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:

jakehalpern.com

Halpern on Longform

[2:00] "The Devil Underground" (Nadja Drost • The Atavist • Oct 2014)

[2:00] Longform App Exclusive: "The Trials of White Boy Rick" (Evan Hughes • The Atavist • Sep 2014)

[3:00] Braving Home (Houghton Mifflin • 2003)

[4:00] "Jungle Boy" (The New Republic • 2006)

[14:00] Fame Junkies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • 2006)

[14:00] Bad Paper (Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2014)

[17:00] "Selling the Beat" (New Yorker • Apr 2004)

[21:00] "Pay Up" (New Yorker • Oct 2004)

[43:00] "Paper Boys" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2014)

[43:00] "Magic Words" (This American Life • Aug 2014)

[43:00] "Bad Paper, The Debtor Game" (Fusion • Aug 2014)

[45:00] The Dormia Trilogy

[46:00] "The Secret of the Temple" (The New Yorker • Apr 2012)

[51:00] "Switched at Birth" (This American Life • Jul 2008)

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