive. Prayers did not, nor could they ever, have saved her. She wasn't the only one.Alex Ronan is a journalist whose work has appeared in Elle, New York, The New York Times, n + 1, The Nation, and Vogue. She was a 2023 recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. She has had work optioned for film/television by Amazon Studios and Hulu, which is kinda cray. You can find her on Instagram at alexronan and on Substack at reallyalexronan.This was a really rich conversation, and she really came to play ball, which I always appreciate. We talk about:Using short fiction as a model for nonfiction writing How she builds character in nonfiction Active listening Divine healing The family, the story, and the stakes Putting the reader in different people's shoes Walking before writing Seeking the anecdote (a tip she learned from Patrick Radden Keefe) The power of practice And what she struggles withParting shot will be right after this part of the podcast. Let's wait no more. Here's Alex Ronan.

Hello my friends!  Welcome to this month's episode of The Becoming Podcast!  I'm really excited because although most of the episodes of this pod are with folks that I am just getting to know in the context of our interview, this one is with someone I've known for a really long time. Nicholetta and I met almost a decade ago, in what, for me at least, was another lifetime in which I was a food blogger.  Nic and I traveled in the same circles of food loving writers, and it was such a fun time.  While my writing and work took a turn away from the culinary world, hers only deepened.  I still love Nicholetta's writing, and when I read a post from her Substack, Story Salt, late last year, I knew I had to have her on the podcast. The piece that Nic wrote was a searingly tender account of her first days and weeks as an empty nester, and what it was like to transition into "mothering from a distance."  I know so many of you are anticipating or are in the midst of this transition yourselves, and so I just had to have Nic on the show to share her experience with you. But first, let me tell you a little bit about her! Nicholetta Bokolas is a wife, mother, recipe developer and writer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her work sits at the intersection of food and story, exploring how recipes carry memory, family history, and identity. She completed her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of King's College, where she began writing a culinary memoir about her Greek grandparents' journey to Canada, the restaurant they built from the ground up, and the recipes that continue to connect generations of her family.  Today, Nicholetta develops recipes and writes stories that celebrate everyday moments, family traditions, and the memories we make around the table. Here's some of what Nic and talk about in this episode: ✔️ Nic's experience of her first year of being an empty nester.  We talk about the difference between the identity shift into motherhood, or matrescence, and how it compares to the change in identity that occurs once our intensive mothering years are over. ✔️ We talk about the truth that "the days are long but the years are short," and how there's so much Nic couldn't fully appreciate about mothering until those long days were over.  We talk about not only wanting to return to those days to experience their sweetness, but also about all the things we might have done differently. ✔️ Nic shares that, ultimately, as she asked herself who she was becoming now that her intensive mothering years were behind her, she gave herself permission to follow dreams that she didn't have time for or didn't prioritize when her kids were younger.  This led her to her current work at and passion for the intersection of food, culture and identity as she explores the culinary roots of her family and shares amazing recipes with the world! ✔️ We have such an interesting conversation about how our identities can be wrapped up in the foods we eat (or don't eat). ✔️ Nic and I muse about what it means to nourish our loved ones, and that the food we feed ourselves and our children – along with the stories and connections that fosters – are such an important part of what it is to mother. Show Notes Nic's company, North House Social Nic's Substack, Story Salt The writing on being an empty nester that made me reach out to Nic to record this episode Nic's Instagram (you're going to want to check this out!) The piece Nic wrote for Jenny magazine The pasta recipe I raved about on the show Andy's East Coast Kitchen The Becoming Podcast episode with Estelle Thomson on fashion and identity shift

"The mission of a nonfiction writer is to get the damn thing done," says Wil Haygood, author of several books, including his latest The War Within A War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home.I'm so thrilled to welcome back Wil Haygood to the show to talk about and celebrate his latest book The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home. It's published by Knopf.Wil is one of the most accomplished journalists and authors working in American letters and just a good-ass dude. He's the author of several books including The Butler (which was made into a movie), Showdown, The Harlem Renaissance, In Black and White, Sweet Thunder, and Colorization.He and I both have ties to the Goucher College MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program and he was generous enough to blurb my first book, Six Weeks in Saratoga, and it's those little things like that that can make an insecure, low-on-confidence person like myself feel like a king for a day.Had a great time catching up with Wil. He was on the podcast back on Ep. 295 when I interviewed him as part of Goucher's winter residency, so that's a fun one to check out. When we spoke, the U.S. had just started bombing Iran in a senseless barrage of violence that appears to have been a monumental loss for the U.S., so that is some of the context of this conversation as we talk about Vietnam and how this country still wrestles with the legacy of it. Wil is one of the good ones and so happy you get to hear him chat about: How he needs the research to be finished before he writes Exploring the riddles of America His encounters with the late great David Halberstam How luck and fortune come into play Shoeleather reporting Tape recorders and notebooks The stirring cover of this book Why this country still grapples with the Vietnam War Highlighting untold stories of women who served during Vietnam And what kept him going through the doubtStick around for a parting shot Chuckanut conference prep and an update on the forthcoming audio magazine.

Do you feel too distracted to write? Poet and nonfiction writer Lucy Oquaye believes prompts can help. "What's most beneficial about using prompts," she says, "is really that you're just taking time to write."Lucy says that writing for 20 minutes in a notebook—without phones or computers—has transformed her college students' writing. She notes, "That kind of focus is really beneficial to anyone's writing practice."So grab a pen and paper and try Lucy's favorite writing exercise!About Lucy OquayeLucy Oquaye is an educator and writer from Louisville, Kentucky. She earned her MFA from the University of Kentucky, where she received the Betsy Owen Combs Recruitment Scholarship (2021) and the MFA Award in Creative Nonfiction (2022). She won Fourth Genre's Multimedia Essay Contest in 2023, and her poetry won the 2024 Kentucky Monthly Penned contest. A Foundation House resident and Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichment grantee, her work appears in Georgia Review, Vast Chasm, Deep Overstock, and The Big Windows Review. She teaches English and Creative Writing at Bluegrass Community & Technical College and serves on the board of the Kentucky State Poetry Society.

"You never know what insight or information you're going to glean from someone, and so I want to be open to surprises. And not have any preconceived notions of what, who this person is, what they're going to tell me, imposing my own values, beliefs, whatever on them, because it's all a discovery," says Pulitzer Prize-winner Barry Meier, whose piece "You Can Run" appears in The Atavist Magazine.Barry Meier is here for another Atavistian chat! Yeah, these have not come out in as timely a manner as I had hoped. The late delay of the “revived” one with Mac Montandon, and having pods that were getting moldy in the can too precedence. Anyway …Barry Meier has won this little award you might have heard of called the, what is it, oh, yes, the Pulitzer Prize as part of a team of reporters in International Reporting for the New York Times. He's also been a finalist for the Pulitzer and a two-time winner of the George Polk Award. He's got a new piece out for The Atavist magazine titled: You Can Run: When their parents ripped two young sisters from their privileged lives, gave them fake names, and took them on the lam, they thought it was because their father was in trouble with the IRS. It would be years before they learned the truth about his life of crime.”He's the author of three books, Pain Killer, which was the first to chronicle the Sackler family and the origin of the opioid epidemic. “The book that started it all,” wrote Patrick Radden Keefe, whose book Empire of Pain was heavily informed by Barry's work. Barry also wrote Spooked and Missing Man. You can learn more about Barry at barryemierbooks.com . In this conversation we talk about: Using the boundaries of an envelope to map out a story Interviewing and the tools he uses or doesn't use Being open to surprises Beginnings, endings, and pacingThis episode pairs well with Ep. 385 with Robert Kolker

Jennifer Wilson is a leadership coach, writer and speaker. She worked in her family's business, The Canada Homestay Network (CHN), for 17 years. In addition to her roles in HR and Technology, Wilson served as its CEO for 12 years. She transitioned to Chair of the Board of Directors for CHN in late 2022. Prior to CHN, she worked as a Registered Midwife. Wilson spearheaded her organization's professional development program, which includes workshops, synchronous and asynchronous virtual learning programs and one-on-one coaching. She is a certified Kolbe Consultant and is trained in Crisis Intervention and compassion fatigue. Wilson holds an MBA in leadership from RRU and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King's College. She is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and certified organizational coach. Her first book, The Heart of Homestay: Creating Meaningful Connections When Hosting International Students is an essential resource for any host family—both new and experienced—complete with practical tools and expert advice.Linked In: linkedin.com/in/jenniferrobinwilsonInstagram: https://instagram.com/JenniferRobinWilsonFacebook: https://facebook.com/JenniferRobinWilsonWebpage: https://jenniferrobinwilson.comJoin my newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/jrwnews Connect and tag me at:https://www.instagram.com/realangelabradford/You can subscribe to my YouTube Channel herehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDU9L55higX03TQgq1IT_qQFeel free to leave a review on all major platforms to help get the word out and change more lives!

"I always think, 'Jesus, this person could be reading War and Peace, and they picked up this dopey little book.' You know what I mean? So the best thing I could do is be interesting or helpful. I can't be boring, and I've got to try to be helpful," says Austin Kleon, author of Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again.What a pleasure to welcome back Austin Kleon to the show to chat up his new book, his first in seven years, Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. It's published by Tarcher. Like Austin's previous books in Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, and Keep Going, this pink wonder is the size of those old double-album CD cases you'd get in the 90s and it's packed with insights and inspiration Austin learned from his two young boys about being an artist and how to be a creative person in times where creativity is needed more than ever. Fun stuff.So Austin is a funny, irreverent, sometimes cranky, but almost always inspiring based on his posture in the creative world. The stuff he curates and his generosity in sharing it is a big reason his Substack audience is 309,000 people strong and as of this taping, #5 in art & illustration on the stack. You can also learn more about him at austinkleon.com where he frequently blogs, though he's turned the dial down on that a bit in favor of the paid audience of his Tuesday newsletters. I've been plugged into the Kleon-verse since about 2014 right when Show Your Work came out and he made appearances on Creative Live with Chase Jarvis, so it's been cool to see the arc of his career to date.In this episode, we talk about: Place and his Ohio roots The farmer approach The idea of uncertainty Knowing less Getting back to that thing The most punk thing Metallica did What if Austin is the apprentice now? A revelation from Fiona Apple How his paid newsletter audience helped cook the book Researching in the open Knowing what weight class he's in Being interesting and helpful Going full-on Beast Mode The coveting of creative people How jealousy shows what's broken in you And how his kids brought punk back into his lifeIf you're going to pair this episode with anything, check out: Episode 146: Austin Kleon Episodes 169 and 433 with Chase Jarvis Episode 266 with Kristen Radtke Episode 369 with Akeem S. Roberts Episode 480 with Dana Jeri Maier Episode 486 with Roz Chast

All Home Care Matters and our host, Lance A. Slatton were honored to welcome Cory Fosco as guest to the show.   About Cory Fosco: Cory Fosco is the author of The Question of When: A Practical Guide to Knowing When It's Time for Assisted Living, Memory Care, or Skilled Nursing. Cory has spent 34 years in long-term care, beginning in social work and admissions and now working in healthcare technology. He is also the author of the chapbook Empty Streets (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), which contains a Pushcart Prize-nominated story, and his short work has appeared in Superstition Review, Hippocampus, and other publications. Cory holds an MA in Creative Nonfiction from Northwestern University and a BA in Creative Writing from Loyola University Chicago. Cory lives in Chicago with his wife Cyndi.

"Maybe your first images are some bulked up organism, or whatever. Then there's that kind of like sinewy strength that you see in like middleweight fighters. Roberto Duran comes to mind as the epiphany, like a super powerful, sinewy guy, right? And so I think that's what we're talking about too, is just those different forms of power, economy is really seductive to me now," says Maccabee Montandon, whose piece on his brother Asher is featured as a "revived" Atavist story.The factory is running behind here at CNF Pod HQ, but we've got the first of two Atavist pods coming this month. It's Maccabee Montandon being featured for The Atavist's “revived” series. This story, originally published by Gawker in 2013, details the story of Mac's brother Asher, who was murdered in Los Angeles in the 1990s.Mac is a journalist, writer, filmmaker, all around creative person and in this episode we talk about: Obsessions and the best forms to tell stories Being creatively impulsive Word economy and sinewy strength How the proximity to tragedy often activates people Writing through grief And his strength as a writer (he's fast)Visit magazine.atavist.com to read "A Hollywood Ending."

In celebration of the launch of season 8, Jill Christman joins Let's Talk Memoir to interview Ronit about growing up with no blueprint for making a relationship work, fending for ourselves in childhood, being driven by curiosity, writing about others with generosity and complexity, conveying to readers that we are not the only one, the use of speculation to move toward a deeper truth, the key to memoir structure, how the now-narrator reaches a hand back to help the character we were, finding a deeper empathy and understanding, opposite world, trying to look perfectly 1980s, trusting that our memories are trying to tell us something, and Ronit's memoir When She Comes Back.   Also in this episode: -Swedish Fish -The Love Boat -being prologue girls   Books mentioned in this episode: The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin Stop-Time by Frank Conroy This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolf To Show and to Tell by Pilllip Lopate Jill Christman bio and links: Jill Christman is the author of The Heart Folds Early: A Memoir (released March 2026 from the University of Nebraska Press). Christman's other books include If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays (2023 Foreword INDIES Silver Winner), Darkroom: A Family Exposure (winner of AWP Prize for CNF), and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood. Her essays have appeared in many anthologies and in magazines such as Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Iron Horse Literary Review, Longreads, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A 2020 NEA Literature Fellow, she teaches at Ball State University and serves as editor of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative and Beautiful Things (a weekly online magazine of micro nonfiction). Visit her at jillchristman.com. Connect with Jill: https://www.instagram.com/jillchristmanwriter @jillchristman.bsky.social jillchristman.com Order for yourself and all your memoir-loving friends—directly from the University of Nebraska Press or your local independent or by using any of the handy links on my website. Use code 6AS26 for 40% off on any UNP book! Ronit Plank bio and links:  Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Poets & Writers, River Teeth's Beautiful Things, The Rumpus, Salon, Hippocampus, The New York Times, and elsewhere, earning Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her memoir When She Comes Back was a Book Riot Best True Crime Book and Kirkus Reviews calls it, “An intimate, intuitive, emotionally vivid family account that finds hope in reconciliation". Ronit is also the author of the award-winning short story collection Home is a Made-Up Place, and her work has been anthologized in Selected Memories, Vol. 2: 15 Years of Hippocampus Magazine and Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture and Heritage. Ronit is the Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, teaches memoir at a host of venues including the University of Washington's Continuum Program, Antioch University, and 92NY's Roundtable, and is host of the podcast Let's Talk Memoir and the Substack Let's Talk Memoir. Find her on social media @ronitplank   Website: www.ronitplank.com Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ When She Comes Back: https://ronitplank.com/when-she-comes-back/

"I say this all the time, and I'll say it again: the truth is a block of wood, and I know the sculpture I carve out of that block of wood looks different than the sculpture my mother carves out of that block of wood, right? But the truth — the block of wood — is what what happens, but the art we make out of that is up to us," says Isaac Fitzgerald, author of American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed.We've got Isaac Fitzgerald returning to the podcast. He's going to be at Powells on May 29, 7 p.m., in convo with Lidia Yuknavitch, and I'll likely be heading up the 5 to photo bomb them because Isaac has a new book out called American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed. It is published by Knopf. Great talk. We were buzzin', man. In any case, you know Isaac maybe from his bookish appearances on The Today Show, and he's also the author of the brilliant memoir Dirtbag, Massachusetts, a coming of age story.I liken American Rambler to a coming of middle-age story and as Isaac walks and drives in the footsteps of one John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. It's a book that deals with that squishy time as we crest into our forties and reckon with mortality as well as the greater disconnection we're collectively experiencing, which is why Isaac set out, largely on foot, to put his phone down and live in the world. His essay on walking for The Guardian, linked up in the show notes, very much informed and even catalyzed American Rambler.So Isaac is a pretty special dude. I love the posture he takes in the world. When I had lunch with Lidia before her live appearance on the show, we talked about how Isaac had jumped into the comments on a couple of our Instagram posts and Lidia asked me, “Is Isaac coming to this?”I said, “I don't think so. I mean he's in New York.”“It would totally be like him to just show up.”And I kinda love that idea. I want to make more of that effort myself.So in this episode we talk about: Putting the phone down Living in the world Walking 20,000 steps a day The tension between building community and withdrawing into solitude The scaffolding of the story How he was late to the arc of his own story Stories become what they're supposed to be How the truth is like a block of wood The black dog as literary device First lines And how On The Road informed American RamblerIsaac can be found on Instagram at isaac.fitzgerald and you can join his Substack list Walk It Off and learn more about him at his website isaacfitzgerald.net. He's also collaborated with the brilliant cartoonist Wendy McNaughton on two books about tattoos, Pen and Ink and Knives and Ink. Great stuff.If you like this episode, I would definitely check out Isaac's first appearance on Ep. 353. I'd also check out: Ep. 100 with Mary Karr Episode 200 with Nick Flynn Ep. 358: Erica J. Berry Ep. 472 with Melissa Febos Ep. 503 with Jason Brown

"This is also me saying here's a literary reading of the universe through physics. There's a way you can read The Edge of Space-Time as me doing close-reading for a few 100 pages. I'm close-reading equations. I'm close-reading Dirac. I'm close-reading Hawking and Ellis, but it's all different versions of a literary practice," says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie (Pantheon Books).Coming at you at the speed of sound, CNFers, with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who is the author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred and her latest book The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie. It's published by Pantheon Books.She is an associate professor of physics and core faculty member in women's and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her work lives at the intersection of particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics and she's also a theorist of Black feminist science studies.Her book is accessible, for sure, but it's mind-bendy and it strikes me as the kind of book you want to read twice. One, it's good company, and two, the material she translates is really difficult to get your head around, but that's the nature of the quantum mechanics, and general relativity, and particle physics, and how the hell did we get here in the first place? Gah!So Chanda talks about: The publishing business in conversations she had with CNF Pod alum Keith O'Brien Writing for Black and queer audiences The different selves who approach the page Paying attention to acknowledgements Epigraph rights and how they set the vibe The fork in the road researchers face when they write a pop science book Physicist brain A literary reading of the universe The world keeps happening while you're writing Understanding metaphors And what Newton and Einstein might talk about if they sat down at a bar togetherBe sure you visit Chanda's website chanda.science and follow her on Instagram at chanda.prescod.weinstein.This episode will pair well with: Episode 103: Persistent, Constant, Careful Work with Dennis Overbye Episode 111: The Empowering and Exciting Nature of Film with Emer Reynolds Episode 307: Greg Brennecka Episode 334: Katrina Miller Episode 395: “The Six,” Mini-Deadlines and the Twang with Loren Grush

This episode of Moonbeaming is proudly sponsored by Clear Channels, the Moon Studio's upcoming newsletter and channeling course. Use code POD10 for 10% off through May 10th at midnight. What happens to your creativity when life gets full? In this deeply honest and expansive conversation, Sarah is joined by writer, artist, and creativity coach Catherine LaSota to explore what it actually means to live a creative life… especially when time, energy, and capacity are limited. Together, they dive into creativity as a practice of trust, presence, and self-definition, and unpack the tension between who we think we “should” be as artists and who we actually are in our real lives. On this episode of Moon Beaming, you'll hear: Why creativity is not just output How to stay connected to your creative identity during intense life seasons The role of time, capacity, and emotional energy in creative practice Why “not creating” is sometimes part of the creative cycle How caregiving, parenting, and real life can expand your creativity The connection between creativity, trust, and surrender Why defining yourself as an artist is an internal practice This episode is an invitation to redefine what it means to be creative, to honor the season you're in, and to trust that your creativity is still alive… even when it looks different than you expected. ----- Meet Catharine:  Catherine LaSota is a creative advisor & inspirer who is here to help you build and sustain a creative practice that works for you, taking into account your resources, capacity, deep desires, and unique vision. She parents two young children in Queens, NYC, and in addition to her MFAs in Sculpture and Creative Nonfiction, she has professional training and experience as a coach, singer, French horn player, and advanced SCUBA diver. A former bartender and retail manager, Catherine is also the founder of the LIC Reading Series, the former Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia, and the current Associate Director of Social Practice CUNY. Her writing can be found in Literary Hub, Vice, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Catapult, and elsewhere. She offers 1-on-1 coaching for writers and anyone ready to prioritize their creativity; online workshops; in-person writing parties; and occasional retreats. Catherine loves being in conversation and listening deeply, and you can hear more from her on Feed the Art, her podcast about nourishing your creative practice. website: catherinelasota.com Instagram: @catherinelasota Feed the Art podcast on Apple free resource: Creative Containers interview series ---  Join The Moonbeaming Community: Join the Moon Studio Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themoonstudio Buy the 2026 Many Moons Lunar Planner: https://moon-studio.co/products/many-moons-2026?srsltid=AfmBOopThx1yrmKl0tMjecc_EFeeN5DAiIafqPqvQ4Uke1WEi5droeam Subscribe to our newsletter: https://moon-studio.co/pages/newsletter Find Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gottesss/

Jill Christman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about contextualizing a memoir in a post-Roe world, what it means to make a choice as mothers, ending a pregnancy, knowing you will write about an experience while it is happening, writing about childhood sexual abuse, returning to a manuscript with your skirt on fire, writing to a point of discovery, putting down our self-defense and  having to be fully, fully vulnerable, getting clear on why we're showing up to tell this story now, and her new memoir The Heart Folds Early.   Ronit's in-person Fall Workshop - Writing Dynamic Memoir: From Lived Experience to Gripping Story     https://www.lmcmurtrylitcenter.org/workshops/writing-dynamic-memoir-from-lived-experience-to-gripping-story   Also in this episode: -writing in present tense -not casting judgment on others -how an imaginary choice is not a choice   Books mentioned in this episode: Love Works Like This by Lauren Slater The Book of Knowledge and Wonder By Steven Harvey Crossed Over: A Murder, a Memoir by Beverly Lowry In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Maha A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken   Jill Christman's recent articles on writing: 1. “Writing the Tooth—Or, How to Find Big Ideas in Tiny Things.” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies. https://www.assayjournal.com/jill-christman-writing-the-toothmdashor-how-to-find-big-ideas-in-tiny-things-assay-122.html 2. “Three Takes on a Jump.” https://riverteethjournal.com/river_revisted/river-teeth-classics-three-takes-on-a-jump/ 3. “Tacking: A Sailor's Guide to Writing Against the Wind.” Writer's Digest,https://www.writersdigest.com/tacking-a-sailors-guide-to-writing-against-the-wind   Jill Christman is the author of The Heart Folds Early: A Memoir (released March 2026 from the University of Nebraska Press). Christman's other books include If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays (2023 Foreword INDIES Silver Winner), Darkroom: A Family Exposure (winner of AWP Prize for CNF), and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood. Her essays have appeared in many anthologies and in magazines such as Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Iron Horse Literary Review, Longreads, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A 2020 NEA Literature Fellow, she teaches at Ball State University and serves as editor of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative and Beautiful Things (a weekly online magazine of micro nonfiction). Visit her at jillchristman.com.   Connect with Jill: https://www.instagram.com/jillchristmanwriter @jillchristman.bsky.social jillchristman.com Order for yourself and all your memoir-loving friends—directly from the University of Nebraska Press or your local independent or by using any of the handy links on my website. Use code 6AS26 for 40% off on any UNP book!   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

"The Chronology of Water story was an 11-page story written in tiny fragments. And the MFA program I was in, they told me, that's not a story. It's a poem or something. It's a list of fragments. I'm like, 'Fuck you!' My whole enterprise has been to trouble the edges," says Lidia Yuknavitch, bestselling author of several books, most recently a memoir titled Reading the Waves.Lidia Yuknavitch makes her thrilling return to the podcast, this a live recording of the show at Gratitude Brewing in Eugene in partnership with the revival of the Northwest Review. My understanding is that there's a significant literary prize, including creative nonfiction essays. You might want to try you filthy animals. The Northwest Review was the first place that ever published Lidia, a short, 11-page story called the Chronology of Water, so, maybe YOU could be the next Lidia Yuknavitch, though we know that's impossible so don't even try.She's the author of eight books of fiction, nonfiction, and the editor of an essay collection on menopause called The Big M. She's best known for her memoir, or anti-memoir called The Chronology of Water, the novels Thrust, Verge, and The Small Backs of Children. And her most recent nonlinear, fractured memoir is the brilliant Reading the Waves.She won the Oregon Book Award in 2016 and also stood on the TED stage and delivered a beautiful talk about misfits. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Ms., and Another Chicago Magazine. She founded the workshop series Corporeal Writing in Portland, Oregon. She is a very good swimmer.We talk about: Getting rid of the good/bad binary Writing in a group setting Inventing your own rituals The beautiful and the brutal living next to each other Taking your turn Troubling the edges Being good compost And how her market days are over and she's cool with thatYou'll want to pair this episode with 217, Lidia's first time as well as: Episode 447: Brooke Champagne Sits Back from the Suckitude Episode 498: Sasha Bonet on Not Holding Back, and Episode 123: Elena Passarello on Listening to the book, Polaroids, and Self-DoubtDig it, friend.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

“Not to confuse journalism with newspapers. Newspapers are one set of communication methods. But it's certainly not the only one. If they have the right mindset, and that's what I try to get them to do, there are so many more opportunities. You can go out and do a podcast, or you can do a newsletter. You can't think of it as I need to work at The New York Times. You have to think of it as I need — I need — to tell stories, and I've got this curiosity.”Anthony DePalma is a journalist and professor at Columbia University. He's the author of several books, his latest being On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. It's published by Mariner Books.He spent 22 years as a reporter for The New York Times, and another 8 as a stringer for them, so, let's do the math … that's 30 years. He reported a lot on Mexico and Cuba, as well as Albania, Guyana, and Suriname. You can find him at anthonydepalma.com and on the Facebooks and Substacks, at anthontyrdepalmaAnthony DePalma has been all over the world telling true stories. He's the author of The Cubans, City of Dust, The Man Who Invented Fidel, and Here: A Biography of the New American Continent.In this conversation we talk about: How not to confuse journalism with newspapers The NEED to tell stories The stunning lack of curiosity among young journalists Not wearing headphones on walks Accelerated intimacy Challenge of being of satisfied with the writing Still being a WIP What to do when you can't be everywhere at once Cutting 30-40% of his ms Radical pragmatism What makes St. Benedict's tough And how grafting apple trees is like writingOrder The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

Aaron Williams has worked in fisheries, as a forest fighter and is currently an airport ramp agent. When he's not working, he's writing about work: the hard kind, requiring bodily energy and mental endurance. Physical labour has always been a part of his life. He grew up in a logging family. In this podcast, Williams talks about the challenges, rewards and changing realities of hard work.Aaron William's memoir is called The Last Logging Show: A Forest Family at the End of an Era (Harbour Publishing). The book received the 2025 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. His public talk was recorded at the awards ceremony at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

"When I was writing the book, I used a lot of my interest in art criticism and nature writing to get cross pollinate into my sports writing. And I really try not to fall into a rut and just read only adjacent to my own subject or my own field," says Giri Nathan, author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis.Today we have Giri Nathan (@giricube on IG), he is a staff writer/cofounder of Defector and the author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis. It's one of the best books I've read in the last couple years. It's funny and voicey and if David Foster Wallace's tennis writing made sweet, sweet love to John McPhee's Levels of the Game, you get Changeover. How Giri is able to illustrate why Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are so captivating and capable of inheriting the mantle held by Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokavic (who's still going) is a triumph. This book may very well be the future of sports biography in that access to principal figures is almost impossible so you have to approach your subject more with a critical eye, like an art critic, and we talk about that …Giri Nathan's work has appeared in New York Magazine, The NYT Book Review, The Believer, and National Geographic. He made the 2025 edition of the Year's Best Sports Writing and The Best American Food & Travel Writing.In this conversation we talk about: Him taking John McPhee's CNF class at Princeton Art criticism and nature writing as influences for Changeover Losing fandom The relationship to personality and style Writing from contemporaneous excitement Writing the fun scenes The insider-outsider perspective And keeping a running list of adjectives so he doesn't repeat himselfReally fun stuff here.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"I think, like all writers, I will feel an itch that I have to scratch. There will be an idea in my head that I've got to get down on paper, whether I follow through with it or not," says R. Renee Hess, author of Blackness is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey.Who do we have this week? It's R. Renee Hess, but you can all her Renee, of Black Girl Hockey Club. She wrote the essay collection Blackness is a Gift I can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey. It's published by McClelland & Stewart.After Renee finished her schooling and got a job and had some money, she sought to find a sport to follow that cut against the grain. Instead of baseball, football, or basketball, she thought, maybe hockey and it didn't take long to realize that there very few Black people on the ice and in the stands. And even fewer Black women in the stands. In 2018, she launched Black Girl Hockey Club, a nonprofit organization that focuses on equity and including for Black women in ice hockey.Renee was named one of three finalists for the NHL's Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award in 2021 for positively impacting the community, culture, or society through the sport of hockey. Her work has appeared in Black Nerd Problems, Spectrum Magazine, and Racebaitr. You can learn more about Renee and her work at blackgirlhockeyclub.org and find her on the socials at @blackgirlhockeyclubIn this conversation we talk about: Tackling other genres Short Fiction Reading as a writer Going back to the classics What sustains the writing Taking representation further And focusing inward vs. outward in her BGHC workReally fun conversation about the important work she's doing and the work she draws inspiration from.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"I'm always calibrating when I'm interviewing somebody, like, how much of a prompt are they going to need, and what is what is going to get something out of them?" — Stephen Wood, whose Buffalo Raiders piece appears in The Atavist Magazine.What is the meaning of this Wednesday podcast! Middle of the week! It's hump day, this holy day! It's April 1st, is this some kind of joke! NO! Point being, it's that Atavistian time of the month and I'm trying to get back to making the Atavist pod an extra pod, not just another Friday pod. So, consider your podcast feed warned, you filthy animal.Stephen Wood is here! Find him on LinkedIn, the professional that he is. He's a journalist who writes about sports, history, and politics and he's here to talk about his Atavist story “The Buffalo Raiders: With thousands of U.S. soldiers dying in Vietnam, a group of young Catholics in New York embarked on a secret mission to bring the war machine to its knees.” I'll give Stephen a more formal introduction — top hat and monocle — just before his segment of the show.We're gonna hear from Seyward Darby about her side of the table, which is always fun. Name another show where you get an editor talking about a piece, and then the writer talking about it. Exactly, visit patreon.com/cnfpod to contribute to the cause.Also, head to magazine.atavist.com to read Stephen's story and maybe subscribe. I pay $25 a year to subscribe and I don't get kickbacks or commissions. Yeah, I pay, too. Stephen Wood can be found at https://sbrycewood2.wixsite.com/ or, per his preference, at LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/hey-its-stephen/ … His work has appeared in The Guardian, Current Affairs, Jacobin, The Athletic, and McSweeney's. He was a producer with Gilded Audio where he worked on shows including Snafu with Ed Helms and The Reason We're All Still Here.In this chat, we talk about: Calibrating an interview How sometimes podcasts hosts don't even do the interviewing What to do when there's too much meat on the bone #toomuchmeat What's a load-bearing element to the story Going in fear of the abstraction And a lot more.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"You can't go and find all of our stories. You can't just click a button and and be served up. You really have to appreciate them in person by holding the magazine in your hands, and that, to me, makes it more special," says Laura LeBleu, co-founder of Geezer Magazine.It's Laura LeBleu and Paul von Zielbauer, the founders of Geezer Magazine, a new, print-only magazine exploring the Gen-X aging experience. It's a killer experience. Issue 1 came out several months ago and it's this 11x15-inch-sized thing and it has pieces by Kim Cross and Tommy Tomlinson. Issue 2 comes out any day now and features an essay from ya boi. You can read my pitch for the essay at welcometopitchclub.substack.com titled Pitchin' from the Hip.So Laura dreamed up Geezer Magazine in the shower, that incubator of great ideas. She's been an Emmy award winning TV producer, a lead singer of an Italian band, voice of a virtual character, stilt-walking circus ringmaster, minor gay icon, and an NYC cabaret performer. She worked in tech for a bit and it was draining her soul and her creativity muscles were atrophying, she needed to do something, so she decided to bootstrap a magazine. I subscribed.Paul has ridden a bicycle from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, spent 11 years as a journalist with the New York Times, where his work was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, that little thing. As the Great Recession hit, he launched a business that got volunteers to build playgrounds for disadvantaged children overseas — kaboom kaboom kaboom, IYKYK. According to Geezer's website, he works quietly in the basement until Laura tells him it's okay to come upstairs.Fun chat that covers: The appeal of print in a digital world The cost of paper That fine line between being print only but how much should be digital, call it digital fish bait, maybe? Influences such as Mountain Gazette Zigging while others zag The strange creature coming out of the forest The oyster that forms the pearl The people trying to pick up the fountain And metaphors, all the metaphor!Really fun chat from a great magazine that needs your support. Visit geezermagazine.com to check them out and consider subscribing. It's not cheap, but you get such a unique experience. It truly is one of a kind. I did and no, I don't get kick backs or commissions.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

Across the water from Seattle, you can visit the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. It's a place to honor and learn from the past. Evelyn Iritani, a longtime Seattle resident and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wants to remember – and learn from – another, lesser-known story from World War II. In her book, Safe Passage, she reveals the dramatic, behind-the-scenes efforts to bring U.S. and Japanese citizens home from enemy land. In 1943, during some of the Pacific theater's bloodiest battles, the United States and Japan coordinated the exchange of civilians caught on the wrong side of the battlefield after Pearl Harbor. Nearly fifteen hundred Allied civilians trapped in Asia, mostly U.S. citizens, sailed through dangerous waters to India, where they were traded for Japanese immigrants sent from the U.S. The fate of the more than ten thousand U.S. civilians left behind in Asia rested on the success of this endeavor. Engineering these wartime exchanges was fraught within and outside the U.S. government. The U.S. uprooted and repatriated Japanese citizens of Latin America, sometimes against their will. People imprisoned in camps like Bainbridge Island, many of them American citizens, were forced to choose between expulsion to a war zone in Japan or an uncertain future behind barbed wire. Through these stories, Iritani explains how messy humanitarian efforts can be in wartime and illuminates the lasting effects of racism throughout U.S. history. Evelyn Iritani is the author of An Ocean Between Us: The Changing Relationship of Japan and the United States, Told in Four Stories from the Life of an American Town. She is a former reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times, where her reporting garnered numerous awards, including the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series she coauthored on Walmart. Frank Abe is lead author of the graphic novel, WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, a Finalist in Creative Nonfiction for the Washington State Book Award, and co-editor with Floyd Cheung of a new Penguin Classics anthology, THE LITERATURE OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION. He won an American Book Award as co-editor of JOHN OKADA: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy, and wrote and directed the award-winning PBS documentary CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION." He is currently developing a new stage adaptation of Okada's NO-NO BOY.   Buy the Book Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal​, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During W​o​rld War II Elliott Bay Book Company

In this instant classic episode, Wilson M. Sims and Jared talk about the step-by-step process of getting an agent, what they do (or know they shouldn't do) when a story isn't working, how MFA programs are like basketball drills, and approaching craft discussions in ways that are more flexible and time-varying than declarative and concrete. Plus, Wilson discusses making lasting connections with faculty and visiting writers and shares the realities of living on an MFA stipend and pivoting to part-time to maintain a day job.Wilson M. Sims is a behavioral-health worker and policy strategist in the final year of his MFA program at Florida Atlantic University. His work is published in Longreads, The Florida Review, Witness Magazine, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He is the winner of the 2021 Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and his essay “Unknown Costs,” received a special mention in the 2025 Pushcart Anthology. Find him at wilsonmsims.com.MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.BE PART OF THE SHOW— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.— Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.STAY CONNECTEDTwitter: @MFAwriterspodInstagram: @MFAwriterspodcastFacebook: MFA WritersEmail: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com 

"Those people who shaped the people are often more important than the subject, because they have insight into this young person that they were working with. It's crucial," says Keith O'Brien, bestselling author of Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird.Today we have Keith O'Brien, author of five books, including his latest book Heartland: A forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird. It's published by Atria Books.It's a lean, propulsive biography framed as an origin story of Larry Bird before he went to the NBA to later become one of the ten best players in history.Keith is the New York Times bestselling author of Outside Shot, Fly Girls, Paradise Falls, Charlie Hustle, which won the PEN America award for biography, and now Heartland. You can learn more about Keith at keithob.com and follow him on the ol' IG @obrienstory. This book has been crushing it. His events have been overflowing. In this episode we talk about: The dispiriting change we're seeing in sports journalism Finding the people who shaped the people Sitting under the prism of history Writing an origin story His favorite part of the job And how writing a book is like a miracle every time you finish Lost of great stuff to chew on …Promotional support: The 2026 Power of Narrative Conference. Use narrative20 at checkout for 20% off your tuition. Visit combeyond.bu.edu.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"A book is not a long magazine article, and it took me a long, long time to understand that, to even understand what it means. It's something that you can say, but you have to live it to understand it," says Tom Junod, author of the memoir In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to be a Man.Wow, look who visited the digital CNF Pod HQ: It's Tom Junod.Listen, I don't have all day to sing the praises and list the back-of-the-baseball-card details of Tom's illustrious career writing for GQ, Esquire, and ESPN. He's a two-time winner of the National Magazine Award. His piece in Esquire titled The Falling Man is a re-read for many of us around 9/11 and it takes a meditative and reportorial look at the man who had not chosen his fate, but appeared to embrace it. Tom wrote the iconic profile of Fred Rodgers that was turned a movie starring Tom Hanks. In many ways, so much of Tom's work is writing about father figures, which of course brings us to the ultimate: In The Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to be a Man, a memoir about his father. It's published by Double Day.Tom can be found on Instagram @tom_junod and on the Facebooks and stuff. Google his work to read wildly ambitious stories from that particularly crazy era that was pre-internet magazine culture. Dude was in a watch ad.In this episode: We talk about that watch ad The Mountain of writing a book The difference between writing a magazine story vs. a book The no nut-graf philosophy Saying yes Telling his life story from the work he does about other lives The one arrow in his quiver How there should be principles in journalism, but no rules Writing beginnings that hint at the ending Writing before referring to notes And combining love and truth telling in his memoirReally an amazing conversation.Promotional support: The 2026 Power of Narrative Conference. Use narrative20 at checkout for 20% off your tuition. Visit combeyond.bu.edu.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"The worst thing you can do is pitch a topic, not a story. You start with a topic. I like to talk to a few people before I write a pitch, which can be difficult because people you're asking to talk to don't know where it's going. I just look for topics that interest me first, and I dig down to an expert, and then from the expert, I try and find individual stories within that," says Peter Ward, whose "Master and Commander" appeared in The Atavist Magazine.It's that Atavistian time of the month, so there might be some spoilers here. I can't remember. Good chance of it. Visit magazine.atavist.com to read the story by Peter Ward, a writer whose work has appeared in GQ, The Atlantic, Wired, The Guardian, and others. He's the author of two books of nonfiction, The Consequential Frontier and The Price of Immortality. This story for The Atavist titled Master and Commander is wild. Here's the deck: When a scraggly band of folk musicians arrived to tour the UK, residents of a small Welsh town were enamored—until they learned that the band's leader ruled with an iron fist.There's sea shanties, people.We're gonna hear from lead editor Jonah Ogles first and dive into the Atavist's national magazine award nominations, namely Drew Philp's story “There Will Be No Mercy.” You can hear out chat about it on Episode 449.Peter is here to talk about how he arrived at this story. Pitching a story, not a topic Off the record conversations for trust His cheat code How the story was a house of cards Better Call Saul Finding voice Interview prep And the video clip of Matt Stone and Trey Parker that really helps with story developmentPromotional support: The 2026 Power of Narrative Conference. Use narrative20 at checkout for 20% off your tuition. Visit combeyond.bu.edu.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"Come to editors with solutions, not with problems. A lot of young freelance writers will be like, 'Hey, hook me up with this editor. Do this and do that.' And I'm like, 'I can connect you, but you better have pitches. If you don't come with the idea you're just a problem,'" says Tony Rehagen, a long-time freelance writer.Seth Wickersham put me in touch with a colleague of his, someone he went to grad school with by the name of Tony Rehagen. Now, he's a special kind of freelancer in that he's a grinder. Much like Pete Croatto and other freelancer types who are balancing all kinds of work: content work, copy writing, alumni magazine work, and pure journalism, Tony has been in the thick of the freelance morass for a long, long time. He was featured in the 2015 anthology “Next Wave” for his piece called The Last Trawlers, a work of journalism that really reads like a short story.His work has appeared in myriad places like Indianapolis Monthly, Atlanta Magazine, Men's Journal, and Bloomberg.Tony was a blast … there are too many great nuggets from this conversation to list out, but I'll list out a few. We talk about: His filing system for stories How many stories he's working at a time Being on the clock and off the clock all the time Treating his writing as a service or a trade like plumbing or carpentry Treating editors more like clients Taking risks with how much skin he puts into a certain story And where his ambitions lie now. And that just scratches the surface.Promotional support: The 2026 Power of Narrative Conference. Use narrative20 at checkout for 20% off your tuition. Visit combeyond.bu.edu.Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

Today on the program, a trip into the archive and a return to Episode 600, my conversation with National Book Award-winning author Sarah M. Broom from 2019. Broom a writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Oxford American, and O, The Oprah Magazine among others. A native New Orleanian, she received her Masters in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. She was awarded a Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant in 2016 and was a finalist for the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction in 2011. She has also been awarded fellowships at Djerassi Resident Artists Program and The MacDowell Colony. She lives in New York state. I spoke with Sarah as she was on tour in support of The Yellow House. Air date: September 25, 2019. *** ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Otherppl with Brad Listi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ulys.app/writeabook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to download Ulysses, and use the code OTHERPPL at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription. Available where podcasts are available: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, etc. Get ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠How to Write a Novel,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the debut audio course from DeepDive. 50+ hours of never-before-heard insight, inspiration, and instruction from dozens of today's most celebrated contemporary authors. Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brad's email newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠proud affiliate partner of Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"I wanted to keep reporting, and I'm like, it's not ready yet. And [a friend] reminded me over and over that this is a sales pitch. It's a proposal. The agents and publishers just want to know you can put a story together and tell a story that's longer than 2,000 words, and that there's some narrative arc to it," says Melanie D.G. Kaplan, author of Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research (Hachette).Today we have Melanie DG Kaplan, author of Lab Dog. Not gonna lie, if you're an animal lover and a believer in animal rights, it's a tough read. I don't mean it's a bad book, it's a very good book, it's just … tough. Brought no fewer than 88 tears to my eyes at various points. The late Jane Goodall called it “remarkable.” So, there you go.Melanie is a journalist, an author, and when she's feeling brave an ukulele player. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, among many, many others. She interviewed Miss Piggy. How many people can say that? Lab Dog is her first book and it chronicles her and her rescue beagle Hammy as they illuminate the world of animal testing and thus the testing that Hammy was subjected to for the first few years of his life. They find out where he was born, where he was subjected to various cruelties and indignities all in the name of science and progress. Her book details the advances in technologies and models that are proving to be just as effective as animal testing without the torture.In this conversation we also hit on: The dialogue between the animal research world and the animal activist world Changing her physical environment so she can focus and write Overcoming not being a “name” in this business Book proposal craft And the power of tech shabbat and how she turned me on to the “Light Phone”Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"To be a good writer, you have to really get into the visceral parts of the experience, right? You have to bring someone into that experience with you, which requires you to go back and understand every detail, every memory, all the visceral aspects of the experience, the sounds, the smells, everything that was happening," says Jane Marie Chen, author of Like a Wave We Break.Today we have Jane Marie Chen, author of Like a Wave We Break: A memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself. It's published by Harmony. It's a book whose ancestor is very clearly Eat, Pray, Love. A story of the cost of achievement and ambition, how childhood trauma permeates deep into adulthood, and the long nonlinear road to healing. Jane, being the entrepreneur she is, has quite the ecosystem around her memoir. At her website, there's a self-worth quiz. I don't feel like failing, so I'm not gonna take it. If I can't copy off the smart kid, then why take the test, am I right? She does speaking and leadership coaching, workshops on building resilience, and she recently delivered a TED talk about resilience.Jane is the former CEO and co-founder of Embrace Global, which developed infant incubators that helped more than 1,000,000 babies, many of which would have died without this technology. She was recognized as Forbes Impact 30 and receive the Economist Innovation Award, Fast Company Innovation Award, and the World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She has an MBA from Stanford and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard. Didn't I just have some clown on the show who studied at Yale and Harvard. What the fuck am I doing? If I don't feel inadequate, I don't feel alive, man.You can learn more about Jane at janemariechen.com and follow her, let's just say on the gram, at janemarie.chen.In this podcast, we talk about: How she wrote the book to help people The importance of surfing in her life What's enough? Burnout Writing the visceral Zooming in and Zooming out Playing with timelines Working with a collaborative writer Writing to leave the past in the past And not wanting to write a prescriptive memoirSome pretty rich shit, man, parting shot on, shit if I know, so let's queue up the montage. Here's Jane Marie Chen, huh!Order The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"My teenage daughter looked at me. She said, 'Oh, Dad, you should put that in a folder called nobody cares.' Okay, not everything I learn will be in this book. And then the question became, 'What is Lin-Manuel learning from this story?' And if he's not learning anything from it, even if it's fun, it's got to go in the deleted scenes," says Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, author of Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artists (Simon & Schuster).Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, the Notorius DPP, is charismatic as he is brilliant. Maybe some of that seasoning rubbed off on me. One can dream. He teaches English and theater at Portland State University. He received the Graves Award from the American Council of Learned Societies for outstanding teaching in the humanities. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic and the New York Times.Wanna know how sickening Daniel is? He has a BA in history from Yale and a PhD in English from Harvard. Gross. Ew, right? Ew. You can learn more about Daniel's disgusting intelligence and equally freaky contributions to the culture at danielpollackpelzner.com and follow him on IG at danielpollackpelzner.This conversation was so lively and great and we talk about: How he pitched Lin-Manuel Miranda on being his biographer Being driven by curiosity Having to earn scenes The “fun of it” framing Balancing salt, acid, fat, and heat Maintaining a sense of play with the work What Daniel learned from Lin-Manuel And taking the harsh feedback from trusted readersOrder The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"Characters make books. Why are these guys in opposition? And were they actually really? How can you be in opposition with someone you never met? How can you be in opposition with somebody who's essentially sharing the same plight you're sharing in the country? And that brings in the other character. It's Branch Rickey. Branch Rickey is the puppet master of this entire book. Branch Rickey is the puppet master of that entire period," says Howard Bryant, author of Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.We've got Howard Bryant (@howardbryantbooks) back on the show for Ep. 509. Howard is the best-selling author of several books and his latest is Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America. It's published by Mariner Books.Howard's book takes a new framing on two iconic Black American icons of the 20th century. Very few people know much about Paul Robeson, who was a brilliant football player, but perhaps more famous as a baritone singer and stage actor. Jackie Robinson was the first Black American to play major league baseball, breaking the color barrier in baseball.The two were separated by some twenty years, never met in person, but were pitted against each other during the second Red Scare, kings turned into pawns. The authoritarian, McCarythian overreach of the era very much echoes our current moment. Robeson's career, his life, was ruined. It's a complicated story brilliantly orchestrated by one of the best writers this country has on offer.Howard is the author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism, and Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field, and he also was the guest editor of The Best American Sports Writing Series. You're in for a treat. You can learn more about Howard at howardbryant.net and follow him on IG @howardbryantbooks.In this episode we talk about: When you know it's a book Who are your stars? How he reshaped the book by fixing the introduction How he bridged the gap between Robinson and Robeson's timelines How Branch Rickey, this vaunted angle of integration, wasn't exactly so holy And Howard's favorite thing about writingOrder The Front RunnerWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

Suzanne Roberts is the author of the lyrical essay collection Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties (Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay),​ the award-winning travel memoir in essays Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel (2020), and the memoir Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award), as well as four collections of poems. Named "The Next Great Travel Writer" by National Geographic's Traveler, Suzanne's work has been listed as notable in Best American Essays and included in The Best Women's Travel Writing. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, The Normal School, River Teeth, and elsewhere. She holds a doctorate in literature and the environment from the University of Nevada-Reno, teaches in the low residency MFA program in creative writing at UNR-Lake Tahoe, and lives in South Lake Tahoe.                   Guest Links- Publishers site for Almost Somewhere- Almost Somewhere - University of Nebraska Press Suzanne's site - Home Suzanne on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/suzanneroberts28/ Suzanne on Facebook - Suzanne Roberts Suzanne on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-roberts-083ab962/ Purchase books - Order Signed Copies Connect with Anna, aka Mud Butt, at info@traildames.com You can find the Trail Dames at: Our website: https://www.traildames.com The Summit: https://www.traildamessummit.com The Trail Dames Foundation: https://www.tdcharitablefoundation.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traildames/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/traildames/ Hiking Radio Network: https://hikingradionetwork.com/ Hiking Radio Network on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hikingradionetwork/ Music provided for this Podcast by The Burns Sisters "Dance Upon This Earth" https://www.theburnssisters.com

"I spent several months trying to narrow down the cast. I had access to so many people with interesting stories. But what [my agent] said to me over and over again was, 'narrative arc, narrative arc,' all the time. What he needed to know in order to sell the book was like, 'Where does this book start? And if you can't tell me where it ends, at least tell me what are the ups and downs? What's gonna happen along the way?" says Alison Lyn Miller, author of Rough House: A Father, a Son, and the Pursuit of Pro Wrestling Glory (Norton).Who is our guest this week? It would appear to be Alison Lyn Miller (@alisonlynmiller on IG), author of Rough House: A Father, a Son and the Pursuit of Pro Wrestling Glory. It's published by Norton.This is a great book and it's an immersive story in an oddball subculture of amateur professional wrestling. It follows Hunter James, a young man who eschewed the traditional path, the path his father wanted for him, to pursue this dream of becoming the next superstar of the WWE. You're gonna think I'm crazy, but this book has so many parallels to being a writer. The luck you need, the timing you need, the skill you need, the perseverance you need, the envy they feel, the subjectivity, voice, style, individuality. But we writers rarely need the abs. But don't we all want the abs.So Alison is a freelance journalist based out of Georgia, which put her in direct overlap with this subculture of “backyarders,” these aspirational wrestlers and hobby wrestlers. It's easy to poke fun at wrestling as fake. Well, it isn't fake, so much as it's scripted brutality. It's danger adjacent, though there's always physical risk when jumping, flipping, and kicking. Alison witnessed it all and delivers a heartfelt tale of ambition and striving, of a blind belief in the self.In this conversation, we talk about: Not being able to throw everything in the book Being motivated by slights Finding the narrative arc The year it took Alison to write her proposal How wrestling mirrors humanity Making the writing approachable And maybe we should all be play fighting in our underwearOrder The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"Practically speaking, mostly what I'm doing is I'm writing in a hotel room and then writing in the taxi, and then if the TSA queue is long, I might whip my laptop out and balance it on the stanchion and do some more writing, and then get on the other side and write in the lounge and then write on the plane, and whether that means that the laptop's nearly vertical because I'm on a discount airline with with terrible seat pitch, just writing. And so that's it, right? What my real practice is ... I just goddamn write," says Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.This is exciting. We've got Cory Doctorow on the podcast today for Ep. 507. Cory is the author of more than 30 books of nonfiction and fiction, his latest being Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About it. It's published by MCD, an imprint of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Ever wonder why Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and Apple suck ass? This book will explain why they do and how they got there and maybe, just maybe, how we can get out of this mess. Did you know that Apple factories in China installed suicide nets so workers couldn't kill themselves? Think about that the next time you upgrade your phone. I'm ready for a new computer and it will likely be a Mac, even though they've gotten shitty over the years. Point is we all have blood on our hands.Cory is prolific, his blog posts epic, his books prescient and important. You can learn more about him at craphound.com or read his blog at pluralistic.net. He is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. In 2020 he was inducted into the Candadian Science Fiction Hall of Fame and he is a special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foudnation (eff.org), a nonprofit group that defnds freedom in tech law, policy, standards and treaties. You could spend a year or two reading nothing but Cory Doctorow books and, I might add, you'd be better for it.He's one of the good guys, man, and he's out to help us understand the internet. So in this episode we talk about: Internet literacy His ongoing relationship with his audience Getting a book done in six weeks Platform decay What exactly enshittification is and how Substack is slouching toward it And the influence of the writer Judith MerrilOrder The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

Dr. Camille U. Adams joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about generations of mothers choosing to unmother their children, colonial violence in Trinidad and Tobago, stifling relationships, cognitive dissonance, finding the psychological, emotional, and geographical distance we need, narcissism and the golden child, not wanting to tell the story we ultimately find a way to tell, being a poet first, retracting and pulling back to get close to ourselves and write, exigence in memoir, going no contact with family, cocooning ourselves, finding support systems that work, getting into literary magazines, how content creates form, and her 300-page poem How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian memoir. Info/Registration for Ronit's 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story   Also in this episode: -the narcissist's nest -using elements of fiction -trusting yourself   Books mentioned in this episode: -Thick and Other Essays by Dr. Tressie McMillam Cottom -Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz -Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat -Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward -The Dragon Can't Dance by Earl Lovelace -The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon   Dr. Camille U. Adams is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago. Camille is the author of the memoir, How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian memoir, released August 2025 with Restless Books. Her manuscript was recognised as a finalist in the Restless Books Prize in New Immigrant Writing 2023. Camille earned her MFA in Poetry from City College, CUNY and a Ph.D. in Creative Nonfiction from FSU. She has been awarded Best of The Net - nonfiction 2024, and has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, three Best of the Net nominations, and recognition for a notable essay in Best American Essays 2022. Among Camille's awarded fellowships is an inaugural Tin House Reading Fellowship, an inaugural Granta nature writing workshop fellowship, an inaugural Anaphora Arts Italy Writing Retreat Fellowship, a McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, a Community of Writers Erica Ellner Memorial Scholarship, and a Roots Wounds Words Fellowship. Additionally, Camille is a Tin House alum and has received support from Kenyon Writers Workshop, VONA, and others. She has served as a juried reader for Tin House for two consecutive years, as a CNF editor at Variant Lit, and as an assistant editor at Split Lip Magazine and at The Account. Camille currently lives in Brooklyn where she teaches and is hard at work on book two.    Connect with Camille: Website: www.camilleuadams.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camille_u_adams Twitter: https://x.com/camille_u_adams Threads: https://www.threads.com/@camille_u_adams Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/camilleuadams.bsky.social   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

Memoirist and professor Maggie Andersen on turning a Chicago theater coming of age into No Stars in Jefferson Park, translating performance craft to the page, writing honestly about love, loss, and disability with care and permission, and trusting the long arc of a creative life.  You'll learn:Why writing “for others” can be generous without self-erasure (and how to tell the difference). What theater can teach memoirists about scene movement, including emotional marks, entrances, and exits. How to borrow “page-turner” pacing without sacrificing literary depth. What to cut or keep when you're thinking like a live audience rather than a solitary reader. How to shape a memoir around friendship and time, even when you're learning the form as you write. What “truth with care” can look like in memoir, including permission, restraint, and choosing what must be faced on the page. Ways to involve the people you're writing about early, so the work stays accountable to real humans. Why your definition of “making it” may change, and how timing, fit, and rejection can still lead to publication.  Resources and Links:No Stars in Jefferson Park About Maggie AndersenMaggie Andersen has published fiction and nonfiction in magazines such as Salt Hill, Blood Orange, the Los Angeles Review, Creative Nonfiction, Grain, Cutbank, and DIAGRAM. She has been a finalist for the Montana Prize for Nonfiction and has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. She is an Associate Professor of English at Dominican University and an ensemble member at the Gift Theatre. Her debut memoir, No Stars in Jefferson Park, was published by Northwestern University Press in October 2025.   For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.For free writing sessions, join free Writers' Hours: writershour.com.*FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS' SALONTwitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalonInstagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalonFacebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalonIf you're enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

This week's interview with the cofounders of SheWrites.com, Kamy Wicoff and Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, is especially touching for Brooke because these two women are where it all started. This week's interview is about why community matters as told through the histories and sensibilities of two community champions who started something that lit the literary world on fire in 2009. SheWrites back then was a little bit like Substack is today, but with small breakout groups and a lot of meet-ups happening in the real world. The feminist sensibility of SheWrites was what drew Brooke to the platform, and to Kamy and Deborah in those early days when she was a Senior and then Executive Editor at Seal Press—and this origin story is both a walk down memory lane and an inspiring episode on the enduring power of community. Kamy Wicoff is a writer, former publisher, and psychotherapist with a degree in social work. Kamy holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia and is the author of several books, including the novel Wishful Thinking and the nonfiction book I Do But I Don't: Why the Way We Marry Matters, and has contributed to multiple anthologies, most recently Feminists Reclaim Mentorship: An Anthology. Kamy is the cofounder of She Writes Press. She serves as a trustee on the board of the Brooklyn Public Library and lives with her husband and their four sons in Brooklyn. Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, PhD is a Visiting Scholar in Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University and the author of Sisterhood, Interrupted and co-editor of the literary anthology Only Child. She is a regular on Chicago's “live lit” storytelling stages. Deborah's essay “My Husband, the Reluctant Barista” just appeared this past October in the Modern Love column at The New York Times. Her op-eds and essays on gender, motherhood, family, feminism, and writing have appeared in Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She's a TEDx speaker, a longtime coach and champion of writers, and her coaching company, Girl Meets Voice, Inc., has supported hundreds of established and emerging writers. Together, they cofounded SheWrites.com in 2009. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"I will always go back to the well, and I will write until I die," says Jason Brown, author of Character Witness.Jason Brown is here. He is a brilliant short story writer and the author of the memoir Character Witness (University of Nebraska Press). It's an incredible book and we recorded this conversation at the end of October as the fourth and final LIVE podcast of the year at Gratitude Brewing here in Eugene. Jason, as luck would have it, teaches at the University of Oregon in its writing department, forging the young minds who will publish in the most obscure lit journals, the future bitter podcasters of America, sorry, speaking from experience. I'm projecting, OK?But thanks to Jason and his clout with the University, we had our biggest gathering of the year, live and in person. There's something pretty rad about the in-person jam.Jason can be found at writerjasonbrown.com. He writes fiction and nonfiction and was a Stegner Fellow and Truman Capote Fellow at Stanford University where he taught as a Jones Lecturer. He has received fellowships from Yaddo and Macdowell colonies. He taught for the MFA program at the University of Arizona and directs the MFA program at the U of O here in Eugene. He's the author of the collection Driving the Heart and Other Stories, Why the Devil Chose New England For His work and his work as also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, Best American Short Stories, The L.A. Times, and The Guardian, among many others. This is getting obnoxious.In this conversation we talk about: Persistence Hiking out from the moment The atmospheric river of rejection Escape velocity Woodworking Rule breakers Maturing around himself And working with Tobias WolffOrder The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"Take pride in your rejections. It's a tough industry for putting yourself out there. You're like, doing a ton of work up front, not knowing if anyone will be interested in it. It's very easy to feel deflated about it. Your rejections are reaching for things that maybe aren't easy reaches," says Christa Hillstrom, writer of 14,445 and Counting for The Atavist.It's that Atavistian time of the month. Not much by way of spoilers, but you know you're in for a double dose of CNFin' insights as we will hear from editor-in-chief Seyward Darby and, of course, the writer of this month's feature, Christa Hillstrom. Her story is titled 14,445 and Counting: Inside a Texas nurse's quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America. You can read the story at magazine.atavist.com. A sub is only $25 a year. No, I don't get kickbacks; yes, I pay to subscribe as well. I'm the hipster doofus of the people.The Atavist doesn't usually do profiles, per se, but this profile is of Dawn Wilcox and her “sacred work” of logging every femicide in the country, which is to say violent deaths directly against women by men. It's a tough one, not gonna lie. Not because it's not well done, but because, well, read the title.OK, so this piece is pretty heavy, but it's a story of obsession and what the central figure calls her “sacred work” to bring attention to this epidemic of sorts.The credits for this piece are: Ed Johnson was the art director, Sean Cooper copy edited it, Emily Injeian fact checked it, Naheebah Al-Ghadban illustrated it and Jonah Ogles and Seyward Darby edited this suckah.Christa Hillstrom is a freelance journalist based in the Pac Northwest, but hailed from Minnesota originally and even attended Northwestern's grad program in journalism. Doesn't get better than that.She's an award-winning reporter, editor, and multimedia producer in human rights, global health, gender-based violence, and trauma/resilience.We talk about: The little treasures in research The cost of doing this kind of reporting Outlining Task initiation How she wrote herself into this story Justing doing the writing And taking pride in your rejectionsCheck out her story at magazine.atavist.com and check out this conversation … right now.Order The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"It's not actually about the questions you ask. It's about shutting up," says Julian Brave NoiseCat, author of We Survived the Night.It's episode 501 with Julian Brave NoiseCat, author of the memoir We Survived the Night. It's published by Knopf. It's a pretty spectacular debut and we have a lively chat about it and the writing and structuring of it. Julian is a writer, filmmaker, powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history. Julian, man, what a cool dude. He really came to play ball, which is fun for me. His memoir blends personal history, family history, cultural history, coyote lore, and even some journalistic spurs in the storytelling, which makes it a shapeshifting text, much like his coyote ancestors. The book has been getting a lot of attention and deservedly so.His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post. He has won many awards for his journalism and his debut documentary, Sugarcane, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. He is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band. He is @jnoisecat on IG and in this conversation we talk about: His early vision for the book Hidden histories How he aimed for a woven text How the book was a study in transformation Non-uni-direction assimilation Writing what you don't know And his Bob Caro storyOrder The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"Anything beats writing. Writing is tough," says John McPhee, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of more than thirty books of nonfiction.Hey CNFers, this is Episode 500 of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to tellers of true tales about the true tales they tell. There are kilometer stones like 100, 200, 300, and 400, but this one, this is a milestone and it features the writer and journalist who made me want to write narrative nonfiction in the first place: John McPhee.John is a titan, a soft-spoken titan. He is the author of more than 30 books, including A Sense of Where You Are, Levels of the Game, his Pulitzer Prize-winning Annals of the Former World, and the book that made me want to write nonfiction: The Survival of the Bark Canoe. John is 94 years young, still lives in Princeton where he has taught an exclusive masterclass on factual storytelling, a class taken by the likes of David Remnick and the late Grant Wahl, I believe, among countless people who have gone on to write and report with distinction.He's been a staff writer for The New Yorker since the 1960s when William Shawn was the editor. Not long thereafter, he was offered a job to teach at his alma mater Princeton University and he famously edited students' submissions not unlike how Shawn edited him at The New Yorker. He's written about such wide ranging topics from basketball, to tennis, to bark canoes, to Alaska, to lacrosse, to oranges, to myriad topics in geology.John is synonymous with thinking through structure and coming up with unique structures for most of his stories, each one something of a fingerprint: no two are alike and the facts borne out from this intensive, slow reporting dictate the shape of the story he has locked into.His work is methodical and patient. He hangs out. He fills notebook after notebook, rarely uses a recorder, maybe only if there's someone speaking in such technical jargon that there's no way to keep pace. His career has been this wonderful balance of give and take: teach for most of the year and not write; then write and not teach. John is unassuming and gentle and an example of how you can do this work without bombast or pyro and still be riveting and sometimes downright hilarious.So we talk about: The influence of his high school English teacher Olive McKee Living room fighters Writing on spec The notebooks he's used for decades How a lack of confidences is an asset What a good editor does Writing as teaching How having a plan frees you to write The panic of having not written leads to productivity And how proud of his daughters he isParting shot on what it all means at 500 and maybe where I see the show going for the next 500.Order The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com

"You start to wonder was it all worth it? Or what's the point in trying to do it again? You know, if there's going to be more disappointment in the future. I think it is something that you know probably just changes as you go on, regardless, right? I want to get that second book under my belt so it's not all just on this one, this one baby, you know?" says Maggie Mertens.Maggie is the author of Better, Faster, Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women (Algonquin Books). It's a brilliant book that traces the advancement of women's athletics through running. Hard as it is to believe, but it was thought that women couldn't, nay, shouldn't run farther than 800 meters. Running might affect their fragile constitution, they might even ruin the work place … there's a name for headlines like that one: They're called subscription cancellers. [Context: The New York Times ran a podcast headline with its conservative columnist asking “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” Anyhoo …Maggie is making the freelance workplace a good time, thank you very much, and it's a pleasure to get to celebrate her approach to the work and her incredible book that came out in 2024.So Maggie's work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, NPR, Sports Illustrated, ESPNw, Creative Nonfiction, among others. She has a Substack called My So Called Feminist Life at maggiemertens.substack.com and she does much of social media-ing on IG @maggiejmertens and you can learn more about her and her work at maggiemertens.com.So Maggie and I talk about: The long book writing process Community Time pegs Strict deadlines for the self How she named her chapters in Better Faster Farther Taking the wins And the post-book malaiseOrder The Front RunnerNewsletter: Rage Against the AlgorithmWelcome to Pitch ClubShow notes: brendanomeara.com