"We're sadistic motherf*ckers," says John Glionna, @johnglionna on the Instagrams.

John is a longtime journalist and author of No Friday Night Lights (Bison Books). He made a name for himself at the Los Angeles Times pursuing what would be called "Glionna stories," stories about invisible people who have rich lives all their own. 

In this episode we talk about

 * The Glionna Story
 * How John didn’t punch down in his writing
 * Working with Glenn Stout on this book
 * What he loves most about this kind of work
 * And solving that thorny question of whether a story needs better writing or better reporting

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Episode 464: John Glionna is a Clown Who Makes Balloons That Kids Don’t Like

"It's kind of a mix of reporting to the very last minute to put off writing, and then when I have to write, having a panic attack, and then, like, booking a hotel room for a week and not leaving that room. This is the thing I have done until I figure it out," says Leah Sottile, in a live event at Gratitude Brewing.

She is the author of Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age (Grand Central). She's also the author of When the Moon Turns to Blood, an Oregon Book Award Finalist.

Leah is a freelance journalism whose work has appeared in The Atavist Magazine, the Washing Post, High Country News, and Outisde. She's the creator of the podcasts Hush, Burn Wild, and Bundyville. 

In this podcast we talk about:

 * The work of John Vaillant (See  Ep. 376(
 * How writing this book made Leah crazy
 * How New Ageism and Far Right Extremism overlap
 * Sagging Middles
 * And not re-victimizing sources
 * And much more…

Learn more about Leah at leahsottile.com and follower her on Instagram @leah.sottile.

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Episode 463: Leah Sottile on Building Scenes, Sagging Middles, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age

"I'm much more interested in how a person achieves something than in what they specifically achieved," says Debbie Millman, the "Pod Mother" and OG podcaster, twenty years in for Design Matters. 

She's also the author of the new book Love Letter to a Garden (Timber Press).

In this episode, we talk about:

 * The 20 year arc of Design Matters
 * What people she’s most drawn to
 * How she views the narrative arc of an interview
 * The research
 * As well as the evergreen themes of her new book on her quest for a garden

You can find Debbie at debbiemillman.com and on Instagram @debbiemillman.

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Episode 462: On Podcasting and Gardens with Debbie Millman

Nick Davidson, @nickgdavidson on IG, says, "We usually think of hunting stories and looking for ideas, but I feel like it's the other way around: stories hunt the storyteller, and I'm just prey."

Nick's latest piece is for The Atavist Magazine titled "The Balloon That Fell From the Sky." 

His work has appeared in Outside, VICE Sports, Garden & Gun, and a million other places of note. 

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Episode 461: For Nick Davidson, Stories Hunt the Storyteller

Megan Marshall is the author of After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart (Mariner Books), a new collection of essays. Megan won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for Margaret Fuller: A New American Life.

Podcast Specific Substack at creativenonfictionpodcast.substrack.com.

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference [https://combeyond.bu.edu/offering/the-power-of-narrative-conference/]. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Episode 460:Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer Megan Marshall Takes on Personal Essays in ‘After Lives’

“I could suddenly see — and this is how I know when I'm supposed to start writing — is that words start putting themselves together in my head, and I just have to get them out, right? Which doesn't happen all the time, but it did for this," says Cassidy Randall, author of Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All Women's Ascent of Denali (Abrams Books).

Cassidy's work has appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times,  Outside Magazine, The Atavist, and many, many others.

In this episode we talk about:

 * The beginning and ending
 * Sticky notes
 * The post-book funk
 * Interviewing
 * And so much more

Podcast Specific Substack [https://open.substack.com/pub/creativenonfictionpodcast/p/the-post-book-funk-is-real?r=ujb19&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference [https://combeyond.bu.edu/offering/the-power-of-narrative-conference/]. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod [http://patreon.com/cnfpod]




Episode 459: Cassidy Randall Talks Forgotten Histories, Sticky Notes, and the Power of Listening

"And then this person said, 'Hey, you know, this needs to be, like, more weird or less weird, but it's in this kind of odd place that isn't working.' And I was like, she's so, right," says Jaydra Johnson, @jaydranicole, and author of Low: Notes on Art & Trash (Fonograf).

Lots of good stuff in this episode. We talk about:

 * Luck
 * Growing up poor
 * Dialing up the weirdness
 * And binge-buying books on eBay

Podcast Specific Substack [https://open.substack.com/pub/creativenonfictionpodcast/p/jaydra-johnsons-low-a-high-debut?r=ujb19&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference [https://combeyond.bu.edu/offering/the-power-of-narrative-conference/]. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod [http://patreon.com/cnfpod]

Episode 458: Jaydra Johnson Had to Get Weird

"What I was fortunate enough to get exposed to very early in my career, and I really believe is now the way to go, which is the nature of editing as thinking," says Poynter Institute president Neil Brown.

Neil has spent more than forty years as a reporter and editor, and he just wrapped up his tenure on the Pulitzer Prize Board. He's one of the more nimble minds in journalism and a champion of the editor/writer dynamic.

In this conversation, Neil riffs on

 * Editing as thinking
 * The late writing coach Don Murray
 * How the front end is everything
 * Respecting reader detection
 * And Interviewing as a skill, among lots more great stuff.

Podcast Specific Substack [https://open.substack.com/pub/creativenonfictionpodcast/p/front-end-conversations-can-save?r=ujb19&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference [https://combeyond.bu.edu/offering/the-power-of-narrative-conference/]. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod [http://patreon.com/cnfpod]

Episode 457: Poynter’s Neil Brown Says Editing Isn’t Discussed Enough

Neko Case is best known for her career as a musical performing artist and as a founding member of The New Pornographers, but her debut memoir The Harder I Fight the More I Love You (Grand Central) is all the evidence we need to see that she's got the chops for narrative.

Podcast Specific Substack [https://substack.com/@creativenonfictionpodcast]

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference [https://combeyond.bu.edu/offering/the-power-of-narrative-conference/]. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod [http://patreon.com/cnfpod]

Episode 456: Neko Case Wrote her Memoir in Bed

Will McGrath often thinks he's a phony, a fake writer, a fake journalist. But he isn't. He's very much real, and his piece for The Believer, "American Boys," chronicles the season and the lives of a group of young basketball players. It harkens back to Darcy Frey's brilliant book The Last Shot.

Podcast Specific Substack: https://substack.com/@creativenonfictionpodcast

Pre-order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338]

Promotional Sponsor: The Power of Narrative Conference [https://combeyond.bu.edu/offering/the-power-of-narrative-conference/]. Use CNF15 at checkout for a 15% discount.

Newsletter: Rage Against the Algorithm [https://rageagainstthealgorithm.beehiiv.com/]

Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

Support: Patreon.com/cnfpod [http://patreon.com/cnfpod]

Episode 455: Will McGrath’s Season on the Sidelines for The Believer

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara is a weekly podcast that showcases leaders in narrative journalism, essay, memoir, documentary film, radio and podcasts about the art and craft of telling true stories.   Follow the show @creativenonfictionpodcast on Instagram and Threads and visit patreon.com/cnfpod to support!

Brendan O'Meara

Shows