Have you ever wondered how your favorite movie or book—or podcast, TV series, documentary, or article—got made? Origin Stories has you covered. Each week, veteran journalist Matthew Shaer talks to a different writer or director about the creation of a work close to their own hearts. Nothing is off the table: not the frustrations and the joys, not the setbacks and the successes. Intimate and incisive, instructive and eye-opening, Origin Stories is the ultimate podcast for anyone curious about the workings of the creative mind. Among the early guests are Noah Hawley, creator of the new Alien show on FX; Mimi Leder, director of The Morning Show; New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe; and Evan Ratliff, of Longform and Atavist fame. Hosted by Matthew Shaer, co-founder of Campside Media.
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Here it is! Evan’s new show, Shell Game
This is the story of what happens when Evan Ratliff, co-host of Longform and a longtime tech journalist, makes a digital copy of himself, powered by AI, in order to understand how amazing and scary and utterly ridiculous the world is about to get.
In Episode 1, Evan clones his voice, hooks it up to ChatGPT and his phone line, and sends it off to tangle with customer service representatives.
New episodes drop on Tuesdays.
Visit shellgame.co to find out more, subscribe, and support the show.
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Coming Soon: Evan’s new show, “Shell Game”
What would happen if you created a digital copy of yourself, powered by AI, and set it loose in the world? Over the past six months, Evan Ratliff has been trying to find out. He combined a clone of his voice, an AI chatbot, and a phone line—many phone lines, actually—into what are called “voice agents.” Then he sent them out… as himself. They talked to sources and colleagues (including his fellow Longform co-hosts), friends and family, scammers and spammers, other AI voice agents, and even therapists. The result is a story of what it feels like when you try to take control of the very technology that threatens to replace you.
New episodes drop on Tuesdays starting July 9.
Visit shellgame.co to find out more, subscribe, and support the show.
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Episode 585: John Jeremiah Sullivan
John Jeremiah Sullivan is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and has written for Harper's, The New Yorker, and GQ. He is the author of Pulphead and the forthcoming The Prime Minister of Paradise: The True Story of a Lost American History.
“I love making pieces of writing and trying to find the right language to say what I mean. It's such a wonderful way of being alive in the world. I mean, your material is all around you. ... I'm lucky that it has stayed interesting for me. It hasn't faded. The challenges of writing, they still glow.”
Show notes:
Sullivan on Longform
Sullivan’s GQ archive
Sullivan’s New York Times Magazine archive
10:00 “Uhtceare” (Paris Review • May 2021)
28:00 Pulphead (FSG Originals • 2011)
30:00 The Best American Essays 2014 (Mariner Books • 2014)
30:00 “The Ill-Defined Plot” (New Yorker • Oct 2014)
50:00 “Man Called Fran” (Harper’s • Sept 2023)
50:00 “The Final Comeback of Axl Rose” (GQ • Aug 2006)
50:00 “Upon This Rock” (GQ • Jan 2004)
50:00 “Peyton’s Place” (GQ • Oct 2011)
50:00 “Leaving Reality” (GQ • Oct 2011)
54:00 “Pulp Fever” (Daniel Riley • GQ • Nov 2011)
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Bonus: Mailbag
The hosts answer a few listener questions.
Evan’s picks for some podcasts to try:
Creative Nonfiction
Press Box
The Stacks Podcast:
Sunday Long Read
True Stories
Question Everything
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