One Perfect Story: Chris Jones on "The Things That Carried Him"

The Press Box

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bryan is joined by journalist Chris Jones to remember his 2010 piece in Esquire, "The Things That Carried Him," a true story about Sgt. Joe Montgomery’s last trip home. They discuss how Jones knew he was ready to write this particular story, the process of covering the death of a loved one, and how this story resonated with readers. Then, they touch on Jones's experience writing for Esquire Magazine in the early aughts and working for David Granger. Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Chris Jones Producer: Erika Cervantes Additional Production Assistance: Eduardo O'Campo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Derek Thompson, the host of the podcast, Plain English.
0:06.5	We tackle technology, politics, culture, history, everything that's happening in the world
0:11.5	and why it matters.
0:13.0	New episodes of Plain English Drop every Tuesday and Friday on Spotify or wherever you get
0:17.9	your podcasts.
0:20.9	Hello media consumers.
0:28.4	Welcome to part two of the Press Box's Summer Vacation Podcast series.
0:33.9	Ryan Curtis of the Ringer here along with producers Erika Servantes and Eduardo Ocampo.
0:39.9	It's been a few months since the last installment of our one perfect story series.
0:45.5	You know what we do?
0:46.5	We pick a great piece of journalism.
0:48.2	We bring the writer on the pod and we talk both about how the story was written and just
0:53.2	is interesting to me, how it reflects a moment in that writer's life and a moment in journalistic
0:59.3	time.
1:00.3	Today's guest is Chris Jones.
1:03.2	Jones wrote a story called The Things That Carried Him, the true story of a soldier's
1:07.8	last trip home which ran in Esquire magazine 15 years ago.
1:12.4	Now if you haven't read the things that carried him or even if you have the wise thing to
1:16.6	do here is hit pause, read the piece on Esquire.com and then meet me back here.
1:22.7	If you're like me, you'll read a mini section of the story and then you'll find yourself
1:27.2	getting up from your desk and maybe walking around outside to let the story settle a bit
1:32.5	before pushing on to the next section.
	...

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