Seyward Darby – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

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

View on Zencastr

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.

Episode 372: Anna Altman

View on Zencastr

Become a Patron!

I try to break it down into sections, when you get the end of a 1,000, or 1,500 words, you’ve made it to the next drop cap, and that feels important.
Anna Altman, Ep. 372

Athletic Brewing Referral link, and use BRENDANO20 at checkout!

By Brendan O’Meara

Anna Altman (@bananaaltman) is a freelance journalist and a social worker in training, and she just wrote and reported her second feature for The Atavist Magazine called “The Quality of Mercy.” It deals with compassionate release for the terminally ill and the one man at the center of it advocating for his fellow inmates.

In this episode we dig into how she arrived at this story and the unique challenges of reporting this piece in the ten-minute chunks Anna had with her central figure, Gary Settle, as they spoke through the prison phone system.

Episode 363: Eric Pape

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Eric Pape (@ericpape) came by CNF Pod HQ to talk about his piece for The Atavist, “Sins of the Father.“

This is one’s a gut punch. And, as Seyward Darby, editor-in-chief of The Atavist, says in this interview, she pushes against the gimmicky. This piece delivers a brutal punch, takes us on a journey around an abusive marriage, conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers, Tony Robbins-esque self-help, and more.

How Eric kept it all together is a testament to his skill as a reporter and a writer.

Episode 349: Madeline Bodin

Become a Patron!

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 …

Episode 331: Seyward Darby

Become a Patron!

Beer referral link. BRENDANO20 at checkout gets you a nice discount*

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 326: Jana Meisenholder

Become a Patron!

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.

Episode 299: Christine Grimaldi and “The Shadow and the Ghost”

Become a Patron!

Sponsor love: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing

By Brendan O’Meara

Christine Grimaldi (@chgrimaldi) is here to talk about her piece for The Atavist Magazine called “The Shadow and the Ghost.“

It blends memoir and journalism into a gripping tale of grifters and when secrets become an inheritance.

We talk about about her story, her love being edited, and being a “sentence thief.”

We also hear from lead editor and editor-in-chief Seyward Darby about the experience of editing this piece, as well as other themes that cropped regarding Christine’s piece.

Episode 294: ‘We Wish to be Able to Sing’, Mike Damiano Talks About His Atavist Story

Sponsor love: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s MFA in Creative Writing

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Mike Damiano brings 2021 to a close with his piece for the Atavist Magazine about an unlikely revolutionary who helped the people of Easter Island earn rights they deserved from an oppressive Chilean naval regime. It’s the story of Alfonso Rapu a school teacher turned revolutionary via nonviolence. It’s called “We Wish to Be Able to Sing.”

Mike is a staff writer for Boston Magazine, but like many people writing stories for the Atavist, he’d been working on this Easter Island story for years. Atavist becomes like this benevolent foster home for stories that are too long for traditional magazines and too short to be books. And Seyward and Jonah say, come here little story, we’re gonna make you a STAR!

The show has a new Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.

Consider supporting the show via Patreon patreon.com/cnfpod. Shop around if you want to support the community. I just paid out the writers from the last audio magazine. 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 289: The Atavist’s ‘Feast for Lost Souls’ with Annelise Jolley and Zahara Gomez

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Annelise Jolley and Zahara Gomez teamed up to create “A Feast for Lost Souls” for this month’s piece for The Atavist Magazine.

What an incredible story about a group of women who hunt for the bodies of their “disappeared” loved ones, but find ways to honor them through cooking. The Memory Recipe Book is what Zahara helped develop, along with the widows and mothers, to pay tribute to their lost sons and husbands.

Zahara also created a few mini-documentaries as part of this story to go along with Annelise’s incredible reporting and writing of the piece.

Episode 280: Laura Todd Carns and ‘Searching for Mr. X,’ an Atavist Original

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Laura Todd Carns is here to talk about her latest feature for The Atavist Magazine. It’s called “Searching for Mr. X: For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?”

Laura is a novelist, essayist, and journalist whose work has appeared in many places. You can find out more at her website.

She’s @LauraToddCarns on Twitter.

In this episode we talk about approaching a story as fiction vs. nonfiction, the challenge of the structure of the piece, collaborating with an editor and how it’s like a record producer and a musician, and more.

First I talk to Seyward Darby, as she was the lead editor of the piece. Enjoy!

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!