Susan Orlean Shares the Secrets of a Lifetime of Reporting
Factually! with Adam Conover
Headgum
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 101 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Susan Orlean is one of the greatest living nonfiction writers. She has an uncanny ability to find stories in mundane, unexpected places, and approach them with such a level of authentic fascination that the reader can’t help but become fascinated too. This week, Adam sits with Susan to talk not just about her work, but the very idea of what a storyteller is. Find Susan’s new memoir, Joyride, at factuallypod.com/books
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a headgum podcast. |
| 0:05.8 | New Year, same extra value meals at McDonald's. |
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| 0:17.9 | Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California, and for delivery. |
| 0:20.5 | I don't know the truth. I don't know the truth. |
| 0:23.4 | I don't know the way. |
| 0:26.0 | I don't know what to think. |
| 0:28.8 | I don't know what to say. |
| 0:31.7 | Yeah, but that's all right. |
| 0:34.6 | That's okay. |
| 0:37.1 | I don't know anything |
| 0:38.9 | Hey there, welcome to Factually. |
| 0:44.5 | I'm Adam Conover. |
| 0:45.5 | Thank you so much for joining me on the show this week. |
| 0:48.3 | I am so excited for this week's episode. |
| 0:51.8 | I cannot begin to tell you. |
| 0:54.2 | Look, what gets me going in my life, the thing that animates my creative life, the thing |
| 1:00.0 | that draws me to particular pieces of media, is when they expose a story that was hiding |
| 1:07.1 | in plain sight that I never knew existed, but now that it's revealed to me, I am fascinated |
| 1:13.0 | by it's that moment of epiphany when you realize, oh my God, the world contains more complexity, |
| 1:19.7 | more fascination, more stories than I ever thought that it did. I think that this is what |
... |
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