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As Told To

As Told To

By: Daniel Paisner
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Everybody's got a story to tell. Sometimes they need a little bit of help. Veteran ghostwriter Daniel Paisner talks shop with his fellow collaborators and shines a light on what it means to pursue a writing life on the back of someone else's story. Art Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Episode 108: John Rosengren

    Episode 108: John Rosengren
    Mar 24 2026
    "It's a constant hustle," reflects podcast guest John Rosengren on the life of a freelance journalist. "Ginning up ideas, developing them into pitches, sending them around, facing rejection… sometimes it can wear me down." But sometimes, too, it can be endlessly rewarding, as we can hear as John looks back on a rich, wildly prolific journalism career. Over the years, John's articles have appeared in The Atavist, GQ, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, and The Washington Post Magazine. His 2016 expose on the ways casinos enable gambling addicts, originally published in The Atlantic, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Magazine Award, and earned John the Donald Robinson Award from the American Society of Journalists & Authors. John is also the author of more than a dozen books, including a thoroughgoing account of an indelible moment in baseball history—The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption. As a ghostwriter, he collaborated on the brutally honest memoir of former NFL player Esera Tuaolo—Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL. Join us for a compelling conversation on what it takes to make it as a freelancer always looking in out-of-the-way places for the next great untold story. Learn more about John Rosengren: WebsiteFacebookLinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: Surfers HealingGotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the GhostsRitani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon DogDaniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television PilotHeaven Help Us by John KasichUnforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey JacobellisFilm Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountLibro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membershipFilm Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef SuttonEveryday Shakespeare podcastA Mighty Blaze podcastThe Writer's Bone Podcast NetworkMisfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountWizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Episode 107: Holly Gleason

    Episode 107: Holly Gleason
    Mar 10 2026
    Award-winning music journalist, critic and artist development consultant Holly Gleason returns to the podcast for a solo outing to discuss her eclectic and electric career as one of the music industry's leading voices. Over the years, she has written for Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Playboy, Spin, and the Miami Herald. Holly's most recent collaboration, the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir Heart Life Music, written with country music superstar Kenny Chesney, has helped to cement Holly's reputation as an in-demand ghostwriter who pushes her subjects to reflect on life, music, and the vagaries of fame. She is the co-author of the best-selling, story-laden cookbook Y'all Eat Yet?: Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin' Kitchen, with Miranda Lambert, and editor of the acclaimed compilations Prine on Prine: Interviews and Encounters with John Prine, and Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music changed Our Lives. The recipient of the 2023 LA Press Club's Entertainment Journalist of the Year and 2024 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism's Independent Journalist awards, Holly lives and works in Nashville, Tenn., where she occasionally writes lyrics (as "Lady Goodman") with such noted songwriters as Rodney Crowell, Bill Deasy, Travis Hill, and the late Guy Clark. Learn more about Holly Gleason: WebsiteFacebookInstagramThreads Please support the sponsors who support our show: Surfers HealingGotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the GhostsRitani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon DogDaniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television PilotHeaven Help Us by John KasichUnforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey JacobellisFilm Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountLibro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membershipFilm Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef SuttonEveryday Shakespeare podcastA Mighty Blaze podcastThe Writer's Bone Podcast NetworkMisfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountWizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Episode 106: Jenna Glatzer

    Episode 106: Jenna Glatzer
    Feb 24 2026
    As a freelance writer, Jenna Glatzer has lent her voice to books, articles, essays, blog posts, scripts—even greeting cards and doormats, she's proud to say. She is the author or co-author of more than 35 books, many of them written in collaboration with some of our leading actors, athletes, CEOs, models, reality television stars, medical professionals and news personalities. Oh, and Celine Dion! (How's that for a ghostwriting credit?) Jenna joins us on the podcast to discuss the very many twists and turns her career has taken over the years, including a discouraging turn of late as she struggles with a debilitating vocal disorder known as sulcus vocalis, which since 2022 has made it difficult for her to speak—which in turn has made it difficult for her to work as a collaborative writer. "I built up a career as a ghostwriter for 20 years," she shares, "and lost it in a day." Join us as Jenna reflects on what it means for a writer with a gift for capturing the voices of others to be unable to harness her own voice, as she looks ahead to the ways she might re-imagine her many gifts as a storyteller and resume her career as one of publishing's most in-demand ghostwriters. Learn more about Jenna Glatzer: WebsiteFacebookInstagramLinkedIn Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters' Gathering of the GhostsRitani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon DogDaniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television PilotHeaven Help Us by John KasichUnforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey JacobellisFilm Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountLibro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membershipFilm Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef SuttonEveryday Shakespeare podcastA Mighty Blaze podcastThe Writer's Bone Podcast NetworkMisfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discountWizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
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    1 hr and 1 min
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