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Episode 362: Svati Kirsten Narula

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 361: Ari Shapiro

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By Brendan O’Meara

Ari Shapiro (@arishapiro) is the host of NPR’s All Things Considered. He’s covered presidents. He’s traveled all over the world. He sings with the band Pink Martini. Now he’s the author of The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening (HarperCollins).

It’s a great memoir and what amounts to a love letter to his craft, which is journalism. So in this conversation, we talk about how:

His kit is like scuba gear
He loves the impermanence of radio
He’s terrified of the permanence of books
Conversations can bridge divides
And much, much more

Episode 360: Elizabeth Gonzalez James

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By Brendan O’Meara

Elizabeth Gonzalez James (@unefemmejames) has a chapbook out called Five Conversations About Peter Sellers (Texas Review Press).

Here’s my favorite Peter Sellers scene from one of The Pink Panther movies.

Though Elizabeth’s chapbook makes no mention of The Pink Panther movies, she’s concerned with Sellers’ erratic behavior around the making of Casino Royale (no, not the James Bond reboot starring Daniel Craig). No, this Casino Royale gave inspiration to … Austin Powers.

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:

Episode 358: Erica J. Berry

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By Brendan O’Meara

Look who’s back! It’s Erica J. Berry (@ericajberry) and she’s here to talk about Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear (Flatiron Books).

Erica came on the show back in 2017 (I shudder to think of the audio) and it’s worth revisiting, and it’s nice that nearly six years later her work has evolved so greatly that we now get to talk about her magnificent book.

In this episode, we talk about:

Episode 355: Flinder Boyd

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By Brendan O’Meara

Ten years.

Ten years since “20 Minutes at Rucker Park” by Flinder Boyd (@FlinderBoyd) for SB Nation Longform for the incomparable editor Glenn Stout.

It felt like a good time to knock on Flinder’s door and have a conversation about what the past ten years has been like for him and what the next ten might look like.

Episode 354: Nile Cappello

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By Brendan O’Meara

Nile Cappello (@liketheriver_) is back!

You might remember her from this:

Here’s a link to that story, “The Girl in the Picture.”

And she’s back, this time to talk about kidfluencer culture in “Crushed.” Brace yourself, CNFers, this one’s a doozie.

Episode 352: Lauren Fleshman

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By Brendan O’Meara

Blink and you might miss Lauren Fleshman (@laurenfleshman). She’s a champion runner and the author of Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World (Penguin Press).

Her new book explores how broken our athletics systems are as they relate to women. By overlaying the female experience over the man’s construct (speak nothing of trans athletes, which is whole other ball of wax for another day), Lauren unpacks what a disservice that is for young women.

Lauren can officially boast that her book is a New York Times best seller, which is pretty bad ass. She wrote the book herself without a ghost writer, so, mad props. And in this episode we talk about:

Episode 350: Damon Brown

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By Brendan O’Meara

You’re in for a treat because Damon Brown is back on the show!

Damon’s laundry list of accolades and books and projects is too long to type. Too long, CNFers. But! He’s awfully proud (and he should be!) of his YouTube show Bring Your Worth. He’s got 300 episodes and counting.

Damon’s also the author of Career Remix: Get the Gig You Want with the Skills You’ve Got.

Episode 349: Madeline Bodin

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By Brendan O’Meara

It’s that Atavistian time of the month! This time we speak with Madeline Bodin, a freelance journalist based out of Vermont.

Her piece “The Curious Case of Nebraska Man” is the story of a fossilized tooth that spurs the debate over evolution and creationism and, as often happens in this country, pins science into a corner where it must be defended again, again, and again.

In this pod, I also speak with editor-in-chief Seyward Darby. Sidebar: She has a new piece in The Guardian about abused beagles. Is there nothing she can’t do? Maybe play drums …