Origin Stories

Special episode alert! This week, we're featuring an interview from So Your Parents Are Old, a new podcast about the realities (funny, sad, and somewhere in-between) of dealing with aging loved ones. In this episode, host Vanessa Grigoriadis chats with Amanda Uhle, a writer and the publisher of McSweeney’s, about her new book "Destroy This House." For more information on the show, plug the words "So Your Parents Are Old" into whatever podcast app you use. Or head on over to joincampside.com. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/origin-stories/id1833077585?i=1000740855568

Lorelei Lee is a writer, activist, porn performer, and activist. A graduate of Cornell Law School and New York University’s MFA program, they write regularly for a range of publications, including N+1, Buzzfeed, and Wired. In this episode, Lorelei talks to Matthew about their groundbreaking essay “Cash/Consent,” which is both a memoir of Lorelei’s time in the porn industry and a reflection on the complicated relationship between their career and their “civilian” life. “I often have to write the same thing many times,” Lorelei says. “I have to write it until I don’t feel the feelings, because as long as I’m still stuck on the emotional impact to myself, I’m not going to be able to understand the emotional impact on the reader. But that’s why writing and editing are two different things done at two different times.” To connect with the team and gain access to behind the scenes content, join our community at ⁠joincampside.com⁠. You can also find us on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠ & ⁠Youtube⁠. Have a question, guest idea, or just wanna say hi? Email us at [email protected].

James Vanderbilt is a screenwriter, producer, and director whose work includes some of the most acclaimed films of the last two decades. He’s perhaps best known for writing Zodiac, David Fincher’s modern classic thriller. In this episode, he talks to Matthew about Nuremberg, his new film as both writer and director, set just after World War II as the Allies prepared to put high-ranking Nazi officials on trial. Vanderbilt explains that one of the biggest challenges was finding a way to tell such a heavy story without numbing the audience. “I sort of feel like two hours of unrelenting grimness and sadness… I just shut down,” he says, pointing to the moments of levity in Schindler’s List. That film has “humor and grace and wit,” he says. “You laugh during parts of it, so that when you get to the really horrible stuff, you’re able to take it in… and that is something we thought a lot about in terms of [Nuremberg].” To connect with the team and gain access to behind the scenes content, join our community at ⁠joincampside.com⁠. You can also find us on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠ & ⁠Youtube⁠.

Clint Smith is a celebrated poet, essayist, and staff writer at The Atlantic. In addition to his two poetry collections, Counting Descent and Above Ground, he is the author of the award-winning nonfiction bestseller How the Word Is Passed. In this episode, he talks to Matthew about the reporting of How the Word is Passed, and how he made it accessible without losing rigor. “When I was writing the book, I wrote about eight places, but I could have written about 1,008, because the scars of slavery are etched into the landscape all around us,” he says. “I also don’t want a young person, or anybody, to look at this book and be physically overwhelmed or intimidated by the prospect of even picking it up.” To connect with the team and gain access to behind the scenes content, join our community at ⁠joincampside.com⁠. You can also find us on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠ & ⁠Youtube⁠.

Gilbert King is a writer, photographer, and author of several books, including Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. In this episode, he talks to Matthew about the creation of Bone Valley, his hit podcast about the 1987 murder of Michelle Schofield. You can preorder the novel about his experience here Working in audio was a new experience for King, who relied on his producer, Kelsey Decker, to show him the ropes. "I was just ruining the tape left and right," he jokes. "And I remember Kelsey passed me this note on an in index card. It said 'Shut up.' Point taken. So I found myself having to nod a lot and make wide eyes and stuff like that. But I do believe it made me a better interviewer. Just learning to work with the silence, which is something I never really knew." To connect with the team and gain access to behind the scenes content, join our community at ⁠joincampside.com⁠. You can also find us on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠ & ⁠Youtube⁠.