Graydon Carter on ‘Vanity Fair,’ ‘Spy,’ and the Glorious Excess of the Magazine Era

The Press Box

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bryan kicks off the week with a conversation with Graydon Carter, who comes on to discuss ‘Spy Magazine’ going to ‘Vanity Fair’ and more. They discuss the following: The idea behind 'Spy Magazine' (2:46) Who took the stories the hardest from 'Spy' (9:57) His perception of Donald Trump (10:36) If Spy could have worked in the early 2000s (13:20) Being offered a choice between 'Vanity Fair' and 'The New Yorker' (14:19) How writers were treated like stars (23:26) How 'Vanity Fair' was able to land the”deep throat” story, the source behind the Watergate scandal (29:10) Creating the Vanity Fair Oscar Party (38:00) Why he left 'Vanity Fair' in 2017 (40:50) What we lost from the magazine era (43:33) Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Graydon Carter Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you hear the word Seattle Supersonics, what comes to mind?
0:05.0	Maybe it's Sean Kemp, The Rain Man, or Gary Payton, the glove, or maybe an image of a tall and skinny 19-year-old rookie, Kevin Duran.
0:14.0	For fans in Seattle, it's something else. It's tragedy, it's theft, an iconic team with an incredible fan base that packed its bags
0:22.5	and shipped off for Oklahoma City.
0:24.9	From Spotify and the Ringer, I'm Jordan Ritter-Con, and in my podcast, Sonic Boom, I talk
0:30.3	to players, politicians, owners, and fans about how Seattle lost the Sonics.
0:36.4	You can listen to it on the Book of Basketball feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your
0:40.4	podcast.
0:48.8	Hello, media consumers.
0:50.7	Welcome to a special episode of the press box.
0:54.0	Brian Curtis of the Ringer here, along with producer Brian Waters.
0:58.0	Where do we start with today's guest, Graydon Carter?
1:02.0	Well, Graydon Carter in the 80s was one of the editors of Spy,
1:06.0	the magazine that taught many of us libel-free ways to pulverize public figures. Donald Trump in those pages
1:13.3	was a short-fingered vulgarian. After spy, Carter went on to edit the New York Observer,
1:20.4	a paper that was fantastic, until it was bought by, well, Donald Trump's son-in-law. Then Carter spent
1:27.1	the following 25 years editing Vanity Fair.
1:30.9	He tells stories about these times in a new memoir,
1:33.9	when the going was good on editor's adventures during the last golden age of magazines.
1:40.2	As Carter and I talked last week, one story in particular stuck out,
1:51.3	especially for those of us who came up in the business at a time when Graydon Carter and Vanity Fair were inseparable.
1:58.3	Back in 1992, when Carter went to Vanity Fair, he didn't even want to edit the magazine.
	...

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