20.24: An Interview with Charles Duhigg

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Fiction, Business, Careers

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How can listening inform the way you write? We decided to ask Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author—best known for The Power of Habit and most recently released Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, a compelling guide that explores the art and science of meaningful conversation.

We talked with Charles about myriad elements of writing, speaking, and listening—that is, communication in all its forms! We explored how passion and clarity are key parts of both pitching and book proposals. Charles also introduced us to active listening techniques, such as "looping for understanding," which can foster stronger connection in conversations. These effective and meaningful exchanges can help you showcase your project’s vision and voice.

Thing of the Week: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Homework: Charles has two pieces of homework for us!

1. First, tomorrow, ask someone a deep question that you might not usually ask a deep question of. Instead of asking, “How was your day?” ask them, you know, “I noticed that you really like Jasper. What do you admire about Jasper?”

2. Write one paragraph is terrible, but you feel like indulges some aspect of your voice. Maybe it's funny, maybe it's wry, maybe it's sad. Just do something completely pointless. Set that paragraph aside for a couple of days. And when you come back to it, you are going to see something in there that surprises you at how good it is. And that is a pebble on the path to finding your voice.

P.S. Our 2025 writing retreat (on a cruise! In mexico!) is over 50% sold out! Learn more and sign up here.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends.
0:06.3	If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www. patreon.com slash writing excuses.
0:15.8	Season 20, episode 24.
0:20.1	This is writing excuses.
0:22.8	An interview with Charles Duhigg.
0:25.1	I'm Mary Robinette.
0:26.5	I'm Dongwan.
0:27.9	And I'm Howard, and I get the opportunity to drive this interview, and I'm going to begin by
0:35.1	introducing our guest, or rather letting our guest introduce himself.
0:39.8	Charles, welcome to writing excuses.
0:42.7	Who are you?
0:43.8	Thank you for having me on.
0:45.0	This is such a treat.
0:46.5	My name is Charles Duhigg.
0:48.2	I am a journalist for the New Yorker magazine.
0:52.2	And in addition, I write books.
0:54.1	The first book I wrote, it was named The Power of Habit.
0:57.0	And then the most recent book I wrote was named Super Communicators.
1:01.8	And I just finished Super Communicators yesterday.
1:06.8	And there's a thing that you wrote that I actually highlighted because it resonates so well
1:15.0	with something I already believe.
1:16.7	And I think it dovetails nicely with our topic today.
	...

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