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Hello. Welcome to Longform Podcast. I'm Max Linsky. I'm here with my co-hosts Aaron Lamer and Radlift. Gentlemen, hello.

Greetings, greetings.

I feel like I just called in and this is like almost going out of live show. Hey Max, how's it going?

What is this show? Who is the guest this week? I have no idea.

The guest this week is George Saunders. That is a great and legitimate surprise.

It is a great surprise. He has been on the show before, as you guys remember, which was almost eight years ago now.

Eight years ago.

George and I talked in this tiny little back office at the McNally Jackson bookstore in Soho.

He was about to go on stage and do this live event and somehow was able to have this wonderful conversation with me amidst all this chaos around us.

It's one of my favorite interviews that I've ever done. I don't know if you guys feel this way, but sometimes with these repeat guests,

you're not totally sure you want to have them back on. It's a little bit like going on some magical vacation a second time and it might not live up to it.

But I really want to talk to him anyway. So I did it and it was fantastic.

Some things about George, as you should know, he just released a book this year. It's called a swim in a pond in the rain and it's based on this class that he taught for years at the MFA program at Syracuse.

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