Journalism – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 409: Chain Smoking Book Projects with Earl Swift

Earl Swift is our guest for Ep. 409. He is the author of more books than you have fingers including The Big Roads, Chesapeake Requiem, Across the Airless Wilds, and his most recent book Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America’s Second Slavery. It’s published by Mariner Books.

Just when you think this country couldn’t find a way to let you down, well, just give it some time. In the spirt of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Earl found a troubling story in its wicked cruelty, of a farmer, John S. Williams, who murdered 11 Black laborers rather than face charges for peonage. Earl expands on what this is in the book and in this conversation.

It got me thinking about the hidden histories of this country, atrocities and tragedies buried by the past. And it’s the serendipity of finding reference to these stories — research by catch — that people Earl can then expand and illuminate. Man, what a book.

Episode 405: Hallie Lieberman and the Drawer of Dead Pitches

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By Brendan O’Meara

Hallie Lieberman (@hallielieberman) has now written for The Atavist Magazine twice, her latest chronicling the crimes of “The Handcuff Man” in her “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Hallie writes a lot about the sex industry and LBGTQ+ issues. She’s also the author of Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy.

This conversation was a trip. Hallie is a force of nature, candid, and joy to speak with and, I hope, a joy for you to listen to.

In this episode we talk about the draw of dead pitches, rejection, perseverance, and how to find wills.

Now in Paperback: Howard Bryant says ‘Everybody Gets Forgotten’

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This episode originally aired on June 10, 2022 as Episode 320.

By Brendan O’Meara

What a great interview to re-up. Tremendous insights into the craft of biography and the perfect way to lobby subjects about what it’s important for a credible journalist to tell their stories: Everybody gets forgotten. They might not thinks so, but it’s true. And Howard made that case to Rickey Henderson for Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original.

Howard is the author of several books including The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism, and Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston.

Episode 395: “The Six,” Mini-Deadlines and the Twang with Loren Grush

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By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, look! It’s Loren Grush (@grushcrush)! She’s a space journalist and author of The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts (Scribner Book Company).

This was a fun chat about:

Centering women in space
Setting mini-deadlines
The Vomit Comet
And what the hell is the “twang”?

Episode 393: Katya Cengel and Finding Enough ‘There’ There for The Atavist

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By Brendan O’Meara

Katya Cengel (@kcengel) is a journalist and author, and she’s the journalist behind “The Truth is Out There” for The Atavist Magazine. A father’s disappearance, dark family secrets, and the hunt for Bigfoot.

It’s a touching story on “searching for elusive truths,” that weaves together cryptozoology and a family in search of their father.

So in this episode we unpack who Katya dug up this story, earning trust, and getting comfortable with untidy endings.

We also speak with editor Jonah Ogles about getting pitches over the hump and the value in pitching again and again.

Lots of great stuff for you to chew on.

Episode 385: Robert Kolker

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By Brendan O’Meara

Let me list the accolades and accomplishments of Robert Kolker:

Best-selling author of Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family and Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery.
Lost Girls is now a Netflix film
Hidden Valley Road was recommended not only by Oprah, but also Barrack Obama
His features have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Wired, and Oprah Magazine, among others.

His latest is “Dead Reckoning” for The Atavist Magazine, and it chronicles the greatest peacetime nautical disaster in U.S. history. It deals with skepticism over technology, honor, fathers and sons, hubris, and many other juicy themes.

Episode 377: Carlos Barragan

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By Brendan O’Meara

Always nice to reach that Atavistian time of the month and this month has a great piece that combines the personal and the journalistic, “The Romance Scammer on My Sofa.”

These scammers, Yahoo Boys, as they’re called, spam people — the lonelier the better — in an effort to steal money. They’re based largely out of Lagos, Nigeria and there’s a great chance one of these Yahoo Boys has knocked on your door in one way or another.

They prey on the vulnerable, the lonely, and, for a short time, victimized Carlos’ mother, which led him on something of a manhunt to find the scammer, but what he found was a greater understanding of his mom.

Carlos is a journalist and student at the Columbia School of Journalism. You can find him on Twitter @CarolosBarraganT, and I hope you’ll head to magazine.atavist.com to read his piece and potentially subscribe. And, no, I don’t get any kickbacks, CNFer.

Episode 368: Tyler Hooper

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My first rough draft is my outline. That’s what I’m learning about myself. My first drafts are very rough. It’s literally a dump from my head of what I want to say how I want to say it, how I think it should be structured.
Tyler Hooper, Ep. 368

By Brendan O’Meara

Hi there, CNFers, we’ve got Tyler Hooper (@thoope r8) in the house to talk about his piece “The Titanic of the Pacific” for The Atavist Magazine.

Tyler cites the great Erik Larson as an influence and you can feel the pulse of that throughout this nautical-disaster piece about the sinking and tragedy surrounding The Valencia. Tyler writes a bit of the backstory at his Medium page here.

Tyler is a writer, podcaster, and storyteller living on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. He has a master’s degree in history and has worked as a journalist.

In this episode we talk about :

Episode 362: Svati Kirsten Narula

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By Brendan O’Meara

What a treat to have Svati Kirsten Narula (@svatikirsten) on the podcast to talk about her Outside feature “A Mountain Called Her Home” about the life and death of Nanda Devi Unsoeld about “went went wrong during this controversial adventure, shedding light on an enigmatic young woman who lived without limits.”

This is a great chat about patience, not burning bridges, and the struggle of lobbying for access with people who have felt burned in the past and, despite a reporter’s best intentions, burning those people again.

Episode 359: Shannon McCaffrey

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By Brendan O’Meara

Who doesn’t like a good elephant story? Shannon McCaffrey, @shannonajc1, she of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, wrote a piece called “Sanctuary” for this month’s Atavist Magazine.

Here’s a little nugget from the piece:

There are many kinds of love stories. This one involves a woman and an elephant, and their bond spanning nearly 50 years. It involves devotion and betrayal. It also raises difficult questions about the relationship between humans and animals, about control and freedom, about what it means to own another living thing.

Shannon wrote this piece on spec as it was part of her MFA project from the University of Georgia. This is something of a rarity for Seyward Darby, editor-in-chief of the Atavist, and we talk a little bit about that at the top of the show.

In this conversation, you’ll find: