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Longform

628 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratings

Interviews with writers, journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters about how they do their work. Hosted by Aaron Lammer, Max Linsky, and Evan Ratliff.

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Episodes

Episode 168: Ta-Nehisi Coates

November 25, 2015 11:19 - 1 hour

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His latest book, Between the World and Me, just won the National Book Award. “When I first came to New York, I couldn't see any of this. I felt like a complete washout. I was in my little apartment, eating donuts and playing video games. The only thing I was doing good with my life was being a father and a husband. That was it. David [Carr] was a big shot. And he would call me in, just out of the blue, to have lunch. I was so low...

Episode 167: Kurt Andersen

November 18, 2015 19:09 - 1 hour

Kurt Andersen is the co-founder of Spy Magazine, the author of several books, and the host of Studio 360. “As a young person, I never thought of myself as a risk-taker. Then I did this risky thing that shouldn't have succeeded, I started this magazine. And it did encourage me to think, ‘Eh, how bad can it be if it fails? Sometimes these long shots work. So fuck it, try it.’” Thanks to MailChimp, MasterClass, The Message, RealtyShares, and Prudential for sponsoring this week's episode. Show...

Episode 166: Ed Caesar

November 11, 2015 16:17 - 50 minutes

Ed Caesar is a freelance writer based in England whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, British GQ, and The Sunday Times Magazine. He is the author of Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon. “That was a really horrific situation. People were being killed in the street in front of us. People were firing weapons in all directions. It was really chaotic and quite scary. It freaked me out. And I thought, 'Actually, there's not a huge amount more of this I want to do in my life.'...

Episode 165: Jazmine Hughes

November 04, 2015 18:04 - 47 minutes

Jazmine Hughes is an associate editor at The New York Times Magazine. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Elle, Cosmopolitan, and The New Republic. “You hope that one day when you’re the editor-in-chief of Blah, Blah, Blah, that you’ll wake up and be like, ‘Okay, I deserve my job.’ But so far I haven’t met anyone who has told me that they feel that way. But, I will say, I don’t talk to white men a lot.” Thanks to MailChimp, MasterClass, and The Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this...

Episode 164: Lena Dunham

October 28, 2015 16:57 - 26 minutes

Lena Dunham, the creator and star of HBO's Girls, is the co-founder of Lenny and the author of Not That Kind of Girl. A special episode hosted by Longform Podcast editor Jenna Weiss-Berman. “Writing across mediums can be a really healthy way to utilize your energy and stay productive while not feeling entrapped. But at the end of the day, the time when I feel like life is most just, like, flying by and I don't even know what's happening to me is when I'm writing prose. It's such an intimate ...

Episode 163: Matthew Shaer

October 21, 2015 16:42 - 1 hour

Matthew Shaer is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York, GQ, and The Atavist Magazine. “I could not turn off the freelance switch in my head. I could not not be thinking about these different types of stories. My Google Alert list looks like a serial killer's.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, Howl, and MasterClass for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @matthewshaer matthewshaer.com Shaer on Longform [12:00] "A Shtetl Divided" (Harper...

Episode 162: John Seabrook

October 14, 2015 16:09 - 1 hour

John Seabrook is a New Yorker staff writer and the author of The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. “Whether or not the piece succeeds or fails is not going to depend on whether I’m up to the minute on the latest social media spot to hang out or the latest slang words that are thrown around. It’s going to be the old eternal verities of structural integrity. So much of it is narrative and figuring out the tricks—and they are tricks, really—that make it go as a narrative. And that’s really ...

Episode 161: Karina Longworth

October 07, 2015 17:34 - 52 minutes

Karina Longworth is a film writer and the creator/host of You Must Remember This, a podcast exploring the secret stories of Hollywood. “For me the thing that’s exciting about it is that it’s research, and it’s reportage, and it’s criticism. But it’s also art. It’s creatively done. It’s drama. It consciously tries to engage people on that emotional level.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, and MasterClass for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @KarinaLongworth Longworth on Longform...

Episode 160: Jessica Hopper

September 30, 2015 13:49 - 1 hour

Jessica Hopper is editor-in-chief of the Pitchfork Review and the author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. “I have an agenda. You can’t read my writing and not know that I have a staunch fucking agenda at all times.” Thanks to MailChimp, Blue Apron, and Fracture for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @jesshopp Hopper on Longform Hopper's Pitchfork archive [28:00] "Review of Superchunk's I Hate Music" (Brandon Stosuy • Pitchfork • Aug 2013) [35:00...

Episode 159: Ira Glass

September 23, 2015 18:11 - 1 hour

Ira Glass is the host and executive producer of This American Life. “You can only have so many questions about feelings, I think. At some point people are just like alright, enough with the feelings.” Thanks to MailChimp, EA SPORTS FIFA 16, Fracture, and FRONTLINE's "My Brother's Bomber for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @iraglass Out on the Wire (Jessica Abel • Broadway Books • 2015) [10:00] "1: New Beginnings" (This American Life • Nov 1995) [14:00] Serial [21:00] "75: Kindn...

Episode 158: Peter Hessler (live)

September 16, 2015 17:28 - 40 minutes

Peter Hessler is a staff writer for The New Yorker. “It may have helped that I didn’t have a lot of ideas about China. You know, it was sort of a blank slate in my mind. …I wasn’t a reporter when I went to Fuling, but I was thinking like a reporter or even like a sociologist: try to respond to what you see and what you hear, and not be too oriented by things you’ve heard from others or things you may have read. Be open to new perceptions of the place or of the people.” Thanks to MailChimp a...

Episode 157: Margo Jefferson

September 09, 2015 17:59 - 1 hour

Margo Jefferson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, and Harper's. Her latest book is Negroland: A Memoir. “One of the problems with—burdens of—‘race conversations’ in this country is certain ideological, political, sociological narratives keep getting imposed. This is where the conversation should go, these are the roles we need. In a way, this is the comfort level of my discomfort. ... Maybe we’re all somewhat addicted—I think we are—to certain racial con...

Episode 156: Renata Adler

September 02, 2015 17:14 - 1 hour

Renata Adler is a journalist, critic, and novelist. Her latest collection of nonfiction is After the Tall Timber. “Unless you're going to be fairly definite, what's the point of writing?” Thanks to MailChimp, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Adler on Longform Adler's New Yorker archive [7:00] I, Libertine (Theodore Sturgeon • Ballantine Books • 1956) [8:00] After Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction (Ballantine Books • 2015) [9:00] "Letter from Selma" (New Yorke...

Episode 156: Renata Adler

September 02, 2015 17:14 - 1 hour - 75.4 MB

Renata Adler is a journalist, critic, and novelist. Her latest collection of nonfiction is After the Tall Timber. “Unless you're going to be fairly definite, what's the point of writing?” Thanks to MailChimp, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Adler on Longform Adler's New Yorker archive [7:00] I, Libertine (Theodore Sturgeon • Ballantine Books • 1956) [8:00] After Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction (Ballantine Books • 2015) [9:00] "Letter from Selma" (New York...

Episode 155: S.L. Price

August 26, 2015 11:17 - 52 minutes

S.L. Price is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. “The fact is, if you write about sports and people think they're just reading about sports, they'll read about drug use. They'll read about sex. They'll read about sex change. They'll read about communism. They'll read about issues they couldn't possibly care about, issues that if they saw them in any other part of the paper they would just gloss over. But because it's about sports—because there's a boxing ring or a baseball field or a foo...

Episode 154: William Finnegan

August 19, 2015 15:30 - 58 minutes

William Finnegan is a New Yorker staff writer and the author of Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. “I suppose in retrospect I was just trying to find out what the world held that nobody could tell me about until I got there. I was a big reader and had a couple of degrees by that point, but there was something not well over the horizon that I wanted to get near and record and understand, and I even felt like it would transform me.” Thanks to TinyLetter, SquareSpace, and The Great Courses for sp...

Episode 153: Tim Ferriss

August 12, 2015 16:40 - 1 hour

Tim Ferriss is the author of The Four Hour Workweek and The Four Hour Body. “If you have a fitness magazine, you can’t just write one issue, ‘Here are the rules!’ ... My job, conversely, is to make myself obsolete. The last thing I want to be is a guru, someone people come to for answers. I want to be the person people come to for better questions.” Thanks to TinyLetter and The Great Courses for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @tferriss Ferriss's blog Ferriss's podcast [8:00] "...

Episode 152: Carol Loomis

August 05, 2015 18:20 - 1 hour

Carol Loomis retired last summer after 60 years at Fortune. She continues to edit Warren Buffett's annual report. “Writing itself makes you realize where there are holes in things. I’m never sure what I think until I see what I write. And so I believe that, even though you’re an optimist, the analysis part of you kicks in when you sit down to construct a story or a paragraph or a sentence. You think, ‘Oh, that can’t be right.’ And you have to go back, and you have to rethink it all.”  Thank...

Bonus Episode: Noreen Malone

July 31, 2015 15:01 - 21 minutes

Noreen Malone wrote "Cosby: The Women — An Unwanted Sisterhood," this week's cover story in New York. “We interviewed them all separately, and that was what was so striking: they all kept saying the same thing, down to the details of what they say Cosby did and how they processed it. Those echoes were what helped us know how to shape the story.” Thanks to our sponsor, TinyLetter. Show Notes: @noreenmalone Malone on Lognform [2:00] "Hannibal Buress Called Bill Cosby a Rapist During a Stand ...

Episode 151: Ian Urbina

July 29, 2015 16:41 - 44 minutes

Ian Urbina, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, just published "The Outlaw Ocean," a four-part series on crime in international waters. “It is a tribe. It has its norms, its language, and its jealousies. I approached it almost as a foreign country that happened to be disparate, almost a nomadic or exiled population. And one that has extremely strict hierarchies—you know when you’re on a ship that the captain is God.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Casper for sponsoring this week's e...

Episode 150: Margaret Sullivan

July 22, 2015 15:29 - 47 minutes

Margaret Sullivan is the public editor of The New York Times. “Jill Abramson said to me early on, ‘What will happen here is you’ll stick around and eventually you’ll alienate everybody, and then no one will be talking to you, and you’ll have to leave.’ I’m about three-quarters of the way there.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Netflix for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @Sulliview [5:00] "One Year Later, 11 Questions for Dean Baquet"(The New York Times • May 2015) [6:00] The Public Ed...

Episode 149: Ross Andersen

July 08, 2015 17:02 - 49 minutes

Ross Andersen is the deputy editor of Aeon Magazine. “One of the things that’s been really refreshing in dealing with scientists—as opposed to say politicians or most business people—is that scientists are wonderfully candid, they’ll talk shit on their colleagues. They’re just firing on all cylinders all the time because they traffic in ideas, and that’s what’s important to them.” Thanks to TinyLetter and AlarmGrid for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @andersen Andersen on Longf...

Episode 148: Anna Holmes

July 01, 2015 17:03 - 1 hour

Anna Holmes, the founding editor of Jezebel, writes for The New York Times and is the editorial director of Fusion. “I think that Jezebel contributed to what I now call ‘outrage culture,’ but outrage culture has no sense of humor. We had a hell of a sense of humor, that's where it splits off. ... The fact that people who are incredibly intelligent and have interesting things to say aren't given the room to work out their arguments or thoughts because someone will take offense is depressing t...

Episode 147: James Verini

June 24, 2015 15:05 - 53 minutes

James Verini, a freelance writer based out of Nairobi, won the 2015 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. “That is probably the most alien, jarring thing about working in Africa: life is much cheaper. More to the point, death is very close to you. We're very removed from death here. Someone can die at 89 in their sleep here and it's called a tragedy. In Africa, I find that I'm often exposed to it. That's part of why I wanted to live there.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Trunk Club for sp...

Episode 146: Rembert Browne

June 17, 2015 15:49 - 1 hour

Rembert Browne is a staff writer at Grantland. “I'm ok with not being at my most refined online. It's happening in real time and some of that is therapeutic. I could write a lot this stuff privately, but I'd rather just hit publish and see what happens. It's a weird world. But I'm super deep in.” Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and QuickBooks Self-Employed. Show Notes: @rembert REMBLR Browne on Longform [6:00] 500 Days Asunder [7:00] The Dartmouth, America's Oldest ...

Episode 145: Ashlee Vance

June 10, 2015 16:17 - 59 minutes

Ashlee Vance covers technology for Bloomberg Businessweek and is the author of of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. “To be totally clear, I don’t cover them (apps). I like people who try to solve big problems. Wherever I go, I try to run away from the consumer stuff. I love writing about giant manufacturing plants that make stuff and employ tens of thousands of people.” Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, Trunk Club, QuickBooks, and The School of Contin...

Episode 144: Cheryl Strayed

June 03, 2015 14:53 - 1 hour

Cheryl Strayed is the author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. “There's a long history, of women especially, saying 'Well, I just got lucky.' I didn't just get lucky. I worked my fucking ass off. And then I got lucky. And if I hadn't worked my ass off, I wouldn't have gotten lucky. You have to do the work. You always have to do the work.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and HP Matter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @CherylStrayed cherylstrayed.com The Complete Dear Sugar...

Episode 143: Masha Gessen

May 27, 2015 17:27 - 1 hour

Masha Gessen has written for The New York Times, The London Review of Books, Vanity Fair, and others. Her book about Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy, came out in April. “The moment she said it, it was obvious that I'd been created to write this story. I'd covered both wars in Chechnya. I'd covered a lot of terrorism. I'd studied terrorism. And I'd been a Russian-speaking immigrant in Boston, which actually is the most important qualification for ...

Episode 142: Sarah Maslin Nir

May 20, 2015 15:23 - 51 minutes

Sarah Maslin Nir, a reporter for The New York Times, recently published an exposé of labor practices in the nail salons of New York. “The idea of a discount luxury is an oxymoron. And it’s an oxymoron for a reason: because someone is bearing the cost of that discount. In nail salons it’s always the person doing your nails, my investigation found. That has put a new lens on the world for me.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and Aspiration for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @S...

Episode 141: Stephen J. Dubner

May 13, 2015 16:48 - 48 minutes

Stephen J. Dubner is the co-author, with Steven D. Levitt, of Freakonomics. Their latest book, When to Rob a Bank, came out last week. “I’ve abandoned more books than I’ve written, which I’m happy about. I’m very pro-quitting. We get preached this idea that if you quit something, if you don’t see something through to completion then you’re a loser, you’re a failure. I just think that’s a crazy way to look at things. But it’s also easy to overlook opportunity costs. Like, what could I be doin...

Episode 140: George Quraishi

May 06, 2015 19:08 - 54 minutes

George Quraishi is the co-founder and editor of Howler. “We raised $69,001. And that paid for the first issue. I call it subsistence magazine making, because every issue pays for the next one.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Squarespace, The Great Courses, and Aspiration for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @quraishi georgequraishi.com [23:00] "Dispatches From the World Cup" (Luke O'Brien • Slate • Jun 2006) [23:00] "The Beast Of Brazil: A Savage Trip To The Dark Heart Of The World Cup" ...

Episode 139: Andy Greenwald

April 29, 2015 15:27 - 1 hour

Andy Greenwald covers television for Grantland. “People are enthusiastic about TV. People want to read about it. They want to talk about it. They want to know more. They want to extend its presence in their lives. People used to talk about the water cooler show, but the internet is that water cooler now and people want to be part of the conversation.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Two5six Festival, The Great Courses, and Aspiration for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @andygreenwald Gre...

Episode 138: Alexis Okeowo

April 21, 2015 20:10 - 1 hour

Alexis Okeowo, a foreign correspondent, has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Businessweek. “Nigeria is a deeply sexist country. It can be difficult for people to take you seriously. But that also has its benefits, because it’s very easy to disarm your subjects. If I’m interviewing people who underestimate me, I can get them to open up because they somehow think that I’m naïve or I don’t know what I’m doing. So I don’t mind if some sexist general or banker thinks I’...

Episode 137: Rachel Syme

April 15, 2015 16:42 - 42 minutes

Rachel Syme has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Grantland, and more. “You have this sense that you’re bonding, but at the same time you're also going to betray them. Because if you hear this quote that they say or you see it in a mannerism, you write it in your notebook and you think ‘I got it.’” Thanks to TinyLetter, The Great Courses, MarketingProfs, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @rachsyme rachelsyme.com [4:00] "The Broad Strokes" (Grantl...

Episode 136: Anna Sale

April 08, 2015 15:11 - 1 hour

Anna Sale is the host of Death, Sex & Money. “It's the result of listening, of feeling listened to, that people open up. I look like a crazy person when I do interviews, because sometimes someone will be describing something and I will close my eyes and try to picture what they’re telling me. And if I can’t picture the moment they’re describing I’ll just try to dig in a little bit more.” Thanks to TinyLetter, The Great Courses, MarketingProfs, and WealthFront for sponsoring this week's epis...

Episode 135: Scott Anderson

April 01, 2015 20:22 - 1 hour

Scott Anderson is a war correspondent and novelist. He’s written for The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, and more. “I really feel that what’s at the root of so many wars now, modern wars, unconventional wars, it really just comes down to a bunch of young guys with access to guns coming up with a pretext to rape and murder and pillage and steal from their neighbors.” Thanks to TinyLetter, MarketingProfs, and WealthFront for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Anderso...

Episode 134: Dayna Tortorici

March 25, 2015 16:04 - 55 minutes

Dayna Tortorici is the editor of n+1. “You can't fetishize conflict so much. Because conflict does generate a lot of good work, but it also inhibits a lot of good work. I think people do their best work when they feel good. Or at least don't feel like shit. ... So I've tried to create a culture of mutual encouragement. Especially when you're not paying anybody, that's all you can really offer.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Wealthfront for sponsoring this week's show. Show Notes: @dtortorici np...

Episode 133: Adam Platt

March 18, 2015 16:48 - 59 minutes

Adam Platt is the restaurant critic for New York. “My job was described to me recently as ‘the last great job of the 20th century.’ I think there might be something to that.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda, Casper, and Wealthfront for sponsoring this week's show.  Show Notes: @plattypants [1:00] Longform Podcast #43: Margalit Fox [12:00] "Apple of the Times" (New Yorker • Jan 1993) [sub required] [12:00] "Messing About" (New Yorker • Mar 1993) [sub required] [18:00] "The Apotheosis of Fresh" ...

Episode 132: Erik Larson

March 10, 2015 16:58 - 1 hour

Erik Larson is the author of several books, including The Devil in the White City. His latest is Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. "I realized then and there, that afternoon, the thing that was going to make this interesting was the juxtaposition of light and dark, good and evil. This monument of civic good will versus this monument to the dark side of human nature. ... But that was really hard to pull off. And, frankly, on the eve of publication I was pretty sure my career was ...

Episode 131: Josh Dean

March 04, 2015 19:55 - 1 hour

Josh Dean has written for GQ, Fast Company, New York, and more. His latest piece, "The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang," was just published by The Atavist. “I sort of reject the whole idea of something being beneath me. There are obviously some stories I wouldn’t do or that I have no interest in, but this job is fun and should be fun. And I wouldn’t turn something down that seems like a fun thing for me to do just because maybe the story is not something that 10,000 people are going to ...

Episode 130: Mac McClelland

February 25, 2015 17:20 - 51 minutes

Mac McClelland has written for Mother Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone and others. Her book Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story came out this week. “I would just suddenly start sobbing, which is not something I usually do. I felt like I needed to be drunk all the time, which is also not something I usually do. I was having nightmares and I was having flashbacks. I was terrified and confused and disoriented all the time. I was a completely different person, unrecognizable eve...

Episode 129: Rukmini Callimachi (Part 2)

February 19, 2015 21:58 - 48 minutes

Rukmini Callimachi covers ISIS for The New York Times. Part 1 of this episode is available here. “Ever since I started in journalism, I feel like I'm perpetually winded. Like I'm just running as hard as I can to stay ahead of this train that's crashing. The caboose is falling off the back and I'm trying to run faster than the train to get to this very limited pool of amazing jobs. Once I got overseas I would say a prayer every night for the amazing life I was finally able to lead.” Thanks t...

Episode 129: Rukmini Callimachi (Part 1)

February 18, 2015 16:57 - 1 hour

Rukmini Callimachi covers ISIS for The New York Times. “Nine out of 10 Americans said they were aware of James Foley's execution. That's a huge win for ISIS. That's what they want. I think they've realized that journalists are the crème de la crème as far as targets. And that's a really scary thing for our profession.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @rcallimachi Callimach...

Episode 128: Jack Shafer

February 11, 2015 16:16 - 57 minutes

Jack Shafer covers the media for Politico. “This is a true story, not a ‘Brian Williams story’: my first report card said ‘Jack is a very good student, but he has a tendency to start fights on the playground and bring them back into the classroom.’ That's been my career style — start a fight and bring it back to the classroom.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: Show Notes: ...

Episode 127: Molly Crabapple

February 04, 2015 17:50 - 54 minutes

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer. She is a columnist for VICE and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review and Vanity Fair. “As long as the marginalized communities I’m writing about don’t think I’m full of shit, that’s success to me.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Squarespace and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @mollycrabapple mollycrabapple.com mollycrabapple.tumblr.com [1:00...

Episode 126: Taffy Brodesser-Akner

January 28, 2015 15:30 - 1 hour

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and GQ. “My writing career was something that was always about to happen, just as soon as the baby falls asleep, just as soon as I finish watching this five-hour bout of As the World Turns, just as soon as... What do you do when you realize that you have not been doing the thing you were going to do? You're in your 30s. You get to work.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. If you wou...

Episode 125: Anand Gopal

January 21, 2015 16:21 - 1 hour

Anand Gopal has written for The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s and Foreign Policy. He’s the author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes. “When I got to the Taliban, I got out my notebook and tried to ask the hard-hitting questions. ‘What are you fighting for? Why are you doing this? What’s happening with the civilians you’re killing?’ And of course you do that and you get boilerplate answers and icy stares. So I just started asking them questi...

Episode 124: Alex Blumberg

January 14, 2015 17:23 - 1 hour

Alex Blumberg is a former producer for This American Life and Planet Money. Last year he founded Gimlet Media, a podcast network, and hosts its first show, StartUp. “When someone starts talking about something difficult, when they get unexpectedly emotional, your normal human reaction is to sort of comfort and steer away. To say, ‘Oh I’m sorry, let’s move on.’ What you need to do, if you want good tape, is to say, ‘Talk more about how you’re feeling right now.’ It feels like a horrible quest...

Episode 123: Nicholas Carlson

January 07, 2015 15:33 - 1 hour

Nicholas Carlson writes for Business Insider. His book Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! came out this week. “To me people are what’s really interesting. Marissa Mayer is a once in a lifetime subject. She’s full of contradictions. … There are a million business stories, but if you don’t have that character at the center then you’re lost.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @nichcarlson Carlson on Longform [6:00] Longform Pod...

Episode 122: Hanna Rosin

December 17, 2014 20:01 - 1 hour

Hanna Rosin is a senior editor at The Atlantic and a founder and editor at DoubleX. “I often think of reporting as dating, or even speed dating. You’re looking for someone where there’s a spark there between you and them. Sometimes that happens right away and sometimes it takes forever. ... You have to determine if they're reflective, friendly, open. It could be love at first sight and they're still all wrong, which is really heartbreaking.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Bonobos and The Los Angeles...

Guests

Jon Mooallem
4 Episodes
Malcolm Gladwell
3 Episodes
ann friedman
2 Episodes
Ariel Levy
2 Episodes
Ed Yong
2 Episodes
George Saunders
2 Episodes
James Verini
2 Episodes
Jerry Saltz
2 Episodes
Jia Tolentino
2 Episodes
Michael Lewis
2 Episodes
Mina Kimes
2 Episodes
Samin Nosrat
2 Episodes
Tavi Gevinson
2 Episodes
Adam Davidson
1 Episode
Aleksandar Hemon
1 Episode
Alex Blumberg
1 Episode
Alex Kotlowitz
1 Episode
Aminatou Sow
1 Episode
Andy Greenberg
1 Episode
Ben Smith
1 Episode
Buzz Bissinger
1 Episode
Carl Zimmer
1 Episode
Chip Kidd
1 Episode
David Epstein
1 Episode
Elizabeth Gilbert
1 Episode
Elizabeth Wurtzel
1 Episode
Erik Larson
1 Episode
Erin Lee Carr
1 Episode
Evan Thomas
1 Episode
Ezra Klein
1 Episode
Gary Smith
1 Episode
Gay Talese
1 Episode
Hanna Rosin
1 Episode
Heather Havrilesky
1 Episode
Helen Rosner
1 Episode
James Fallows
1 Episode
jelani cobb
1 Episode
Jennifer Senior
1 Episode
John Grisham
1 Episode
John Heilemann
1 Episode
Jon Favreau
1 Episode
Jon Ronson
1 Episode
Joshua Topolsky
1 Episode
Kara Swisher
1 Episode
Karina Longworth
1 Episode
Kathryn Schulz
1 Episode
Kevin Kelly
1 Episode
Krista Tippett
1 Episode
Lena Dunham
1 Episode
Lori Gottlieb
1 Episode
Mark Bowden
1 Episode
Matt Levine
1 Episode
Michael Pollan
1 Episode
Mirin Fader
1 Episode
Nate Silver
1 Episode
Noreen Malone
1 Episode
Paige Williams
1 Episode
Parul Sehgal
1 Episode
Peter Hessler
1 Episode
Rose Eveleth
1 Episode
Sam Biddle
1 Episode
Shane Bauer
1 Episode
Sheera Frenkel
1 Episode
Starlee Kine
1 Episode
Stephen J. Dubner
1 Episode
Terry Gross
1 Episode
Tim Ferriss
1 Episode
Tom Bissell
1 Episode
Tyler Cowen
1 Episode

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