I'm baaaaack. Sorry for the hiatus, podcast listeners—play on for a brief update on where I've been.Today I'm talking to Dawn Kissi, a one-two punch of a journalist with tons of experience at places like ABC News, Women's Wear Daily, CNN, and

Ask for What You Want

Apr 17th, 2018 35m 1s

When editor of FastCompany.com Anjali Khosla was in her late twenties, she was finishing up an MFA and contemplating starting another, this time in animation in film (she was really into making rudimentary stop-motion videos inspired by high-mi

Call Yourself a Writer

Mar 27th, 2018 33m 9s

How much does the Life TK audience know about being a professional dominatrix? That was one of the first questions my interviewee—the remarkable Melissa Febos—had for me when we recorded today's episode. I don't have that data, unfortunately, b

The Anti–Five Year Plan

Mar 13th, 2018 32m 15s

A first for Life TK—we're dipping into engagement this week with Rubina Madan Fillion, the director of audience engagement at The Intercept. There, Rubina runs social media; works on SEO, analytics, newsletters, membership, and more; and is cha

The Go-Slow Approach

Feb 27th, 2018 39m 20s

My interview today is with Melissa Ludtke, a journalist who has reported for Sports Illustrated, been a correspondent for Time, worked at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and is also the creator of a transmedia project called Touching Home

Waiting for Life to Start

Feb 13th, 2018 32m 45s

My interview today is with Mandy Len Catron, author of How to Fall in Love with Anyone, a memoir in essays, and a professor of English and creative writing at the University of British Columbia. You might be familiar with Mandy's name because s

The Next Step

Jan 9th, 2018 36m 9s

Vanessa Hua has done something most of us never will: She's traveled to faraway places including China, Burma, Panama, South Korea, and Ecuador to report. Here she shares what steps she took to transform a career working in business and tech j

Let the Others Be Average

Dec 26th, 2017 37m 49s

Life TK is breaking the rules this week, because Caitlin Kelly's career didn't begin in her 20s—she started in high school. The award-winning journalist and author of two books recounts how she got her first assignment and a fellowship that cha

Ask and Give in the Same Sentence

Dec 12th, 2017 33m 22s

Freelance entertainment, culture, and travel writer Valentina Valentini (Vanity Fair, the BBC, Departures, The L.A. Times, VICE, Refinery29, the list goes on!) was 19 when she abandoned the political science degree she was pursuing at a school

Don't Get in the Elevator with Anna

Nov 28th, 2017 44m 57s

Deenie Hartzog-Mislock, formerly the copy director of Vogue, now a full-time freelance copywriter, essayist, and blogger, has one of the most unique "how did I get to be a writer" stories—it involves auditions and fishnets as much as it does F

Work Harder! Lean In!

Oct 31st, 2017 53m 21s

Vanessa Grigoriadis, contributing editor at the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, and author of the new book Blurred Lines, on reporting about sexual consent on college campuses, the glory days of magazine journalism, influencers, why wo

Badass, Renaissance, Whatever-You-Need Editor!

Oct 20th, 2017 31m 12s

Happy Friday from Life TK—here's a jazzy little bonus episode, an interview with my dear friend Ettie Berneking! Ettie, a food and drinks writer and social media consultant, had the poor luck of visiting me in Brooklyn the week she turned 30. S

Pitch Your Story; Pitch Yourself!

Oct 17th, 2017 53m 25s

Lilit Marcus, editor of CNN Travel and author of Save the Assistants, on the best pitching advice ever, how a bad first job led to a brilliant idea (and eventually a book), the one thing she wishes she had learned in her twenties, and the quest

Fear and Doubt at Every Stage!

Oct 3rd, 2017 50m 6s

Poet Arisa White goes deep in this episode of Life TK, discussing her early days as an arts coordinator—wrangling dancers and writing poems on command—the magic of collaboration (and the one that didn’t quite work at first), what it’s like to b

Go to the Damn Job!

Sep 19th, 2017 43m 22s

This is a very special episode—it's my call with Linda Ellerbee, award-winning journalist and my introduction to journalism (Nick News, anyone?). I talked to Linda about the jobs she's never told anyone about—these are not on the résumé—gett

Things Are Going to Start Happening to Me Now!

Aug 29th, 2017 27m 38s

It's a reference from The Jerk, everyone. Channel your inner Steve Martin with the Emily Gould episode of Life TK. Emily, co-founder of feminist press Emily Books (emilybooks.com) and author of And the Heart Says Whatever and Friendship, talks

Tenacity...Some People Call It Stalking!

Aug 15th, 2017 40m 52s

Life TK hero and author of more than a dozen books, Laurie Notaro (humor essay collection The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, more recently historical novel Crossing the Horizon) cracks me up over trifocals, mullets, unattended babies, the

It's a Life TK Giveaway!

Aug 10th, 2017 1m 56s

Listen up for a chance to win a signed book by writer Leigh Stein.

If It's Not a Hell Yes, It's a No!

Aug 1st, 2017 37m 18s

Writer Leigh Stein (The Fallback Plan, Dispatch from the Future, Land of Enchantment) talks about a stint at the New Yorker, starting a nonprofit, the burden of being the hardest worker in the room, feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable,