Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

And now part two of our very wide-ranging conversation with Wright Thompson, author of The Barn,

which is the epic story about the place where 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 and

Wright's attempt to understand the centuries of history that led to that moment and the way

that we reconcile history and memory today. If you heard part one, you get a sense of how

ambitious his work is, but he also pulls it off. So in this episode, we start by talking a little bit

about the work of writing history and how you can take big swings while also telling

grounded, propulsive stories. Then we get back a little bit into Emmett Till and Mississippi

and the place where Wright lives, Oxford, which is the home of Ole Miss. So anyway,

let's get into it. It's time to get

swept away. This starts with a question from me to write and Nikki and Kelly about history

storytelling. Let me ask this of all of you, because you've all done the work of history and the

work of writing. How do you marry those two? How do you try and sweep everything

into a story while also making sure that you're staying on point? You're moving readers along.

You're providing new information. I'm sure there's people listening and thinking, gosh, this could

just spiral out to infinity. Let it spiral out to infinity.

The point isn't the ending.

The point is the journey.

Yeah.

The point is the quest.

The point is interrogating your own memory.

...