#jesse-katz

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#ben-lerner
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
12 hours ago

He Wrote a Book About Interviewing. Here's His Interview.

Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' explores memory, language, and technology through the lens of a writer's relationship with his mentor.
Writing
fromVulture
2 days ago

Ben Lerner's Big Feelings

Ben Lerner's new book, Transcription, explores the complexities of authorial voice and the nature of interviews through a unique narrative structure.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
6 days ago

The Ample Rewards of Ben Lerner's Slender New Novel

An interview with Ben Lerner reveals complexities of memory and influence in art and literature.
fromLos Angeles Times
12 hours ago

Commentary: For more than 30 years - day in, day out - he's chronicled California. One paragraph at a time

"The bottom line is trust - vouching that an article is credible and worthy of a reader's time. It all comes down to that."
Media industry
fromThe New Yorker
12 hours ago

Catherine Lacey Reads "Rate Your Happiness"

Catherine Lacey reads her story 'Rate Your Happiness,' from the April 13, 2026, issue of the magazine, highlighting her narrative style and thematic depth.
Books
#true-crime
London politics
fromSlate Magazine
1 day ago

The Author of Say Nothing Has a New True-Crime Book. It's Remarkable.

Patrick Radden Keefe's 'London Falling' investigates the death of Zac Brettler, exploring themes of tragedy, blame, and urban decay.
Podcast
fromABC7 Los Angeles
1 week ago

ABC takes true crime storytelling to new levels with 'Betrayal: Secrets and Lies'

The series 'Betrayal: Secrets and Lies' showcases true stories of deception, including paternity fraud and domestic abuse.
#political-memoirs
Left-wing politics
fromSlate Magazine
2 days ago

Can You Name That Political Memoir? A Slate Quiz.

Political memoirs from current and former officials reflect personal experiences and ambitions, often blending blandness with moments of controversy and career revival.
Left-wing politics
fromSlate Magazine
2 days ago

Can You Name That Political Memoir? A Slate Quiz.

Political memoirs from current and former officials reflect personal experiences and ambitions, often blending blandness with moments of controversy and career revival.
fromEast Bay Express | Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda
5 days ago

History is no joke ... or is it?

On this site birthed in 1963 lays lain layed lies the location original whereabouts around here of the Berkeley Copywriter's Guild, A place where word geeks were often found with their smug understanding of grammar and their tiny worn-down blue pencils marking up all the fun words for boring ones.
East Bay food
Right-wing politics
fromWIRED
5 days ago

The Promise of 'Woke 2' Is Fueling a Leftist Fever Dream

Donald Trump's 2024 victory was seen as a rejection of 'woke' ideology, leading to a culture of offensive speech without fear of consequences.
Miami food
fromwww.npr.org
1 week ago

Writer Rachel Knox wants people to re-think what they know about Florida

Florida is a complex state with real people and nuanced experiences beyond its stereotypes.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 days ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Writing
fromThe Nation
4 days ago

My Years-Long Fight to Say "They"

The author reflects on their journey of writing about their experiences as a Jehovah's Witness and the challenges faced in publishing.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 days ago

Baldwin by Nicholas Boggs review the relationships that drove a genius

James Baldwin's legacy has been revitalized, particularly through Raoul Peck's documentary, despite earlier criticisms of his work and its relevance.
Humor
fromwww.mediaite.com
2 weeks ago

Jimmy Kimmel Calls the US a Ridiculous Country'

Jimmy Kimmel expressed exhaustion with the current state of the United States, characterizing it as ridiculous, and made critical jokes about Trump and other targets during his Oscars presentation.
Roam Research
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks ago

Letters from Our Readers

Clear-air turbulence over Southeast Asia caused dramatic altitude changes in both modern commercial flights and World War II transport planes, with historical flights experiencing far more severe drops than contemporary incidents.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
6 days ago

How Long Can You Live Your Ideals?

Pat Calhoun chooses parenthood over radicalism, paralleling Elsa Haddish's struggle between her militant past and raising her daughter safely.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
5 days ago

Transcription by Ben Lerner review a stunning exploration of technology and storytelling

The novel explores themes of touch, familial inheritance, and the complexities of communication through a narrative involving a final interview with a mentor.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
3 weeks ago

The Shift That Happens When You Write a Non-Fiction Book

Writing a book transforms tacit knowledge into explicit frameworks, forcing experts to articulate intuitions they've developed through experience into clear, communicable ideas.
Photography
fromenglish.elpais.com
3 weeks ago

Writing, watching, photographing: the heart of the matter according to Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan's writings reveal that writing was integral to his artistic practice, documenting his reflections on seeing, family memory, and photography's limits through correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and essays.
Women
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

The Feminist Visionary Who Lost the Plot

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's experience of discrimination at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention catalyzed her feminist activism, though her sense of intellectual superiority later contributed to bigoted views.
US Elections
fromThe Nation
3 weeks ago

George Packer's Liberal Imagination

The Short American Century, spanning 1945-2016, progressed through four distinct eras of confidence, skepticism, exuberance, and hubris before ending with Trump's 2016 election, which shattered liberal consensus about permanent American dominance.
#tracy-kidder
fromBoston.com
1 week ago
Books

Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer-winning author who turned unlikely subjects into bestsellers, dies at 80

Books
fromBoston.com
1 week ago

Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer-winning author who turned unlikely subjects into bestsellers, dies at 80

Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, passed away at 80 from lung cancer, known for works like 'The Soul of a New Machine' and 'Mountains Beyond Mountains'.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer-winning author who turned unlikely subjects into bestsellers, dies aged 80

Tracy Kidder, an influential narrative nonfiction writer, has passed away at 80, leaving a legacy of empathy and storytelling.
Public health
fromLos Angeles Times
4 weeks ago

Commentary: Horrified by the state of the union, he's an angry protester. But he's also optimistic

Trump fatigue syndrome drives citizens to either disengage from politics or actively protest, with some like Bert Voorhees choosing civic engagement to defend American democracy against perceived authoritarian threats.
fromwww.berkeleyside.org
1 month ago

Around Berkeley: Rebecca Solnit, Michael Pollan, Jeff Chang book talks; Louise Pearl show

Louise Pearl's one-woman show Pass the Nails and Shame The Devil recounts the experience of her family's ordeal building their own house amid Oakland's 1980s crack epidemic as her strong-willed, Louisiana-born mother and gather a motley crew of men to make this dream home into a reality.
East Bay (California)
US politics
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

The Right Is Becoming What It Hates

A misleading social media clip falsely portrayed Governor Newsom's comments about dyslexia as racially offensive, sparking a frivolous controversy amplified by a large anonymous account.
fromDefector
1 month ago

A Complimentary Profile Of Jason Lee That Was Surprisingly Difficult To Publish | Defector

It's kind of a little local community hang spot as much as it is a retail store. You could buy analog cameras or photo books at the shop. If you're like me, you could browse in order to motivate yourself to dig your old film camera out of the closet. Or you could just hang out, talk art, and make friends.
Los Angeles
Books
fromVulture
2 weeks ago

Tom Junod's Family Secrets

Tom Junod's memoir investigates his father's hidden life through reported journalism, uncovering affairs and secrets beneath a charismatic public persona.
Writing
fromElite Traveler
3 weeks ago

Life Lessons With Author David Coggins

Living an interesting life requires embracing improbable efforts, starting from the ground floor in unfamiliar pursuits, prioritizing face-to-face conversation, and developing deep attachment to specific places.
Portland
fromOregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
1 month ago

A politics of hope: Author Christopher Mathias talks about his book, 'To Catch a Fascist' * Oregon ArtsWatch

Christopher Mathias documents anti-fascist activists who use espionage and investigation to expose and undermine white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremists operating in America.
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

The Politics of Looking Away

Like us, you may feel paralyzed in the face of the relentless images of violence we see every day. Suffering children, military occupations, the devastated neighborhoods, the cries of parents mourning their dead-these scenes haunt us. Whether it is happening in Palestine or Minneapolis, we are witnesses to suffering, and that witnessing takes a heavy toll. Clearly, the devastating situations in the West Bank and Gaza and in Minneapolis differ
Social justice
fromPoynter
3 weeks ago

What are your favorite nonfiction books by journalists? - Poynter

"Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era" quickly became one of my favorite nonfiction books written by a journalist. I appreciated how he showed the grueling, day-to-day work local journalism requires, and how many layers of people fought him in revealing the despicable work of the Ku Klux Klan.
Books
Books
fromwww.7x7.com
3 weeks ago

Locals We Love: Author Kristina Voegele's 'Annie in Retrospect' is a Love Letter to Our City and Ourselves.

A novel follows a woman who slips into her 25-year-old body with midlife knowledge, exploring identity loss, memory, and San Francisco's transformation through disorientation, grief, and acceptance.
National Basketball Association
fromDefector
1 month ago

Kim Caldwell Is Running Out Of Hard Truths To Deliver | Defector

Tennessee's women's basketball team displayed persistent quitting and inconsistent play, culminating in the program's worst-ever 93-50 loss to South Carolina.
Europe politics
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Country That Made Its Own Canon

Sweden released a national culture canon, sparking controversy over national identity as immigration rises and the nationalist Sweden Democrats gain political influence.
Television
fromLos Angeles Times
2 months ago

Column: Congrats on scoring football game tickets. The TV version is superior

Televised football exemplifies television's superior formal design—pacing, visuals, and broadcast techniques make football better on TV than in person, satisfying casual and devoted fans.
fromKqed
1 month ago

A Novel Tracks the Fallout of Free Love, and the Girls Who 'Went Away'

In 1968, a "good girl" is squeaky clean. She studies hard, follows the rules, gets into college and doesn't embarrass her parents. She doesn't lie or drink or do drugs. She doesn't participate in the Summer of Love or experiment with any of its alternative ways of living. She definitely doesn't have premarital sex, get pregnant and upend everyone's meticulously laid plans for her future.
Books
fromLady Freethinker
2 months ago

Author Charlotte Laws on Power, Animals, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

One is " Omniocracy," a sweeping work of political philosophy decades in the making, proposing a new ethical foundation for society that rejects moral absolutes and instead grounds moral consideration for all beings in science and policy. In Laws' view, traditional political systems are inherently prejudiced: they work for humans only, excluding the vast majority of sentient beings. An omniocracy, she argues, would account for all living beings as constituents whose interests must be weighed in the decisions that affect them.
Philosophy
Tech industry
fromKqed
2 months ago

Put These 12 Eye-Opening Nonfiction Books on Your 2026 Reading List

Tech leaders failed to understand their power; pop culture objectified young women under the guise of empowerment; nature narratives give rivers an urgent, voiced significance.
Science
fromHigh Country News
2 months ago

'My history is a blip' - High Country News

Personal lives feel like brief blips against cosmic deep time, prompting greater appreciation for present relationships, places, and limited time.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

My cultural awakening: Thirteen influenced my hedonistic youth, until a psychotic episode ended it'

A 13-year-old experienced a sudden shift into self-destructive rebellious behavior influenced by peers and the film Thirteen, seeking acceptance and identity.
#cbs-news
fromJezebel
2 months ago
US politics

Bari Weiss' New CBS Anchor Says People Mad About ICE Murders Need to Be 'Decent' to ICE Supporters

fromJezebel
2 months ago
US politics

Bari Weiss' New CBS Anchor Says People Mad About ICE Murders Need to Be 'Decent' to ICE Supporters

Social justice
fromKqed
1 month ago

Snap Judgment: Jen Angel | KQED

Oakland bakery owner Jen Angel was killed in a smash-and-grab; her community pursued restorative justice for the accused, which they say she would have wanted.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

Literature Has a Stay-at-Home-Dad Problem

Stay-at-home fathers are consistently portrayed as incompetent buffoons in literature, rarely depicted as skilled, engaged parents despite their growing real-world presence.
fromwww.mediaite.com
2 months ago

That's Just Not True!' CNN's Elie Honig Clashes With Tiffany Cross Over Charlie Kirk

Elie, I take your point that you think it's both sides, but let me just say the data, respectfully, disagrees with you. According to government and independent analysis, since 2001, 85% of political deaths have been from right-wing extremists. There was a study posted on the DOJ about right-wing extremism being one of the biggest issues in America. Of course, it quietly disappeared when Donald Trump came into office, submitted Cross.
Right-wing politics
Podcast
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Bari Weiss Is Changing CBS News

Bari Weiss's appointment as CBS News editor-in-chief sparked conservative praise, Silicon Valley backing, and immediate controversy over her leadership and on-air anchors.
Television
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Discovering Where Your Interests Lie

Many professed interests are performative: people prefer outcomes or appearances while avoiding the work, commitment, or discomfort that genuine interest requires.
fromDefector
2 months ago

Who The Hell Was This? | Defector

It was a bonnie morning 410 million years ago in what are now the Rhynie chert fossil beds in Scotland. The mists had begun to lift and swirl over the landscape, where hot springs burbled, lichen papered over rocks, and worms slithered as only worms can. Here, almost all life stayed close to the ground. The second-tallest organism at the time, a plant called , grew to a few centimeters at most.
Science
Los Angeles
fromPoynter
2 months ago

In Los Angeles, a news outlet 'superbloom' is emerging - Poynter

Los Angeles has seen a rapid emergence of new local news ventures filling coverage gaps left by a shrinking Los Angeles Times.
#immigration
Social justice
fromMedium
3 years ago

Confessions of a Race Writer

Race writers risk performing a narrowed, victimized 'blackness' while often holding privilege and a platform to speak for marginalized people.
fromDefector
2 months ago

Bari Weiss Is The Symptom | Defector

"My general view here," the CBS News editor-in-chief wrote in a memo before shelving the now-infamous 60 Minutes report on El Salvador's CECOT concentration camp, "is that we do our viewers the best service by presenting them with the full context they need to assess the story. In other words, I believe we need to do more reporting here." Expediency, personal prerogative, servility to power, all smuggled under the cover of journalistic scruple:
Media industry
Science
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

A World Appears by Michael Pollan review a kaleidoscopic exploration of consciousness

Machine metaphors limit understanding of consciousness; plants and other organisms display complex, cognitive-like behaviors that call for broader, non-mechanistic frameworks.
Media industry
fromVulture
2 months ago

The Gospel According to Bari

CBS News under Bari Weiss has shifted noticeably rightward, appointing right-leaning contributors and altering coverage and scheduling in ways that limit critical exposure.
US politics
fromemptywheel
2 months ago

Bill Essayli Has an Identity Crisis - emptywheel

Bill Essayli is exercising U.S. Attorney powers he lacks legally by adopting an unofficial title and continuing to perform duties despite a court ruling.
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

This devastating début novel takes the form of an oral history about a tragedy that shatters a family. At its heart is a couple who arrived in the U.S. in the late nineteen-nineties as refugees from Afghanistan. They prospered, and brought up four children in an affluent suburb in Virginia. Rotating testimonies from people they know-family friends, a cousin, lawyers-offer theories about what led to the novel's central catastrophe.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

ICE Is Turning Real Conflict Into Viral Content

Going back to Renee Good, the idea that there was an ICE agent that was filming while involved in this life-or-death-you know, supposedly for him-situation, right? You're claiming that, but at the same time you're using your phone to document this.
US politics
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

'How do you really tell the truth about this moment?': George Saunders on ghosts, mortality and Trump's America

Ghost stories are used to explore mortality, memories, and ethical legacy, forcing characters to confront past actions and discover more truthful perspective.
Books
fromPortland Monthly
1 month ago

Chuck Klosterman's 'Football' Journeys into America's Media-Addled Soul

NFL football is simultaneously conservative and liberal, highly edited with few surprises, and exerts vast societal influence while facing safety and cultural contradictions.
fromPublishersWeekly.com
1 month ago

WI2026: PW Talks with Xochitl Gonzalez

In addition to writing fiction, you're a staff writer for the and a screenwriter. How do you think of your career? I think of myself as a storyteller. I'm nosy, so once I'm telling a story, I want to know what happens. I do find, with fiction, I can't toggle in and out of it. It's like acting, where you have to stay with that character, in that world.
Books
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

The Fine Balance Required of an 'Authorial Rant'

Lionel Shriver's political provocations increasingly overshadow her fiction; A Better Life reads like an op-ed and renders characters sociologically rather than psychologically.
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Bring Back Moral Fiction

It was once commonly understood that fiction was in the wisdom business, that it offered not only aesthetic pleasure but also moral improvement. This function of literature was not tough to spot. One of the first English novels was Samuel Richardson's 1740 work, Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded-a title not meant ironically. Through the 19th century, many authors turned directly to the reader with philosophical and social (if sometimes ironic) commentary: "It is a truth universally acknowledged"; "It was the best of times"; "All happy families are alike." For readers not up to the challenge of full George Eliot novels, her enterprising publisher compiled a volume of Eliot's many Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings, in order to more broadly distribute "a morality as pure as it is impassioned."
Books
Books
fromVulture
2 months ago

What's a Satirist to Do in Times Like These?

An oil executive confronts his role in causing mass death and climate catastrophe on his deathbed as supernatural visitors press him to face the consequences.
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 month ago

Jung Chang, writer: If people thought China was so wonderful, they would go there'

Yes, because I grew up under Mao's rule and fear was ingrained in our hearts. Today I try to overcome it, not feel it and move on with my life, but it's still there.
Books
Books
fromEsquire
2 months ago

George Saunders Wants a Good Death

George Saunders' novel Vigil centers on mortality and a CEO's final night, and contemplating death energizes him rather than obsesses him.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Valeria Luiselli on Sound, Memory, and New Beginnings

Field recordings and attentive listening are integral to narrative creation, shaping the writing process and immersive listening experiences.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Do You Write About the Inexplicable?

Rational skepticism coexists with a persistent tendency to personify evil and read coincidences as omens.
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Less 'Lolita,' More Late-Stage Capitalism

Whatever you might think you're going to get from the familiar setup of Jennette McCurdy's Half His Age (a lonely high-school girl in Anchorage begins an extremely questionable sexual relationship with her teacher), any presumptions are dispelled from the very first page. When Waldo, the teenage narrator of the novel, observes her boyfriend's "slimy tongue that loop-de-loops over and over like a carnival ride, mechanical and passionless," she's setting a tone: irreverent, graphic, bilious.
Books
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