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Episode 365: Maggie Smith

I’m probably a poet on roller skates, to be honest, like, I don’t know how to shed that.
Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith is here! You might know her as a poet (@maggiesmithpoet), but you’re gonna love her as a prose-writing memoirist in You Could Make The Place Beautiful (Atria).

I was probably the only doofus who had never read her viral, wicked-famous poem “Good Bones,” the poem that turned a relatively anonymous maggie smith in MAGGIE FUCKING SMITH.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful is a line from that poem and it introduced me to her poem. There’s a good chance I’m the only jucket this side of the Rockies who hadn’t heard of the poem, but it’s an incredible poem and she’s an incredible writer and this conversation, I have to say, (as well as my parting shot), is incredible.

Episode 364: Mitchell S. Jackson

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“I’m never going to let an editor push me off my square in terms of voice.” — Mitchell S. Jackson

By Brendan O’Meara

Several Pultizer Prize—winners have graced the CNF Pod main stage, and, wow!, we get to add the incomparable Mitchell S. Jackson to the roster. What a thrill to talk to this brilliant writer and thinker.

His accolades are too long to list, but here are a few (for more, visit mitchellsjackson.com).:

He won the aforementioned Pulitzer Prize for his piece on the murder of Ahmaud Arbery for Runners World titled “Twelve Minutes and a Life,” which we talk about a bit. (Edited by Leah Flickinger)
He’s a regular writer for Esquire and among his many profiles is this one on Chris Rock, which we talk about a bit.
His first novel, The Residue Years, was nominated (and won) several “first novel” awards.
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family was listed by fifteen different publications as one of their best books of the year in 2019.
He famously studied with Gordon Lish, which we talk about; and it was Lish who told Mitchell that he could be great. (And, in Lish, fashion, he cut Mitchell out of his life.)

And, damn, he sure is great.

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 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 356: Siku Allooloo

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By Brendan O’Meara

Siku Allooloo (@discobou) puts the “multi” in multi-hyphenate. She’s a writer, a poet, a filmmaker. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Briarpatch Magazine, and Canadian Art Magazine, among others.

In this episode, we talk about the essay “Caribou People,” which appeared in the collection Shapes of Native Nonfiction (University of Washington). We also talk about “Living Death,” which won a creative nonfiction prize for Briarpatch Magazine.

These essays rhyme in dealing with patching together ancestral holes and colonial trauma. This is a very illuminating conversation from a great thinker.

Episode 353: Isaac Fitzgerald

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By Brendan O’Meara

Are you holding onto a railing? OK, good, Isaac Fitzgerald (@IsaacFitzgerald) is here, CNFers! He’s the author of the incredible memoir-in-essays Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury).

Isaac is a frequent contributor on The Today Show, offering book recommendations to the masses. His CV has The Rumpus, McSweeney’s, BuzzFeed Books, among others. He’s also the author of How to be a Pirate, Pen and Ink, and Knives and Ink.

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.

Audio Magazine Issue 3: Heroes

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By Brendan O’Meara

That took a long time, didn’t it? At long last, Issue 3 of the audio magazine is here on the theme HEROES!

Big ups to our contributors who made the issue to those who submitted who didn’t make it into the final product.

Here’s a little bit of information from each of the writers: