Ken Burns is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes The Vietnam War, Baseball, and The Central Park Five. His new series is Country Music. “History, which seems to most people safe — it isn’t. I think the future is pretty safe, it’s the past that’s so terrifying and malleable.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Vistaprint, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @KenBurns kenburns.com [01:08] The Vietnam War (2017) [01:12] Country Music (2019) [04:58] Salesman (1969) [09:04] Jazz (2001) [13:45] The Civil War (1990) [13:48] Baseball (1994) [13:55] The War (miniseries • 2007) [13:57] The National Parks (2009) [14:00] The Roosevelts (2014) [44:49] Odd Man Out (1947) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me. His new novel is The Water Dancer. Chris Jackson is Coates's editor, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of One World. “I don’t think an essay works unless I can pin a story to it. You don’t want people to just say, ‘Oh that was a cool argument.’ You want people to say, ‘I could not stop thinking about this.’ You want them to nudge their wives and husbands and say, ‘You have to read this.’ You want them to be bothered by it.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, Vistaprint, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @cjaxone ta-nehisicoates.com cjaxone.tumblr.com Coates on Longform Coates's first appearance on the Longform Podcast [02:00] The Water Dancer: A Novel (One World • 2019) [02:45] Coates’s Tour Schedule [04:30] Jackson's Email [06:45] The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (Spiegel & Grau • 2009) [12:58] ”Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War”(The Atlantic • 2011) [14:00] Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau • 2015) [20:23] The Secret History (Donna Tartt • Alfred A Knopf • 1992) [20:30] The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro • Faber and Faber • 1990) [20:40] Billy Bathgate: A Novel (E.L. Doctorow • Random House • 1989) [28:10] Underground Railroad (William Still • 1872) [32:45] The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Ulysses Grant • 1885) [35:20] ”The Case for Reparations”(The Atlantic • 2014) [37:05] Coates's archive at The Atlantic [37:10] We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy (One World • 2017) [45:15] Captain in America Vol. 1: Winter in America (Marvel • 2019) [54:00] Coates Testifies Before Congress (2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paul Tough is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the author of The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us. “The nice thing about a book as opposed to a magazine article is that it’s less formulaic. As a writer, it gives you more freedom — you’re trying to create an emotional mood where ideas have a place to sit in a person’s brain. And when people are moved by a book, it’s not by being told, ‘Here’s the problem, here’s the answer, now go do it.’ It’s by having your vision of the world slightly changed.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. [03:25] The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2019) [04:00] “Terminal Delinquents”(Esquire • 1990) [04:50] Tough’s Harper’s archive [05:50] 2600: The Hacker Quarterly [09:00] Longform Podcast #104: Lewis Lapham [10:30] “The Alchemy of OxyContin” (New York Times Magazine • 2001) [11:40] Tough’s New York Times Magazine archive [16:15] “The Harlem Project” (New York Times Magazine • 2004) [16:20] Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America (Mariner Books • 2009) [17:15] Open Letters [26:00] Longform Podcast #347: Michael Pollan [45:20] Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Issac covers Silicon Valley for The New York Times. He is the author of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber. “People try to use journalists all the time. Your job as a journalist is to figure out who’s using you, why they’re using you, and whether you can do something legitimately without playing into one side or another.” Thanks to MailChimp, Pitt Writers, and Wolverine Podcast for sponsoring this week's episode. @MikeIsaac Isaac on Longform [00:14] Wolverine Podcast [02:09] Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (W. W. Norton & Company • 2019) [02:20] Issac’s New York Times archive [03:57] Issac’s Paste Magazine archive [06:15] Longform Podcast #337: Casey Newton [08:40] Steve Jobs and Walt Mossberg [25:38] “How Uber Deceives the Authorities Worldwide” (New York Times • 2017) [25:44] “Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture” (New York Times • 2017) [25:48] Susan Fowler blog post [31:00] Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou • Knopf • 2018) [36:31] Isaac on The Daily Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michelle García has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Oxford American. She directed the PBS film, Against Mexico: The Making of Heroes and Enemies. “We have to see that within difficult stories there is a very important message of humanity triumphing over despair. If you don’t focus on joy, humanity is squashed. If all you see and all you narrate is pain, then you extinguish the possibility of joy and the important part of holding onto humanity.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @pistoleraprod michellegarciainc.com Rally+PEN America event on September 5 [00:42] “Against Mexico: The Making of Heroes and Enemies” (PBS • 2012) [01:04] “The Border and the American Imagination” (The Baffler • 2018) [01:07] “Rewriting the West” (Guernica • 2019) [02:12] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [02:30] Evan Ratliff on CoinTalk [09:30] “New Tack Against Illegal Immigrants: Trespassing Charges (Michael Powell • Washington Post • 2005) [14:44] “Michelle Has A Polyamourous Relationship With Texas And New York” (KSTX • 2017) [21:05] “On the Texas Borderline, A Solid, if Invisible, Wall” (Washington Post • 2008) [23:16] “The War of Forgetting” (Guernica • 2015) [32:40] García’s AlJazeera America archive [33:55] “Myths of Mexico” (Columbia Journalism Review • 2009) [45:45] “The Year of the Heavy Moon” (Oxford American • 2017) [47:55] “My Name is Alex” (Oxford American • 2017) [48:50] “Mexico’s City of Dogs” (AlJazeera America • 2013) [1:05:45] “Searching for La Perdida” (Oxford American • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade is a French documentary filmmaker. He directed Murder on a Sunday Morning and The Staircase. “The courtroom in the United States is not really about the truth. It’s more about a story against another story. It’s more about storytelling. The more compelling or believable story by the jury will win. But in the end, we don’t know: is it the truth or not?” Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and We Love You (and So Can You) for sponsoring this week's episode. [00:05] We Love You (And So Can You) [01:00] You Can’t Make This Up [02:16] The Staircase (2004) [02:50] The Staircase II: The Last Chance (2013) [02:53] The Staircase (2018) [05:15] Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001) [05:35] The Justice of the Men (2001) [11:35] Caught in the Acts (Raymond Depardon • 1994) [12:05] Law and Order (Frederick Wiseman • 1969) [12:12] Welfare(Frederick Wiseman • 1975) [12:16] Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman • 1997) [25:23] Making a Murderer (Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos • 2015) [25:25] The Jinx (Andrew Jarecki • 2015) [25:27] The Keepers (Ryan White • 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taylor Lorenz just announced she is leaving her job covering internet culture for The Atlantic to join The New York Times. “With technology and internet culture, I am more of an optimist than a lot of other people who cover those topics. It’s more ambiguous for me. It's more like, ‘This is the world we live in now and here are the pros and here are the cons. There are a lot of cons, but there are also these pros.’ I like how things shift and change under me. I like to see how things are constantly evolving.” Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @taylorlorenz Lorenz on Longform [01:45] Lorenz’s archive at The Atlantic [06:15] "The Shooter’s Manifesto Was Designed to Troll" (The Atlantic • 2019) [06:30] "Instagram Is the Internet’s New Home for Hate" (The Atlantic • 2019) [07:50] "The Real Difference Between Creators and Influencers" (The Atlantic • 2019) [17:15] INSTANT [19:00] The Daily What [21:20] "Where Everyone’s an Influencer" (The Atlantic • 2019) [22:30] "How an App for Gamers Went Viral" (The Atlantic • 2019) [23:50] "The Instagram Aesthetic is Over" (The Atlantic • 2019) [35:55] "How Tea Accounts Are Fueling Influencer Feuds" (The Atlantic • 2019) [36:00] The Shade Room [37:00] "How DramaAlert Became the TMZ of YouTube" (Daily Beast • 2018) [41:00] Lorenz at Mic [46:45] "The Mysterious Disappearance (and Eventual Rebirth) of YouTube Star Issa Twaimz" (New York • 2017) [54:40] "What Is the Momo Challenge?" (E.J Dickson • Rolling Stone • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion. “I feel a lot of useful guilt solidifying my own advantages at a time when the ground people stand on is being ripped away. And I feel a lot of emotional anxiety about the systems that connect us - about the things that make my life more convenient and make other people’s lives worse. It’s the reality of knowing that ten years from now, when there are millions of more climate refugees, that you’ll be okay. It makes me feel so crazy and lucky and intent on doing something with being alive.” Thanks to MailChimp, Time Sensitive, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @jiatolentino Tolentino on Longform [01:47] Trick Mirror: Reflections of Self-Delusion (Random House • 2019) [02:15] Jia’s archive at the New Yorker [02:18] Longform Podcast #183: Jia Tolentino [09:08] “The Promise of Vaping and the Rise of Juul” (New Yorker • 2018) [11:31] “Gloria Allred’s Crusade” (New Yorker • 2017) [17:37] “Please, My Wife, She’s Very Online” (New Yorker • 2019) [20:49] “A Chat with Malcolm Brenner, Man Famous for Having Sex with a Dolphin” (Jezebel • 2015) [21:03] “Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks” (Jezebel • 2016) [26:20] Panel with Tolentino, Nussbaum, Holmes, and Brodesser-Akner [27:50] “The Land of the Large Adult Son” (New Yorker • 2017) [33:22] “Losing Religion and Finding Ecstasy in Houston” (New Yorker • 2019) [36:10] “A Quick Chat With a Guy at Lolla Wearing a 'Rape Your Face' T-Shirt” (Jezebel • 2015) [40:22] “Athleisure, Barre and Kale: The Tyranny of the Ideal Woman” (The Guardian • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Baxter Holmes is a senior writer for ESPN. He won the James Beard Award for his 2017 article, “The NBA's Secret Addiction.” “If there’s anything I’m really fighting for it’s people’s memory. I love the notion of trying to write a story that sticks with people. And that requires really compelling characters. It requires in-depth reporting — you have to take people on a journey. It needs to be so rich and something they didn’t know. I look for a story that I can tell well enough that it will hold up, that it will earn someone’s memory.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @Baxter Holmes on Longform [00:25] "The Threat of Youth Basketball" (ESPN • 2019) [01:00] "The NBA's Secret Addiction" (ESPN • 2017) [01:15] "The Secret Team Dinners That Have Built the Spurs' Dynasty" (ESPN • 2019) [01:20] "Lakers 2.0: The Failed Reboot of the NBA's Crown Jewel" (ESPN • 2019) [03:02] Longform Podcast #226: Terry Gross [30:40] "Inside the Corrosive Workplace Culture of the Dallas Mavericks" (Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther • Sports Illustrated • 2018) [43:10] Magic Johnson denies allegations on ESPN [44:00] Holmes talks about response to his Lakers piece [44:33] Longform Podcast #112: Don Van Natta Jr. [58:54] "The NBA's Secret Wine Society" (ESPN • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist and the author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. “I’ve noticed that the times I’m extra susceptible to being on social media is when I am feeling personally insecure or when I’m dealing with existential dread. That within itself is not part of the attention economy—that’s just a human being having feelings and reacting to things. For me, it’s a question of like, ‘What do I do with that?’ I can either feed it back into the attention economy and actually get more of it back—more anxiety or more existential dread—or I can go in this other direction and spend time alone or with people who care about the same things. Those are places where I can bring my feelings and they won’t destroy me.” Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. @the_jennitaur jennyodell.com Jenny Odell on Longform [00:49] How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Melville House • 2019) [00:51] ”How To Do Nothing” transcript of keynote talk (Medium • 2017) [01:10] “A Business With No End” (New York Times • 2018) [02:30] Evan Ratliff on Cointalk [02:42] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) [03:18] “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Watch” (Museum of Capitalism • 2017) [05:05] The Bureau of Suspended Objects [16:55] Gordon Hempton’s “Desert Thunder” [29:27] Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life (Adam Greenfield • Verso • 2017) [37:32] Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer • Milkweed Editions • 2015) [39:25] “Notes of a Bioregional Interloper” (SFMOMA • 2017) [53:30] Mark Lombardi’s drawings [56:40] “On How to Grow an Idea” (Creative Independent • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices