Blog
Episode 37: Woody Lewis
My friend for nearly twenty years, author Woody Lewis and I sat down for the first time to talk about his book, his membership in the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), meeting and playing drums with Jimi Hendrix, his family’s relationship to Sally Hemings, and the struggle with writing about being black in America.
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Review: The Last Days of August (Audible Original)
Jon Ronson came to the story thinking it was about one thing (cyberbullying), but quickly found the threads took him elsewhere (mental health in the porn industry).
Read More ›Episode 36: Evan Ratliff
Evan Ratliff is a two-time National Magazine Award finalist, the co-founder of the Atavist publishing platform, the editor-in-chief of The Atavist Magazine, and the author of The Mastermind: Drugs, Empire, Murder, Betrayal.
Read More ›Review: Christmas Eve, 1914 (Audible Original)
The audio play is short, just seventy-three minutes, but that’s more than enough time to take you on a melancholy trip through the hours leading up to the impromptu Christmas Eve truce in World War I.
Read More ›Review: The Man on the Mountaintop (An Audible Original Drama)
The play is a series of parables told through the stories of people who are waiting in a long line to meet with Joe, the Holy Man, who lives in a hermitage at the top of a mountain.
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GenX Tribe: Breaking Bones and Other Stories of Walking it Off
GenXers grew up breaking bones, having accidents, and dealing with mayhem—and many times going to the doctor was the LAST thing we did. So—share your story of GenX Catastrophes!
Read More ›Review: The View from Flyover Country
This is less a view of flyover country and more a response to flare-ups in flyover country. Still, I sat down and read the book in one sitting because it's smart, well-written, on point, and unapologetic. I dig that.
Read More ›Review: Alien: Out of the Shadows
While the story doesn't really add much to the Alien universe—it really is a mash-up of the two movies—it's still fun as hell to be back with Ripley (although she feels a little less feminist badass in the book, but not offensively so).
Read More ›Review: Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind
The book chronicles the rise of Homo sapiens from our earliest days on through the very near future, gently walking the reader through the complex issues of empire building, the development of cultures, and the ethical examinations of what it means to even be human.
Read More ›Review: It Didn't Start with You
The book was okay, but not great. I was a technology journalist (Wired, MIT's Technology Review) so I'm reluctant to recommend books that get the science not exactly right.
Read More ›Episode 35: Danielle Sepulveres
Author, actress, and Tweeter extraordinaire, Danielle Supulveres‘ memoir Losing It chronicles the medical, emotional, and physical toll that comes from falling in love with the wrong person—and not trusting you own instincts.
Read More ›Episode 34: Keri Leigh Merritt
Historian Keri Leigh Merritt's book Masterless Men explains the how the social and economic fabric of the “white working class” came to be—and what it means for America.
Read More ›(Bonus) Episode 33: George Carlin (aka, the one that started it all)
In 2001, I interviewed comedian George Carlin for my streaming audio show on Wired.com. That show was the genesis of The Downtown Writers Jam Podcast.
Read More ›Episode 32: Vikki Tobak
Vikki Tobak left Detroit for New York City and found herself at the center of the nascent hip-hop scene in 1991. Her new book Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop will change the way you think and talk about the music that shook up America.
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The Books that Influence My Writing Life
My favorite conversation: What books influenced you? These are the books that influenced my life as a writer.
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The Fourth of July and the Meaning of the Declaration
My middle school history teacher John Viall—a dedicated and decorated teacher—wrote a wonderful post about America, the Fourth, and e pluribus unum.
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Won't You Be My Neighbor, or How Mister Rogers Took on a Border Wall
King Friday XIII orders a border wall to be built. Lady Aberlin takes balloons, tied with messages of peace and love, and floats them across the wall.
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The Magnificent Mr. Maxx in Schenley Park
I love Schenley Park, but it's made for mountain biking, running, and walking your dog. Oh, and it's good for streams and water, which is where we meet Mr. Maxx.
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A Final Training Push, or...
Competitions had once been my respite from real life. But the last few years challenged me emotionally. My heart needed more serene endeavors. Until now.
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Free eBook on Machine Learning, A.I., and the Modern World
Sign up for my mailing list and get a free PDF of my latest book, Frankenstein's Legacy: Four Conversations about Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and the Modern World.
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"We Are Not A House Divided"
My friend KT Peterson and I embarked on a writing challenge on August 4-5: write 10,000 words and the read an excerpt from it. The title of this piece is "We Are Not A House Divided."
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About That Thing You Ask Me About Hillbilly Elegy
That's where the single narrative becomes so dangerous. Because people don't know the history of the region, and they don't understand its problems. Yet many of those same people have a great number of preconceived notions they aren't afraid to unleash.
Read More ›Review: Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place
I'm still trying to wrap my head around Crapalachia. It's not quite memoir, it's certainly not a biography of a place, and as we find out at the end of the book it's not entirely real.
Read More ›Review: The Arts of Legerdemain as Taught by Ghosts
The Arts of Legerdemain as Taught by Ghosts is a fantastic story that explores the divergence between the way we want to see the world and the way the world is.
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