Writer Chris Heath on Tom Hanks, Adventures in the Magazine Trade, and the Art of the Celebrity Profile

The Press Box

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bryan is joined by Chris Heath to discuss his new Tom Hanks profile for The Atlantic. They dive into Heath’s experience profiling Hanks (3:30), talk through Heath’s career working for magazines such as Smash Hits and GQ (11:52), and then review past profiles on celebrities ranging from Robert De Niro to Donald Trump to Russell Crowe (13:38). 'The Making of Tom Hanks' Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Chris Heath Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Derek Thompson, the host of the podcast, Plain English.
0:06.5	We tackle technology, politics, culture, history, everything that's happening in the world
0:11.5	and why it matters.
0:13.0	New episodes of Plain English Drop every Tuesday and Friday on Spotify or wherever you get
0:17.9	your podcasts.
0:19.0	Hello media consumers.
0:28.7	Welcome to Press Box final edition.
0:31.6	Brian Curtis of The Ringer here along with producer Erica Cervantes.
0:36.2	I feel the material we have been covering on this podcast over the last few weeks has been
0:40.8	really interesting and also kind of heavy.
0:44.2	ESPN layoffs, Fox News, trial, Tucker Carlson, etc., etc.
0:50.3	So I thought we'd do something really different today.
0:55.1	There is a new piece in the Atlantic just up today Wednesday called The Making of Tom
1:00.4	Hanks and it's by one of my very favorite writers Chris Heath who I started reading
1:06.5	in GQ back in the early 2000s.
1:10.0	Think a moment if you can read the piece and I think you'll see all that is so interesting
1:15.3	about he's writing.
1:17.0	His style which tends to be I would say very modest and very effective because it's modest.
1:24.6	He has ability to go to an actor like Hanks who's been interviewed a million times and find
1:30.0	one or two or three or four or five or six new things to pull out of him.
1:34.6	In this case a new story about how Hanks's grandfather was killed back in the 1930s which
1:40.7	is really really interesting.
	...

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