The Unseen Truth in Public

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

I found a structure that was transparent with the reader. And I even have an acknowledgement say where I leave it up to the reader. If you really read closely the shading of each account, you learn something fundamental about how we tell stories. But I also think you get pretty close to what really happened. Because you see who's leaving stuff out and why the reader has to engage with the evidentry. You're going to do some math yourself. Yeah.

David Grann is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.

“I became very haunted by the stories that [nations] don't tell. Nations and empires preserve their powers not only by the stories they tell, but also by the stories they leave out. … Early in my career, if I came across the silences in a story, I might not have highlighted them, because I thought, Well, there's nothing to tell there. And now I try to let the silences speak.”

Show notes: