The Lives They're Living

Sep 14 2024 1

The Lives They're Living Podcast artwork

Profiling remarkable people who are a little more under the radar than they deserve to be. Your host is Ben Yagoda, the author, co-author, or editor of fourteen books, including "Gobsmacked! The British Invasion of American English," due out in September 2024 from Princeton University Press. For each episode, Ben talks to someone who is an expert on and fascinated by the subject at hand.

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Rem Rieder on Earl Monroe

Sep 14 2024 23 mins

My guest is the legendary journalist Rem Rieder. Over the course of more than five decades, he's had positions at both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the late, lamented Philadelphia Bulletin, the Miami Herald, and the Washington Post. He was also the longtime media columnist for USA Today and editor of the American Journalism Review. His subject is his idol, one of the greatest bask

Jason Zengerle on Sonny Vaccaro

Sep 03 2024 31 mins

Jason Zengerle is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, where he covers politics and national affairs. He previously wrote for at GQ, New York Magazine, and the New Republic. He’s working on a book tentatively titled Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind. His subject is Sonny Vaccaro, probably the only person wh

Glenn Kenny on Thelma Schoonmaker

Aug 07 2024 29 mins

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence, and today he reviews movies for the New York Times. Roger Ebert.com, and the Decider. He’s the author of The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface and Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas. On this episode, he talks about Thelma Schoonmaker, three-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Fil

Brian Fairbanks on Kris Kristofferson

Jul 15 2024 35 mins

Brian Fairbanks is the author of Willie, Waylon and the Boys, How Nashville Outsiders Change Country Music Forever. Previously, he was an investigative reporter at Gawker and The Consumerist. He's also written for The Guardian, The New York Observer, and many other publications, and is the author of Wizards: David Duke, America's Wildest Election, and The Rise of the Far Right. Kri

Bonus Episode: Newton Minow

Jun 24 2024 31 mins

For this bonus episode, The Lives They're Living presents a piece done in an earlier iteration of the show, a profile of Newton M. Minow. The date we're going live is significant, for on Thursday, June 27, presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump will engage in in a debate. More than any other person, Mr. Minow was responsible for the institution of the televised presiden

Carrie Courogen on Elaine May

Jun 17 2024 33 mins

"Brilliant," "enigmatic" and "elusive" are just some of the adjectives that have been used to describe Elaine May, but there is no doubt that she has been one of the most influential figures in film and comedy over her nearly seven-decade career. The. guest on this episode, Carrie Courogen, has written the first comprehensive biography of May, Miss May Does Not Exist. In her day jo

Adrienne LaFrance on Albert Brooks

Jun 04 2024 27 mins

Adrienne LaFrance is the executive editor of The Atlantic; her profile of the subject of this episode, "The Godfather of American Comedy," appears in the magazine's June 2024 issue. Before joining The Atlantic in 2014, she worked as a reporter for WBUR, Hawaii Public Radio, Honolulu Weekly, and Nieman Journalism Lab. Albert Brooks is a wildly talented comedian, writer, director and

Steve Stoliar on Dick Cavett

May 22 2024 39 mins

Steve Stoliar has been a professional writer for more than 40 year. For television, he wrote episodes of Murder She Wrote, Simon & Simon, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, and others. Before that, while a student at UCLA, he was Groucho Marx’s personal secretary and archivist and later wrote a book based on that experience, Raised Eyebrows.The book is currently being developed into

David Bianculli on Mason Williams

May 06 2024 33 mins

David Bianculli has been the TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air since 1987, and is currently a professor of television studies at Rowan University in New Jersey. His books include Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously, and Dangerously Funny, The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Among his many other accomplishments, Mason Williams wrote and performed one of the

Laurie Gwen Shapiro on Abigail Thomas

May 06 2024 29 mins

Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, New York, the Daily Beast, and many other publications. Her documentary film awards include an Independent Spirit Award for directing IFC's Keep the River on Your Right and an Emmy nomination for HBO's Finishing Heaven. Her forthcoming book