Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) is a journalist and co-creator of the hit podcasts Maintenance Phase—which he co-hosts with Aubrey Gordon—and You’re Wrong About, which he co-hosted with Sarah Marshall before leaving last year. 

“Now, when anyone can go on Wikipedia and get a general timeline of events of what happened—that's not the hard part, putting things in chronological order. I want someone who's done a deep dive, and knows a lot more about a subject than I do, but is also able to tell me how it felt to them to read about it. … 

“The fact that both shows are one person telling another person something, I think that's one of the reasons that maybe people like listening to it. It's fun to hear somebody who's like a super nerd for something telling you about it at a bar.”

Related links: 

• Michael Hobbes on Twitter 
• Hobbes on YouTube 
• Post 10 on YouTube
• You’re Wrong About
• Maintenance Phase 
• Stories by Hobbes at HuffPost 

Special thanks to Ashley Smith (@Cosmic_Bigfoot) for production support. 

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Dr. Kathleen Smith is the author of Everything Isn’t Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxiety, and Finally Calm Down.

I first discovered Dr. Smith's work through her must-read newsletter—she's an expert in Bowen Family Systems Theory, which looks at anxiety through the lens of our relationships. We don’t exist in isolation—we're constantly reacting to others around us, in our families and relationships, at work, and on social media.

This was a fun conversation, so thanks again to Dr. Smith. You can learn more about her work at kathleensmith.net.

Special thanks to Ashley Smith for additional production support. 

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Eric Michael Garcia is an autistic journalist whose new book is We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.

Garcia is the senior Washington correspondent for The Independent, following editorial roles at the Washington Post and The Hill. He’s also been a correspondent for National Journal, MarketWatch, and Roll Call, and has written for The Daily Beast, The New Republic, and Salon.com. 

As a child, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which is now diagnosed under the broader ASD (autism spectrum disorder). We talked about the history of the autism diagnosis, how it has evolved, how the language around it has changed, and how autistic people are using social media (like the #ActuallyAutistic hashtag on Twitter) to speak out in a media ecosystem that historically marginalized or ignored them.

Related links: 

• We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation
• I'm Not Broken (National Journal / The Atlantic, 2015)
• Eric Garcia on Twitter
• You're Wrong About podcast: The anti-vaccine movement (2021)
• #ActuallyAutistic on Twitter
• Lauren Melissa (@autienelle) on Twitter

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"Everyone in every part of the world was having a conversation with themselves: Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? And I definitely was having that question a lot with journalism." 

Leah Sottile is a journalist whose work you'll remember from Bundyville, the Longreads podcast that ran for two seasons and explored domestic extremism in the United States. She also hosted the podcast Two Minutes Past Nine, produced with BBC Radio Four, which looked at the legacy of the Oklahoma city bombing 25 years later. And she's written for many publications including the Washington Post, New York Times Magazine, and High Country News. 

She talks about how the pandemic forced her to confront some bigger questions about her own mission in journalism, and what stories she wanted to cover going forward. 

Related links: 

• Leah Sottile on Substack
• Did James Plymell Need to Die? (High Country News)
• Bundyville (Longreads & Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• Two Minutes Past Nine (BBC Radio Four) 
• The Ghost Hunter (The Atavist)
• @leah_sottile on Twitter 

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Dawnie Walton is the author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. It's her debut novel, and it's a story that came to her at a pivotal moment in her life, inspiring her to make the leap from journalist and media executive to author. The novel tells the story of a fictional rock duo, Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, who shoot to fame in 1970s New York City.

Walton is a MacDowell fellow, a Tin House scholar, and a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop.

Edited by Ashur Rayis
Music by Mark Armstrong and Ashur Rayis 

Get updates from EIL: https://markarms.com/newsletter/
EIL on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EIL

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Maria Bustillos is a writer and journalist whose work I’ve been following for many years — I first read her essays in The Awl, and she’s gone on to write for many other publications including The New Yorker, CJR, and Longreads. In 2016 she took on another assignment: covering the trial of Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker.

Hogan’s victory, the revelation that the lawsuit was secretly funded by billionaire VC Peter Thiel, and the shuttering of Gawker sent Bustillos on a mission: Is it possible to create a billionaire-proof media company?

That’s what she’s aiming to build with The Brick House, a cooperative of nine publications including her own site, Popula.

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EIL on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EIL

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I first discovered Naz Riahi’s work through her essays at Longreads, about growing up in Iran and moving to the United States. In 2020, with her consulting work on hold due to COVID-19, she decided to pursue her dream by writing and directing a short film. “Sincerely, Erik” is a beautiful love letter to New York City, about a bookseller seeking connection with his customers while his store was closed. The film was chosen as a Staff Pick at Vimeo and was a winner at its Best of the Year Awards. Riahi has followed up with another short film, “Andros in the City,” and she’s currently fundraising to make her third film. (If you want to support her work, she asks that you share her films with your friends. You can also find her on Venmo: @nazriahi.)

Get updates from EIL: https://markarms.com/newsletter/
EIL on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/EIL

Music by Mark Armstrong and timmoor/pixabay

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