logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2022
47m 44s

Keith Gessen

Jordan Kisner
About this episode

Jordan talks with Keith Gessen about his new memoir of fatherhood, Raising Raffi: The First Five Years, and the challenges -- and wonders -- of being a parent and a writer, and what he thinks Raffi will think of the book when he's older.

MENTIONED: 


Keith Gessen is a founding editor of n+1 and a contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books. He is the editor of three nonfiction books and the translator or co-translator, from Russian, of a collection of short stories, a book of poems, and a work of oral history. He is also the author of two novels, “All the Sad Young Literary Men” and "A Terrible Country," as well as a book of essays, "Raising Raffi."  Gessen was born in Moscow and grew up outside of Boston. He graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in History and Literature in 1998, and subsequently received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Syracuse University. In 2014-2015 he was a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Jun 25
Renee Gladman
Jordan sits down with Renee Gladman to talk about prose architecture, Henry James, walking in cities, and mushrooms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 
42m 49s
Jun 18
Nicholson Baker
Nicholson Baker sits down with Jordan to discuss writing about the unsung pleasures and details of the world-- things like the way your mother cuts up a banana, or the advertisements in your favorite magazine. Things that "live in this between area of noticing, they're part of th ... Show More
40m 12s
Jun 11
Sarah Aziza
Sarah Aziza sits down with Jordan to talk about the eating disorder that almost took her life in 2019, and the search into her family's history in Palestine that she undertook in a bid for her own survival.Mentioned in the episode:the Nakbatransgenerational traumaJosé Muñoz, Crui ... Show More
51m 6s
Recommended Episodes
May 2024
Healing From Complex PTSD with Stephanie Foo
307. Healing From Complex PTSD with Stephanie Foo Abby, Amanda and Glennon are joined by author and radio producer, Stephanie Foo. They discuss Stephanie’s memoir, What My Bones Know, and her journey healing from Complex PTSD.  Discover: -The difference between Trauma, PTSD and c ... Show More
1h 9m
Apr 2023
Complex PTSD and the Art of Survival with author Stephanie Foo
We’re on break, creating all new episodes for season 3. In the meantime, here’s one of our favorite episodes from the past year. See you soon. If you’ve lived through horrific trauma or abuse, is it really fair of us to say that the ways you’ve learned to cope are “bad,” or to us ... Show More
43m 41s
Jun 25
The Best-Paid Woman in NYC
As J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, entrusted with building his collection, Belle da Costa Greene could ‘spend more money in an afternoon than any other young woman of 26’, as the New York Times put it in 1912. In the latest LRB, Francesca Wade reviews a new biography of Greene ... Show More
40m 30s
Sep 2024
Esther Perel
Esther Perel is a psychotherapist and a leading voice on modern relationships. Growing up in Antwerp and practicing in the United States, she began her career studying the impact of cultural transitions on human relationships. In addition to her therapy practice in New York City, ... Show More
1h 42m
Jul 2024
O'Keeffe's New York, Rebecca Manson
Episode No. 664 features curator Sarah Kelly Oehler and artist Rebecca Manson. With Annelise K. Madsen, Oehler is the co-curator of "Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks." The exhibition spotlights O'Keeffe's paintings of New York City, surrounding them with pictures she made of Lake ... Show More
1h 14m
Jun 2024
Prom King and Queen: Stories from our fourth Proton Prom
In this week’s episode, we highlight two stories from this year's Proton Prom, Story Collider's annual fundraiser and celebration of science storytelling. Part 1: Pamela Toh is dead set on being the “bad kid” at school. Part 2: On a family vacation to Disney, Matthew Dicks become ... Show More
25m 38s
May 2022
#128 Life, Death, and Meaning (Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying DarkHorse Livestream)
 In this 128th in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we discuss the state of the world through an evolutionary lens. This week, we discuss Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning: What is it to be human, how much responsib ... Show More
1h 40m
Jan 2025
Find Your Towanda with Tig Notaro & Stephanie Allynne (Best Of)
1. Tig and Stephanie’s highly effective and hilarious ways to diffuse their marital feuds.2. Stephanie’s experience figuring out her sexuality (years after she married Tig)–and how Tig knew Stephanie was the one.3. Why Tig’s deep in “Towanda-ing” right now–and how that affects th ... Show More
1h 11m
Jun 24
Allison Williams on Botox, Privilege, and Gen Z’s Love of Marnie From ‘Girls’
On June 11th, actress Allison Williams joined Anna live onstage at the Tribeca Festival in New York City for a conversation that was equal parts introspective and hilarious. Allison talked about everything from botox and how it impacts her work (and the faces she’s able to make t ... Show More
1h 13m