William Morrow – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 307: Greg Brennecka

Ever been starved for knowledge about meteorites? You came to the right place!

Greg Brennecka is a cosmochemist studying meteoritics and the author of Impact: How Space Rocks Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong. It’s published by William Morrow.

Greg is wicked smaht and works as a staff scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He received the prestigious Sofia Kovalevskaja Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2014 to study the early Solar System at the Institute for Planetology in Munster, Germany, where he led the Solar System Forensics group for five years. His research has appeared in Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

We talk about how the moon formed, how meteorites shaped our culture, and how he goes about snagging a space rock for his research.

The show’s Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.

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. I just paid out the writers from the last audio magazine. You make that possible. The show is free but it ain’t cheap.

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Episode 229: A License to be Curious with ‘Fossil Men’ author Kermit Pattison

Kermit Pattison in the field in Ethiopia. Love the notebook in the pocket.

By Brendan O’Meara

Kermit Pattison (@KermitPattison) steps up this week to talk about his new book Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind (William Morrow, 2020).

It’s a great read about the rivalries among scientists, the purity of the mission, discovery and inquiry. Kermit does an admirable job of making this science accessible.

We talk about:

His license to be curious
Developing his chops as a reporter
Deciding what to leave in and leave out
His Bookshelf for the Apocalypse (!) and much more!

Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod. Consider leaving a kind a review of the show wherever you listen to podcasts. I’ll be sure to read it on the air and give you the love you deserve.

A Patreon page is coming VERY soon, so I want to prime the pump for that. I’m excited to offer some cool goodies and access and coaching for those who are willing to take the leap. It’ll help keep the lights on. This enterprise is free, but it ain’t cheap!

Kermit’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

Norton Anthology of Poetry
A John Le Carre novel
Collected Works of Charles Dickens
Fossil Men
A blank journal

A special call out to journalists and nonfiction writers who could use some extra support in these unpredictable times. Writers House Pittsburgh is accepting applications for a 6 month residency starting as early as January 2021. The Writers House is a physical home and long-term residency seeking to provide housing stability, mentorship, and community when you need it most. Head over to WritersHousePittsburgh.org to learn more. Applications will close on November 30th.

Episode 221: Power Couple Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham Bring You ‘The Gay Agenda’

By Brendan O’Meara

Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham are the creative, queer and trans power couple behind the incredible and beautiful book The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History and Handbook (Morrow Gift, 2020).

You can follow them and their stationery story at ashandchess.com and follow them on Instagram @ashandchess.

We dig into where they grew up, how they met, the “so 2018” way their book came to be, and much, much more.

Keep the conversation going on social @CNFPod and consider sharing the show across your networks. If you tag the show, I’ll be sure to give you some love, most likely in the form of a James Hetfield GIF. Also consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. It would give me and the show a great boost.

Ash and Chess’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse*

Amateur: A Reckoning with Gender, Identity, and Masculinity by Thomas Page McBee
The Twits by Roald Dahl
The Hike by Drew Magary
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
The Fireside Book of Children’s Songs
*: These are not affiliate links. Brendan does not get a commission based on book sales, though he acknowledges this is probably really stupid not to.

CNFin’ Monthly Newsletter!

Episode 199: Keith Law’s ‘Inside Game’

By Brendan O’Meara

I had the pleasure of hosting the great Keith Law (@keithlaw) on the show for Episode 199. He’s the author of Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves (William Morrow, 2020).

In our conversation, he says, “One of the big takeaways throughout the book is get more data.”

Keith is also the author of Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think about Baseball (William Morrow, 2017).

I loved Inside Game and had a nice time speaking with Keith about his voracious reading habit, his penchant for board games, where analytics are heading, and lots, lots more.

This isn’t a conversation deep on baseball, believe it or not. Though he did tell me why it’s best to bat your best hitter No. 2 in the lineup and why RBIs are a misleading statistic.

Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to sign up for monthly newsletter below. Lots of reading recommendations and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast. Keep the conversation going on Twitter, IG, and Facebook.

As always, I hope I made something worth sharing, so if you dig the show, pass it along to the others.

Episode 180: Lindsay McCrae — A Year Among Penguins

By Brendan O’Meara
[email creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com for questions you want answered!]

Lindsay McCrae is here to talk about his year with the penguins in My Penguin Year: Life Among the Emperors (William Morrow, 2019).

We talk a lot about his eleven months in Antarctica and the grind that was. We learn about how he got into this line of work, of being a freelancer, and helping the penguins when they were in peril.

I hope I’ve made something worth sharing. I’ll be taking an indefinite leave of social media starting in 2020, so feel free to follow @CNFPod, but if I don’t respond, you know why. I’m not being rude. In fact, I want to keep in touch via email or via the newsletter. The newsletter is where it’s at, so please subscribe to that and the podcast. Duh.

Lindsay always wanted to write a book and he wrote a fine one here.

Thanks for listening and thanks to Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing for the support.

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

Kermit’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse

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

Ash and Chess’s Bookshelf for the Apocalypse*

CNFin’ Monthly Newsletter!

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the 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.