Some Things Considered with Sean Murphy

Today’s guest is Paula Whyman, author of the collection You May See a Stranger , which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Her new book Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop is a blend of memoir, natural history, and conservation science. Her writing has appeared in myriad outlets, and she was co-founder and editor in chief of the literary jour...

Today’s guest is my longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Shawn DuBravac. Shawn is author of the New York Times bestseller Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate. An economist, futurist, tech analyst, and public speaker, Shawn has always been my go-to guy when I want to better understand emerging technologies, or make necessary connections betwe...

Today’s guest is Ryan Flahive, an entrepreneur, podcaster, and Learning Technology & Publishing Executive with deep experience in higher education, workforce development, and social impact. He is currently producer and host of CLIMATE CHANGERS, a podcast featuring interviews with scientists, activists, and other leaders. Ryan, and this conversation scarcely scratches the surface, has a long, varie...

Today’s guest is Will Boast, author of a story collection, Power Ballads , a memoir, Epilogue , and a novel, Daphne . His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic , and The Guardian , among others. I love Will’s writing and was truly blown away by his recent piece in the Virginia Quarterly Review , “From the Gut: A Literary History of Indigestion.” This is long-form journ...

Today’s guest is Jason Zinoman, a critic and author of Shock Value and Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night . He’s currently critic at large for the Culture section of the New York Times and writes a column about comedy. Jason became a blinking red light on my radar courtesy of his recent piece “For Comics, Honing Jokes Has Taken a Back Seat to Marketing. That’s Not Good.” Jason’s perceptive ta...

Today’s guest is Ed Simon, who is the Public Humanities Special Faculty in the English Department of Carnegie Mellon University and the Editor-in-Chief for Belt Magazine and the forthcoming Pittsburgh Review of Books . His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times and many others. He dropped by to discuss his recent piece from Lit Hub, “American Literature’s Whi...

Today’s guests are Leeya Mehta and Bill Miller, both of whom I admire as friends, artists, teachers, and occasional collaborators. Bill directed the creative writing program at George Mason University for more than two dozen years, and helped establish the Alan Cheuse Center. Leeya is the current Director of the Center, and is also a prize-winning poet, fiction writer and essayist. This year marks...

Today’s guest is Jessa Crispin, one of my favorite go-to sources for cultural insight and inspiration. She’s the author of Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto , and The Dead Ladies Project . Currently, she is editor-in-chief of the awesome publication The Culture We Deserve . Jessa joins me to talk about everything from the present state of American politics, to how both class and educat...

Today’s guest is American avant-garde jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader Matthew Shipp. Prolific and critically adored, Shipp has been praised by eclectic musicians ranging from David Bowie to Henry Rollins, and has recorded with virtually every significant contemporary jazz musician. Matthew joined me to talk about his new book Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings , which covers d...

Today’s guest is Jacob Silverman, who is an independent journalist and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud . He writes often about the politics of technology, the media, and is a contributing editor for The Baffler and The New Republic . Jacob and I compare notes on how we saw the 2024 election unfold (including pred...

We’re thrilled to announce that Season 3 of Some Things Considered drops next Tuesday, April 29th —and we’re just getting started. Hosted by award-winning author and cultural critic Sean Murphy , Some Things Considered is a weekly podcast and Substack newsletter that goes deep with creative minds across literature, music, art, politics, and tech. These aren’t just interviews—they’re immersive conv...

Today’s guest is Jane Friedman who, if you have even casually followed anything to do with book publishing and the state of the literary industry during the last two decades, you already know—and appreciate. Jane has been the consensus go-to for insights on trends, developments, and how to build a platform in the 21st Century. Named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023,...

Today’s guest is Grant Shonkwiler who, if you’ve been following the gaming industry during the last couple of decades, you already know as the legend he is. For those unfamiliar, Grant has built his reputation as a programmer, lead designer, technical producer, leadership coach, and author. (Even if you aren’t personally a gaming enthusiast, it’s almost impossible you’ve not heard of Doom and Fort...

Today’s guests are dynamic duo and my favorite creative husband and wife team Karen E. Bender and Robert Anthony Siegel. Karen is author of the story collection Refund , which was a Finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Fiction and also a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Her third collection of stories, The Words of Dr. L , will be published by Counterpoint Press in May, 2025. Robert is a writ...

Today’s guest is Hannah Grieco, who, using baseball terminology is a five tool player: she’s a writer, a teacher, an editor, an advocate, and a literary citizen extraordinaire. She is also one of my favorite creative people, managing to be insanely productive (and successfully published!), but also a devoted mother, friend, and cheerleader for the arts. You may have read her work in The Washington...

Today’s guest is Jordan Blum, a writer and critic I admire and hold up as an ideal example for anyone who is trying to figure out how to navigate an ever-evolving media landscape. I first met Jordan more than a decade ago when we both were columnists for PopMatters—contributing features, reviews, and interviews on everything from music and books to movies and politics. Jordan, like myself, is a mu...

Today’s guest is Justen Ahren, a photographer, poet, musician and writing workshop facilitator. I met Justen at the Noepe Center a decade ago, and he and I share—among other things—a passion for writing and how to push creative boundaries, the rewards of cultivating communities (both in and outside artistic spaces), and balancing how to make a living and how to suck the marrow out of life, as Thor...

Today’s guest is the poet, professor, and arts advocate Holly Karapetkova. If you’ve been following anything I do, especially the year-round free programming of 1455, you already know Holly, because she is one of my favorite people and someone to whom I always take the opportunity to speak with: speaking with her on any topic is always enlightening and inspiring, and the primary purpose of today’s...

Today’s guest is Louis Bayard, the critically beloved and ever popular novelist, whose novel The Pale Blue Eye was adapted into the global #1 Netflix release starring Christian Bale. I’m honored to call Lou a friend, but I’ve been a fan since long before I met him, and it was a true pleasure to name him 1455’s Storyteller of the Year in 2022. The New York Times has written that Lou “reinvigorates...

Today’s guest is Charles Bock, author of the new memoir I Will Do Better , as well as the novels Alice & Oliver and Beautiful Children (which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book, and which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters). His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yor...

We kick off Season 2 of Some Things Considered with a conversation continued from real life in real time. If you are in any way involved with (in no particular order) academia, writing, or the insanity of late-stage capitalism on a micro level, you might have read about what’s going on at Stanford, and the debacle occurring in their Creative Writing program. Long story short: just as professors we...

Today’s guest is the writer, professor, music expert and advocate Mark Katz. Dr. Katz, after receiving his PhD in muscilogy, has spent the last several decades writing, teaching, thinking about, and proselytizing the power of music; his accomplishments and publications are too numerous to list, but please visit him online to get a handle on the scope of his work and ongoing projects. The topic of...

Today’s guest is the award-winning author and literary queen Deesha Philyaw. Her debut short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Deesha is also a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with K...

Today’s guest is guitarist, composer, producer, and bandleader Jon Madof.  Based in New York, Jon is the leader of several bands, including Zion80 and Rashanim, and has released seven albums on Tzadik Records. In addition, Madof is co-founder of the prolific and eclectic CHANT Records label. I have known Jon for two decades and followed his remarkable career as a fan, critic, and friend. Our conve...

Today’s guest is Steven L. Herman, author, teacher, and chief national correspondent for the Voice of America. His latest book, Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist’s Story of Covering the President—and Why It Matters , was published in June. Steve was one of the first guests for the new Speaker Series I curate for the Center for Story at Shenandoah University, and he was on my podc...