Roger D. Hodge is the editor of Oxford American.
"My career isn't all that interesting insofar as I've been an editor. I'm much more interested in talking about writers and stories. That's the main thing: telling these stories, creating this platform, this context for the best possible storytelling."
Thanks to TinyLetter and Random House for sponsoring this week's episode.
A profile of the Hot 97 DJ a few months after “he told the truth about who he is, even if it’s not entirely clear—even to Mister Cee himself, even now, to this day—what exactly that truth is.”
Moe Tucker narrates her time drumming in the Velvet Underground.
Sponsored
Our sponsor this week is Little Failure, the new memoir by Gary Shteyngart. Already a New York Times bestseller, Little Failure tells the story of Shteyngart's American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own.
Mary Karr called Little Failure "a memoir for the ages." The Millions dubbed Shteyngart the "Chekhov-Roth-Apatow of Queens." And Nathan Eglander said the book is so honest "Dr. Freud would be proud."
Buy Little Failure today or read an exclusive excerpt on Longform.
Finding personal stories buried deep in the YouTube comments.
How “Do What You Love” devalues actual work.
On the problems in “Dr. V’s Magical Putter.”
How the ski town of the super-rich is responding to global warming.
A physician reports on his own catastrophic injury.
A collection of picks about the pills we swallow and the people who make them, take them and sell them.</p>
To his friends and family, Ross Ulbricht was a compassionate, warm soul known for random acts of kindness. To the F.B.I., he was Dread Pirate Roberts, the mastermind behind the Silk Road who was willing to order hits to protect his black market operation.
A profile of Barack Obama as he turns toward the finish line.
Twenty years after its premiere, the filmmakers and subjects look back at “the great American documentary.”
An unlikely bipartisan alliance attempts to get Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
One man’s quest to have a healthy leg amputated.
“There is only one given: On the afternoon of August 16, a 22-year-old from Australia named Christopher Lane, who had come to America to go to college and play baseball, went out running and, without warning or knowing why, was shot to death in Duncan.”
On the legendary journalist and the book he never finished.
Why audio never goes viral.
What happens when a runner loses his feet?
What happened when 21-year-old Taiwan Smart became the target of both police and a reality TV show.
What accounts for the gender gap in literary criticism?
George Saunders has written for The New Yorker and GQ. His latest collection of short stories is Tenth of December.
“Maybe you would understand your artistry to be: put me anywhere. I'll find human beings, I'll find human interest, I'll find literature. And I guess you could argue the weirder, or maybe the less explored the place, the better.”
Thanks to TinyLetter and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/longform.
The very complicated life of Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt, who once built a very good golf club.
Update: Grantland has published a pair of responses to the reaction to this story, "What Grantland Got Wrong" by Christina Kahrl and "The Dr. V Story: A Letter From the Editor" by Bill Simmons.
François Hollande campaigned as “Monsieur Normal,” but after taking office as France’s President, a single tweet exposed his twisted 20-year love triangle.
“After college, as my friends left Michigan for better opportunities, I was determined to help fix this broken, chaotic city by building my own home in the middle of it. I was 23 years old.”
