Drinks with Tony

Stefanie Leder is the author of Love, Coffee & Revolution: A Novel. We discuss how she became a TV writer and showrunner, how she wrote this debut novel 20 years ago and it finally came out, how her politics have shifted over time, and so much more. Subscribe to  DuShane.substack.com and listen to Drinks with Tony on iTunes ,  Spotify ,  Pandora ,  Stitcher , and other podcast outlets. It also...

Caitlin Myer is my writer friend from San Francisco. She has lived in Portugal for the last 7 years. Before that she traveled the world going wherever life would open to her. She posted photos for many years under the title Caitlin Walks At Night. On this episode we talk about some of her experiences in Montevideo, Serbia, Istanbul, Porto, Barcelona, Katmandu, and more. Caitlin’s an inspirat...

Carlo Rotella is the author of What Can I Get Out Of This? – Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics. We discuss his optimism for college students engaged in reading novels, why many of his students hate reading House Of Mirth and what they can learn from that, how pulp novels shaped his younger reader self, and so much more. Register is open for my novel writing class The Nove...

I caught up with Todd Solondz in San Francisco in 2004 when he was promoting Palindromes. I caught up with Larry Clark when he was promoting Wassup Rockers in 2005. These are two of my favorite interviews from the Drinks with Tony archives. I hope you enjoy. Register for my novel writing class  The Novel Approach Workshop with Tony DuShane starting on Sept. 19. Subscribe to  MAH SUBSTACKY  for mor...

Terry Zwigoff is a great American filmmaker. Many of you know him for Bad Santa, but in 2006 he released a film called Art School Confidential and I had him on Drinks with Tony, yes, 19 years ago. Come with me down memory lane as I recall the old journalism ways of watching films and how directors had to do promotion regionally in those years, somehow that links to when someone stage dived on me a...

Tony DuShane is the author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk . This episode is called Kerfuffling Genitals. I talk about a botched one-night stand, words you can’t use on YouTube, inspiration from Anne Lamott and Charles Bukowski, life’s choices leading to regret, my penis brain, and more. Register for The Novel Approach Workshop with Tony DuShane starting on Sept. 19. Subscribe t...

Nikki Nash is the author of Collateral Stardust: Chasing Warren Beatty and Other Foolish Things. We chat Don Cornelias and Soul Train, working with Conan O’Brien, how Jeff Goldbloom is present, like really present, like almost too in the moment, is there a moment before or after his moment?, her first job with Mary Hartman and the show Mary Hartman, but I totally mixed it up and thought it w...

Fadi Zaghmout is the author of The Man of Middling Height. Originally published in Arabic it’s now available in English from Syracuse University Press. We chat speculative fiction vs. sci-fi and we still can’t figure out how publishers define it, how Fadi started out as a blogger to write about taboo subjects before his government cracked down on what you can say as a blogger, and so m...

Alecia McKenzie is the author of A Million Aunties: A Novel out now on Akashic Books. We chat walking amongst the dead literary spirits of Paris, her start writing as a four year old in Kingston, Jamaica, why every neighborhood needs aunties, and so much more. Subscribe to  DuShane.substack.com  and listen to Drinks with Tony on  iTunes ,  Spotify ,  Pandora ,  Stitcher , and other podcast outlets...

Tad Crawford is the author of A Woman in the Wild. We also chat his other book, The Secret Life of Monday, and we talk about IQ84 and other Murakami, Proust, long novels, the writing process, creating characters, and the word ‘esoteric’ while being esoteric. Novel 1 registration is open for August workshops, limited to six students: Register here for AFTERNOON classes  and Register her...

James Elkins is the author of A Short Introduction to Anneliese out now on Unnamed Press. Novel 1 registration is open for August workshops, limited to six students: Register here for AFTERNOON classes and Register here for EVENING classes . James and I chat Exegesis by Philip K. Dick, Finnegan’s Wake and Ulysses, Proust Smelling the fear of some authors in their work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, a...

Ralph Steadman illustrated Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Also a writer, I interviewed Ralph in 2007 for his memoir The Joke’s Over. A deep cut from the Drinks with Tony archives. We chat Hunter S. Thompson, Oscar Zeta Acosta, and more. Start your novel immediately, stop procrastinating, join my novel workshop in August. More info at DrinksWithTony.com Subscribe t...

Kurt Baumeister is the author of Twilight of the Gods on Stalking Horse Press. He’s also an acquisitions editor for 7.13. We discuss how we lose friends and family when writing auto-fiction, Martin Amis’ Inside Story, Ian Maloney’s South Brooklyn Exterminating, Desperately Seeking Susan, and the delusion and reality of a writing career. Subscribe to  DuShane.substack.com  and listen to Drinks with...

Jeffrey Konvitz is the author of The Circus of Satan: A Novel exploring the Irish mob in New York City of the early 1900s. Based on true events, yet fictionalized for emotional truth. We chat about his first novel The Sentinel and his experience going from rejected writer to best selling author with a film deal. With the new swagger in his step he approached a beautiful woman to flirt with and he...

Tom Lutz is the author of 1925 A Literary Encyclopedia out now on Rare Bird Lit. We discuss everything from Fitzgerald to the Harlem Renaissance and more from 1925 A Literary Encyclopedia, his move to France and adjusting to French life and culture, why he stopped taking portraits after his portrait book was published, and so much more. June 17, 2025 join me for a free online writing workshop.  Re...

Ted Kessler is the author of The Authorized Unauthorized History of Billy Childish: To Ease My Troubled Mind. As a veteran music journalist and friend to Childish since the 1990s, Ted has created an intimate portrait of the living legend. June 11, 2025 join me for Books For Breakfast , a non-intellectual conversation about Victor Hugo. June 17, 2025 join me for a free online writing workshop. Regi...

Jon Ronson is the author of So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. I interviewed him in 2015 when the book came out and it’s pretty mind blowing where cancel culture has ‘matured’ ten years since. Check out Writing Is Hard and Why You Should Write at dushane.substack.com. Subscribe to  DuShane.substack.com  and listen to Drinks with Tony on  iTunes ,  Spotify ,  Pandora ,  Stitche...

Lucinda Berry is the author of One In Four: A Thriller. We chat child psychology, running marathons, how the brain works, and her transition to full time author. New creative writing workshops and book groups coming in May and June on DuShane.substack.com , subscribe to stay up to date. Subscribe to the show on  iTunes ,  Spotify ,  Pandora ,  Stitcher , and other podcast outlets. It also airs eve...

Rachel Paris is the author of See How They Fall: A Novel. We discuss the humiliating vulnerability of writing and why everyone should do it, why we should never write for the market, or as she says, ‘Write what’s eating us inside’ … because that’s everything, write our soul onto the page, it’s the only way to fly, and other fun stuff. Free online creative writin...

Chuck Klosterman is the author of tons of books. This is a tape from my interview with him around 2012 when he was promoting The Visible Man. We met at Zam Zam in San Francisco. I’m having fun just going through a bunch of old interviews that I found. Next week my guest is Rachel Paris so we’re back on current authors for the show. Go to dushane.substack.com to enjoy some book articles...

Matthieu Ricard is the author of Happiness. I interviewed him around 2003 and he introduced the idea of mindfulness to me. He is also assistant and translator for the Dalai Lama. I was lucky his publicist got in touch with me for the book and you’ll probably hear what a mess I was when trying to command an interview. I even refer to “mindfulness” as “timelessness” at...

Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. I caught up with him in 2005 when he was touring his first book John Crow’s Devil. So, another tape from the archives we have fun exploring this week on Drinks with Tony. I’m still putting together the final details on my world famous workshop: Write Your Novel in Three Years or More. Stay Tuned. Sub...

Colum McCain is the author of Twist: A Novel. We had a great time talking NYC, Ireland, the obsessive structure of writing environments for novels, and his really cool organization Narrative 4 that taps the storytelling in our hearts to young people. Yes, storytelling is everything. Subscribe to  DuShane.substack.com  and listen to Drinks with Tony on  iTunes ,  Spotify ,  Pandora ,  Stitcher , an...

Richard Hell is the author of Godlike. And this interview is old, like 2003 or 2004 taping. We met at a bar called The Argus in San Francisco, he was mad at me that it wasn’t a radio studio, but we chatted and he became lovely. He was mad that the cab ride cost him $15, so, I told him how to take Muni back to where he’s staying and he didn’t have cash, so I gave him bus money and...

Miranda July, two interviews from the archives. The first one is from 2015 regarding her novel The First Bad Man. The second one is from 2005 regarding her film Me and You and Everyone We Know. I thought the 2005 interview was lost, I can’t believe I found it. And the photos in the graphic are ones I took of her after recording that interview, they’re very low-res as I don’t have...