Eric Lach is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he covers New York. His latest article is “The Mayor and the Con Man.”“I think about my own trajectory, my little generation of journalists—it was easier to get jobs reporting on national politics than to get a job reporting on something that you could see and go to and that is a really strange thing, the relief and the joy that I feel like when I can just take the subway twenty minutes to go see something interesting for a story or talk to somebody interesting or explore physically and not just feel like I’m making phone calls and Googling. It’s a very different kind of work, but it’s just not something that was super available.”Show notes: @Eric Lach Lach on Longform Lach’s New Yorker archive 08:00 "Eric Adams Says He Has Swagger. What Else Does He Have?" (New Yorker • Jan 2022) 12:00 "What is Eric Adams’s Plan for the Riker Island Crisis?" (New Yorker • Jan 2022) 13:00 "Eric Adams Wants to Compstat New York City" (New Yorker • May 2021) 15:00 “Eric Adams Rakes in $7.7 Million, With Help From Wealthy Donors” (Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Dana Rubinstein • New York Times • Oct 2021) 24:00 "Why Do So Many New York Politicians Want Paperboy Prince to Hit Them in the Face with a Pie?" (New Yorker • June 2021) 26:00 "“Pretty Much a Big Mess”: One Iowa Caucus Precinct’s Drama-Filled Night" (New Yorker • Feb 2020) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Willa Paskin, a former TV critic, is the host of the podcast Decoder Ring.“I want it to feel like a trap door. When you push on a trap door, there’s like a little spring. If it’s the right idea, you start to look into it, and you’re like, Oh, it’s giving a little.”Show notes: @willapaskin 00:00 Paskin's Slate archive 00:00 Paskin's Salon archive 00:00 Paskin's Vulture archive 00:00 Decoder Ring (Slate) 00:00 "The Invention of Hydration" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Apr 2021) 00:00 "Cellino & Barnes, Injury Attorneys, 800-888-8888 " (Decoder Ring • Slate • Dec 2022) 01:00 "The Sideways Effect" (Decoder Ring • Slate • May 2022) 03:00 "Why I Became a TV Critic" (Slate • Jan 2016) 38:00 "The Laff Box" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Apr 2018) 38:00 "The Blue Steak Experiment" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Dec 2020) 40:00 "Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Jun 2019) 40:00 "The Cabbage Patch Kids Riots" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Nov 2020) 42:00 "Selling Out" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Aug 2021) 42:00 "The Sign Painter" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Jun 2021) 53:00 "The Butt and the Bustle" (Decoder Ring • Slate • Nov 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Abraham Josephine Riesman is a journalist who writes often for New York and is the author of True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. Her second book, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, will be published in March.“You’re sure that there’s a level of unreality, but you’re not sure that it’s all fake. There’s stuff there that seems either plausible or sometimes you go ‘there’s no way you could fake that.’ And sometimes you’re right, and a lot of times you’re somewhere in the middle. It’s not as easily distinguished as saying this is fact and this is fiction, this was scripted and this was improvised, whatever. You can’t make those distinctions easily, and one of the things I sort of hope comes out of the book—if it has any impact at all—is to try to get us past this false binary of true and false.”Show notes: @abrahamjoseph abrahamriesman.com Riesman on Longform Riesman’s New York Magazine archive 16:00 "She Was WWE’s First Female Referee. She Says Vince McMahon Raped Her." (New York Magazine • June 2022) 27:00 "There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America" (Jamelle Bouie • New York Times • Feb 2023) 28:00 "My Grandfather the Zionist" (New York Magazine • June 2021) 37:00 "How Los Bros Hernandez Stayed Punk for 40 Years with their Epic Comic-Book Saga, Love and Rockets" (GQ • Nov 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonah Weiner is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and co-author of the newsletter Blackbird Spyplane.“It's a version of myself. It's a hyperbolic version of myself. And I think it keeps it fun for me. It doesn't feel like a job. Ideally, it keeps it fun for readers. And I think that there actually is this function where X out of 10 people coming to it, their eyes are going to cross and they're going say, I'm out. No thanks. And that's fine, because the Y out of 10 who stick around feel that much more in on something and it just makes it feel like a funky, special place.”Show notes: @jonahweiner jonahweiner.com Weiner on Longform 00:00 Weiner on Longform Podcast 01:00 "Prying Eyes" (New Yorker • Oct 2012) 01:00 Blackbird Spyplane (Jonah Weiner and Erin Wylie • Substack) 06:00 "Don’t Take This Hunk at Face Value" (New York Times • Mar 2011) 11:00 "Michael Mann’s Damaged Men" (New York Times Magazine • Jul 2022) 23:00 "Wonders of Tokyo" (Blackbird Spyplane • Nov 2022) 23:00 "It’s-a me, Tokyo!" (Blackbird Spyplane • Nov 2022) 25:00 "Blackpilled Swag" (Blackbird Spyplane • Jan 2023) 31:00 The Warning with Steve Schmidt (Steve Schmidt • Substack) 33:00 Weiner's Rolling Stone archive 34:00 Racket (Matt Taibbi • Substack) 34:00 Glenn Greenwald (Glenn Greenwald • Substack) 36:00 "Bob Odenkirk’s Long Road to Serious Success" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2022) 36:00 "Seth Rogan and the Secret to Happiness" (New York Times Magazine • Apr 2021) 37:00 The “Blackbird Spyplane” Interview Archive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Delia Cai is the senior vanities correspondent for Vanity Fair and publishes the media newsletter Deez Links. Her debut novel Central Places is out this week.“This was in like, 2011, where I think actual journalists were still trying to figure out ‘Is it gross to be a brand?’ And at least in school, they were all about it. They’re like, ‘You need a brand, you need to think about what your niche is going to be, you need to think about engaging your audience.’ We had to make websites, we had to blog, and of course, all of us being college students, we started using our blogs to write about each other. We used Twitter to talk shit about each other in a very thinly veiled way. So really, it was the best training for being online.”Show notes: @delia_cai deliacai.com Cai’s Vanity Fair archive Deez Links archive 15:00 Cai’s blog 27:00 "Three Generations of Blue's Clues Hosts Are Still Cool With Being Your Best Friend" (Vanity Fair • Dec 2022) 37:00 "She Invented Adulting. Her Life Fell Apart. She Wants You to Know That’s Okay." (Vanity Fair • May 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peggy Orenstein is a journalist and author. Her latest book is Unraveling.“The challenge is… to not want to say, I need to know what the book is about. I need to have my chapters. I need to know what exactly I'm looking for. Because it's really scary to just go out and report and have trust that there's going to be interesting things and that if you just keep going, you're going to find them. So to not foreclose possibility and options and ideas is the biggest reporting challenge for those sorts of books for me.”Show notes: @peggyorenstein peggyorenstein.com 01:00Girls & Sex (Harper • 2016) 01:00 Boys & Sex (Harper • 2020) 01:00 Cinderella Ate My Daughter (Harper • 2012) 01:00 Waiting for Daisy (Bloomsbury • 2007) 01:00 Unraveling (Harper • 2023) 14:00 Salt: A World History (Mark Kurlansky • Penguin Books • 2003) 18:00 "Mourning My Miscarriage" (New York Times Magazine • Apr 2002) 21:00 Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap (Anchor • 1995) 25:00 "Champion of the Deep" (New York Times Magazine • Jun 1991) 37:00 Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott • Anchor • 1995) 47:00 Aftersun (A24 • 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonathan Goldstein is an audio producer and the host of Heavyweight.“I wasn’t taking myself very seriously, initially. I liked working with my friends and family because I think I was a little more comfortable with them. Then in the second season people were writing in with real problems, and they were looking at me as a kind of expert. It was terrifying to meet with these people and see the look of hopefulness in their eyes. ... I realized I need to step it up and even if I didn’t feel like an expert—an expert in an invented field that doesn’t really exist—that I’d really have to take that on with seriousness.”Show notes: @J_Goldstein Goldstein’s Heavyweight archive 02:00 "Plan B" (Ira Glass • This American Life • Feb 2002) 10:00 Goldstein’s This American Life archive 14:00 Lenny Bruce is Dead (Counterpoint Press • 2006) 16:00 "I Know What You Did This Summer" (Ira Glass • This American Life • Aug 2001) 17:00 "Other People’s Problems" (Jonathan Goldstein • CBC • Sept 2020) 19:00Goldstein’s Wiretap archive, selected and republished by the CBC 23:00 "What I Should’ve Said" (Ira Glass • This American Life • Jan 2004) 23:00 "Recordings for Someone" (Ira Glass • This American Life • Jan 2002) 26:00 "Buzz" (Jonathan Goldstein • Gimlet • Sept 2016) 31:00 "The Elliotts" (Jonathan Goldstein • Gimlet • Dec 2022) 33:00 "Justine" (Jonathan Goldstein • Gimlet • Oct 2021) 33:00 "Stephen" (Jonathan Goldstein • Gimlet • Oct 2021) 37:00 "Dr. Muller" (Jonathan Goldstein • Gimlet • Nov 2019) 43:00 "Another Roadside Attraction" (Jonathan Goldstein • Gimlet • Nov 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Katy Vine is an executive editor for Texas Monthly.“This is a huge state. There’s so much, and it’s different everywhere you look. You just go to Houston and there’s worlds within worlds within worlds just within the one city. You go to San Antonio and you’re in a different country, and you go to Dallas, you’re in a totally different country. … It’s wild to me. It’s endlessly fascinating.”Show notes: @Katy_Vine Vine on Longform Vine’s Texas Monthly archive 07:00 "Family Circus" (Texas Monthly • Aug 2002) 16:00 "Just Desserts" (Texas Monthly • Jan 2016) 20:00 "The Wildest Insurance Fraud Scheme Texas Has Ever Seen" (Texas Monthly • Sep 2020) 23:00 "Plenty of Ammo" (Texas Monthly • Aug 2001) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Khabat Abbas is an independent journalist and video producer from northeastern Syria, and the winner of the 2021 Kurt Schork News Fixer Award.”I can see from my experience that there is a gap between the editors, who are kind of elites in their luxury offices, and the amazing journalists who are in the field, who all sympathize with what they are seeing on the ground and want to cover [it], but they have to satisfy the editors. And this is how we end up having little gaps in the ways of covering in general. It's not a matter of like, they shaped it in this way. The problem, I think, it’s bigger. How this industry is working, how this industry is deciding what they should cover.”Show notes: @khabat_abas Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism 34:00 "'Belief Allows Us to Move Forward,' Said One Female Soldier in Battle Against ISIS" (ABC News • July 2017) 40:00 "The Former 'Caliphate Capital' Is Haunted by Fears of an ISIS Comeback" (Washington Post • May 2020) 43:00 "How ISIS Women and Their Children Are Being Left Stranded in the Desert" (Washington Post • Dec 2019) 43:00 "ISIS at a Crossroads" (Washington Post • Dec 2019) 43:00 "After the ISIS Caliphate: Thousands of Islamic State Fighters Captured in Syria Face Uncertain Fate" (Washington Post • Dec 2019) 51:00 "'This Is Ethnic Cleansing': A Dispatch from Kurdish Syria" (New York Review of Books • Oct 2019) 51:00 "For Kurds on the Syrian Front Line There’s No Ceasefire" (The Daily Beast • Nov 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chloé Cooper Jones is a philosopher and journalist whose work has appeared in GQ, The Verge, The Believer and many other publications. Her new book is Easy Beauty.”I literally didn't talk to anyone in my life about disability until I was, like, 30. Ever. Not my husband, not my friends, as little as possible to my own mother. I had this very bad idea that what I needed to do in every single social situation was wait until people could unsee my body…. And it was all in service of trying to be truly recognized or truly seen. And, of course, what was happening is I was involved in a complete act of self erasure because my body and my real self are related…. There is no real me without my physical self…. I did not think I was going to ever write about this, but once I started, it felt like I met myself for the first time.”Show notes: @CCooperJones chloecooperjones.com  Cooper Jones on Longform 00:00 Easy Beauty (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster • 2022) 01:00 "Fearing for His Life" (The Verge • Mar 2019) 02:00 "Contemplating Beauty in a Disabled Body" (New York Times Magazine • Mar 2022) 19:00 "Such Perfection" (The Believer • Jun 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices