Otherppl with Brad Listi

872. Roxane Gay

Oct 11, 2023

Roxane Gay, author of Opinions, discusses the challenges of expressing opinions and the importance of standing up for oneself. She also explores the portrayal of small towns in country music, the challenges of the publishing industry, and the art of writing headlines in journalism. The conversation emphasizes the need for a healthier discourse culture and promotes the guest's new book.

01:28:24

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Episode guests

Roxane Gay

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Quick takeaways

Roxane Gay's essay collection 'Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business' covers cultural, political, feminist, and civil rights topics.

Roxane Gay defends the importance of criticism for writers and encourages separating personal attacks from constructive critique.

Roxane Gay discusses the challenges and strategies involved in conducting celebrity interviews, emphasizing the significance of asking meaningful questions and finding unique angles.

Deep dives

Roxane Gay's New Essay Collection 'Opinions'

Roxane Gay has released a new essay collection called 'Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business', which includes her opinion writing on culture, politics, feminism, and civil rights. The collection features essays published in notable publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian. Gay's writing is described as sharp, incisive, heartfelt, and thought-provoking. Throughout the collection, she addresses important issues like police violence against black people, societal attitudes towards nudity, billionaire culture, and small-town tropes in country music. Gay's writing offers a historical document capturing the challenges and cultural issues that have arisen over the past decade.

Introduction

3min

Sponsor Ads and Conversation with Roxane Gay

4min

Standing up for oneself and expressing opinions

18min

The Trope of Small Towns, Beyonce Concerts, and Collective Unity

3min

The Challenges of the Publishing Industry

20min

The Art and Importance of Writing Headlines in Journalism

2min

Creating a Healthier Discourse

33min

Promotion and Conversation with the Guest

3min

Roxane Gay is the author of the essay collection Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business, available from Harper.

Roxane's other books include the essay collection Bad Feminist, which was a New York Times bestseller; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the memoir Hunger, which was a New York Times bestseller and received a National Book Critics Circle citation; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, she has also written for Time, McSweeney's, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Bookforum, and Salon. Her fiction has also been selected for The Best American Short Stories 2012, The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, and other anthologies.