YouSaid · the spoken record

Taffy Brodesser-Akner

lines on the record: 92
first: 2019-07-10
most recent: 2019-07-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“He can date all over the place. The thing that set me on fire about this was that when I turned 40, I'm 43 now. When I turned 40, the amount of people coming to me, friends, whose weddings I had been to who said I'm getting a divorce, and I'd say, oh, are you doing okay? And they would show me their phones. And they'd say, you'll never believe what's going on. And that's the thing that set me on fire at first, that I wanted to write about what it was like when you were in the night. I know. Right. And yes, yes. Yes. In the 90s, you had to show up in your disgusting human form. Look people in the eye and try not to look too needy and try not to look like you wanted it so badly. And now suddenly there are these apps where you can just name your availability, your desire. And you don't have people think are negative or women, but go ahead. But yes, but I agree.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All the things now? Are you working on it? I'm on a political profile right now. Oh, you are? I do. I can't say. I'm not a lot of mayor, Pete. No. Okay. No, those were all spoken for. Mine is far. Marianne Williamson. I'm not saying. Marianne Williamson. It's got to be. No, I resolutely say how dare you. She's going to be on stage. I'm so excited. I'm very excited for everybody's on stage. I hope that the person I am writing about may or may not be on stage. Oh, yes, they are on stage. Backward circle conversation denying everything. All right. So let's get into how you decided to then go into fiction of the book that you're here for. Actually, the book is Fleischmann is in trouble. Explain to the people what it's about. Okay, it's about a man who gets divorced on a plot level and his wife drops the kids off. Right. But first of all, he gets divorced and then he suddenly tenderly like...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Positivity person read my Weight Watcher story. I had, you know, like I had a lifelong dieter read it and I had like a photo editor and a fact checker who had both been members of Weight Watchers who read it and cried. And that's when I knew I was fine. Right. Do you think, and you moved from topic to topic, I would love you to write more about tech because, you know, the best piece I ever written about, say, Airbnb was by Jessica Pressler because she came fresh. She's amazing. You're like, you, Olivia and her the Troika feature writers, as far as I'm concerned. We thank you. It's okay. It's a really interesting, I read every word, which you don't read differently now, too, which is funny. Like they read in a zigzag of what is the thing. No, but I'm waiting for your lines. That's what's really good about it. Thank you. And same with Jessica and the same with Olivia. There's always Zinger in there or something really smart that you want to not miss and you don't want to miss in the context. But have you ever thought about writing about politics, tech?”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Dietness, which I would love to participate in, I wound up on the side of I still terribly, terribly want to be thin. And I think that that could have exploded. But if you are heartfelt and you are good at explaining yourself, I think you can say anything. I think you can make your point of view known. I think that the thing I see most often is that there are reactions to profiles or reactions to stories and they move very quickly now. And the people cancel you and that you're the, and it just means that you didn't pull it off. That's a really good way of putting it. Your impetus was probably pure. You have something you want to convey that is more middle of the road. Most of the journalists I know are more middle of the road than they are extreme. And you didn't pull it off. And that's my fear, but I have editors who make sure. And also in certain cases, you know, I had a body.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You do have it's red online it's reacted to and you're very active yourself which is interesting I'm a big talker I'm not like a reckless I always wanted to be a reckless I had to think about when you write because it used to be drop these stories and then go away at the New York Times now the New York Times has to participate in the in the world essentially right I think that the danger is you have to know how to listen and to not let a couple of loud voices be the story of your story but I don't know what this sounds like. I have a great, I have great editors who are concerned with not being too to the left or two to the right and who are concerned with getting a real story. And I have been very lucky to learn that whenever you're telling the absolute truth, like the Weight Watchers story was a controversial, could have been a controversial story. Because in the end, in this kind of world of body positivity and anti-”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In a special editorial team for this one. But luckily, they all listen and they all know that my pain is real. So I want to finish off talking about journalism. In this modern age, when there's so much noise, and so one of the things that happened is your story exploded on social media. Which one? All of them do. All of them do. Thank you. And so I'm thinking like, because they're super long, they're very in-depth. There's a lot of you in them, but they are twittery. They're like, they've got to like, and it's very, the good side of Twitter, not the dank hole that can be assessed. But it's got the likeness, but it's not light either. It's a really interesting. I feel like you're like a writer for the new age and yet from the old days too. They aren't heavy profiles, but they're not light either. It's a really interesting. I think some of them are very heavy in terms of their emotional content. But they go down easy. Yes, exactly. How do you think about writing now when you do have an audience that's online?”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Watchers is interested in something to say that there is something new, that there is something new going on. And going through the noise that we have now with all the enormous noise that happens online. It's amazing. So you just pick them based on how? What is the thing? On something that's bothering me. That's why the ambivalence that you're talking about and the struggle you're talking about, those are all real things that I am seeking to work out. And I am very lucky that I am given range to do those things. I am also, I mean, I'm also lucky that I have the, I guess it's confidence to say like this is the story for right now. Right. The Wey Watchers story, I mean, I don't want to body shame, but that's a skinny masthead we've got at the time magazine. It was, you know, I had to explain a couple of things to their credit. Never gone past four almonds. It's like, should we?”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know any person. I don't know any American woman of a certain something that does not have a long history with Weight Watchers. And they were open to it. They wanted to talk. They had a new chief science officer, a job that used to be a dietitian and was now a psychologist, which kind of told you everything you need to know. I find in terms of stories when it occurs to you, it occurred to you for a reason. You know how sometimes you're watching Facebook and suddenly something you thought of is there in the algorithm and you're like, oh, have they tapped my brain? And no, it's that you were attacked by the same series of stimuli that like the algorithm is perceptive. Right. Yeah. And so my algorithm is like what I have found is that when I want to do a story, Gwynneth Peltra, for example, I will find that Gwynneth Paltra has something to say. I will find that way.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Silicon Valley Consulting prediction, like psychic network. Yeah, it's now WW, although the last I heard of that, you know, they hired Kate Hudson and people went nuts. And also that like the amount of people in those meetings who were so they were like, you're not letting thin people in now, right? Like we don't, we need to be, we need a safe space to talk about being fat because even the thin people were still fat people. Like that's how they felt. They're like, I am a fat person who is thin right now. And if you take that language away from them, then not only can they not exist outside those rooms, they can't exist inside the rooms. So I could have done it on lean cuisine as well. That would have been also an interesting way. But Weight Watchers is such a huge, and I love the idea that when I went to join for the story, they're like, we have like seven of you. Isn't it weird that there are seven Tavia actors? Like, it's all me.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right now, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. How do you pick these? So, why did you go to Weight Watchers then? Weight Watchers was a story. I wanted to do a story about American fatness. And that story I did backwards. I said, what is the thing that I'm seeing? The thing that I'm seeing now is that people are, and also I saw it in magazines that I had been writing for because I was still a freelancer when I did that story, that like, you're not, you don't want to be thin anymore. You want to be healthy. You want to be fit. You don't want to lose weight. You want to be your best. And all of these euphemisms that were making me crazy. Because if you want me to lose weight and I'm not even allowed to talk about it anymore, I just can't participate in a universe where words mean nothing. And I thought, what could it possibly be for weight watchers? The company is called weight watchers. Well, we'll get to that. I predicted that. Did I not predict that? Yes, you did. Yeah, I should get like some high profile.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it just shows up at her house. It does show up at her house, and she doesn't understand why if other foods are showing up at my house. And she also is a master of willpower. Like that is like, and she said to me, it is like, it's something I cultivate. And I guess I only think about cultivating willpower. I would love you to profile. I did Chris Jenner. You did Chris Jenner. That's right. You did. I did Chris Jenner with the whole family. Yeah. No, you need to do the whole family. I would love sometime in a room there. Actually, I have to say, I've spent a lot of time with Kim Kardashian. She's lovely. I'm sure she is. Lovely. Shota, one of four sisters. I feel like we'd get along great. You need all of them. I need all of them together. Possa's brother. Yeah. And everybody, the whole gang. The whole gang. I'd like to see what the whole gang. I would love to do that. So you then did Weight Watchers, the CEO is trying to sort of really internetize that company, the new CEO.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At Gwynneth Paltroood. So the one thing I try to do at the end of that profile, and it's a real story, I was like, I feel great. I am going to be so hydrated. And I drink all of these waters. I just keep drinking all of these waters. And then, but then I'm not even in an Uber because I'm a journalist. I'm on the Hertz van. And I'm screaming. Like, really, I'm not in fan. It's like someone has to help me. Someone has to help me. And I have to, I almost miss my flight. I still have an injury in my knee from running for that plane and running to the bathroom. And I realized you can't just be hydrated. You need someone to also take you to the bathroom. It's not like her argument, which I understand is like, why don't you just eat some more produce? And she doesn't understand that you have to acquire the produce and you have to wash the produce.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Such a thing as a good scene. What's interesting, and I want to talk about your whitewashers and then start talking about your book is you inserted yourself quite heavily in the end, especially. You were in there lots of times. There's lines, and you do those callbacks and stuff like that. In the kitchen, you had one and several places. Are we on Gwyneth still? Yeah, goeth. But at the end, you really, you somehow just collapsed. I know. You linked it back to your sister, and it was just riveting to end a profile like that. I really like you weren't in the room with her. No, and I didn't end on a quote. I really like the- I was like, this is about Taffy, not about Gwynneth. This is it in a great way. This is about all of us. Had you been exposed to the stimuli I was exposed to, this is where you would end. And who better than to end that profile than the person that she is trying to compel? The Gwynneth Paltro business story is not about Gwynneth Paltro as much as it is about your reaction to Gwyneth Paltro and your attempt.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hanging out with a publicist before her client arrived to an interview and she was just telling me how much she loved Goop. And it made me realize that like just, you know, the problem guilty pleasure, essentially. No, no, no. She was like, that's where I go for my recommendations. The problem is that journalists are writing about it. Like the thing you hear about GOOP is from journalists. And journalists Like, I can't do that. There is. I can only bet there is.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're back with Taffy Bodessa Ackner. She's a writer for The New York Times, and she also has a new novel out called Fleischmann Is in Trouble. We're talking about her journalism career right now. We're just talking about her Gwynneth Paltrou profile. So she liked it. I imagine she would like it, and not because she's stupid. She's not stupid. Yeah. What I've learned about what people like and what they don't like is that it depends on what their goal was for participating in the story. And her goal, I think, I have not discussed this with her in the afterward. But her goal was to be taken seriously as a businesswoman, meaning that you could even say that she's dangerous. You could say, like, you could say all of these things, as long as you're moving forward from the story of look at this dilettante actress who started a business. Her business is to be taken seriously. It is tremendously influential. And it matters to a lot of people. And all you need to do, like, you know, the tier of people I sometimes hang out with, I remember.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I never thought of not doing everything traditionally. How come my parents couldn't figure out a way to get divorced and overcome whatever my mother's answer for that is, well, they have a lot of money and we didn't. And that's really what the credit is. But the idea of doing things differently, she's probably one of the most creative people I've ever met in that way. And I wonder if a lot of that is how ostracized she's been and how traditional like She's so ostracized from everyone that it never behooved her to try to fit in. And also some of the claims on goop are dangerous are actually dangerous. That's not what we're talking about. Right, exactly. No, but no, it's her as a personality. All right, when I get back, I want to talk about how you got to writing the book then. I was writing these things. I want to talk about more of your profiles and then talk a little bit about Fleischmann as in trouble. When we get back with Taffy Ackner, who's a journalist, who's a wonderful journalist and the author of a new novel, Fleischmann, is in trouble. We're going to take a quick break now back after this.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But that's the way it seemed like that's the, you took a picture of her. That's what I kept thinking. You took a photograph of her. This is what I think about all these profiles, is that everyone, the thing we think is mean is actually our judgment. They stand behind who they are. At the beginning of my career, I would protect people from their quotes. But then I realized they knew who I was. I was in a room with them with a tape recorder. They were trying to tell me something. And it's not my job to protect them from themselves. And it's also not my job to take things out of context so that tabloids can use the quote and it get that sort of plan. I'm lucky that I've never had to work at a place that demands that of me. But she stands by who she is and she's radical. She like was telling me she's like, I don't know, we're going to get married and I don't know if we're going to live together. I don't know if I'm going to wear a white dress. And all I could sit there and think is like, how come I never thought of not wearing a white dress?”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Name from Charlie Zangers, Jacqueline Smith. Jacqueline Smith in Kmart, as if Jacqueline Smith had ever walked into a Kmart. What Gwynneth Paltra did that was different was she said, I'm not like, this is for people who are like me. There are those people and they would like eye cream without endocrine interruptors in it, which is not to say that her eye creams I tried to get them tested. I was going to do a whole thing, but it's very hard to do that kind of testing. I would imagine. I was like, I'm going to bust this wide open. Especially when it had vampire bat placent. I mean, yeah. I mean, or something. I mean, also you have to get a waiver from the vampire. Yeah. So you decided to write this. What was really fascinating at this piece is it was devastating and also complimentary and also yearning. It was everything I feel about her to be in a room with her. It was never mean. It was never mean. No, I try never to be mean. I easily do a mean. And there were moments that were truthful that were unfortunate for her.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Later. I want to talk about the reaction. She said she probably liked the piece. She did. I thought so. All right. So you wrote this piece. So she became an internet person. She became like this internet. You know, I talked to her about this, like what she was doing. And I thought it was actually quite brilliant because a lot of celebrities do these sites, tons of them. Right. Jessica Alba had one. I think that's still going honest. Tons and tons of celebrities try to do different internet things. Matt Damon had something, Ben Affleck. She's the only one who's really, you know, Reese Witherswoon, I think, has something. Yeah, she has that. The thing is the thing that they all do that she does differently is they all go down market. They all say, here, you two can look like Reese Witherspoon. Best of luck. When these cheaper, yeah, I think it's Draper James as her clothing line. And it makes the Reese Witherspoon lifestyle accessible. It's sort of like Jackie.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of things like her, the way you described her kitchen was so perfect. Like, she's the only person I've ever met who is perfect. She is everything that she doesn't claim to be because she's too perfect to claim to be. She really is. She lives as a cipher and this mirror to show you all the ways that it could have gone for you had you been way luckier than you are. Well, your kitchen scene of her making Pazda not getting in a white dress with children and not getting a spot on her. And it was perfect food. Nothing. And she was drinking and still nothing happened. And it was perfect and it was delicious. And there was a room with a fireplace where we were suddenly eating by candlelight. And then we were smoking this one perfect cigarette. And I went on a, I was still smoking a year later. I was like, I guess I'll just finish this path. And she was like, oh, when she saw me like four months.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Quinneth, there was She was in some kind of PR crisis. This was all over the Jan Gunther who I've had on the podcast is a doctor who has pushed away a lot of these ideas. I was joking about the Jade Egg, but there was a story about putting a Jade Egg in your vagina on. I mean, she does a great public service of making sure that you know that just because, you know, Goop does the wellness thing. Hey, we're just asking questions, not realizing that things that are print matter matter. Right. Things that we say with authority have authority under Wire Bras was a great thing, I think Jen Gunter did. And it goes on and on. It goes on and on, which she does is she just fact checks Goop. And what does Goop started off with selling cool things at Gwyneth Paldro? Yeah, like here's a sweater I like. Yeah, exactly. But some people can't afford it. Right. I think that's the other thing that bothered people because some people can't afford it. And she does have flawless taste in life.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Conference was the all things. It was an interesting experience. She was there to talk about abuse online because she gets more than anybody. I've never seen any, she can say hello and she gets like framed. It doesn't matter what she does. Even if she's at her most annoying, I get some of that. Yes. But she literally can say, hi, have a nice day. She is what our millennial friends call triggering. And so I was like, come and talk about that because you can take it, but she did an okay job. But I've been following her because I thought Goop was really interesting. Yeah. I was immediately struck by it. And everyone sort of made fun of her. I'm like, no, no, there's something like Arianna Huffington. Like, there's something here with the Huffington Post. And a lot of people laughed at it when she launched. And so I contacted them. And she's had several CEOs I know. And so I was always intrigued by Goop. And then it sort of got out of control as a product. Right. So how did you get to that? Because she'd been written about a million times. By the time I wrote about...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you remember the medium magazine? Yes, yes. And on the first day, he said to me, what do you want to write? And I gave him two pitches that GQ had turned down. And he said, yes. And one was about Brittany Spears and one was about Paula Dean. And those helped make my career. Why? Pauladine was brilliant. Thank you. I remember I saw the tweet. It said, it was her comeback. It said, come join us on the White Sandy beaches. And I was like, yes, I will join you on the White Sandy. Yeah. And I was so excited. I was so excited to tell everyone I was a Jew. And they did their impressions of Jews for me. It was amazing. Wow, yeah, I remember that. So you'll show it to me later. So you started writing the magazine and you'd written a whole bunch of different things. But the one that got a lot of attention obviously was Gwynneth Paltrose. Yes. That's it very well. Talk about that because we've had Gwyneth Paltro at our”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know how many writers are trying to do this, and I never thought it was even an option to have a tantrum. I mean, you hear about people treating fact-checkers. Oh, yeah. These are people who want to make sure you don't get sued. Right, exactly. For a small amount of money, good editors. And then, of course, there's editors who are uncreative as a writer from the other side, like who are just not creative in any way and want to stick you in a hole. I've had some of those. And I don't work with them again, but mostly I find that those. Oh, I love editors. They are products of the magazine culture. And there's some magazines you find out that you should stay away from. Right, exactly. So you started writing and then you started writing regularly for them. Now you're a writer for the New York Times, correct? And now I'm a staff writer of the New York Times magazine, but I started out at the New York Times magazine. I wanted very bad, yes. And then on contract, I very badly wanted to write for GQ. A GQ editor named Mark Lotto left GQ and started matter.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“While I'm delivering, but you don't. Because editing actually always helps. Right, exactly. I can't believe that there are people who want to help make your work better without taking any credit for it. And we're supposed to treat them like shit. 100%. I was just talking to someone not on the Rico dev, but I was like, you're not talented enough to be this difficult. Your work is not good enough. I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. But it's true. I have a thing, a prick to It's a prick to productivity ratio. I use tech people. I talk about it. I shouldn't publish it. It was like jobs. Okay, it was a print, but boy, the productivity was high, so he gets to do that. You better be such a genius if you're going to act like a genius. And even then, is it that good a thing that we want? And anyway, that's how I think you're a real pain in the ass and you cannot do this unless you deliver me such it like you poop out something so good. I've never been an editor, but I...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Willis was on girls, and yeah, and I thought that was going to be my thing. And before I can say anything, I said her name. And he said, yes, we should do her. And suddenly I understood I was in a moment where something incredible was happening to me. And I was, you know, I talk about this as luck. And he has recent, he says whenever I say that, he said, no, you were nice to be around. You seemed good to work with. Right. So I will take that credit and I'll say, yes, I always assume that editors want the best possible. I don't understand people who don't. Because you don't understand how difficult some people are to work with that being an editor. Like how hard it is to get really good stuff out. You mean from the editor? No, from the writer. Often, I mean, I've been both. Yeah. Both, but I'm relatively cooperative when I write. People always surprise. They think I'm going to like throw in a jewel to them, but kick the shit out of them.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Supposed to metabolize the information you've been given. And I think some people probably do it maybe more artfully than I do, and they don't need to come in and explain it or have a reaction to it the way I did it was to have a reaction to it. What's powerful is a lot of those profiles that you saw Vannie Fair and other places felt cooked. They felt cooked and here you are struggling. No, I am like you're a struggle. I am all in and I am always struggling. I'm always ambivalent. So how'd you get to the New York Times and you were writing these and they, oh my gosh, so I was writing these, I did not write one profile. I was just writing some good stories. And then I had a meeting with Adam Sternberg, who is the culture editor at the New York Times magazine then. And I mentioned Zasha Mammet in hopes of maybe doing an essay about the children of celebrities who are now celebrities. Right, she was on.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“10,000 word stories, which I think that the whole conversation around that was strange was strange mostly because it ignores What is true about it, which is that it's not nobody thinks women can't write 10,000 word stories, it's that the people assigning cover stories in particular, they assign cover stories based on the cover story they want to read. And I don't know a lot of men who would say that they want to read a Gwynneth Paltro cover story or a Weight Watchers cover story. Luckily, I have an editor-in-chief and an editor. I have Jake Silverstein and Mike Benoit, and they do. They want that. So you started writing these pieces and got known for profile writing. I got known for profile writing and then with a heavy dose of Taffy. Yeah. It was more like that I would come in when I was needed. I always felt like a writer's job is to tell you how you're.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Always spell checked and in the same font. And the one big flaw I had was that I wrote too long. Good stories that were very long, and that if you took out a part of them, there's a little Twitter thing about that. We'll talk about that. Does it feel like salmon? One of them. Who said, which one? Wrote that you write too long, that there's too long profile. Did you see that? There was a whole Twitter thing about long profile. I was like, it's maybe. He loves me, though. No, he does, but there was someone saying I can't read anymore 10,000. I mean, I love you too. Felix. I can't read, oh, it was, I can't read any, it was a reaction to the 10,000 word cover story. It was all like a Twitter circle jerk that started with something that Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic said that then other people were talking about women who could write”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was reading what men had permission to do, and I was assuming that I would have this permission. And then when I assumed that I had this permission, I went in and I tried to be very Easy to work with. I know these are like the wrong messages. I was easy to work with, and I was always on time. I filed.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was writing these things as if they were personal essays. I was applying the rigors, but it was their personal essay. But I wasn't always in them. Well, you're commenting. You're hearing the inside of your head while you're talking. Yes, I always did that very boldly because I read a lot of GQ. Right. GQ did that. They did have GQ did that. And I think that a lot of what happened to me was that I was that the things I was reading”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So he started writing profiles. I started writing these profiles. And the thing that I found, I was still following the same formats I had learned in terms of storytelling, like a three-x structure, beginning, a middle, and an end, callbacks, running jokes, things like that themes, right? Things that I wasn't reading in other profiles. Not that I was reading so many profiles. I was still reading screenwriting books. I was still reading novels”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you think so? Because there was this I think one's Netflix came in. And there was sexism which no one had told me about. No one had told me I was from a I went to an all We thought it We thought it was like something we read about. We I was like, oh, that sounds like it was terrible Magazine, which”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, now how can I take these rules and parlay them into the truth of something? And you couldn't then. Do you think so? Because there was this indie explosion. No, because I think you still couldn't. It still was a certain kind of indie explosion. I think one's Netflix came in and Amazon and others could start to try and sexism, which no one had told me about. And I went to an all-girls school and we thought it was cured. We thought it was like something we read about. We thought it was like Margaret Atwood book of like, it was like reading about the Salem Witch trials, like, oh, that sounds like it was terrible. And then we got out. And then I was a soap opera magazine, which, you know, there is, you know, the woman is the thing in a soap opera at least. And then...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was she kicked out of it, or was she did she leave it? Something like that. She was not, she was always doing the things she's doing now. I was always doing the thing I'm doing now. I'm no Natasha Leone, but I was always doing the thing I'm doing now just recently appreciated. I'm just trying to work for you in the way it was in the 90s because you had to fall into a imagination to say”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tropes. These tropes. And I was obedient and I was following these tropes. And it was only later. That's an interesting one. I was. I was obedient. This is Natasha Leone, who is not obedient. She's not obedient. She's found a place, which is interesting. But back then you couldn't do that. Right. She also, I mean, I've interviewed her too. She like, she was washed up. She said she was in Noversville for the longest time. She was, but also she was, you know, like, I think that she went to a yeshiva on the upper east side and she.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I came to New York. I was living in LA at the time. And you want to be a screenwriter. I wanted to be a screenwriter. I wasn't good at it. I wasn't good at it because I was writing in the 90s I was taught to write these I mean, I think Con Air is like a great movie, but I was taught to do this thing where there's a brooding hero and he has six problems and he has to get them solved. And at page 30, he would meet his girlfriend. And she would be redemptive. And if he wasn't likable enough, you could give him Clubfoot. And if you wanted people to hate him, he would kick a dog. Like there were all these very...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Giving birth is. Yes, it is indeed. How crazy it is that we've all been born. And this is how we. To your people, yeah, we just what we want is Let's just move along. Let's not let them near Somehow the data will be stolen and then...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Spelling my body is about, it was about giving birth, like the science of giving birth and how awful giving birth is. Yes, it is, indeed. How crazy it is that we've all been born. And this is how we do, like how no one has disrupted this. Can you please talk to your people? What we want is to get 20-something white men to get on this. No, let's just move along. Let's not let them near somehow the day stolen and then Trump would get re-elected due to it. Right. I was writing these personal essays and one day I just got sick of myself and started writing about other people with their consent. Like I started, I pitched to magazines and slowly, slowly. The first one I ever did was a Q&A with Kristen Ritter for Playboy magazines. Randall gave me that. And then...”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I went to school for screenwriting, so I did not study the form. What I did was I started writing personal essays because I had a baby at home and I couldn't go out and I couldn't do anything that involved reporting. It scared me too much to try to tally up the babysitting hours or try to figure out if that was my new life. And I started writing personal essays. And those did pretty well. And then one day I was so sick of myself. I had like rung out every experience, like diapers, whatever. But like also like, it wasn't about, I rarely wrote about parenting.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My first job was at a soap opera magazine where I would write profiles, although everyone hated them. Everyone would say, ah, Taffy filed a profile. We're going to be here all night. Why was the problem? I don't know. They're exactly what I write now. Right. So I think it was. What do they mean? No, never. I was never a mean writer. I think I was just not.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Possibly my favorite except Olivia Nuzzy would hit me if I said that. And so there's so many amazing things who's written several incredible pieces, including a profile of Gwydd Paltra that everybody read last year. She's also the author of a new novel about marriage, divorce, and ambition called Fleischmann Is in Trouble. Kathy, welcome to Recode Decode. I've so been looking forward to this today. Me too. It is really exciting to be here. Let's talk about this. So you're on this bookstore for your novel, but you're so well known for other things. So explain to people how you got to the novel. Let's go through early history from birth, essentially. Let's go from how you started writing these big giant profiles in a very different way. Now, let me just preface saying I worked for the style section of the Washington Post when I was in my early 20s. And that was sort of the heyday of profiles like this. And then they went away, like Stephanie Mansfield, Sally Quinn wrote a lot of them. There were all kinds of amazing merry boda, just astonishing profiles that were sort of blew the top off the profile genre.”
2019-07-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT