Sarah Stillman is a staff writer for The New Yorker.

"People don't really care about issues so much as they care about the stories and the characters that bring those issues to life. ... A story needs an engine or something to propel you forward and it can't just be a collection of like, 'Oh, hmm, this was interesting over here and this was interesting over there.' Realizing that helped me sit down with all my stuff on trafficking and labor abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan and say 'What are the five craziest things that I found here and how could I weave them together in a way that would actually have some forward motion?'"

Thanks to TinyLetter and HuluPlus for sponsoring this week's episode.

Show notes:

Stillman on Longform

Stillman's New Yorker archive

[6:30] "The Throwaways" (New Yorker • Aug 2012)

[15:00] "The Invisible Army" (New Yorker • Jun 2011)

[31:00] "Taken by the State" (New Yorker • Aug 2013)

[49:00] Soul Searching: A Girl's Guide to Finding Herself (2001)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices