Judith Thurman is a staff writer at "The New Yorker," and the author of many books, including "Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller" and "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette."------------Keep Talking SubstackSpotifyApple PodcastsSocial media and all episodes------------

“How’d you get to be that thing you are?”—origin story

Precocious reader, teacher mom, “foreordained” to write

Yes-and-no confidence; from drivel to good

Poet in Europe: barmaid, tutor, no money

1970s NYC—dangerous, electric, cheap rent, first bylines

Nation → Ms. magazine → journalism takes off

Knocking on The New Yorker’s door; Gottlieb says yes

How a New Yorker piece gets made—editors, rewrites, heat

Subjects and boundaries: strong & “lost” women

Emily Wilson to Vanessa Beecroft; fasting spa detour

Writing (against) Gertrude Stein; Handmaid’s Tale hindsight

Why Stein’s “cult” endures—salon as tourist attraction

Anne Frank’s freedom to feel; the monumental annotation

Amelia Earhart—image-making, legend, and dying young

Biographies as marriages; choosing a life to live with

Isak Dinesen begins: Ms. piece, Denneny, the $10k “bride price”

Rethinking colonialism—Kenyan correspondent, mea culpa