Longform

Ashley C. Ford is a writer and podcast host. Her memoir, Somebody's Daughter, is forthcoming from Flatiron Books. “For the first time I felt like I had so many more choices in my life than I originally thought I had. That was my first realization that I did not just have to react to the world, that I could be intentional in the world, and just curious about what came back to me.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @iSmashFizzle ashleycford.net Fortune Favors the Bold [5:00] "Roger Loves Chaz" (Roger Ebert • Sep 2012) [11:34] The Giver (Lois Lowry • Houghton Mifflin • 1993) [17:47] Ford's commencement speech at Ball State [26:09] Ford's archive at Buzzfeed [41:00] "Ashley C. Ford’s Debut Memoir ‘Somebody’s Daughter’ Finds Home at Flatiron" (Paperback Paris • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andrea Bernstein is a journalist and co-host of Trump, Inc., a podcast from WNYC and ProPublica. Her new book is American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power. “Hope is an action. And I feel that writing and documenting is an action. When I stop doing those things, I will be hopeless. But because I am still doing those things, it means that I still have hope… so long as we continue to be actors in the world, we can be hopeful human beings.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @AndreaWNYC Trump, Inc. Bernstein's archive at ProPublica [04:07] Ilya Marritz on the "Nine Pillars of Bernstein" [11:12] Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election [pdf] [11:47] The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life (Ivanka Trump • Simon & Schuster • 2009) [14:31] American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power (W.W. Norton • 2020) [19:09] City for Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York (Jack Newfield, Wayne Barrett • HarperCollins • 1988) [34:28] The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt • Shocken • 1951) [35:06] “Truth and Politics” (Hannah Arendt • New Yorker • 1967) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kevin Kelly is a writer and a founding executive editor of Wired Magazine. He is the author of What Technology Wants, Out of Control and The Inevitable: Understanding the Twelve Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. “I always try to write about the future—and it became harder and harder because things would catch up so fast. If you read Out of Control now, I’ve heard that people say, ‘well, this is obvious.’ I have to tell you, it was dismissed as entirely pie-in-the-sky, wild-eyed craziness twenty-five years ago.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. kk.org @kevin2kelly [08:54] CoEvolution Quarterly [09:06] “Low-Rent Himalayas” (CoEvolution Quarterly • 1981) [pdf] [18:06] “Information as a Communicable Disease” (CoEvolution Quarterly • 1984) [pdf] [22:30] sci-hub.tw [28:28] Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities (Cool Tools Lab • 2013) [31:31] Whole Earth Software Catalog and Review [48:08] Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (Basic Books • 1995) [48:19] “New Rules for the New Economy: Twelve Dependable Principles for Thriving in a Turbulent World” (Wired • 1997) [48:23] New Rules for the New Economy: Ten Radical Strategies for a Connected World (Penguin • 1999) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Katherine Eban is an investigative journalist and contributing writer at Fortune Magazine. Her new book is Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom. “I am not known for my optimism. I think it’s hard to do this work and retain a sunny view of humankind. I hate to say that. On the other hand, I do believe there will always be whistleblowers. And it’s interesting to me that even in the darkest spaces, even when it looks like everything is arrayed against them, there are people who will say: ‘This just isn’t right, and I must do something.’ Which is kind of extraordinary.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. katherineeban.com @KatherineEban [08:00] “Bellevue's Emergency” (New York Times Magazine • 1996) [08:42] “Corrections Officials See Medical Neglect of Rikers Prisoners” (Observer • 1998) [08:44] “Complaints Prompt Scrutiny of St. Barnabas Hospital” (Observer • 1998) [12:04] Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom (Ecco • 2019) [12:28] “Rorschach and Awe” (Vanity Fair • 2007) [19:23] The Report (2019) [21:25] Dangerous Doses: A True Story of Cops, Counterfeiters, and the Contamination of America’s Drug Supply (Ecco • 2019) [25:18] “Pharmacy Fakes” (Self • 2006) [41:28] “Dirty Medicine” (Fortune • 2013) [43:10] “Centre Mulling Action to Counter US Journalist's Allegations About Indian Pharma” (The Wire • 2020) [45:24] “The Truth About the Fast and Furious Scandal” (Fortune • 2012) [48:09] Eban's guide to investigating your own drugs [48:15] Eban's FAQs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cord Jefferson is a journalist turned television writer whose credits include Succession, The Good Place, and Watchmen. “I’m a fearful person. I’m afraid of a lot of things. I’m afraid of how people perceive me, I’m afraid of hurting myself, I’m afraid of heights. I’m afraid of a lot. Bravery does not come naturally to me. But the moments when I feel like I’ve done the best in my life and been the proudest of myself are when I’ve overcome that fear to do something that scares me.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. @cordjefferson cordjefferson.tumblr.com Longform Podcast #61: Cord Jefferson Jefferson on Longform [01:55] “Video of Violent, Rioting Surfers Shows White Culture of Lawlessness” (Gawker • 2013) [02:02] “Cord Jefferson, Chris Hayes Ask What White Community Will Do About ‘White Criminal Culture’ (VIDEO)” (HuffPost • 2013) [10:05] “Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax” (Deadspin • 2013) [22:58] The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (2015-2016) [29:50] Master of None [29:55] The Good Place [29:57] Watchmen [29:59] Succession [30:05] “Mackenzie Davis & Himesh Patel To Star In ‘Station Eleven’ HBO Max Limited Series” (Deadline • 2019) [59:31] “Don't Stop Running: A Case for Trying” (The Awl • 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jerry Saltz is a Pulitzer-winning art critic for New York. “To this day I wake up early and I have to get to my desk to write almost immediately. I mean fast. Before the demons get me. I got to get writing. And once I’ve written almost anything, I’ll pretty much write all day, I don’t leave my desk, I have no other life. I’m not part of the world except when I go to see shows.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @jerrysaltz Saltz on Instagram Saltz on Longform Saltz's archive at New York Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Liana Finck, a cartoonist and illustrator, contributes to The New Yorker and is the author of Excuse Me and Passing for Human. "I was drawing since I was 10 months old. My mom had left this vibrant community of architects and art people to live in this idyllic country setting with my dad, and she poured all of her art feelings into me. She really praised me for being this baby genius, which I may or may not have been. But I grew up thinking I was an amazing artist. There weren’t any other artists around besides my mom, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to. There were no art classes around. … I was so shy, so I was just always drawing and making things." Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @lianafinck Finck's archive at The New Yorker Finck on Instagram Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir (Random House • 2018) Excuse Me: Cartoons, Complaints, and Notes to Self (Random House • 2019) [10:00] "What I Miss: A List" (Catapult • Apr 2018) [40:00] Very Semi-Serious (The New Yorker • 2015) [50:00] "Dear Pepper: Airport Pickups, Where to Live, and Departed Dogs" (The New Yorker • Aug 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mina Kimes is a senior writer at ESPN and the host of the podcast ESPN Daily. “What I’ve found, and this is something I did not know would be the case going into it, is that sports stories—and, at the risk of sounding a bit self-important, maybe someone like me writing sports stories or talking about it in particular—can have an impact in other ways that have revealed themselves to me over time.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and Native Deodorant for sponsoring this week's episode. @minakimes minakimes.tumblr.com Kimes on Longform Longform Podcast #12: Mina Kimes ESPN Daily Podcast [05:37] “Me, My Father, and Russell Wilson: Why This Seahawks Season Makes Me Unspeakably Happy” (Slate • 2014) [10:46] “Aly Raisman Takes the Floor” (ESPN • 2018) [10:55] “Drew Brees Has a Dream He'd Like to Sell You” (ESPN • 2016) [12:11] ESPN's Around the Horn [12:12] ESPN's Highly Questionable [20:48] “How Darrelle Revis Became the NFL's Savviest Negotiator” (ESPN • 2015) [24:18] “The Unkillable Demon King” (ESPN • 2015) [26:23] “The Art of Letting Go” (ESPN • 2016) [27:31] “The Unbreakable Bond” (ESPN • 2016) [34:09] “The Work Diary of ESPN's Mina Kimes (and Her Dog, Lenny)” (The New York Times • 2019) [34:32] ESPN Daily [35:26] The Mina Kimes Show Featuring Lenny [36:52] “Baker Mayfield Isn't Afraid of the Hype” (ESPN • 2019) [39:16] “After a Decade Apart, Antonio Brown and T.Y. Hilton Share an Unlikely Bond” (ESPN • 2015) [39:41] “The Search for Aaron Rodgers” (ESPN • 2017) [49:35] “Everything You Need To Know About the Ray Rice Case” (Time • 2014) [49:35] “ ESPN's Mina Kimes Will Be Preseason Analyst for the Los Angeles Rams” (Sports Illustrated • 2019) [56:33] Michael Barbaro on Longform Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Greenberg is a senior writer for Wired. His new book is Sandworm. “I kind of knew I was never going to get access to Sandworm, which is the title of the book - so it was all about drawing a picture around this invisible monster.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and Family Ghosts for sponsoring this week's episode. @a_greenberg Greenberg's archive at Wired [03:22] Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers (Doubleday • 2019) [06:21] Dune (Chilton Books • 1965) [07:03] “How an Entire Nation Became Russia's Test Lab for Cyberwar” (Wired • 2017) [33:50]Greenberg's archive at Forbes [37:09]“Is Bitcoin's Creator this Unknown Australian Genius? Probably Not (Updated)” (Wired • 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Parul Sehgal is a book critic for The New York Times. “I write about books, I review books, but in a sense, to do my job at a newspaper also puts that pressure on a piece to say: why should you read or care about this? You’re trying to tweeze out what is newsworthy, what is interesting, what is vital about this book….My job is I think to be honest with the reader and to keep surfacing new ways for me and for other people to think about books. New vocabularies of pleasure and disgust.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. parulsehgal.com @parul_sehgal Sehgal's archive at the New York Times [17:11] “Mothers of Invention: A Group of Authors Finds New Narrative Possibilities in Parenthood” (Bookforum • 2015) [17:20] “In Letters to the World, a New Wave of Memoirs Draws on the Intimate” (New York Times • 2019) [17:33] “#MeToo Is All Too Real. But to Better Understand it, Turn to Fiction.” (New York Times • 2019) [24:18] Longform Podcast #354: Jia Tolentino [41:39] “Peter Luger Used to Sizzle. Now It Sputters.” (New York Times • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

James Verini is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. His new book is They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate. “War is mostly down time. War is mostly waiting around for something to happen.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and "Couples Therapy" for sponsoring this week's episode. jamesverini.com Verini's archive on Longform Longform Podcast #147: James Verini [4:19] They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate (W.W. Norton • 2019) [12:12] “The Prosecutor and the President” (The New York Times Magazine • 2016) [37:11] Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lori Gottlieb is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. Her new book is Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. “Everything that I had done all coalesced into one thing. As a journalist i was helping people to tell their stories, as a therapist I could help people to edit their stories, to change their stories. I could be immersed in the human condition in both of these things.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, Native, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. @LoriGottlieb1 lorigottlieb.com Gottlieb's archive at The Atlantic [2:57] Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed (Houghton Mifflin • 2019) [03:53] Lori Gottlieb's TED Talk: “How Changing Your Story Can Change Your Life”(2019) [9:46] “Slate Diary: Lori Gottlieb” (Slate • 1998) [11:35] “Marry Him! The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” (The Atlantic • 2008) [11:36] Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough (E.P. Dutton • 2010) [15:51] Modern Romance (Aziz Ansari • Penguin • 2015) [19:44] “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy: Why the Obsession with our Kids’ Happiness May be Dooming them to Unhappy Adulthoods” (The Atlantic • 2011) [25:38] "Dear Therapist" column archive at The Atlantic [40:39] Couples Therapy (2019) [54:34] Guy Winch's TEDTalk: “Why We All Need to Practice Emotional First Aid”(2014) [55:08] “ABC Nabs ‘Maybe You Should Talk To Someone’ Therapist Drama From Maggie Friedman & Eva Longoria Based On Book” (Deadline • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leslie Jamison is the author of The Empathy Exams, The Recovering, and the novel The Gin Closet. Her new essay collection is Make It Scream, Make It Burn. “My writing is always basically asking: what does it feel like to be alive, and how do we ever try to understand what it feels like for anybody else to be alive? In that sense, on the intellectual level, I’m always going to keep chasing the same unanswerable things.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, Mythology for sponsoring this week's episode. Apply to the University of Pittsburgh's Writing Program @lsjamison lesliejamison.com Jamison on Longform Longform Podcast #92: Leslie Jamison [05:19] ”52 Blue”(Atavist • 2014) [16:17] “In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale” (New York Times Magazine • 2017) [32:20] “A24 is Making Limited-Edition Books for Ex Machina, The Witch, and Moonlight”(The Verge • 2019) [33:33] The Empathy Exams (Graywolf Press • 2014) [33:54] The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (Little, Brown • 2018) [51:46] “Giving Up the Ghost” (Harper's • 2015) [54:08] “Sim Life” (The Atlantic • 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Errol Morris is the director of The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War. His latest film is American Dharma. “I don’t make films because it makes sense to make them. Probably if I thought carefully about whether they made sense, I would stop immediately. I make them because I have a need to do it. I have a need to think about stuff. Writing and filmmaking for me is a form of thinking. It’s an opportunity to think about something. And I enjoy it. I don’t know what I would do without filmmaking.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers and SAIC. @errolmorris errolmorris.com [05:37] American Dharma (2019) [11:30] The Fog of War (2003) [11:43] Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred. A Leutcher, Jr. (1999) [19:55] The Unknown Known (2013) [20:49] Twelve O'Clock High (1949) [23:31] The Searchers (1956) [37:38] The Thin Blue Line (1988) [38:13] Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) [39:46] Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising (Penguin • 2017) [39:56] Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House (Henry Holt and Co. • 2018) [41:59] “Predilections” (New Yorker • 1988) [42:03] “The Friendly Executioner” (New Yorker • 1999) [44:01] Gates of Heaven (1978) [41:59] “Blood Spore” (Harper's • 2013) [46:24] Hamilton's Pharmacopeia Docuseries (Viceland • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ashley Feinberg is a senior writer at Slate. She recently uncovered Mitt Romney's secret Twitter account. “The whole thing about politics is that they are basically creating this character, this mask, and that is who they are supposed to be. That is who they try to project to the world. We know that it’s not really them but we have no access to what they actually are. This is the closest we get to seeing what they’re doing when they think no one is watching. … This is the most unfiltered access to what they’re actually thinking.” @ashleyfeinberg ashleyfeinberg.com Feinberg's archive at Slate [03:55] “This Sure Looks Like Mitt Romney’s Secret Twitter Account (Update: It Is)” (Slate • 2019) [04:50] “The Liberation of Mitt Romney” (The Atlantic • 2019) [10:03] “This Is Almost Certainly James Comey's Twitter Account” (Gizmodo • 2017) [10:19] “'Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters.' James Comey Is Trolling Trump With Bible Verse” (Time • 2017) [13:24] “That Idiot on Your Hunting Message Board Might Be Donald Trump Jr.” (Deadspin • 2016) [34:22] “This Appears to Be Eric Trump's YouTube Playlist, And Now I'm Depressed” (Slate • 2019) [35:54] “Jack Dorsey Has No Clue What He Wants” (Huffington Post • 2019) [43:51] “Paying Dues: Today's Economy Makes Internships a Must” (San Antonio Current • 2011) [47:33] “Toys For Tight Schedules” (Wall Street Journal • 2013) [47:44] “Monopoly is Getting Rid of Jail. That's Some Bullshit.” (Gizmodo • 2013) [55:32] “Gawker and Hulk Hogan Reach $31 Million Settlement” (New York Times • 2016) [57:44] “How to Talk About Suicide on Father's Day” (Gawker • 2015) [57:44] “My Suicide Week” (Huffington Post • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carvell Wallace is a podcast host and has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. He is the co-author, with Andre Iguodala, of The Sixth Man. “So much of my life experience coalesces into things that are useful… All those years that I was obsessing over this that or the other thing, all the weird stuff that I would do, all the weird things that happened to me, all the places I found myself in that I didn’t want to be in but were interesting - this is all part of what makes me the writer that I am today.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, Native, and Villains for sponsoring this week's episode. @carvellwallace carvellwallace.com [02:15] Slate's Mom and Dad are Fighting Podcast [02:21] Season One of Closer Than They Appear Podcast [02:35] The Sixth Man: A Memoir (Blue Rider Press • 2019) [05:09] Episode One of Finding Fred [09:17] Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (Bradbury Press • 1970) [09:35] Purple Rain (1984) [09:40] The Karate Kid (Scholastic • 1984) [10:24] “The Two Lives of Michael Jackson” (New Yorker • 2015) [27:55] “How to Parent on a Night Like This” (Huffington Post • 2014) [32:24] Wallace's Pitchfork archive [32:30] “On Kendrick Lamar and Black Humanity” (Pitchfork • 2015) [34:11] “Thelonious Monk: So Plain Only the Deaf Can Hear” (Pitchfork • 2016) [38:00] Wallace's MTV archive [40:09] “The Roots of Cowboy Music” (MTV • 2017) [46:01] “The Negro Motorist Green Book and Black America's Perpetual Search for a Home” (The Toast • 2016) [50:28] “Mahershala Ali Thinks We Can Still Make this Country Great” (GQ • 2017) [50:29] “Samuel L. Jackson Operates Like He Owns the Place. (He Does.)” (Esquire • 2019) [50:57] “Steph Curry and the Warriors' Astonishing Season” (New Yorker • 2016) [55:36] “The Spirit of Miles Bridges” (ESPN • 2017) [1:02:07] Why Me? (Closer Than They Appear • 2017) [1:04:54] Working (Pantheon • 1974) [1:06:36] “How Do We Measure the Value of a Life?” (MTV • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nicholas Quah founded and writes Hot Pod, a newsletter about the podcasting industry, and reviews podcasts for Vulture. “I think to some extent I’m in love with the concept of momentum. Sheer velocity. It’s painful. It’s punishing. Physically, I’m worse off for it. But I feel like if I stop moving, something will fall. Something will break. And I’m over. It’s a horrible feeling.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, Audm, and Bayer for sponsoring this week's episode. @nwquah nicholasquah.com hotpodnews.com Quah's archive at Vulture [13:51] Business Insider Intelligence [17:26] Season One of Serial Podcast [17:26] Longform Podcast #327: Julie Snyder [30:56] Megaphone (formerly Panoply Media) [52:30] New York Post's We Hear Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Radhika Jones is the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and the editor of Women on Women. “There are a lot of people who still see the value of talking to someone, having a real conversation — about the things that they’re doing, the things that they’re caring about, the things that they’re afraid of, the things that are challenging — because in that conversation, they themselves will discover things that they didn’t realize. It obviously takes courage. It’s a payoff for the reader, certainly, but I think that there are subjects who understand that there is something there for them, too.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @radhikajones [03:28] Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit [08:45] “The Beautiful Power of Ta-Nehisi Coates” (Vanity Fair • 2019) [11:42] “Delta Nights” (New Yorker • 2000) [31:05] “Jonathan Franzen: Great American Novelist” (TIME • 2010) [39:50] George Magazine [40:37] Dominick Dunne's Vanity Fair archive [41:15] “The Often Perilous, Sometimes Lucrative, and Ever-Evolving Business of Being a YouTube Star in 2019” (Vanity Fair • 2019) [41:53] Vanity Fair's Women on Women (Penguin Press • 2019) [54:56] “Inside TheMaven's Plan To Turn Sports Illustrated Into A Rickety Content Mill” (Deadspin • 2019) [1:00:00] “You Won't Believe What Happened: The Wild, Disturbing Saga of Robert Kraft's Visit to a Strip Mall Sex Spa” (Vanity Fair • 2019) [1:00:45] “To Cheat and Lie in L.A.: How the College-Admissions Scandal Ensnared the Richest Families in Southern California” (Vanity Fair • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andrew Marantz is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His new book is Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. “Some nonfiction can be reduced to a bulletpoint primer, but a good book is a good book. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, it should create a feeling, it should create a world, it should be a feeling that you want to live in and that tilts the way you see things. Isn’t that the point?” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @andrewmarantz andrewmarantz.com Marantz on Longform [01:34] Antisocial (Random House • 2019) [03:13] Marantz's Tour Schedule [11:54] Longform Podcast #193: Robin Marantz Henig [18:58] “A Rising Tide”(Harper's • 2011) [19:00] “My Summer at an Indian Call Center”(Mother Jones • 2011) [27:20] “How Silicon Valley Nails Silicon Valley”(New Yorker • 2016) [27:58] “Ready for Prime Time”(New Yorker • 2016) [28:03] “The Virologist”(New Yorker • 2014) [39:31] “Trolls For Trump”(New Yorker • 2016) [40:22] “A Voice of Hate in America's Heartland”(New York Times • 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ken Burns is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes The Vietnam War, Baseball, and The Central Park Five. His new series is Country Music. “History, which seems to most people safe — it isn’t. I think the future is pretty safe, it’s the past that’s so terrifying and malleable.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Vistaprint, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @KenBurns kenburns.com [01:08] The Vietnam War (2017) [01:12] Country Music (2019) [04:58] Salesman (1969) [09:04] Jazz (2001) [13:45] The Civil War (1990) [13:48] Baseball (1994) [13:55] The War (miniseries • 2007) [13:57] The National Parks (2009) [14:00] The Roosevelts (2014) [44:49] Odd Man Out (1947) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me. His new novel is The Water Dancer. Chris Jackson is Coates's editor, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of One World. “I don’t think an essay works unless I can pin a story to it. You don’t want people to just say, ‘Oh that was a cool argument.’ You want people to say, ‘I could not stop thinking about this.’ You want them to nudge their wives and husbands and say, ‘You have to read this.’ You want them to be bothered by it.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, Vistaprint, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @cjaxone ta-nehisicoates.com cjaxone.tumblr.com Coates on Longform Coates's first appearance on the Longform Podcast [02:00] The Water Dancer: A Novel (One World • 2019) [02:45] Coates’s Tour Schedule [04:30] Jackson's Email [06:45] The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (Spiegel & Grau • 2009) [12:58] ”Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War”(The Atlantic • 2011) [14:00] Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau • 2015) [20:23] The Secret History (Donna Tartt • Alfred A Knopf • 1992) [20:30] The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro • Faber and Faber • 1990) [20:40] Billy Bathgate: A Novel (E.L. Doctorow • Random House • 1989) [28:10] Underground Railroad (William Still • 1872) [32:45] The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Ulysses Grant • 1885) [35:20] ”The Case for Reparations”(The Atlantic • 2014) [37:05] Coates's archive at The Atlantic [37:10] We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy (One World • 2017) [45:15] Captain in America Vol. 1: Winter in America (Marvel • 2019) [54:00] Coates Testifies Before Congress (2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paul Tough is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the author of The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us. “The nice thing about a book as opposed to a magazine article is that it’s less formulaic. As a writer, it gives you more freedom — you’re trying to create an emotional mood where ideas have a place to sit in a person’s brain. And when people are moved by a book, it’s not by being told, ‘Here’s the problem, here’s the answer, now go do it.’ It’s by having your vision of the world slightly changed.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. [03:25] The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2019) [04:00] “Terminal Delinquents”(Esquire • 1990) [04:50] Tough’s Harper’s archive [05:50] 2600: The Hacker Quarterly [09:00] Longform Podcast #104: Lewis Lapham [10:30] “The Alchemy of OxyContin” (New York Times Magazine • 2001) [11:40] Tough’s New York Times Magazine archive [16:15] “The Harlem Project” (New York Times Magazine • 2004) [16:20] Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America (Mariner Books • 2009) [17:15] Open Letters [26:00] Longform Podcast #347: Michael Pollan [45:20] Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Issac covers Silicon Valley for The New York Times. He is the author of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber. “People try to use journalists all the time. Your job as a journalist is to figure out who’s using you, why they’re using you, and whether you can do something legitimately without playing into one side or another.” Thanks to MailChimp, Pitt Writers, and Wolverine Podcast for sponsoring this week's episode. @MikeIsaac Isaac on Longform [00:14] Wolverine Podcast [02:09] Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (W. W. Norton & Company • 2019) [02:20] Issac’s New York Times archive [03:57] Issac’s Paste Magazine archive [06:15] Longform Podcast #337: Casey Newton [08:40] Steve Jobs and Walt Mossberg [25:38] “How Uber Deceives the Authorities Worldwide” (New York Times • 2017) [25:44] “Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture” (New York Times • 2017) [25:48] Susan Fowler blog post [31:00] Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou • Knopf • 2018) [36:31] Isaac on The Daily Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michelle García has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Oxford American. She directed the PBS film, Against Mexico: The Making of Heroes and Enemies. “We have to see that within difficult stories there is a very important message of humanity triumphing over despair. If you don’t focus on joy, humanity is squashed. If all you see and all you narrate is pain, then you extinguish the possibility of joy and the important part of holding onto humanity.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @pistoleraprod michellegarciainc.com Rally+PEN America event on September 5 [00:42] “Against Mexico: The Making of Heroes and Enemies” (PBS • 2012) [01:04] “The Border and the American Imagination” (The Baffler • 2018) [01:07] “Rewriting the West” (Guernica • 2019) [02:12] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [02:30] Evan Ratliff on CoinTalk [09:30] “New Tack Against Illegal Immigrants: Trespassing Charges (Michael Powell • Washington Post • 2005) [14:44] “Michelle Has A Polyamourous Relationship With Texas And New York” (KSTX • 2017) [21:05] “On the Texas Borderline, A Solid, if Invisible, Wall” (Washington Post • 2008) [23:16] “The War of Forgetting” (Guernica • 2015) [32:40] García’s AlJazeera America archive [33:55] “Myths of Mexico” (Columbia Journalism Review • 2009) [45:45] “The Year of the Heavy Moon” (Oxford American • 2017) [47:55] “My Name is Alex” (Oxford American • 2017) [48:50] “Mexico’s City of Dogs” (AlJazeera America • 2013) [1:05:45] “Searching for La Perdida” (Oxford American • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade is a French documentary filmmaker. He directed Murder on a Sunday Morning and The Staircase. “The courtroom in the United States is not really about the truth. It’s more about a story against another story. It’s more about storytelling. The more compelling or believable story by the jury will win. But in the end, we don’t know: is it the truth or not?” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and We Love You (and So Can You) for sponsoring this week's episode. [00:05] We Love You (And So Can You) [01:00] You Can’t Make This Up [02:16] The Staircase (2004) [02:50] The Staircase II: The Last Chance (2013) [02:53] The Staircase (2018) [05:15] Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001) [05:35] The Justice of the Men (2001) [11:35] Caught in the Acts (Raymond Depardon • 1994) [12:05] Law and Order (Frederick Wiseman • 1969) [12:12] Welfare(Frederick Wiseman • 1975) [12:16] Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman • 1997) [25:23] Making a Murderer (Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos • 2015) [25:25] The Jinx (Andrew Jarecki • 2015) [25:27] The Keepers (Ryan White • 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taylor Lorenz just announced she is leaving her job covering internet culture for The Atlantic to join The New York Times. “With technology and internet culture, I am more of an optimist than a lot of other people who cover those topics. It’s more ambiguous for me. It's more like, ‘This is the world we live in now and here are the pros and here are the cons. There are a lot of cons, but there are also these pros.’ I like how things shift and change under me. I like to see how things are constantly evolving.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @taylorlorenz Lorenz on Longform [01:45] Lorenz’s archive at The Atlantic [06:15] "The Shooter’s Manifesto Was Designed to Troll" (The Atlantic • 2019) [06:30] "Instagram Is the Internet’s New Home for Hate" (The Atlantic • 2019) [07:50] "The Real Difference Between Creators and Influencers" (The Atlantic • 2019) [17:15] INSTANT [19:00] The Daily What [21:20] "Where Everyone’s an Influencer" (The Atlantic • 2019) [22:30] "How an App for Gamers Went Viral" (The Atlantic • 2019) [23:50] "The Instagram Aesthetic is Over" (The Atlantic • 2019) [35:55] "How Tea Accounts Are Fueling Influencer Feuds" (The Atlantic • 2019) [36:00] The Shade Room [37:00] "How DramaAlert Became the TMZ of YouTube" (Daily Beast • 2018) [41:00] Lorenz at Mic [46:45] "The Mysterious Disappearance (and Eventual Rebirth) of YouTube Star Issa Twaimz" (New York • 2017) [54:40] "What Is the Momo Challenge?" (E.J Dickson • Rolling Stone • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion. “I feel a lot of useful guilt solidifying my own advantages at a time when the ground people stand on is being ripped away. And I feel a lot of emotional anxiety about the systems that connect us - about the things that make my life more convenient and make other people’s lives worse. It’s the reality of knowing that ten years from now, when there are millions of more climate refugees, that you’ll be okay. It makes me feel so crazy and lucky and intent on doing something with being alive.” Thanks to MailChimp, Time Sensitive, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @jiatolentino Tolentino on Longform [01:47] Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion (Random House • 2019) [02:15] Jia’s archive at the New Yorker [02:18] Longform Podcast #183: Jia Tolentino [09:08] “The Promise of Vaping and the Rise of Juul” (New Yorker • 2018) [11:31] “Gloria Allred’s Crusade” (New Yorker • 2017) [17:37] “Please, My Wife, She’s Very Online” (New Yorker • 2019) [20:49] “A Chat with Malcolm Brenner, Man Famous for Having Sex with a Dolphin” (Jezebel • 2015) [21:03] “Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks” (Jezebel • 2016) [26:20] Panel with Tolentino, Nussbaum, Holmes, and Brodesser-Akner [27:50] “The Land of the Large Adult Son” (New Yorker • 2017) [33:22] “Losing Religion and Finding Ecstasy in Houston” (New Yorker • 2019) [36:10] “A Quick Chat With a Guy at Lolla Wearing a 'Rape Your Face' T-Shirt” (Jezebel • 2015) [40:22] “Athleisure, Barre and Kale: The Tyranny of the Ideal Woman” (The Guardian • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Baxter Holmes is a senior writer for ESPN. He won the James Beard Award for his 2017 article, “The NBA's Secret Addiction.” “If there’s anything I’m really fighting for it’s people’s memory. I love the notion of trying to write a story that sticks with people. And that requires really compelling characters. It requires in-depth reporting — you have to take people on a journey. It needs to be so rich and something they didn’t know. I look for a story that I can tell well enough that it will hold up, that it will earn someone’s memory.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @Baxter Holmes on Longform [00:25] "The Threat of Youth Basketball" (ESPN • 2019) [01:00] "The NBA's Secret Addiction" (ESPN • 2017) [01:15] "The Secret Team Dinners That Have Built the Spurs' Dynasty" (ESPN • 2019) [01:20] "Lakers 2.0: The Failed Reboot of the NBA's Crown Jewel" (ESPN • 2019) [03:02] Longform Podcast #226: Terry Gross [30:40] "Inside the Corrosive Workplace Culture of the Dallas Mavericks" (Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther • Sports Illustrated • 2018) [43:10] Magic Johnson denies allegations on ESPN [44:00] Holmes talks about response to his Lakers piece [44:33] Longform Podcast #112: Don Van Natta Jr. [58:54] "The NBA's Secret Wine Society" (ESPN • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist and the author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. “I’ve noticed that the times I’m extra susceptible to being on social media is when I am feeling personally insecure or when I’m dealing with existential dread. That within itself is not part of the attention economy—that’s just a human being having feelings and reacting to things. For me, it’s a question of like, ‘What do I do with that?’ I can either feed it back into the attention economy and actually get more of it back—more anxiety or more existential dread—or I can go in this other direction and spend time alone or with people who care about the same things. Those are places where I can bring my feelings and they won’t destroy me.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @the_jennitaur jennyodell.com Jenny Odell on Longform [00:49] How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Melville House • 2019) [00:51] ”How To Do Nothing” transcript of keynote talk (Medium • 2017) [01:10] “A Business With No End” (New York Times • 2018) [02:30] Evan Ratliff on Cointalk [02:42] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [03:18] “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Watch” (Museum of Capitalism • 2017) [05:05] The Bureau of Suspended Objects [16:55] Gordon Hempton’s “Desert Thunder” [29:27] Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life (Adam Greenfield • Verso • 2017) [37:32] Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer • Milkweed Editions • 2015) [39:25] “Notes of a Bioregional Interloper” (SFMOMA • 2017) [53:30] Mark Lombardi’s drawings [56:40] “On How to Grow an Idea” (Creative Independent • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Josh Levin is the national editor at Slate. He is the host of the podcast Hang Up and Listen and the author of The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. “I think it’s a strength to make a thing, one that people might have thought was familiar, feel strange. And reminding people —in general, in life—that you don’t really know as much as you think you know. I think that carries over into any kind of storytelling.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Squarespace, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @josh_levin Levin on Longform [01:48] The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth (Little, Brown and Company • 2019) [01:52] “The Welfare Queen” (Slate • 2013) [02:47] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [03:25] Levin’s Archive at Slate [04:55] Other Magazines Column [05:03] Today’s Papers [07:25] “Little League Bullies” (Slate • 2007) [10:38] Dahlia Lithwick at Slate [12:22] Paul Ford on the Longform Podcast [13:00] Hang Up And Listen [13:17] Slow Burn [14:01] The Queen podcast [14:33] Jet Article on Linda Taylor (Jet • 1974) [pdf] [42:08] ”Dispatches From the R.Kelly Trial” (Slate • 2008) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer at the New York Times and the author of Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel. “As a profile writer, the skill I have is getting in the room and staying in the room until someone is like, ‘Why is this bitch still in the room? Get her out of there?’ It’s a journalistic skill that is not a fluffy skill. There are people who are always actively trying to prevent your story, prevent you from seeing it, from seeing the things that would be good to see. There’s a lot of convincing, comforting and listening going on. And there’s a lot of dealing with the fact that somebody in the middle of talking to you can suddenly decide that you are the worst. Those things are very tense and it’s a specific skill that I have that can defray all those things. Or it lets me stay.” Thanks to MailChimp, Netflix, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @taffyakner taffyakner.com Brodesser-Akner on Longform [01:11] Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel (Random House • 2019) [02:31] They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate (James Verini • W. W. Norton & Company • 2019) [03:50] Taffy Brodessor-Akner on the Longform Podcast [05:07] “How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million”(New York Times • 2018) [06:21] Brodesser-Akner's New York Times Archive [06:23] Brodesser-Akner's GQ Archive [07:10] “Taffy Brodesser-Akner Really, Really, Really Wanted to Write This Profile” (Jen Ortiz • Cosmopolitan • 2019) [07:25] “Is Everyone Having Anal Without Me?” (Cosmopolitan • 2015) [12:25] “Bradley Cooper Is Not Really Into This Profile” (New York Times • 2018) [14:55] “Who Controls Childbirth?” (Self • 2010) [15:18] "The Company That Sells Love to America Had a Dark Secret” (New York Times • 2019) [28:50] "Antonio Banderas Doesn’t Think You’ll Remember Him. Not Yet.” (New York Times • 2018) [42:30] "Jonathan Franzen Is Fine With All of It” (New York Times • 2018) [47:39] "Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age” (New York Times • 2017) [48:00] "Are You Woman Enough For The UFC” (Medium • 2014) [49:20] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [54:10] "Billy Bob Thornton on Bad Santa 2, Ungrateful Fans, and Why He Won't Direct Anymore” (GQ • 2016) [58:17] Gone Girl (Gilliam Flynn • Broadway Books • 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Renata Adler is a journalist, critic, and novelist. Her nonfiction collection is After the Tall Timber. “Unless you're going to be fairly definite, what's the point of writing?” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. Adler on Longform Adler's New Yorker archive [7:00] I, Libertine (Theodore Sturgeon • Ballantine Books • 1956) [8:00] After Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction (Ballantine Books • 2015) [9:00] "Letter from Selma" (New Yorker • Apr 1965) [9:00] "Fly Trans-love Airways" (New Yorker • Feb 1967) [15:00] "Letter from Israel" (New Yorker • Jun 1967) [sub req'd] [17:00] "Letter from Biafra" (New Yorker • Oct 1969) [sub req'd] [34:00] Adler's New York Times film reviews archive [47:00] "An American Original: Excerpts from Pat Moynihan's letters" (Steven Weisman • Vanity Fair • Oct 2010) [50:00] "The Perils of Pauline" (The New York Review of Books • Aug 1980) [1:08:00] "Two Trials" (New Yorker • June 1986) [sub req'd] [1:09:00] Reckless Disregard: Westmoreland v. CBS, et al; Sharon v. Time (Knopf • 1986) [1:03:00] Gone: The Last Days of the New Yorker (Simon & Schuster • 1999) [1:10:00] "Decoding the Starr Report" (Vanity Fair • Dec 1998) [1:19:00] Canaries in a Mineshaft: Essay on Politics and Media (St. Martin's Press • 2001) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Mar has written for The Believer, Wired, and New York. She is the author of Witches of America and the director of the documentary American Mystic. “I really do believe that all of us run on some kind of desire for meaning. And if someone is an atheist and they don’t subscribe to an organized system, it doesn’t mean that they don’t crave something. Maybe it’s their job. Or maybe it’s the way that they raise their children with a certain kind of intense focus. Or something else. As humans, we are built to crave meaning, right? For me, that was something that I wanted to explore about myself.” Thanks to MailChimp, On the Media, The TED Interview,and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @alex_mar Mar on Longform [02:20] Witches of America (Sarah Crichton Books • 2016) [02:37] "Are We Ready for Intimacy With Androids?" (Wired • Oct 2017) [10:00] Mar’s Documentary: American Mystic [10:17] ”Satan in Poughkeepsie" (The Believer • 2015) [15:12] No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (Fawn McKay Brodie • Vintage • 1995) [16:07] Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Lawrence Wright • Vintage • 2013) [34:15] Mar’s Rolling Stone archive [39:10] ”Man of the Future" (The Believer • 2013) [55:40] ”Breakdown Palace” (Topic • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Epstein has reported for ProPublica, Sports Illustrated, and This American Life. His new book is Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. “You can’t just introspect or take a personality quiz and know what you’re good at or interested in. You actually have to try stuff and then reflect on it. That’s how you learn about yourself—otherwise, your insight into yourself is constrained by your roster of experiences.” Thanks to MailChimp, Time Sensitive, Read This Summer, The TED Interview, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @DavidEpstein davidepstein.com Epstein on Longform [02:20] Epstein’s Sports Illustrated archive [02:21] Epstein’s ProPublica Archive [02:26] The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (Portfolio • 2014) [02:29] Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (Riverhead Books • 2019) [03:15] Longform Podcast #282: Jenna Wortham [05:40] Gladwell and Epstein Conversation [07:58] Gladwell and Epstein Return [08:14] Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell • Back Bay Books • 2011) [08:40] The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. (Daniel Coyle • Bantam • 2009) [10:51] Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice (Matthew Syed • Fourth Estate • 2010) [12:10] NPR review of Range [16:10] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [28:21] Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave (Adam Alter • Penguin Books • 2014) [28:31] Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked (Adam Alter • Penguin Press • 2017) [32:02] Epstein’s Science Research Project Abstract [33:33] Epstein’s Daily News archive [38:47] "Birds and Frogs" (Freeman Dyson • American Mathematical Society • 2009) [pdf] [42:11] "Bright Future" (Sports Illustrated • 2007) [45:29] Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Herminia Ibarra • Harvard Business School Press • 2004) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Pollan writes for The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker and is the author of nine books. His latest is How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. “I don’t like writing as an expert. I’m fine doing public speeches as an expert. Or writing op-ed pieces as an expert. But as a writer, it’s a killer. Nobody likes an expert. Nobody likes to be lectured at. And if you’ve read anything I’ve written, I’m kind of an idiot on page one. I am the naïve fish out of water. I’m learning though. The narrative that we always have as writers is our own education on the topic. We can recreate the process of learning that's behind the book.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @michaelpollan michaelpollan.com Pollan on Longform [00:38] How to Change Your Mind (Penguin Press • 2018) [00:46] Pollan's Harper’s archive [02:58] ”The Trip Treatment” (New Yorker • 2015) [03:30] The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Penguin Press • 2007) [03:31] A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams (Penguin Press • 1997) [03:35] Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (Penguin Press • 2014) [04:35] Paper Lion (George Plimpton • Harper • 1966) [06:18] "Power Steer” (New York Times • Oct 2002) [06:58] National Lampoon's 1973 cover [09:12] ”Gardening Means War” (New York Times • 1988) [16:06] Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (Grove Press; Reprint Edition • 2003) [16:15] The End of Nature (Bill McKibben • Random House • 1989) [16:06] The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (Random House • 2002) [28:53] "Town-Building is No Mickey Mouse Operation” (New York Times • 1997) [31:34] "Some of My Best Friends Are Germs” (New York Times • 2013) [31:50] "The Intelligent Plant” (New Yorker • 2013) [32:09] The Overstory: A Novel (Richard Powers • W.W Norton & Company • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Casey Cep has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New Republic. She is the author of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. “I want to meet all of these expectations. I want my book to be a page-turner. I want it to be a beautiful literary object. I want it to sell. I want it to do all of these things. But at the end of the day, I just want to feel like I’ve honored this commitment between writer and reader, and writer and source. And those are sometimes in conflict.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @cncep Cep on Longform [00:07] Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee (Knopf • 2019) [09:51] The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Erik Larson • Vintage • 2004) [10:39] The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (David Grann • Vintage Books • 2010) [14:30] The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Book You’ll Never Read (Stuart Kelly • Random House • 2006) [16:50] Go Set a Watchman (Harper Lee • HarperCollins • 2015) [17:08] Calpurnia’s Cookbook (Monroe County Heritage Museums • 2000) [20:08] To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee • Grand Central Publishing • 1988) [22:30] Cep’s Harvard Crimson archive [22:45] Cep’s Harvard Magazine archive [23:36] In Cold Blood (Truman Capote • Vintage • 1994) [23:52] Harper Lee’s Profile of In Cold Blood (Real Simple • 2014) [24:28] Cep’s Pacific Standard archive [24:32] Cep's New York Times archive [24:36] Cep’s New Yorker archive [25:26] "Mystery in Monroeville" (New Yorker • 2015) [25:42] "Harper Lee’s Forgotten True Crime Project" (New Yorker • 2015) [27:42] All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (Theodore Rosegarten • Alfred A. Knopf • 1974) [27:42] Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (James Agee • Mariner Books • 2001) [30:35] S-Town [31:50] "In Cold Blood: The Last to See Them Alive" (Truman Capote • The New Yorker • 1965) [31:55] Evidence of Things Not Seen (James Baldwin • Picador • 1995) [32:00] The Basement: Meditiations on Human Sacrifice (Kate Millett • Simon Schuster • 1979) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Adams is the author of Mr. America and Turn Right at Machu Picchu. His latest book is Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier. “It’s always sheer and utter panic the whole time I’m on the road. I never sleep more than like three or four hours a night when I’m on the road because I wake up at 4:00 in the morning and I’m like, Who am I going to talk to today? I don’t have anything scheduled for today. What am I going to do? Sometimes things work out for that day and sometimes they don’t. I think when you start to lose that feeling — that tense feeling, that pit in your stomach — then the work starts to lose something as well.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @markcadams [00:35] Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time (Dutton • 2012) [00:43] Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier (Dutton • 2018) [06:28] Mr. America (It Books • 2010) [19:20] Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (Tom Wolfe • Picador • 2009) [21:52] Letters to a Young Writer (Colum McCann • Bloomsbury • 2018) [24:40] Adams’ Men’s Journal archive [28:18] Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer • Anchor Books • 1997) [28:44] Inside Maya 5 (Mark Adams, Erick Miller, Max Simms • New Riders Press • 2003) [36:14] The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy (Paige Williams • Hachettte Books • 2018) [39:10] The Fifth Risk (Michael Lewis • W. W. Norton & Company • 2018) [39:42] ”Philosophy 101” (Real Simple • 2014) [40:34] ”German Discovers Atlantis in Africa” (New York Times • 1911) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and a co-host of Political Gabfest. Her latest book is Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration. “I'm pretty convinced that if everybody went to criminal court we would not have courts that are dysfunctional the way our courts are. Because what you see every day is a lot of dysfunction and disrespect. It’s kind of deadening. Most people—especially most middle and upper-class people in this country—don’t know anything about the system. They haven’t experienced it first-hand and they prefer not to think about it. It’s very stigmatized. A lot of what I do is just bear witness.’” Thanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @emilybazelon Bazelon on Longform [02:16] Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration (Emily Bazelon • Random House • 2019) [03:38] Bazelon's Slate archive [03:38] Bazelon's New York Times Magazine archive [04:01] Political Gabfest [04:28] ”She was Convicted of Killing Her Mother. Prosecutors Withheld the Evidence That Would Have Freed Her.” (New York Times • 2017) [14:38] Charged: A True Punishment Story [22:15] Eric Gonzalez Interview [26:14] Uncivil [41:11] "Conservatives for Criminal Justice Reform" (Grover Norquist • Wall Street Journal • Sep 2017) [45:43] The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Michelle Alexander • The New Press • 2012) [49:11] Court Watch [51:18] "Kavanaugh Was Questioned by Police After Bar Fight in 1985” (Emily Bazelon and Ben Protess • New York Times • Oct 2018) [52:02] "Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father” (David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner • New York Times • Oct 2018) [57:26] Sarah Huckabee Sanders's tweet about Bazelon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sloane Crosley is the author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number. Her latest essay collection is Look Alive Out There. “The more extreme things get in reality, the more extreme escapism has to be. It’s like Game of Thrones or bust. But in reality, I think that part of what I’m trying to do with this book, or in anything I write, is to give permission to be mad about little things. Just because there’s all of this, someone still slid their hand down a subway pole and touched you. Or somebody bumped into you. There are still these minor indignities and infractions that occur consistently. And I think there’s some sort of robbing if you tell yourself, Well, I’m not going to be mad about this because of the political landscape that we’re in.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, The Great Courses Plus, and @askanyone Crosley on Longform [11:20] ”Goodbye, Columbus” (Village Voice • 2004) [14:15] Read Bottom Up: A Novel (Riverhead Books • 2016) [22:00] I Was Told There’d Be Cake: Essays (Dey Street Books • 2008) [25:50] Look Alive Out There: Essays (MCD • 2018) [26:00] "A Dog Named Humphrey" (Believer Magazine • June 2012) [26:00] Outside Voices (New Yorker • 2018) [26:00] Up the Down Volcano (Kindle Single • 2011) [26:00] "Light Pollution" (Vice • May 2010) [36:15] "My Uncle, The 70s Porn Star" (Esquire • Apr 2018) [37:47] "The Doctor Is a Woman" (The Cut • 2018) [43:25] "Spin the Globe: Sloane Crosley in Ecuador" (Afar • Nov 2011) [46:00] "All Aboard the Good Ship Self-Care" (Vogue • Mar 2019) [53:45] "Living in Print: David Sedaris and Sloane Crosley in Conversation” [1:02:30] "Laura Dern’s Big Little Truths" (Vanity Fair • Feb 2019) [1:02:30] "The Art of the Real Starring Stormy Daniels" (Playboy • Dec 2018) [1:02:30] "The Dr. Ruth You Don't Know" (InStyle • May 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christine Kenneally has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Monthly. Her 2018 Buzzfeed article, “The Ghosts of the Orphanage,” was nominated for a National Magazine Award. "I understood that the abuse was a big part of the story. But the thing that really hooked me and disturbed me and I wouldn’t forget was the depersonalization that went on in these places. It wasn’t just that the records had been lost along the way. It became really clear that the information was intentionally withheld, and it was all part of just this extraordinary depersonalization that happened to these kids.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @chriskenneally Christine Kenneally on Longform [8:25] The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language (Christine Kenneally • Penguin Books • 2007) [14:05] "The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures" (Christine Kenneally • Penguin Books • 2015) [21:18] Kenneally’s New Yorker archive [22:22] "The Inferno" (New Yorker • Oct 2009) [24:53] "We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage" (Buzzfeed News • Aug 2018) [25:21] "The Deepest Cut" (New Yorker • June 2006) [51:07] Spotlight [51:20] Pennsylvania Diocese Victims Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Wallace-Wells is the deputy editor of New York and the author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. “Between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees of warming, just that extra half degree of warming, is going to kill 150 million people from air pollution alone. That’s 25 times the death toll of the Holocaust. And when I say that to people, their eyes open. They’re like oh my god, this is suffering on such an unconscionable scale. And it is. But 9 million people are dying already every year from air pollution. That’s a Holocaust every year, right now. And our lives aren’t meaningfully oriented around those people and those deaths. And very few people we know have their lives meaningfully oriented around those people and those deaths. And I think it’s quite likely that, going forward, those impulses of compartmentalization and denial and narcissism will continue to govern our response to this crisis. Which is tragic.” Thanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, The Primary Ride Home Podcast, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming @dwallacewells Wallace-Wells on Longform [3:45] "When Will the Planet Be Too Hot for Humans? Much, Much Sooner Than You Imagine." (New York • Jul 2017) [4:00] Wallace-Wells's New York archive [13:00] "Are We as Doomed as That New York Magazine Article Says?" (Robinson Meyer • The Atlantic • Jul 2017) [13:30] "Scientific Reticence: a DRAFT Discussion" (James Hansen • Earth Institute • Oct 2017) [15:55] Silent Spring (Rachel Carson • Houghton Mifflin • 1962) [26:45] "The Doomed Earth Controversy: David Wallace-Wells and Michael Mann" (YouTube • Nov 2017) [27:30] "Stop Scaring People About Climate Change. It Doesn’t Work." (Eric Holthaus • Grist • Jul 2017) [27:30] "Scientists Challenge Magazine Story About 'Uninhabitable Earth'" (Chris Mooney • Washington Post • Jul 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Linda Villarosa directs the journalism program at the City College of New York and is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. Her article "Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" was one of Longform's Top Ten of 2018. She is at work on a new book, Under the Skin: Race, Inequality and the Health of a Nation, due out in 2020. “I think at the beginning I was afraid to say it right out, so I think I was saying ‘racial bias’ or something like that. Then I stopped. ... I think how I learned about it both in earlier reporting and in grad school and in my own research was that race is a risk factor for a bunch of different health problems, whether it’s heart disease, infant and maternal mortality, or HIV. It’s just said that race is a risk factor. It’s disproportionate. What it really is is that race is a risk factor, but it’s also a risk marker. Instead of looking at what individuals are doing wrong, it’s what society is doing wrong in creating problems for individual people which lead to health crisis. It’s sort of like bias, related to racism, is creating problems in people’s actual bodies. That’s what I came to understand. It really shifts the blame off the individual.” Thanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @lindavillarosa lindavillarosa.com Villarosa on Longform [0:40] "Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" (New York Times Magazine • Apr 2018) [5:00] "America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic" (New York Times Magazine • Jun 2017) [13:20] "A Conversation With: Phill Wilson; Speaking Out to Make AIDS an Issue of Color" (New York Times Magazine • Dec 2000) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael Lewis is the author of several bestselling books and the host of the podcast Against the Rules. “I think anything you do, if it’s going to be any good, there’s got to be some risk involved. I think the reader or the listener will sense that you were taking chances and it will excite them. So, you never want to do the same thing twice, and you don’t want to cling to something because it’s the safe thing. I try to keep that in mind. Ok, I started with this, but if I push off shore clinging to this life raft or this floatation device and I get way out of swimming range of the beach, but I find this more interesting flotation device, have the nerve to jump from one to the next. You never know where it’s going to lead.” Thanks to MailChimp, Going Through It, Green Chef, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. Lewis's author site Lewis on Longform [1:40] Against the Rules with Michael Lewis [4:55] The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (W. W. Norton & Company • 2007 [9:50] The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (W. W. Norton & Company • 2011) [11:10] The Fifth Risk (W. W. Norton & Company • 2018) [11:40] Revisionist History [13:15] Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (W. W. Norton & Company • 2004) [14:35] The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds (W. W. Norton & Company • 2016) [14:50] Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood (W. W. Norton & Company • 2010) [27:10] How I Got Into College (This American Life • 2013) [30:00] Ref, You Suck! (Against the Rules • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hillary Frank is the creator of The Longest Shortest Time podcast and the author of Weird Parenting Wins. “I think motherhood is not valued in our culture. We don’t value the work of mothers both at home and then at work. Mothers are the most discriminated against people at work. They’re discriminated more against than fathers or people without children. Mothers are promoted less, hired less, and paid less. People are forced out of their jobs after they announce that they’re pregnant, they’re passed over for promotions, and they get horrible, discriminatory comments like, ‘Oh, don’t you really think you want to be at home? Do you really want to come back?‘ And American work culture is not set up for people to be parents and mothers.” Thanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @hillaryfrank hillaryfrank.com [0:35] The Longest Shortest podcast [6:00] The Special Misogyny Reserved for Mothers (New York Times • Dec 2018) [19:20] This American Life archives on family [41:35] Weird Parenting Wins: Bathtub Dining, Family Screams, and Other Hacks from the Parenting Trenches (Penguin • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Casey Newton covers technology for The Verge and writes The Interface newsletter. “I remember one time a Facebook employee told me when I wrote something critical and I said something like, ‘Yeah, I know that one was a little harder on you.’ I remember he said to me, ‘Please understand that this helps to make the case internally for changes we want to make.’ When this type of criticism get published when we know that this is the conversation, we can push for these kinds of changes on the inside. If you believe that these platforms are going to be around and that they aren’t going to be shut down and all the executives put into jail, I think what you actually want is to see them get better at things.” Thanks to MailChimp, The Great Courses Plus, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) CoinTalk Podcast @CaseyNewton Newton on Longform [1:40] The Interface [5:00] Newton's archive at The Verge [20:20] Longform Podcast #171: Adrian Chen [24:25] "The Trauma Floor" (The Verge • Feb 2019) [29:00] Sarah Frier's archive at Bloomberg [32:40] The Bill Simmons Podcast [49:00] Newton's archive at San Francisco Chronicle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wesley Morris is a critic at large for The New York Times, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, and the co-host of Still Processing. “I think that the taking of extra time to be more thoughtful and less reactive is, to the extent that I have any wisdom to impart, that is it. Just wait a second. Because someone’s going to get there before you get there anyway.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) @Wesley_Morris Morris on Longform Morris's New York Times archive [1:55] Still Processing Podcast [3:25] Longform Podcast #95: Wesley Morris [3:30] Longform Podcast #218: Wesley Morris [6:55] In the Land of Women (Warner Brothers • John Kasdan • 2008) [9:25] Boomerang (Paramount • Reginald Hudlin • 2002 [10:45] "The Morality Wars" (New York Times • Oct 2018) [10:50] Insecure (HBO • 2016) [16:00] Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Brothers • Jon M. Chu • 2018) [30:25] "The Governor Who Partied Like It’s 1884" (New York Times • Feb 2019) [34:55] Green Book (Universal • Peter Farrelly • 2018) [37:05] Get Out (Blumhouse Productions • Jordan Peele • 2017) [37:10] Moonlight (A24 • Barry Jenkins • 2016) [42:10] Black Panther (Marvel • Ryan Coogler • 2018) [43:25] Wonder Woman (Warner Brothers • Patty Jenkins • 2017) [44:30] King Kong: Skull Island (Warner Brothers • Jordan Vogt-Roberts • 2017) [44:35] Captain Marvel (Marvel • Anna Boden • 2019 [46:00] Russian Doll (Netflix • Leslye Headland • 2019) [46:10] Catastrophe (Amazon • 2019) [46:15] Game of Thrones (Netflix • Leslye Headland • 2019) [50:55] Us (Monkeypaw Productions • Jordan Peele • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Evan Ratliff, a co-host of the Longform Podcast, is the author of The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. “We’re all less moral than we think we are, including myself. I’m interested in the justifications people provide for themselves to get deep into something that starts as one thing and ends up as a murderous criminal cartel. Paul Le Roux, sure—but also doctors and pharmacists. It’s interesting to think about where the pressures in our lives create moral ambiguity that we didn't think was there, and why we do things that we’ve said we'll never do. We look at someone else and think that they’re really bad or evil, but then we’ve never experienced those pressures. That cauldron of factors is something I’m very interested in because I think it applies to everyone.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @ev_rat cazart.net Ratliff on Longform Longform Podcast #48: Evan Ratliff Longform Podcast Bonus Episode: Evan Ratliff (April 2016) [3:00] The Oilman's Daughter (The Atavist • 2013) [3:05] The Mastermind (The Atavist • Mar 2016) [5:15] The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [17:10] Longform Podcast #66: Andy Ward [49:50] Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire (Elaine Shannon • HarperLuxe • 2019) [1:03:20] Ratliff's New Yorker archive [1:03:25] Ratliff's Atavist Magazine archive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kiese Laymon is the author of How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America and Heavy: An American Memoir. “It's ironic to me that my mom was the woman who taught me how to read—she was the black woman who taught me how to read and write—and everything I wrote outside of my house I was taught not to write to my mama. I just think that’s where we are as black writers and black creators in this country. Literally because most of our teachers are white. Principals are white. The standards are white. But I wanted to flip this on its head and I wanted to write this book to the person who taught me how to read and write. And, yeah, we got some dysfunctional, fucked-up shit going on. But we also have some abundant love shit going on, too.” Thanks to MailChimp, The Last Column, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) @KieseLaymon Laymon on Longform [1:30] Heavy: An American Memoir (Scribner • 2018) [1:40] How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (Agate Bolden • 2013) [01:45] "The Worst of White Folks" (Gawker • Jul 2013) [01:50] "How They Do in Ole Miss" (ESPN • Oct 2015) [03:20] The lamppost [08:40] "Da Art of Storytellin’ (A Prequel)" (Oxford American • Nov 2015) [33:45] "You Are the Second Person" (Guernica • Jun 2013) [35:05] Where the Line Bleeds (Jesmyn Ward • Agate Bolden • 2008) [35:15] Long Division (Agate Bolden • 2013) [36:00] "D'Andre Brown's Basketball Dream" (ESPN • Aug 2013) [39:40] "My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK" (Gawker • Nov 2014) [55:35] "Michelle Obama Should Go High—And Kick" (Vanity Fair • Nov 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patrick Radden Keefe is a New Yorker staff writer. His latest book is Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. “What was strange for me was that it was before I was born, almost a half-century ago. I went to Belfast and asked people about it and you could see the fear on people’s faces. So this notion that this event that’s older than I am still felt so radioactive in the present day was challenging from a reporting point of view, but it also, at every step along the way, made me feel as though it was good that I was doing this project. That this was not a kind of inert, stale history story I was telling. It was something that was vivid and palpable and menacing even now.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) @praddenkeefe Patrick Radden Keefe on Longform Longform Podcast #20: Patrick Radden Keefe [2:15] The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream (Anchor • 2010) [3:25] Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Doubleday • 2019) [23:05] "Where the Bodies Are Buried" (New Yorker • Mar 2015) [31:00] "The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson’s Archives" (Robert A. Caro • New Yorker • Jan 2019) [42:10] "Picturing the Bishops" (New Yorker • Feb 2013) [43:25] "How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success" (New Yorker • Jan 2019) [44:25] "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain" (New Yorker • Oct 2017) [50:35] "Anthony Bourdain's Moveable Feast" (New Yorker • Feb 2017) [52:00] "The Worst of the Worst" (New Yorker • Sep 2015) [54:10] "The Avenger" (New Yorker • Sep 2015) [55:40] "The Hunt for El Chapo" (New Yorker • May 2014) [58:15] Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic 2nd Edition (Barry Meier • Random House • 2018) [58:20] Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Sam Quinones • Bloomsbury Press • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rosecrans Baldwin is a writer and regular contributor to GQ. His latest novel is The Last Kid Left. “It requires a lot of preparation in order to just have lunch with Roger Federer. Being a person who tends toward anxiety and also a former Boy Scout—put those two things together and I will exhaustively prepare so that I can come across like a complete idiot. The idea of sitting down with someone like that is that you should know everything about their life and their career so that you can go in with 12 questions in the back of your mind.” Thanks to MailChimp, Breach, CoinTalk, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) @rosecrans Baldwin on Longform rosecransbaldwin.com [1:15]The Morning News [1:50] "My Life Cleanse: One Month Inside L.A.'s Cult of Betterness" (GQ • Nov 2018) [9:15] "The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the High" (Jay Caspian Kang • The Morning News • Oct 2010) [11:40] All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel (Anthony Doerr • Scribner • 2017) [12:15] "A Year of Kibble-and-Playdates Calculus" (New York • Oct 2007) [12:45] Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down (Picador • 2013) [13:00] Baldwin's archive at GQ [13:05] "Am I Too Old to Win the U.S. Open?" (GQ • Sep 2014) [13:45] "Will Roger Federer Ever Be Done?" (GQ • Mar 2017) [18:35] "Welcome to Camp Midlife Crisis!" (GQ • Aug 2016) [22:40] "Learn to Kill in Seven Days or Less" (GQ • Mar 2014) [33:50] Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace (Margaret Thaler Singer • Jossey-Bass • 2003) [34:20] "I Cried Enough to Fill a Glass" (Mark Fisher • Washington Post • Oct 1987) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices