The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara is a weekly podcast that showcases leaders in narrative journalism, essay, memoir, documentary film, radio and podcasts about the art and craft of telling true stories. Follow the show @creativenonfictionpodcast on Instagram and visit patreon.com/cnfpod to support!

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara is a arts podcast hosted by Brendan O'Meara, with 568 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Brendan O'Meara hosts The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara, a arts show with 568 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #548

  Episode 548: It's Easy for Elizabeth Chamblee Burch to Get Lost in Detective Mode

  Oct 2, 20261h 11m

  "In terms of the research, I can get lost in detective mode. Sometimes it's good if I know, okay, I only have an hour. I'm going to see what what can I learn about this one person in an hour. Then take it in those little pieces, and when I have time, I can get some writing done," says Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, author of The Pain Brokers. Today we have Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law and the debut author of The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America’s Lawsuit Factory. It’s published by Atria/One Signal Publishers. It’s a story of greed, fear, and exploitation of a scam that targeted women who had potentially faulty pelvic mesh surgery, only to have a shady network of cons terrify these women, over the phone, with vast amounts of personal information, scaring them to have this mesh removed that effectively has ruined the lives of countless women. The Pain Brokers chronicles their plight, as well as the lawyers who sought justice and the predatory people at the spearhead of this scheme. So Elizabeth’s focus of her teaching is in mass torts, class actions, and civil procedure. She’s been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and won the American Law Institute's Early Career Scholars Meal in 2015, among a few other saucy awards. Her academic work and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Miami Herald, just to name a few. You can find her online at elizabethchambleeburch.com or on the socials, like @elizabethcburch on IG. The Pain Brokers was named was of the best books so far of 2026 by The New Yorker and in this episode we talk about: Making law interesting Goat chokers Locking in character to an idea Structure Part 1 seven different times How intimidating it all was Getting IRL The value we had as journalists Getting lost in detective mode What the hell are mass torts? Mass tort du jours The granular details and how to get them Knowing where the landmines are And what keeps her coming back Pair this episode with Ep. 443 with Jared Sullivan

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  Episode #547

  Episode 547: Catherine Grace Katz Needs a Portable Murder Wall and PB&J to Write

  Sep 25, 20261h 22m

  "I had a really interesting conversation with a publisher for my first book, and the publisher asked me, 'How are you going to get out of the story?' And I think that's the thing that people often go into it having a  great idea of two thirds of a really good story, how it goes up through the climactic action of your narrative. But then there can be this like long trail off where people can't bring themselves to wrap the story up, or not put as much thought into exactly how the story ends," says Catherine Grace Katz, author of Shadow Before the Flame. It’s Catherine Grace Katz (@catherinegracekatz on IG)! Who first appeared on the show back on Ep. 222 for her acclaimed book Daughters of Yalta and she’s back in the saddle again for Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War. It’s published by Viking. Two things are ubiquitous about the Hindenburg: It blew up and the journalist painting the audio picture of the disaster said, “Oh, the humanity.” Beyond that, what else is there? Turns out, um, quite a f------ lot, man. I didn’t know there were survivors. I didn’t know it was a passenger vessel. Shadow will sit right beside the great historical yarns spun by the likes of Laura Hillenbrand, Erik Larson, and Hampton Sides. I’m always amazed how writers make work of this nature suspenseful when you know the outcome. Like, you know the Hindenburg blows up. You know Trudy Ederle swims the English Channel. And yet, when it happens, you’re rewarded more than you could have imagined. What a fun time we had. Can’t believe it’s been six years since she was on the show. Oct. 2, 2020. Wild. Who’d have thought that she’s such a fiery New York Yankees fan? Hmmm … In this episode we talk about: The origin story of this book The post-book funk Step 1 of writing this book proposal Getting out of the story World building Capturing the little nuggets How she’s more rooted in feel The murder wall Cutting yourself off from the research The tech of zeppelins Why they couldn’t use helium The echoes of history Not writing the present into the book The one thing she’s totally inflexible about The biggest change between book one and book two And her hottest of hot takes Pair this episode with Ep. 132 with Laura Hillenbrand, Ep. 473 with Hampton Sides, and Ep. 368 with Tyler Hooper.

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  Episode #546

  Episode 546: Seth Wickersham is On That Hill

  Sep 18, 20261h 15m

  "Writing is such a lonely job, and I feel bad for people who don't have a crew. I think you really have to have a crew. I had a college crew my first couple years at ESPN. There was a bunch of us who were young writers and very ambitious. That was a crew. And then we have our group now of people who are on various text threads, you need a band to always know where your head is at any given time, so they can help you tap into those things when you're doing your work," says Seth Wickersham, author of three books, including his anthology of his best ESPN work Be On That Hill. Today we welcome back Seth Wickersham, his third trip to the podcast. He has achieved anthology status. His best work over 26 years at ESPN is in 480 tidy pages titled Be On That Hill: Stories from the Summits of Sport, with a forward by his buddy and colleague and master in his own right, Wright Thompson. It’s published by Hyperion Avenue. I should add right off the top that I should have in the coming week or two a Nieman Storyboard annotation of Seth’s mammoth profile on Sean Payton. It’s a 15,000-word feature that is a stunning piece of work. In any case, pay attention to this space for news on that. But, yes, Seth is the author It’s Better to Be Feared and American Kings and let me be the one to tell you that he is one of the good ones, just a great person on top of being a tremendous writer and reporter. I think that comes across in how he speaks, his generosity of spirit and willingness to share his vast experience with you. I mean, take these blurbs for instance: from Jonthan Eig: "Wickersham stands with Plimpton and Halberstam among the finest sports chroniclers." And Peter King: "Wickersham’s terrific prose and storytelling are buttressed by his tireless and insightful reporting.” Damn. What a treat, what a ride you’re in for. Seth’s work can be found at espn.com and you can visit his website sethwickersham.com and follow him on IG @seth.wickersham. In this episode, we talk about: Getting beyond access porn for his Payton profile Having an idea of where you want to end a story The messy creative process Each time you’re starting over Shades of grayness Not being dissuaded by lack of access Lucky that people were invested in his success Breaking through creative plateaus The benefit of being a young writer Everything in a story is a reflection of you Needing a crew How your writing voice can adapt And the notes he has taped to his computer You might want to pair this episode with Pamela Colloff, Tony Rehagen and Justin Heckert.

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  Episode #544

  Episode 545: Stories Can Sit in the Notebook for Years. Just Ask Matthew Wolfe.

  Sep 11, 20261h 13m

  "There are a lot of stories that I come across that almost work or that don't quite work. And early in my career, I think I'd try and chase stories or force them to fit or force them to be a story when they don't actually work as a story," says Matthew Wolfe, author of the book Fires in the Night and the Atavist story "The Bleeding Hearts." Today we welcome back Matthew Wolfe for the third time in about a year. Why, you ask? Well, his first appearance was Ep. 482 for his Atavist story “The Talented Mr. Bruseaux,” then, just a few weeks ago he was on for Ep. 536 to talk about his first book Fires in the Night. And now he’s got another Atavist story. Wild, right? This is the way. Matt’s story is titled The Bleeding Hearts: An ex-cop pulled off the largest armed robbery in Austria’s history, with his friend’s mistress as his accomplice. But he wasn’t trying to get rich. He wanted to be a real-life Robin Hood. Now, we’ll be chatting with Jonah Ogles soon and I didn’t bring this up with him, and I will down the road, but listen to the deck again. If you want to sell a pitch to the Atavist, can you sum it up in one sentence like that? I will talk to them about that in the next one and how that distillation might help your pitches out either for the Atavist or any other publication. Matthew has written for the Atavist on 3 separate occasions, and he’s also the author of Fires in the Night about the Earth Liberation Front. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The Atlantic, and National Geographic In this conversation, we talk about: His love of The Baffler, Harper’s, and the New Yorker Where his path and ambitions lie Balancing fun, meaning, and value in a story The almost-working stories that don’t Stories that sit in the notebook for years Periods of spring cleaning Missing the sprawl of book writing And when a reporter can add commentary to a story

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  Episode #544

  Episode 544: Writing a Book is Like Driving a Bus, says Joshua Robinson

  Sep 4, 20261h 7m

  "Sometimes you swing and a miss on a story, or you get scooped by someone, and I think there's a constant feeling of like you're only as good as your last story, as the last thing you published, and it's hard to shake that," says Joshua Robinson, co-author of The Playbook: The Hidden Forces Shaping Winners and Losers in the Modern NFL (Mariner Books). Joshua Robinson is here. Now, it was SUPPOSED to be a two-headed monster with Jonathan Clegg but SOMEBODY got pulled into an urgent news situation at the Wall Street Journal and had to conveniently skip thus putting ALL the pressure on Joshua Robinson to shoulder the burden that is a conversation with me. JR and JC are the co-authors of four books in nine years. Four books in nine years. Their latest is The Playbook: The Hidden Forces Shaping Winners and Losers in the Modern NFL. It’s published by Mariner Books and edited by Matt Harper, who made The Front Runner as good as it is. Joshua heroically stepped in and did the work of two people. He’s the sports editor for the Wall Street Journal and has covered Formula 1, European football, the World Cup, the Tour de France, etc. He and Jonathan are the authors of The Club, The Formula, and Messi vs. Ronaldo. The Club and The Formula are rated 4.6 on the place that shall not be named out of more than 1,800 ratings. That’s amazing. In this episode, we talk about: Translating super niche sports for a reader The co-author shared Google Doc Amusing themselves The Big Pages Stage How they only write two big drafts, what? Marrying the big idea to characters Drive the bus Understanding time value of money in the NFL And how you’re only as good as last story This episode will pair well with Episode 199 with Keith Law, and Ep. 540 with Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr. Instagram: @creativenonfictionpodcast Substack: welcometopitchclub.substack.com

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