Longform

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah is an essayist. Her latest piece is “A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof.” “I remember feeling like ‘you’re playing chess with evil, and you gotta win.’ Because this is the most terrible thing I’d ever seen. And I was so mad. I still get so mad. Words aren’t enough. I’m angry about it. I can’t do anything to Dylann Roof, physically, so this is what I could do.” Thanks to MailChimp, HelloFresh, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. the-rachelkaadzighansah.tumblr.com Kaadzi Ghansah on Longform [00:45] Kaadzi Ghansah on the Longform Podcast [00:45] "A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof" (GQ • Aug 2017) [22:45] "America’s Most Political Food" (Lauren Collins • New Yorker • Apr 2017) [24:30] Light in August (William Faulkner • Random House • 1990) [44:45] "The Rise of the Valkyries" (Seyward Darby • Harper’s • Sep 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ellen Barry is the former New York Times bureau chief for South Asia. “Every time you leave a beat—and this is something that I think as foreign correspondents we rarely communicate to our readers—you’re walking away from a story which has really been your whole life for four or five years. And it’s hard to walk away…The majority of us live a story for a certain number of years, and then we just turn our backs on it.” Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Of a Kind for sponsoring this week's episode. @EllenBarryNYT Barry on Longform [01:15] Barry’s New York Times archive [01:30] "How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town India" (New York Times • Aug 2017) [03:00] readthissummer.com [06:45] "A Newspaper for Its Time" (Moscow Times • Oct 2012) [07:30] "Lost Exile" (James Verini • Vanity Fair • Feb 2010) [09:15] "The Russia Left Behind" (New York Times • Oct 2013) [11:15] "A Specter’s Shadow Returns to Haunt Moscow" (New York Times • Oct 2008) [16:00] Alice Gregory on the Longform Podcast [17:30] The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss • DAW Books • 2008) [19:15] Jeffrey Gettleman on the Longform Podcast [24:00] "Shooting An Elephant" (George Orwell • New Writing • 1936) [27:45] "In India, a Small Band of Women Risk It All for a Chance to Work" (New York Times • Jan 2016) [30:15] "Modi, India’s Next Prime Minister, Adopts a Softer Tone" (New York Times • May 2014) [38:15] "In Rare Move, Death Sentence in Delhi Gang Rape Case Is Upheld" (New York Times • May 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kate Fagan is a columnist and feature writer for ESPN. Her latest book is What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen. “When I was professionally closeted, I was kind of bitter. I didn’t have a ton of empathy. And I don’t think I always asked the right question, because I wouldn’t ask people questions that I wouldn’t want to be asked…I had walls up. I wouldn’t even allow myself to be vulnerable in my writing. Because the whole point of my existence at that time was to circumvent any moment that could create vulnerability in a way that would frighten me. And I think you could that see in my writing.” Thanks to MailChimp and HelloFresh for sponsoring this week's episode. @katefagan3 bykatefagan.com [00:00] Stoner [00:45] Fagan’s Archive at ESPN [00:45] Around the Horn [01:00] What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen (Little, Brown and Company • 2017) [01:15] "Split Image" (ESPN • May 2015) [06:30] The Reappearing Act: Coming Out as Gay on a College Basketball Team Led by Born-Again Christians (Skyhorse Publishing • 2014) [07:45] "Storybook Ending Trailing Tennessee Late, Unbeaten Connecticut Got Into Gear In Time To Conclude a Charmed Season" (Austin Murphy • Sports Illustrated • Apr 1995) [16:00] Fagan’s Archive at Ellensburg Daily Record [16:30] Fagan’s Archive at The Post Star [16:45] Fagan’s Archive at The Philadelphia Inquirer [22:00] Deep Sixer Blog [37:45] Madison Holleran’s Instagram [44:15] Outside the Lines [44:15] First Take Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jay Caspian Kang is a writer at large at The New York Times Magazine and a correspondent for Vice News Tonight. “I make a pretty provocative argument about how Asian American identity doesn’t really exist—how it’s basically just an academic idea, and it’s not lived within the lives of anybody who’s Asian. Like you grow up, you’re Korean, you’re a minority. You don’t have any sort of kinship with, like, Indian kids. You know? And there’s no cultural sharedness where you’re just like, ‘oh yeah…Asia!’” Thanks to MailChimp, "Mussolini’s Arctic Airship", Blinkist and for sponsoring this week's episode. @jaycaspiankang Kang’s Blog Kang on Longform [00:00] Mussolini’s Arctic Airship (Eva Holland • Kindle Single • Aug 2017) [00:45] "What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2017) [00:45] Kang on the Longform Podcast [01:15] Kang’s Archive at The New Yorker [02:30] readthissummer.com [02:45] Havrilesky on the Longform Podcast [05:45] "That Other School Shooting" (New York Times Magazine • Mar 2013) [07:30] The Dead Do Not Improve: A Novel (Hogarth • 2013) [15:15] Tim Ferriss on the Longform Podcast [17:45] "John Wayne: A Love Song" (Joan Didion • Saturday Evening Post • Aug 1965) [22:15] "A Question of Identity" (Grantland • Mar 2012) [24:45] Kang’s Column “On Sports” at The New York Times Magazine [27:30] Les Blank’s Website [27:45] Amy [27:45] Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck [35:15] "No place like home" (Vice News • Jun 2017) [36:15] "The End and Don King" (Grantland • Apr 2013) [36:45] "Inside the final days of the Standing Rock protest" (Vice • Feb 2017) [37:30] "What comes after Standing Rock?" (Vice • Jan 2017) [39:00] "‘Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us’" (New York Times Magazine • May 2015) [41:30] "Charlottesville: Race and Terror" (Vice News • Aug 2017) [42:45] "Impeached!" (David Gilbert • Vice News • Dec 2016) [48:00] "Now You See Me" (Vice News • Mar 2017)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Gessner is the author of ten books. His latest is Ultimate Glory: Frisbee, Obsession, and My Wild Youth. “The ambition got in my way at first. Because I wanted my stuff to be great, and it froze me up. But later on it was really helpful. I’m startled by the way people don’t, you know, admit [they care] … it seems unlikely people wouldn’t want to be immortal.” Thanks to Casper, Squarespace, and MailChimp for sponsoring this week's episode. @BDsCocktailHour davidgessner.com Gessner on Longform "Not Fuzz" (David Mark Simpson • Atavist • Jul 2017) [01:00] Ultimate Glory: Frisbee, Obsession, and My Wild Youth (Riverhead Books • 2017) [02:00] readthissummer.com [04:45] "No Disc-Respect" (Outside • Jun 2017) [08:15] A Wild, Rank Place: One Year on Cape Cod (University Press of New England • 1997) [08:30] Under the Devil’s Thumb (University of Arizona Press • 1999) [11:00] Sick of Nature (University Press of New England • 2004) [11:00] "Ultimate Glory" (Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour • Jan 2012) [11:15] Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour [13:00] All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West (W.W. Norton & Company • 2016) [22:30] Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder (Ballantine • 2002) [26:15] "Meet the Keatles" (Oxford American • Feb 2014) [29:00] "After Hurricane Sandy, One Man Tries to Stop the Reconstruction" (Outside • Oct 2013) [29:30] The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons From a Life in Nature (Beacon Press • 2005) [30:15] "Those Who Write, Teach" (New York Times Magazine • Sep 2008) [37:45] Nina de Gramont’s Website [43:30] "This Is Your Brain on Nature" (National Geographic • Jan 2017)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matthew Klam is a journalist and fiction writer. His new novel is Who Is Rich?. “The New Yorker had hyped me with this “20 Under 40” thing…and when the tenth anniversary of that list [came], somebody wrote an article about it. And they found everybody in it, and I was the only one who hadn’t done anything since then, according to them. And the article, it was a little paragraph or two, it ended with ‘poor Matthew Klam.’” Thanks to MailChimp, Casper, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. @MatthewKlam matthewklam.com [01:00] Sam the Cat: and Other Stories (Vintage • 2001) [01:00] Who Is Rich?: A Novel (Random House • 2017) [01:45] Doree Shafrir on Longform [01:45] Elif Batuman on Longform [02:00] readthissummer.com [03:00] "Matthew Klam’s New Book Is Only 17 Years Overdue" (Taffy Brodesser-Akner • Vulture • Jul 2017) [03:15] "Experiencing Ecstasy" (New York Times Magazine • Jan 2001) [04:15] "Sam the Cat" (New Yorker • May 1993) [sub req’d] [05:30] "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" (Richard Ben Cramer • Esquire • Jun 1986) [06:15] "Missing the Boom; Some of My Best Friends Are Rich" (New York Times Magazine • Jun 1998) [06:30] Klam’s Story About His Hasidic Cousins in McSweeney’s Issue 33 [06:45] "The Pilot’s Tale" (Harper’s • Feb 1999) [sub req’d] [09:00] "Big Event Brent" (GQ) [pdf] [11:15] "Riding the Mo In the Lime Green Glow" (New York Times Magazine • Nov 1999) [14:15] "How to Get Over an Aversion to Whiskey" (Wall Street Journal • Jun 2017) [sub req’d] [15:45] Quantico [19:30] "Freak" (Devin Friedman • GQ • Feb 2010) [20:30] "The Man in the Irony Mask" (GQ • Mar 2008) [28:00] A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates (Blake Bailey • Picador • 2004) [28:00] Cheever: A Life (Blake Bailey • Vintage • 2010) [29:00] "Adina, Astrid, Chipewee, Jasmine" (New Yorker • May 2006) [30:00] Look at Me: A Novel (Jennifer Egan • Anchor • 2002) [30:15] The Invisible Circus (Jennifer Egan • Anchor • 1995) [31:30] "20 Under 40" (New Yorker • 1999) [31:30] "The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Special Will Save Fiction Again" (Mark Asch • The L Magazine • May 2010) [38:45] Andy Ward on the Longform Podcast [43:15] The Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien • Mariner Books • 2009) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maggie Haberman covers the White House for The New York Times. “If I start thinking about it, then I’m not going to be able to just keep doing my job. I'm being as honest as I can — I try not to think about it. If you’re flying a plane and you think about the fact that if the plane blows up in midair you’re gonna die, do you feel like you can really focus as well? So, I’m not thinking about [the stakes]. This is just my job. This is what we do. Ask me another question.” Thanks to MailChimp, Bombfell, Babbel, and HelloFresh for sponsoring this week's episode. @maggieNYT Haberman on Longform [01:45] "Manafort Talks With Senate Investigators About Meeting With Russians" (with Eileen Sullivan and Adam Goldman • New York Times • Jul 2017) [02:15] Haberman’s New York Times archive [02:30] Haberman’s New York Post archive [02:30] Haberman’s New York Daily News archive [03:15] readthissummer.com [03:45] "Paladino assails Cuomo’s parenting" (Politico • Oct 2010) [09:00] Harold and the Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson • Harper Collins • 2015) [12:45] "Inside Donald Trump’s Last Stand: An Anxious Nominee Seeks Assurance" (with Ashley Parker, Jeremy W. Peters, and Michael Barbaro • New York Times • Nov 2016) [22:45] Private Parts [25:00] "Excerpts From the Times’s Interview With Trump" (with Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt • New York Times • Jul 2017) [35:15] "Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles" (with Glenn Thrush • New York Times • Feb 2017) [38:45] Steve Dunleavy’s New York Post archive [47:45] Broadcast News Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steven Levy writes for Wired, where he is the editor of Backchannel. “It’s about people. Travis Kalanick’s foibles aren’t because he’s a technology executive. It’s because he’s Travis Kalanick. That’s the way he is. There is a certain strain in Silicon Valley, which rewards totally driven people, but that is humanity. And advanced technology is no guarantee—and as a matter of fact I don’t think it’ll do anything—from stopping ill-intentioned people from doing ill-intentioned things.” Thanks to MailChimp, Audm, Rover, and Babbel for sponsoring this week's episode. @StevenLevy stevenlevy.com Levy on Longform [03:00] readthissummer.com [04:00] "Hackers in Paradise" (Rolling Stone • Apr 1982) [05:45] Whole Earth Catalog [06:15] Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (O’Reilly Media • 2010) [11:00] "The Birth of the Mac: Rolling Stone’s 1984 Feature on Steve Jobs and his Whiz Kids" (Rolling Stone • Oct 2011) [19:00] "Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s Future, From Virtual Reality to Anonymity" (Wired • Apr 2014) [20:45] Levy's MTV Cover Story (Rolling Stone • 1983) [not online] [23:30] Levy's Bruce Springsteen Story (Philadelphia Magazine • 1975) [not online] [28:00] New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009 (Teresa Carpenter • Modern Library • 2012) [30:30] "Reviewing the First Iphone In a Hype Typhoon" (Wired • Jun 2017) [31:30] "From the Archives: The Original Review of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’" (Richard Goldstein • New York Times • Jun 2017) [32:00] Without a Doubt (Marcia Clark with Teresa Carpenter • Graymalkin Media • 2016) [37:45] Levy’s Archive at Newsweek [39:45] In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives (Simon & Schuster • 2011) [42:30] Backchannel [48:45] "One More Thing: Inside Apple’s Insanely Great (or Just Insane) New Mothership" (Wired • May 2017) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Bowden is a journalist and the author of 13 books, including Black Hawk Down and his latest, Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. “My goal is never to condemn someone that I’m writing about. It’s always to understand them. And that, to me, is far more interesting than passing judgment on them. I want you to read about Che Thi Mung, an 18-year-old village girl, who was selling hats on corners in Hue in the daytime and going home and sharpening spikes to go into booby traps to try and kill American soldiers and ARVN soldiers in the evening. I want to understand why she would do that, why she would be so motivated to do that. And I think I did.” Thanks to MailChimp, LeVar Burton Reads, Babbel, and HelloFresh for sponsoring this week's episode. @markbowdenwrite markbowdenbooks.com Bowden on Longform [01:00] Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (Grove Press • 2010) [01:00] Bowden’s Black Hawk Down Series at The Inquirer [01:15] Bowden’s Archive at The Atlantic [01:15] Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam (Atlantic Monthly Press • 2017) [02:00] Startup: A Novel (Doree Shafrir • Little, Brown and Company • 2017) [02:00] readthissummer.com [09:30] "Hell Sucks" (Michael Herr • Esquire • Aug 1968) [10:15] The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Tom Wolfe • Picador • 2008) [10:30] Thy Neighbor’s Wife (Gay Talese • Harper Perennial • 2009) [11:15] Bowden’s Inquirer stories reprinted in Road Work: Among Tyrants, Beasts, Heroes, and Rogues (Atlantic Monthly Press • 2004) [24:15] "Tales of the Tyrant" (Atlantic • May 2002) [28:30] Worm: The First Digital World War (Atlantic Monthly Press • 2011) [29:15] The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden (Atlantic Monthly Press • 2012) [35:00] Erin Lee Carr on the Longform Podcast [35:45] "The Enemy Within" (Atlantic • Jun 2010) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian Reed, a senior producer at This American Life, is the host of S-Town. “It’s a story about the remarkableness of what could be called an unremarkable life.” Thanks to MailChimp, Babbel, and Squarespace for sponsoring this episode. @brihreed Reed's This American Life archive [28:45] Cops See It Differently, Part One (This American Life • Feb 2015) [28:45] Wake Up Now (This American Life • Dec 2014) [44:30] Stoner (John Wiliams • Viking • 1965) [45:15] Photo of the S-Town planning room [46:00] The Known World: A Novel (Edward P. Jones • HarperCollins • 2003) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices