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 restrictions on yourself because it puts this perfect book off in the never-to-reach future. If you remove those and start fictionalizing things and getting at it a different way, maybe it’ll work for you.’” Thanks to MailChimp and Breach for sponsoring this week's episode. @mohammedsradio willmackin.com [01:35] Bring Out the Dog (Random House • 2018) [47:10] "Crossing the River No Name" (The New Yorker • June 2017) [47:40] Red Cavalry (Isaac Babel • Pushkin Collection • 2015) [47:45] "Crossing the River Zbrucz" (Isaac Babel • Pushkin Collection • 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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" (Nellie Bowles • New York Times • March 2018) [19:30] "San Francisco or Mumbai? UN Envoy Encounters Homeless Life in California " (Alastair Gee • The Guardian • Jan 2018) [21:40] Tiku’s Archive at BuzzFeed [28:25] "YouTube, the Great Radicalizer" (Zeynep Tufekci • New York Times • March 2018) [30:40] Coin Talk [40:25] "The Worldwide Bloodstream"(Comedy Central • Broad City • Feb 2015)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 2018) [01:25] Longform Podcast #289: Liliana Segura [02:55] Joffe-Walt's Archive at This American Life [04:55] "Five Women Are Accusing A Top Left-Leaning Media Executive Of Sexually Harassing Them" (Cora Lewis • BuzzFeed • Dec 2017) [06:15] I Love Dick (Amazon Studios • 2016) [08:45] "From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories" (Ronan Farrow • New Yorker • Oct 2017) [10:15] "Lupita Nyong’o: Speaking Out About Harvey Weinstein" (Lupita Nyong'o • New York Times • Oct 2017) [08:25] "Your Reckoning. And Mine" (Rebecca Traister • New York Mag • Nov 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Bubbles and Crashes Have in Common" (Odd Lots • Aug 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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] Longform Podcast #62: Malcolm Gladwell, Longform Podcast #204: Malcolm Gladwell [05:50] Longform Podcast #196: John Favreau [10:15] "An Oral History of Michael Bay, the Most Explosive Director of All Time" (GQ • June 2011) [12:05] Fennessey’s Archive at Pitchfork [13:50] Chauncey Billups [14:30] "Don't Front on Kanye" (Complex Magazine • Aug 2005) [14:30] "The Business of Carmelo Anthony: How Baltimore's Finest Plans to Take Over the World" (Complex Magazine • June 2005) [17:40] Longform Podcast #66: Andy Ward [23:00] Longform Podcast #268: Jim Nelson [23:55] Longform Podcast #257: Jay Caspian Kang [26:50] "Derek Jeter’s Diary" (Mark Lisanti • Grantland) [27:50] Longform Podcast #44: Jonathan Abrams [37:00] "How LeBron Can Finish His Fairy Tale Better Than MJ" (Bill Simmons • The Ringer • Feb 2018) [40:45] "Yance Ford Made ‘Strong Island’ to Face Down the Past" (The Big Picture • Feb 2018) [41:10] "Greta Gerwig on ‘Lady Bird,’ One of the Year’s Best Movies" (The Big Picture • Nov 2017) [47:42] Longform Podcast #183: Jia Tolentino [48:00] "Calm, Well-Adjusted Nation’s Reading Comprehension Hits 100 Percent" (Rob Harvilla • The Ringer • Oct 2016) [64:00] "If You Want to Have a Staring Contest With the Oscars, You Will Lose: On a Historic Set of Nominations" (The Ringer • Jan 2018)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 for Whedon's Dollhouse" (Wired • March 2008) [27:25] "Rosario Dawson Delivers High-Tech Drama in Gemini Division" (Wired • Aug 2008) [43:50] "Facebook to Buy Photo-Sharing Service Instagram for $1 Billion" (New York Times • April 2012) [52:30] "Everybody Sexts" (Matter • Nov 2014) [56:20] "Is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ the Most Radical Show on TV?" (New York Times • Jan 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Home Entertainment • 2009) [32:50] "My Accidental Career as a Russian Screenwriter" (New York Times • Jan 2016) [33:05] "Russia: Life After Trust" (New York • Jan 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? Families of Victims Grapple With Forgiveness and Death" (The Intercept • Jan 2017) [28:50] "How a Daughter’s Search for her Biological Father Led to an Execution in Arkansas" (The Intercept • April 2017) [36:40] Segura’s Archive at Alter Net [38:40] "Five Women Are Accusing A Top Left-Leaning Media Executive Of Sexually Harassing Them" (Cora Lewis • BuzzFeed • Dec 2017) [46:10] "Publisher of The New Republic Resigns After Misconduct Claims" (Sydney Ember • NY Times • Nov 2017) [56:05] "A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses" (ACLU Foundation • Nov 2013) [57:55] "Lead Prosecutor Apologizes for Role in Sending Man to Death Row" (A.M. "Marty" Stroud III • Shreveport Times • March 2015) [58:20] "A Prosecutor Seeks Redemption. Can We Allow Prisoners the Same?" (The Intercept • March 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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" (ESPN • May 2017) [16:35] "Sin City or Bust " (Seth Wickersham, Don Van Natta Jr. • ESPN • April 2017) [19:10] @bruceallen [25:05] “The Brady Hunch” (ESPN The Magazine • Dec 2001) [26:00] The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance (Tom Brady • Simon & Schuster • 2017) [26:50] “The Drive That Never Ends” (ESPN The Magazine • Sept 2016) [28:25] “Tom Brady's Most Dangerous Game” (ESPN The Magazine • Oct 2017) [30:15] “A Football Life: Meet Bill Belichick” (NFL Productions • NFL Network • 2009) [30:20] “Patriots Coach Bill Belichick Dressed Up as a Pirate for Halloween” (Nick Schwartz • USA Today • Oct 2013) [41:40] “Rick Carlisle Rips ESPN for Publishing LaVar Ball Story on Luke Walton's Job Status” (Chris Chavez • Sports Illustrated • Jan 2018) [44:20] "John Skipper Resigns as ESPN president; George Bodenheimer Takes Over as Acting Chairman” (ESPN • Dec 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Breville and Roads and Kingdom" (breville • Feb 2015) [32:20] "Getting Kabul’s Milk to Market" (May Jeong • Roads & Kingdoms • Oct 4 2013) [39:20] Grape, Olive, Pig, Travels: Deep Travels Through Spain's Food Culture (Matt Goulding • Harper Wave/Anthony Bourdain • 2016) [41:00] "The R&K Guide to Accra" [41:15] "The R&K Guide to Tokyo" [41:30] "The R&K Guide to New Orleans" [48:10] The Trip Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices