Episode 225: Amalia Andrade Dances with Her Fears

By Brendan O’Meara

What a pleasure to have Amalia Andrade (@amaliaandrade_ on Twitter) on the podcast to talk about her new book What You Think About When You Bit Your Nails: A Fear and Anxiety Workbook (Penguin Life).

She’s so damn cool and her style of drawing and writing is so fun and whimsical. I think you’re gonna dig her.

We talk about:

  • Her childhood growing up in Columbia
  • Fear and anxiety
  • Ira Glass and the creative gap (video below)
  • Developing along with her audience
  • And how drawing can alleviate your anxieties

Consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts so more CNFers like YOU will see it. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter where you’ll get great reading recommendations, be entered in raffles for books and maybe, just maybe, be invited to a Zoom Happy Hour on the first of the month, the day the newsletter goes out. You’ll have to subscribe, open the newsletter, and follow the link at the appropriate time.

Cheers!

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Episode 224: Patrick Radden Keefe’s Atypical Path to Narrative Journalism, Writing Books and Making ‘Wind of Change’

View on Zencastr

By Brendan O’Meara

Is there anybody out there better than Patrick Radden Keefe? There are a few on his level, but I wouldn’t say anyone is better and here he is.

He says, “What can I leave out? And that point where I can start leaving things out becomes very liberating because then, in a way, the reporting continues, but it’s narrowing.”

He’s the author of three books (and a fourth coming out in 2021) and it’s his latest book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland that was on everybody’s list, like, Barack Obama’s list. I’m just tickled I have the same initials as Obama.

Patrick also is the host of Wind of Change, the incredible podcast that tries to solve the mystery behind the Scorpions song “Wind of Change” and whether or not the CIA had a hand in writing it.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod and consider leaving a kind review of the podcast so more people can find it, CNFers like you. It only takes a few minutes to tap away but will have a HUGE impact on the show.

Books by Patrick

Say Nothing
Snakehead An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld & the American Dream
Chatter: Uncovering The Echelon Surveillance Network And The Secret World Of Global Eavesdropping

Patrick’s Bookshelf for Apocalypse

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin by Nabokov
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Last Sumaruai by Helen Dewitt



Episode 223: ‘Why Are You Making it, and Who is it for?’ with Kristen Meinzer

Kristen Meinzer

By Brendan O’Meara

“I spend a lot of time thinking about promotion. This isn’t Field of Dreams,” says Kristen Meinzer, @kristenmeinzer on Twitter.

You might remember Kristen from her first soiree on the podcast a few months ago when she and Jolenta Greenberg came by to talk about the book they co-wrote, How to be Fine.

She’s back for a solo show to talk about her book So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community that Will Listen (William Morrow, 2019).

I’m self-taught, been doing this thing for eight years, and I found so many incredible nuggets in this book. The thing is, it’s ostensibly about podcasting, but you can apply the principles to anything.

We talk about structure in writing and in podcasting, why are you starting a podcast and who is it for, pet peeves in podcasting, mistakes new producers make, promoting a show, and what exactly a producer does.

Good stuff.

Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, tell a friend, and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Keep the conversation going on social media. It’s @CNFPod across Twitter, IG, and FB.

Kristen’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse or Library for the End of the World (in pictures!)

Leave the show a voicemail and I’ll answer your question on the show!

Gotta get that monthly newsletter! Here’s a link to the archive. It only goes back to March 2019, but you’ll get the drift.

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Episode 222: Catherine Grace Katz on One-Word Distillations, the Thrill of Research and ‘The Daughters of Yalta’

By Brendan O’Meara

Catherine Grace Katz, author of The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War, joins me to talk about her new book.

You can find her @Catherine_Katz on Twitter.

Catherine graduated from Harvard with a BA in history in 2013. She earned an MPhil in modern European history from Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge in 2014, and now is pursuing her JD at Harvard Law School.

You could say she was punching down in class coming by to speak with me.

She joins the ranks of several historians who have been on the show like Laura Hillenbrand, Bob Batchelor, and James Carl Nelson, to name a few.

We talk about her upbringing in Chicago and how stories were such an early part of her life, her dissertation on modern counterintelligence, research, and her Bookshelf for the Apocalypse. All great stuff.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across the Big Three and consider leaving the show a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Drop me a line if you have questions, want me to work with you on your book or essay, or you just want to say hello.

Catherine’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

A Gentleman in Moscow
Emma
Anne Green Gables
The Martian
To Kill a Mockingbird
In Command of History

Brendan does not get a kickback for any book sales via affiliate links. This is why he fails.

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Episode 221: Power Couple Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham Bring You ‘The Gay Agenda’

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham

By Brendan O’Meara

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham are the creative, queer and trans power couple behind the incredible and beautiful book The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History and Handbook (Morrow Gift, 2020).

You can follow them and their stationery story at ashandchess.com and follow them on Instagram @ashandchess.

We dig into where they grew up, how they met, the “so 2018” way their book came to be, and much, much more.

Keep the conversation going on social @CNFPod and consider sharing the show across your networks. If you tag the show, I’ll be sure to give you some love, most likely in the form of a James Hetfield GIF. Also consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. It would give me and the show a great boost.

Ash and Chess’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse*

Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity, and Masculinity by Thomas Page McBee
The Twits by Roald Dahl
The Hike by Drew Magary
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
The Fireside Book of Children’s Songs
*: These are not affiliate links. Brendan does not get a commission based on book sales, though he acknowledges this is probably really stupid not to.

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Episode 220: The ‘Unreality’ of Elisa Gabbert

By Brendan O’Meara

Elisa Gabbert is back, baby.

She’s got a new book out called The Unreality of Memory (FSG, 2020). It’s a killer collection of disaster essays and what we’ve come to expect from Elisa, which is to say deeply intellectual, observant, incredibly researched with just a dash of the personal.

As always, be sure you’re subscribed to this podcast wherever you listen and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across the big three. I’ll be emerging from my social media detox soon since I finished the latest draft of my memoirvel.

If you have questions or just want to say hello to the show, click on the appropriate button, leave a message, and I’ll be sure to address the best questions I get. Don’t be shy 🙂

I brought back the Bookshelf for the Apocalypse, a CNF Pod deep cut of how I’d ask guests what books were so important to them that they’d pack them in their survival pack for the end of the world. You have that to look forward to towards the end of the show. Enjoy, friend.

Elisa’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

Moby Dick
Howards End
Collection of John Ashbery’s work
Collection of Susan Sontag’s early work
The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Other Books by Elisa Gabbert

The Word Pretty
The Self Unstable
L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems

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Episode 219: Matt Hongoltz-Hetling — $30 Stories, Brute-Force Freelancing (And Some Bears)

Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

By Brendan O’Meara

This was a fun one. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling came to play ball, CNFers and I think he’s really going to show you a thing or two.

While working menial jobs, he started writing stories for local papers for $30 and from there slowly leveled up, always pitching, always pitching, until he had stories in The Atavist, The Seattle Times, Weather.com, USA TODAY, and, at last, his incredible book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears).

You can find him at his website and on Twitter @hh_matt.

I love how Matt talks about his “brute-force method” of pitching, which is what it sounds like: pitch until your arm hangs off, deal with a low batting average, and eventually things will stick.

I think you’re going to dig this conversation a lot and if you do, know that the podcast is fueled by five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. It’s true.

And be sure to subscribe to my monthly newsletter. It’s the best place to keep abreast of what we’re up to here at CNF Pod HQ. I raffle off books to subscribers, give writing tips, and share recommendations about books and the writing life. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

And if you have a question you’d like me to answer on air, just click the appropriate button below and I’ll do my best to answer it for you and for the community. If you have a concern, odds are that hundreds, if not thousands of others, feel the same. Take the leap.

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Episode 218: Mary Pilon, Louisa Thomas, Seasoned Losers

Louisa Thomas
Mary Pilon

By Brendan O’Meara

What a treat to welcome back Mary Pilon and Louisa Thomas to the podcast.

Both are brilliant writers and reporters, bestselling authors, Best American Sports Writing alums, you name it. They’re here to talk about the book they co-edited called Losers: Dispatches from the Other Side of the Scoreboard (Penguin).

The conversation starts out with Mary and me and then Louisa jumps in about halfway through.

So many great insights in what it means and what it reveals to be a loser. Mary and Louisa say they are “seasoned losers,” so we dive into that a bit.

Mary is the author of The Monopolists and The Kevin Show.

Louisa is the author of Conscience, Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, and Mind and Matter.

Let me know what you think about this episode and what struck you about their brilliant insights into writing and losing. Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod, though I’m detoxing until I finish my book, so if I don’t give you digital fist bumps or a James Hetfield gif, that’s why.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and to my monthly CNFin’ newsletter. And if you want to leave a question for the show, click the appropriate button on the little voicemail widget and I’ll answer it on the show. Ya dig?

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Episode 217: Lidia Yuknavitch on Usefulness, Riding the Wave, and Being a Word Creature

Lidia Yuknavitch. Photo credit William Anthony

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, CNFers, guess who’s here? Lidia Yuknavitch! She’s @LidiaYuknavitch on Twitter and @lidiasmiles on Instagram.

She’s the author of Scribd original “Letter to My Rage,” as well as the critically acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water.

She also had a wildly popular TED Talk that I’ve seen a few times and love it every time. Check it:

Lidia doesn’t get much cooler and you’re going to love her approach to being useful, how the energy to write builds like a wave — and not the way you’re thinking about a wave right now, shouldering the door open and the “hotness” of the woman-writer-titans that cracked the world open for her.

Please consider sharing this episode in some for with your networks. You can tag the show @CNFPod across all the big platforms. Be forewarned, I’m in social media detox until I finish my book, so if I don’t you give you love, I’m not being a dick, I swear.

Leave a kind review on Apple Podcasts. We’re almost at 100. Tell me there are seven of you who haven’t left a review yet. Go and do it. Get us to the finish line!

Got a question about writing, podcasting, or a past episode? I’d love to hear it. Just click the appropriate button and I’ll answer it on the show.

And lastly, in a world where I’m no longer on social media (cue harp sounds), newsletters are where it’s at. Join the hundreds and hundreds of people who get my monthly newsletter for recommendations and other cool stuff I think will help you in your journey.

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Episode 216: All-Star Break and a Work-in-Progress

Raph, the space cadet

By Brendan O’Meara

This episode was made possible by Scrivener, by writers, for writers, and if you enter the promo coupon NONFICTION at checkout, you get 20% regular versions of Scrivener for macOS and Windows.

Hey there, CNFer, let’s come right out and say it: no interview this week.

I know, I know.

No worries, it’s fine, it’s all good. I put all my research and reading eggs into one basket for an interview that’s embargoed until November. So I decided to put together an all-star team of the ten most downloaded episodes (actually 11 since there was a tie).

And as a bonus, I read a work-in-progress, a little essay called “Raph, the Space Cadet.” It’s one in a series of essays I’m writing about middle school.

I hope you dig it. It helps to show you I’m in the mud, too, right?

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