A Sassy Conversation with Magazine Icon Jane Pratt
When I helped launch Twist magazine in the late '90s, we basically huddled around old issues of Sassy like sacred texts, trying to decode what made them so special. The answer? Jane Pratt. So it was with excitement and a little nervousness that I jumped on a Substack Live Interview with her. We chatted about: Her miserable boarding school experience and how it inspired Sassy Getting pulled off 70% of newsstands after a boycott by the religious right The secret behind Sassy’s success and why it changed so many lives Her evolution from Sassy to Jane Working with Michael Stipe, who she dated for years and now calls her best friend and daughter’s godfather Her decision to launch Another Jane Pratt Thing on Substack rather than a standalone website How she finds new writers and spots a good story What makes her such a good editor Gen X resilience Why she hates the word “influencer,” even though she was one of the first Her optimism about the current state of the media Name dropping The shift to multi-hyphenate careers, and what she puts as her profession on doctor’s forms. Subscribe to Small Talk to hear more Substack Live interviews with interesting folk.
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Captain Cook Reached Paradise. Then It Turned on Him.
Historian Hampton Sides joins the show to talk about The Wide Wide Sea, his riveting new book about Captain James Cook’s final—and fatal—expedition in 1776. We get into: Why Cook lost his cool on his last voyage What really happened in Hawaii The crew’s wild sexual escapades in the South Pacific What this story reveals about power, empire, and the price of discovery Subscribe to my Substack @ JonSmallTalk
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What Every Author Gets Wrong About Publicity
Guest Kim Dower has spent the last 40 years helping authors get noticed — as one of the top literary publicists in the business. She's also a celebrated poet, with a brand-new collection out now called What She Wants. In this episode, Kim pulls back the curtain on what publicists actually do, who really needs one, and the biggest mistakes authors make when trying to promote their work. If you're publishing a book — or even thinking about it — this conversation will help you understand the industry, the stakes, and what it takes to break through. Subscribe to my Substack: JonSmallTalk.substack.com Order AG1: DrinkAG1.com/writeaboutnow
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The New Retirement Is Not At All What We Expected
A lot of Gen Xers are facing an existential crisis, feeling stuck, burned out, unemployed, and just unsure about the future. This was supposed to be the time when we start to wind down so why does it feel like we're on a highway to hell? This doesn't mean we're doomed; it just means we need a reset on how we think about retirement. In my first-ever Substack Live over on my newsletter Small Talk, I had a live conversation with Brian Clark—entrepreneur, writer, and founder of Further—about what this next chapter actually looks like for Gen X. And how we can stop chasing old myths and start building something more sustainable and sane. For more content like this, follow me over @ jonsmalltalk.subtack.com Get a discount on AG1 @ drinkag1/writeaboutnow.com
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The Advice We’d Give to Our Younger Selves
Gretchen Rubin joins the show to talk about her new book, Secrets of Adulthood, in which she boils down a lifetime of wisdom into powerful aphorisms that resonate. Gretchen is a bestselling author, podcast host, and one of today’s most trusted voices on happiness, habits, and human nature. In this conversation, we talk about the lessons we learn too late, the advice she wants to pass on to her daughters, and why small, well-phrased truths often carry the biggest impact. Other topics: – Why she made the leap from clerking at the Supreme Court to writing about happiness – The Four Tendencies framework and why so many of us are "Obligers" – Her process for crafting sticky, memorable aphorisms – Why motivation doesn't work as a motivation tool Subscribe to my Substack @ https://jonsmalltalk.substack.com/ This show is sponsored by AG1. Sign up for a $76 discount @ DrinkAG1.com/writeaboutnow
Write About Now features in-depth interviews with successful writers of all types and stripes—journalists, screenwriters, novelists, ghostwriters, and more. Host, Jonathan Small, takes a deep dive into how writers master their craft, offering tips, inspiration, and laughs for both aspiring and professional scribes.
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