Podcast – Page 7 – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 339: Jeff Pearlman

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What a surprise! Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman), author of The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, came by the show to talk about writing biography (but don’t bring up the word craft, okay?).

This was a wonderful conversation from a brilliant writer and reporter, and a great advocate for the writing community at large. He’s the host of Two Writers Slinging Yang.

Writing this story was the hardest one he’d ever reported. He wrote it in backwards chronology, a la Memento. Did you know I did something similar back in 2016? True story. Jeff got $4 a word for his 3,000-word story; I got $200 for a 5,000-word story. That should give you an idea what kind of astral plane Jeff Pearlman works from. He’s a pretty cool dude.

Episode 334: Katrina Miller

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By Brendan O’Meara

It’s always fun when scientists come on the show. We’ve had a volcanologist on in Jess Phoenix. We’ve had a guy who studies meteors in Greg Brennecka. We’ve had a paleontologies in Steve Brusatte (and he’s coming back). Now we have a physicist/writer in Katrina Miller!

Katrina (@__katrinarenee) is a brilliant writer whose essay tracks her journey as a physics PhD candidate, along with other pioneering Black women physicists. It’s a beautiful piece and it’ll be great to see what Katrina comes up with next. She’ll be wrapping up her dissertation soon, but she plans on pivoting to more science writing vs. academia.

Episode 333: Malaka Gharib

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By Brendan O’Meara

Cartooning is the best.

And Malaka Gharib (@malakagharib on IG) is one of my favorites. She’s funny, quirky, and wicked smaht.

She’s got a great newsletter (aren’t they ALL the rage these days?), A List of Beautiful Things.

In 2019, her first graphic memoir, I Was Their American Dream, was highly noted by all the notables. And her latest graphic memoir is It Won’t Always Be Like This (Ten Speed Press).

Episode 332: David Maraniss

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By Brendan O’Meara

David Maraniss is the author of several biographies, including his latest, Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe (Simon & Schuster). This book will make a great addition to your sports biographies. But like great stories involving sport, it’s about so much more.

David has written biographies on Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente and now the great Jim Thorpe.

In this conversation we talk about David’s “four legs of the table” for writing biography, navigating around people who won’t talk, world building in biography, and a whole lot more.

Episode 331: Seyward Darby

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By Brendan O’Meara

Seyward Darby is here to talk about her investigative piece about the alleged sexual misconduct at a progressive public school in Los Angeles. It’s the first piece she’s ever written for the magazine she edits, something she was cognizant of when reporting and writing this piece. As a result, she was that much harder on herself. The title of the piece is “Fault Lines,” and you most certainly need to check it out.

We talk about how she handled reporting on and interviewing the Jane Does at the center of this case and how she was able to make the story “Atavisty.” Consider subscribing to the Atavist Magazine** so you get access to stories past and present.

Episode 330: Kim H. Cross

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By Brendan O’Meara

Ever have one of those friends who bails you out of jail? Me neither, but Kim H. Cross came pretty damn close because at the last minute she was willing to fire up the mics and head on down to CNF Pod’s digital HQ for her second time back to the show.

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Kim is the author of What Stands in a Storm and The Stahl House. Her work has been anthologized by Best American Sports Writing (RIP) and Year’s Best Sports Writer (the phoenix!). Something about Kim: few people are more passionate about telling true stories than she is.

In this episode we talk about:

Episode 329: Alexandra Lytton Regalado

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By Brendan O’Meara

What a treat! Alexandra Lytton Regalado (@alexlregalado) stopped by CNF Pod HQ to talk about her award-winning poetry collection (forthcoming, pre-order now!) Relinquenda (Beacon Press). It was a National Poetry Series winner and with good reason.

Alexandra pushes the form and almost no two poems are alike as she delves into her relationships with father, husband, and men. If her first collection, Matria, dealt with women, this collection deals with men.

Her work has appeared in many places, like our good pals Creative Nonfiction.

It’s a wonderful read, and in this podcast we talk about death and dying, finding flow, style and voice, how to translate, and a whole lot more.

Episode 328 [RERUN]: My #HippoCamp21 Talk — In Their Words: Lessons Learned from the Best of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

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By Brendan O’Meara

This year has been a tough year to book guests. Thankfully some, like Ruby McConnell and Donna Talarico swoop in at the last moment and bail me out.

Sometimes, as was the case earlier this month when I was dealing a family emergency, I couldn’t face the mic and we missed our first week in YEARS.

I’m not a fan of “reruns,” especially when all the episodes are in the feed, but the feed is long and overwhelming. This week, to celebrate HippoCamp22, I figured why not re-surface my HippoCamp21 talk (which garnered such feedback as, “would not see him speak again.” Can’t win ’em all.).

Episode 327: Donna Talarico

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By Brendan O’Meara

It’s that time of year…it’s HippoCamp Season! Over the Aug. 12-14 weekend, Donna Talarico and her cohort of devoted volunteers will host the seventh conference devoted solely to creative nonfiction writing.

Carmen Maria Machado will be the keynote speaker and there will be dozens of breakout sessions to choose from, be it Allison K. Williams, Jeannine Oullette, or Athena Dixon.

Episode 326: Jana Meisenholder

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By Brendan O’Meara

Jana Meisenholder is a freelance journalist based out of Los Angeles and she’s got a new piece out for The Atavist Magazine. It’s an incredible tale of drive and obsession.

Jana’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Wall Street Journal, and, now The Atavist.

This episode was my COVID episode (still sparring with it, though I think the worst is behind me). Sometimes when I do these interviews you see threads dangling in the conversation and you have to make a choice which thread to pull. If I wasn’t so sick, I would’ve pulled on a couple, but I couldn’t. I simply … could … not. THAT SAID, this episode still came out great.

Jana’s piece follows Andres Beckett, a Mexican-American man hellbent on finding mentorship to lead him over the edge of the Suicide Race. It’s a trip, man.

We start off by talking to editor-in-chief Seyward Darby before we get into the skeleton, the meat, and the bones with Jana.