"Don't tie it up in a bow at the end!"
plus, what Emmylou Harris can teach us about cross-generational cheerleading
I was digging around in an old drive the other day, and came across my original pitch document for Death, Sex & Money. There’s a lot about it that was bold, but I had totally forgotten that I was pitching my show idea as a new invention: “storytelling-driven how-to segments about life.”
Was it a good idea? Yes. Was this, in 2013, actually a new invention? I don’t think so.
But I had the nerve to declare it so. I was entering a contest for new show ideas at WNYC, and I was going to strut as I tried to impress the panel of human bosses to give me a shot. And, because it was a very different time in public media in 2013, those bosses let me try. They also sat with me in edits, sometimes even with red pens. They told me when I was boring them and when I was wimping out in my writing and needed to be sharper.
It’s quite rare for people coming up behind me in journalism and digital media, even just a handful of years behind me, to get that kind of shot. Journalism and digital media have changed, and so has the structure of the workplace. Many of us with laptop jobs are spread out and stretched thin, so there’s just less in-person, direct feedback and mentoring happening.
And, increasingly, there may be fewer slots for early-career workers. Back in June, on the podcast The Journal, Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter described how AI may wipe away many traditional opportunities for workers starting out:
One CEO put it to me that she sees companies instead of at traditional pyramid where there’s a lot of people at the bottom and you go up and up and up. She said it’s going to be diamond shaped where there’s fewer people at the very bottom, more sort of experienced folks in the middle, and then of course just a few executives at the top. And I think that shape of a company is really going to change how people’s careers look.
A diamond shape! A sharp angle pointed downward is not the welcome I want for legions of early-career people. And where, then, will the “sort of experienced” people get experience if they don’t ever come in the door? But what does that mean for all the workers who are looking for their first steps on the career pyramid? And, if you’re mid-career like me, what role can we play to mentor people coming up behind us, in informal settings, as in-person on-the-job training falls away?
This week on Death, Sex & Money, we hear from some workers about what this ecosystem feels like. Our guides are
, who created the Laid Off newsletter on Substack after she was laid off; my Slate colleague Nitish Pahwa who covers business and tech, and Brendan Liaw, a three-time Jeopardy! champion who introduced himself to TV audiences as a “stay-at-home son” because he was competing while still looking for work after graduate school.And HERE are those hot “Laid Off” hats that Melanie mentions in the episode.
“No Bow at the End!”
This was the clutch advice I got from Adam Wade, a champion Moth storyteller and teacher, in my storytelling class he led on Sunday evenings in the summer of 2011.
So much of how I write and edit tape was shaped by Adam. Give people concrete scenes, he urged our class. You may offer a reflection that nods toward a theme, but for the love of God, don’t get overly flowery or preachy at the end. Just let the last detail of your story land, so it echoes in listeners’ ears.
Whenever I strike a last line of tracking that seemed clever in the first draft, but in fact lands as too self-satisfied or showy, I say a little prayer of thanks to Adam.
Some of Adam’s storytelling students are celebrating his 15 years of teaching with a show in New York on October 19. Go if you can!
And here are some of Adam’s greatest hits on The Moth podcast.
Other Recommended Reads, Watches & Listens
The Lowdown on FX! Sterlin Harjo of Reservation Dogs is back, and this new show grooves. I love the music, the quirky establishing shots, the quip-y dialogue, the Oklahoma-ness of it all. And the cast! Every actor makes me want to stare at their face. See the trailer.
In 2022, I took a walk in the Santa Cruz mountains with Britt Wray, a thinker and writer about climate grief, as we discussed “How Much Climate Anxiety Helps.” She has contributed to a new project called Unthinkable, which provides personalized resource “care packages” to help us sit with and connect around various experiences of climate distress. It’s cool. Check it out.
Friend of Death, Sex & Money's Michael Arceneaux is co-hosting a new podcast with Candiace Dillard Bassett, of The Real Housewives of Potomac: Undomesticated.
Over on the Song Exploder podcast, Hrishikesh Hirway sits with Lady Gaga to deconstruct the making of her hot song “Abracadabra.”
I got to be a part of the crowd in San Francisco last night as musical legends gathered to pay tribute to Emmylou Harris. So many incredible songwriters, musicians, and singers came out: Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda, Margo Price, Allison Russell, Roseanne Cash, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, and Sam Bush.
heroes paying tribute to a hero I loved hearing old friends offer stories from the road from decades ago, and the younger musicians describing “the blueprint” they had to follow, thanks to Emmylou. I thought I might pass out when Emmylou sang “Love Hurts” with Buddy, and my song discovery of the night was “I Don’t Want to Talk About It Now,” co-written by Emmylou in 2000. Bonnie played that one, introducing it as the song that showed her that Emmylou has a dark side.
Until next week,
Anna
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