Show Notes
Vinson Cunningham is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His novel, published in March 2024, is Great Expectations. “I think the job is just paying a bunch of attention. If you're a person like me, where thoughts and worries are intruding on your consciousness all the time, it is a great relief to have something to just over-describe and over-pay-attention to—and kind of just give all of your latent, usually anxious attention to this one thing. That, to me, is a great joy.” Show notes:
@vcunningham
vinson.nyc
Cunningham on Longform
Cunningham's New Yorker archive
04:00 "’The Suit’ at BAM" (Brooklyn Paper • Jan 2013)
04:00 "Label Maker: Edward Buchanan" (Nylon Guys • Mar 2015)
09:00 circlejerk.live
11:00 Jeremy O. Harris’ plays
11:00 "How Are Audiences Adapting to the Age of Virtual Theatre?" (New Yorker • Oct 2020)
18:00 "The Season of Russell Westbrook and a New Era in N.B.A. Fandom" (New Yorker • Apr 2017)
25:00 Cunningham's McSweeney’s archive
25:00 "The Flies in Kehinde Wiley’s Milk" (The Awl • Jun 2015)
25:00 "Can Black Art Ever Escape the Politics of Race?" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2015)
25:00 "How Chris Jackson is Building a Black Literary Movement" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2016)
27:00 "Stephon Marbury Has His Own Story to Tell" (New Yorker • Apr 2020)
28:00 "The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers" (New Yorker • Jan 2018)
29:00 WTF with Marc Maron
32:00 "Tracy Morgan Turns the Drama of His Life into Comedy" (New Yorker • May 2019)
36:00 Redd Foxx party albums
38:00 Alexandra Schwartz’ New Yorker archive
41:00 Simon Parkin on Longform
41:00 Adrian Chen on Longform
42:00 "The Many Lives of Steven Yeun" (Jay Caspian Kang • New York Times Magazine • Feb 2021)
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Have you ever wondered how your favorite movie or book—or podcast, TV series, documentary, or article—got made? Origin Stories has you covered. Each week, veteran journalist Matthew Shaer talks to a different writer or director about the creation of a work close to their own hearts. Nothing is off the table: not the frustrations and the joys, not the setbacks and the successes. Intimate and incisive, instructive and eye-opening, Origin Stories is the ultimate podcast for anyone curious about the workings of the creative mind. Among the early guests are Noah Hawley, creator of the new Alien show on FX; Mimi Leder, director of The Morning Show; New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe; and Evan Ratliff, of Longform and Atavist fame. Hosted by Matthew Shaer, co-founder of Campside Media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
John Jeremiah Sullivan is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and has written for Harper's, The New Yorker, and GQ. He is the author of Pulphead and the forthcoming The Prime Minister of Paradise: The True Story of a Lost American History. “I love making pieces of writing and trying to find the right language to say what I mean. It's such a wonderful way of being alive in the world. I mean, your material is all around you. ... I'm lucky that it has stayed interesting for me. It hasn't faded. The challenges of writing, they still glow.” Show notes:
The hosts answer a few listener questions. Evan’s picks for some podcasts to try:
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an author and journalist. His next book is The Message. “I don’t think we have the luxury as journalists of avoiding things because people might say bad things about us. I don’t even think we have the luxury of avoiding things because we might get fired. I don’t think we have the luxury of avoiding them because somebody might cancel some sort of public speech that we have. I then have to ask you, what are you in it for? Like, why did you come here? Did you come here just to make a living? Because there are many other things where you could make more money.” Show notes:
Jay Caspian Kang is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a co-host of Time to Say Goodbye. “At some point, you have to kick it out the door, and it’s never finished to the degree that you would finish a magazine piece. But it, in some ways, is more interesting because it is produced in a short amount of time, and it’s read as something that is not supposed to be complete. It’s just meant to provoke or to provide thought or whatever, to provide some sort of context on a certain issue or not. And I actually like that a lot better than the magazine writing. I respect the magazine writers—obviously, I was one—but for my disposition now, in my lifestyle, I actually enjoy having to produce this thing every week.” Have a question for the mailbag? Email the show or leave a voicemail at (929) 333-2908. Show notes: