Write About Now
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Write About Now
Write About Now features in-depth interviews with successful writers of all types and stripes—journalists, screenwriters, novelists, ghostwriters, and more. Host, Jonathan Small, takes a deep dive into how writers master their craft, offering tips, inspiration, and laughs for both aspiring and profe...
Nedávné epizody
100 epizod
Why Teens Are More Unhappy Than Ever
Smartphones and social media have changed childhood in ways few of us could have predicted. For starters, many children are now getting their first ph...
Kaila Yu on the Cost of Asian Fetishization
My guest this week is Kaila Yu. Her new memoir, Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty takes on a provacative question: what...
The Truth Behind One of History’s Most Misunderstood Men
Captain William Kidd is one of the most famous names in pirate lore. But what if he wasn’t actually a pirate at all? In this episode, bestselling auth...
A Sassy Conversation with Magazine Icon Jane Pratt
When I helped launch Twist magazine in the late '90s, we basically huddled around old issues of Sassy like sacred texts, trying to decode what made th...
Captain Cook Reached Paradise. Then It Turned on Him.
Historian Hampton Sides joins the show to talk about The Wide Wide Sea, his riveting new book about Captain James Cook’s final—and fatal—expedition in...
What Every Author Gets Wrong About Publicity
Guest Kim Dower has spent the last 40 years helping authors get noticed — as one of the top literary publicists in the business. She's also a celebrat...
The New Retirement Is Not At All What We Expected
A lot of Gen Xers are facing an existential crisis, feeling stuck, burned out, unemployed, and just unsure about the future. This was supposed to be t...
The Advice We’d Give to Our Younger Selves
Gretchen Rubin joins the show to talk about her new book, Secrets of Adulthood, in which she boils down a lifetime of wisdom into powerful aphorisms t...
The NYT called Gen X Obsolete. That Didn't Go Well.
When the New York Times declared it was “the end of work as we knew it” for Gen X, it did not feel fine. The story called the generation obsolete, irr...
5 Secrets for Crafting an Unforgettable Memoir
Has anyone ever told you, "Your life is so interesting—you should write a memoir!" It's flattering, no doubt. But then comes the doubts and the fears...
Kenneth Turan on the Hollywood Duo Who Built an Empire
Back in Hollywood's Golden Age, two men with vastly different backgrounds came together to shape the future of film. Louis B. Mayer, a shrewd business...
2025 Oscars: Scandals and Predictions
The 97th Academy Awards will grace Hollywood this Sunday, bringing its signature blend of glamour and controversy to the red carpet. To unpack all the...
An Explosive Lawsuit Reveals the Dark Secret of Romantasy Novels
Was a bestselling romantasy novel stolen from someone else's unpublished book? New Yorker staff writer Katy Waldman investigates a fascinating case of...
Walk This Way
Stuck in a creative rut? Need some fresh ideas? The solution isn't staring harder at your screen – it's getting up from your desk and walking. This si...
An LA Wildfire Survivor Shares Her Story
The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have destroyed 12,000 structures and taken at least 25 lives. In an intimate conversation, guest Lee Ann Daly...
The Best Ways to Use AI Writing Tools
Two years ago, most people had never heard of generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude. Now, they're an integral part of our workflow. But what asto...
Write About Now: The Best of 2024
In this year-end episode, we look back at some of the most memorable moments from the show, featuring intimate discussions with some of the literary w...
How Aristotle's Rules Have Shaped Every Great Story Ever
Douglas Vigliotti is the author of the new book "Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story." He says everything you need to...
Taylor Lorenz Wages War Against Traditional Media
Guest Taylor Lorenz is one of journalism's most notable and controversial voices. She covers tech and online culture as a reporter, podcaster, and int...
Murder, She Wrote: Inside the Mind of a Mystery Writer
Liz Mugavero is a bestselling cozy mystery writer of the Cat Cafe series, which she writes under the pen name Cate Conte. She's also a writing coach...
The TV Show We All Need Right Now
In August 2020, during the depths of the pandemic, an unlikely TV show about a clueless American football coach taking over an English soccer team bec...
This Author Wrote His Latest Novel On His Smart Phone
It's hard enough writing a novel, try writing one on your cell phone. Nifemi Aluko wrote his new book Musta's Mixtape with his thumbs. He says the pr...
From Carpet Salesman to Thriller Author
Andrew Bridgeman has sold everything from carpets to insurance, but like so many of us, his lifelong dream was to publish a novel. And now he’s done i...
You Won't Believe What Books Parents Are Trying to Ban
This week is Banned Books Week, which draws attention to the number of book ban attempts in U.S. schools and libraries. So far, in 2024, the American...
J.A. Jance Has Written 70 Books And Has No Plans to Slow Down
“Writing is my happy place,” says this week’s guest, bestselling mystery writer J.A. Jance. With 70 books under her belt, she’s spent a lot of time ty...
He Thought He'd Beaten Addiction After 20 Years — Then a Doctor's Prescription Changed Everything
William Cope Moyers, son of famed journalist Bill Moyers, thought he conquered his addiction demons after hitting rock bottom. But 20 years into recov...
How Conspiracy Theories Are Destroying Families
Conspiracy theories such as QAnon have had devastating political consequences as they’ve exploded in popularity. But what’s often overlooked is their...
Navigating Your Marketing and PR in the AI Era
Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay. Writers ignore it at their own peril, especially when it comes to marketing their work. Guest Gini Dietrich, a...
The Inside Story of My New Book—Write About Now
Hot off the presses, my new book, Write About Now: Successful Authors on Overcoming Obstacles, Finding Inspiration and the Birth of Their Careers, ju...
‘Writing Is My Medicine:’ A Veteran Reflects on the Horrors of Our Evacuation from Afghanistan
Will Selber is a former Middle East Foreign Area Officer with 20 years of experience in the intelligence community. He served for nearly 1500 days in...
The Boys Are Not Alright
Boys are in a crisis. They're "isolated, emotionally repressed, and adrift," says guest Ruth Whippman. The research bears her out. Boys are four times...
Feeling Burned Out? Anne Helen Petersen On What To Do
Culture writer Anne Helen Petersen has spent years researching and writing about burnout —that feeling of chronic stress and exhaustion that plagues s...
Joyce Maynard on J.D. Salinger, Her New Novel, and Writing with ADHD
Fifty years ago, The New York Times Magazine featured Joyce Maynard on its cover for an essay she wrote entitled “An 18-Year-Old Looks Back on Life.”...
This Writer of 12 Books Teaches You How Embrace Rejection and Fail Forward
Guest Steve Almond has written a terrific new book called Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories. In it,...
Surprising Facts They Didn’t Teach You In History Class
How much do you know about the history of the day you were born? Could you tell me any significant event, aside from your birth, that happened on your...
Inside the Making of a College Commencement Speech
When Ithaca College's president asked Jason DeLand to give this commencement address at his alma mater, he didn't hesitate for one second. DeLand, the...
Investigating the Roots and Resurgence of Anti-Semitism
There has been a worrisome escalation of anti-Semitism over the past few months around the world. But what's behind it? Israel's war with Hamas in Gaz...
A College Professor Explains Why "Like" and "Literally" Are Actually Good English
Does it make your skin crawl when people use words like "like," "um," and "dude," like literally every hella second? You're not alone. But guest Valer...
A Writer's Path to Publishing Her First YA Thriller
On this episode, we go behind the scenes with author Trish Lundy to find out what it takes get a YA novel written, sold, and published by a major hous...
Inside an Open Marriage: A Mom Explores Polyamory
Molly Roden Winter wouldn't seem like the poster child for polyamory. But the married, middle-aged mom's new book, More: A Memoir of Open Marriage, ha...