This week we visit with Damon Young in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh writer DAMON YOUNG’s debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays (Ecco), won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. His new book, That's How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor released on June 3rd, 2025. A founder of the culture blog Very Smart Brothas and creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast Stuck with Damon Young, Damon has been a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and a columnist for GQ and was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh’s David C. Frederick Honors College.

Buy his new book here!

Damon's Books on the Bed:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel

Supreme Clientele by Ghostface Killah (Album)

Matt's Gifts for Damon:

Good Women by Halle Hill

English Lit by Bernard Clay

Native Hoops: The Rise of American Indian Basketball, 1895-1970 by Wade Davies

Graphic Design by Nathaniel Roy Design

Music by Eliza Edens from her album Time Away From Time (2020)