Now That's A Great Story - TopPodcast.com

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Episode 3: The Hardest Story Eli Saslow Ever Told Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

Eli Saslow is a friend, a Pulitzer-Prize winner at the Washington Post, and the author of the book, Rising Out of Hatred.He and I talk about the piece that "just rolled me," Eli says.

In "Into The Lonely Quiet," Eli spent time with the Barden family six months after their 7-year-old son, Daniel, was killed in the Newtown massacre. The point of the piece wasn't to relive the horror of that shooting but to feel the acute pain that followed it, as the Bardens flailed at each other and any politician who said the right thing but did nothing. (Which was almost all of them.) Brilliant, restrained, the story was also the hardest Eli's ever done. Talking with him about it moved me because of the difficult truths he learned: about reporting, about honoring someone's pain, about the human condition.

We recorded the episode before the latest mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. The suffering that families of those victims feel is very likely akin to what is on display in this episode. Eli doesn't preach solutions in his storytelling and so I won't here. I ask only that you live beside the Bardens for an hour so that you might understand them, and maybe all of us.

For the books and movies that inspire Eli, please check out my show notes page on paulkix.com.

Episode 2: Now That's a Great Story After Show Jul 27, 2019

Show notes

I talk about not only how much I admire Sarah Hepola's work but how I've never understood the writers who say they hate writing. I also discuss the ways in which Sarah is a far more courageous person than me.

Episode 1: The Night in Paris It All Went Wrong for Sarah Hepola Jul 27, 2019

Show notes

Sarah and I talk about the rawest chapter of her amazing and best-selling memoir, Blackout. For the full show notes and a sense for how Sarah's story relates to others, head over to paulkix.com.