Sarah Stillman on Finding the Story

Welcome to Season Four of The Critic and Her Publics: The Art of the Interview. This season, host Merve Emre talks with professional interviewers of all kinds about how they get the answer they’re looking for, what makes a good question, how do you listen for what’s unsaid, and how hard do you have to push someone before they say something new?

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From the episode: “Sarah Stillman is a staff writer at The New Yorker and one of the most decorated investigative reporters of her generation. She’s won several National Magazine Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant. Her articles draw attention to the men and women forced to do the bidding of the American security state; the third-country nationals tricked into working on military bases in Iraq; the addicts coerced into serving as informants; the victims of civil asset forfeiture. Our conversation touched on every stage of Sarah’s career, from her days as a student journalist to her current directorship of Yale’s investigative reporting lab. As a teacher, she helps students cultivate the relentlessness and the compassion that makes her a uniquely effective reporter.”

For a full transcript, head over to the New York Review of Books.

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The Critic and Her Publics

Hosted by Merve Emre • Edited by Michele Moses • Music by Dani Lencioni • Art by

Leanne Shapton • Sponsored by Alfred A. Knopf

The Critic and Her Publics is a co-production between the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University, New York Review of Books, and Lit Hub.