Episode 50: Zooming In on Research and the Writing Process with Geoff Edgers
Geoff Edgers with David Letterman
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Transcript:
Melissa Milner 0:09
Hi, this is Melissa Milner. Welcome to The Teacher As... Podcast. The goal of this weekly podcast is to help you explore your passions and learn from others in education and beyond to better your teaching. The Teacher As... Podcast will highlight innovative practices and uncommon parallels in education.
Before I share my chat with Geoff Edgers, I just want to make a quick announcement that from now on, The Teacher As... Podcast episodes will be every other week. I started this podcast during the pandemic, summer 2020. And I had a lot of time on my hands. Even most of the school year, I was teaching from home, so I didn't have a commute in the afternoon. I could work on my podcast starting at 3:15. When I finally got vaxxed and went back in person in April, I realized very quickly that I was over my head with work. We were working on the student podcast, which I did all the editing. That was very time consuming. Plus my own editing for The Teacher As... plus full time teaching in person with the commute. My weekends were crazy. So I need a work life balance. And you know, during the summer, I was able to keep up with the one episode a week, but it's time for the change. So I wanted to give you all a heads up about this change. I want to also thank you all for listening every week. My podcast listenership has really grown over this past year. And I hope you'll continue listening fortnightly, also known as every other week.
Welcome Geoff Edgers, to The Teacher As... please tell us all about you.
Geoff Edgers 1:44
Well, I'm the National Arts reporter at the Washington Post, and I'm based outside of Boston, and I basically write... I have a very wide berth for the kinds of stories I do. I can do everything from profiles of musicians, artists, comedians, to more investigative stories to just flat features. I mean, basically, my directive is to find the most interesting stories in arts and culture in the country and do them.
Melissa Milner 2:14
Wow, what is your favorite kind of story? Because you just said you do a variety of types?
Geoff Edgers 2:20
Well, I think you want to... whatever you're doing, I don't care what your area of, you know, coverage is, you just want to find things that are special and different. And people will, you know, talk about. So, you know, the most basic rule is, whether it's the story itself, or within the story, you come home, and you talk to a friend or your husband or your wife or your dog about an aspect of a story or a story. Often, that's an interesting story. I mean, it might seem kind of basic to say that, but when you come home, and you're like, I got to tell you about this, well, that's interesting. The kind of story on the flip side that I don't find interesting is a story that is in... you read them all the time, they're kind of beautiful, like they're done, because they have to be done. You know, in arts and culture, you find that the kind of story about somebody who has something coming out. You know, an album, a show, a book, and you can tell that on both sides, there was a little bit of a kind of this is my job, like, this is my job to do the interview. As a, you know, product maker, and this is my job to do the interview as a writer, and those are the probably the kinds I don't like to do as much.
Melissa Milner 3:42
Yeah, do you try to kind of tweak it and still bring in some passion into that interview?
Geoff Edgers 3:49
Well, I don't think there's any reason to do something you're not wanting to do. I mean, I don't know how better to say it. I mean, it's like sometimes we do things that on one level are not exactly what we would choose to do in the moment. Because they are news driven or timing driven, or your schedule forces you to do the story before you want to. But you know, this is a great gift to be able to do this. It's really ridiculous. So to not get a certain level of joy and and pleasure out of it is sort of, you know, it's kind of like, what's the point?
Melissa Milner 4:25
So true in any career, obviously. I do wonder, as you're saying, you know, all these different types of stories that you do... what is your writing process when you're doing a story for the post?
Geoff Edgers 4:41
Well, it's not that complicated, whether you're doing a story or a book or whatever. I mean, ultimately, it's just about effort and time. And so, if you're working on a story, you have to, you know, say you're profiling somebody, you just have to really work hard to one, consume everything you can about that person you're writing about. So if it's a movie star, you watch as many movies as you can. You read about past stories. Then you have to interview as many people as you can, who might have some insight into that person. And it won't necessarily be the most obvious person. You know, if you're writing a story about Tom Hanks, it might seem like talking to Steven Spielberg, or Julia Roberts is important. And it might be, but in many ways, talking to someone who has a smaller, you know, name, and might have been watching things and listening to things. Talking to like Peter Scolari, you know, who is his co star on Bosom Buddies in the early 80s, he might have more insight then some of those other people who are, sometimes can be guarded. And you also just want to find unexpected people to talk to who you wouldn't necessarily think had been interviewed or had thought about it. I did a profile Tom Hanks, and one of the best injuries I had wasn't a long one. But at the end of Captain Phillips, there's a pretty powerful scene where he is, he has been taken off the boat after the hostages have been captured. And he's very traumatized. And he's being examined by a military doctor. And somewhere I read that that was a real person. So I went through the effort, which was not easy, but not impossible to find her, and she was stationed somewhere, so she had to like call me from a ship. And I interviewed her about it, because I thought it would be interesting to see what she saw, through, you know, experiencing that. So that's what I mean, it's just, there's no substitute for the amount of research time you do. Because when you get down to writing, if you haven't done that, you're you've got all sorts of holes, and it's much harder to write around lack of effort than to just do the effort. And so that's one end. And then the writing part is really also, I would say hard, but it's really a basic thing. It's like, you just need enough time to write, and you need enough time to write badly and then work through the bad stuff and get to the good stuff. Nobody can write a first draft perfectly, you have to have the ability to go back and rework it and fix it. Or else you're, you're in trouble.
Melissa Milner 7:22
Yes. And do you have an editor like when you would be doing a book? Or how does that work to someone else go through with a red pen?
Geoff Edgers 7:31
Well, I mean, I've had editors, you have editors at every stop at everything that you do. It just depends on how much they get involved. So I've had, I've had book editors who don't get very much involved at all, or might say, you know, the beginning could be better, or the end could be better. And I've had book editors who are like line by line, and like, this isn't working, this isn't working. I've had story editors in the same way. I mean, sometimes they're just different kinds of editors. You can have an editor who you might send the first three paragraphs to a week before it's due, just because you want to get a sense if you're on the right track. And you might have an editor who's like really obsessive about detail. And line by line by line, I tend to like the first kind better because I don't know if you know, when you create a 3000 word story, I don't know, line by line, and word by word is as important as a larger picture and like being able to like take it all in and figure out what works and what doesn't.
Melissa Milner 8:25
Yeah, the big picture. Absolutely. Do you have a process for revising, where... do you highlight that you did this? Or that? Or do you what is your process of actually doing the revision?
Geoff Edgers 8:39
Unless it's like a total rewrite of something which is very, very rare, I just worked from a file that's just full of like, a million words. And I just, sometimes if I have like a, I've written a thing, and I feel like I have to rewrite it. I'll just take chunks and copy them and then paste them below so that I don't lose the original. A few weeks ago, I had a real I never have computer problems, or I mean, I have computer problems, but I never see things get erased. And I was doing a profile, Dick Van Dyke. And it was a big story for us because it was like one of the first after we got to travel after the pan, you know, after we felt like things were opening up a little. So it was like 3500 words story and I'd interviewed like Tina Fey and Jim Carrey and, and Chita Rivera, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, it was on and on. I'd spent a couple days with Dick Van Dyke. And what happened is right at the last minute, like one in the morning on Sunday before I handed it in on Monday, something weird happened with our backup system on my computer and I lost the whole thing.
Melissa Milner 9:42
Oh my gosh.
Geoff Edgers 9:43
I lost like four days of work. So really lost the whole thing. So I had like a rough draft but not story and that's really tired at that point. But I knew I had no choice and I don't really... I don't know if I'd believe if some writer told me that they lost their whole story on their computer, Sounds like a fake excuse. So I rewrote it from scratch really. And it was interesting because I remembered so much of it because I had done it already, that it was much easier than I thought it was. Before I started typing, I just thought this is overwhelming, I'm never going to be able to get this done. And for whatever reason it worked out.
Melissa Milner 10:21
You had it all in your head. Clearly, wow. You know, we'll work with students and on the revision process, and we'll say, you know, look at your introduction. And now try it three other ways. You know, like, do you do anything like that, or you've been writing so long, you know, how you want your intro to go?
Geoff Edgers 10:40
I think that everything's interchangeable. I don't, you know, if someone says that they don't like, you, if an editor says, I really liked the way this is opening, or this is working, or I think this would be smarter to use this here. I mean, I think everything is like a puzzle piece. And it's interchangeable. And if you've done things, right, and you've written like a, you know, if you've written a profile, that's like a movie, with scenes, you should be able to shift those around. So sometimes you'll get to the end, and you'll go ah, the end is better as the beginning. Or, or boy, it took me a little too long to wind up to this moment, that I think is actually the lead. That's like seven paragraphs down. So I think everything should be nothing is that I mean, we're not that special. It's not that important to fight for, like every word and every structural thing, because often, even if it's not an editor telling you, hey, this should be better even it's just a regular person reading it as fresh eyes, they can really give you some insight that maybe you can't get from staring at it for four days, you know?
Melissa Milner 11:45
Absolutely. This is so powerful to you know, here's someone professionally doing this work. And it's, it's not this linear writing process. It's just, it's, it's very fluid, obviously. And I like that idea of puzzle pieces. I'm very tempted to ask you about Dick Van Dyke, but what I'm going to do instead is at the end, I'll ask you a question. And and if you you know, if we still have time, but I don't want to get into that I want to try to stay focused on the writing research, etc. So how did you get involved with writing some of the Who Was... or Who Were... books?
Geoff Edgers 12:22
I just had this long time ago, it's like 1996, maybe I'd have to look at the dates of those. But I just had a friend who worked at a children's who was an editor at Addison Wesley, which was doing all these children's books that were like, they did the Grossology that was their biggest one. And she asked me if I wanted to write a, like a night reader. So it's like, I think it was called The Midnight Hour, maybe. I said sure. So at that point in time there. You know, like Nickelodeon magazine was very popular, and it had a very specific style of tone. It was basically writing for kids who were kind of smart, and a little bit wise asses, you know, like, just a little, like a little bit of an edge to them. A little sense of sarcasm. But it was also filled with, like, factual information. And so I wrote that book. And that was fun, fun to do. I don't you know, I have came with a little flashlight, I have like a billion of those books left, and none of the flashlights. None of the flashlights work, cause their like, you know, batteries don't last forever. But that led to my getting an offer to do a Who Was... book on the Beatles, which, Who Was... at that point, had done no pop culture. It was all like, who was Betsy Ross? And who was, you know, Abraham Lincoln, that kind of thing. So they asked me to do a Beatles one. And I just looked at all the Who Was... books. I mean, this is a lesson for anything you do when I would, I wrote a lot for Spin Magazine when I was around that time period. And all I would do what I wanted to understand the tone of something. Because Spin had a very specific tone. And newspapers have a specific tone. And Who Was... books do is just read as much as you can of those as you go into it. And then you get the tone down, or you get the sense of like how long a sentence should be and just how that works. I wrote the Beatles one and it was very successful. And I still get a little teeny check every six months for like the sales of that because I think that parents, you know, those are built for kids nine to 12. Although I think I don't think really 12 year olds would read those just knowing my 11 year old I think they're generally.Not. You know, they're a little simple for those kids.
Melissa Milner 14:47
My third graders loved those books.
Geoff Edgers 14:50
Yeah, I mean, my, you know, my fifth grader just read Misery. It's like not, I don't think...gonna work, work for that.
Melissa Milner 14:58
That's awesome.
Geoff Edgers 14:58
It's a good book.
Melissa Milner 14:59
It's a great book.
You can thank teachers for that too.
Geoff Edgers 15:00
Right, but um, but the Beatles one sold so well. I mean, it sold probably, you know those books are obviously $5. But I think a lot of parents were like, Oh my gosh, now I can actually share something from my youth that I want my kids to appreciate. So, yeah, those of maybe it's like 150,000 copies or something, but that one sells so well. And every, every month I see the sales figures. I'm like, wow, nobody's doing anything and they're still booming.
Right! I hope so. And then I did I did Elvis Presley, which was good. And then I did Stan Lee.
Melissa Milner 15:36
Oh, yeah.
Geoff Edgers 15:36
Out of all ones that I've done. That's the best selling one. And then Julia Child, which I wrote with my wife, who's a professor of journalism at Northeastern, and...
Melissa Milner 15:46
Oh, wow.
Geoff Edgers 15:46
I love that one. But that's the least successful sales wise, unfortunately, and I want everybody to read Julia Child, I want that to be like, I want her to be an example for people. But the reality is, more people are gonna be like, oh, that guy made Spider Man, I'm into that. So that's just the world. But um, so I did four of those, and then I wrote a history of the song Walk This Way that was very heavily reported, that came out in 2019. For Penguin, which really was kind of like the detailed story of Run DMC and Aerosmith told in separate parts, because they're, they're like separate stories that meet in one place. So I did that book. And I'm doing a, I'm in the midst of doing a graphic novel with an artist on on John Lennon.
Melissa Milner 16:40
Wow. Oh, my gosh.
Geoff Edgers 16:42
And that's a whole different process in that I'm getting him basically, the artist... We're doing it 50/50. And I'm writing the script, basically, for him. And then he takes that script and does what he needs to it, to make it adapt to a graphic novel.
Melissa Milner 16:58
Wow, what time in Lennon's life are you focusing on?
Geoff Edgers 17:02
I'm kind of focused on the last period and like the last record that he made, but I'm also okay, I'm also talking about other things that lend lend themselves into that, because I also think the story of Yoko Ono is not really been told very well. So I'm using this moment to like, tell that story. So that's where, you know, it sort of dips back into like his childhood, but it's really focused on 1980. And coming back out of his semi retirement to do Double Fantasy.
Melissa Milner 17:30
Right. Wow, that's awesome. I will buy that for sure. So I do wonder, as you're mentioning, you know, all these different interviews that you've done, when you went to do like, The Beatles book, or the Stan Lee book...did you just do research in books and online? Or did you interview people for those books?
Geoff Edgers 17:54
The Who Was... books are all done with research? They're not new interviews, okay. I mean, I do stuff, I look at stuff that's online. But in general, I go down to the, if I'm, you know, it's been a little while. But when I did all those books, I would go to the Boston Public Library. And I would actually take out, I mean, I've got the same thing here. But I actually own these, but I usually take out a stack of like, 15 or 20 bucks at a time. And I will have them physically with me. And I'm using them as a you know, it's like a big book report. Yeah. So I'm using them as a resource to write stuff. I mean, the thing about the john lennon, one is I'm looking at all these books. And I'm really a graphic novel is very dialogue heavy. So I'm trying to take actual dialogue, that from past interviews and use it or if I don't at least know what the rhythms and the subjects and the tones are the conversation so I can rewrite that dialogue to fit.
Melissa Milner 18:55
Right. Wow, that is really complicated.
Geoff Edgers 19:00
Well, it's not I mean, it's about it's really just about, I mean, all these books are out there as resources. And to me, it's silly to like, try to Wikipedia it or I'll look for, like, if I'll see a reference in a book to an interview from a certain period of time, say, you know, Stan Lee talking on some talk show, I'll look that up on YouTube and watch the talk show. And like take notes on the things that are said, but why wouldn't you go get the actual books, which are there physically in front of you, and you can get a sense of how legitimate a book is, when it's physically there, as opposed to, you know, on Kindle or something.
Melissa Milner 19:37
I absolutely prefer books I do a lot of research for the podcast, I'm doing one on how to be a movie editor. And you know, for The Teacher As Movie Editor, but I find having the books in my hands and being able to underline and just that process helps me. So I go through and do that and then afterwards, I pull out my big ideas. What sounded complicated to me was how you're taking that research? Then you're having to figure out how to make it appropriate for graphic novel voice? You know, that just seems complicated to me.
Geoff Edgers 20:11
Well, it's just about finding what... I don't I don't actually, I don't find it easy, but I don't find it hard. It's just like any other piece of writing. It's like you find the tone you want to set? And then you send it, you know?
Melissa Milner 20:23
Yes, yeah.
Geoff Edgers 20:24
It's really a lot of direct conversation. So you're really just trying to find a way to have your subject present what they... I mean John Lennon was a very strong voice so I can get I can get that voice in my head, sort of.
Melissa Milner 20:35
That makes sense. Wow. Have you thought of writing screenplays and doing that kind of work?
Geoff Edgers 20:41
I like to see things turned into visual things, but I don't really, it's like, I'm not sure I have time to do that. Or like to learn the structure of it, I'd rather have you know, I, we have a couple of a couple things that were the Walk This Way book. And then there couple stories from the Washington Post that were purchased, or optioned for movies. And so I'm helping the script writers on those as a consultant, but I'd rather they just do it, I just don't need to do it. And also, I think that it's so rare that you hear somebody say, Oh, boy, they made a movie of my book. And it's so perfect, that I almost like don't want to really get involved in the movie part because I, if it doesn't work out, I don't want to be disappointed that didn't turn out the way that you wanted it to, you know?
Melissa Milner 21:27
That's so true. So let's say, you know, a class is being assigned biographies, and here's your person, or they get to pick their person go. And then you're doing the research process, and so on, let's say, you know, the third or fourth grade classroom, what would the top tips what like, what do you think teachers should tell students about getting their research and the process of writing?
Geoff Edgers 21:52
Well, I think that those are both separate and together, like they should, I mean, they should start out, the first thing they should do, is find out as much research as they can, and you know, depending on what the schedule is, for what they're writing, not write a word until they've done some research and figure out what works best for them. So you know, when you're talking about children, sometimes you need to actually direct them, as opposed to ask them what's best for them. So maybe you get them, you know, say work on this note file and take out, take x number of pages of notes. And then they figure out what works best for them. And then once they have those notes, then they can go and write you know, but there's a certain amount of like, osmosis that has to take place there, so that they're not just copying stuff out of a book. And if they've read enough, or they've researched enough, then I think they'll be able to then sit down and start writing the actual, you know, paper that they have to do.
Melissa Milner 22:51
Yeah, so the first tip is heavy on the research and getting them to know the subject so much that going to write about it is not going to be an overwhelming task. I think that's what you're saying.
Geoff Edgers 23:04
Yeah. But I mean, the research is really important. And I know that with my son who's 11, he really likes it, when he knows things that we don't know, and can tell us a whole thing about polar bears that we didn't understand or just details about anything, it really is satisfying to know information, you know, information is Yeah, like, it's almost like a, it's like, kids are always posting to each other about how they are. Well, information is something you can boast about and be, you know, and have over somebody else. And it's not insignificant, I don't think.
Melissa Milner 23:38
It's also very motivating. They, they when students are learning new things, they get so excited and passionate, and they want to know more. And then they have new questions, which I think is that whole writing process. So then they come up with new questions, and we... and I always say, go look it up, see, see if you can find the answer. And it goes into new things. Let's say they've got their research, it's time to write, do they start with note cards of what they think their intro, etc, or you know, a doc for their intro, a doc for one body paragraph a doc for another? Or just do a flash draft of the whole thing? Like, what do you recommend?
Geoff Edgers 24:16
I think you should, I think an outline is always good. You know, like, I think that can be really helpful. Have an outline, you know, how much of an outline you have is up to you. But I mean, again, you have to, when you're doing it for the first time, if you're setting the structure up for the children, you maybe need to tell them, you know, you need a page outline, you know, what is the beginning of this? What is the middle of it? What is the end of it?
Melissa Milner 24:43
Yeah, we would we would either give if they need it, we would provide like a graphic organizer. Absolutely.
Geoff Edgers 24:49
That's a piece of it. But there's also like just probably a little bit above this level, but it's it's like there's also just the inspiration of having a sense of what you're, you know, where the words come from? And how do you write well, and I mean, there are times when I'm in a reporting situation, I see something and I hear what the headline is, or I hear what the lead is of the story. And I just know what it is. So I can write it down, or you're sitting and you're reworking something, and you realize, this is the meaning of this subject, and how do I tell that really well? You know, how do you describe a performance or a behavior or an achievement, and you just have a natural inspiration. So, you know, I always have some way to write stuff down, whether it's on my phone or in a notepad. I don't know if you can teach that. But it's something worth mentioning, you know?
Melissa Milner 25:45
Yeah, either a writer's journal, or Yeah, I wonder whether some kids could just talk into their phones, like with a voice recorder, when they get inspired by their topic or something they're doing.
Geoff Edgers 25:56
I mean, I have, you know, the other day, when we were, we were away, and my son who's, he's into mystery things. And like, you know, he read, he was reading Stephen King. And so he, he asked me if he could use my computer. And he wrote out a whole, like, two page, short story that he thought was, was interesting. He was like, kind of a murder mystery type of thing. And it was interesting, but he was very consumed by he was like, I've written 350 words, or I've now got 722 words, he was very focused on the amount of words in the saying, which I thought was was was kind of interesting to see like, there's a sense of like, the more you write, the more you've achieved when we obviously have learned that you can have a lot of bad words, or you can have a few really great words. I think it's good to have something around anytime you want to write.
Melissa Milner 26:51
Yes, I'm so inspired. I don't know if you can talk about it or not. But what are you zooming in on right now? In your work?
Geoff Edgers 26:58
I don't, you know, like, I don't ever talk about stories that are coming up, I feel like the thing to do is to write them, and then when they're in the, when they're published to, then you can share them. But I mean, over the last few months I've written, I wrote a story at Jacob's Pillow, the dance festival, I went there when they were having their first like post COVID performance being rehearsed. And I just wrote about the what what that process is, like, I did two separate profiles that were very different. In many ways. I did wantof Dick Van Dyke who, you know, was is 95, and was receiving the Kennedy Center Honors and is still very active. And that was sort of like a historical story in a very specific way. And then I did a profile of Wolfgang Van Halen, who is son of Eddie Van Halen, and was just about to go out and, and release his first album and go on tour, which is now on tour this summer. And that featured a lot of history in that, you had to see it through the prism of Van Halen. But it was really also about introducing a complete stranger to a larger audience, and figuring out how to do that. And so very different stories, both of them required, being in person with people. I mean, I did some Zoom stuff with Wolfgang leading up to it. But both were the way to make those stories really work required, being in person and seeing the person at work, you know, and then the graphic novel, it's, so all of these things are just, you're just trying to find the best things you can do. Even if there are a range of things not really getting stuck in a rut of doing the same thing.
Melissa Milner 28:43
I think a life lesson right there. The variety is the spice of life. Do you have time for two quick questions?
Geoff Edgers 28:51
Sure, absolutely.
Melissa Milner 28:52
Awesome. The first one is how can people reach you or see your work?
Geoff Edgers 28:57
Well, you can, you can always just Google my name and, you know, I have a plate on the Washington Post, you'll see they have like a little bio, and then recent stories come up. So that's one way. You know, you can go to Amazon and get those books easily. I mean, the Washington Post, you know, I might be biased about it. But, you know, it's very inexpensive for what it provides. It's, I think, one of their, one of their deals right now is, you know, and I don't sell the paper. So it's like, I don't, but, you know, we're owned by Jeff Bezos. And he, you know, he has the Amazon philosophy of newspapers, which is try to get as many people involved reading as you can. And once you have a critical mass of people involved, then you you know, then then you've done a good, you know, you've done a good job. So, you know, the Washington Post subscription is is you know, extremely cheap. I'm actually trying to think of exactly how much but I'm looking it up. But I think it's like, you get a year right now they have an offer you get a year for $40, you know, online. And it's ridiculous when you think about that, and then I'm sure after that, it becomes like, $200. I don't know. But the thing about it is, I mean, how many of us go to I know, when I go with my daughter to Starbucks, and she wants an iced Chai? It's like, $4, you know?
Melissa Milner 30:26
Yeah, you don't even think twice, exactly.
Geoff Edgers 30:28
The idea that you would be getting, you know, all these stories across a range of subjects done, as well as my colleagues do them for, you know, effectively, like $4 a month is ridiculous to me. So that's the easiest way to find it. I mean, people complain, they go, Oh, it's behind the paywall? Well, it's not free to travel to California and spend. You know, last year before the pandemic, I spent six days with Sinead O'Connor going from San Francisco to LA and then I flew to Ireland, and spent four more days with her reporting on that story to do the definitive profile of Sinead O'Connor, well, it's not free.
Melissa Milner 31:06
Right.
Geoff Edgers 31:07
So, you know, you're, you're getting quite a bit when you when you subscribe.
Melissa Milner 31:13
Very good point. Normally, my last question is, you know, what the guest's favorite movie is? And why? I want to ask that question. But I also sort of want to ask, who's your favorite celebrity that you have interviewed? And why? So I don't know whether you want to answer both or just one.
Geoff Edgers 31:32
You know, I've probably a few. I just would say that I like, I like people who are complicated or like not understood totally. And sometimes not easy to deal with, and sometimes not easy people. So, I mean, it's an honor to be able to interview someone like Eddie Murphy or Dick Van Dyke. It feels crazy that I would have that opportunity. Or David Letterman. These are, you know, just three people that I've been able to talk to Julia Louie Dreyfus, I could just go down the list of people that have been amazing, but but I'd say that like Chevy Chase, Roseanne Barr, Sinead O'Connor, these are complicated people, and to be able to get real time with them, and really try to explain them. And you know, sometimes it works out. And sometimes it doesn't. I mean, Chevy Chase hated the story we did, which was one of the most, maybe the most most read stories that I that I've done over my entire time writing.
Melissa Milner 32:27
But he's notoriously a difficult guy, right?
Geoff Edgers 32:31
Yeah. Or...you know, my, my turn would be complicated.
Melissa Milner 32:33
Right.
Geoff Edgers 32:34
You know being able to do those was special and significant. So, you know, it's, it's all the way across the board. And, you know, Paul McCartney, I've talked to him like three times. Now, that's kind of amazing to me, as someone who just, you know, when I was a little kid, I would just listen to those Beatles records my parents had and just be like, it didn't seem like that I was in any way connected to them.
Melissa Milner 32:55
Yeah, that's amazing.
Geoff Edgers 32:56
When you when I talked to those people, the key is to when I've talked to Paul McCartney, I've never been like, odd to the point that I can't do my job. And I don't prepare, because I think they get on to that. And then you don't have a good interview. I think you have to be respectful, but also knowledgeable and also confident in what you know.
Melissa Milner 33:15
Right!
Geoff Edgers 33:15
And then you can get somewhere,
Melissa Milner 33:16
Like how I felt interviewing you today.
Geoff Edgers 33:20
Oh, please.
Melissa Milner 33:21
No, I'm serious. I'm like, Oh, this guy is interviewed some really big people here. And I'm very, you know, I'm a year into doing this interviewing thing. And I, you know, I'm still learning so much. Do you record your interviews?
Geoff Edgers 33:36
Oh, I record them when I have time.
Melissa Milner 33:39
Yeah.
Geoff Edgers 33:39
And so I record them when I have when I have time, and when I can transcribe them. And I try to record them. And, you know, when I'm doing a big profile, I really do like to record them. But I also do a lot that I just type as I'm talking to the person.
Melissa Milner 33:56
Okay.
Geoff Edgers 33:56
And, and, you know, I'm a pretty fast typer. So I can get that stuff. So, if you're doing like interviews, and interviews for big profile, it'd be really exhausting to try to transcribe all that stuff. And you just would lose so much time in the transcription, that you'd not be able to spend as much time on the writing. So that's, that's kind of my, my kind of take on it.
Melissa Milner 34:16
That's very helpful. Thank you. Because I spoke with Dave Malkoff from the the investigative reporter from the Weather Channel. And I got a lot about interviewing and I wanted I wanted your take on it as well. As far as when you're in the interview. Are you writing? Are you recording? So that's very helpful. Thank you.
Geoff Edgers 34:35
Yeah, absolutely.
Melissa Milner 34:37
This was amazing. Do you want to just quickly say your favorite movie do you have a favorite movie?
Geoff Edgers 34:42
My favorite movies are what I've seen the you know, more recently, I mean, like I loved Barton Fink when I was a kid like I loved...
Melissa Milner 34:50
Oh yeah.
Geoff Edgers 34:50
Cause I thought that was just such a special movie in the Coen brothers are so completely different and and odd and that was about a writer and it was very offbeat. But, you know, I've watched with my son I've watched Trading Places a couple times in the last last year, and there's like some stuff that's that's thing about ratings. It's like you look it up on Common Sense Media or you...
Melissa Milner 35:13
Yes.
Geoff Edgers 35:14
Trading Places is rated are there's some, you know, breasts shown, but...
Melissa Milner 35:18
Correct.
Geoff Edgers 35:20
I'd also say that it's far less inappropriate than some Adam Sandler movies I've seen or Yeah, violent movies and like the actual theme inside it is so smart. And the comedy is so well done, that there's something to it that I actually think is is totally worthwhile for somebody under Rated R territory. And then, you know, I love old movies, too. I mean, like, North by Northwest is just an amazing, adventurous film. So smartly done. So it's across the gamut, really.
Melissa Milner 35:55
Amazing. I can't thank you enough for just taking the time out, because I know you're a very busy person. So I really appreciate you coming on The Teacher As... and I, I think the listeners are really going to be able to take away a lot for their Language Arts classroom about reading to do research, and the writing of research, and I really appreciate you taking the time out.
Geoff Edgers 36:17
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I'm glad I could be of help. If you need anything else, let me know.
Melissa Milner 36:22
If you enjoyed this episode, and have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button for The Teacher As... podcast so you can get future episodes. I would love for you to leave a review and a rating as well, if you have time. For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram at Melissa B Milner. And I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. I am sending a special thanks to Linda and Lester Fleishman, my mom and dad, for being so supportive. They are the voices you hear in the Zooming In sound bite and my dad composed and performed the background music you are listening to right now. My intro music was Upbeat Party by Scott Holmes. So what are you zooming in on? I would love to hear from you. My hope is that we all share what we are doing in the classroom in order to teach, remind, affirm and inspire each other. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.