Longform

Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and author, discusses the value of creating for an audience, the role of intrinsic motivation in creativity, and the impact of reaching a large audience. They also explore continuous improvement and the challenges of mastery in a skill.

Jesse David Fox, comedy writer for Vulture, discusses his new book on comedy's influence on culture. The podcast explores the evolution of humor, challenges in writing about comedy, and the shift towards more serious comedy criticism. They also touch on the market dominance of different comedy styles and the impact of live comedy experiences.

Journalist Evan Hughes discusses his book 'Pain Hustlers' on the opioid epidemic, Hollywood adaptations, and investigative reporting. He shares insights on criminal justice challenges, weight management innovations, and intriguing storytelling techniques. Hughes also talks about uncovering corporate misconduct in the pharmaceutical industry and navigating the Hollywood adaptation process. He emphasizes the importance of curiosity and optimism in the media industry.

Yepoka Yeebo, writer for The Guardian and author of Anansi’s Gold, discusses the captivating story of a Ghanaian con artist who swindled the world by claiming wealth hidden in Swiss banks. She highlights the complexities of African narratives and challenges faced in journalism, unraveling scams involving a fake U.S. embassy and fraudulent schemes tied to Ghana's first president. Yeebo's passion for storytelling and uncovering political scandals shines through as she navigates through various projects post-book completion.

Clare Malone, staff writer for The New Yorker, discusses the challenges of journalism as a middle-class profession. She also talks about writing on the media, skepticism and empathy in politics, and the overlap of politics and media reporting. Additionally, she explores the fascination with scandals, the role of fact checkers in journalism, and the challenges of working in the industry.

Azam Ahmed is an international investigative correspondent for The New York Times. His new book is Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance.“I think the fundamental question I always ask when I go into a new place, whether I’m covering currencies, or hedge funds, or geopolitics in Afghanistan, or the war—it’s what does this mean to the world right now? What does the world need to know and how does it fit into that space?”Show notes: @azamsahmed Ahmed on Longform Ahmed’s New York Times archive 20:00 “For Afghan Officials, Prospect of Death Comes with Territory” (New York Times • Dec 2012) 21:00 “A Day’s Toil in the Suicide Bombers’ Graveyard” (New York Times • Aug 2013) 21:00 “2 Afghan Sisters, Swept Up in a Suicide Wave” (New York Times • March 2013) 25:00 “She Stalked Her Daughter’s Killers Across Mexico, One by One” (New York Times • Dec 2020) 46:00 “Using Texts as Lures, Government Spyware Targets Mexican Journalists and Their Families” (New York Times • June 2017) 48:00 “In Mexico, ‘It’s Easy to Kill a Journalist’” (New York Times • April 2017) 54:00 “Kill, or Be Killed: Latin America’s Homicide Crisis” (New York Times • May 2019–Feb 2020) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kashmir Hill is a tech reporter for The New York Times. Her new book is Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It.“I often do feel like what my work is doing is preparing people for the way the world is going to change. With something like facial recognition technology, that's really important because if the world is changing such that every photo of you taken that's uploaded is going to be findable, it's going to change the decisions that you make.”Show notes: kashmirhill.com Hill on Longform Hill's New York Times archive Hill's Gizmodo archive Hill's Forbes archive 01:00 "Life Without the Tech Giants" (Gizmodo • Jan 2019) 01:00 "Living On Bitcoin for a Week: The Journey Begins" (Forbes • May 2013) 01:00 "Your Face Is Not Your Own" (New York Times • Mar 2021) 01:00 Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It (Random House • 2023) 03:00 "Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened" (Wired • Nov 2009) 11:00 Hill's Above the Law archive 16:00 Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep (Ted Conover • University of Chicago Press • 2016) 19:00 "The House That Spied on Me" (Gizmodo • Feb 2018) 23:00 "I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move" (New York Times • Feb 2022) 25:00 "Bing’s A.I. Chat: ‘I Want to Be Alive’" (Kevin Roose • New York Times • Feb 2023) 26:00 "What Our Reporter Learned Delivering Burritos to New Yorkers" (Andy Newman • New York Times • July 2019) 27:00 "A Vast Web of Vengeance" (New York Times • Jun 2023) 27:00 "The Slander Industry" (Aaron Krolik and Kashmir Hill • New York Times • Apr 2021) 55:00 Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa • 1950) 59:00 "Eight Months Pregnant and Arrested After False Facial Recognition Match" (New York Times • Aug 2023) 68:00 "Clearview’s Facial Recognition App Has Been Used By The Justice Department, ICE, Macy’s, Walmart, And The NBA" (Ryan Mac, Caroline Haskins, Logan McDonald • Buzzfeed • Feb 2020) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zeke Faux, investigative reporter for Bloomberg and author of Number Go Up, discusses scams in the crypto world, the accessibility of cryptocurrency knowledge, challenges in reporting, and encounters with individuals like Brock Pierce.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet, lawyer, and founder of Freedom Reads, discusses his journey from prison to becoming a writer. He reflects on the power of poetry to understand and write about the world, and how writing became a lifeline. Betts explores new writing styles, including a piece on guns and the connection between mass shooters and incarcerated individuals. He also delves into the complexity and fear of writing about guns and shares his personal story about Kamala Harris and his mother's rape. Betts explores the concept of being 'almost there' after prison and how it affects claiming success.

Audie Cornish, the former host NPR’s All Things Considered, is an anchor and correspondent for CNN. Her podcast is The Assignment.“I think there is journalism inherent in an interview. Like the interview itself should be considered a piece of journalism. It isn't always. Sometimes the vibe is that it’s a little window dressing or that it's personality driven and I don't subscribe to that. I think that it has its own journalism. It's my journalism.”Show notes: @AudieCornish Cornish's NPR archive 01:00 The Assignment (CNN Audio • 2022) 25:00 "Letters: 'Music Curator' Diplo" (NPR • Jun 2012) 36:00 Cornish’s Twitter thread (Jan 2022) 43:00 Serial (Serial Productions) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices