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

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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 197: Eva Holland — Coping by Going into Reporter Mode

By Brendan O’Meara

Eva Holland returns to the show after a long, long absence.

In this episode, you’ll hear some of the advanced advice she knows and wants to know regarding freelancing, the nexus of memoir and deep reportage, participatory antics, and overcoming the imposter syndrome of stepping out of her comfort zone.

I’m hesitant to include or first interview because it is a rough production. Eva was great. Me on the other hand …

In any case, Eva has a new book out called Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear (The Experiment, 2020) and it is a trip.

“I knew right away I would be writing about my mom’s death. I knew that immediately,” Eva told me, and that was what triggered a years’ long journey into fear and her relationship to it.

Follow the show @CNFPod on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Email the show with questions or kind words creativenonfictionpodcast@gmail.com. If this show means something to you, please consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

Episode 195: Ben Cohen and ‘The Hot Hand’

By Brendan O’Meara

“I know if some one else wrote this book, I would be very envious and jealous and never let myself feel the end of it,” says Ben Cohen, NBA writer for The Wall Street Journal and author of The Hot Hand: The Mystery and the Science Behind Streaks (Custom House, 2020). He’s @bzcohen on Twitter.

This was a fun book, especially if you like Malcolm Gladwell-style books that orbit one idea. This book takes you all over the place, not just basketball, so I think you’ll have a lot of fun with it. If I didn’t already put in the last newsletter, I’ll be sure to include it in the next one.

In any case, don’t forget that we’re putting out our very first audio-mag on the theme: Social Distancing, essays from/on isolation. They must be 2,000 words or fewer (that’s a 15-minute read) and be original work. Email you submission to creative nonfiction podcast at gmail dot com, ya dig?

That’s as good a time as any to say that I’m thinking of all you out there. Some have it pretty rough. I can’t complain. I have shelter, food, clothes and a job (for now) that lets me work from home. And I’ve got this podcast that I get to make for you.

This show only work if you share it hand to hand. Be an Ambassador CNFer and spread what we’re doing around. @CNFPod on all the social platforms.

You can pair this episode with people like Scott Eden or Greg Hanlon.

Other writers mentioned were Michael Lewis and J.R. Moehringer.

Episode 194: Michael Schulman — Driven by Joy, New Yorker Profiles, and the ‘Secret Word’

By Brendan O’Meara

“Selection is as creative as generation,” says Michael Schulman on the podcast.

Michael Schulman is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Her Again, a biography of the early life of Meryl Streep. Go check it out. I haven’t read it yet, as I came to Michael’s work through his profiles in The New Yorker.

As coincidence would have it, once I had lined up Michael to be on the show, he appeared on This American Life during the introduction to the Everyone’s a Critic show.

In any case, it was Michael’s profile on James Cordon that prompted me to reach out, but I also loved his work on Adam Driver and Bo Burnham as well.

In this show we talk about how his work is driven by joy, how he boils down each story down to a single, secret word, and how his background in theater led to his break at the magazine. Some great stuff here.

This episode is sponsored in part by Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing.

Follow the podcast on social media @CNFPod across all the various platforms and sign up for that newsletter.

And did you listen to the long introduction to this episode yet? I’m publishing the first CNF Pod audio magazine with the theme Social Distancing: Essays from/of Isolation. Word limit is 2,000 as we want the reading to be 15 minutes or less. Email submissions to creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com. DEADLINE IS MAY 1, 2020.

In this time of social distancing and isolation, hearing essays from this challenging time can bring us together. I hope you’ll submit your best work. I’d be honored to publish it three or four of however many submissions I receive.

OK, readyyyyyy, break!

PS: I’m having technical difficulties uploading photographs, so that’s why you haven’t seen author photos for the past few episodes. Hoping the host I pay money to will figure it out.

Episode 167: Steven Hyden—Woodstock ’99, ‘Break Stuff,’ and Books as Roadtrips

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“You tend to agree more with the people who don’t like what you do more than the people who do like what you do.” — Steven Hyden (@steven_hyden)

Hey, CNFers, glad you could make it. Got Steven Hyden for you. He’s a rock critic for Uproxx and his podcast Break Stuff about Woodstock ’99 is the stuff of legend. So I reached out to him.

We talk about that, books as roadtrips, and how you can have, perhaps, “questionable” taste, but still be a good read.

He makes mention of Chuck Klosterman being an inspiration given they come from similar backgrounds: remote upbringing yet somehow made a go of it in mainstream rock criticism.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I hope I’ve made something worth sharing, so share widely. And if you’re feeling kind, leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Books by Steven Hyden

Your Favorite Band is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life
Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock
Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes—A Memoir

Episode 162: Seyward Darby — Editing as Collaboration at The Atavist

“Let me be your sounding board for how the piece should come together.” — Seyward Darby (@seywarddarby)

“Writing reminds you what it’s like to stare at a blank page and how hard it is to create a first draft,” Seyward Darby said on Episode 162 of the podcast.

She’s the executive editor of The Atavist Magazine, an online jam that produces one longform feature a month. It’s awesome. It’s on my bucket list as a place to have work published.

So many great nuggets in this episode specifically about pitching/querying. It’s another master class in what she finds strong. See episodes with Evan Ratliff and Ian Frisch. You gotta have a good fastball, baby.

Subscribe to the show wherever you get your pods. Spot. App. Goog. Stitch. We like one syllable.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod. Instagram is @cnfpod and Facebook is @CNFPodcast or The Creative Nonfiction Podcast. Go jump in. It’s fun. The water’s refreshing.

Share this with a fellow CNFer and link up to it on your preferred social network.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 161: Mark Kram Jr.—Letting the Dust Clear, Being a Late Bloomer, and Smokin’ Joe

“This is not something that comes overnight. It’s a long, arduous road,” says Mark Kram Jr.

Mark Kram Jr., author of Smokin’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier, joined me for a great conversation about his early career and the struggles he overcame.

He learned on the job, more or less. He said he was a late bloomer (Something I can attest to. Still waitin’ on my bloom.)

He also wrote Like Any Normal Day, and edited a book of his father’s best writing Great Men Die Twice.

Mark has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing and has been anthologized The Best American Sports Writing six times.

As always, if you dig the show, please share this across your social networks. Tag the show @CNFPod on Twitter and I’ll jump in the fire with you. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 156: Sonya Huber—Creative Infidelities

Want the transcript to this episode?! PayPal brendan at brendan omeara dot com $5 and I’ll send you the PDF!

By Brendan O’Meara

“I think that’s why people stop writing: the not knowing what you’re doing feels so terrible.” —Sonya Huber (@sonyahuber)

Hey…hey, you, how are you?

Sonya Huber is here. She’s the author of these five books:

Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System
Opa Nobody
Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir
The “Backwards” Research Guide for Writers
The Evolution of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get our podcasts. If you leave a review of the show, I’ll coach up a piece of your writing of up to 2,000 words. Write the review, take a screenshot when it posts, email me the screenshot, and I’ll reach back out and get going.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod or Facebook or Instagram.

Episode 145—Investigative Reporter Scott Eden Talks Structure, Sprawl, and Picking Up the Phone

Scott Eden , investigative reporter for ESPN the Magazine.

By Brendan O’Meara

“The structure should grow organically from the material.”

“At what point are you taxing the reader, knowing when the reader has had enough.”

“I hated [calling people] at first, just terrified of calling people., but I’ve gotten over it. It took years.” —Scott Eden

Here we are again. Today I welcome Scott Eden, an investigative reporter for ESPN the Magazine. His piece on maligned former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was a piece two years in the making and came out in February.

As you may or may not know, this is The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I speak to badass writers about the art and craft of telling true stories.

Episode 143—Blake J. Harris Talks Virtual Reality, Facebook, and His Unlikely Path to Nonfiction Writing

Blake J. Harris wrote the definitive book on virtual reality. Photo credit Katie Wanner

By Brendan O’Meara

“I want to do right by these people. I want to tell a story that honors the stuff they did.” —Blake J. Harris (@blakejharrisNYC)

Ah, yes, it’s The Creative Nonfiction the show where I speak to badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories. For episode 143 I have Blake J. Harris, author of Console Wars, and most recently The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality.

Books by Patrick

Patrick’s Bookshelf for Apocalypse

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

Books by Steven Hyden

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.