ThinkTalk Interviews: Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big To Fail

Zack — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:58:50 -0500

Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times mergers and acquisitions reporter and author of the new book Too Big To Fail. Andrew has some great tips for aspiring reporters as we discuss how he crafted this epic account of the Wall Street Crisis, his writing style, and how he got his start at the Times.

Andrew's been a pretty popular guy lately, as the book has been a best-seller. In fact, today's New York Magazine pokes a little fun at Andrew with an excerpt from his follow up, Too Big to Fail and ZOMBIES:

Geithner insisted that the Fed had AIG under control and again attempted to move the conversation along. But Pandit pressed on.

"What about Merrill?" he asked.

It made for an awkward moment, as Merrill CEO John Thain was only seats away. He had remained notably silent during the exchanges.

"You guys get this done for me, and I'll make sure I can take care of AIG and Merrill," Paulson replied. "I'm a little uncomfortable talking about Merrill with John right in the room." He glanced uneasily at Thain, whose face, everyone suddenly became aware, had taken on a deathly pallor. "John," said Paulson hesitantly. "Have you been bitten?"

It was then that Thain let out a gutteral animal howl. Half-rising from his chair, he lunged toward Pandit. "BRAINS!" he moaned.

Funny, funny stuff. But, seriously, it's a great book about what went wrong with Wall Street, and Andrew himself is a great example of a successful career in journalism. So watch, listen, learn and enjoy:

Great Advice From Talented Writers at the 2009 National Book Festival

Zack — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:11:47 -0400

One of my favorite recurring events at ThinkTalk is quickly becoming DC's annual National Book Festival. For a show (like our Blank Page) that aspires to secure advice for aspiring writers from well established writers there is hardly a better venue.

To give you a quick behind the scenes, basically we head over to the National Mall (about 5 blocks away from our studios) with a camera and a host. Then they just let us loose on the mall to collect words of wisdom from the 50 plus writers roaming the grounds, signing autographs, lecturing and seeking attention (just kidding on that last one). It's kinds of like an Old Country Buffet for the literary minded.

This year - taking a cue from our experience last year - we had a better strategy and were able to get a lot more interviews and cover a lot more ground ... which is good for everyone. We were able to score some advice and career tips from:

Novelists:

Non-Fiction Writers:

Gwen Ifill
Paula Deen (who is an Erika fav!)
James L. Swanson

Cartoonist:

Jeff Kinney

All in all, I pretty good score, I think. Now, there is a ton of useful and helpful advice packed into these bites. So, even though you can visit the National Book Festival 2009 page and watch them consecutively, we have also broken them up per author, so that you can browse around to the writers who pique your interest. Also, over the next few days, we'll post one of the interviews here, in the blog, so you can follow along here as well. Enjoy ... and hopefully you learn some great writing tips.

First up, Junot Diaz, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: