Navigating Writing Challenges and Media Industry Struggles

Jay Caspian Kang is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a co-host of Time to Say Goodbye.

“At some point, you have to kick it out the door, and it’s never finished to the degree that you would finish a magazine piece. But it, in some ways, is more interesting because it is produced in a short amount of time, and it’s read as something that is not supposed to be complete. It’s just meant to provoke or to provide thought or whatever, to provide some sort of context on a certain issue or not. And I actually like that a lot better than the magazine writing. I respect the magazine writers—obviously, I was one—but for my disposition now, in my lifestyle, I actually enjoy having to produce this thing every week.”

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Show notes:

• @jaycaspiankang
• Kang on Longform
• Kang on Longform Podcast (Oct 2021)
• Kang on Longform Podcast (Aug 2017)
• Kang on Longform Podcast (Apr 2013)
• Kang’s New Yorker archive
• 06:00 Coin Talk
• 08:00 Tyler Austin Harper’s Atlantic archive
• 10:00 Serial
• 12:00 The Daily
• 20:00 “The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the High” (The Morning News • Oct 2010)
• 28:00 James (Percival Everett • Doubleday • 2024)
• 34:00 “American Son” (ESPN • July 2024)
• 35:00 Kang’s VICE archive
• 42:00 “Mike Francesa Still Believes in the Power of Radio” (New York Times • Aug 2018)
• 43:00 Kang’s Grantland archive
• 43:00 Kang’s New York Times archive

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