Cover Story

Cover Story

episodes

Interviews with journalists and editors about their work.

Covering Donald Trump: A Conversation with Allen Salkin

September 14, 2021

Covering Donald Trump

Allen Salkin
Hosted by Agata Popeda

What's it like to cover Donald Trump? In this episode, veteran American journalist Allen Salkin explains. For over three decades, Salkin has written…

Local Long-Form Journalism: An Interview with David Schmalz

August 31, 2021

Local Long-Form Journalism

David Schmalz
Hosted by Agata Popeda

David Schmalz is a staff writer at the Monterey County Weekly, where his longform pieces have won numerous awards from the California News Publishers …

Covering New York Politics: A Conversation with David Freedlander

August 17, 2021

Covering New York Politics

David Freedlander
Hosted by Agata Popeda

David Freedlander is a veteran New York City-based journalist. He writes long-form features about politics and the arts, people and ideas, and has app…

Sarah Hepola on Drinking in a "Dry" Texas County

August 3, 2021

Sarah Hepola on Drinking in a "Dry" Texas County

Sarah Hepola
Hosted by Agata Popeda

Welcome to Cover Story, a podcast by New Books Network devoted to long form journalism. Today, we are talking to Texas-based writer Sarah Hepola. Hepo…

Knitting and Politics in the Age of Trump: A Discussion with Carrie Battan

July 20, 2021

Knitting and Politics in the Age of Trump

Carrie Battan
Hosted by Agata Popeda

Today we are talking to a New Yorker staff writer Carrie Battan about her piece from March of this year "How Politics Tested Ravelry and the Crafting …

What Can Wittgenstein Teach Us About Raising Our Kids?: A Discussion with Ryan Ruby

July 13, 2021

What Can Wittgenstein Teach Us About Raising Our Kids?

Ryan Ruby
Hosted by Agata Popeda

Ryan Ruby is a writer and translator from Los Angeles, California. His fiction and criticism have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Paris …

No Choice: Why Is It So Hard to Get an Abortion in the South?

June 22, 2021

No Choice: Why Is It So Hard to Get an Abortion in the South?

Becca Andrews
Hosted by Agata Popeda

Today we are talking with Becca Andrews, a journalist at Mother Jones, where she writes about reproductive rights and gender. The story we discuss is …

Matthew Karp on Writing Engaged History

June 8, 2021

Writing Engaged History

Matthew Karp
Hosted by Agata Popeda

Matthew Karp is a historian of the U.S. Civil War era and its relationship to the nineteenth-century world. He received his Ph.D. in History from the …

Free Tax Prep That's Never Free: A Discussion with ProPublica's Justin Elliott

May 25, 2021

Free Tax Prep That's Not Free

Justin Elliot
Hosted by Agata Popeda

In this episode, we are talking to ProPublica investigative journalist Justin Elliott. Justin has been with ProPublica since 2012 and writes about b…

N+1: "Like Partisan Review, but Not Dead"

May 18, 2021

N+1: "Like Partisan Review, but Not Dead"

Mark Krotov
Hosted by Agata Popeda

In this episode, we are talking to Mark Krotov, the publisher and co-editor of n + 1, a magazine of politics, essays and fiction described once: “like…

Can We Disagree Online Respectfully?: A Discussion with Ian Leslie

May 11, 2021

Can we Disagree Online Respectfully?

Ian Leslie
Hosted by Agata Popeda

In this episode, we are talking to a British writer Ian Leslie, a journalist and author of acclaimed books on human behavior. His latest book, Conflic…

The Work of Editing a Magazine: A Discussion with Chris Lehmann

May 4, 2021

The Work of Editing a Magazine

Chris Lehmann
Hosted by Agata Popeda

In this episode, we are talking to writer and editor Chris Lehmann, an editor of The Baffler, a former managing editor of The New Republic and a forme…

Can Journalism Be Saved?: A Discussion with Nicholas Lemann

April 27, 2021

Can Journalism Be Saved?

A Discussion with Nicholas Lemann
Hosted by Agata Popeda

There is no better person to start this journey than with journalist Nicholas Lemann, who has been observing the industry, also long-form journalism, …