Longform

A look back at some of our favorite moments from the first 99. Thanks to our sponsors, TinyLetter and Squarespace. Show Notes: [4:45] #3: David Grann [7:00] #4: Jon Mooallem [10:10] #7: Ta-Nehisi Coates [14:15] #9: Jeanne Marie Laskas [12:32] #10: Chris Jones [18:00] #22: Charles Duhigg [20:00] #29: Matthew Power [23:45] #37: Ann Friedman [26:30] #39: Natasha Vargas-Cooper [28:00] #43: Margalit Fox [31:20] #57: Eli Saslow [34:50] #62: Malcolm Gladwell [39:00] #64: Gay Talese [43:35] #65: Elizabeth Wurtzel [46:10] #67: Evan Wright [49:30] #75: George Saunders [52:10] #77: Dan P. Lee [57:00] #78: Ariel Levy [102:30] #84: Sabrina Rubin Erdely [104:20] #88: Sam Biddle [106:30] #91: Michael Lewis [110:30] #95: Wesley Morris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Heilemann is the managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and the co-author of Game Change and Double Down. "If you're a writer, and you're not an asshole, you want the maximum number of people to read your stuff. There's nothing wrong with that. There's no great glory in cultivating some niche audience. I do this work because I believe in what I'm doing. I'm not trying to compromise my principles or my standards to get a larger audience. But once I've written the thing of which I feel confident and proud, which I feel is ethically and journalistically sound, I then want the maximum number of people to read it." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @jheil [9:15] "Congress's Watch Dog: The General Accounting Office" (Washington Monthly • Nov 1989) [23:15] "Can the BBC Be Saved?" (Wired • Mar 1994) [24:00] Heilemann's New Yorker archive [33:00] "The Networker" (New Yorker • July 1997) (sub req'd) [34:30] The Valley [35:00] The Reckoning (David Halberstam • 1986) [37:00] "The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth" (Wired • Nov 2000) [41:30] The Pride Before the Fall (2001) [44:00] "The Power Grid" archive [44:45] "The Choir Boy" (New York • May 2005) [48:00] What It Takes (Richard Ben Cramer • 1992) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Saunders has written for The New Yorker and GQ. His latest collection of short stories is Tenth of December. "Maybe you would understand your artistry to be: put me anywhere. I'll find human beings, I'll find human interest, I'll find literature. And I guess you could argue the weirder, or maybe the less explored the place, the better." Thanks to TinyLetter and Audible for sponsoring this episode. Show notes: georgesaundersbooks.com Saunders on Longform [5:00] Tenth of December (Random House • 2013) [8:45] "George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You'll Read This Year" (Joel Lovell • New York Times Magazine • Jan 2013) [22:45] CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (Random House • 1996) [29:30] "The Great Divider" (GQ • Dec 2006) [30:45] "The New Mecca" (GQ • Nov 2005) [33:00] "The Incredible Buddha Boy" (GQ • Jun 2006) [38:45] George Saunders's Advice to Graduates (May 2013) [47:00] "Tent City, U.S.A." (GQ • Sep 2009) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sarah Nicole Prickett is the founding editor of Adult. "I'll admit to being resistant to the 'by women for women' label that Adult had before because I saw it as being just 'by women,' period. That’s way more feminist than making something for women, which is very prescriptive and often comes in various shades of pink." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Pre-order: Adult #2 Prickett's TinyLetter @snpsnpsnp snpsnpsnp.com [8:40] Fashion [2:30] "How to Make Love in America" (Hazlitt • Jul 2013) [11:20] "The Ultimate Humiliation" (n+1 • May 2014) [17:15] The Cut [17:15] Bon [22:30] "Like Every Time My Pelvis Touches A Sink Brim" (Fiona Duncan • Adule • June 2014) [24:30] "Florida” (Joe Coscarelli • Adult • March 2014) [34:12] "House On Fire” (Larissa Pham • Adult • May 2014) [35:10] "Ass Man” (Brad Phillips • Adult • March 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic. His latest cover story is "The Case for Reparations." "The writer hopes for change, but writers can't assume that their work is going to cause change." Thanks to TinyLetter andI Am Zlatan, the international bestseller published by Random House, for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @tanehisicoates Coates's blog for The Atlantic Coates on Longform "The Case for Reparations" (The Atlantic • May 2014) [4:20] "Longform Podcast #7: Ta-Nehisi Coates" [4:35] "Fear of a Black President" (The Atlantic • Aug 2012) [7:05] "The Case for Reparations: An Intellectual Autopsy" (The Atlantic • May 2014) [8:05] "For Asians, School Tests Are Vital Steppingstones" (Kyle Spencer • New York Times • Oct 2012) [10:08] Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Kenneth Jacks • Oxford University Press • 1985) [16:10] "The Story of the Contract Buyers League" (James Alan McPherson • The Atlantic • Apr 1972) [pdf] [18:53] "Zlatan’s Revenge!" An excerpt from I Am Zlatan (Zlatan Ibrahimovic • Grantland • May 2014) [19:18] Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores "maybe the best goal ever scored" [YouTube] [40:40] "Ta-Nehisi Coates Disagrees With ‘Jonathan Chait,’ and So Do I" (Jonathan Chait • New York • Mar 2014) [43:15] Elizabeth Kolbert on Longform [51:07] "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek " (John Branch • New York Times • Dec 2012) [58:23] Nobody Knows My Name (James Baldwin • Dial Press • 1961) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nathaniel Rich writes for Rolling Stone, Harper's and the New York Times Magazine. His latest novel is Odds Against Tomorrow. "I'm drawn to obsession. I think I'm an obsessive in a way, probably most writers are. It's an obsessive act to sit at a desk by yourself." Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA WORLD CUP for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @NathanielRich nathanielrich.com Rich on Longform [15:45] "Diving Deep Into Danger" (New York Review of Books • Feb 2013) [21:45] Odds Against Tomorrow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux • Feb 2013) [23:30] Longform Podcast #64: Gay Talese [23:45] The Bridge (Gay Talese • Harper & Row • 1964) [26:15] "The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox" (Rolling Stone • Jun 2011) [26:30] "Tyler Hadley's Killer Party" (Rolling Stone • Dec 2013) [35:30] "How to Spend 47 Hours on a Train and Not Go Crazy" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2013) [40:00] "For Whom the Cell Tolls" (Harper's • May 2010) [43:45] "The Man Who Saves You From Yourself" (Harper's • Nov 2013) [44:30] San Francisco Noir (Little Bookroom • Mar 2005) [45:15] David Sullivan speaks at the Commonwealth Club (Jul 2010) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wesley Morris, a Pulitzer Prize winner, covers film at Grantland. "That's what writing about race and popular culture is for me: it's crime reporting. It's not me looking for an agenda when I go to the movies ... but I feel a moral responsibility to report a crime being committed. That's what I'm forced to do over and over again." Thanks to this week's sponsors, Warby Parker and TinyLetter. Show notes: @wesley_morris Morris's Grantland archive [1:15] Reba modeling Warby Parker [37:15] "The Cultural Crater of 12 Years a Slave" (Grantland • Oct 2013) [39:15] "Strange Fruitvale" (Grantland • Jul 2013) [39:15] Longform Podcast #89: Alice Gregory [40:00] Longform Podcast #7: Ta-Nehisi Coates [40:00] "The Case for Reparations" (Ta-Nehisi Coates • The Atlantic • May 2014) [55:30] "The Unstoppable Scarlett Johansson" (Anthony Lane • New Yorker • Mar 2014) [47:30] Molly Lambert's Grantland archive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Smith retired last month after more than 30 years of writing for Sports Illustrated. "We were on the Santa Monica Freeway, Ali's driving 70 miles an hour and his eyes are drifting asleep—the medication for Parkinson's would do that to him. I'm thinking, 'Oh, crap.' We're weaving between lanes, cars are honking, and I'm wondering in the passenger seat, 'Should I grab the wheel from the greatest champ of all-time?' The writer in me wants to let it go, let the crash happen just so I get a scene for the story. But the human in me was just getting scared as hell." Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA WORLD CUP for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: Smith on Longform [18:30] "Crime and Punishment" (Sports Illustrated • Jun 1996) [39:00] "The Secret Life of Mia Hamm" (Sports Illustrated • Sep 2003) [40:00] "Someone to Lean On" (Sports Illustrated • Dec 1996) [41:00] "As Time Runs Out" (Sports Illustrated • Jan 1993) [42:15] "Tyson the Timid, Tyson the Terrible" (Sports Illustrated • Mar 1988) [47:45] "Damned Yankee" (Sports Illustrated • Oct 1997) [48:30] "Ali and His Entourage" (Sports Illustrated • Apr 1988) [52:00] "Coming Into Focus" (Sports Illustrated • Jul 2006) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Paterniti, a correspondent for GQ, has also written for Esquire, Rolling Stone and Outside. His latest book is The Telling Room. "I want to see it, whatever it is. If it's war, if it's suffering, if it's complete, unbridled elation, I just want to see what that looks like—I want to smell it, I want to taste it, I want to think about it, I want to be caught up in it." Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter and Hari Kunzru'sTwice Upon a Time, the new title from and Atavist Books. Show notes: @MikePaterniti Paterniti on Longform [4:30] Driving Mr. Albert (Dial Press • Jun 2001) [5:00] The Telling Room (Dial Press • Jul 2013) [9:30] "He Might Be A Prophet. That, Or the Greatest Chef in the World." (Esquire • Jul 2001) [13:00] "XXXXL" (GQ • Mar 2005) [42:45] "The Man Who Sailed His House" (GQ • Oct 2011) [46:00] Paterniti's Outside archive [47:30] "Driving Mr. Albert" (Harper's • Oct 1997) [sub. req'd] [48:15] "The 15 Year Layover" (GQ • Sep 2003) [48:15] "The Suicide Catcher" (GQ • May 2010) [50:00] "How to Drake It In America" (GQ • Jun 2013) [50:00] "On the Cover: Javier Bardem" (GQ • Oct 2012) [50:45] "The Luckiest Village in the World" (GQ • May 2013) [51:15] "The House That Thurman Munson Built" (Esquire • Sep 1999) [56:00] "The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy" (Esquire • Jul 2000) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leslie Jamison has written for The Believer, Harper's and The New York Times. Her latest book is The Empathy Exams. "I sort of love imagining a small army of 22-year-old men who are just like, 'Fuck that book, I wish it was never published.'" Thanks to TinyLetter and Harry's for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @lsjamison lesliejamison.com Jamison on Longform [9:00] The Empathy Exams (Graywolf Press • Apr 2014) [12:15] "La Plata Perdida" (A Public Space • Nov 2009) [sub. req'd] [13:15] "Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain" (Virginia Quarterly Review • Apr 2014) [17:00] "Is It Harder to Write About Happiness Than Its Opposite?" (New York Times • Mar 2014) [18:15] The Gin Closet: A Novel (Free Press • Feb 2010) [27:30] Autobiography of a Face (Lucy Grealy • Harper Perennial • Mar 2003) [43:00] "The Devil's Bait" (Harper's • Sep 2013) [49:00] "The Empathy Exams" (The Believer • Feb 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Lewis has written for The New Republic, Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine. His latest book is Flash Boys. "When you're telling a story, you're essentially playing the cards you're dealt. ... Sometimes the hand is very easy to play. Sometimes the hand is difficult to play. At the end, I just try to think, 'Is there anything I would have done differently?' 'Is there any trick I missed?' If I don't have the feeling that I missed something big, I feel happy about the book." Thanks to TinyLetter and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: michaellewiswrites.com Lewis on Longform [2:30] Lewis's speech at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital (2011) [2:45] Flash Boys (W.W. Norton & Co. • Mar 2014) [3:45] "Did Goldman Sachs Overstep in Criminally Charging Its Ex-Programmer?" (Vanity Fair • Aug 2013) [6:45] The Big Short (W.W. Norton & Co. • Mar 2010) [7:15] Moneyball (W.W. Norton & Co. • May 2003) [7:45] Liar's Poker (W.W. Norton & Co. • Oct 1989) [25:15] Lewis's New Republic archive [31:45] The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story (W.W. Norton & Co. • Oct 1999) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Susan Dominus is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine. "A lot of reporting is really just hanging around and not going home until something interesting happens." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @susandominus Dominus on Longform [7:00] Longform Podcast #31: Emily Nussbaum [9:45] "Santa's Little Helper" (New York Times • Dec 1999) [10:00] "The Allergy Prison" (New York Times Magazine • Jun 2001) [11:00] "Shabana is Late for School" (New York Times Magazine • Sep 2002) [16:00] "Everybody Has a Mother" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2003) [17:30] "What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy?" (New York Times Magazine • Mar 2012) [25:15] "Eve Ensler Wants to Save the World" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2002) [30:15] "He Could Be Cranky, But He Was Her Neighbor" (New York Times • Mar 2008) [32:00] "Susan Dominus is the Best" (Hamilton Nolan • Gawker • Jul 2009) [33:15] Longform Podcast #87: Amanda Hess [33:46] "It's All Sweetness and Light, Until the Snowballs Fly" (New York Times • Feb 2010) [35:00] "Could Conjoined Twins Share a Mind?" (New York Times Magazine • May 2011) [35:15] Longform Podcast #28: Joel Lovell (live) [43:00] "The Woman Who Took the Fall for JPMorgan Chase" (New York Times Magazine • Oct 2012) [49:00] "Daniel Radcliffe's Next Trick is to Make Harry Potter Disappear" (New York Times Magazine • Oct 2013) [53:30] "Why Isn't Maggie Cheung a Hollywood Star?" (New York Times • Nov 2004) [54:00] "Dangerous When Interested" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2007) [58:00] "Life in the Age of Old, Old Age" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2004) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alice Gregory has written for n+1, GQ, The New York Times and Harper's. "If you don't have a real story with a beginning, middle and an end, you owe it to the reader to kind of serve as their chaperone." Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA WORLD CUP for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @alicegregory Gregory on Longform alicegregory.tumblr.com [4:30] "Sad as Hell" (n+1 • Nov 2010) [9:45] "On the Market" (n+1 • Mar 2012) [11:45] "Mavericks" (n+1 • Oct 2013) [21:30] "Ryan McGinley: Naked and Famous" (GQ • Apr 2014) [32:30] "Professional Doppelgänger (Dealmaker)" (Mark Singer • New Yorker • Jan 1982) [33:30] "Found Money" (Harper's • May 2014) [sub. req'd] [40:30] "Interview: Renata Adler" (The Believer • Dec 2012) [44:00] "Obscurity is the Lure" (New York Times • Mar 2014) [49:30] Longform Podcast #34: Molly Young Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Biddle writes for Valleywag. "It's a lot of overgrown, entitled manchildren pulling price tags out of the ether and passing them around. Considering Silicon Valley worthy of contempt is the first premise that we work from." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @samfbiddle [6:15] Valleywag's coverage of Sean Parker [6:45] "'The Uber of Private Jets' is a Real Thing" (Valleywag • Apr 2013) [6:55] "What is Auto-Tune, and Why Does Jay-Z Want It Dead?" (PSFK • Jun 2009) [18:15] "Look Who’s Gawking: Inside Nick Denton’s Phony, Hypocritical Class War Against Tech Workers" (Paul Carr • Pando Daily • Dec 2013) [19:45] "Meet the Google Founder's Mistress" (Valleywag • Aug 2013) [34:15] "Indentured Servitude, Money Laundering, and Piles of Money: The Crazy Secrets of Internet Cam Girls [NSFW]" (Gizmodo • Sep 2012) [41:45] "Google Employee: 'You Can't Afford It? You Can Leave!' (Update: Hoax) (Valleywag • Dec 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amanda Hess, a staff writer at Slate, has also written for Pacific Standard, GOOD, and ESPN the Magazine. "I ended up not loving the fact that I was getting a bunch of calls from MSNBC and CNN, who mostly wanted to talk about people threatening to rape and kill me and only a tiny bit about the story I'd written. ... It was tiring, and it seemed dismissive of me as a person. It's a strange thing to become somebody else's story, especially when the story is: You're a victim of an insane online harasser. That's who you are." Thanks to this week's sponsors, TinyLetter and Oyster Books. Show notes: @amandahess Hess on Longform sexwithamandahess.com [3:15] "Point Taken" (Washington City Paper • Mar 2008) [9:30] The Sexist blog [18:30] "What Women Want: Porn and the Frontier of Female Sexuality" (Good • Nov 2011) [31:30] "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet" (Pacific Standard • Jan 2014) [46:45] "Just Cheer, Baby" (ESPN The Magazine • Apr 2014) [47:00] "You Can Only Hope to Contain Them" (ESPN The Magazine • Jul 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mattathias Schwartz has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Harper's. "I figure it's like digging through a wall with a spoon: if you spend enough time at it eventually you get to the other side." Thanks to TinyLetter and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: mattathiasschwartz.com Schwartz on Longform [4:00] "A Massacre in Jamaica" (New Yorker • Dec 2011) [20:15] The Philadelphia Independent [25:00] "The Hold-'Em Holdup" (New York Times Magazine • Jun 2006) [26:45] "The Trolls Among Us" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2008) [26:45] "The Church of Warren Buffett" (Harper's • Jan 2010) [35:00] "The Golden Touch" (Harper's • Dec 2008) [36:00] The Big Con (David Maurer • Bobbs-Merrill Company • 1940) [36:30] "The Still Lives of Wells Tower" (Paul Maliszewski • The Brooklyn Rail • Feb 2011) [37:00] "Petroleum, Louisiana" [37:00] "How Fast Can He Cook a Chicken?" (London Review of Books • Oct 2011) [49:00] "Camp Justice" (Kindle Single • Nov 2012) [50:45] "A Mission Gone Wrong" (New Yorker • Jan 2014) [53:15] "The Truth of El Mozote" (Mark Danner • New Yorker • Dec 1993) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tavi Gevinson is the founder and editor-in-chief of Rookie. "I just want our readers to know that they are already smart enough and cool enough." Thanks to this week's sponsors, TinyLetter and Atavist Books. Show notes: @tavitulle Rookie thestylerookie.com [4:15] "Tavi Says" (Lizze Widdicombe • New Yorker • Sep 2010) [30:30] "A Teen Just Trying to Figure It Out" (TED • Mar 2012) [33:30] Rookie Yearbook Two (Drawn and Quarterly • Oct 2013) [39:45] Longform Podcast #75: George Saunders [43:15] "Super Heroine: An Interview with Lorde" (Rookie • Jan 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, has also written for GQ, Philadelphia and SELF. "I think that people are, by their nature, good and want to act rightly. So I'm very interested in why people do these things that result in really bad actions. My lack of outrage actually is one of the things that probably helps me in my reporting because I really am propelled by this pure curiosity. ... I just want to know, 'Where did that come from?'" Thanks to TinyLetter and PillPack for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @SabrinaRErdely sabrinaerdely.com Erdely on Longform [3:00] Longform Podcast #77: Dan P. Lee [3:00] Longform Podcast #24: Stephen Rodrick [12:45] "The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass" (Rolling Stone • Feb 2014) [17:15] "Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played With Fire" (Rolling Stone • Apr 2011) [22:45] "The Rape of Petty Officer Blumer" (Rolling Stone • Feb 2013) [27:45] "One Town's War on Gay Teens" (Rolling Stone • Feb 2012) [34:45] "The Poorest Rich Kids in the World" (Rolling Stone • Aug 2013) [35:00] "About a Girl: Coy Mathis' Fight to Change Gender" (Rolling Stone • Oct 2013) [37:15] "The Catholic Church's Secret Sex-Crime Files" (Rolling Stone • Sep 2011) [51:45] "I'll Be Damned" (Philadelphia • Jun 1999) [pdf] [51:45] "Who Is the Boy in the Box?" (Philadelphia • Nov 2003) [pdf] [52:00] "Intimate Intimidation" (Philadelphia • Apr 1996) [pdf] [53:45] "Why I Finally Left" (Good Housekeeping • Mar 2011) [pdf] [1:00:15] "The Fabulous Fraudulent Life of Jocelyn and Ed" (Rolling Stone • Mar 2008) [pdf] [1:01:15] "The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League" (Rolling Stone • Jun 2009) [pdf] [1:02:30] "The Creep With the Golden Tongue" (GQ • Aug 2003) [pdf] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"The kind of stories I've gotten to do have involved fulfilling my childhood fantasies of having an adventurous life. Even though I don't make a ton of money doing it, I've never felt like I was missing out on something." Our friend Matt Power, a freelance journalist, died this week while on assignment in Uganda. Matt recorded this episode of the Longform Podcast with Evan Ratliff in February 2013. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and Going Clear, is a staff writer for The New Yorker. "If I had the chance to interview Osama Bin Laden, should I kill him? It’s a fair question. Suppose we’re having dinner — should I stab him with the bread knife? Do I have a moral obligation to kill him? Or do I have a moral obligation as a reporter to simply hear him? … It’s sometimes difficult to take away the judgements that you naturally have. But when you do that, when you strip yourself and you’re morally naked, it’s sometimes surprising how infectious the relationship can become." Thanks to TinyLetter and Pillpack.com for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: lawrencewright.com @lawrence_wright Wright on Longform [6:00] Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf • Jan 2013) [6:00] The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf • Aug 2006) [7:45] The Siege (Twentieth Century Fox • 1998) [14:45] "The Apostate" (The New Yorker • Feb 2011) [30:15] My Trip to Al-Qaeda (Jigsaw Productions • Apr 2010) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pamela Colloff and Mimi Swartz are executive editors of Texas Monthly. Colloff: "That sense of loss, that sense of normal life turning on a dime is something that, in a very different way, I’ve experienced. And I carry that with me into some of the more difficult stories." Swartz: "Here’s this great [public interest] story that nobody’s ever told. Now how can I write it so the maximum number of people want to read it? I try to make the homework part as interesting and compelling as possible." Thanks to TinyLetter and PillPack for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @pamelacolloff Colloff on Longform [2:15] Longform Podcast #16: Pamela Colloff [10:00] "A Bend in the River" (Texas Monthly • Jul 2002) [10:00] "A Question of Mercy" (Texas Monthly • Mar 2014) [10:30] "The Innocent Man, Part One" (Texas Monthly • Nov 2012) [10:30] "The Innocent Man, Part Two" (Texas Monthly • Dec 2012) [14:45] "Innocence Found" (Texas Monthly • Jan 2011) Show notes: @mimiswartz Swartz on Longform [25:30] "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives" (Texas Monthly • Aug 2012) [33:30] "The Ring and I" (Texas Monthly • Jan 2014) [35:15] "Sexual Misconduct in the Military--and Why Kirsten Gillibrand Is Pushing Reform to the Top of Her Agenda" (Vogue • Feb 2014) [35:45] "Failure is Not an Option" (Texas Monthly • Oct 2013) [41:00] Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron (Crown Business • Mar 2004) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jennifer Senior is a contributing editor at New York and the author of All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood. "I've had moments in motherhood that have been close to something like religious. But I don't think social scientists say things like, "How many numinous moments have you had?" They don't do that, so you have to figure out what to do. I was suddenly turning to other texts to try and explain all of this." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @JenSeniorNY Senior on Longform [3:15] All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood (Ecco • Jan 2014) [6:30] "All Joy and No Fun" (New York • Jul 2010) [8:30] "Alone Together" (New York • Nov 2008) [39:00] "Hollywood on the Potomac" (New York Times • Dec 1993) [39:30] "The Language of the Deaf Evolves to Reflect New Sensibilities" (New York Times • Jan 1994) [44:15] "Hill Climbing" (New York • Apr 2001) [44:45] "Sorry, Your Time is Not Up" (New York • Aug 2001) [45:00] "Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness" (New York • Jul 2006) [46:00] "Can't Get No Satisfaction" (New York • Oct 2007) [46:15] "Recession Culture" (New York • May 2009) [46:15] "Why You Never Truly Leave High School" (New York • Jan 2013) [56:45] "In Conversation: Antonin Scalia" (New York • Oct 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kevin Roose, a writer at New York, has contributed to The New York Times, GQ and Esquire. His latest book is Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits. "Google will give you away. I feel like one undercover book is all you get these days before the jig is up. ... Unless, like Barbara Ehrenreich, you legally change your name. I was not quite prepared to go that far." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @kevinroose kevinroose.com Roose on Longform [3:15] The Unlikely Disciple (Grand Central Publishing • 2010) [4:30] The Year of Living Biblically (A.J. Jacobs • Simon & Schuster • 2007) [16:45] Young Money (Grand Central Publishing • 2014) [30:15] Roose's New York Times archive [44:45] "Pursuing Self-Interest in Harmony with the Laws of the Universe and Contributing to Evolution is Universally Rewarded" (New York • Apr 2011) [54:00] "Go West, Young Bank Bro" (San Francisco • Feb 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wil S. Hylton, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of Vanished. "I despise the fucking nut graf. I think it's a joke, a cop out. The story probably should be about something larger than itself but if you have to tell people what that is, you've failed form the beginning. If they can't find it, you didn't put it there and you shouldn't be beating them over the head with it." Thanks to TinyLetter and The Fog Horn for sponsoring this week's episode, and to the Writing Department at the University of Pittsburgh for hosting. Show notes: @wilshylton wilshylton.com Hylton on Longform [1:45] Longform Podcast #28: Joel Lovell (live) [2:15] Vanished (Riverhead Books• 2013) [7:45] "The Search for the Lost Marines of Tarawa" (New York Times Magazine • Nov 2013) [11:30] "The Return of the Trolls" (Baltimore Sun • Apr 1992) [24:15] Longform Podcast #66: Andy Ward [25:00] "There Goes the Neighborhood, Up in Flames" (Esquire • Aug 1999) [31:15] "Hot Enough For Ya?" (Esquire • Aug 2000) [35:45] "The People vs. Richard Cheney" (GQ • Mar 2007) [36:15] "Casualty of War" (GQ • Jun 2004) [36:15] "The Big, Bad Wolfowitz?" (GQ • Dec 2003) [41:45] "Meltdown" (GQ • Feb 2008) [42:30] "How James Turrell Knocked the Art World Off Its Feet" (New York Times Magazine • June 2013) [47:15] "What Happened to Air France Flight 447?" (New York Times Magazine • May 2011) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Kushner, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired and The Atavist. "The minute you see an incredible character, you know. The only thing I can compare it to is bowling, not that I'm much of a bowler. On the few times I've thrown a strike, you know it before it hits the pins." Thanks to TinyLetter and ProFlowers for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @davidkushner davidkushner.com Kushner on Longform [1:00] "The Bones of Marianna" (The Atavist • Dec 2013) [8:15] "The Hacker is Watching" (GQ • Jan 2012) [8:45] Masters of Doom (Random House • 2003) [8:45] Jacked (Wiley • 2012) [28:45] "Prepare to Meet Thy Doom" (Wired • May 2003) [30:45] "Cormac McCarthy's Apocalypse" (Rolling Stone • Dec 2007) [31:00] "Time Tunnels Meet Warped Passages" (IEEE Spectrum • Apr 2006) [37:45] "The WikiLeaks Mole" (Rolling Stone • Jan 2014) [41:45] Levittown (Walker & Company • 2009) [43:30] "I Was a Teenage Freak" (Rolling Stone • Sep 2003) [48:00] "Anonymous vs. Steubenville" (Rolling Stone • Nov 2013) [49:45] "Dead End on Silk Road" (Rolling Stone • Feb 2014) [51:45] "Anonymous vs. Scientology" (Maxim • Jul 2008) [54:15] "Sponge-Fraud!" (Vanity Fair • Jun 2012) [57:15] Longform Podcast #64: Gay Talese [1:00:16] "Machine Politics" (New Yorker • May 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ariel Levy is a staff writer at The New Yorker. "I like an older awesome lady, I don't think enough is written about older awesome ladies and I don't think there are enough role models for younger awesome ladies. It’s great fun hanging out with an older awesome lady. It’s inspiring. And it makes you think 'Jesus, I might be rocking it when I’m 80!'" Thanks to ProFlowers and TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @avlskies Levy on Longform [3:00] "My First Time, Twice" (Guernica • June 2011) [7:15] Female Chauvinist Pigs (Free Press • 2006) [12:00] "The Perfect Wife" (New Yorker • Sep 2013) [12:30] "Breaking the Waves" (New Yorker • Feb 2014) [sub req'd] [12:45] "Nora Knows What To Do" (New Yorker • Jul 2009) [24:00] "Reservations" (New Yorker • Dec 2010) [sub req'd] [25:00] "I, Mack" (New York • May 2001) [25:00] "The Pretty-Boy Syndrome" (New York • Oct 2004) [27:00] "The Last Gentleman" (New York • Oct 2007) [27:00] "The Prisoner of Sex" (New York • Jun 2005) [30:45] "Enchanted" (New Yorker • Sep 2008) [30:45] "The Lonesome Trail" (New Yorker • Sep 2008) [32:00] "Trial By Twitter" (New Yorker • Aug 2013) [32:00] "Either/"Or" (New Yorker • Nov 2009) [40:45] "Thanksgiving in Mongolia" (New Yorker • Nov 2013) [48:15] "Living-Room Leopards" (New Yorker • Nov 2013) [sub req'd] 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

Roger D. Hodge is the editor of Oxford American. "My career isn't all that interesting insofar as I've been an editor. I'm much more interested in talking about writers and stories. That's the main thing: telling these stories, creating this platform, this context for the best possible storytelling." Thanks to TinyLetter and Random House for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @RogerDHodge oxfordamerican.org [5:15] "Long Way Home" (Rosanne Cash • Oxford American • Nov 2013) [5:45] The River and The Thread (Rosanne Cash • Blue Note Records • 2014) [10:00] Sewanee Review [18:45] "Mean Season" (Adrian McKinty • Harper's • Sep 1997) [sub req'd] [26:00] "The Net Giveth, and the Net Taketh Away" (Suck • Dec 1995) [31:30] Longform Podcast #5: Paul Ford [37:00] "The Guantánamo 'Suicides'" (Scott Horton • Harper's • Mar 2010) [43:45] "Dear Charlie" (Joe Hagan • Oxford American • Nov 2013) [49:15] Southword Radio Series (Oxford American & National Public Radio) [53:45] "Carl the Raping Goat Saves Christmas" (Lucy Alibar • Oxford American • Nov 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Saunders has written for The New Yorker and GQ. His latest collection of short stories is Tenth of December. "Maybe you would understand your artistry to be: put me anywhere. I'll find human beings, I'll find human interest, I'll find literature. And I guess you could argue the weirder, or maybe the less explored the place, the better." Thanks to TinyLetter and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: georgesaundersbooks.com Saunders on Longform [5:00] Tenth of December (Random House • 2013) [8:45] "George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You'll Read This Year" (Joel Lovell • New York Times Magazine • Jan 2013) [22:45] CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (Random House • 1996) [29:30] "The Great Divider" (GQ • Dec 2006) [30:45] "The New Mecca" (GQ • Nov 2005) [33:00] "The Incredible Buddha Boy" (GQ • Jun 2006) [38:45] George Saunders's Advice to Graduates (May 2013) [47:00] "Tent City, U.S.A." (GQ • Sep 2009) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jon Mooallem, a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, is the author of Wild Ones and American Hippopotamus, the latest story from The Atavist. "I'm terrible at writing nut graphs. I never know why people should keep reading. That’s the menace of my professional existence, trying to figure that out. Because often you have to explain that to an editor before you even start, and I may not even know while I'm writing what the bigger point is." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @jmooallem jonmooallem.com Mooallem on Longform [2:00] Longform Podcast #4: Jon Mooallem [3:00] American Hippopotamus (The Atavist • Dec 2013) [5:45] Wild Ones (Penguin • 2013) [11:00] Pop-Up Magazine [20:30] "Structure" (John McPhee • New Yorker • Jan 2013) [27:15] Burnham: King of Scouts (Peter van Wyk • Trafford Publishing • 2003) [32:15] Episode 91: Wild Ones Live (99% Invisible • Oct 2013) [40:00] "Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?" (New York Times Magazine • May 2013) [40:00] "There’s a Reason They Call Them 'Crazy Ants'" (New York Times Magazine • Dec 2013) [42:45] "Pigeon Wars" (New York Times Magazine • Oct 2006) [46:15] "What's a Monkey to Do in Tampa?" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Sexton is a senior editor at ProPublica and a former reporter and editor at the New York Times, where he led the team that produced "Snow Fall." "My experience in a newspaper newsroom over the years has been: The word you hear least often, the word that's hardest for people to say in that environment, is the word yes. It's safer to say no. You get second-guessed less often if you say no. Your job's not on the line if you say no. But if you're willing to say yes and you're willing to face the consequences of having said yes, then quite amazing things can happen." Thanks to Random House andTinyLetterfor sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: [6:00] "Snow Fall" (John Branch • New York Times • Dec 2012) [20:30] Longform Podcast #28: Joel Lovell [32:45] "Spitzer is Linked to Prostitution Ring" (Danny Hakim and William K. Rashbaum • New York Times • Mar 2008) [41:30] Jim Dwyer's Pulitzer Prize-winning columns [57:45] "Use Only as Directed" (Jeff Gerth and T. Christian Miller • ProPublica • Sep 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andrew Leland is an editor at The Believer and hosts The Organist. "I think a good editor has a strong stomach for crazy assholes. Because often crazy assholes are really brilliant great writers." Thanks to TinyLetter and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: Leland's archive at the Oakland Standard Leland's blog, "Good Jobbbbbbbbb" [4:00] "Web Dreams" (Josh Quittner • Wired • Nov 1996) [5:15] 826 Valencia [5:45] A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (David Eggers • 2001) [6:45] "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" (The Review of Contemporary Fiction • Jun 1993) [15:30] Interview with Laura Owens (Rachel Kushner • The Believer • May 2003) [17:45] "Rejoice! Believe! Be Strong and Read Hard!" (Heidi Julavits • The Believer • Mar 2003) [48:00] Wholphin archive [50:00] Please Vote for Me [56:00] Joe Frank Show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jason Fagone, a contributing editor at Wired and a writer-at-large for Philadelphia, is the author of Ingenious. "It seemed like all the big guys in American society had let us down, all the elites. And here was a contest that was explicitly looking to the little guy and saying, 'We don't care what you've done before or how much money you have in your pocket. If you solve this problem, you win the money.' There was something so optimistic and hopeful and cool about that to me." Thanks to TinyLetter and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @jfagone jasonfagone.com Fagone on Longform [2:15] "The Dirtiest Player" (GQ • Feb 2010) [11:45] Ingenious: A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race to Revive America (2013) [24:00] "High Times May Be the Most Influential Publication of Our Era" (The New Republic • Nov 2013) [24:45] "The Willy Wonka of Pot" (Grantland • Nov 2013) [25:30] Cultivating Exceptional Cannabis: An Expert Breeder Shares His Secrets (DJ Short • 2004) [48:30] "The Death (and Life) of the Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper" (Philadelphia • May 2012) [49:00] Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy (James Fallows • 1996) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amy Wallace is an editor-at-large for Los Angeles and a correspondent for GQ . "I've written about the anti-vaccine movement. I love true crime. I've written a lot of murder stories. The thing that unites all of them—whether it's a celebrity profile or a biologist who murdered a bunch of people or Justin Timberlake—it's almost trite to say, but there's a humanity to each of these people. And figuring out what's making them tick in the moment, or in general, is interesting to me. In a way, that's my sweet spot." Thanks to TinyLetter and Warby Parker for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @msamywallace amy-wallace.com Wallace on Longform [7:00] "Justin Timberlake: #Hashtag of the Year" (GQ • Dec 2013) [12:15] "The Comedian's Comedian's Comedian" (GQ • Aug 2010) [20:30] "A Very Dangerous Boy" (GQ • Nov 2013) [35:15] "Mrs. Hughes Takes Her Leave" (Ron Suskind • Esquire • Jul 2002) [37:00] "Valley Girl Interrupted" (Los Angeles • Oct 2001) [44:30] "What Made This University Researcher Snap?" (Wired • Feb 2011) [44:30] "A Loaded Gun" (Patrick Radden Keefe • New Yorker • Feb 2013) [48:15] "Amen! (D'Angelo's Back!)" (GQ • Jun 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel Aviv is a staff writer at The New Yorker. "If I'm writing about the criminal justice system, I wish I were a lawyer. If I'm writing about psychiatry, I wish I were a psychiatrist. I have often filled out half my application to get a Ph.D in clinical psychology. That is one area where I am constantly on the verge of jumping the fence. But even when I wrote about religion, I thought I wanted to be a priest." Thanks to TinyLetter and HostGator for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @RachelAviv rachelaviv.com Aviv on Longform Aviv's New Yorker archive [2:00] "Netherland" (The New Yorker • Dec 2012) [paywall] [14:15] "Hobson's Choice" (The Believer • Oct 2007) [16:00] Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought (Louis A. Sass • 1992) [16:00] The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (Elyn R. Saks • 2007) [19:30] Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx (Adrian Nicole LeBlanc • Nov 2003) [21:15] "The Imperial President" (The New Yorker • Sep 2013) [paywall] [22:30] "The Science of Sex Abuse" (The New Yorker • Jan 2013) [27:00] "Like I Was Jesus" (Harper's • Aug 2009) [27:45] "Local Story" (The New Yorker • Mar 2013) [paywall] [36:45] "Fat Fiction" (The Believer • Mar 2006) [paywall] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery are the co-editors of Mother Jones. "We probably pay more attention to our fact-checking and our research than almost everybody in our industry. By the time we publish stuff, we make sure it's unimpeachable because people would like to impeach it." Thanks to TinyLetter and HostGator for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @MonikaBauerlein @ClaraJeffery motherjones.com Mother Jones on Longform [16:45] Mac McClelland's Mother Jones archive [18:00] "Follow the Dark Money" (Andy Kroll • Mother Jones • Jul/Aug 2012) [19:00] "School of Shock" (Jennifer Gonnerman • Mother Jones • Aug 2007) [21:45] "Secrets of the Tax-Prep Business" (Gary Rivlin • Mother Jones • Mar/Apr 2011) [26:45] "WATCH: Full Secret Video of Private Romney Fundraiser" (David Corn • Mother Jones • Sep 2012) [43:00] "Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America's Prisons." (Shane Bauer • Mother Jones • Nov/Dec 2012) 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 this week’s sponsors: TinyLetter and HostGator. Show notes: @evanscribe Wright on Longform [3:45] Generation Kill (2004) [10:00] "Scenes From My Life in Porn" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2000) [12:15] A.J. Liebling’s New 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

Andy Ward, a former editor at Esquire and GQ, is the editorial director of nonfiction at Random House. "How you gain that trust is a hard thing to quantify. The way I try do it is by caring. If you don't care about every word and every sentence in the piece, writers pick up on that. ... Ultimately, it's their book or their magazine article. Their name is on it, not mine. I always try to keep that in mind." Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA 14. Show notes: @AndyWard15 Andy Ward Picks His Favorite Articles [31:00] "The Perfect Fire" (Sean Flynn • Esquire • Jul 2000) [33:00] "He Came from Outer Space" (Chris Jones • Esquire • Oct 2002) [40:45] Jim Nelson's Memo to GQ staffers when Ward left [42:30] "The Book of Me" (Richard Powers • GQ • Oct 2008) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elizabeth Wurtzel is the author of four books, including Prozac Nation. "It's not that hard to be a lawyer. Any fool can be a lawyer. It's really hard to be a writer. You have to be born with incredible amounts of talent. Then you have to work hard. Then you have to be able to handle tons of rejection and not mind it and just keep pushing away at it. You have to show up at people's doors. You can't just e-mail and text message people. You have to bang their doors down. You have to be interesting. You have to be fucking phenomenal to get a book published and then sell the book. When people think their writing career is not working out, it's not working out because it's so damn hard. It's not harder now than it was 20 years ago. It's just as hard. It was always hard." Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA 14 for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @LizzieWurtzel [16:00] Prozac Nation (1994) [21:00] "The Return of the Replacements: Here Comes a Regular" (The Daily Beast • Sep 2013) [31:00] "Elizabeth Wurtzel Confronts Her One-Night Stand of a Life" (New York • Jan 2013) [45:30] "From Led Zeppelin to Breaking Bad: The Lamest Generation" (The Daily Beast • Sep 2013) [46:15] "Fight the Power" (The New Yorker • Sep 1992) [50:30] "Mitt Romney Is Likable Enough" (The Atlantic • Jan 2012) [52:30] Thursday, Oct. 24: Wurtzel will be reading at No. 8 in New York. Details [53:00] More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction (2002) [53:15] Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (1998) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gay Talese, who wrote for Esquire in the 1960s and currently contributes to The New Yorker, is the author of several books. His latest is A Writer's Life. "I want to know how people did what they did. And I want to know how that compares with how I did what I did. That's my whole life. It's not really a life. It's a life of inquiry. It's a life of getting off your ass, knocking on a door, walking a few steps or a great distance to pursue a story. That's all it is: a life of boundless curiosity in which you indulge yourself and never miss an opportunity to talk to someone at length." Thanks to TinyLetter and Warby Parker for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: [14:30] "The Crisis Manager: A profile of Joe Girardi" (The New Yorker • Sep 2012) [pdf] [16:30] "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" (Esquire • Apr 1966) [22:30] "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold: Annotated" (with Elon Green • Nieman Storyboard • Oct 2013) [16:30] "The Silent Season of a Hero" (Esquire • July 1966) [24:00] "Mr. Bad News" (Esquire • Feb 1966) [31:00] The Kingdom and the Power: Behind the Scenes at The New York Times, The Institution That Influences the World (1969) [34:45] Honor Thy Father (1971) [34:45] Thy Neighbor's Wife (1981) [43:00] Talese's first story: "Times Square Anniversary" (The New York Times • Nov 1953) [51:15] "Peter O'Toole on the Ould Sod" (Esquire • Aug 1963) [104:15] Unto the Sons (1992) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jon Ronson, a contributor to This American Life, The Guardian and GQ, is the author of six books, including The Men Who Stare at Goats. His latest is Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries. "The older you get, you realize that no uncomfortable fact makes your story worse. Contradictions are great. What's bad, what to me is the worst journalistic sin, is ridiculous polemicism. ... To me, the contradictions, the story not turning out the way you want—you have to be a twig in the tidal wave of the story." Thanks to TinyLetter, EA SPORTS FIFA 14 and Learnvest for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @jonronson jonronson.com Ronson on Longform Ronson's This American Life archive Ronson's Guardian archive Ronson's GQ archive [7:15] "Who Takes the Class Out of Class Reunion" (This American Life • Jun 2006) [21:30] Them: Adventures with Extremists (2001) [26:30] The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004) [47:00] The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (2011) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His latest book is David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. "The categories are in motion. You turn into a Goliath, then you topple because of your bigness. You fall to the bottom again. And Davids, after a while, are no longer Davids. Facebook is no longer an underdog—it's now everything it once despised. I'm everything I once despised. When I was 25, I used to write these incredibly snotty, hostile articles attacking big-name, nonfiction journalists. Now I read them and I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're doing a me on me!'" Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA 14 for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @gladwell gladwell.com Gladwell on Longform Gladwell's New Yorker archive [6:30] "How David Beats Goliath" (New Yorker • May 2009) [29:00] The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Michael Lewis • 2006) [32:15] Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (Janet Malcolm • 1981) [32:15] The Journalist and the Murderer (Janet Malcolm • 1990) [43:00] Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution [56:30] "The Plauge of the Year" (New Republic • Jul 1995) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cord Jefferson is the West Coast Editor at Gawker. "I consider myself to be a sincere human being. And I think that the way the internet carries itself, the way the internet has dialogues, is often insincere. That concerns me. I don't ever want to lose my sincerity. I don't ever want to lose my ability to feel emotional about things that I write about. I don't ever want to have a distance from everything that I write. I think that can be a danger of writing too much for the internet, that you develop this elitist distance from everything. That nothing really matters, you know?" Thanks to TinyLetter and Hulu Plus for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @cordjefferson Jefferson on Longform Jefferson's Gawker archive [4:00] Jefferson on MSNBC (MSNBC • Jul 2013) [5:45] "Video of Violent, Rioting Surfers Shows White Culture of Lawlessness" (Gawker • Jul 2013) [7:00] "Don Lemon: Bill O'Reilly's 'Got A Point' About Black People" (Huffington Post • Jul 2013) [20:30] "Don't Stop Running" (The Awl • Dec 2012) [20:30] "I Used to Love Her, But I Had to Flee Her" (Gawker • Jul 2012) [31:45] "When People Write for Free, Who Pays?" (Gawker • Mar 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hamilton Morris is the science editor for Vice and a contributor to Harper's. "It's a shame that there isn't more of an interdisciplinary approach to a lot of scientific investigations, because often the result is that misinformation is produced. Again, there's misinformation in journalism and there's misinformation in science. And if you combine the best elements of both of those disciplines you can come a little bit closer to the truth. If you want to understand a drug phenomenon, you're going to need to look at it medically, chemically, anthropologically, you need to talk to people, you need to interview people, you need to look at the drug policy, the chemistry, the history—there's a lot of different factors that need to be examined in order to understand even the most simple, minute drug phenomenon. And if you're approaching something purely as a scientist, as an academic, there are huge limitations as to what you can do." Thanks to TinyLetter and Hulu Plus for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @HamiltonMorris Morris's Vice archive [29:30] "Blood Spore" (Harper's • Jul 2013) [46:00] "Excerpt: I Walked With a Zombie" (Harper's • Oct 2011) [56:45] "The Magic Jews" (Vice • Sep 2008) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nancy Jo Sales writes for Vanity Fair and is the author of The Bling Ring. "I'm a mom now, so my life's a little different. I can't do certain things that I used to do, and I won't, because they're dangerous or ridiculous or keep me out till five in the morning or whatever. But back in those days, I didn't even really have—I didn't even have a pet! This was everything I did. This was my whole life, this passion to find out these things, and do these things, and see these things, and have these adventures and be able to report about this street life that rarely gets talked about. I just didn't really have a lot of boundaries in those days. I don't think I had any, really. And if you really throw yourself into something, you can get a great story. You can also not have a life of your own." Thanks to TinyLetter and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: Sales on Longform Sales's Vanity Fair archive [8:30] "A Star Is Bred" (New York • Jul 1996) [pdf] [11:00] "Leo, Prince of the City" (New York • Jun 1998) [14:45] "Prep-School Gangsters" (New York • Dec 1996) [21:00] "The Crack-Up" (New York • Sep 1997) [pdf] [30:45] "Hip Hop Debs" (Vanity Fair • Sep 2000) [37:30] "Courtney Love in a Cold Climate" (Vanity Fair • Nov 2011) [41:30] "Money Boss Player: Donald Trump" (Vibe • May 1999) [pdf] [42:30] "The Suspects Wore Louboutins" (Vanity Fair • Mar 2010) [51:45] "The Baby Dinner" (New York • Nov 1999) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sarah Stillman is a staff writer for The New Yorker. "People don't really care about issues so much as they care about the stories and the characters that bring those issues to life. ... A story needs an engine or something to propel you forward and it can't just be a collection of like, 'Oh, hmm, this was interesting over here and this was interesting over there.' Realizing that helped me sit down with all my stuff on trafficking and labor abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan and say 'What are the five craziest things that I found here and how could I weave them together in a way that would actually have some forward motion?'" Thanks to TinyLetter and HuluPlus for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: Stillman on Longform Stillman's New Yorker archive [6:30] "The Throwaways" (New Yorker • Aug 2012) [15:00] "The Invisible Army" (New Yorker • Jun 2011) [31:00] "Taken by the State" (New Yorker • Aug 2013) [49:00] Soul Searching: A Girl's Guide to Finding Herself (2001) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eli Saslow is a staff writer at the Washington Post and a contributor at ESPN the Magazine. It's not really my place to complain about it being hard for me to write. I wrote the story ("After Newtown Shooting, Mourning Parents Enter Into the Lonely Quiet") and I got to leave it. And even when I was writing the story, I was only experiencing what they were experiencing in a super fractional way. The hard part is that it was a story where there are no breaks, there's no—it is this relentless, sort of bottomless pain and I struggled with that. … A story can only have so many crushing moments, otherwise they just all wash out. But the other truth is: it is what it is. It's an impossibly heartbreaking situation. And making the story anything other than relentlessly heartbreaking would've been doing an injustice to what they're dealing with. Thanks to TinyLetter and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @elisaslow Saslow on Longform Saslow's Washington Post archive [14:45] "Life of a Salesman" (Washington Post • Oct 2012) [23:30] "In Florida, a Food-stamp Recruiter Deals With Wrenching Choices" (Washington Post • Apr 2013) [30:30] "After Newtown Shooting, Mourning Parents Enter Into the Lonely Quiet" (Washington Post • Jun 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joshuah Bearman is the co-founder of Epic Magazine and a freelance writer. His latest story is "Coronado High." "People who know me well will realize that parts of this story are actually about me. … It's about loss of innocence and getting to a certain point in your life where you realize the excitement of youth is over. Life at a certain point gets complicated and there are consequences and things get hard. These are people who dealt with those consequences in a way that I never did — they had to go to prison or destroy their friends lives — but that's what I liked about this story. It's a true crime story, but it became universal when I realized that there is this emotional experience that these characters go through that anybody can relate to." Thanks to TinyLetter and Igloo Software for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @JoshBearman Bearman on Longform [2:45] "Coronado High" (The Atavist • Aug 2013) [3:30] Excerpt of the GQ version of "Coronado High" (GQ • Jun 2013) [6:00] "The Great Escape" (Wired • Apr 2007) [14:00] Longform Podcast #11: Bearman discusses Argo [20:00] "Baghdad Country Club" (The Atavist • Jan 2012) [24:30] Epic Magazine [25:15] Longform Podcast #17: Joshua Davis [42:00] "The Gold Heist: A Third Interview with a Nuclear Physicist" (McSweeney's • Mar 2001) [43:15] "The Perfect Game" (Harper's • Jul 2008) [subscription required] [44:30] "It's Always a Good Idea to Get Some Manure on Your Boots" (The Believer • April 2004) [46:30] "Heaven's Gate: The Sequel" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2007) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amy Harmon, a Pulitzer Prize winner, covers science and society for the New York Times. "I'm not looking to expose science as problematic and I'm not looking to celebrate it. But it can be double edged. Genetic knowledge can certainly be double edged. Often the science outpaces where our culture is in terms of grappling with it, with the implications of it. Part of the reason for this widespread fear about GMOs is people don't understand what it is. I'm looking for an emotional way or a vehicle through which to get people to read about it. It's an excuse to talk about the science, not just explain it. … My contribution, what I can do, is try to tell a story that will engage people in the story and then they'll realize at the end that they learned a little bit about the science." Thanks to TinyLetter and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @Amy_Harmon Harmon's New York Times archive [5:45] "A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA" (New York Times • Jul 2013) [15:15] "Dispute Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food" (with Andrew Pollack • New York Times • May 2012) [28:30] Michael Pollan's tweet about Harmon's story [38:30] "The DNA Age: Facing Life With a Lethal Gene" (New York Times • 2007) [39:30] "How Race is Lived in America" (New York Times • 2000) [48:00] "Autistic and Seeking a Place in the Adult World" (New York Times • Sep 2011) [52:15] "Navigating Love and Autism" (New York Times • 2011) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sean Flynn is a GQ correspondent and National Magazine Award winner. "I find it satisfying to be able to give a voice to people that sort of get lost…You know, when these big horrible things happen, and the spotlight is very briefly on them, and then it moves away, and it's not that I'm dragging them out and forcing them to 'Relive your horrible moments!' It's more a thing of, 'If you'd like to relive your horrible moment, if you want people to know what actually happened, talk to me. I will tell your story.'" Thanks to TinyLetter and the The Literary Reportage concentration at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: Flynn's GQ archive [00:30] "The Finish Line" (GQ • Jun 2013) [3:45] "Is he coming? Is he? Oh God, I think he is." (GQ • Aug 2012) [11:00] "BOOM" (GQ • Jul 2010) [11:00] "Way Down in the Hole" (GQ • Nov 2010) [19:00] "The End: Boston Phoenix publishes final issue today" (Stephen M. Mindich • The Boston Phoenix • Mar 2013) [22:00] "Barnicle's Game" (Dan Kennedy • The Boston Phoenix • Aug 1998) [25:45] "A Voice in the Dark" (Esquire • Jan 2000) [27:45] "The Perfect Fire" (Esquire • Jul 2000) [35:15] "Bagdad P.D." (GQ • Oct 2006) [36:15] "Papa" (GQ • Apr 2008) [39:45] "The Sex Trade" (GQ • Mar 2007) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices