“Here’s what I felt through this entire process in writing this book: I felt complete trust.”

Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur join Brian to talk about their new book, Big Fan: Two Friends, 81,589 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love.

(*I’m told it’s actually 82,490 miles. Thank you to Joe Posnanski, now the official ombudsman of The Other 51.)

Joe and Michael talk about how a clip of the World Darts Championship inspired this whole project and how they figured out what events they would attend. They talk about why avoided the big events, and how Joe’s career as a sports writer made that easier. 

Joe discusses what it was like to write collaboratively, and Michael talked about how they worked to capture the vibe of their friendship on the page. They also say what they learned from writing about each other. 

“If you have an ego about your writing, you will miss great ideas, you will not be receptive to criticism or rewriting or editing and you will stubbornly stick with whatever your first stupid idea was and your thing won’t be as good.” 

Links

Big Fan on Amazon

Big Fan from an independent bookstore

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (the best thing Joe’s read lately.)

On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle (the best thing Michael’s read lately) 

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