Longform

James Verini, a freelance writer based out of Nairobi, won the 2015 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. “That is probably the most alien, jarring thing about working in Africa: life is much cheaper. More to the point, death is very close to you. We're very removed from death here. Someone can die at 89 in their sleep here and it's called a tragedy. In Africa, I find that I'm often exposed to it. That's part of why I wanted to live there.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Trunk Club for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: jamesverini.com Verini on Longform [1:00] "Love and Ruin" (The Atavist Magazine • Feb 2014 [2:00] "Escape or Die: Capture by Somali Pirates" (New Yorker • Apr 2015) [5:00] "Hostage Support Programme" [9:00] @andrewmarantz [10:00] "Close Your Heart" (Slate • Sep 2014) [27:00] Homebody/Kabul (Tony Kushner) [31:00] Verini's New York Observer archive [32:00] "Will Success Spoil MySpace.com? " (Vanity Fair • Mar 2006) [33:00] Verini's Portfolio archive [34:00] "The Pirate Pose" (Tom W

Rembert Browne is a staff writer at Grantland. “I'm ok with not being at my most refined online. It's happening in real time and some of that is therapeutic. I could write a lot this stuff privately, but I'd rather just hit publish and see what happens. It's a weird world. But I'm super deep in.” Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and QuickBooks Self-Employed. Show Notes: @rembert REMBLR Browne on Longform [6:00] 500 Days Asunder [7:00] The Dartmouth, America's Oldest College Newspaper [10:00] "Stankoff 2011" [10:00] "Outkast Superfan Puts A Great Amount Of Time And Energy Into Thinking About Outkast Songs" (Dave Bry • The Awl • April 2011) [10:00] Hovafest 2011 [23:00] Browne's complete Grantland archive [23:00] "Rembert Explains the '80s: Double Dare" (Grantland • Jan 2012) [25:00] "Going Way Too Deep Down the Rabbit Hole With Nicki Minaj’s Recent Bar Mitzvah Appearance" (Grantland • Apr 2015) [28:00] "The Front Lines of Ferguson" (Grantland • Aug 2014) [36:00] "Barack and Me" (Grant

Ashlee Vance covers technology for Bloomberg Businessweek and is the author of of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. “To be totally clear, I don’t cover them (apps). I like people who try to solve big problems. Wherever I go, I try to run away from the consumer stuff. I love writing about giant manufacturing plants that make stuff and employ tens of thousands of people.” Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, Trunk Club, QuickBooks, and The School of Continuing Education at Columbia University. Show Notes: The Atavist Magazine Podcast: Episode 1 @valleyhack ashleevance.com Vance on Longform [15:00] Vance's Register archive [15:00] Vance's New York Times archive [16:00] "Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power" (New York Times • Jan 2009) [19:00] The "Semi-Coherent Computing" Podcast [22:00] Longform Podcast #123: Nicholas Carlson [27:00] "This Tech Bubble Is Different" (Bloomberg Businessweek • Apr 2011) [31:00] "Larry Ellison Is Spending a Fortune to Save American Tennis" (

Cheryl Strayed is the author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. “There's a long history, of women especially, saying 'Well, I just got lucky.' I didn't just get lucky. I worked my fucking ass off. And then I got lucky. And if I hadn't worked my ass off, I wouldn't have gotten lucky. You have to do the work. You always have to do the work.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and HP Matter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @CherylStrayed cherylstrayed.com The Complete Dear Sugar Archive Strayed on Longform [1:00] Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Knopf • 2012) [1:00] Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (Vintage • 2012) [4:00] "Dear Sugar #44: How You Get Unstuck" (The Rumpus • July 2010) [9:00] "What Wild Has Wrought" (Nicholas Kristof • May 2015 ) [13:00] Torch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2006) [28:00] "Dear Sugar #48: Write Like a Motherfucker" (The Rumpus • Aug 2010) [28:00] "Write Like a Motherfucker" coffee mug [1:11:00] Into the Wild (Jon Krak

Masha Gessen has written for The New York Times, The London Review of Books, Vanity Fair, and others. Her book about Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy, came out in April. “The moment she said it, it was obvious that I'd been created to write this story. I'd covered both wars in Chechnya. I'd covered a lot of terrorism. I'd studied terrorism. And I'd been a Russian-speaking immigrant in Boston, which actually is the most important qualification for writing this book. It didn't give me special knowledge, but it gave me a lot of questions that I knew to ask that other people wouldn't.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and Casper, for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @mashagessen Gessen on Longform [1:00] The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy (Riverhead Books • 2015) [34:00] Longform Podcast #30: Keith Gessen [48:00] Blood Matters (Harcourt • 2008) [50:00] Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (Riverhead Books • 2014) [50:00] The Man

Sarah Maslin Nir, a reporter for The New York Times, recently published an exposé of labor practices in the nail salons of New York. “The idea of a discount luxury is an oxymoron. And it’s an oxymoron for a reason: because someone is bearing the cost of that discount. In nail salons it’s always the person doing your nails, my investigation found. That has put a new lens on the world for me.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Trunk Club, and Aspiration for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @SarahMaslinNir sarahmaslinnir.flavors.me [1:00] "The Price of Nice Nails" (New York Times • May 2015) [1:00] "Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers" (New York Times • May 2015) [12:00] "Saying Court Win Helps, Nail Salon Workers Rally" (New York Times • Apr 2012) [30:00] "Fighting a McDonald’s in Queens for the Right to Sit. And Sit. And Sit." (New York Times • Jan 2014) [37:00] Nocturnalist archive [38:00] "Alec Baldwin: Actor, Charmer, Fish Deboner" (New York Times • Jun 2011) [44:00] "City Agencies to Investigate Nail Salons,

Stephen J. Dubner is the co-author, with Steven D. Levitt, of Freakonomics. Their latest book, When to Rob a Bank, came out last week. “I’ve abandoned more books than I’ve written, which I’m happy about. I’m very pro-quitting. We get preached this idea that if you quit something, if you don’t see something through to completion then you’re a loser, you’re a failure. I just think that’s a crazy way to look at things. But it’s also easy to overlook opportunity costs. Like, what could I be doing instead?” Thanks to this week's sponsors: TinyLetter, HP Matter, The Great Courses, and Aspiration. Show Notes: stephenjdubner.com Dubner on Longform [2:00] "The Desert Blues" (Joshua Hammer • The Atavist Magazine • May 2015) [3:00] When to Rob a Bank (with Steven D. Levitt • William Morrow • May 2015) [11:00] "When Numbers Solve a Mystery" (Steven Landsburg • The Wall Street Journal • Apr 2005) [13:00] "Do Parents Matter?" (with Steven D. Levitt • USA Today • May 2005) [13:00] "The Probability That a Real-Estate Agen

George Quraishi is the co-founder and editor of Howler. “We raised $69,001. And that paid for the first issue. I call it subsistence magazine making, because every issue pays for the next one.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Squarespace, The Great Courses, and Aspiration for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @quraishi georgequraishi.com [23:00] "Dispatches From the World Cup" (Luke O'Brien • Slate • Jun 2006) [23:00] "The Beast Of Brazil: A Savage Trip To The Dark Heart Of The World Cup" (Luke O'Brien • Howler • Nov 2014) [23:00] "The Miami Connection" (Robert Andrew Powell • Howler • Mar 2015) [24:00] This Love Is Not For Cowards (Robert Andrew Powell • Bloomsbury • 2012) [42:00] "I’m George Quraishi. Ask Me Anything." (Reddit • Nov 2014) [50:00] Quraishi on Fusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Greenwald covers television for Grantland. “People are enthusiastic about TV. People want to read about it. They want to talk about it. They want to know more. They want to extend its presence in their lives. People used to talk about the water cooler show, but the internet is that water cooler now and people want to be part of the conversation.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Two5six Festival, The Great Courses, and Aspiration for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @andygreenwald Greenwald's Grantland archive [26:00] "The Bottom of the Glass: Legacy and the Last Season of ‘Mad Men’" (Grantland • Apr 2015) [28:00] "‘Hollywood Prospectus Podcast’: ‘Mad Men,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ and ‘Batman v Superman’" (Grantland • Apr 2015) [30:00] "‘Empire’ Records: Fox’s New Music-Mogul Drama Embraces Its Soapy Heart" (Grantland • Jan 2015) [33:00] "Marco … YOLO! Why Netflix Spent $90 Million on Its (Terrible) New Series" (Grantland • Dec 2014) [40:00] Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and EMO (St. Martin's G

Alexis Okeowo, a foreign correspondent, has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Businessweek. “Nigeria is a deeply sexist country. It can be difficult for people to take you seriously. But that also has its benefits, because it’s very easy to disarm your subjects. If I’m interviewing people who underestimate me, I can get them to open up because they somehow think that I’m naïve or I don’t know what I’m doing. So I don’t mind if some sexist general or banker thinks I’m this young little student who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. As long as you tell me what I want to know, it’s great.” Thanks to TinyLetter and MarketingProfs for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @alexis_ok alexisokeowo.com Okeowo on Longform [7:00] "Nigeria’s Stolen Girls" (New Yorker • Apr 2014) [19:00] "Inside the Vigilante Fight Against Boko Haram" (New York Times Magazine • Nov 2014) [31:00] "Freedom Fighter" (New Yorker • Sep 2014) [33:00] "Lagos Must Prosper" (Granta • Apr 2015) [51:00] "How t

Rachel Syme has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Grantland, and more. “You have this sense that you’re bonding, but at the same time you're also going to betray them. Because if you hear this quote that they say or you see it in a mannerism, you write it in your notebook and you think ‘I got it.’” Thanks to TinyLetter, The Great Courses, MarketingProfs, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @rachsyme rachelsyme.com [4:00] "The Broad Strokes" (Grantland • Jan 2014) [4:00] "Azealia Banks on Why No One Really Wants to See Her Naked, Her Impure Thoughts About Barack Obama and Why She's 'Not Here to Be Your Idol'" (Billboard • Apr 2015) [5:00] "Id Girls" (Nick Paumgarten • New Yorker • Jun 2014) [7:00] TLC's Kickstarter [29:00] "Laura Marling Bids Goodbye to All That" (T Magazine • Mar 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anna Sale is the host of Death, Sex & Money. “It's the result of listening, of feeling listened to, that people open up. I look like a crazy person when I do interviews, because sometimes someone will be describing something and I will close my eyes and try to picture what they’re telling me. And if I can’t picture the moment they’re describing I’ll just try to dig in a little bit more.” Thanks to TinyLetter, The Great Courses, MarketingProfs, and WealthFront for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @annasale annasale.com [3:00] The Atavist Magazine [3:00] "Operation Red Falcon" (Ronen Bergman • The Atavist Magazine • Apr 2015) [4:00] Another Round with Heben & Tracy [7:00] "This Senator Saved My Love Life" [10:00] "Brooklyn Left Me Broke and Tired" [15:00] "How to Be a Man With Bill Withers" [32:00] "Living Alone and Liking It. Sometimes." [32:00] "Cheating Happens." [38:00] "Ellen Burstyn's Lessons on Survival" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scott Anderson is a war correspondent and novelist. He’s written for The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, and more. “I really feel that what’s at the root of so many wars now, modern wars, unconventional wars, it really just comes down to a bunch of young guys with access to guns coming up with a pretext to rape and murder and pillage and steal from their neighbors.” Thanks to TinyLetter, MarketingProfs, and WealthFront for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: Anderson on Longform [5:00] The Man Who Tried to Save the World (Doubleday • 1999) [5:00] "Prisoner of War" (Harper’s • Jan 1997) [sub required] [5:00] War Zones (with Jon Lee Anderson • Dodd Mead • 1988) [14:00] "What Happened to Fred Cuny?" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 1996) [19:00] "The Hunger Warriors" (New York Times Magazine • Oct 2001) [29:00] "Besieged" (New York Times Magazine • Sep 2006) [34:00] "None Dare Call It a Conspiracy" (GQ • Sep 2009) [35:00] "Why 'GQ' Doesn't Want Russians To Read Its Story" (David Folkenfl

Dayna Tortorici is the editor of n+1. “You can't fetishize conflict so much. Because conflict does generate a lot of good work, but it also inhibits a lot of good work. I think people do their best work when they feel good. Or at least don't feel like shit. ... So I've tried to create a culture of mutual encouragement. Especially when you're not paying anybody, that's all you can really offer.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Wealthfront for sponsoring this week's show. Show Notes: @dtortorici nplusonemag.com [2:00] Longform Podcast #30: Keith Gessen [19:00] "Hands Up: A Roundtable on Police Brutality" (Cosme Del-Rosario Bell, Elias Rodriques, Doreen St. Felix, Dayna Tortorici • n+1 • Nov 2014) [19:00] No Regrets [25:00] "Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America" [39:00] What Was the Hipster? [51:00] Subscribe to n+1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adam Platt is the restaurant critic for New York. “My job was described to me recently as ‘the last great job of the 20th century.’ I think there might be something to that.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda, Casper, and Wealthfront for sponsoring this week's show.  Show Notes: @plattypants [1:00] Longform Podcast #43: Margalit Fox [12:00] "Apple of the Times" (New Yorker • Jan 1993) [sub required] [12:00] "Messing About" (New Yorker • Mar 1993) [sub required] [18:00] "The Apotheosis of Fresh" (New York • Dec 2009) [41:00] "Restaurants" A review of Le Cirque (Ruth Reichl • The New York Times • Oct 1993) [43:00] "Hi, I'm Adam Platt, Your Restaurant Critic" (New York • Dec 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Erik Larson is the author of several books, including The Devil in the White City. His latest is Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. "I realized then and there, that afternoon, the thing that was going to make this interesting was the juxtaposition of light and dark, good and evil. This monument of civic good will versus this monument to the dark side of human nature. ... But that was really hard to pull off. And, frankly, on the eve of publication I was pretty sure my career was over." Thanks to TinyLetter, Wealthfront, andLove and Other Ways of Dying, the new collection from Michael Paterniti, for sponsoring this week's episode.  Show Notes: @exlarson eriklarsonbooks.com [1:00] Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (Crown • Mar 2015) [1:00] Longform Podcast #93: Michael Paterniti [1:00] "Eating Jack Hooker's Cow" (Michael Paterniti • Esquire • Nov 1997) [4:00] Thunderstruck (Crown • 2004) [22:00] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Josh Dean has written for GQ, Fast Company, New York, and more. His latest piece, "The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang," was just published by The Atavist. “I sort of reject the whole idea of something being beneath me. There are obviously some stories I wouldn’t do or that I have no interest in, but this job is fun and should be fun. And I wouldn’t turn something down that seems like a fun thing for me to do just because maybe the story is not something that 10,000 people are going to tweet about. I don’t give a shit.” Thanks to TinyLetter, Squarespace, Lynda and HP Matter for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @joshdean66 joshdean.com Dean on Longform [2:00] "The Life and Times of the Stopwatch Gang" (The Atavist • Feb 2015) [10:00] "Federer as Religious Experience" (David Foster Wallace • The New York Times • Aug 2006) [29:00] Longform Podcast #126: Taffy Brodesser-Akner [29:00] "Please God Stop the Rain" (New York • A

Mac McClelland has written for Mother Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone and others. Her book Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story came out this week. “I would just suddenly start sobbing, which is not something I usually do. I felt like I needed to be drunk all the time, which is also not something I usually do. I was having nightmares and I was having flashbacks. I was terrified and confused and disoriented all the time. I was a completely different person, unrecognizable even to myself.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Alarm Grid for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @MacMcClelland mac-mcclelland.com McClelland on Longform [1:00] Longform Podcast #6: Mac McClelland [1:00] Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story (Flatiron Books • 2015) [6:00] "Aftershocks: Welcome to Haiti's Reconstruction Hell" (Mother Jones • Jan 2011) [6:00] "Depression, Abuse, Suicide: Fishermen's Wives Face Post-Spill Trauma" (Mother Jones • Jun 201

Rukmini Callimachi covers ISIS for The New York Times. Part 1 of this episode is available here. “Ever since I started in journalism, I feel like I'm perpetually winded. Like I'm just running as hard as I can to stay ahead of this train that's crashing. The caboose is falling off the back and I'm trying to run faster than the train to get to this very limited pool of amazing jobs. Once I got overseas I would say a prayer every night for the amazing life I was finally able to lead.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @rcallimachi Callimachi on Longform [11:00] "The Horror Before the Beheadings" (The New York Times • Oct 2014) [15:00] "The Dynamics Of Demanding Ransom From Nations" (Robert Siegel • NPR • Aug 2014) [15:00] "Tremor Mortis" (Time • Feb 2001) [23:00] The Daily Herald [30:00] "Katrina's Nameless Dead" (AP • Dec 2006) [36:00] "From Amateur to Ruthless Jihadist in France" (with Jim Yardley • New York Times • Jan 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Vis

Rukmini Callimachi covers ISIS for The New York Times. “Nine out of 10 Americans said they were aware of James Foley's execution. That's a huge win for ISIS. That's what they want. I think they've realized that journalists are the crème de la crème as far as targets. And that's a really scary thing for our profession.” Thanks to TinyLetter and Lynda for sponsoring this week's episode. If you would like to support the show, please leave a review on iTunes. Show Notes: @rcallimachi Callimachi on Longform [4:00] "The Horror Before the Beheadings" (The New York Times • Oct 2014) [4:00] "From Amateur to Ruthless Jihadist in France" (The New York Times • Jan 2014) [7:00] "ISIS Declares Airstrike Killed a U.S. Hostage" (The New York Times • Feb 2015) [11:00] "With Proof From ISIS of Her Death, Family Honors Kayla Mueller" (The New York Times • Feb 2015) [12:00] "As U.S. Bombs Fall, British Hostage of ISIS Warns of Another Vietnam" (The New York Times • Sep 2014) [21:00] Callimachi's Pulitzer-nominated work for th