Longform

Will Mackin is a U.S. Navy veteran who served with a SEAL team in Iraq and Afghanistan. His debut book is Bring Out the Dog. “I wanted to write nonfiction and I started writing nonfiction. And the reason I did that was — first of all, I felt all the people did all the hard work, and who was I to take liberties? And the second reason was, I just felt an obligation to the men and women who I served with not to misrepresent them, or what they’d been through, or what it had meant to them, or how they felt about it. I kept piling these requirements on to myself: Well, if I present this particular event in this light, this guy’s going to get his feelings hurt. Or, I don’t know how this guy’s family will feel about me talking about this. And it became debilitating, all those restrictions, I kind of kept layering on myself. I was talking to George Saunders at one point about this, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if this book is going to happen. I’m just stuck’ And he pointed out, ‘You’re putting all these restriction

Nitasha Tiku is a senior writer at Wired. “I’ve always been an incredibly nosy person—not nosy, curious. Curious about the world. It just gives you a license to ask any question, and hopefully if you have a willing editor, the freedom to see something fascinating and pursue it. It was just a natural fit from there. But that also means I don’t have the machismo, ‘breaking news’ sort of a thing. I feel like I can try on different hats, wherever I am.” Thanks to MailChimp and Credible.com for sponsoring this week's episode. @nitashatiku Nitasha on Longform [04:25] "My Life With the Thrill Clit Cult" (Gawker • Oct 2013) [15:50] "Facebook Battles New Criticism After U.S. Indictment Against Russians" (Georgia Wells, Robert McMillan • The Wall Street Journal • Feb 2018) [16:30] "WeWork Used These Documents to Convince Investors It's Worth Billions" (Gawker • Oct 2013) [16:50] "Living in the Disneyland Version of Startup Life" (BuzzFeed • Aug 2016) [16:50] "Dorm Living for Professionals Comes to San Francisco" (Ne

Chana Joffe-Walt is a producer and reporter at This American Life. Her latest story is "Five Women." “I felt like there was more to learn from these stories, more than just which men are bad and shouldn’t have the Netflix special that they wanted to have. And I was interested, also, in that there were groups of women, and that somehow, in having a group of women, you would have variation of experience. There could be a unifying person who they all experienced, but they would inevitably experience that person differently. And that would raise the question of: Why? And I feel like there is this response: ‘Why did she stay?’ Or: ‘Why didn’t she say fuck you?’ Or: ‘I wouldn’t have been upset by that. I wouldn’t have been offended by that thing.’ Which I feel like is a natural response, but also has a lack of curiosity. There are actual answers to those questions that are interesting.” Thanks to MailChimp and Credible.com. @chanajoffewalt Joffe-Walt on Longform [01:10] "Five Women" (This American Life • March 2

Joe Weisenthal is the executive editor of news for Bloomberg Digital and the co-host of What’d You Miss? and Odd Lots. "If I don’t say yes to this, then I can never say yes to anything again. Because when else am I going to get a chance in life to co-host a tv show? Even if it’s terrible, and I’m terrible at it, and it’s cancelled after three months, and everyone thinks it’s awful, for the rest of my life, I’ll be able to say I co-hosted a cable TV show. And so I was like, you know what—I have to say yes to this." Thanks to MailChimp, Big Questions, and Credible.com for sponsoring this week's episode. @TheStalwart [02:30] "Joe Weisenthal vs. the 24-Hour News Cycle" (New York Times Magazine • May 2012) [04:40] What’d You Miss [05:15] "What Alaska Can Teach Us About Universal Basic Income" (New York • Feb 2018) [15:05] The Stalwart [18:55] Weisenthal’s Archive at Business Insider [54:55] "Annie Duke Explains How To Apply Poker Skills To Markets" (Odd Lots • Feb 2018) [54:05] "This Is What Stock Market Bubble

Sean Fennessy is the editor-in-chief of The Ringer and a former Grantland editor. He hosts The Big Picture. "What I try to do is listen to people as much as I can. And try to be compassionate. I think it’s really hard to be on the internet. This is an internet company, in a lot of ways. We have a documentary coming out that’s going to be on linear television that’s really exciting. Maybe we’ll have more of those. But for the moment, podcast, writing, video: it’s internet. [The internet] is an unmediated space of angst and meanness and a willingness to tell people when they’re bad, even when they’ve worked hard on something. That’s like the number one anxiety that I feel like we’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis with everybody, myself included." Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, and "Dear Franklin Jones" for sponsoring this week's episode. @SeanFennessey Fennessey on Longform [01:45] On Air Fest 2018 [02:20] The Big Picture [02:40] Fennessey’s Archive at The Ringer [03:10] The Bill Simmons Podcast [03:45] Long

Jenna Wortham is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and a co-host of Still Processing. “I feel like I’m still writing to let my 10-year-old self know it’s okay to be you. It’s okay to be a chubby androgynous weirdo. You know what I mean? Like this weird black kid. It’s okay. There are others like you.” Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, "Food: A Cultural Culinary History," and "Tales" for sponsoring this week's episode. @jennydeluxe www.jennydeluxe.com Wortham on Longform [02:00] Wortham’s New York Times archive [02:00] Still Processing [02:00] Longform Podcast #95: Wesley Moris [02:00] Longform Podcast #218: Wesley Morris [05:35] "Long-Form Journalism Finds a Home" (David Carr • New York Times • March 2011) [06:40] "We Sink Our Claws Into Black Panther with Ta-Nehisi Coates" (Still Processing • Feb 2018) [20:40] Wortham’s Wired archive [25:15] "Meet the Mario Maestros Who Have Video Game Music Rocking Concert Halls" (Joel Stein • Wired • Nov 2007) [26:05] The Underwire [27:08] "Early-Bird Buzz Mounts f

Michael Idov is a screenwriter, journalist, and the former editor-in-chief of GQ Russia. His latest book is Dressed Up for a Riot. "It just goes to show that the best thing you can possibly do as a journalist is to forget you’re a journalist, go out, have some authentic experiences, preferably fail at something really hard, and then write about that." Thanks to MailChimp and Mubi for sponsoring this week's episode. @michaelidov Idov on Longform [01:15] "The Movie Set That Ate Itself" (GQ • Oct 2011) [02:00] Idov’s Archive at NY Mag [02:25] Dressed Up for a Riot (Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2018) [06:35] “Samizdat” [14:00] "Bitter Brew" (Slate • Dec 2009) [16:55] Ground Up (Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2009) [19:30] Adam Moss on the Longform Podcast [19:35] Jim Nelson on the Longform Podcast [21:40] "Georgia’s Next Leader May Be a Billionaire Zookeeper with Albino Rapper Children" (The New Republic • Sep 2012) [22:20] "Dosvedanie to All That" (Julia Ioffe • The New Republic • Feb 2014) [24:30] 4 (Magnolia Ho

Liliana Segura writes for The Intercept. “My form of advocacy against the death penalty, frankly, has always been to tell those stories that other people aren’t seeing. And to humanize the people—not just the people facing execution, but everyone around them.” Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, and Tripping.com for sponsoring this week's episode. @LilianaSegura Segura on Longform [01:50] "Dispatch From Angola: Faith-Based Slavery in a Louisiana Prison" (Colorlines • Aug 2011) [02:10] "What Happened to Rachel Gray" (The Intercept • Oct 2017) [02:15] "The Fire on Howard Avenue" (The Intercept • March 2017) [05:30] Bolton’s [06:10] Segura’s Archive at The Intercept [07:05] "Arkansas Plans to Execute Seven People This Month, Continuing Long Tradition of Assembly-Line" (The Intercept • April 2017) [11:00] "Playing With Fire" (The Intercept • Feb 2015) [25:30] "As Families in Charleston Share Stories and Pain, Dylann Roof Shows No Remorse" (The Intercept • Jan 2017) [25:30] "Will Dylann Roof’s Execution Bring Justice? F

Seth Wickersham is a senior writer for ESPN. His latest article is "For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, Is This the Beginning of the End?" “You want to write about something real. I hate stories that are, the tension of the story is, talk radio perception versus the reality that I see when I’m with somebody. I can’t stand those stories because to me, you’re just writing about the ether versus a real person, and that’s not a real tension to me. The inner tensions are the best tensions. You can’t get to them with everybody, but you try.” Thanks to MailChimp and Mubi for sponsoring this week's episode. @SethWickersham Wickersham on Longform [02:10] "For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, Is This the Beginning of the End?" (ESPN • Jan 2018) [05:35] "Spygate to Deflategate: Inside What Split the NFL and Patriots Apart " (Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham • ESPN • Sep 2015) [05:35] "The Secret Life of Tiger Woods" (Wright Thompson • ESPN • April 2016) [15:05] "Why Richard Sherman Can't Let Go of Seattle's Super Bowl Loss"

Nathan Thornburgh is the co-founder of Roads & Kingdoms. "You have to remain committed to the kind of irrational act of producing journalism for an uncaring world. You have to want to do that so bad, that you will never not be doing that. There’s so many ways to die in this business." Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, and Rise and Grind for sponsoring this week's episode. @thornburgh Thornburgh on Longform [01:45] Roads & Kingdoms [02:50] Pico Iyer [01:45] Coin Talk [05:35] "SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition Awards for Works Published in 2014 - 2015" [07:40] "The Prawn War" (Michael Snyder • Roads & Kingdoms • Sep 2016) [17:40] "The Mysterious Demise of Lucky Peach Magazine and Its Uncertain Future" (Tim Carman • Washington Post • March 2017) [20:15] "The Sound of Change: Can Music Save Cuba?" (Time • Nov 2008) [27:10] “Myanmar Unsanctioned" (Roads & Kingdoms • March 2012) [27:20] “Three Keys to Eating Well in Burma" (Matt Goulding • Roads & Kingdoms • May 2012) [28:10] "PRO MOVES by Bre

Kiera Feldman is an investigative reporter. Her latest article is "Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection." "I used to have a lot of anxiety that I don’t seem like an investigative reporter. Utlimately, my reporting personality is just me. It’s just, I want to be real with people. And the number one rule of reporting is to be a human being to other people. Be decent. Be kind." Thanks to MailChimp, RXBAR, and Tripping.com for sponsoring this week's episode. @kierafeldman kierafeldman.com Feldman on Longform [00:45] "Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection" (Pro Publica • Jan 2018) [2:00] "With Child: The Right to Choose in Rapid City" (Harper's • Dec 2016) [2:00] "This Is My Beloved Son" (This Land Press • Oct 2014) [2:10] Longform Best of 2017 [03:00] The Investigative Fund   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Azmat Khan is an investigative reporter and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. "For me, what matters most is systematic investigation, and I think that’s different than an investigative story that might explore one case. It’s about stepping back and understanding the big picture and getting to the heart of something. It doesn’t have to be a number’s game, but being able to say: Look, I looked at a wide enough sample of whatever this issue is, and here is what this tells us. That is what I crave and love the most." Thanks to MailChimp and Barkbox for sponsoring this week's episode. @azmatzahra azmatzahra.com Khan on Longform [00:05] Coin Talk [01:55] Longform Podcast #125: Anand Gopal [01:55] "The Uncounted" (Azmat Khan, Anand Gopal • New York Times Magazine • Nov 2017) [02:35] "Targeting ISIS, and Killing Civilians" (Michael Barbaro • The Daily • Nov 2017) [02:35] "Counting Civilian Casualties in Iraq" (Michael Barbaro • The Daily • Nov 2017) [02:35] "The Unpaid Price of Civilian Casualt

Ben Taub is a staff writer at The New Yorker. “I don’t think it’s my place to be cynical because I’ve observed some of the horrors of the Syrian War through these various materials, but it’s Syrians that are living them. It’s Syrians that are being largely ignored by the international community and by a lot of political attention on ISIS. And I think that it wouldn’t be my place to be cynical when some of them still aren’t.” Thanks to MailChimp and Tripping for sponsoring this week's episode. @bentaub91 Taub on Longform [01:45] David Remnick on the Longform Podcast [07:45] "Was U.S. Journalist Steven Sotloff a Marked Man?" (Daily Beast • Sep 2014) [27:00] Taub on The Voice (YouTube) [32:00] "Journey to Jihad" (New Yorker • Jun 2015) [48:00] Rukmini Callimachi on the Longform Podcast (Part 1) [48:00] Rukmini Callimachi on the Longform Podcast (Part 2) [49:30] "The Shadow Doctors" (New Yorker • Jun 2016) [49:30] "The Assad Files," funded in part by a grant from the Pulitzer Foundation (New Yorker • Apr 2016)

Maggie Haberman covers the White House for The New York Times. “If I start thinking about it, then I’m not going to be able to just keep doing my job. I'm being as honest as I can — I try not to think about it. If you’re flying a plane and you think about the fact that if the plane blows up in midair you’re gonna die, do you feel like you can really focus as well? So, I’m not thinking about [the stakes]. This is just my job. This is what we do. Ask me another question.” Thanks to MailChimp for sponsoring this week's episode. @maggieNYT Haberman on Longform [01:45] "Manafort Talks With Senate Investigators About Meeting With Russians" (with Eileen Sullivan and Adam Goldman • New York Times • Jul 2017) [02:15] Haberman’s New York Times archive [02:30] Haberman’s New York Post archive [02:30] Haberman’s New York Daily News archive [03:15] readthissummer.com [03:15] "Paladino assails Cuomo’s parenting" (Politico • Oct 2010) [08:30] Harold and the Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson • Harper Collins • 2015) [12:15]

Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, is the founder of Women in the World. Her latest book is The Vanity Fair Diaries. “I believed that my bravado had no limit, if you know what I mean. I see limits now, let’s put it that way. I do see limits. But you know, I’m still pretty reckless when I want something. That’s why I don’t tweet much. I’ll say something that will just cause me too much trouble.” Thanks to MailChimp and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. @TinaBrownLM [00:00] Longform Best of 2017 [03:00] Vanity Fair Diaries (Henry Holt and Co. • 2014) [05:35] Tatler [12:00] "Darkness Visible" (William Styron • Vanity Fair • Dec 1989) [14:40] "Guarding Sing Sing" (Ted Conover • New Yorker • April 2000) [14:40] Longform Podcast #38 Ted Conover [16:00] "Dominick Dunne on His Daughter’s Murder" (Dominick Dunne • Vanity Fair • March 1984) [28:10] "10 Years Ago, an Omen No One Saw" (David Carr • New York Times • Aug 2009) [31:50] The Diana Chronicles (Anchor • 2007) [38:4

Mara Shalhoup was until recently editor-in-chief of LA Weekly. She is the author of BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family. “I’m so fearful about what it will look like for cities without an outlet for [alt-weekly] stories. And for young writers, who need and deserve the hands-on editing these kind of editors can give them and help really launch careers … it’s a tragedy for journalism. It’s a tragedy for young people, people of color. It’s a tragedy for the subjects of stories that won’t get written now. That’s just the reality.” Thanks to Mail Chimp, Mubi, and Skillshare for sponsoring this week's episode. @mshalhoup Shalhoup on Longform [01:15] Creative Loafing [01:20] Chicago Reader [01:35] "Rich People Demolished L.A. Weekly To Build The Future They Want For Journalism" (Patrick Redford • Deadspin • Dec 2017) [06:55] "Brian Calle Wants to Turn LA Weekly into 'The Cultural Center' of the City " (Lauren Raab • LA Times • Nov 2017) [11:00] "LA Weekly Reveals Its Secret Owners: Most

Zoe Chace is a reporter and producer at This American Life. “Radio is a movie in your head. It’s a very visual thing. It’s a transporting thing—when it’s done well. And it’s louder than your thoughts. It is both of those things. It would just take me out of the place that I was, where I was lost and couldn’t figure things out. ... They had a very personal way of telling the story to you, so that you kind of felt like you’re there with them. Like it’s less lonely, it’s literally less lonely to have them there. And that felt really good.” Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, Squarespace, and Casper for sponsoring this week's episode. @zchace [02:30] Chace's Archive at This American Life [02:30] Chace's Archive at Planet Money [04:00] Longform Podcast #239: Brian Reed [05:50] S-Town [16:10] Weekend Edition Saturday [25:45] "Donald Trump: Ban all Muslim travel to U.S." (Jeremy Diamond • CNN • Dec 2015) [28:55] "I Thought I Knew You" (This American Life • Jan 2016) [33:35] "Sex, Boyhood and Politics in South Carolina" (T

Jason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter for Buzzfeed and the author of News Junkie. “I made the worst mistake that cost me my credibility and I could have done two things. I could have walked away, and said I’m done with this, no one wants me anymore. Or I could have—which I did—say, I’m going to learn how to do this differently, and be better. And that’s ultimately is what paved the way to this FOIA work. Because no one trusted me anymore.” Thanks to MailChimp, Credible, Mubi, and Skillshare, for sponsoring this week's episode. @JasonLeopold Leopold on Longform [01:50] "Promethea Unbound" (Mike Mariani • Ativist • Nov 2017) [02:10] FOIA.gov [03:45] Leopold’s Buzzfeed Archive [05:15] "Military-Industrial Complex Speech" (Dwight D. Eisenhower • Public Papers of the Presidents • 1961) [07:50] "How I Got Clinton’s Emails" (Vice • Nov 2016) [12:40] "Did Sebastian Gorka Bolt From the White House—Or Was He Pushed?" (Asawin Suebsaeng, Spencer Ackerman • The Daily Beast • Aug 2017) [13:50] "Sebastian Gork

Kara Swisher is the executive editor and co-founder of Recode. “I do the work. I just work harder than other people. I really do. I work harder, I interview more people, I call more people, I text more people. And so I find out, and they can not talk to me — fine. I know anyway. I’d like to talk to you, I’d like to give you a chance. I’d like to be fair. I’d like to hear your side of the story. And the most important thing is, I think smart people – and these are very smart people — like smart questions. They don’t like the fawning questions. They don’t like being licked up and down all day. Some of the day they like it. They want someone who knew them before they were billionaires. Because when you’re a billionaire, every day you’re so smart. Everyone wants something from you.” Thanks to Mubi, Findaway Voices, and Mail Chimp for sponsoring this week's episode. And thanks to Pop-Up Magazine for making our live show possible! @karaswisher [02:35] Longform Podcast #239: Brian Reed [02:50] Recode [02:55] Reco

Tyler Cowen is an economist, the co-founder of Marginal Revolution, and the host of Conversations with Tyler. His latest book is The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream. “I think of my central contribution, or what I’m trying to have it be, is teaching people to think of counter arguments. I’m trying to teach a method: always push things one step further. What if, under what conditions, what would make this wrong? If I write something and people respond to it that way, then I feel very happy and successful. If people just agree with me, I’m a little disappointed.” Thanks to MailChimp and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. @tylercowen www.tylercowen.com Cowen on Longform [01:10] @maxlinsky [01:30] Marginal Revolution [01:50] Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide [02:00] In Praise of Commercial Culture (Harvard University Press • 1998) [03:20] "Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer" (The Metropolitan Museum of Art • Nov 2017) [03:25] "The Exterminating Angel" (The