The Sunday Long Read Podcast

In March, after years of work, producer Naomi Despres and screenwriter John Gatins released “Little Wing,” the story of a young pigeon racer, first told by Susan Orlean, in The New Yorker. In this episode of The Sunday Long Read Podcast, Despres and Gatins explain the trials and tribulations of getting an adaptation like this one out into the world and how much loyalty is owed to the authors of the original tale.

Naomi Despres is the producer of the movies “Little Wing,” starring Brooklynn Prince and Brian Cox, “Kill the Messenger,” and others. John Gatins wrote “Little Wing,” as well as “Flight,” featuring Denzel Washington, and “Coach Carter.”

Show notes : 

Little Wing (Trailer)

Little Wing (The New Yorker, 2006)

Adaptation (Trailer)

Kill the Messenger (Trailer)

Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb

Peter Landesman’s New York Times archives

The Girls Next Door (The New York Times Magazine, 2004)

Sex Slaves, Revisited (Slate, 2005)

Coach Carter (Trailer)

Team Is Benched Because of Grades (The Associated Press, 1999)

Ken Carter interview with Katie Couric (1999)

The Year of Living Dangerously (Trailer)

Over the last few years, Texas Monthly has had a booming success on the big and small screen, turning impeccable stories into films and TV series. In an interview with The Sunday Long Read’s Jacob Feldman, Texas Monthly’s Executive Producer for TV, films and podcasts, Megan Creydt, explains how it all happened. 

Show notes :

Lawrence Wright’s Texas Monthly archives

Bill Broyles’s Texas Monthly archives

Katy Vine’s Texas Monthly archives

Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part I: Candy Montgomery’s Affair (Texas Monthly, 1984)

Hit Man (Texas Monthly, 2001)

A self-described “Star War Kid” and “nerd,” Marc Bernardin left journalism a few years ago to follow his dream: becoming a television writer. Bernardin explains to host Jacob Feldman why nerd culture took over entertainment, and what it was like making the jump from magazine newsroom to Hollywood writers’ room.

Marc Bernardin is a writer, director, and producer on shows such as Picard, Carnival Row and The Continental. He has also won a Writers Guild Award for his work on the show Castle Rock. Bernardin has also written multiple comic books and is the co-host, with Kevin Smith, of the podcast Fat Man Beyond. 

Show notes :

Starlog Magazine

Marc Bernardin’s Entertainment Weekly archive

Marc Bernardin’s Hollywood Reporter archive

Elon Musk: Good Samaritan or Great Supervillain? (The Hollywood Reporter, 2013)

In a span of only three years, two of Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine stories ended up on screen, a journey that involved a playdate with Julia Stiles in Queens. In an interview with Don Van Natta Jr., Pressler recounts her experience writing the original stories and the oddness of seeing herself played in a film twice. 

Jessica Pressler is a contributor to New York Magazine. Her 2015 piece “The Hustlers at Scores,” which became the movie “Hustlers,” starring Jennifer Lopez, was nominated for a National Magazine Award. Pressler is a native of Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Show notes : 

The Hustlers at Scores (New York Magazine, 2015)

How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People (New York Magazine, 2018)

Leo, Prince of the City (New York Magazine, 1998)
Jessica Pressler’s Philadelphia Magazine archives

The Boston Phoenix

Jessica Pressler’s Gossip Girl recaps (Vulture, 2012)

Edith Zimmerman rocketed to media stardom early in her career. Her editing of the influential and hilarious website The Hairpin got her a place on Forbes’ 30 under 30—at only twenty-eight, she was a “much sought after writer,” noted the magazine. 

Zimmerman hasn’t lost an ounce of her humor in the years since, but she has slowly rediscovered herself. In the last episode of Take a Joke, Zimmerman and host Don Van Natta Jr. share their respective experiences stopping drinking, reminisce about the glory days of Internet writing and chat about Zimmerman’s cartooning.

➢ Forbes 30 Under 30: Media : Edith Zimmerman (2011)
➢ Letters to the Editors of Women’s Magazines (2010)
➢ Chris Evans: American Marvel (2011)

Dina Gusovsky was an award-winning investigative reporter before she put that career aside to pursue comedy in 2016, joining Late Night with Seth Meyers. Not because she wanted to move away from the news, but the opposite—she saw comedians doing deeper dives than journalists.

In the second episode of “Take a Joke,” an SLR series on the mixing of humor and reporting, Jacob Feldman talked to Gusovsky about that decision and the adjustments she had to make in her new role. Gusovsky also discussed how her personal back story—her family fled Soviet Russia when she was a child—has influenced the perspective she brings to the show, to comedy, and to her stories.

➢ Death & Dishonor: Crisis at the VA (2013)

➢ Why Everyone Should Be Raised By Immigrants (2019)

➢ Dina Gusovsky on Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine (2022)

➢ Dina Gusovsky on Cockroach Sex (2022)

Take a Joke is sponsored by Funny Girls, a program from The Harnisch Foundation that helps third through eighth graders to develop their leadership skills.

Welcome to the first episode of Take a Joke, a Sunday Long Read podcast series on the captivating world of humor. Our first guest, Maureen Dowd, has been thorn in the side of American politicians for decades. In her conversation with host Don Van Natta Jr., she explains where her sense of humor comes from and how the subjects of her stories have taken it.

Take a Joke is sponsored by Funny Girls, a program from The Harnisch Foundation that helps third through eighth graders as they figure out all the changes they’re navigating by using improv exercises.

Welcome back to The Art of Remembering, a Sunday Long Read podcast series on the fascinating world of obituaries. Our fourth guest is magazine writer and author Garrett Graff. In early 2023, the prolific journalist was tasked with one of the toughest assignments of his career: writing the obituary of his friend, New York Times editor and reporter Blake Hounshell. In a conversation with Don Van Natta Jr., Graff describes his experience working on this emotional piece in a short amount of time.

Welcome back to The Art of Remembering, a Sunday Long Read podcast series on the fascinating world of obituaries. Our third guest, James Hagerty, is the only fulltime obituary writer at The Wall Street Journal, where he has worked for nearly 40 years.

He's also written a book, Yours Truly, on the value of telling your own story. He and Don discuss the value of humor in the face of grief and how thinking about what your own obituary will say could change your life.