The team talks to John H. Richardson, award-winning journalist for publications including Esquire and GQ — and Rachel’s dad! — about structure, note-taking, doing friendly battle with editors, and how and why to push through blank-page fears.

If you didn’t get a chance to read it before the live show last week, you can find “My Father the Spy” here.

And check out John’s other articles mentioned in this episode — on Dr. Willie Parker; the swinging doctor; prison theater; and polyamory.

Next on TLC: Writing as a Way of Being

This week, we’re reading a chapter from scholar Robert P. Yagelski’s book Writing as a Way of Being, entitled ‘Toward an Ontological Theory of Writing.’ The team will be talking issues of pedagogy, otherwise known as a few of Rachel’s Favorite Things: how are we taught to write and how might that contribute to a trauma around self-expression? What is this anxiety we feel when it comes to that blank page? What is the role of the body in writing through our digital omnipresence? Let this TLC be a balm for the week to come.

How did you feel about this episode?

Amazing • Good • Meh • Bad

Subscribe at the-long-conversation.every.to