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Episode 396: Rae Nudson on Earning Trust, The Atavist, and the Pint-of-Ice-Cream Moment

By Brendan O’Meara

Rae Nudson is a journalist who focuses much of her attention and reportorial energies on women’s health. Her latest piece for The Atavist Magazine (subscribe! I don’t get kickbacks.) is titled “Damages: An ob-gyn in Virginia performed unnecessary surgeries on patients for decades. When his victims learned the truth, they fought back.”

Rae’s work has appeared in The Cut, Paste, Vox, and Giddy. She’s also the author of All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls. of Beauty Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim Kardashian.

In this episode we dig into how she reported this piece and how her central figures sought retribution for the damages inflicted upon them, often without their consent.

We also hear from Seyward Darby, editor-in-chief for The Atavist, about her goals for the upcoming year for herself and the magazine, as well as what she’s looking for in pitches.

The show’s Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Threads @creativenonfictionpodcast. Or not … you know what’s better? Keep reading …

And you know I’d rather you sign up for my Up-to-11 Newsletter. Signup form is below you and to your right. Book recs, book raffles, cool stuff curated by me for you, CNFin’ happy hour or writing group, writing prompts, fun and entertaining. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Consider supporting the show via Patreon patreon.com/cnfpod. Shop around if you want to support the community. You make that possible. The show is free but it ain’t cheap.

Free ways to support the show?

Subscribe and download and share across your socials. And don’t forget to consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Those go a LONG way.

Now in Paperback: Jackie MacMullan on the Fear of Failure, Writing that Teaches You, and the Final Chapter of ‘Best American Sports Writing’

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By Brendan O’Meara

Nice to re-up Jackie MacMullan, the legendary sports writer for The Boston Globe, ESPN.com, The Ringer, and several books she co-authored.

Over the course of her career, she has co-written books, collaborated on books, and now she can add guest editor to 30th and final volume of The Best American Sports Writing.

In this conversation, we talk about:

The rigor of reporting
Making the extra ten calls
Fear
And how writing should teach you something

Among other things, of course.

I hope you dig it and consider emailing this to a friend and let them know what we’re up to here at CNF Pod HQ.

Episode 394: Athena Dixon is OK with the Plateau

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By Brendan O’Meara

Look who’s back! It’s Athena Dixon! Her latest book (as of 2023) is The Loneliness Files: A Memoir in Essays. It’s published by Tin House and edited by Hanif Abdurraqib.

It’s a quiet book, but don’t mistake that for meek. And we talk about the quiet authority of her book as well as:

Athena being OK with the plateau
Setting a concrete vision for your goals as a writer
How Hanif helped her with throat clearing
And how she edits clients without losing their voices

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.

Now in Paperback: Susan Orlean on Writing for an Audience and the Entrepreneurial Nature of a Writing Career

This episode originally aired on August 11, 2017 as Episode 61

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These “now in paperbacks” are a nice reprieve for me work-wise and time-wise, and it’s nice to scroll through my Pocket Casts apps and go, “Oh, that’d be a snazzy one!”

And so we’re here with Susan Orlean’s first rodeo at CNF Pod HQ. Great stuff, like:

always having an audience in mind
having supreme focus
and needing to see yourself as a business person if you plan on doing this type of work

Naturally, a lot more stuff to gnaw on. There was no book to promote, so this is really a writing and craft-centered pod. Future pods dig into her recent work, being The Library Book and On Animals as of this date, Nov. 24, 2023.

The show’s Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod. Or not … you know what’s better? Keep reading …

And you know I’d rather you sign up for my Up-to-11 Newsletter. Here’s the latest. Signup form is below you and to your right. Book recs, book raffles, cool stuff curated by me for you, CNFin’ happy hour or writing group, writing prompts, fun and entertaining. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Consider supporting the show via Patreon patreon.com/cnfpod. Shop around if you want to support the community. You make that possible. The show is free but it ain’t cheap.

Free ways to support the show?

Subscribe and download and share across your socials. And don’t forget to consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Those go a LONG way.

Episode 392: Damon Brown Goes from Zero to 18,000

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By Brendan O’Meara

Damon Brown is an author, entrepreneur, and coach and his latest book is The Complete Bring Your Worth Collection. It is definitive. It is his capstone.

Much of Damon’s work has been centered on writing, but the past few years he’s started a fine YouTube show that showcases his particular expertise and how he can get you where you want to go.

In this episode, we talk about:

How he grew is YouTube channel from 0 to 18K
The BYW Collection as capstone
And how obscurity is your friend … to a point

There’s lots of other stuff to chew on as well, naturally. I also share a parting shot about the needless and senseless worry over platform building and where we really need to put our focus. It’s kinda like this blog I wrote … but with more swears.

Now in Paperback: Glenn Stout on Combining the Things You Love, Effort, and the Poem That ‘Knocked Him on his Ass’

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By Brendan O’Meara

This was originally published as Episode 14 on Dec. 6, 2015.

Always nice blow the dust off an older podcast. By virtue of the being older, the snap judgement is that they’re dated. I do go back through and re-edit the paperback podcasts to scrub out what feels dated and keep what’s evergreen.

It helps that, by and large, I try and produce evergreen interviews from the start, but this one had some references to a old job of Glenn’s, which didn’t really fit for 2023.

But what’s left is sure to give you a run for your money, man.

Episode 390: How Did the Pitcher Pedro Martinez Help Will Harrison’s Writing?Episode 390:

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Sponsor love: Liquid IV, promo code cnf

Want some suds? Visit athleticbrewing.com and use promo code BRENDANO20 at checkout. I don’t get money, just points toward swag and beer.

By Brendan O’Meara

Will Harrison (@thechillestwill) came on the show to talk about his essay My Unlikely Writing Teacher: Pedro Martinez for the New York Times Magazine.

Loved. This. Essay.

And it’s short, which is always kind of a bonus.

Will is an instructor at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. He has written for The Cleveland Review of Books and The Baffler, among others. You can learn more about him at his website, willharrisonwriter.com.

Now in Paperback: Dinty W. Moore on the Gift of Feedback, Reading Like a Mechanic, and Patience

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Sponsor love: Liquid IV, promo code cnf

Want some suds? Visit athleticbrewing.com and use promo code BRENDANO20 at checkout. I don’t get money, just points toward swag and beer.

By Brendan O’Meara

Dinty W. Moore (@brevitymag) runs the creative writing program at Ohio University. He founded Brevity Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to short (<750 words) nonfiction. He’s written a dozen books.

Dinty’s book, The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir (Ten Speed Press), will help diagnose—and cure!—common ailments in your project, whether you’re far along in a book (as I am) or you’re just getting starting.

Now in Paperback: Andre Dubus III

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Sponsor love: Liquid IV, promo code cnf

Want some suds? Visit athleticbrewing.com and use promo code BRENDANO20 at checkout. I don’t get money, just points toward swag and beer.

By Brendan O’Meara

As my book work intensifies, we lean on these paperback editions of the podcast! (Listeners are digging them, I think. One, they’re the greatest hits. Two, it keeps you from having to dig through the overwhelming backlog). This one with Andre Dubus III might be my favorite of the entire run of the podcast, no shade thrown to the others.

It’s just … he brought it. And it’s one of the a rare episodes of the show’s run when, after listening, I wanted to get up and write. Right away.

This originally aired as Ep. 54 in June of 2017.