Jennifer Egan

Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller

Music, Performing Arts, Arts

4.9 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pulitzer-prize winning author Jennifer Egan joins Rhett for an enlightening conversation about writing and making art. Jennifer shares useful insight on how she works, explains why reading aloud helps her understand a story better, and discusses the role that genre plays in her writing. She and Rhett talk about the importance of persistence and why trial and error is a great tool for creativity. Jennifer also gives us a preview of ideas she’s kicking around for future projects. Her new book, The Candy House, is available now. Jennifer Egan is the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times book prize, and was recently named one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. Also a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine, and she recently completed a term as President of PEN America. Her new novel, The Candy House, a sibling to A Visit From the Goon Squad, was published in April, 2022. Wheels Off is brought to you by Osiris Media. Hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Co-produced by Kirsten Cluthe in partnership with Nick Ruffini (Revoice Media). Editing by Matt Dwyer. Production Assistance by Matt Bavuso. Music by OLD 97’s. Episode artwork by Katherine Boils. Show logo by Tim Skirven. This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also ask Alexa to play it. Please leave us a rating or review on iTunes. Revisit previous episodes of Wheels Off with Rosanne Cash, Rob Thomas, Will Forte, Lydia Loveless, Allison Moorer, Ted Leo, Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Joe Wix is on a mission. I want to make this and sell it. He's creating a protein bar. This is ultra-processing.
0:07.0	That could potentially kill you. I want the maximum amount of each harmful ingredient while staying within the legal limit.
0:12.2	So just how ridiculous the food system really is. Joe Wix licensed to kill on Channel 4. Stream now.
0:21.3	Oh, Cyrus. Welcome to Wix. to kill on Channel 4. Stream now. Osiris.
0:24.1	Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life.
0:29.3	I'm Rhett Miller.
0:30.8	That's when it got wheels off.
0:33.7	We started on and we ain't gonna stop.
0:36.1	Oh, she made me feel like a god. That's when it got wheels off. Jennifer Egan is one of my favorite She's probably one of your favorite writers.
0:45.3	If you've read her, she's probably one of your favorite writers as well.
0:51.3	It's not always super easy to interview someone whom you admire so much,
0:59.8	but Jennifer Egan definitely made it easy for me to interview her for this most
1:07.1	exciting new episode of Wheels Off.
1:18.9	I'm so stoked for y'all to hear this super useful conversation we have. A lot of really great, actionable, like, nitty-gritty stuff about making art in general, about writing specifically.
1:31.3	Does Jennifer Egan know what she's talking about? Yes. If you've read her work, you agree with me.
1:39.1	There's no doubt. She's one of the great writers of our time. And she has the accolades to prove it, obviously the Pulitzer, Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, National Book Critics Circle Award.
1:53.1	She's got all of that.
1:55.5	But she's very much, as my old 97's bandmates and I like to say, she's one of us. She's just a person
2:04.0	who likes to work. She, down to earth, real, sweet, funny, kind, generous. I know that's a word
2:13.8	I use a lot in relationship to the guests of My Wheels Off podcast.
2:21.3	But that word definitely describes most of the folks I get to speak to.
2:27.3	Definitely describes Jennifer Egan.
	...

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