Literary Friction - Journalism with Tania Branigan

Literary Friction

Arts

4.9 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When journalists write books, how do they balance the potentially tricky relationship between weaving a compelling narrative and sticking to the facts? What's the role of storytelling in reportage? And what are the ethics of reporting on other peoples' lived experiences? This month our guest is Tania Branigan, foreign leader writer at The Guardian and author of Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution. Tania was a correspondent in China for seven years, and Red Memory is about the Cultural Revolution, a decade of upheaval, purging and torture that began under Chairman Mao in 1966. Crucially, it’s also about the act of both remembering and forgetting this period, and the role the Chinese government and people have played in that process. Listen in for our chat with Tania, an exploration of journalism in literature and all the usual recommendations. Recommendations on the theme, Journalism: Octavia: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion Carrie: The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean General recommendations: Octavia: Archaeology of Loss by Sarah Tarlow Tania: The Soviet Century, archaeology of a lost world by Karl Schlogel Carrie: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/feb-2023-journalism-with-tania-branigan Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Carrie Plitt here here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright.
0:24.5	Hello, dear Octavia.
0:27.0	How are you?
0:28.7	I'm very well, and I will tell you why.
0:32.0	It's because the hyacinth bulbs that you brought me the other week have blossomed into these gorgeous, purple, beautiful, delicious smelling things.
0:42.9	And I'm just like beside myself.
0:44.5	Every time I see them in the morning when I'm making my tea, I'm just like, spring, I can taste it.
0:50.9	And they make me think of you, which is always nice.
0:53.2	How about you?
0:53.8	How are you? Oh, that's lovely.
0:55.5	Well, I have bought some tulips to put on my table, so I'm having a similar bloom experience.
1:02.4	And I think fresh flowers are a way to brighten the day always. Oh, my God, it's the best,
1:07.1	isn't it? Yeah. But onto the show, today we have the pleasure of interviewing Tanya Branigan about her first
1:13.7	book, Red Memory, Living, Remembering, and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution.
1:19.4	Tanya was the Guardian correspondent in China for seven years, and Red Memory is about China's
1:23.7	cultural revolution, a decade of upheaval, purging, and torture that began under
1:28.3	Chairman Mao in 1966. Crucially, it's also about the act of both remembering and forgetting
1:35.5	this period and history in general, and the role the Chinese government and people have played
1:40.4	in that process. This book is among many other things, a feat of reportage. And so on the show
1:48.0	today, we'll also be exploring journalism and literature. We'll talk about our favorite works of
1:52.7	reportage by authors like, you guessed it, Patrick Raddenkief, the sometimes murky ethics of reporting a story
2:00.5	and the relationship between compelling narrative and fact.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Literary Friction, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Literary Friction and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.