10 Minute Writer's Workshop

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Malcolm Harris and Erik Baker for a discussion of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. Feb 11, 2026

Show notes

In PALO ALTO, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the “tragedy of the commons,” racial genetics, and “broken windows” theory. The Internet and computers, too. It’s a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century. PALO ALTO is an urgent and visionary history of the way we live now, one that ends with a clear-eyed, radical proposition for how we might begin to change course.”

MODERATOR Erik Baker is a lecturer in the Harvard History of Science Department and the director of the senior thesis program for the History & Science concentration. He received his PhD from Harvard and his BA from Northwestern University. His book project, Make Your Own Job: The Entrepreneurial Work Ethic in Modern America, explores the role of popular psychologists and management experts in transforming beliefs about work and success in the twentieth-century United States. He also writes widely for magazines such as n+1, The Baffler, and The Drift, where he is an associate editor.

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Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham - Whitney Cummings Breaks Down Codependency Feb 11, 2026

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Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham – “Whitney Cummings Breaks Down Codependency”.

Join supermodel, style icon and barrier-breaking body activist Ashley Graham as she sits down with some of her brilliant, inspiring and honest friends about what makes them a Pretty Big Deal. Absolutely nothing is off limits, so get ready.

Ashley Graham sits down with the hilarious Whitney Cummings! Whitney is a comedian, actress, writer, director, producer, show-runner, author, and most recently — host of the Good For You podcast.

Her latest comedy special Can I Touch It? debuted on Netflix this summer featuring a life-sized robot clone of Cummings.

In this episode, we talk about comedy, codependency and so much more.

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Aisha Test Episode Jan 19, 2026

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Aisha Test Episode

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Workshop 61: The Last Line Jan 31, 2018

Show notes

After more than two years and 60 episodes, the 10 Minute Writer’s Workshop is signing off to make room for new projects and podcasts. Thanks to everybody who has listened and learned from the show.

As we dream up our next undertaking, we want to hear from you aspiring writers and literature lovers out there. What sorts of things do you do to keep yourself creatively engaged? Are there exciting writerly events happening in your community? Do you lead a book club, or a writers workshop of your own? Let us know! You can reach us several ways:

Send us a message on Facebook: @10MWW

Twitter: @10minutewriters

Or send an email to: wordofmouth@nhpr.org

We’re not sure what the future holds (creativity takes time, after all!) but to hear about upcoming projects involving Virginia Prescott, follow her @Verginger.

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Workshop 60: Manoush Zomorodi Dec 27, 2017

Show notes

Some of you may know Manoush Zomorodi as host of the podcast Note to Self from WNYC. She is also, now, an author. Her book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self came out of her own experience and curiosity about the creative process and confronting digital distractions - one of the biggest challenges for writers. She asked her audience to help her figure out what it would mean to let all of that go and to learn to shut down in order to build your creative juices up. Bored and Brilliant is the result, and it begins with an extreme case of writer’s block – what Manoush refers to as “a blankness.”

Episode music by Ryan Andersen

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Workshop 59: Jennifer Egan Dec 13, 2017

Show notes

Conventional, linear narratives are not really Jennifer Egan’s thing. She's a shape-shifter of fiction – jumping through time, space, voices and forms. She's written a graphic novel, a short story composed of tweets, and, in the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, a kind of novel-as-concept album. Jennifer Egan takes on historical fiction in her newest novel, Manhattan Beach. We called her at her home in Brooklyn to ask about her process and how she begins her unpredictable novels.

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Workshop 58: Welcome to Nightvale's Jeffrey Cranor & Joseph Fink Nov 29, 2017

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Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, co-creators of the phenomenally popular Welcome to Nightvale podcast, the “Nightvale Presents” series of podcasts, and New York Times bestselling co-authors of the new novel, It Devours, their second book set in the fictional world of Nightvale. We caught up with them at the 2017 Boston Book Festival. Episode Music by Disparition

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Workshop 57: Dan Brown Nov 15, 2017

Show notes

The blockbuster 2003 thriller The Da Vinci Code launched Dan Brown into the best-selling stratosphere. More than 200 million copies of his books have sold worldwide since. Three of his novels have been made into films starring tom hanks as fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Brown is a disciplined writer, rising at 4am to a breakfast smoothie and "bulletproof" coffee, writing every day, and throwing himself into his research. He spent four years researching Origin, his latest novel, which again thrusts Langdon into a 24-hour scavenger hunt for keys, codes and symbols in spectacular European locations. The breathless action drives bigger questions about faith, conspiracies, and organized religion. The question of whether contemporary notions of god can withstand scientific scrutiny is at the heart of Origin. We caught up with him just before discussing the book at The Music Hall in Portsmouth for Writers on a New England Stage.

Music in this episode by Gregory W. Brown, used with permission by PARMA Recordings, and Podington Bear.

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Workshop 56: Speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz Nov 01, 2017

Show notes

For many writers, hitting their stride means finding their voice. Success for Sarah Hurwitz is in creating a voice for others. Sarah was candidate Hillary Clinton’s chief speechwriter during the 2006 Presidential primary, and was quickly snatched up by the Obama campaign team. She landed in the White House, soon being named First Lady Michelle Obama’s head speechwriter. We asked Sarah about her work and confirmed that she worked on that 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention that was plagiarized by then candidate Trump's wife, Melania at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

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Workshop 55: Virginia Macgregor Oct 18, 2017

Show notes

Virginia Macgregor, author most recently of Wishbones, has a knack for capturing the voices of children and young adults and projecting her novels through their lenses, giving us young narrators with accurate levels of experience and naivety - and a perspective not often found in adult literature. Our conversation with her centered around that: how she conjures the voices of young people, insures they are three-dimensional, and navigates those voices around complicated adult situations.

Episode music by Broke for Free

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