Loitering

Loitering with Evan Ratliff is a conversation with Evan Ratliff about his career trajectory as a journalist and podcast host, and the backstory behind "Shell Game," the podcast he created about the influence of AI in our lives. To read the accompanying newsletter, please visit loitering.substack.com. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access t...

Hello, everyone! I’ll start with the obvious—over a year has passed since my last update. Again, after  Loitering at the Merylthon,  I thought the cadence of updates would be more frequent. But of course, life calls. It’s been a busy year, and a challenging one at times. In the middle of that, though, there have been balms, and this interview is one of them. Earlier this year, I was lucky to speak...

Hello, everyone. Before I get into the topic of this interview… Suffice it to say it’s been an incredibly long time since my last update… Over a year, in fact. I swore to myself at the end of last year that I’d be more consistent with updates for 2023 (starting with “Loitering in the Closet” — and yes, I still plan to do that episode). But scheduling hurdles for planned episodes got in the way, an...

Hello, everyone… So it’s been quite some time since the last episode of Loitering. Some helpful information you should know to understand this current episode is that at the end of last year, I started teaching at Uncuffed , a podcast and audio journalism training program in California prisons. That work recently brought me and my colleagues (including several formerly incarcerated producers of Un...

Hello, everyone! It’s been a long year, to say the least. Hard to believe 2021 is about to close. Before it does, however, please check out this special episode of Loitering, featuring Albert Samaha , Johana Bhuiyan and Arvin Temkar . We discuss Albert’s new book, Concepcion , and dig into the process of excavating family history and identity. I like to think of it as the good thinking, good liste...

Hello! This episode of Loitering is a brief one, so no transcript. Hope you enjoy! Here is a picture of the trees discussed in the episode. According to the app PlantSnap, they are Ceiba speciosa, otherwise known as silk floss trees. From front to back: Breezy Treezy, Cheesy Treezy, and Weezy Treezy. Here is a portrait of Latif with Breezy Treezy. Listen to Radiolab here . Listen to Latif’s award-...

Heylo!!! It’s been quite a while since the last episode… and now, 2021 is certainly upon us. There’s much to update on, but first, here’s an episode of Loitering recorded about a month ago… that stems from this article by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey I read a couple of months before that, about a phenomenon that might ring a bell to many listeners — 🔥 imposter syndrome🔥. As you’ll hear, t...

Hi everyone, I hope you all are staying safe and well, despite the pandemic and attempted coup... That being said, this episode of Loitering with Tracie Hunte was recorded just over a week ago at the tail end of 2020 but already feels like a lifetime ago. There’s no transcript, but there is some useful listening that’ll offer context to the discussion (namely this piece about protests and this pie...

Sonia Paul  00:13 Hello, everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional, but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today I am loitering in Fort Greene —  Avery Trufelman  00:24 Watch out! Sonia Paul  00:25 Oh my gosh. I very nearly stepped on poop. And today, I am loitering in Fort Greene Park and walking around Fort Greene with a very special guest. Can you p...

Hi everyone, Well, the day is finally here. Election day. And here is some perspective on what you’re thinking about the election, from Josh in El Cerrito. Meanwhile, a story I started working on last October finally came out last Friday. It’s gotten a lot more attention than I anticipated, which I think is a good thing. Here’s a link to it if you’re interested, and here’s a link to a Twitter thre...

I’d love to know. And if you’re willing, I’d love to share your thoughts on an upcoming episode of Loitering. Just record a voice memo on your phone — any voice recording app you have should work — and email it directly back to me. Please include your name and where you’re located. If you’d rather not reveal your name, that’s fine. AND, if you’re not in the U.S., that’s also ok. But tell us, what...

Heylo, You may remember from a previous Loitering episode and newsletter that I mentioned an interview with Yashica Dutt , activist and author of Coming Out As Dalit , was en route. Here it is, finally. It’s actually an interview we did last spring — before a US lawsuit alleging caste discrimination was filed against Cisco (and some news on that: The California Department of Fair Employment and Ho...

Hello, friends! This episode of Loitering features an interview with the one and only Vidur Malik. Please listen and follow along below. Sonia Paul  00:13 Hello, everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today I am loitering over outside pho with a very special guest. Can you please introduce yourself? Vidur Malik...

Heylo, It’s been quite a while since Loitering last dropped… not that some significant loitering hasn’t happened since then. But as we all know, 2020 is the year where hustling doesn’t seem to make as much sense as it once did, given the broader forces, news, and circumstances around us. Life is exhausting! And sometimes, you need to just concentrate on holding the ice cream cone rather than addin...

Hi everyone, I’m doing Loitering a little differently today. No transcript — what you’ll read here is different from what you will listen to. Hope you’ll do both. On Friday night, I went to a protest in downtown Oakland. Just a few days prior I had been asking friends how they felt to meet in person while safe social distancing, as a sort of temperature check to see how people were feeling given C...

Sonia Paul  00:10 Hello everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing a newsletter format. And today I am not traveling but loitering on Zoom with a very special guest. Can you please introduce yourself?  Eva Holland  00:25 Hi, I'm Eva Holland. I'm a freelance writer. I live in the Yukon Territory in northern Canada. And I have my first book j...

Dear Friends, As we continue to navigate the current pandemic, I figured it might be worth it to release this brief episode with my housemate, a former paramedic (although another author interview is coming soon!). At the end of this newsletter, I’ve also linked to a few stories that might pique your interest at this time. Wishing you all good health, positive energy, patience and lots of support!...

Dear Friends, It’s no doubt these are hectic and stressful times. At the end of the newsletter, I’ve linked to a few resources that may be useful for you and your families and friends as we all work to help curb the spread of COVID-19. Wishing you all good health, good vibes, patience and lots of support! XOXO Sonia Paul  00:10 Yeah, what happened to your leg?  Sopan Deb  00:12 Oh man, I wish ther...

Sonia Paul  00:10 Hello, everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today I am loitering at a clowning event** in Berkeley with two very special guests. Can you please introduce yourself? Hannah Gaffe  00:27 My name is Hannah Gaff. Joan Howard  00:29 My name is Joan Howard. Sonia 00:30 And could you tell me what is...

Sonia  00:11 Hello, everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional, but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter  format. And today I am loitering at Crixa Cakes in Berkeley with a very special guest. Can you please introduce yourself? Lewis Raven Wallace  00:27 Hi, I'm Lewis Raven Wallace. I am a freelance journalist based in North Carolina and the author of The View From S...

Sonia Paul  Hello, everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today I am loitering on the phone with a very special guest. Can you please introduce yourself? Rachel Monroe  00:26 Hi, this is Rachel Monroe. I am a writer and I'm stoked to be talking to you today. Sonia Paul  00:32 So you're a writer, where are you b...

Hello everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today, we are loitering by the river with a very special guest, or rather, two very special guests. Can you please introduce yourself? Liz Flock — 0:27 : I am Liz Flock, a writer and journalist. I write about gender and justice, and I wrote a book about love and marr...

Hello, everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today I am loitering on the couch with a very special guest. Can you please introduce yourself? Monica — 0:26 : Hi, my name is Monica Villavicencio, and I met Sonia when I was living in San Francisco, and now she's here with me on my couch in Atlanta, Georgia, where...

Hello everyone, welcome to Loitering, the occasional but lovable traveling mini pod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today, we are doing a throwback to the original Loitering and taking you to a location with a very special guest. Right now we're at Stinson Beach, and our guest — can you please introduce yourself? Laura : Hi, I'm Laura Rena Murray. I have been working as a longform...

Hello, everyone! Welcome to Loitering, the occasional, but lovable traveling minipod I am currently testing in newsletter format. And today, I am loitering at my dining room table in Oakland, California. If you’re getting this, that means that at some point or another, you’ve expressed interest in my reporting and encouraged me to keep you in the loop on future stories and my whereabouts, and what...