A fantastic conversation with Sarah Hepola, my former boss at Salon.com and author of The Only Thing There Is to Want. She had one big question: Why don’t men read? Seeing as House of Strauss has a bunch of male readers, Sarah figured I might be able to answer the question. Topics!
Have men stopped reading—or just switched to listening?
Did publishing give up on male readers?
How Michael Lewis wrote a book for men and women in alternating chapters.
My secret past as president of the high school literary club.
What an NBA coach told me about players who read.
The Hatchet gender wars: Why boys love wilderness survival stories.
How Blink-182 became our generation’s “Sweet Caroline.”
Tom Wolfe and the lost art of mocking everyone’s pretensions.
Why writing another book is hard to justify financially.
Trad wives, single women, and the envy running in both directions.
Jar lids: The last institution protecting male self-esteem.
Remembering Salon—and Steve Kornacki before the big board.
Why I turned down a full-time Salon job to chase the Warriors.
Was Salon an incubator of wokeness, or a publication desperate for traffic?
Dave Chappelle’s Charlie Kirk controversy
