The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

"Not to confuse journalism with newspapers. Newspapers are one set of communication methods. But it's certainly not the only one. If they have the right mindset, and that's what I try to get them to do, there are so many more opportunities. You can go out and do a podcast, or you can do a newsletter. You can't think of it as I need to work at The New York Times. You have to think of it as I need — I need — to tell stories, and I've got this curiosity." Anthony DePalma is a journalist and professor at Columbia University. He's the author of several books, his latest being On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. It's published by Mariner Books. He spent 22 years as a reporter for The New York Times, and another 8 as a stringer for them, so, let's do the math … that's 30 years. He reported a lot on Mexico and Cuba, as well as Albania, Guyana, and Suriname. You can find him at anthonydepalma.com [http://anthondydepalma.com/] and on the Facebooks and Substacks, at anthontyrdepalma Anthony DePalma has been all over the world telling true stories. He's the author of The Cubans, City of Dust, The Man Who Invented Fidel, and Here: A Biography of the New American Continent. In this conversation we talk about: * How not to confuse journalism with newspapers * The NEED to tell stories * The stunning lack of curiosity among young journalists * Not wearing headphones on walks * Accelerated intimacy * Challenge of being of satisfied with the writing * Still being a WIP * What to do when you can't be everywhere at once * Cutting 30-40% of his ms * Radical pragmatism * What makes St. Benedict's tough * And how grafting apple trees is like writing Order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338] Welcome to Pitch Club [https://welcometopitchclub.substack.com/] Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

"When I was writing the book, I used a lot of my interest in art criticism and nature writing to get cross pollinate into my sports writing. And I really try not to fall into a rut and just read only adjacent to my own subject or my own field," says Giri Nathan, author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis. Today we have Giri Nathan (@giricube on IG), he is a staff writer/cofounder of Defector and the author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis. It's one of the best books I've read in the last couple years. It's funny and voicey and if David Foster Wallace's tennis writing made sweet, sweet love to John McPhee's Levels of the Game, you get Changeover. How Giri is able to illustrate why Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are so captivating and capable of inheriting the mantle held by Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokavic (who's still going) is a triumph. This book may very well be the future of sports biography in that access to principal figures is almost impossible so you have to approach your subject more with a critical eye, like an art critic, and we talk about that … Giri Nathan's work has appeared in New York Magazine, The NYT Book Review, The Believer, and National Geographic. He made the 2025 edition of the Year's Best Sports Writing and The Best American Food & Travel Writing. In this conversation we talk about: * Him taking John McPhee's CNF class at Princeton * Art criticism and nature writing as influences for Changeover * Losing fandom * The relationship to personality and style * Writing from contemporaneous excitement * Writing the fun scenes * The insider-outsider perspective * And keeping a running list of adjectives so he doesn't repeat himself Really fun stuff here. Order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338] Welcome to Pitch Club [https://welcometopitchclub.substack.com/] Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

"I think, like all writers, I will feel an itch that I have to scratch. There will be an idea in my head that I've got to get down on paper, whether I follow through with it or not," says R. Renee Hess, author of Blackness is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey. Who do we have this week? It's R. Renee Hess, but you can all her Renee, of Black Girl Hockey Club. She wrote the essay collection Blackness is a Gift I can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey. It's published by McClelland & Stewart. After Renee finished her schooling and got a job and had some money, she sought to find a sport to follow that cut against the grain. Instead of baseball, football, or basketball, she thought, maybe hockey and it didn't take long to realize that there very few Black people on the ice and in the stands. And even fewer Black women in the stands. In 2018, she launched Black Girl Hockey Club, a nonprofit organization that focuses on equity and including for Black women in ice hockey. Renee was named one of three finalists for the NHL's Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award in 2021 for positively impacting the community, culture, or society through the sport of hockey. Her work has appeared in Black Nerd Problems, Spectrum Magazine, and Racebaitr. You can learn more about Renee and her work at blackgirlhockeyclub.org [http://blackgirlhockeyclub.org/] and find her on the socials at @blackgirlhockeyclub In this conversation we talk about: * Tackling other genres * Short Fiction * Reading as a writer * Going back to the classics * What sustains the writing * Taking representation further * And focusing inward vs. outward in her BGHC work Really fun conversation about the important work she's doing and the work she draws inspiration from. Order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338] Welcome to Pitch Club [https://welcometopitchclub.substack.com/] Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

"I'm always calibrating when I'm interviewing somebody, like, how much of a prompt are they going to need, and what is what is going to get something out of them?" — Stephen Wood, whose Buffalo Raiders [https://magazine.atavist.com/2026/buffalo-raiders-vietnam-draft] piece appears in The Atavist Magazine. What is the meaning of this Wednesday podcast! Middle of the week! It's hump day, this holy day! It's April 1st, is this some kind of joke! NO! Point being, it's that Atavistian time of the month and I'm trying to get back to making the Atavist pod an extra pod, not just another Friday pod. So, consider your podcast feed warned, you filthy animal. Stephen Wood [https://sbrycewood2.wixsite.com/stephenwood/about-1] is here! Find him on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hey-its-stephen/], the professional that he is. He's a journalist who writes about sports, history, and politics and he's here to talk about his Atavist story "The Buffalo Raiders: With thousands of U.S. soldiers dying in Vietnam, a group of young Catholics in New York embarked on a secret mission to bring the war machine to its knees. [https://magazine.atavist.com/2026/buffalo-raiders-vietnam-draft]" I'll give Stephen a more formal introduction — top hat and monocle — just before his segment of the show. We're gonna hear from Seyward Darby about her side of the table, which is always fun. Name another show where you get an editor talking about a piece, and then the writer talking about it. Exactly, visit patreon.com/cnfpod [http://patreon.com/cnfpod] to contribute to the cause. Also, head to magazine.atavist.com [http://magazine.atavist.com/] to read Stephen's story and maybe subscribe. I pay $25 a year to subscribe and I don't get kickbacks or commissions. Yeah, I pay, too.  Stephen Wood can be found at https://sbrycewood2.wixsite.com/ or, per his preference, at LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/hey-its-stephen/ … His work has appeared in The Guardian, Current Affairs, Jacobin, The Athletic, and McSweeney's. He was a producer with Gilded Audio where he worked on shows including Snafu with Ed Helms and The Reason We're All Still Here. In this chat, we talk about: * Calibrating an interview * How sometimes podcasts hosts don't even do the interviewing * What to do when there's too much meat on the bone #toomuchmeat * What's a load-bearing element to the story * Going in fear of the abstraction * And a lot more. Order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338] Welcome to Pitch Club [https://welcometopitchclub.substack.com/] Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]

"You can't go and find all of our stories. You can't just click a button and and be served up. You really have to appreciate them in person by holding the magazine in your hands, and that, to me, makes it more special," says Laura LeBleu, co-founder of Geezer Magazine. It's Laura LeBleu and Paul von Zielbauer, the founders of Geezer Magazine, a new, print-only magazine exploring the Gen-X aging experience. It's a killer experience. Issue 1 came out several months ago and it's this 11x15-inch-sized thing and it has pieces by Kim Cross and Tommy Tomlinson. Issue 2 comes out any day now and features an essay from ya boi. You can read my pitch for the essay at welcometopitchclub.substack.com [http://welcometopitchclub.substack.com/] titled Pitchin' from the Hip. So Laura  dreamed up Geezer Magazine in the shower, that incubator of great ideas. She's been an Emmy award winning TV producer, a lead singer of an Italian band, voice of a virtual character, stilt-walking circus ringmaster, minor gay icon, and an NYC cabaret performer. She worked in tech for a bit and it was draining her soul and her creativity muscles were atrophying, she needed to do something, so she decided to bootstrap a magazine. I subscribed. Paul has ridden a bicycle from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, spent 11 years as a journalist with the New York Times, where his work was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, that little thing. As the Great Recession hit, he launched a business that got volunteers to build playgrounds for disadvantaged children overseas — kaboom kaboom kaboom, IYKYK. According to Geezer's website, he works quietly in the basement until Laura tells him it's okay to come upstairs. Fun chat that covers: * The appeal of print in a digital world * The cost of paper * That fine line between being print only but how much should be digital, call it digital fish bait, maybe? * Influences such as Mountain Gazette * Zigging while others zag * The strange creature coming out of the forest * The oyster that forms the pearl * The people trying to pick up the fountain * And metaphors, all the metaphor! Really fun chat from a great magazine that needs your support. Visit geezermagazine.com [http://geezermagazine.com/] to check them out and consider subscribing. It's not cheap, but you get such a unique experience. It truly is one of a kind. I did and no, I don't get kick backs or commissions. Order The Front Runner [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-front-runner-brendan-omeara?variant=43044900962338] Welcome to Pitch Club [https://welcometopitchclub.substack.com/] Show notes: brendanomeara.com [http://brendanomeara.com/]