It’s been a busy and productive summer and autumn! Since June, I’ve been working with The Economist’s excellent podcast team (if you haven’t heard this three-part series on Tommy Robinson— which I didn’t work on but strongly recommend– don’t miss it, it’s very good). You can hear a bit of what of what I’ve been up to with the Checks & Balance gang in the run up to the midterms here.
I’ve also carried on with other freelance work. For Intelligence Squared I interviewed:
- Marlon James about The Disappearers. (the book Dwight Garner called “the novel of the decade and possibly of the century”). We talked about Nirvana, Toni Morrison, the AIDS epidemic, and the Jamaica he left behind.
- Jill Lepore about The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State. We talked about Elon Musk’s grandfather, the long line of dystopian fiction that foretells this current moment, and why she’s optimistic about the artificial state’s impending fall.
- Catherine Carr about Who’s the Favourite? We talked about the time I vomited Frooti Mango onto my brother in the early 90s and the richness of sibling bonds.
- Charlotte Proudman about He Said She Said. We talked about her stark assessment of systemic injustices in the family court system, and the sexism she’s faced as a barrister.
- Rebecca Solnit about The Beginning Comes After the End. We talked about why I struggled to connect with Hope in the Dark ten years ago, how to understand the destruction of democratic institutions, and why she remains so focused on celebrating the accretion of slow wins in social movements.
- Siri Husvedt about her memoir Ghost Stories. We talked about her fourty-three year literary romance with husband Paul Auster, personal and political grief, Nöel Coward, and the cigarettes and leather jackets of 80s literary New York.
For The Guardian I reviewed:
- We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work by Sarah O’Connor
- Generation Maybe: Why We’re Having Fewer Children, and What It Means for Us All by Camilla Cavendish
Finally: At long last, the six-part documentary series I wrote and produced for Audible with the fabulous podcast department at RAW is out in the world!
Hosted by mental health activist Niall Breslin (who also composed its aching piano score), Severed Minds is the story of the doctor who popularized the procedure, Walter Freeman, and one of his patients, Gretchen Reb.
In the years when the procedure was popular, more women were lobotomized than men, but their stories have largely been lost. Most of them weren’t famous, and they certainly weren’t in positions of power.
The detailed records Gretchen left behind—diaries, scrapbooks, and letters which her daughter Roberta so carefully preserved and organized—made it possible to tell a different kind of story about lobotomy.
It’s a heartbreaking story, but an astonishing one, too. I came away from this project with so much admiration for vibrant Gretchen and tenacious Roberta. (Also: renewed respect for archival librarians!)
If you listen I’d love to know what you think.
One last thing to share: This summer, a documentary based on a podcast series I edited and executive produced at the Guardian in 2022 was released in theaters. The teams at Bellingcat and KEO who made the film “Killing Anna” have done a tremendous job; catch it on Channel 4.
