“Sure! I’ll run into an abandoned subway tunnel for a freelancer I just met! No problem!”
10 OF OUR FAVORITE NONFICTION READS OF 2019
Here’s a rundown of some of our favorites from 2019, including several whose authors we were lucky enough to interview this year.
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 10 (2004 – 2007)
“It was kind of a perfect storm moment. Gay marriage was on the ballot. When you get a cover like that, it sticks with you for a while.”
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 9
I asked Billy Joel fans questions that a fundamentalist Christian would ask after a Marilyn Manson concert in 1997, swapping the names “Billy Joel” for “Marilyn Manson.”
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 8
The intern wrote something like, “The ’80s! It’s fun! Dance party!” I looked at that and said, “No, this is too earnest. I will destroy it.”
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 7
We’re like, “Sure! That should go in a newspaper! Put that in there!”
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 6
The Dig at that point was more of a Dadaist prank or a piece of performance art—almost a metacommentary joke about having a newspaper—as much as it was a newspaper.
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 5
“The effect that Jeff’s nipples had on me is similar to if you look at an eclipse for 30 seconds, and then you just see it in your eyes for the rest of your life.”
WELCOME TO HELL WORLD: DEMONSTRATORS IN BOSTON PROTEST AN UNRESPONSIVE AMAZON OVER ICE SALES
“They like to present these tools as being neutral … but these tools are being sold to ICE and DHS specifically to track immigrants, to track activists, and to use that information across law enforcement networks to terrorize communities and split families apart.”
AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE DIG: VOL. II, EPISODE 4
He made up a fictitious ideal reader named Spike. The memo read, “Spike works in advertising, but he goes to punk clubs at night,” and this and that. Fuck you and die.
