Nicholas Carlson writes for Business Insider. His book Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! came out this week.

“To me people are what’s really interesting. Marissa Mayer is a once in a lifetime subject. She’s full of contradictions. … There are a million business stories, but if you don’t have that character at the center then you’re lost.”

Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._123_-_Nicholas_Carlson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:33am EDT

Dan P. Lee is a contributing writer at New York.

"I don't believe in answers. That's what compels me to write all of these stories. None of them ends nicely, none of them ends neatly."

Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show notes:

Direct download: Rerun_Dan_P_Lee.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:38pm EDT

Evan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill.

"When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'"

Thanks to our sponsor, TinyLetter.


Show notes:

Direct download: Rerun_Evan_Wright.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:08am EDT

Hanna Rosin is a senior editor at The Atlantic and a founder and editor at DoubleX.

“I often think of reporting as dating, or even speed dating. You’re looking for someone where there’s a spark there between you and them. Sometimes that happens right away and sometimes it takes forever. ... You have to determine if they're reflective, friendly, open. It could be love at first sight and they're still all wrong, which is really heartbreaking.”

Thanks to TinyLetter, Bonobos and The Los Angeles Times' Bookshelf Newsletter for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._122_-_Hanna_Rosin.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:01pm EDT

Meghan Daum's latest book of essays is The Unspeakable.

“As writers we think, well there has to be closure, there has to be a beginning middle end, the character has to go through a change. And then in life we're supposed to have some sort of arc or aha moment, as if the experience isn't legitimate unless we get something out of it. That's so culturally constructed, as they say. It's so artificial.”

Thanks to TinyLetter, Scribd, and Oscar for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._121_-_Meghan_Daum.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:08pm EDT

Episode 120: Katie J.M. Baker

Katie J.M. Baker is a reporter for BuzzFeed.

“I went to Steubenville a year after the sexual assault to cover their first big football game of the season and I was face-to-face with these people who I had been writing about without knowing much about them. From far away it seems like, do these details matter? Do we care if these people’s lives get messed up when the narrative is so strong, when Steubenville now stands for more awareness around rape culture? But when you’re there, of course it matters. After that piece I realized I didn’t want to blog anymore and I wanted to just focus on reporting.”

Thanks to Casper, Scribd, and TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._120_-_Katie_JM_Baker.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:00pm EDT

Alec Wilkinson is a staff writer for The New Yorker.

“My hero was Joseph Mitchell, that was how you did reporting. There was nothing conniving about it or cunning — you just simply kept returning and kept returning.”

Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep_119_-_Alec_Wilkinson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:20am EDT

Emma Carmichael, a former editor at Deadspin and The Hairpin, is the editor in chief of Jezebel.

"Online feminism has more and more rules lately. There are only so many things you can say. And while our opinions are getting more constrained online, personal feminism and face-to-face conversations are looser and more complicated and don't go by any rules. ... The ideal with Jezebel is getting to a point where you can say, 'This is what I think, so who gives a fuck.'"

Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._118_-_Emma_Carmichael.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:58pm EDT

Reihan Salam is the executive editor of National Review.

"I’m incredibly curious about other people. I’m curious about what they think of as the constraints operating on their lives. Why do they think what they think? If I weren’t doing this job, I’d want to be a high school guidance counselor."

Thanks to TinyLetter, Bonobos, and Cards Against Humanity’s Ten Days or Whatever of Kwanzaa for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._117_-_Reihan_Salam.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:32am EDT

Jake Halpern, a contributor to This American Life, has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. His latest book is Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld.

"I test out my stories on my kids. You should be able to tell any story, now matter how complicated, to a seven-year-old in a way that they understand. If you can't, that probably means that either a) you're telling the story wrong or b) it's not really a story."

Thanks to TinyLetter and Bonobos for sponsoring this week's episode.


Show Notes:

Direct download: Ep._116_-_Jake_Halpern.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:34pm EDT