Working: The Writers of HBO's Somebody, Somewhere on Collaborating as Best Friends

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Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, writers and creators of the HBO series Somebody, Somewhere. In the interview, Hannah and Paul discuss their close collaborative relationship and share some of the creative practices they developed with their theater company, The Debate Society. Then they talk about the development and writing process behind Somebody, Somewhere, which is set in rural Kansas and stars actor and cabaret singer Bridget Everett, who grew up there. After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas talk about the effectiveness of writing exercises and the difficulty of describing one’s own creative processes. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Hannah and Paul explain why they chose not to include any details about the pandemic in Somebody, Somewhere. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Big Mood, Little Mood—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We are 9 out of 10 times looking at the same document at the same moment.
0:17.5	We're looking at the blinking cursor together.
0:19.8	You can't even separate it like the Hanna write this line and Paul write this line.
0:22.6	It's like every word of the line we've come up with together in some weird way.
0:27.1	Welcome back to working.
0:31.4	I'm your host, June Thomas.
0:33.7	And I'm your other host, Isaac Butler.
0:35.7	Isaac, whose voices did we hear at the top of the show?
0:39.2	June, we heard the voices of Hannah Boss and Paul Thorene.
0:42.8	They're incredibly great actors and writers.
0:45.6	And I guess full disclosure, this can be a slightly different than normal working episode
0:49.8	because I've actually known them a long time.
0:51.8	We went to college together.
0:53.3	I first saw them act in a play, Tony Kushner's, a bright room called Day, the first semester
0:58.4	of my freshman year.
0:59.4	And I've actually been, you know, friendly with them ever since.
1:02.0	Wow.
1:03.0	So why did you want to speak with them right now?
1:04.9	Well, Hannah and Paul created and were the showrunners of the recent HBO show Somebody
1:10.4	Somewhere, which I don't know if you've seen.
1:12.5	It's a really beautiful show.
1:13.5	It stars Bridget Everett.
	...

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