Longform

Mirin Fader is a staff writer for The Ringer. “Nobody ever makes it makes it, right? You make it, and every day, you have to keep making it. That’s how I feel. Would I be the reporter I am if I wasn’t like that? I’m afraid to see what happens if I’m not. I’m afraid what type of reporter or writer I’ll be if I take my foot off the gas.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @MirinFader mirinfader.com Fader on Longform 03:00 Fader's Orange County Register archive 04:00 Lee Jenkins’ Sports Illustrated archive 04:00 Longform Podcast #421: Wright Thompson 06:00 Fader's Bleacher Report archive 14:00 "How Mo’ne Davis Made Her Hoop Dreams Come True: Inside Life After Little League" (Bleacher Report • Feb 2017) 14:00 "The LaMelo Show" (Bleacher Report • Feb 2018) 17:00 "Walk-on Becomes X-factor For Titans' Men's Soccer" (OC Register • Nov 2016) 29:00 "What Tyler Skaggs Left Behind" (Bleacher Report • Sept 2020) 42:00 Gary Smith on Longform 47:00 "LaVar Ball: Lakers 'don't want to play

Stephanie Clifford is an investigative journalist and novelist who has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other publications. Her most recent article is "The Journalist and the Pharma Bro."“I think your job as a journalist—particularly with people who are in vulnerable situations or people who are not used to press—is to explain what the fallout might be." Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes:  @stephcliff stephanieclifford.net Clifford on Longform Clifford's New York Times archive 02:00 "The Journalist and the Pharma Bro" (Elle • Dec 2020) 05:00 Everybody Rise (St. Martin’s Press • 2015) 15:00 "The Inside Story of MacKenzie Scott, the Mysterious 60-Billion-Dollar Woman" (Marker • Oct 2020) 26:00 "When the Misdiagnosis Is Child Abuse" (Atlantic • Aug 2020) 27:00 "He Cyberstalked Teen Girls for Years—Then They Fought Back" (Wired • Oct 2019) 33:00 "The First Year Out" (Marie Claire • Jun 2020)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast

Kenneth R. Rosen has written for The New York Times, Wired, The New Yorker, and many other publications. His new book is Troubled: The Failed Promise of America's Behavioral Treatment Programs. “When I report, I keep two journals. … I keep my reporting notebook, which is sort of an almanac of dates, times, names, quotes, phone numbers. And then I have my personal notebook, which has all my fears and anxieties. And it invariably makes its way into the reporting … which is sort of an amalgamation of those two journals, of those two experiences, the internal and the external.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @kenneth_rosen kennethrrosen.com Rosen on Longform 03:00 "The Devil’s Henchmen" (The Atavist • Jun 2017) 04:00 Troubled: The Failed Promise of America's Behavioral Treatment Programs (Little a • 2021) 13:00 "At a Therapeutic Ranch, No Payday Until Later" (New York Times • Mar 2017) 31:00 Rosen's New York Times archive 32:00 Longform Podcast #403: Seyward Darby 35:00 Lu

Carvell Wallace is a podcast host and has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. He is the co-author, with Andre Iguodala, of The Sixth Man.“So much of my life experience coalesces into things that are useful… All those years that I was obsessing over this that or the other thing, all the weird stuff that I would do, all the weird things that happened to me, all the places I found myself in that I didn’t want to be in but were interesting - this is all part of what makes me the writer that I am today.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. @carvellwallace carvellwallace.com The Sixth Man: A Memoir (Blue Rider Press • 2019) Episode One of Finding Fred Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (Bradbury Press • 1970) Purple Rain (1984) The Karate Kid (Scholastic • 1984) “The Two Lives of Michael Jackson” (New Yorker • 2015) “How to Parent on a Night Like This” (Huffington Post • 2014) Wallace's Pitchfork archive   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a

Ashley C. Ford is a writer and podcast host. Her memoir, Somebody's Daughter, is forthcoming from Flatiron Books.“For the first time I felt like I had so many more choices in my life than I originally thought I had. That was my first realization that I did not just have to react to the world, that I could be intentional in the world, and just curious about what came back to me.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. @iSmashFizzle  ashleycford.net Fortune Favors the Bold podcast 4:30 "Roger Loves Chaz" (Roger Ebert • Sep 2012) 11:00 The Giver (Lois Lowry • Houghton Mifflin • 1993) 17:15 Ford's commencement speech at Ball State 25:30 Ford's archive at Buzzfeed 40:30 "Ashley C. Ford’s Debut Memoir ‘Somebody’s Daughter’ Finds Home at Flatiron" (Paperback Paris • 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ed Yong spent 2020 covering the pandemic for The Atlantic. His latest feature is "How Science Beat the Virus." “I am trying to give readers a platform that they can stand on to observe this raging torrent that is the pandemic, this cascade of information that is threatening to sweep us all away. I’m trying to give people a rock on which they can stand so that they can observe what is happening without themselves being submerged by it. But I am trying to construct that platform while also being submerged in it.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @edyong209 edyong.me Yong on Longform Longform Podcast #386: Ed Yong Yong's archive at The Atlantic 08:00 "How the Pandemic Will End" (The Atlantic • Mar 2020) 08:00 "The Giant Pool of Money" (Alex Blumberg, Adam Davidson, and Planet Money • This American Life • May 2008) 16:00 "Our Pandemic Summer" (The Atlantic • Apr 2015) 16:00 "What the Racial Data Show" (Ibram X. Kendi • The Atlantic • Apr 2020) 18:00 "How the Pandemic Defeate

Nilay Patel is editor-in-chief of The Verge and hosts the podcast Decoder. “The instant ability—unmanaged ability—for people to say horrible things to each other because of phones is tearing our culture apart. It just is. And so sometimes, I’m like, Man, I wish our headline had been: ‘iPhone Released. It’s A Mistake.’ … But I think there’s a really important flipside to that … a bunch of teenagers are able to create culture at a scale that has never been possible before. Also, a bunch of marginalized communities are able to speak with coordinated voices and make change very rapidly. And that balance—I don’t think we’ve quite understood.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @reckless Patel's archive at The Verge 02:00 Decoder 02:00 The Vergecast 03:00 Recode Decode 08:00 Platformer (Casey Newton) 12:00 "Mark in the Middle" (Casey Newton • Verge • Sept 2020) 22:00 Patel's archive at Engadget 26:00 Processor (Dieter Bohn • Verge) 28:00 "Foxconn Is Confusing the Hell Out of Wis

Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN. His new book is Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last. “If you’re going to write a profile of someone … you have to find some piece of common ground with them so that no matter how famous or good or noble or bad—or no matter how cartoonish their most well-known attributes are—it shrinks them. And once they’re small enough to fit in your hand, I think it changes the entire experience of asking questions about their lives.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring the show. Show notes: wrightthompson.com Thompson on Longform 01:00 Pappyland (Penguin Random House • 2020) 02:00 Bloodlines (ESPN Investigates • 2020) 18:00 "The Secret History of Tiger Woods" (ESPN • Apr 2016) 18:00 "Michael Jordan Has Not Left The Building" (ESPN • Feb 2013) 18:00 "Holy Ground" (ESPN • Jun 2007) 31:00 ”Michael Jordan: A History of Flight" (ESPN • May 2020) 47:00 "As Clayton Kershaw Waits for Baseball to Return, a Look at His Family, Legacy and Future" (ESPN •

Melissa del Bosque is an investigative journalist covering the U.S.-Mexico border.“What I really want people to know is the context within which this traumatic event is happening. It doesn’t have to happen. It’s happening because certain people made certain decisions. Or they made a decision to do nothing. … There are laws, there are policies on the books that are either being ignored or could be changed.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: 8:00 The Western Edition 12:00 "Editorial: A Brief Look Back, Then Forward" (Staff • Texas Observer • Dec 2007) 14:00 The Monitor 18:00 Texas Observer 20:00 "Holes in the Wall" (Texas Observer • Feb 2008) 24:00 "Children of the Exodus" (Texas Observer • Nov 2010) 30:00 "Beyond the Border" (Texas Observer, Guardian • Aug 2014) 32:00 "They Die in Brooks County" (Mary Jo McConahay • Texas Observer • Jun 2007) 33:00 Type Investigations 34:00 "Death on Sevenmile Road" (Texas Observer • May 2015) 42:00 Bloodlines (Ecco • 2017) 50:00 Dart Center

Reggie Ugwu is an arts reporter for The New York Times. “I find that even though I talk to celebrities or popular artists, I’m not all that interested in celebrity. I’m pretty uninterested in celebrity. But I’m really interested in creativity.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @uugwuu Ugwu on Longform Ugwu's New York Times archive 10:00 The Quake (Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria • Frontline • Mar 2010) 12:00 "Inside The Playlist Factory" (Buzzfeed • Jul 2016) 12:00 stereogum.com 17:00 "A Song No One Remembered. A Podcast That’s Hard to Forget." (New York Times • Mar 2020) 18:00 "'Song Exploder' and the Inexhaustible Hustle of Hrishikesh Hirway" (New York Times • Nov 2020) 22:00 "Francis and the Lights, Pop Star Interrupted" (New York Times • Mar 2020) 27:00 "'Black Panther' Star Chadwick Boseman Dies of Cancer at 43" (New York Times • Aug 2020) 27:00 "Overlooked No More: Robert Johnson, Bluesman Whose Life Was a Riddle" (New York Times • Sept 2019) 28:00 "How Chadwick B

Stephanie McCrummen is a national enterprise reporter at The Washington Post. “I do have to psych myself up. There’s always something awkward about it and that never goes away. … No matter how long I do this job, that part of it doesn’t get any easier. It’s always a bit awkward and you’re always sort of humbled when someone actually is willing to talk to you. Then it can be kind of thrilling, once you’re in it, once you’re actually in the conversation. ... But the moment a few seconds before that is still—to this day, it’s sort of an act of will.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @mccrummenWaPo McCrummen on Longform McCrummen's Washington Post archive 08:00 "In Georgia, a Biden supporter realizes the power of her ballot" (Washington Post • Nov 2020) 12:00 "Miranda’s Rebellion" (Washington Post • Feb 2020) 28:00 "Judgment Days" (Washington Post • Jul 2018) 37:00 "Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32" (Washington Post •

Olivia Nuzzi is the White House correspondent for New York.“I don’t think that, broadly speaking, this a group of redeemable people. … But I do think there is tremendous value, in this first draft of history, trying to understand why the fuck they are like this. … There is value in understanding why these people are like this because they are the reason why we are here in this situation. And I think it’s a [question] that historians will try to answer years from now. … I view my job as providing fodder for that.” Thanks to Mailchimp and SAIC for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes:   @Olivianuzzi Nuzzi on Longform Nuzzi's archive at New York 13:00 "The Final Gasp of Donald Trump’s Presidency" (New York • Nov 2020) 24:00 "Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus Want You to Know They’re Actually Friends" (New York • Feb 2017) 25:00 "My Private Oval Office Press Conference With Trump, Pence, Pompeo, and Kelly" (New York • Oct 2018) 25:00 "How John Kelly Failed to Tame the West Wing" (New York • Dec 2018) 25:00

Reeves Wiedeman is a reporter at New York and the author of the new book Billion Dollar Loser. “You get inside these companies and … you assume everything is running based on models and numbers and then you get inside and it’s just people. And sometimes they have MBAs and sometimes they don’t. … At the end of the day, whether you’re running a media company or an office space company, it’s all people making these decisions and they often do very strange, contradictory, and ultimately unsuccessful things.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @reeveswiedeman reeveswiedeman.net Wiedeman on Longform Wiedeman on Longform Podcast Wiedeman's archive at New York Magazine 01:00 "The Watcher" (New York • Nov 2018) 01:00 "What's Left of Condé Nast" (New York • Oct 2019) 01:00 "A Company Built on a Bluff" (New York • Jun 2018) 01:00 "The I in We" (New York • Jun 2019) 02:00 Billion Dollar Loser (Little Brown • 2020) 17:00 "Is Uber Evil, Or Just Doomed?" (New York • May 2017) 25:00 Cambri

Latif Nasser co-hosts Radiolab. He also hosted The Other Latif and the Netflix documentary series Connected.“It’s so easy to hate everything and be cynical. There’s a kind of ease to that. It takes a lot more courage to go up in front of everybody and be like, This is awesome. I love this. That takes a lot of guts, I think.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes:   @latifnasser 02:00 The Other Latif (WNYC Studios • 2020) 02:00 Connected (Netflix • 2020) 09:00 "Dust" from Connected (Netflix • 2020) 09:00 "Digits" from Connected (Netflix • 2020) 18:00 "A Clockwork Miracle" (Radiolab • 2012) 22:00 "Smile My Ass" (Radiolab • Oct 2015) 28:00 "The World’s Biggest Scavenger Hunt: A Guide To Finding Stories" (Transom • Nov 2018)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barton Gellman is a staff writer for The Atlantic. and was previously a Pulitzer-winning reporter at The Washington Post. His latest book is Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State and his latest essay is "The Election That Could Break America."“I have found that I have a talent for accidentally pissing people off. ... I’m interested most in accountability and the use and abuse of power. So naturally it’s going to annoy people sometimes. And sometimes they take it like grown-ups and sometimes less so.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @bartongellman bartongellman.com Gellman on Longform Dark Mirror (Penguin Press • 2020) 10:00 Gellman's early Washington Post archive 37:00 Gellman's Time archive 39:00 Gellman's NSA stories at The Washington Post 57:00 "The Election That Could Break America" (The Atlantic • Nov 2020)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Latria Graham is a writer living in South Carolina. Her work has appeared in Outside, Garden & Gun, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Her latest essay is "Out There, Nobody Can Hear You Scream." “My goal as a person—not just as a writer—is to be the adult that I needed when I was younger. That’s why I go and talk to college classes. That’s why I write some of these vulnerable things, to let people that are struggling know that they’re not on their own. … I have to be unmerciful to myself, I think, in order to do it. I really do try to dissect myself and my mistakes. And just kind of say, Here’s the full deck of my life. Take from it what you need. But I’m not holding out on you.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @LatriaGraham latriagraham.com 10:00 Going Hungry (Kate M. Taylor • Anchor • 2008) 32:00 "The Dark Knight Unmasked" (SB Nation • Jan 2016) 37:00 "We're Here. You Just Don't See Us." (Outside • May 2018) 37:00 "Out There, Nobody Can Hear You Scream" (Outside •

Nicholson Baker is the author of 18 books of fiction and nonfiction. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, and many other publications. His latest book is Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act. "In the end, I don’t care how famous you get, how widely read you are during your lifetime. You’re going to be forgotten. And you’re going to have five or six fans in the end. It’s going to be your grandchildren or your great-grandchildren are going to say, Oh, yeah, he was big. … So I think the key is, write what you actually care about. Because in the end, you’re only doing this for yourself. … So maybe do your best stuff for yourself and for the three, four, five people who know in the coming century that you ever existed. That’s all you need to do." Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: @nicholsonbaker8 nicholsonbaker.com The Mezzanine (Grove Press • 1988) Baseless (Penguin Press • 2020) 10:00 Human Smoke (Simon & Schuster • 2009) 10:

Elizabeth Weil covers California and the climate for ProPublica. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, California Sunday, and more.“As a journalist you’re endlessly asking people to tell you really personal, really vulnerable stuff about their lives. And I feel like you have to be willing to be in that conversation too—or really think about why you’re not willing.” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes:  @lizweil elizabethweil.net Weil on Longform 03:00 "Why He Kayaked Across the Atlantic at 70 (For the Third Time)" (New York Times Magazine • Mar 2018) 04:00 "What the Photos of Wildfires and Smoke Don’t Show You" (ProPublica • Sept 2020) 08:00 "The Climate Crisis Is Happening Right Now. Just Look at California’s Weekend." (ProPublica • Sept 2020) 13:00 "The Lost Boys of Sudan; The Long, Long, Long Road to Fargo" (Sara Corbett • New York Times Magazine • April 2001) 17:00 Off the Sidelines (Kirsten Gillibrand • Penguin Random House • 2015) 20:00 "In the Ashes of Ghost

Jiayang Fan is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her latest article is a "How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda.""I think considering the unusual shape of our lives—the lives of my mother and I—from bare subsistence to one of the richest enclaves in America … it made me think about what the value of existence is. ... It made me wonder, What should a person be? And how should a person be? And being a writer has been a lifelong quest to answer those questions." Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes   @JiayangFan Fan on Longform Fan at The New Yorker 02:00 "How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda" (New Yorker • Sept 2020) 09:00 "Hong Kong's Protest Movement and the Fight for the City's Soul" (New Yorker • Dec 2019) 40:00 "China's Selfie Obsession" (New Yorker • Dec 2017) 41:00 "China's Mistress-Dispellers" (New Yorker • June 2017) 43:00 "How E-Commerce is Transforming Rural China" (New Yorker • July 2018)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com

Claudia Rankine is a poet, essayist, and playwright. She is the author of the new book, Just Us: An American Conversation.“I began to wonder, why am I maintaining civility around things that are actually very important to me? This might be the only chance I get to stand up for myself. As Claudia. As a Black person. As a Black woman. As an American citizen. So what am I waiting for? What am I preserving when the thing I am supposedly preserving is also the thing that is on some level killing me?” Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode. Show notes: Rankine on Longform Just Us: An American Conversation (Graywolf Press • 2020) Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press • 2014) 4:00 "The Meaning of Serena Williams" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2015) 4:00 "I Wanted to Know What White Men Thought About Their Privilege. So I Asked." (New York Times Magazine • July 2019) 4:00 On Being: Claudia Rankine 43:00 "Black Newborns More Likely to Die When Looked After By White Doctors" (Rob Picheta • CNN •