Two Writers Slinging Yang

Catherine hosts the show as we talk about book writing; about the PR push and what it does to a writer; about Donald Trump and George Allen and bringing to life a long-ago league.

On traveling to Lithuania to track the Ball Family—minus their cooperation; on finding a voice; on watching hair being braided and seeing bliss; on a meteoric rise in a tough business.

On why, after nearly two decades in newspaper and magazine, he left; on sharing a name with one of America's most-famous scribes; on being locked in a minor league stadium and covering a young Ryan Lochte.

On becoming the first woman to ever cover an NFL team; on having athletes hit on her and present her with underwear; on Bert Jones and Chuck Fairbanks and Jim McMahon and the legend of the 1970s Boston Globe sports department.

On the ways experience, savvy, empathy and patience merge to make great journalism; on John Thompson and Coach K and sitting in the bleachers alongside the men (even when people demand one move elsewhere); on whether a woman will ever coach a Division I men's team and why a departure from ESPN was an unexpected blessing.

On the genius of Caddyshack; on whether great movies and bad movies deserve equal consideration; on why crappy films make him angry.

On the art and craft of the lengthy feature; on why he doesn't think of himself as a "sports journalist"; on Richie Parker and Radio and diving deep into a subject; on relying on a flip phone and going nowhere near Facebook and Twitter.

On finding beauty and reason in writing about death; on bidding literary farewell to the daughter of a Nazi, a Yankees pitching coach and a woman who fought cancer courageously; on Stuart Scott's final days and delving into the making of "The Pride of the Yankees.

On his farewell ode to Yogi Berra; on never succumbing to writer's block on deadline; on his verbal smackdown of a former Mets GM; on his late father's influence on a blissful career.

On tracking down an escapee monkey; on 15 minutes on the phone with Paul Reiser; on covering the Parkland shooting tragedy; on having a newspaper steal your words; on the value of Millennials and the power of large quantities of coffee.

On the life of a small-town newspaper sports editor; on the college basketball coach who brought a gun to practice; on the sad decline of The Tennessean and why media needs to keep focusing upon high school athletics.

On #fakenews and "failing New York Times" in the era of Trump; on chronicling John McCain's farewell; on the exciting slog of three presidential elections; on phone time with Joe Biden and why covering politics is like covering sports.

On whether sports columnists have a place in 2018; on squaring off against an agitated Juan Gonzalez; on liberal writing in a conservative part of America; on the saga of an amazing woman (raped at 12) and her Dallas Cowboy son.

On spending a night with Stormy Daniels at Thee Doll House in Tampa; on her remarkable piece about the trials, nightmares and slow growth of a feral child; on knocking on strange doors and sleeping side by side beneath a bridge with sex offenders.

On making every story count; on covering Cal Ripken, Jr. and writing beautifully on the night he broke Lou Gehrig's Iron Man record; on staring down Bobby Bonilla and Scott Erickson when things turned heated in the Baltimore clubhouse; on passion and love for a profession.

On making a good story great; on life inside an NBA locker room; on Monta Ellis and Lance Stephenson and John Wall and rooting for African-American tennis stars (criticism be damned)

On covering 130 games (of oft-bad baseball) per year and still finding things to write about; on the awkwardness of the Major League clubhouse; on Kevin Quackenbush's beard and the Padres' need to return to brown-and-yellow uniforms.

On writing the perfect song; on feeling the pain from long-ago lyrics; on singing a tune for the 200,000th time and still bringing forth emotion and joy.

On having a Major League manager launch his pants your way; on making every word in an article count; on seven minutes with Dave Henderson and playing golf in Greenland.

On the advantages of speaking Spanish in a Major League clubhouse; on showing your face after infuriating an athlete; on opining on a sport you know little about; on profiling the widow of Darryl Kile shortly after her husband's death.

On expressing oneself in the age of Trump; on holding evangelicals accountable for hypocrisy; on the power of social media and a Tweet from Katy Perry.

On writing funny with limited words and a tiny amount of space; on telling an entire story in a single box; on the, um, humor of Mike Huckabee and knowing when a joke doesn't work.

On what it is to go through a public layoff as a journalist; on moving on from ESPN (and to a different country); on covering Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow and the New York Jets; on writing about the tragic death of Joe McKnight.

On pitching (and then being assigned) the story of a 70-year-old Polish kayaker who has crossed the Atlantic three times; on capturing a subject without speaking his language; on the terror of awaiting that first call from your editor.

On the bliss of covering March Madness; on finding nuggets of information inside a crowded locker room; on the tragic story of a Colorado shooting victim and the joy of a Michigan State football player's Craigslist-purchased cat.