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Still Processing

We Can't Burn It All Down (Even Though Sometimes We Want To)

Still Processing

The New York Times

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.89.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jenna's back in New York after spending last week at the Tin House Summer Workshop in Portland, Oregon. An explosive moment at the workshop prompted us to consider what it means for an institution — from a writing workshop to a TV network to a social media platform — to really commit itself to inclusion, and whether inclusion is even enough. Discussed this week:Tin House Summer Workshop"The Danger of a Single Story" (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TED, 2009)"Oscars 2016: Here's why the nominees are so white — again" (Rebecca Keegan and Steven Zeitchik, The Los Angeles Times, 2016)"Hannah Gadsby: Nanette" (Netflix, 2018)"A Canadian Museum Promotes Indigenous Art. But Don’t Call It ‘Indian.’" (Ted Loos, The New York Times Magazine, 2018) Correction: In this episode, the story read by Wells Tower that was the subject of controversy at the Tin House Summer Workshop was misidentified as having appeared in "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned," a collection of short stories. The piece in question was a nonfiction article, "Own Goal," published in Harper's Magazine in 2010.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Okay, Jenna Wortham.

0:02.2

You were in Portland, Oregon.

0:04.4

Correct.

0:05.4

Last week?

0:06.4

Yes, I was.

0:07.4

You seemed like you were having a fabulous time.

0:09.4

Classic Jenna?

0:10.9

Yes.

0:11.9

All of a sudden, I'm getting these text messages that all hell is breaking loose at this

0:18.4

writers event that you're at.

0:20.1

Right.

0:21.1

What the hell happened?

0:22.5

Well, as you mentioned, last week I was away in Portland for a summer writing workshop

0:29.3

held by Tin House, which is a pretty esteemed prestigious literary magazine established

0:34.5

in the late 90s.

0:36.3

And they've published writers like British Lockwood, Kelly Link, Friends Morgan Parker.

0:40.9

Like, they have a great reputation for the work that they do.

0:44.1

And they invite 200 some people every year to come to Portland and work on new material.

0:48.2

And they have an esteemed faculty that comes to.

0:50.2

So every night, they're these writing workshops.

0:52.9

You know, we're like laying around the grass, eating cherries, talking about to their

0:56.9

work.

...

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