How I Write
Before book sales and PR buzz, your favorite writers began with two things: the blank page and an idea. Each week on How I Write, we go behind-the-scenes with today’s top writers to uncover the meta-mechanics of writing and the lifestyle behind it. You’ll be the first to hear writers deconstruct their creative process: from banging their head on the keyboard to marking the last period of their final draft. Victory. Come discover how great writing is made. And who knows? Maybe you’ll be next. New episodes of the How I Write show go live every week on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.com/DavidPerellChannel.
Episodes
November 5, 2025 • 84 mins
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David Grann: one of the best storytellers alive today and an absolute master at narrative nonfiction. You might know him from "Killers of the Flower Moon", which Martin Scorsese turned into a film. And then there's "The Wager"; I can't think of a single book that more people I know have said that they just read the entire thing, from start to finish, in one sitting.
So what is...
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October 29, 2025 • 69 mins
Susan Orlean writes nonfiction books that read like fiction, sort of working in the style of Joan Didion or Tom Wolfe. But what makes her different is how intentional she is about her writing process.
She's very intentional about the research, the writing, the editing phases, all of it. And if you're thinking about your own process, how can you structure your life in order to lead to good writing? Well, you're going to love this e...
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October 22, 2025 • 68 mins
Stefan Sagmeister is the author of six books and one of the most influential designers in the world. He's won multiple Grammy Awards for his designs, and he's designed album covers for people like Jay-Z and David Byrne, the Rolling Stones.
But he's a writer. What does he write about? Well, design, beauty, how to find good ideas.
You'll notice when you pick up one of his books that the form, the style, the vibe, the typography is ...
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October 15, 2025 • 68 mins
Morgan Housel is one of the top non-fiction writers in the world. He is most famous for his book “The Psychology of Money”, which has now sold more than 8 million copies.
Before he wrote the book, he wrote more than 4,000 blog posts for publications like The Wall Street Journal and The Motley Fool, and that’s how he honed his craft. This is my second time having Morgan on the show. The first time, I just wanted to talk about Morga...
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October 8, 2025 • 97 mins
You can’t walk through an airport without seeing a Mitch Albom book on one of the shelves. He’s most famous for writing Tuesdays with Morrie, which may very well be the best-selling memoir of all time. He’s now written 14 books, which combined have sold more than 40 million copies.
In 45 years of hitting the keyboard, this is the deepest conversation he’s ever had about the craft of writing. I asked him to approach this like a col...
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September 24, 2025 • 119 mins
I interviewed Dan Wang, a writer and analyst whose annual letters from China have become a first draft of modern Chinese history. We talked about how he blends personal observation with deep analysis, how to skip the cliches and write with texture instead, and how classical music and literature have shaped his writing style.
What’s unique about Dan is that he built a name for himself by writing one essay per year (in an age where ...
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September 17, 2025 • 47 mins
I interviewed Ada Limón and Joy Harjo, two of America’s most celebrated poets and former U.S. Poet Laureates. We talked about the art of deep listening, how to translate the music of the world into language, and why silence is never empty but always alive. We explored how poetry resists “clock time,” why metaphor is essential to truth, how culture lives through song and dance, and what it means to trust your voice across a lifetime...
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September 10, 2025 • 91 mins
I interviewed Jack and Ryan from AJR, the band that has built one of the most original voices in modern music. We talked about how they use humor and vulnerability to write songs that connect on a deeper level, why embarrassment is often the best creative compass, how Broadway and magic inspire their live shows, and what they’ve learned about navigating TikTok, streaming, and the new economics of the music industry. We also explore...
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September 3, 2025 • 86 mins
Every so often, I’ll re-publish one of my favorite How I Write episodes. This classic episode is with Steven Pressfield, the author of more than 25 books who speaks as beautifully about the creative process as he writes. He waded through 27 years of Resistance so you don’t have to. Come learn his best practices for doing your best work.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:40 Your career in writing
00:07:00 Writing rough drafts
00:1...
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August 27, 2025 • 90 mins
I interviewed Jimmy Soni, who is currently writing a book about Kobe Bryant. He spent six years on his previous book about the origin story of PayPal and has mastered the art of investigative biography. We talked about his 4am writing routine, how he blends research and writing to battle writers block, why he finds the best stories by talking to people on the periphery, his thoughts on using AI as a writing tool, and his experience...
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August 20, 2025 • 60 mins
I interviewed John Lennox, the Oxford mathematician who's spent decades bridging science and faith. We talked about why John 1:1 reveals we live in a word-based universe, how to recognize God-breathed scripture, why scientific explanations don't exclude God, and his fascinating take on AI as humanity's attempt to "make God." He also shared practical writing advice about self-criticism and why young people struggle with metaphors. I...
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August 13, 2025 • 91 mins
I interviewed Henrik Karlsson, a writer who's developed a five-step method for writing that starts with exploring without pressure and ends with crafting the opening last, after everything else is done. We talked about why looking away from the page improves your writing, how to suck reality into your descriptions, why protecting young ideas from early critique matters, and how to access pre-linguistic mental states where the best ...
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August 6, 2025 • 51 mins
I interviewed Jayne Anne Phillips, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel Night Watch. We dug into passages from her writing that will show you how she thinks about voice, character, and the poetry of great writing. As you listen, I want you to notice something: pay attention to how many times Jane describes writing as a full-bodied experience. She sees the creative process almost like an archaeologist would, feeling ...
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July 30, 2025 • 67 mins
I interviewed Rosanne Cash, a 4-time Grammy winner who's been writing songs for over 40 years. She's mastered something most writers struggle with: turning raw emotion into beautiful, lasting songs. She writes songs like a painter, starting with visual images, and brings the same rhythmic approach to both music and prose. We talked about how to turn pain into art, why anger and grief are powerful creative forces, how to deconstruct...
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July 23, 2025 • 95 mins
I interviewed David Whyte, a poet who has mastered the art of turning life's deepest experiences into beautiful writing. We talked about how to write from the place where your inner world meets the outer world, why difficult emotions like grief and anger are actually forms of care, how memorizing poetry changes how you experience reality, and practical techniques for developing deeper attention. If you want to write more authentica...
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July 16, 2025 • 88 mins
I interviewed Alain de Botton, a philosopher and writer who has turned personal pain into universal wisdom. He's written dozens of books and built The School of Life into a YouTube channel with nearly 10 million subscribers, but the thing that makes him unique is that he approaches writing as a form of emotional archaeology. We talked about why good writing requires suffering, why loneliness is essential to the creative process, an...
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July 9, 2025 • 100 mins
I interviewed Steven Levitan, the co-creator and showrunner of Modern Family, one of the most successful sitcoms of the past two decades. What makes him fascinating isn't just that he wrote hundreds of TV episodes, but how he thinks about the craft of comedy writing itself. We talked about why story breaking is the hardest part of TV writing, how he juggles multiple storylines in 21 minutes, the difference between fast-twitch and s...
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July 2, 2025 • 73 mins
I interviewed David Zucker, the director behind Airplane!, Naked Gun, and some of the funniest movies ever made. What makes this conversation fascinating isn't just the behind the scenes stories, but how he breaks down comedy writing like a science. We talked about his specific rules for making people laugh, his "flywheel theory" of pacing that keeps audiences laughing non-stop, and why they test-screened Airplane! so many times. I...
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June 25, 2025 • 87 mins
This is not a normal episode. There's two guests, not one. Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, and they're the founders of the Bible project, a YouTube channel with more than half a billion views. It is entirely devoted to teaching people how to read just one book. I think that book happens to be the most influential book in the history of western civilization. The beginning of this interview is about how they make these videos. They're so...
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June 18, 2025 • 89 mins
I interviewed Robert Macfarlane, a writer who has mastered the art of nature writing. What makes him fascinating isn’t just that he writes beautifully about landscapes, but how he thinks about language itself. We talked about why he rewrites first sentences hundreds of times, what happens when entire languages die forever, why AI makes all writing sound the same, and how to build a stronger feel for using vivid and rich language. I...
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