Working: Turning a Novel into a TV Show

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Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2022

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, host June Thomas talks to author and repeat Working guest Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who recently adapted her novel Fleishman is in Trouble into a limited series for Hulu. In the interview, Taffy describes the biggest challenges she faced as both a showrunner and writer. She also explains what it was like to take a very personal project and turn it into a collaborative one, with creative input from actors, directors, and tons of other creative people. After the interview, June and co-host Isaac Butler discuss the faulty metric of character likeability in both fiction and nonfiction. They also chat about creative collaboration and tough career decisions. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Taffy tells a story about her upcoming novel, Long Island Compromise. 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 an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. __ Sponsored by Saks.com. Check out the Holiday Gift Guide on saks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:57.0	Every week we bring a topic to the family dinner table from gender dysphoria to monogamy to how to figure out if someone is into you.
1:03.0	Listen to Chosen Family every Wednesday on your favorite podcast app or watch full episodes on YouTube to get the full family experience.
1:10.0	Chosen Family is a part of the Forever Dog podcast network.
1:14.0	It was a very humbling experience. You take something that's so yours and you make it into hours.
1:31.0	It wasn't a struggle to get everyone to understand. The struggle was to know when to hold back.
1:42.0	Welcome back to working. I'm your host, Isaac Butler.
1:47.0	And I'm your other host, June Thomas.
1:49.0	June, I have to ask I'm going to be traveling to the UK soon. So I want to know how many minutes of daylight do you currently have over there?
1:57.0	Because I hear it's very few.
1:59.0	About 45, somewhere between 11.55 and 12.37.
2:07.0	So like everything else in your country, the sun is going on strike.
2:11.0	June, normally I would ask you whose voice we heard at the top of the show.
2:16.0	But come on, let's not BS a BS. I know who that is.
2:20.0	It's the wonderful, taffy, broadess or acne. We probably don't need an excuse to talk to her.
2:26.0	But what was your excuse this time?
2:28.0	So part of it was of course that I know from you're having spoken with her and working back in July 2020 that she's a spectacular guest.
2:38.0	But my excuse this time around was that her novel, Fleischmann is in trouble has been adapted for television on FX Hulu.
	...

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