in any case, let's journey forth with the same zeal as my friend's grandfather who, on his death bed, self-published an autobiography titled "It's Been Fun!"
Congratulations to Lina Misitzis (
@lmisitzis
), BFA Writing ’11! Misitzis produced an episode of the public radio program
@ThisAmerLife
that won the 2020
#Pulitzer
Prize for Audio Reporting, the first ever given for audio journalism. 🏆🎙📻
“refresh your feeds” to hear the season finale of Oh, Hello. Special thanks this week to Joe Rogan and Bill Simmons. Here is a screenshot from our final production meeting. Making a podcast is hard and we were all so sleepy.
just in time for podcast listenership‘s significant falloff, Episode 1 of our very topical* show is out, and I couldn’t be prouder. Unrelated:
@mulaney
and
@nickkroll
are two of the smartest, kindest people, and I adore them.
*tone-deaf
EPISODE 6: IT’S A FINE LIFE
Starring Gil & George &
@Lin_Manuel
It’s a day late and that’s my fault. Apologies to all, especially
@mulaney
and
@nickkroll
x
life has its ups and downs, like yesterday, when Varys had diarrhea and vomited on the floor of my car, and today, when a story I produced w/
@emilytgreen
for
@ThisAmerLife
won a pulitzer
called
@Chase
to ask what’s wrong with my new ~indie~ business checking account & the lady said “we just need to confirm that your work doesn’t fall under the adult entertainment umbrella?” & I said “why does that matter?” & she said “to be honest, I dunno. I just have to ask.”
hello, hi -- This American Life is looking for plot-driven stories about songs, albums or mixtapes. Have any of those things ever set off an unusual chain of events for you? are you bruce springsteen? DM me.
I've officially left New York and am now leaving This American Life! A job I've loved so much, at a show that's defined so much of what I love. And I'll miss it a lot. But now that I live in LA, I'll be focusing on things like this (“incognito”) google search from last night:
spent the last night of curfew w/
@dianemwu
at Mr. Mango, 8PM-5AM, patronized by protestors, hospital workers, NYPD, and one god amongst men who, after Diane asked if she could record the sound of him pouring coffee, said, “they pay you to do this?”
my advice to banks: if you want it to seem plausible that you profile people just in case they’re victims of bad actors, you may wanna let your staff in on the story
today's my one-year anniversary at
@ThisAmerLife
, and even though I do think we're all in the bad place right now, I'm incredibly grateful to have a small good place to call my office, beside the smartest, most supportive colleagues I've ever known
in an effort to take personal inventory of my net worth, I had my car appraised, and I’m so pleased to report that she’s been valued at $103, which is less than it costs to take a cab to Newark
I’m so proud of this story. not because it’s extraordinary; specifically because it isn’t. porn can be pretty dark and twisty! but much more often, it’s kind of boring. that’s what I like about it. the thing itself matters a LOT less than its backdrop.
Lana has a problem lots of mothers have right now during the pandemic, but a more extreme version of it. Lana makes porn—at home. It’s hard to do her job with schools closed.
I was one of Gimlet's first hires. It was bonkers; to save time, Katilin sometimes slept at work,
@EricMennel
couldn't find an apartment that allowed dogs, & still he came to work. It was the third floor of an old building on Flatbush where I'm positive they shot snuff films
.
@vulture
names "The Last Days of August," which was reported and produced by alumna
@lmisitzis
, as one of the top podcasts of 2019; the podcast investigates the untimely death of an adult film actress.
never will I ever feel as much as I felt during the summer of 2012, which I spent listening to The National on the subway, sobbing and refusing tissues from caring strangers
everything is so much right now, but also I just saw two adults on a park bench holding one another’s gaze, each of them sipping from their own carton of whole milk
@sruthiri
the luxury of spending many hours making a story is less noticeable to me than the luxury of spending many hours listening to said story on repeat, trying to figure out what’s wrong with it
after his hamster Oreo died last month, my nephew stopped sleeping through the night. but then he went ten nights in a row without leaving his bed and my brother said he could graduate.
my mom is on the right side of history and my proof is that when I posted this, my FIRST INTERNET NUDE, she called me with great urgency to voice her concern that I might get a UTI from bathing with Varys
Hello! After 2 blissful* years of freelancing, it’s time to get a job. I’m a senior producer & editor with extensive reporting experience. To quote an ex boss, “Lina’s not for everyone!” To quote that same ex boss, “Lina’s my favorite former employee.” You do the math!
*passable
💕a flower courier just delivered these to me at my office in a box with my name on it, but the card is made to a woman named Deanna from her fiancé Paul❤️
I live to apologize except for one time in 2012 when my coworker complained to our manager that my calling it "sportsball" felt "disrespectful to sports culture" and our manager asked me to apologize
when I left my job at NPR in 2016 and my colleagues bid me farewell with a crop top and Snuggie was the first time I really *knew* myself (to be a cozy slut)
it was only the day after attending the death cab/postal service anniversary show that I realized the main guy in both bands is the same guy, and that’s only because I remarked to friends that “the two guys looked kind of the same”
I lied and said I knew how to use some industry standard software, but the lady interviewing me figured it out and asked me to leave. it was for a job at Brian Williams’ news show. then Brian lost his job for lying about getting hit by a rocket.
the holidays are a special time when grownups who don’t know what my job is interrupt themselves at dinner parties to point at me and suggest I “do one of [my] stories about that”
hey!
@jonronson
and I are on this list, which is very flattering! also the photo they used for our show is of an armed forces person I’ve never seen before!
couple things: I’m on This American Life this weekend talking to nervous Democrats in Florida AND my new plate frame arrived which I ordered because “that’d be funny” but now I’m not so sure!
something so humanizing about me is that my vibrator got turned on in my suitcase and is very sonically rocking and rolling its way around in there but I had to sit on my suitcase to close it in the first place and am therefore refusing to address it
At the same time, I feel very connected to anyone who dreamed about working there, and especially connected to anyone whose dream was then deferred. It doesn't have to include silver lining. It can (and does) really fucking suck, and I'm thinking of all of you
finally watched
@LastWeekTonight
’s excellent segment on sex work, trafficking, and decriminalisation (😏) and was CHUFFED (😏) to see my own work cited partway through
I have a story on this week’s show about exploitation and agency and the problem(s) with dividing people up into With Us or Against Us. As ever, my colleagues had my back from go, especially
@Starecheski
.
just left my first LA musical theater aerobics dance class in which I was the sole student and the teacher opened class by explaining to me that mental health is an important theme in many of broadway’s greatest hits
I think the most profound thing about winning a pulitzer is I just sat down to a shrimp dinner, decided that shrimp "look too much like cockroaches," threw my dinner away, and then sobbed at the thought of eating cockroaches
in fourth grade I found out my classmate Sarah was having a birthday slumber party without me and so I invited her to a fake slumber party at my house on her birthday which subsequently forced her to invite me to her birthday slumber party
something very relatable about me is that a few years ago I ran into someone who really broke my heart and managed to avoid small talk by pretending to be on an important phone call when really I was just listening to "White Noise for Babies" on loop on Spotify
my neighbor set up his patio furniture on the sidewalk and is presently blasting Frank Sinatra from a boombox while removing his mask every minute or so to take puffs of his cigar
today is two years since August took her life. I’m thinking about her. I’m also thinking about the many resources that emerged for porn people in the aftermath of her death. there was conflict, yes, but there was (and is!) so much kindness and love, too
porn/cam twitter! I'm looking for performers who keep getting kicked off of social media platforms. I know this is in no way new for you guys, and I'm especially interested in performers who have dealt with it over and over, in multiple places. DM me! Here is an octopus:🐙
the utility company I give money to in exchange for electricity and the sixth worst tap water in America just emailed to wish me a happy "final day" of women's history month
forgot my ID at home when buying wine so I said “whoops, sorry, but look — I have crow’s feet!” and the guy nodded and sold me the wine and now I’m so mad I’m reporting him to the state’s alcoholic beverage control
sometimes I watch old Anthony Bourdain clips and feel overwhelmed by the wide expanses of this world, how much of it I’ll never know, and other times I think about how most countries’ signature cuisine is some kind of bread wrapped around some kind of milk and/or animal
On the radio this weekend: There's a lot that can be gained from unearthing the past -- learning about oneself, learning about others. But, it doesn't always go how you'd expect.
I produced this week’s episode w/ fellow Real Housewives fan
@noormal_person
and my favorite part is when
@dianemwu
finds out (in her mid 20s) that there are nazis in The Sound of Music
every
@nytimes
push notification rn is like OUR DATA SCIENTIST STORYTELLERS CREATED A JIGSAW PUZZLE THAT YOU CAN MOVE INTO DIFFERENT SHAPES SO AS TO IMAGINE 683 POSSIBLE ELECTION OUTCOMES EVEN THOUGH HISTORICALLY IT’S ONLY EVER COME DOWN TO THREE THINGS
on this day, 2021, my friend pranked me good by making a fake email account and offering me six figures and “the opportunity to share [my] gift -- to plant the seed and watch it grow” if I’d agree to do a masterclass about podcasting
finally worked up the courage to confront the cashless Sweetgreen on Sunset, using words like “classist” & “legal tender” & “human rights,” except that, after I proudly finished laying down the law, the retailer gently told me, “we DO take cash”
so much of my life has been punctuated by trebek. playing with dad as a kid and background noise in college and what I turn on in hotel rooms on reporting trips, because it reminds me of home ❤️
a manager at an npr show I really wanted to work at earlier in my career told me not knowing ProTools was why he couldn’t hire me. So I quit my day job to do an unpaid training program at a tiny/wonderful radio station,
@kalw
. that’s how I learned.
my dentist just emailed to announce his exciting new partnership with a botox specialist and as an aside they’re both being trained to administer covid vaccines