🔍 Nonfiction 🔍
Just a few of the many nonfiction writers who have appeared on First Draft, including many fan favorite episodes.
Find more at First Draft’s searchable archive of previous episodes!
Anne Helen Petersen
Anne Helen Petersen, freelance journalist and cultural critic with her biweekly newsletter, and author of nonfiction books Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema and Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, talks about her newest book, Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation.
Amanda Montell
Amanda Montell, debut author of Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, joins Sarah to talk about socio-linguistics, and her upcoming book Mindfuck: The Secret Language of Cults (Spoiler: You’re Already Using It).
Kate Spencer
Kate Spencer, comedian, author of Dead Mom’s Club: A Memoir, essayist, and co-host of fabulous podcast Forever35 talks about the never-ending quest for confidence, exorcising grief and pain through writing, and how a podcast about serums became a podcast about feelings.
Morgan Jerkins
Morgan Jerkins, author of essay collection This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America, talks about her new book, social history and memoir Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots.
Josh Gondelman
Josh Gondelman, comedian, TV writer for shows like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Desus and Mero, and debut author of memoir Nice Try: Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results, talks about coming up in comedy, fumbling his breakout moment with the viral Modern Seinfeld Twitter account, and learning that being a “nice” person isn’t the same as being a good person.
Courtenay Hameister
Courtenay Hameister, debut author of memoir Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went From Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Things, and former host, co-producer and head writer of Live Wire Radio.