Longform

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 College Newspaper [10:00] "Stankoff 2011" [10:00] "Outkast Superfan Puts A Great Amount Of Time And Energy Into Thinking About Outkast Songs" (Dave Bry • The Awl • April 2011) [10:00] Hovafest 2011 [23:00] Browne's complete Grantland archive [23:00] "Rembert Explains the '80s: Double Dare" (Grantland • Jan 2012) [25:00] "Going Way Too Deep Down the Rabbit Hole With Nicki Minaj’s Recent Bar Mitzvah Appearance" (Grantland • Apr 2015) [28:00] "The Front Lines of Ferguson" (Grantland • Aug 2014) [36:00] "Barack and Me" (Grantland • Mar 2015) [41:00] "Glover's Lane: Q&A with Donald Glover" (Grantland • Jan 2015) [50:00] "ESPN Is Splitting With Bill Simmons, Who Offers an Uncharacteristic Word Count: Zero" (Richard Sandomir • The New York Times • May 2015) Please rate/review us on iTunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Continuing Education at Columbia University. Show Notes: The Atavist Magazine Podcast: Episode 1 @valleyhack ashleevance.com Vance on Longform [15:00] Vance's Register archive [15:00] Vance's New York Times archive [16:00] "Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power" (New York Times • Jan 2009) [19:00] The "Semi-Coherent Computing" Podcast [22:00] Longform Podcast #123: Nicholas Carlson [27:00] "This Tech Bubble Is Different" (Bloomberg Businessweek • Apr 2011) [31:00] "Larry Ellison Is Spending a Fortune to Save American Tennis" (Bloomberg Businessweek • Apr 2011) [31:00] "Multiplayer Game 'Eve Online' Cultivates a Most Devoted Following" (Bloomberg Businessweek • Apr 2013) [33:00] "The New Space Race: One Man's Mission to Build a Galactic Internet" (Bloomberg Businessweek • Jan 2015) [41:00] Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! (Nicholas Carlson • Twelve • 2015) [41:00] "Yahoo Sues Ex-Staffer Claiming She Gave Secrets to Writer" (Joel Rosenblatt, Brian Womack • Bloomberg • May 2015) [46:00] "The Killing of Osama bin Laden" (Seymour M. Hersh • London Review of Books • May 2015) [54:00] "Elon Musk, a Biography by Ashlee Vance, Paints a Driven Portrait" (Dwight Garner • New York Times • May 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Archive Strayed on Longform [1:00] Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Knopf • 2012) [1:00] Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (Vintage • 2012) [4:00] "Dear Sugar #44: How You Get Unstuck" (The Rumpus • July 2010) [9:00] "What Wild Has Wrought" (Nicholas Kristof • May 2015 ) [13:00] Torch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2006) [28:00] "Dear Sugar #48: Write Like a Motherfucker" (The Rumpus • Aug 2010) [28:00] "Write Like a Motherfucker" coffee mug [1:11:00] Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer • Random House • 1996) [1:13:00] "Oprah Talks to Cheryl Strayed" (O Magazine • July 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 writing this book. It didn't give me special knowledge, but it gave me a lot of questions that I knew to ask that other people wouldn't.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and Casper, for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @mashagessen Gessen on Longform [1:00] The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy (Riverhead Books • 2015) [34:00] Longform Podcast #30: Keith Gessen [48:00] Blood Matters (Harcourt • 2008) [50:00] Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (Riverhead Books • 2014) [50:00] The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (Riverhead Books • 2012) [50:00] Dead Again (Verso • 1997) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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: @SarahMaslinNir sarahmaslinnir.flavors.me [1:00] "The Price of Nice Nails" (New York Times • May 2015) [1:00] "Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers" (New York Times • May 2015) [12:00] "Saying Court Win Helps, Nail Salon Workers Rally" (New York Times • Apr 2012) [30:00] "Fighting a McDonald’s in Queens for the Right to Sit. And Sit. And Sit." (New York Times • Jan 2014) [37:00] Nocturnalist archive [38:00] "Alec Baldwin: Actor, Charmer, Fish Deboner" (New York Times • Jun 2011) [44:00] "City Agencies to Investigate Nail Salons, Mayor Says" (New York Times • May 2015) [47:00] "The Economics of New York’s Low Nail-Salon Prices" (James Surowiecki • New Yorker • May 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 doing instead?” Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, HP Matter, The Great Courses, and Aspiration. Show Notes: stephenjdubner.com Dubner on Longform [2:00] "The Desert Blues" (Joshua Hammer • The Atavist Magazine • May 2015) [3:00] When to Rob a Bank (with Steven D. Levitt • William Morrow • May 2015) [11:00] "When Numbers Solve a Mystery" (Steven Landsburg • The Wall Street Journal • Apr 2005) [13:00] "Do Parents Matter?" (with Steven D. Levitt • USA Today • May 2005) [13:00] "The Probability That a Real-Estate Agent Is Cheating You (and Other Riddles of Modern Life)" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2003) [16:00] "Steven the Good" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 1999) [16:00] Choosing My Religion: A Memoir of a Family Beyond Belief (Harper Perennial • 2006) [25:00] Freakonomics: The Movie (Magnolia Pictures • 2010) [42:00] Freakonomics Radio [43:00] "I'm Stephen Dubner, Co-Author of Freakonomics, and This Is How I Work" (Lifehacker • Sep 2014) [44:00] "Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast" (Freakonomics • Oct 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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" (Luke O'Brien • Howler • Nov 2014) [23:00] "The Miami Connection" (Robert Andrew Powell • Howler • Mar 2015) [24:00] This Love Is Not For Cowards (Robert Andrew Powell • Bloomsbury • 2012) [42:00] "I’m George Quraishi. Ask Me Anything." (Reddit • Nov 2014) [50:00] Quraishi on Fusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Greenwald's Grantland archive [26:00] "The Bottom of the Glass: Legacy and the Last Season of ‘Mad Men’" (Grantland • Apr 2015) [28:00] "‘Hollywood Prospectus Podcast’: ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ and ‘Batman v Superman’" (Grantland • Apr 2015) [30:00] "‘Empire’ Records: Fox’s New Music-Mogul Drama Embraces Its Soapy Heart" (Grantland • Jan 2015) [33:00] "Marco … YOLO! Why Netflix Spent $90 Million on Its (Terrible) New Series" (Grantland • Dec 2014) [40:00] Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and EMO (St. Martin's Griffin • 2003) [41:00] Miss Misery (Simon Spotlight Entertainment • 2005) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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’m this young little student who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. As long as you tell me what I want to know, it’s great.” Thanks to TinyLetter and MarketingProfs for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @alexis_ok alexisokeowo.com Okeowo on Longform [7:00] "Nigeria’s Stolen Girls" (New Yorker • Apr 2014) [19:00] "Inside the Vigilante Fight Against Boko Haram" (New York Times Magazine • Nov 2014) [31:00] "Freedom Fighter" (New Yorker • Sep 2014) [33:00] "Lagos Must Prosper" (Granta • Apr 2015) [51:00] "How the Lord’s Resistance Army Forced Captives to Become Couples" (FT Weekend Magazine • Jul 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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" (Grantland • Jan 2014) [4:00] "Azealia Banks on Why No One Really Wants to See Her Naked, Her Impure Thoughts About Barack Obama and Why She's 'Not Here to Be Your Idol'" (Billboard • Apr 2015) [5:00] "Id Girls" (Nick Paumgarten • New Yorker • Jun 2014) [7:00] TLC's Kickstarter [29:00] "Laura Marling Bids Goodbye to All That" (T Magazine • Mar 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 episode. Show Notes: @annasale annasale.com [3:00] The Atavist Magazine [3:00] "Operation Red Falcon" (Ronen Bergman • The Atavist Magazine • Apr 2015) [4:00] Another Round with Heben & Tracy [7:00] "This Senator Saved My Love Life" [10:00] "Brooklyn Left Me Broke and Tired" [15:00] "How to Be a Man With Bill Withers" [32:00] "Living Alone and Liking It. Sometimes." [32:00] "Cheating Happens." [38:00] "Ellen Burstyn's Lessons on Survival" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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: Anderson on Longform [5:00] The Man Who Tried to Save the World (Doubleday • 1999) [5:00] "Prisoner of War" (Harper’s • Jan 1997) [sub required] [5:00] War Zones (with Jon Lee Anderson • Dodd Mead • 1988) [14:00] "What Happened to Fred Cuny?" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 1996) [19:00] "The Hunger Warriors" (New York Times Magazine • Oct 2001) [29:00] "Besieged" (New York Times Magazine • Sep 2006) [34:00] "None Dare Call It a Conspiracy" (GQ • Sep 2009) [35:00] "Why 'GQ' Doesn't Want Russians To Read Its Story" (David Folkenflik • NPR • Sep 2009) [41:00] Lawrence in Arabia (Doubleday • 2013) [50:00] "Bringing It All Back Home" (New York Times Magazine • May 2006) [52:00] "Greg Ousley Is Sorry for Killing His Parents. Is That Enough?" (New York Times Magazine • Jul 2012) [55:00] "The Great Paper Caper" (Wells Tower • GQ • Oct 2014) [58:00] "Life in the Valley of Death” (New York Times Magazine • May 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 nplusonemag.com [2:00] Longform Podcast #30: Keith Gessen [19:00] "Hands Up: A Roundtable on Police Brutality" (Cosme Del-Rosario Bell, Elias Rodriques, Doreen St. Felix, Dayna Tortorici • n+1 • Nov 2014) [19:00] No Regrets [25:00] "Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America" [39:00] What Was the Hipster? [51:00] Subscribe to n+1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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" (New York • Dec 2009) [41:00] "Restaurants" A review of Le Cirque (Ruth Reichl • The New York Times • Oct 1993) [43:00] "Hi, I'm Adam Platt, Your Restaurant Critic" (New York • Dec 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 over." Thanks to TinyLetter, Wealthfront, andLove and Other Ways of Dying, the new collection from Michael Paterniti, for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @exlarson eriklarsonbooks.com [1:00] Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (Crown • Mar 2015) [1:00] Longform Podcast #93: Michael Paterniti [1:00] "Eating Jack Hooker's Cow" (Michael Paterniti • Esquire • Nov 1997) [4:00] Thunderstruck (Crown • 2004) [22:00] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 tweet about. I don’t give a shit.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Squarespace, Lynda and HP Matter for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @joshdean66 joshdean.com Dean on Longform [2:00] "The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang" (The Atavist • Feb 2015) [10:00] "Federer as Religious Experience" (David Foster Wallace • The New York Times • Aug 2006) [29:00] Longform Podcast #126: Taffy Brodesser-Akner [29:00] "Please God Stop the Rain" (New York • Aug 2012) [31:00] "For $100,000, You Can Clone Your Dog" (Businessweek • Oct 2014) [32:00] "World Elephant Polo Championships" (Outside • Oct 2009) [38:00] "Powder Keg" (Outside • Jul 2007) [42:00] Generation Kill (Evan Wright • Putnam Adult • 2004) [44:00] Show Dog (It Books • 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 even to myself.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Alarm Grid for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @MacMcClelland mac-mcclelland.com McClelland on Longform [1:00] Longform Podcast #6: Mac McClelland [1:00] Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story (Flatiron Books • 2015) [6:00] "Aftershocks: Welcome to Haiti's Reconstruction Hell" (Mother Jones • Jan 2011) [6:00] "Depression, Abuse, Suicide: Fishermen's Wives Face Post-Spill Trauma" (Mother Jones • Jun 2010) [11:00] "I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave" (Mother Jones • Mar 2012) [11:00] "For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question" (Mother Jones • Mar 2010) [16:00] "I’m Gonna Need You to Fight Me On This: How Violent Sex Helped Ease My PTSD" (GOOD • Jun 2011) [16:00] "Is PTSD Contagious?" (Mother Jones • Jan/Feb 2013) [32:00] "'It's War': Being a cop in post-Charlie Hebdo France" (Matter • Feb 2015) [43:00] "SugarDaddy.com: Old Dogs, New Tricks" (Mother Jones • Jan 2008) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 to TinyLetter and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @rcallimachi Callimachi on Longform [11:00] "The Horror Before the Beheadings" (The New York Times • Oct 2014) [15:00] "The Dynamics Of Demanding Ransom From Nations" (Robert Siegel • NPR • Aug 2014) [15:00] "Tremor Mortis" (Time • Feb 2001) [23:00] The Daily Herald [30:00] "Katrina's Nameless Dead" (AP • Dec 2006) [36:00] "From Amateur to Ruthless Jihadist in France" (with Jim Yardley • New York Times • Jan 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Callimachi on Longform [4:00] "The Horror Before the Beheadings" (The New York Times • Oct 2014) [4:00] "From Amateur to Ruthless Jihadist in France" (The New York Times • Jan 2014) [7:00] "ISIS Declares Airstrike Killed a U.S. Hostage" (The New York Times • Feb 2015) [11:00] "With Proof From ISIS of Her Death, Family Honors Kayla Mueller" (The New York Times • Feb 2015) [12:00] "As U.S. Bombs Fall, British Hostage of ISIS Warns of Another Vietnam" (The New York Times • Sep 2014) [21:00] Callimachi's Pulitzer-nominated work for the AP [26:00] McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (Misha Glenny • Random House • 2008) [27:00] The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Lawrence Wright • Alfred A. Knopf • 2006) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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: @jackshafer jackshafer.com Shafer on Longform [2:00] "Why Did Brian Williams Lie?" (Politico • Feb 2015) [2:00] "Brian Williams’ Slow Jam" (Politico • Feb 2015) [18:00] aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web (Kara Swisher • Crown Business • 1998) [21:00] Shafer’s archive on Slate [34:00] "The Trial of Stephen Glass" (Reuters • Dec 2011) [37:00] "'I Would Have Loved To Piss on Your Shoes'" (Slate • Jun 2011) [37:00] "'I Would Have Loved To Piss on Your Shoes,' Part 2" (Slate • Jun 2011) [42:00] "The Making of a Suspect: The Case of Wen Ho Lee" (Matthew Purdy • The New York Times • Feb 2001) [46:00] "House to Probe White House Role in FCC’s ‘Net Neutrality’ Proposal" (Gautham Nagesh and Siobhan Hughes • The Wall Street Journal • Feb 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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] "Love and Ruin" (James Verini • The Atavist • Feb 2014) [1:00] "Slaves of Happiness Island" (VICE • Aug 2014) [10:00] Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [16:00] "My Arrest at Occupy Wall Street" (CNN • Sep 2012) [19:00] "It Don’t Gitmo Better Than This" (VICE • Jul 2013) [24:00] Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (James Agee and Walker Evans • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 1941) [25:00] Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens (with Laurie Penny • Vintage Digital • 2012) [30:00] "Caught Between ISIS and Assad" (VICE • Jun 2014) [36:00] "I Confronted Donald Trump in Dubai" (VICE • Jun 2014) [39:00] "Special Prostitution Courts and the Myth of 'Rescuing' Sex Workers" (VICE • Jan 2015) [45:00] "Talking About My Abortion" (VICE • Apr 2013) [48:00] "The World of a Professional Naked Girl" (VICE • Oct 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @taffyakner taffyakner.com Brodesser-Akner on Longform [20:00] "The Trials of a Chubby Yogi" (Self • Oct 2011) [26:00] "Who Controls Childbirth" (Self • Jul 2010) [31:00] "Who's Killing the Soaps?" (The Daily Beast • Dec 2009) [33:00] "Nicky Minaj: Cheeky Genius" (GQ • Nov 2014) [34:00] "2 Generations of Comedy Musicians Meet!: Weird Al Yankovic and The Lonely Island" (GQ • May 2013) [44:00] "Girls Fight Out" (Matter • Dec 2014) [46:00] "The Leftovers" (Matter • Sep 2014) [46:00] "Miss American Dream" (Matter • Jun 2014) [47:00] "The Chelsea Hotel Had Its Own Eloise" (New York Times Magazine • Jul 2013) [47:00] "Zosia Mamet Is Still Getting Used to Being Your New Best Friend" (New York Times Magazine • Jan 2013) [51:00] "The Tragedy of Britney Spears" (Vanessa Grigoriadis • Rolling Stone • Feb 2008) [51:00] "Don't Go Away Mad" (Grantland • Jun 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 questions about their childhood. ... People love to talk about themselves and he began to open up and very subtly something shifted and it no longer became about the war and America versus the Taliban, it became about him being an Afghan and his experience.” 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: @Anand_Gopal_ anandgopal.com [9:00] Longform Podcast #1: Matthieu Aikins [12:00] "Ousted By Iran, Afghan Refugees Languish At Home" (Inter Press Service • Feb 2008) [18:00] "Kandahar’s Mystery Executions" (Harper’s • Sep 2014) [19:00] No Good Men Among the Living (Metropolitan Books • 2014) [28:00] "Welcome to Free Syria" (Harper’s • Aug 2012) [28:00] "Decoding the Syrian Propaganda War" (Harper’s • Aug 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 question to ask. It feels like you're going against your every instinct as a decent human being to go toward the pain that this person is experiencing.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda and Alarm Grid for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @abexlumberg gimletmedia.com Blumberg’s archive on This American Life [2:00] Longform on Reply All #7: This Website Is For Sale [2:00] Longform Podcast #23: Starlee Kine [4:00] "Company Eight" (Matthew Pearl • The Atavist • Jan 2015) [20:00] "91: 33 Million Dollar Box" (This American Life • Jan 1998) [20:00] "115: First DayFirst Day" (This American Life • Nov 1998) [27:00] "236: Stock Making Sense" (This American Life • Apr 2003) [30:00] "355: The Giant Pool of Money" (This American Life • May 2008) [34:00] "365: The Day The Market Died" (This American Life • Oct 2008) [36:00] StartUp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Podcast #81: Kevin Roose [13:00] "What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs" (New York Times Magazine • Dec 2014) [16:00] "Viacom Takes Google, YouTube Fight to Court" (InternetNews.com • Mar 2007) [18:00] Disney War (James B. Stewart • Simon & Schuster • 2005) [19:00] Longform Podcast #19: Choire Sicha [23:00] Longform Podcast #88: Sam Biddle [23:00] Carlson’s archive on Valleywag [33:00] "Google Gave Employees This Smartwatch As A Holiday Gift, And Some Of Them Are Whining About It" (Business Insider • Dec 2014) [34:00] Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! (Twelve • 2015) [38:00] Googled: The End of the World As We Know It (Ken Auletta • Penguin Press • 2008) [48:00] "The Story Behind Why AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Fired An Employee In Front Of 1,000 Coworkers" (Business Insider • Nov 2013) [48:00] "This Man Was Supposed To Become Steve Jobs 2.0 — Here’s What Happened Instead" (Business Insider • Nov 2014) [54:00] "The Untold Story Of Larry Page's Incredible Comeback" (Business Insider • Apr 2014) [1:01:00] "Hacks Into Hackers" (The New York Times • Sep 2010) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan P. Lee is a contributing writer at New York. "I don't believe in answers. That's what compels me to write all of these stories. None of them ends nicely, none of them ends neatly." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @Dan_P_Lee Lee on Longform Lee's New York archive [13:30] "Who Killed Ellen Andros?" (Philadelphia Magazine • Oct 2006) [22:45] "Travis the Menace" (New York • Jan 2011) [45:00] "Paw Paw & Lady Love" (New York • Jun 2011) [48:45] "4:52 on Christmas Morning" (New York • Dec 2012) [49:15] "The Camera's Cusp" (New York • Sep 2013) [49:15] "Where It Hurts" (New York • Dec 2013) [51:30] "The Good Seed" (GQ • Jun 2011) [55:30] "'I Just Want to Feel Everything'" (New York • Jun 2012) [1:04:00] "Welcome to the Real Space Age" (New York • May 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Evan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill. "When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'" Thanks to our sponsor, TinyLetter. Show notes: @evanscribe Wright on Longform [3:45] Generation Kill (2004) [10:00] "Scenes From My Life in Porn" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2000) [12:15] A.J. Liebling’s New Yorker archive [14:15] "Big Red Son" (David Foster Wallace • Consider the Lobster • 1998) [pdf] [16:30] Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (D.T. Max • 2012) [18:15] Hella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe,Wingnut's War Against the Gap, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America (2009) [28:00] "The Killer Elite" (Rolling Stone • Jul 2003) [30:30] Longform Podcast #64: Gay Talese [33:30] Wikipedia: Christopher Isherwhood [39:30] Karl Taro Greenfield on Longform [48:30] "Pat Dollard's War on Hollywood" (Vanity Fair • Mar 2007) [57:00] American Desperado: My Life—From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset (with Jon Roberts • 2011) [1:00:00] How to Get Away with Murder in America: Drug Lords, Dirty Pols, Obsessed Cops, and the Quiet Man Who Became the CIA's Master Killer (Kindle Single • 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Times' Bookshelf Newsletter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @HannaRosin hannarosin.com Rosin on Longform [1:00] "Murder by Craigslist" (The Atlantic • Aug 2013) [1:00] "Hello, My Name Is Stephen Glass, and I’m Sorry" (The New Republic • Nov 2014) [7:00] The End of Men: And the Rise of Women (Riverhead Books • 2012) [18:00] The Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer • Little, Brown • 1979) [18:00] "The Evil Empire: The Scoop on Ben & Jerry's Crunchy Capitalism" (The New Republic • Sep 1995) [23:00] "The New Republic: An Appreciation" (Ta-Nehisi Coates • The Atlantic • Dec 2014) [25:00] "Who Shot Johnny?" (Debra Dickerson • The New Republic • 1996) [pdf] [31:00] "A Boy's Life" (The Atlantic • Nov 2008) [38:00] "The Case Against Breast-Feeding" (The Atlantic • Apr 2009) [41:00] "The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind" (Binyamin Appelbaum • The New York Times • Dec 2014) [42:00] "The End of Men" (The Atlantic • Jul 2010) [43:00] "By Noon They'd Both Be in Heaven" (New York • Oct 2014) [46:00] "Why Kids Sext" (The Atlantic • Oct 2014) [49:00] "The Missing Men" (with Allison Benedikt • Slate • Dec 2014) [49:00] Sabrina Rubin Erdely on DoubleX Gabfest (with June Thomas and Katy Waldman • Slate • Nov 2014) [49:00] "Blame Rolling Stone" (Slate • Dec 2014) [49:00] "DoubleX Gabfest: The Aftermath of Rolling Stone Edition" (with Noreen Malone and June Thomas • Slate • Dec 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meghan Daum's latest book of essays is The Unspeakable. “As writers we think, well there has to be closure, there has to be a beginning middle end, the character has to go through a change. And then in life we're supposed to have some sort of arc or aha moment, as if the experience isn't legitimate unless we get something out of it. That's so culturally constructed, as they say. It's so artificial.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Scribd, and Oscar for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @meghan_daum meghandaum.com Daum on Longform [1:00] The Unspeakable (Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2014) [1:00] "My Misspent Youth" (New Yorker • Oct 1999) [18:00] "All About My Mother" (The Guardian • Nov 2014) [35:00] Daum’s archive of Los Angeles Times columns [38:00] My Misspent Youth (Open City Books • 2001) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Katie J.M. Baker is a reporter for BuzzFeed. “I went to Steubenville a year after the sexual assault to cover their first big football game of the season and I was face-to-face with these people who I had been writing about without knowing much about them. From far away it seems like, do these details matter? Do we care if these people’s lives get messed up when the narrative is so strong, when Steubenville now stands for more awareness around rape culture? But when you’re there, of course it matters. After that piece I realized I didn’t want to blog anymore and I wanted to just focus on reporting.” Thanks to Casper, Scribd, and TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @katiejmbaker katiejmbaker.com Baker on Longform [4:00] "Forever Young" (BuzzFeed • Sep 2014) [13:00] "In West Virginia, Playing Hooky Can Get You Locked Up" (BuzzFeed • Oct 2014) [20:00] "Supervisor Wants Motive Spelled Out at S.F.'s Antiabortion Clinics" (San Francisco Chronicle • Jun 2011) [20:00] "Teacher Leaves Elite LA School After Alleged Student Affair, Inappropriate Relationships" (BuzzFeed • Jul 2014) [21:00] "Head Of Elite L.A. School Resigns After Sex Misconduct Scandal" (BuzzFeed • Nov 2014) [22:00] "My Weekend In America's So-Called 'Rape Capital'" (Jezebel • May 2012) [24:00] "Even The Most Progressive University In North America Doesn’t Know How To Handle Sexual Consent" (BuzzFeed • Jun 2014) [26:00] "Rape Victims Don’t Trust The Fixers Colleges Hire To Help Them" (BuzzFeed • Apr 2014) [28:00] "Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault" (Vanessa Grigoriadis • New York • Sep 2014) [30:00] "Rape Case Unfolds on Web and Splits City" (Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber • The New York Times • Dec 2012) [30:00] "Steubenville's Legacy: How a Rape Case in Ohio Could Change History" (Jezebel • Jan 2013) [31:00] "'A Town Destroyed for What Two People Did': Dispatch from Steubenville" (Jezebel • Sep 2013) [32:00] "Why Is No One Talking About the Second Steubenville Rape Case?" (Newsweek • Nov 2013) [33:00] "The Accused" (BuzzFeed • Nov 2014) [42:00] "The Fort of Young Saplings" (Vanessa Veselka • The Atavist • Nov 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alec Wilkinson is a staff writer for The New Yorker. “My hero was Joseph Mitchell, that was how you did reporting. There was nothing conniving about it or cunning — you just simply kept returning and kept returning.” Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Wilkinson on Longform [2:00] "The Protest Singer" (New Yorker • Apr 2006) [6:00] Midnights: A Year With the Welfleet Police (Random House • 1982) [9:00] My Mentor (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2002) [9:00] Across the River and into the Trees (Ernest Hemingway • 1950) [24:00] Moonshine: A Life in Pursuit of White Liquor (Knopf • 1985) [25:00] Big Sugar (Knopf • 1989) [27:00] The Happiest Man in the World (Random House • 2007) [34:00] "New York Is Killing Me" (New Yorker • Aug 2010) [42:00] "Sam and Other Reflections on Being a Father" (Esquire • Jun 2000) [47:00] The Ice Balloon (Knopf • 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emma Carmichael, a former editor at Deadspin and The Hairpin, is the editor in chief of Jezebel. "Online feminism has more and more rules lately. There are only so many things you can say. And while our opinions are getting more constrained online, personal feminism and face-to-face conversations are looser and more complicated and don't go by any rules. ... The ideal with Jezebel is getting to a point where you can say, 'This is what I think, so who gives a fuck.'" Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @emmacargo emmacarmichael.com Carmichael on Longform Jezebel Deadspin The Hairpin [1:00] Laura Olin’s TinyLetter [5:00] "Brett Favre Has His Hands Full With Himself" (Deadspin • Oct 2010) [9:00] "Letter From A Young Female Sportswriter: Ines Sainz, You Make Me Want To Stop Trying" (Deadspin • Sep 2010) [31:00] "Saartjie Baartman: The Original Booty Queen" (Cleuci de Oliveira • Jezebel • Nov 2014) [35:00] "The Right to a Sexual Narrative: On the Lena Dunham Abuse Claims" (Jia Tolentino • Jezebel • Nov 2014) [43:00] "Do-it-All UConn Star Breanna Stewart is Kevin Durant of Women's Game" (Sports Illustrated • Mar 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reihan Salam is the executive editor of National Review. "I’m incredibly curious about other people. I’m curious about what they think of as the constraints operating on their lives. Why do they think what they think? If I weren’t doing this job, I’d want to be a high school guidance counselor." Thanks to TinyLetter, Bonobos, and Cards Against Humanity’s Ten Days or Whatever of Kwanzaa for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @reihan reihansalam.com [11:00] "The White Ghetto" (Kevin D. Williamson • National Review • Jan 2014) [18:00] "Is Free Content Ruining Journalism?" (The VICE Podcast • Sep 2013) [30:00] "Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League" (William Deresiewicz • New Republic • Jul 2014) [33:00] Longform Podcast #35: Jay Caspian Kang [34:00] "How the Suburbs Got Poor" (Slate • Sep 2014) [38:00] Longform Podcast #12: Mina Kimes [42:00] "Jason Schwartzman and Alex Ross Perry Discuss Their New Film, 'Listen Up Philip'" (The VICE Podcast Show • Oct 2014) [57:00] "In Praise of Amazon" (Slate • Oct 2014) [57:00] Grand New Party (with Ross Douthat • Doubleday • 2008) [101:00] "Is It Racist to Date Only People of Your Own Race?" (Slate • Apr 2014) [103:00] "Errol Morris on His New Movie, 'The Unknown Known'" (The VICE Podcast Show • Apr 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jake Halpern, a contributor to This American Life, has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. His latest book is Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld. "I test out my stories on my kids. You should be able to tell any story, now matter how complicated, to a seven-year-old in a way that they understand. If you can't, that probably means that either a) you're telling the story wrong or b) it's not really a story." Thanks to TinyLetter and Bonobos for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: jakehalpern.com Halpern on Longform [2:00] "The Devil Underground" (Nadja Drost • The Atavist • Oct 2014) [2:00] Longform App Exclusive: "The Trials of White Boy Rick" (Evan Hughes • The Atavist • Sep 2014) [3:00] Braving Home (Houghton Mifflin • 2003) [4:00] "Jungle Boy" (The New Republic • 2006) [14:00] Fame Junkies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2006) [14:00] Bad Paper (Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2014) [17:00] "Selling the Beat" (New Yorker • Apr 2004) [21:00] "Pay Up" (New Yorker • Oct 2004) [43:00] "Paper Boys" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2014) [43:00] "Magic Words" (This American Life • Aug 2014) [43:00] "Bad Paper, The Debtor Game" (Fusion • Aug 2014) [45:00] The Dormia Trilogy [46:00] "The Secret of the Temple" (The New Yorker • Apr 2012) [51:00] "Switched at Birth" (This American Life • Jul 2008) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jen Percy is the author of Demon Camp: A Soldier's Exorcism. "As is the nature of obsession, you just start gathering materials, hoarding documents and taking notes in a way that’s totally chaotic and overwhelming. You don’t even care yet because you’re so excited by what you’re gathering. If you start trying to make a narrative out of it too soon it will be false or it will fall apart." Thanks to TinyLetter and Dear Thief, the new novel by Samantha Harvey, for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @JenPercy Percy on Longform [1:00] "My Terrifying Night With Afghanistan's Only Female Warlord" (The New Republic • Oct 2014) [1:00] Demon Camp: A Soldier's Exorcism (Scribner • 2014) [19:00] "Voice in the Night" An excerpt from Demon Camp (Harper’s • Nov 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jessica Pressler writes for New York, Elle and GQ. "I really like hustlers, stories about someone who comes out of nowhere and tries to do it for themselves. Those people are just easy to like. Even when they're sort of terrible, they're easy to like." Thanks to TinyLetter and Warby Parker for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @jpressler Pressler on Longform [3:00] jessicapressler.com [11:00] "Philadelphia Story: The Next Borough" (The New York Times • Aug 2005) [17:00] Longform Podcast #77: Dan P. Lee [24:00] "It’s Too Bad. And I Don’t Mean It’s Too Bad Like ‘Screw ’Em.’" (New York • Jul 2011) [29:00] "The Dumbest Person in Your Building Is Passing Out Keys to Your Front Door!" (New York • Sep 2014) [29:00] "Let’s, Like, Demolish Laundry" (New York • May 2014) [30:00] "20/30 Vision" (New York • Aug 2013) [39:00] "The GQ Cover Story: Adam Driver" (GQ • Sep 2014) [41:00] "Adam Levine Doesn't Care If You Like Him (But He'd Really Prefer That You Did)" (GQ • Jul 2014) [41:00] "The Full Tatum" (GQ • Mar 2011) [43:00] "American Marvel" (Edith Zimmerman • GQ • Jul 2011) [49:00] "A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age" (New York • Sep 2011) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wendy MacNaughton is a graphic journalist and the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them. "We mostly hear stories from big personalities who already have a spotlight on them. I think that everybody carries stories that are just as profound as the ones we hear from celebrities or whoever. I’m interested in the stories of people who don’t usually get to tell them. I think those are sometimes the most interesting." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @wendymac wendymacnaughton.com wendymacnaughton.tumblr.com [1:00] Pen & Ink (with Isaac Fitzgerald • Bloomsbury • Oct 2014) [4:00] Pop-Up Magazine [14:00] Meanwhile in San Francisco (Chronicle Books • Mar 2014) [16:00] "The Making of Longshot" [20:00] "Meanwhile, The San Francisco Public Library" (The Rumpus • May 2011) [31:00] Lost Cat (with Caroline Paul • Bloomsbury • Apr 2013) [37:00] "The Price of Black Ambition" (Roxane Gay • VQR • Oct 2014) [40:00] "Universal Laws of Safe Distance" [45:00] "Meanwhile, Mission Bartenders" (The Rumpus • Mar 2011) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don Van Natta Jr., a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, writes for ESPN and is the author of several books, including Wonder Girl. "The nature of the kind of work I do as an investigative reporter, every story you do is going to get attacked and the tires are going to get kicked. It’s going to get scrutinized down to every phrase and down to every letter. You have to have multiple sources for key facts on this type of story. We set out to get that and we got it." Thanks to TinyLetter and Bonobos for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @DVNJr Van Natta Jr. on Longform [3:00] "The Trials of White Boy Rick" (Evan Hughes • The Atavist • Sep 2014) [3:00] The Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award [4:00] "His Game, His Rules" (ESPN • Mar 2013) [4:00] "Rice Case: Purposeful Misdirection by Team, Scant Investigation by NFL" (with Kevin Van Valkenburg • ESPN • Sep 2014) [11:00] "Sources: Rice Told NFL He Hit Fiancee" (ESPN • Sep 2014) [14:00] "Ravens Respond to OTL Story" (ESPN • Sep 2014) [14:00] Steve Bisciotti responds to Van Natta's report (Baltimore Ravens) [15:00] "Here's Every Edit ESPN Has Made To Its OTL Ray Rice-Ravens Report" (Timothy Burke • Deadspin • Sep 2014) [17:00] "Van Natta Defends Ray Rice Report" (ESPN • Sep 2014) [24:00] League of Denial (Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru • Crown Archetype • 2013) [24:00] "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis" (Frontline • 2013) [24:00] "N.F.L. Pressure Said to Lead ESPN to Quit Film Project" (James Andrew Miller and Ken Belson • The New York Times • Aug 2013) [25:00] "The Match Maker" (ESPN • Aug 2013) [28:00] "Jerry Football" (ESPN • Aug 2014) [43:00] "Questions Linger About Why N.F.L. Destroyed Patriots’ Tapes" (Greg Bishop • The New York Times • Dec 2007) [47:00] Wonder Girl (Little, Brown and Company • 2011) [58:00] "Comfort Inn Hero" (The Miami Herald • Aug 1992) [105:00] "The Whistleblower's Last Stand" (ESPN • Mar 2014) [107:00] "The Half-Time Hero" (Jeff Maysh • Howler • Oct 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we are re-airing our February 2013 interivew with our friend Matt Power, who died earlier this year while on assignment in Uganda, to help raise money for Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award. We have also reprinted Matt's classic 2005 article, "The Lost Buddhas of Bamiyan," which is available online for the first time. Founded by Matt's friends and family, the annual award will support promising writers early in their careers with a stipend of $12,500 to bring forward an unreported story of importance in some overlooked corner of the world. Please donate today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anne Helen Petersen writes for BuzzFeed. Her book Scandals of Classic Hollywood is out this week. "I was obsessed with Entertainment Weekly from the very first issue and I obsessively catalogued it. I made a database on my Apple IIe where I put in the title of the magazine and the number and whether it was a little 'e' or a big 'E' on the cover and the different topics and then I gave it a grade. You know how in Entertainment Weekly they give everything a grade, so I’d be like 'Oscar’s Issue: A minus.' But I learned how to obsessively track Hollywood industry even though I grew up in a very small town in northern Idaho." Thanks to TinyLetter, Bonobos, and EA SPORTS FIFA 15 for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @annehelen annehelenpetersen.com Petersen on Longform [1:00] "The Down and Dirty History of TMZ" (BuzzFeed • Jul 2014) [1:00] Scandals of Classic Hollywood (Plume • Sep 2014) [3:00] EA SPORTS FIFA 15 Readers' Poll Results [5:00] "The Gossip Industry" (Petersen's Dissertation • 2011) [pdf] [5:00] "Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style" [6:00] "The Trials of Entertainment Weekly" (The Awl • Jun 2014 ) [14:00] Longform Podcast #50: Edith Zimmerman [28:00] Lainey Gossip [32:00] "Jennifer Lawrence and the History of Cool Girls" (BuzzFeed • Feb 2014) [37:00] "Talking to Anne Helen Petersen About Leaving Academia for BuzzFeed" (The Hairpin • Mar 2014) [43:00] "Angelina Jolie’s Perfect Game" (BuzzFeed • May 2014) [45:00] "Confidentially Yours" (The Believer • May 2014) [50:00] "At Least One Real, Authentic Moment of Humanity With Cameron Diaz" (Alex Pappademas • Grantland • Jul 2014) [53:00] "How I Rebuilt Tinder and Discovered the Shameful Secret of Attraction" (BuzzFeed • Sep 2014) [100:00] "Take Time" (John Herrman • The Awl • Jun 2014 ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Hayes hosts All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and is an editor-at-large for The Nation. "The instability was so intense and the anguish and frustration were so intense that there wasn’t a ton of time to think through, 'Well, what is my role in this?' Mostly it was: wake up in the morning after two or three hours of sleep and start going to stuff, talking to people, and keep doing that until the show happens." Thanks to GoDaddy for sponsoring this week's episode. Apply for the TinyLetter Writers Residency by September 26. And nominate your favorite soccer article for a chance to win a free Xbox One and EA SPORTS FIFA 15. Show Notes: @chrislhayes [1:55] Evan on The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC • Apr 2014) [7:30] "Al-Jazeera runs from teargas in Ferguson" (YouTube) [10:30] "St Louis police officer shoots Kajieme Powell [Graphic]" (YouTube) [26:00] Hayes's archive in The Chicago Reader [28:00] "Trapped" (The Chicago Reader • Dec 2002) [34:00] Hayes's archive in The Nation [39:30] "The NAFTA Superhighway" (The Nation • Aug 2007) [40:30] Hayes's first appearance on TV (C-SPAN • Sep 2007) [47:30] "Chris Hayes On 'Heroes' Controversy: 'I Fell Short At A Crucial Moment'" (Jack Mirkinson • The Huffington Post • May 2012) [59:00] Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy (Crown • 2012) [100:30] "The Real Story Behind Chicago’s Crime Numbers" (MSNBC • Jun 2014) [100:30] "A Town's Only Hospital Closes" (MSNBC • Jul 2014) [100:30] "The (Too) Slow March of Desegregation" (MSNBC • Jun 2014) [101:00] "Years of Living Dangerously" (Showtime) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Buzz Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has written for Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, GQ and more. He is the author of several books, including Friday Night Lights. "It’s quiet. And I really felt I needed that quiet. People say, 'Well anger was your edge, and agitation was your edge, and that’s going to hurt your writing.' I don’t know, maybe. It may be that in order to live a happier life you become a shittier writer. I don't know. But I just couldn't live in that fashion anymore, I just couldn't. It would've destroyed my marriage. It was destroying me." Thanks to this week's sponsors. The Longform App is now available. Apply for the TinyLetter Writers Residency by September 26. And nominate your favorite soccer article for a chance to win a free Xbox One and EA SPORTS FIFA 15. Show Notes: buzzbissinger.com Bissinger on Longform [7:00] Friday Night Lights (Da Capo Press • 1990) [7:30] "Pursuit Of A Big Blue Chipper" (Sports Illustrated • Sep 1968) [12:00] "Disorder in the Court" series (The Philadelphia Inquirer • with Daniel R. Biddle and Fredric N. Tulsky • 1987) [unavailable online] [17:45] Father’s Day (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2012) [18:00] Three Nights in August (Mariner • 2005) [20:30] A Prayer for the City (Vintage • 1998) [28:30] Shooting Stars (Penguin • 2009) [31:30] "Who Is Nick Foles?" (Philadelphia Magazine • Jun 2014) [39:00] "The Plane That Fell From the Sky" (St. Paul Pioneer Press • Apr 1979) [pdf] [44:00] "My Gucci Addiction" (GQ • Apr 2013) [1:01:00] "Darkness in August" (Vanity Fair • Feb 2014) [1:02:00] Wherever I Wind Up (R.A. Dickey • Blue Rider Press • 2012) [1:20:00] "Shattered Glass" (Vanity Fair • Sep 1998) [1:20:00] "The Runaway Doctor" (Vanity Fair • Jan 2011) [1:20:30] After Friday Night Lights (Byliner • 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sean Wilsey has written for The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s Quarterly, where he is an editor-at-large. His latest book is More Curious. "I’m actually apparently a fairly competent person at getting things done, making deadlines and all these things. But the Wilsey you might get in the piece about NASA is the guy who eats a ton of oysters and drinks a lot of beer before getting on the vomit comet." Thanks to TinyLetter and GoDaddy for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @seanwilsey [1:20] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and the author of Sticks and Stones. "There’s nothing purely, or maybe even at all, altruistic about this exchange. It’s transactional in the Janet Malcolm classical sense, but also in the emotional sense. There is a way in which I’m super open. I take in these experiences. They keep me up at night. They really get inside me. But then, I'm also using them to craft whatever I’m working on." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @emilybazelon emilybazelon.com Bazelon on Longform [17:30] "What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?" (Slate • July 2010) [25:45] Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy (2013 • Random House) [27:15] "The Price of a Stolen Childhood" (New York Times Magazine • Jan 2013) [37:45] Double X [41:00] Political Gabfest [45:00] Bazelon on Colbert Report (Mar 2012) [46:00] Bazelon’s television appearances [47:45] "The Dawn of the Post-Clinic Abortion" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2014) [57:30] "A Long Day’s Journey Into Haircut" (Walter Kirn • New York Times • Apr 2003) [58:00] "Review: Redeeming the Dream, on Marriage Equality by David Boies and Theodore Olson" (Washington Post • Jun 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zach Baron is a staff writer for GQ. "People love to put celebrity stuff or culture stuff lower on the hierarchy than, say, a serial killer story. I think they're all the same story. If you crack the human, you crack the human." Thanks to TinyLetter and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @xzachbaronx Baron's personal site Baron on Longform [7:00] "Kanye West: A Brand-New Ye" (GQ • Jul 2014) [17:30] "Steve McQueen: Auteur of the Year 2013" (GQ • Dec 2013) [22:50] "The Secret Double Life of Mister Cee" (GQ • Feb 2014) [39:10] Baron's archive on Grantland [45:00] "Fear and Self-Loathing in Las Vegas" (The Daily • Oct 2011) [45:40] "50 Cent Is My Life Coach" (GQ • Jun 2014) [52:00] "Cliven Bundy's War" (GQ • Jul 2014) [52:20] "Why Are They (Armed) 'Patriots' in Nevada But (Unarmed) Rioters in Ferguson?" (GQ • Aug 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ben Anderson is a war journalist and documentary filmmaker. His latest book, The Interpreters, is available free from Vice. "You're surrounded by people who are so poor. Maybe their family members have already been killed. And they still can't leave. So compared to that, I can't really take the idea that I've suffered and that I need stop and go to a spa for a few days. I can't take that idea that seriously. Compared to them, it feels like I am leading an almost privileged existence." Thanks to TinyLetter and GoDaddy for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @BenJohnAnderson Ben Anderson on Vice [12:00] The Slaves of Dubai (Vice • Apr 2009) [15:30] "My Holidays in the Axis of Evil" (BBC • Feb 2003) [20:43] No Worse Enemy (Oneworld Publications • Oct 2012) [21:15] This is What Winning Looks Like (Vice • May 2013) [23:20] The Battle for Marjah (HBO • Feb 2010) [33:16] Vice on HBO [40:00] James Wood's New Yorker archive [42:40] Afghan Interpreters (Vice • Jul 2014) [42:40] The Interpreters (Vice • Aug 2014) [43:00] King Leopold's Ghost (Adam Hochschild • 1998) [54:30] Longform Podcast #1: Matthieu Aikins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis Lapham, formerly the editor of Harper's, is the founder of Lapham's Quarterly. "The best part of my job was to come across a manuscript. You never knew what would show up. ... I always had the sense of opening a present, hoping to be both delighted and surprised. Often I was disappointed. But when I wasn't, it was a lot of fun. And word got around that I was that kind of an editor, that I was willing to try anything if you could make it interesting." Thanks to TinyLetter and GoDaddy for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Lapham's Quarterly Lapham on Longform [2:30] With the Beatles (Melville House • Oct 2005) [17:00] "Who is Lyndon B. Johnson?" (The Saturday Evening Post • Sep 1965) [unavailable online] [21:00] "Monk: High Priest of Jazz" (The Saturday Evening Post • Apr 1964) [unavailable online] [29:00] "Alaksa: Politicians and Natives, Money and Oil" (Harper's • May 1970) [paywall] [31:00] "The Coming Wounds of Wall Street" (Harper's • May 1971) [paywall] [43:30] "Harper's Lapham: Good-bye, Long Tale" (Christopher Swan • The Christian Science Monitor • July 1985) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adam Higginbotham has written for Businessweek, Wired and The New Yorker. His latest story is A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite, for The Atavist. "There's always a narrative in a crime story. Something has always gone wrong. These guys are always in prison, because they all fucked something up or trusted the wrong person. They always get caught in the end. Because if they hadn't, you wouldn't be reading about it." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @HigginbothamA adamhigginbotham.com Higginbotham on Longform [2:13] A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite (The Atavist • Jul 2014) [26:16] The Face [28:14] Richard Branson Turns 50 (Independent on Sunday Review • Jul 2000) [32:51] The Inkjet Counterfeiter (Wired (UK) • Oct 2009) [40:48] The Gangster Prince of Liberia (Details • Nov 2007) [41:30] The Last Days of the Lipstick Killer (GQ • May 2008) [41:39] The Green River Killer (Sunday Telegraph • May 2004) [pdf] [46:18] Life at the Top (The New Yorker • Feb 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brin-Jonathan Butler has written for SB Nation, ESPN, and The New York Times. His new book is A Cuban Boxer’s Journey. "He smiled at me and just to make small talk, I said, 'You know, you’ve got this gold grill on your teeth. Where did you get that from?' And he said, 'Oh, I just melted my gold medals into my mouth.' And I thought, 'I think I’ve got a story here.'" Thanks to TinyLetter, WW Norton & Company and Open Road Integrated Media for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @brincio [4:45] Pitching Around Fidel (S.L. Price • 1998) [7:45] Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway • 1952) [12:00] "Mike Tyson Jail Interview" (YouTube) [19:30] Granma [29:30] "Héroes for Sale" (SB Nation • June 2014) [35:45] Split Decision: The Story of Guillermo Rigondeaux (Documentary directed by Butler) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah has written for The Believer, The LA Review of Books, Transition and The Paris Review. "If He Hollers Let Him Go," her essay on Dave Chappelle, was a 2014 National Magazine Award finalist. "So the stakes are high. I’m not just writing this to write. I’m writing because I think there’s something I need to say. And there’s something that needs to be said. ... What I hope is that a young kid or an older person will see that you have choices, that you don't have to accept what people hand to you. That you have control." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: the-rachelkaadzighansah.tumblr.com [:30] "If He Hollers Let Him Go" (The Believer • Oct 2013) [15:15] Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix (Charles R. Cross • Hyperion • 2005) [17:10] "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" (Hunter S. Thompson • The National Observer • May 1964) [Google Books] [19:45] "Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You: The Roots Are One of the Most Respected Hip-Hop Acts in the World; Why Can’t They Leave the Sad Stuff Alone?" (Capital New York • Dec 2011) [24:40] "He Shall Overcome: Jay-Z Is $450 M Beyond the Marcy Projects. Where Does He Go From Here?" (New York Observer • Dec 2010) [27:16] "The B-Boy’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Review of the RZA’s Tao of Wu" (Transitions • Sep 2012) [27:52] "When the Lights Shut Off: Kendrick Lamar and the Decline of the Black Blues Narrative" (Los Angeles Review of Books • Jan 2013) [29:37] "We a Baddd People" (VQR • Jun 2014) [35:15] "Stakes Is High—and Black Lives Are Worthy of Elaboration" (Kameelah Janan Rasheed • Gawker • Jun 2014) [44:25] Miles: The Autobiography (Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe • Simon and Schuster • 1989) [48:20] "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You: The BeyHive" (NPR • Mar 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices