Hey everyone, it's Reid. My conversation today is with author Jeff Charlotte. We recorded this

before Trump's indictment and before the insanity we've seen in the last week or 10 days,

but do not miss it. He is an incredible writer who has written an incredible book,

and I hope you enjoy our conversation. And now on with the show.

Welcome back to the Lincoln Project. I'm your host, Reid Gaelin. Today, I'm joined by

journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Jeff Charlotte. He's a professor of creative

writing and the Frederick Sessions BB-35 professor in the art of writing at Dartmouth College.

His writing and photography have appeared in many publications including the New York Times magazine,

GQ, Esquire, and Vanity Fair for which he is a contributing editor. He's written quite the

catalog of books including his latest title, The Undertoe, Scenes from a Slow Civil War,

now available wherever fine books are sold. Jeff, welcome to the show. Hi Reid, good to be with you.

I thought your book was fascinating because when you call it Scenes, the experiences you have

and the way you describe them are almost like one or two or three man plays because they're always

in a very unique location with very unique individuals. There's always an event or something in the

background that really sets the scene for what you're describing. As we open with the book,

the one question I want to have is, why do you spend so much time with your subjects in the middle

of the night? That's an interesting question. I think a lot of interesting conversations happen

then. My last book was called This Brilliant Darkness, but it was really about night shift,

which is where I often find myself working by inclination, but I am also interested in those kinds

of night conversations and the kind of vulnerabilities and truths and also imaginations that people share

at that time. I love what you say about these little two or three man plays. I think about the way

sometimes political pundits describe something in politics as just theater. To me, I'm like, what do you

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