Longform

Ben Smith is the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed. “I do think as a reporter in general, most of what we deal in is ephemera. And I love that. I mean that’s the business, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I think that’s a plus and something that shapes how you succeed at the job because you realize that this thing you’re writing is about this moment and right now, and about its place in the conversation. It’s not some piece of art to hang on the wall.” Thanks to MailChimp, Harry's, and Reveal, and Home Chef for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @buzzfeedben Smith on Longform [11:00] "Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt on Journalists" (BuzzFeed • Nov 2014) [11:00] "Donald Trump Secretly Told the New York Times What He Really Thinks About Immigration" (BuzzFeed • Feb 2016) [11:00] "Why BuzzFeed Doesn’t Do Clickbait" (BuzzFeed • Nov 2014) [11:00] "What the Longform Backlash Is All About" (Medium • Jan 2014) [12:00] "What the Hell Happened To Mickey Kaus?" (BuzzFeed • Dec 2015) [12:00] "Looking For Tom Lehrer, Comedy’s Mysterious Genius" (BuzzFeed • Apr 2014) [12:00] "A Personal Middle East Conflict In The Fight For Palestine" (BuzzFeed • Jan 2014) [12:00] "The Book That Defined Modern Campaign Reporting" (Politico • Dec 2010) [14:00] "The Boy Wonder of BuzzFeed" (Douglas Quenqua • New York Times • Feb 2013) [25:00] "Longform Podcast #47: Steve Kandell" (Longform • Jun 2013) [35:00] "Ben Smith and Jonah Peretti: The Gawker Interview" (J.K. Trotter • Gawker • Apr 2015) [36:00] "What We’re Doing To Keep Building A Diverse Editorial Operation" (BuzzFeed • Oct 2014) [39:00] "28 Signs You Were Raised By Persian Parents In America" (Samir Mezrahi • BuzzFeed • Mar 2013) [40:00] "How Bougie Are You?" (BuzzFeed • Jun 2014) [40:00] "Longform Podcast #179: Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton" [41:00] "13 Top Editors On How They Think About Diversity In Their Newsrooms" (Heben Nigatu, Tracy Clayton • BuzzFeed • Aug 2014) [49:00] "29 Things You Only Understand If You’re A Geocacher" (BuzzFeed • May 2014) [50:00] "The Tennis Racket" (Heidi Blake, John Templon • BuzzFeed • Jan 2016) [52:00] The Tasty Archive (BuzzFeed) [52:00] The Nifty Archive (BuzzFeed) [55:00] "36 Hours On The Fake Campaign Trail With Donald Trump" (McKay Coppins • BuzzFeed • Feb 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Daniel Alarcón, a novelist and the co-founder of Radio Ambulante, has written for Harper's, California Sunday, and the New York Times Magazine. “I’m a writer. I’ve written a bunch of books, and I care a lot about my sentences and my prose and all that. But would I be willing to defend my book in a Peruvian prison? That’s a litmus test I think a lot of writers I know would fail.” Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Home Chef for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @DanielGAlarcon danielalarcon.org Alarcón on Longform [3:00] Pop-Up Magazine [3:00] "Rigoberto" (Harper’s • Jan 2012) [7:00] War by Candlelight: Stories (Harper Perennial • 2006) [9:00] "All Politics Is Local" (Harper’s • Feb 2012) [15:00] At Night We Walk in Circles: A Novel (Riverhead Books • 2013) [17:00] "Let’s Go, Country" (Harper’s • Sep 2006) [18:00] Etiqueta Negra [19:-0] "City of Clowns" (New Yorker • Jun 2003) [19:00] "Grand Mall Seizure" (Alternet • Dec 2004) [26:00] Lost City Radio (Harper Perennial • 2008) [28:00] Radio Ambulante [38:00] "#47 Quit Already!" (Reply All • Dec 2015) [45:00] "Code Red" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2015) [47:00] "What Kind of Latino Am I" (Salon • May 2005) [50:47] "The Contestant" (California Sunday • Oct 2014) [50:47] "The Contestant" (Radio Ambulante • May 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jia Tolentino is the deputy editor of Jezebel. “Insult itself is an opportunity. I’m glad to be a woman, and I’m glad not to be white. I think it’s made me tougher. I’ve never been able to assume comfort or power. I’m just glad. I’m glad, especially as you watch the great white male woke freak-out meltdown that’s happening right now, I’m glad that it’s good to come from below.” Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, and Home Chef for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @jiatolentino jiatolentino.tumblr.com Tolentino on Longform [08:00] "A Chat with Malcolm Brenner, Man Famous for Having Sex with a Dolphin" (Jezebel • Feb 2015) [08:00] Wet Goddess (Malcolm J. Brenner • Eyes Open Media • 2009) [11:00] Tolentino’s Interview With a Virgin Archive (The Hairpin) [15:00] "Rush After ‘A Rape On Campus’: A UVA Alum Goes Back to Rugby Road" (Jezebel • Jan 2015) [16:00] "No Offense" (Jezebel • Dec 2015) [18:00] "How Should Asian-Americans Feel About the Peter Liang Protests?" (Jay Caspian Kang • New York Times Magazine • Feb 2016) [24:00] "Gawker Slammed for Story Outing Conde Nast Exec [Updated]" (Jessica Roy • New York • Jul 2015) [27:00] "Letter of Recommendation: Cracker Barrel" (New York Times Magazine • Jan 2016) [28:00] "Cheerleaders for Christ" (Adult • Nov 2014) [31:00] "What Should We Say About David Bowie and Lori Maddox?" (Jezebel • Feb 2016) [47:00] "Damn, You’re Not Reading Any Books by White Men This Year? That’s So Freakin Brave and Cool" (Jezebel • Jan 2016) [48:00] "One Small Step" (D. T. Max • New Yorker • Jan 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Heather Havrilesky writes the Ask Polly advice column for New York and is the author of the upcoming How to Be a Person in the World. “I don’t give a shit if I succeed or fail or what I do next, I just want to do things that are strange and not sound bitey. I don’t want to be polished. I want to be such a wreck that no one will ever say ‘let’s put her on her own talk show.’” Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @hhavrilesky rabbitblog.com Havrilesky on Longform [01:00] "What Romance Really Means After 10 Years of Marriage" (New York • Feb 2016) [19:00] "’Mad Men’ Finale Recap: ‘The Moon Belongs to Everyone’" (Salon • May 2014) [20:00] "‘Mad Men’ Cartoon Countdown: The Seventh- and Sixth-to-Last Episodes" (New Yorker • Apr 2015) [26:00] "Chicks ‘n’ Shit" (Suck • Dec 1995) [30:00] Havrilesky’s Filler Archive (Suck • 2001) [36:00] Havrilesky’s Ask Polly Archive at The Awl [36:00] Ask Polly archive at New York [44:00] "Katy Perry and the Fear of a Female Planet" (New York • Oct 2015) [49:00] Mystery Show [57:00] How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life (Doubleday • 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wesley Yang writes for New York and other publications. “If a person remains true to some part of their experience, no matter what it is, and they present it in full candor, there’s value to that. People will recognize it. Once I knew that was true, I knew I could do this.” Thanks to MailChimp, Home Chef, and Trunk Club for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @wesyang Yang on Longform [02:00] "Paper Tigers" (New York • May 2011) [10:00] "The Snakehead" (Patrick Radden Keefe • New Yorker • Apr 2006) [24:00] "Eddie Huang Against the World" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2015) [24:00] "The Face of Seung-Hui Cho" (n+1 • Jun 2011) [27:00] "The Life and Afterlife of Aaron Swartz" (New York • Feb 2013) [32:00] "The True Import of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro (For Peppe, Who Will Ultimately Judge Our Efforts)" (Nikki Giovanni) [42:00] "Longform Podcast #168: Ta-Nehisi Coates" (Nov 2015) [47:00] "We Out Here" (Harper’s Magazine • Mar 2016) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mishka Shubaly is the author of I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You and several best-selling Kindle Singles. “I remember thinking when I was shipwrecked in the Bahamas, ‘I’m going to fucking die here. I’m 24 years old, I’m going to die, and no one will miss me. I’m never going to see my mother again.’ And then the guy with the boat came around the corner and my first thought was ‘Man, this is going to be one hell of a story.’” Thanks to MailChimp and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @MishkaShubaly mishkashubaly.com [2:00] I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You: A Life on the Low Road (PublicAffairs • 2016) [3:00] "Questions Outweigh Answers In Shooting Spree at College" (Anthony DePalma • The New York Times • Dec 1992) [13:00] Beat the Devil [18:00] "Bad Dreams" (New York Press • Mar 2008) [29:00] "Shipwrecked" (Kindle Single • Apr 2011) [31:00] "The Long Run" (Kindle Single • Oct 2011) [46:00] Coward’s Path (Invisible Hands Music Limited • 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton host Another Round. “I’m just trying to follow my curiosities. You know how kids always ask the best questions because they haven’t lost the will to live? I’m just desperately trying to keep that childish curiosity about the world. Is that horribly depressing?” Thanks to MailChimp, Casper, Igloo, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @heavenrants @brokeymcpoverty Another Round [8:00] "1128: Free the McGriddle" (The Black Guy Who Tips • Feb 2016) [9:00] "Episode 1: Unlearning (with Durga Chew-Bose)" (Another Round • Mar 2015) [15:00] "Episode 28: Madam Secretary, What’s Good? (with Hillary Clinton)" (Another Round • Oct 2015) [33:00] "Chatterati" (The Root) [36:00] "The 45 Most Hilarious Tweets From #BlackBuzzFeed" (BuzzFeed • Jul 2013) [44:00] "When Taking Anxiety Medication Is a Revolutionary Act" (BuzzFeed • Feb 2015) [54:00] Forbes 30 Under 30: Heben Nigatu (Forbes • Jan 2016) [57:00] "The Tennis Racket" (BuzzFeed • Jan 2016) [1:01:00] "13 Top Editors On How They Think About Diversity in Their Newsrooms" (BuzzFeed • Aug 2014) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michael J. Mooney is a staff writer at D Magazine and the author of The Life and Legend of Chris Kyle. “There are some elements of crime stories that are so absurd that it’s funny, and so working on the “How Not to Get Away With Murder” story, it was actually really funny thinking about it for a long time. Until I met Nancy Howard, the woman who was shot in the face and has one eye now. This is her entire life, and it was destroyed. This is not a crime story to her, it’s her life.” Thanks to MailChimp, Feverborn, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @MooneyMichaelJ michaeljmooney.com Mooney on Longform [5:00] "The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever" (D Magazine • Jul 2012) [10:00] "The Real Girlfriend Experience" (New Times • Sep 2008) [17:00] "The New Glenn Beck" (D Magazine • Nov 2014) [23:00] "The Day Kennedy Died" (D Magazine • Nov 2008) [32:00] "How Not to Get Away With Murder" (D Magazine • Dec 2014) [33:00] "When Lois Pearson Started Fighting Back" (D Magazine • Jun 2012) [37:00] "The Legend of Chris Kyle" (D Magazine • Apr 2013) [42:00] "In the Crosshairs" (Nicholas Schmidle • The New Yorker • Jun 2013) [44:00] "Blindsided: The Jerry Joseph Basketball Scandal" (GQ • Jun 2011) [44:00] "The Kid Who Wasn’t There" (Wright Thompson • ESPN • Apr 2012) [44:00] Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer • Anchor Books • 1997) [44:30] "Trial By Fire" (David Grann • The New Yorker • Sep 2009) [50:35] "My Brother, the Murderer" (D Magazine • Jan 2016) [54:44] "Michael J. Mooney Interview: Unseen Lives" (Andrea Pitzer • Nieman Storyboard • Aug 2009) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Perry, based in England, has covered Africa and Asia for Newsweek and Time. His most recent book is The Rift: A New Africa Breaks Free. “I got a call from one of my editors in 2003 or 2004, and he said something like, ‘You realize someone has died in the first line of every story you’ve filed for the last eight months?’ And my response was, ‘Of course. Isn’t that how we know it’s important?’ It took me a long time to work out that the importance of a story isn’t established only by death.” Thanks to MailChimp,Feverborn, and AlarmGrid for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @PerryAlexJ alex-perry.com Perry on Longform [2:00] The Rift: A New Africa Breaks Free (Weidenfeld & Nicolson • 2015) [3:00] The Hunt for Boko Haram (Newsweek Insights • 2014) [4:00] "Inside the World of Louis Sarno, the Pygmy Chief from New Jersey" (Howard Swains • Newsweek • Apr 2015) [4:00] "Behind the Scenes in Putin’s Court: The Private Habits of a Latter-Day Dictator" (Ben Judah • Newsweek • Jul 2014) [27:20] "The Collateral Crisis in Somalia" (Time • Sep 2011) [44:00] "Once Upon a Jihad" (Newsweek • Jan 2015) [47:00] HHhH: A Novel (Laurent Binet • Picador • 2013) [54:00] "The Cocaine Crisis: How the Drug Trade is Ruining West Africa" (Time • Oct 2012) [54:00] Cocaine Highway: The Lines That Link Our Drug Habit to Terror (Newsweek Insights • 2014) [56:00] The Quake: The Day Everest Shook Its Bones (Newsweek Insights • 2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grant Wahl is senior writer at Sports Illustrated and the author of The Beckham Experiment. “I said to Balotelli, ‘I know you’re into President Obama. There’s a decent chance that he might read this story.’ He kind of perked up. I don’t think I was deliberately misleading him. There was a chance!” Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, Feverborn, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @GrantWahl Wahl's Sports Illustrated archive Wahl on Longform [4:00] "Hidden Damages" (M.R. O'Conner • The Atavist Magazine • Jan 2015) [19:00] "Home at Last" (William Mack • Sports Illustrated • Mar 1997) [20:00] "Men on a Mission" (Sports Illustrated • Feb 1997) [22:00] "The Odd Coupling" (Sports Illustrated • Oct 1997) [24:00] "Paternity Ward" (Sports Illustrated • May 1998) [27:00] The Beckham Experiment: How the World’s Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America (Three Rivers Press • 2009) [28:00] "The Americanization of David Beckham" (Sports Illustrated • Jul 2007) [34:00] "Mario Balotelli Has a Talent That’s Every Bit as Electric as His Personality" (Sports Illustrated • Aug 2013) [34:00] "Luis Suarez is the Hottest Player on the Planet, But Can He Keep His Cool?" (Sports Illustrated • Jun 2014) [41:00] "Ahead of His Class" (Sports Illustrated • Feb 2002) [41:00] "Ready For Freddy?" (Sports Illustrated • Mar 2004) [48:00] "Arm Folding: Who Does It the Best?" (Fox Sports • Jun 2015) [48:00] "What Happened When I Decided to Run for FIFA President" (Sports Illustrated • Apr 2011) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices