Episode 478: Nick Paumgarten says, 'The Reporting Suggests the Root System'

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

"I'm a guy who needs a lede. I need the lede to work. I need it to be compelling. And it doesn't have to be the best place to begin. It just has to be a place to begin that works and that amuses and sucks you in. I. So once I have a lede, then that will lead to another place," says Nick Paumgarten.

Wow, so today we have Nick Paumgarten and can I tell you something? Nick has long been my favorite New Yorker profile writer. Whether it’s profiling Mikaela Shiffrin or Mr. Money Mustache, or features about elevators, teaching birds to migrate, the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, or a feature about a sketchy restaurateur; he is appointment reading.

I see his name in the table of contents of an issue of The New Yorker and I will stop just about everything I’m doing and spend the next hour or so reading Nick’s work. Over the years, he’s been the model, for me, as the perfect profile writer.

Nick is a long-time New Yorker staff writer. You know, it’s funny, since I’ve never landed a big feature at a big magazine like the New Yorker, I kinda feel like a phony, a fake writer, even though I have two books under my belt. When Nick and I were off mic, he was saying how because he hasn’t published a book yet, he feels like a fake writer. This is Nick Paumgarten (!) saying he feels like a phony. It goes to show, none of us feel good about ourselves.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The reporting suggesting the root system of a piece
• Loosening your grip
• Stories being like a rip tide
• Need a lede to work first
• Befriending chronology
• And the nerdery

I mean, great stuff. I was finally put in touch with Nick by CNF Pod alum Jared Sullivan, the author of the brilliant book Valley So Low, of Ep. 443 fame, and I’m so glad we got to make this happen.

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Show notes: brendanomeara.com