Maggie Downs is the guest. Her new memoir, Braver Than You Think: Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's) Lifetime, is available from Counterpoint Press.
Downs is an award-winning writer based in Palm Springs, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Palm Springs Life, and McSweeney's and has been anthologized in The Lonely Planet Travel Anthology: True Stories from the World's Best Writers and Best Women's Travel Writing. This is her first book.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Life. Death. Etc.
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660. Maggie Downs

Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth conversations with today's leading authors. Books, writing, literature, screenwriting, the creative process, and more. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Watch it on the Otherppl YouTube channel. Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Books

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 377, my conversation with author Karolina Waclawiak. The episode first aired on August 26, 2015.
Waclawiak  is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Life Events, The Invaders, and How to Get Into the Twin Palms. She was most recently the Editor in Chief of Pulitzer Prize-winning BuzzFeed News. Previously, she was the Executive Editor of Culture for BuzzFeed News and Deputy Editor of The Believer magazine. Work she has edited has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards, received a number of prestigious awards, and been selected for the Best American Essays anthology series. 
Karolina received her BFA in Screenwriting from USC and her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, VQR, the Believer, Hazlitt, and other publications.  
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
@otherppl
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Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
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Karolina Waclawiak on Beverly Hills, Headhunters, Money, Helping, The Believer, Being a Creative Person, Tangerine, Hollywood, Walk of Fame, and Do It Yourself

A new 'Craftwork' episode, about how to build a rewarding creative life. My guest is Ben Tanzer, author of the novel The Missing, available from 7.13 Books.
Tanzer is an Emmy winner. His work includes the short story collection Upstate, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. Ben is a storySouth and Pushcart nominee, a finalist for the Annual National Indie Excellence and Eric Hoffer Book Awards, a winner of the Devil's Kitchen Literary Festival Nonfiction Prose Award and a Midwest Book Award. He also received an Honorable Mention at the Chicago Writers Association Book Awards for Traditional Non-Fiction and a Bronze Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He's written for Hemispheres, Punk Planet, Men’s Health, and The Arrow, AARP’s GenX newsletter. He lives in Chicago with his family. 
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Twitter
Instagram 
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
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How to Build a Rewarding Creative Life

José Vadi is the author of a memoir-in-essays called Chipped: Writing from a Skateboarder's Lens, available from Soft Skull Press.
Vadi is also the author of an essay collection called Inter State. An award-winning essayist, poet, playwright and film producer, his work has been featured by the Paris Review, The Atlantic, the PBS NewsHour, Free Skate Magazine, Alta Journal of California, and the Yale Review. He lives and writes in Sacramento, California.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Twitter
Instagram 
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.

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913. José Vadi

In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 455, my conversation with author Min Jin Lee. The episode first aired on January 9, 2019.
Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2022, Lee received the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award, and the Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity from South Korea. She is the recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Lee is an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. In 2023, Lee served as the Editor of Best American Short Stories. She is a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College. She is at work on her third novel, American Hagwon and a nonfiction work, Name Recognition.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
@otherppl
Instagram 
TikTok
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
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Min Jin Lee on Writing Slowly, Confidence, Rejections, 19th Century Social Novels, Outlining, Big Frank, Despondency, Neurotic Lawyering, Cirrhosis, and Mortality

A new 'Craftwork' episode, about how to write good stories. My guest is Steve Almond, author of a new book on writing called Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, available from Zando.
Almond is the author of a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, including All The Secrets of The World and the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His essays and reviews have been published in venues ranging from the New York Times Magazine to Ploughshares to Poets & Writers, and his short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Mysteries, and Best American Erotica. Almond is the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and co-hosted the Dear Sugars podcast with Cheryl Strayed for four years. He teaches at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and lives outside Boston with his family, his debt, and his anxiety.
***
Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers.
Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc.
Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter.
Support the show on Patreon
Merch
Twitter
Instagram 
TikTok
Bluesky
Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com
The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

660. Maggie Downs

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