Hey, it's Andrew Klaven. Welcome to this week's interview with Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan.

One of the most mysterious things about American literature is that I am related to every good

writer in the country. Writing well in America without being related to me is like working

in musical theater without being Jewish. It's allowed to happen on occasion, but it's

frowned on as a general rule. My daughter, Faith Moore, has an absolutely delightful

novel coming out for Christmas called Christmas Carol. You should be pre-ordering that, as

I speak. Spencer Klaven is no relation, but he is my son, and he's the author of The

Powerful, How to Save the West, the far-left Baselon girls over the New York Times, Emily

and Lara, my cousins, my three brothers have all written terrific stuff. I could go on

and go on, but while I'm proud of all these relations, I'm not proud of any of them than

I am of Caitlin Flanagan of the Atlantic. She is my little sister. Technically, she's my

sister-in-law, but over the course of 45 years, we've managed to annoy each other so

much that we're now recognized as blood siblings in the eye of God. Aside from being a writer

of infinite skill and grace, Kate has also had an amazing career speaking truth in mainstream

or, so to speak, left-wing venues, which is, of course, a class A felony punishable by

a car chase through Los Angeles, ending in gunfire and bloodshed. Yet she's not only survived,

she has thrived, she's celebrated, she's been shortlisted for the Pulitzer, she makes

regular appearances on Bill Maher and other prestigious places, all of which while waging

a superhero-level battle against cancer that was supposed to kill her 20 years ago, and

plus, she's a delightful person, and everyone who knows her loves her, including me, and

she continues to, uh, puckishly challenge mainstream sensibilities as she did recently

with an Atlantic piece on heroic masculinity. Plus, she has graciously agreed to end her

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