Jack Hitt contributes to Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, and This American Life. “I’ve always lived more or less unemployed in these markets, and happily so. I think being unemployed keeps you a little more sharp in terms of looking for stories. It never gets any easier. That motivation and that desperation, whatever you want to call that, is still very much behind many of the conversations I have all day long trying to find those threads, those strings, that are going to pull together and turn into something.” Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. @JackHitt Hitt on Longform [1:15] Episode #157: Margo Jefferson [1:30] Episode #129: Rukmini Callimachi [1:30] Episode #156: Renata Adler [3:15] "This Is Your Brain on God" (Wired • Nov 1999) [3:45] "61: Fiasco!" (This American Life • Apr 1997) [4:00] Hitt's This American Life Archive [4:30] "323: The Super" (This American Life • Jan 2007) [6:15] "The Billion-Dollar Shack" (New York Times Magazine • Dec 2000) [6:30] "Slumlord" (The Moth • Apr 2006) [25:30] "The $19,000 press pass: A former journalism school dean asks, is it work it?" (Carolyn Lewis • Washington Monthly • 1986) [32:00] The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (Victor Marchetti & John D. Marks • Alfred A. Knopf • 1974) [37:00] "What Did Noah Do With the Manure?" (Washington Monthly • Feb 1987) [pdf] [38:00] "Terminal Delinquents" (with Paul Tough • Esquire • Dec 1990) [41:30] "Toxic Dreams" (Harper’s • Jul 1995) [sub req’d] [46:30] White Noise (Don DeLillo • Penguin Books • 1984) [55:30] "15: Dawn" (This American Life • Feb 1996) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices