Susan Glasser, the former editor of Politico and Foreign Policy, writes the “Letter from Washington” column for the The New Yorker. Her most recent book, written with Peter Baker, is The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021. “There’s a great benefit to leaving Washington and then coming back, or frankly leaving anywhere and then … Read moreLongform Podcast #565: Susan B. Glasser
Addictive behavior can interfere with our creative life “I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.” – Frida Kahlo During her life artist Frida Kahlo “underwent a total of 35 surgeries, including bone grafts, and became addicted to pain killers and … Read moreAddiction and Creative People
During the highest turkey consumption period of the year, we bring you a This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds—real and imagined—and their mysterious hold over us. Prologue: Ira Glass talks with Scharlette Holdman, who works with defense teams on high profile death row cases, and who has not talked to … Read more816: Poultry Slam
Music Reviews (The Hives AB) Time can be unkind to a band like the Hives. Despite not releasing an album in 11 years, the Swedish rock band has stayed active without pause, presumably considered by most to coast on their early 2000s success. But no one can accuse them of ever running out of gas, … Read moreMusic Review: The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons – The Hives
Jamie Loftus is a comedian, writer, and podcaster. Her new book is Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs. “Comedy has been super helpful to me because it’s so based on failing every night sometimes that I wasn’t afraid of failure in the same way because it’s just like, Well, that’s going to happen … Read moreLongform Podcast #547: Jamie Loftus
People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it. Prologue: A Boston woman takes her dog for a walk and suddenly finds herself in a terrible situation she never anticipated. The strange thing is, it helps her. (9 minutes) Act One: Two college friends try to stop … Read more821: Embrace the Suck
Javier Zamora is the author of Unaccompanied, a poetry collection, and Solito, a memoir. “There was something that I felt eating away at me, which made me a very angry and volatile teenager. And I think I was an angry teenager because I had this trauma that nobody around me could talk about, and that … Read moreLongform Podcast #546: Javier Zamora
Things our dads taught us, whether they intended to or not. Prologue: Ira talks about the time his dad taught him to shave, and how unusual that was. (5 minutes) Act One: When Jackie read the obits for the man who had invented the famous Trapper Keeper notebook, she was very surprised. As far as … Read more815: How I Learned to Shave
Evan Hughes is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, The Atlantic, The Atavist and many others. His book, just out in paperback, is Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup. “It should be called slow-form journalism…. It is heavily edited. It’s heavily fact checked. And chances … Read moreLongform Podcast #555: Evan Hughes
Yet another testimony to the power chickens have over our hearts and minds. Jack Hitt reports on an opera about Chicken Little. It’s performed with dressed-up styrofoam balls, it’s sung in Italian and, no kidding, able to make grown men cry. (14 minutes)The official website for the opera “Love’s Fowl” by Susan Vitucci and Henry Krieger … Read more241: 20 Acts in 60 Minutes