A writer and environmentalist, he counts himself lucky to have worked at The New Yorker with (for? near?) William Shawn, “the greatest editor of the twentieth century.” What contributed to his mastery? “Once he had writers in his stable, he was quite interested in what they were interested in.” Professional skill as a manifestation of individual character. Continue reading »
Category Archives: Nonfiction
335: Baratunde Thurston
The author of How to Be Black and host of How to Citizen With Baratunde, he’s worked at The Onion, The Daily Show, and the Obama White House. More impressive, he’s met the whittler’s challenge: carve a chain or a ball in a cage from a single piece of wood. “What I really wanted to do was to make … Continue reading »
323: David Sedaris
Even his setups are funny, like this: “There was a taxidermy kiwi at a store in London.” Or this: “Everybody in the family convinced the youngest child that if she was naked, she was invisible.” Funny, a bit cruel, and entirely delightful. His new book, The Best of Me, will beor perhaps has been published the … Continue reading »
321: Merrill Markoe
The greatest gift to any humorist is a parent who is impossible to please. This writer, a co-creator of Late Night With David Letterman, describes a note in her mother’s copy of David Copperfield. “It said, ‘Not one of his best works. I was disappointed.’ If she was giving Dickens a hard time, what did I think that I was going to get?” … Continue reading »
311: Sam Roberts
A reporter and editor for The New York Times for more than 30 years, he began at the Daily News, in the seventies, when the city faced financial collapse, terrorist bombs, a blackout, a psychotic serial killer, and Studio 54. “What a time to be city editor of a tabloid newspaper in New York!” He was 28. A … Continue reading »
305: E. Jean Carroll
She asserts, boldly if not entirely persuasively, that the supreme literary form is the advice column. She is rightly celebrated for hers, Ask E. Jean, which ran in Elle magazine from 1993 through 2019, and for winning the Miss Cheerleader USA title in 1964, the invariable precursor of an esteemed career in journalism. Continue reading »
304: Randy Cohen
From time to time someone suggests that I be a guest on the show and describe my own person, place, and thing. I reply, maybe in season ten, my euphemism for never. Then I smile and add, sure, if we’re confined to our homes by a horrible pandemic exacerbated by a criminally incompetent White House and can’t … Continue reading »
Episode 250: Michael Frank
Many of us become interested in our family’s history later in life, but the author of the celebrated memoir The Mighty Franks was drawing family trees before he was 14. Who they were shapes who we are. A conversation at KGB’s Red Room. Music from Lauren Lee. Produced with Lori Schwarz. Continue reading »
Episode 233: Anthony Haden-Guest
Admired for his astute observations of the upper classes and the art world, he is loath to write about, let alone revisit, scenes of his own past: “I don’t want to see a bunch of young people running around doing what I used to do.” With music from the suspiciously youthful Vanisha Gould and the … Continue reading »
Episode 223: Anna Quindlen
A novelist and Pulitzer-winning columnist, when she was in college she babysat Maggie Haberman, who grew up to be a terrific political reporter. A torch is passed, a head is spinning: mine. Plus music from the splendid quartet Ethel; some other part of my body is awhirl. PERSON: Charles Dickens PLACE: 229 West 43 … Continue reading »
Episode 222: Harriet Washington
Decades ago she was aiming for med school until she read the college catalogs. “Some of them were polite and said, ‘Not accepting negro students at this time,’” she recalls. “I guess come back in twenty years.” I’d have plunged into rage and despair; she became a first-rate science writer. A conversation at Columbia … Continue reading »
Episode 217: Edmund White
Much admired for his his autobiographical novels, including A Boy’s Own Story, and his work on French literature and culture, he is unashamed of his youthful craving for fame, noting: “If you say it in French, ‘gloire,’ it sounds better.” Well, sure: what doesn’t? A conversation at La Maison Française with music from Rich Jenkins. PERSON: … Continue reading »