Bob Crawford, podcaster, history buff, and the bass player for The Avett Brothers (Brian’s favorite band), joins Brian this week to talk his new podcast series, Founding Son: John Quincy’s America.

Bob and Brian talk about what made John Quincy Adams stand out as a story worth telling, how Adams is the bridge between Washington and Lincoln, a vessel to tell the story of America between the revolution and the Civil War, and a good, good man. What stories about Adams did Bob most want to tell but had to cut?

Bob discusses how his story editor helped him focus not on the trees that were so fascinating but on the forest as a whole, how he developed his pitch for the show (and even forgot about it at one point), how he used Miro as an organizational tool, and the writing tip that he learned from Twitter.

Rabbit holes in this episode include Martin Van Buren, Abraham Lincoln, the Seward House in Auburn, N.Y., and spinning a stand-up bass.

Founding Son: John Quincy’s America

The Road to Now

Concerts of Change

The Avett Brothers

Miro

The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Newspaper Archive

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Scott Nover, a technology and media reporter for Quartz, joins Brian to talk about AI, media economics, and why it’s so interesting to write about media.

Scott takes a break from watching the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on artificial intelligence for this episode. For real, though … politicians can’t understand Facebook.

Scott discusses his career path, why he became fascinated in writing and reporting on media, and what is most interesting to him in the AI space right now.

Brian and Scott also talk about why understanding business is fundamental to any career in journalism, and stratagies for making complex business concepts understandable to readers.

And man, we miss David Carr.

Scott Nover at Quartz

Scott on Twitter

OpenAI’s Sam Altman got a warm welcome on Capitol Hill

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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Arielle Beth Klein, a playwright and actor, joins Brian to talk about her newly published play, "My Shiksa Boyfriend," and all things writing and creative.

Arielle tells us what it's like seeing her play for sale in the Drama Book Shop, and what it's like signing copies of her play to sell in the famed NYC book store. We bond over the awesomeness of Grace Aki.

Arielle describes how improv exercise in a college class set her on the road to being a playwright. She tells us the lasting lessons she's learned from Seth Barrish's storytelling workshops, why she works in 10-page spurts, and her favorite deleted scene from the show and why she cut it.

She also discusses How her experience and work as an actor informs her writing, and how her career as a writer informs her acting, and and her best advice for a young or new playwright.

Arielle Beth Klein

Arielle's linktree

My Shiksa Boyfriend

Signing books at the Drama Book Shop

Just Start Podcast

The Red Shoe

Awakening to the Fifth Dimension

Will Leitch returns to the show to talk all about the writing of his excellent new novel, "The Time Has Come."

Will tells Brian how the writing of this book (“a feel-good book about a shooting!”) differed from his first novel, “How Lucky.” Will discusses how he structured the book, whether the plot or characters came first, and how he was able to make all of his main characters sound authentic to who they are. How do you write a Trump voter whom your readers will find likable - or at least able to empathize with? 

Will and Brian talk about why making something specific actually makes it universal, how the novel’s setting of Athens, Georgia ties to the book’s larger theme, and how this book reflects his overall world view.  

Pre-order The Time Has Come at IndieBound

Pre-order The Time Has Come at Amazon

All Will’s books on Amazon

Will’s Excellent Weekly Newsletter

The Rise and Fall of theThird Reich

Short Cuts 

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Dr. Jenn McClearen, an assistant professor at the University of Texas and author of the Substack newsletter Publish not Perish, joins Brian to talk about what makes academic writing so vexing, and some strategies to improve your writing and time management.

They talk about the crazy coincidence of the both being at the same, relatively small conference in Barcelona and not meeting there, and they discuss the research projects they brought to IACS and their respective interests in Naomi Osaka. The joys of eating in Barcelona and Spanish table wine.

The main topic is Jenn’s excellent newsletter, Publish Not Perish. Jenn tells the newsletter’s origin story and why she wants to make the academy more transparent. She discusses how to deal with the inherent structural challenges of academia, and the importance of reflecting on and trying different strategies and figuring out what works for you.

Publish not Perish

Jenn McClearen on Twitter

Micro Media Industries by Lori Kido Lopez

The Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse

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For the record seventh time, Alysa Auriemma joins Brian to talk about writing. This time, the main topics are social media, making space for creative work, her next novel, and (of course) so much more.

Alysa talks about the reaction her first novel, All Daughter’s Rise, received and what the self-publishing process was like on the back end. She also discusses her plans for the second book in that series and why she’s shifting her writing focus to a new project. We break some news on this episode, as Alysa discusses her next book.

The main topic for Alysa and Brian is social media. Alysa’s off Twitter and has been for a while. Why’d she leave? What’s it like? How does she fill all that time?

Alysa Auriemma’s Amazon Page

All Daughter’s Rise

Ally Marcie Writes

Skeleton Crew: Stories by Stephen King (includes The Jaunt)

Hail Mary by Kandi Steiner

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

Evan Drellich joins Brian to talk about his new book, Winning Fixes Everything, about the Houston Astros' cheating scandal.

Evan — who worked with Brian at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y. another lifetime ago — discusses how he and Ken Rosenthal broke the story of the Astros cheating scandal for The Athletic, what it's like when your reporting becomes the biggest sports story in the country, and how this is much more about players banging trash cans with bats.

Evan also talks about how this is much more than a sign-stealing scandal, how it's a book about corporate cut-throat culture that captures a lot of what was happening in industry in the 2010s, and how he developed those themes. He also talks about the writing lessons he drew from Bernard Malamud (and the late Charlie Jaworski) and his favorite Killers songs.

Winning Fixes Everything by Evan Drellich on Amazon

...and on IndieBound

Evan on Twitter

Evan at The Athletic

The original story on the Astros' scandal

The Complete Stories by Bernard Malamud

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Tyler Dunne of Go Long tells us all about Damar Hamlin, what it was like to be in Cincinnati on Monday night, and about watching and covering football going forward. 

Why Damar Hamlins is exactly what the Buffalo Bills need

The light in football’s most horrific hour

Podcast: Damar Hamlin, life, and football

The Chris Borland Effect

The Chasing MS Foundation Community Toy Drive

Axe ALS

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Jeremy Littau, a professor at Lehigh University, an expert in social media with some unfortunate opinions about candy, joins Brian to talk about the present and future of Twitter and new social platforms. 

Jeremy talks about where things stood with Twitter as of Dec. 7, when we recorded this. He talks about the migration to Mastodon, why it’s Why its really complicated for people to decide whether or not to leave or join a social network, and why those options are not the same thing. 

Jeremy also discusses his willingness to experiment with new digital media, and how he gets his students to think about the future with a bent toward curiosity

Jeremy Littau on Twitter

The Unraveling

Op-Ed: Thinking of leaving Twitter? Its experience is hard to replicate

Conversion via Twitter

Andrew Luck Reveals Why He Walked Away from the NFL

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Pablo Torre, host of ESPN Daily, joins Brian to talk about interviewing, curiosity in reporting, and how podcasting sits at the middle of his professional Venn Diagram. 

After a brief delay in starting this episode, Pablo talks about the career path that brought him to ESPN. He tells Brian how he brings a magazine-writer’s sensibility to a daily sports podcast, and why he is so wary about being a redundant voice. Pablo discusses the range of his interests and the show, whether it is taking time to discuss serious topics (mental health in sports, concussions) to approaching fun stories (was Jalen Rose really the first Jalen?) with the seriousness that Michael Caine brought to A Muppet Christmas Carol. 

Pablo and Brian talk about the importance of curiosity and how to cultivate it, how he tries to bring out the best in his guests, and whether or not you can create chemistry between two people. 

Alternate episode title: The science of butts

Pablo Torre on Twitter

ESPN Daily

JJ Redick on Mental Health vs. Mental Toughness

Inside the NFL’s Concussion Protocol with Alex Smith

Why NFL Scouts Love Big Butts

Is Jalen Rose the First Jalen? We Solve a Sports Mystery

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