What does an average day look like for you when you’re working on the podcast?
Because I make the whole show by myself every day is super different. It could be an interview day, it could be a prep day, it could be an editing day, it could be a day making advertisements, which is something I did today. It really could be anything because the podcast has so many different parts to it and I get to do them all. But it’s fun. I really enjoy each part.
If I’m doing my job right, I’m having a random day where I have no idea why I’m doing what I’m doing. I feel like maybe 30 percent of the time I’m just off with my microphone going somewhere and I’m like, “Why am I recording this? What am I going to do with it?” And it bears fruit eventually. It turns into an episode at some point or another, but it’s really unpredictable. It’s not a steady schedule.
Okay, well, let’s dig into what each of those components look like then. How do you break down a research day versus a recording day versus doing ads and promoting?
A research day is basically when I interview someone for the podcast. If they’ve written a book, I will read the shit out of that book. I read it once and I underline all the parts that I think are interesting. Then I essentially read it again and I write down the parts that I’ve underlined in a Google Doc and then I rearrange them in order thematically in the parts of the conversation I want to hit. So it could be a day where I’m just really reading a book or it could be a day where I’m doing the interview, although that’s usually not an entire day. Preparing for the interview takes so much longer than the interview.
Writing is something that I enjoy doing but it takes all day, or leveling something in Pro Tools [which] takes so long. Doing the engineering stuff takes so long.
One thing that really interests me about narrative podcasts like yours is that you’re not just sitting down and shooting the shit. It’s like a feature article, where you’re writing the script, setting up the scene and filling in the gaps and then you’ve got quotes from people coming in and selecting where you’re going to put them in the story like you would in an article or a book. I assume because podcasting is your vocation that is easy for you. But for me as a writer, I’m like, “Oh, this must take forever. This seems so hard.” Whereas sitting down and writing it would for me come more naturally or more quickly. So what is harder for you then?
When you interview someone for audio, it’s your job to make them speak as beautifully as possible and they deliver the colorful prose. It’s your job as a narrator to fact check it and come in with the narration and be like, “Yes, that’s right.” And in writing, it’s sort of inverse. You’re supposed to come up with the beautiful prose. You are the writer’s voice, you are being florid and eloquent and you bring in experts to support what you’ve said.
I really enjoy audio because it feels more like making a collage. I get to use other people’s words and the way they speak and their natural insights. And then I just get to come in and arrange it just so. It is my preferred method of working.
Having written a book, I can say I definitely prefer audio to writing. But it still takes so long because the thing that’s different is that you have to perform it. You make this whole thing and you spend so long reading all the books and doing all the research and going to all these places and interviewing all these people and then you have to get into a booth. Here, I can show you. Here’s it.
Oh wow!
I record in an old phone booth.
I love it!
It’s a defining aspect of my personality. Some people have a pet and I have that phone booth. But then I have to get into that phone booth and perform it for no one, which is so sociopathic. It’s very strange imagining your audience when they’re not [physically] there. That part I actually find very hard, which is funny because before I got into podcasting, I thought talking on the microphone would be the fun part like, “La, la, la, I’m on the radio.” But actually, that’s the worst part. You have to perform it. You have to really sell it each time and I just hate it. It’s so hard.
What was it about radio that that was the medium that you did choose to get into?
I love radio because it’s so egoless. I love that you can have this deep connection with someone without knowing what they look like, which is why this pivot to video totally breaks my heart and people are like, “Are you going to make a video version of Articles of Interest?” No, I have audio for a reason. And I love that it allows you to—especially now when everything wants you to be looking at your phone—engage with the world, that you can be preoccupied in your ears and that you can mingle your own thoughts and your own observations with what’s coming through your ears. I know that sometimes it’s seen as a detriment to the form that you can multitask while doing it, but I find I love that it meshes with reality. I love when people tell me that they’re listening to a story about high heels and they see someone walking by in high heels, that it interacts with real life.
I’ve also always loved how in the traditional sense, at least on the radio, it was so democratic that the radio station could open up the phone lines and anyone could call in and that it could go places. They would be reporting live from courtrooms and places where people weren’t allowed because there were no cameras. The radio was this very magical medium for me, and I try to keep that alive in podcasting. It’s definitely different in a lot of ways. But radio is certainly what I fell in love with.
How do you get inspired to start a project?
At this point I’m so skeptical. It has to be really good for me to get interested. I feel so jaded right now and the world just keeps surprising me. I feel like the most recent example is the story that I’m working on next. I was in China earlier this year, which was very lucky; it was a trip that was sprung on me at the last minute. And when I would go to all these tourist attractions, there would be a lot of different women dressed as traditional Han Dynasty princesses from the 1400s and people around me were like, “You should do a story on that.” I was like, “No, that’s cosplay. I don’t want to do that. They’re just doing it for Instagram. That’s not a story.”
And then I embarrassed myself by going up to some of these girls and talking to them and being like, “What’s your costume? Where’d you get it from?” And then lo and behold, it turns out that it has everything to do with a sense of nationalism from the last time that China was a major world power in the 1400s and the ways that the government is using historical narrative in media. I don’t want to say it’s all propaganda, but it’s very tied up with this idea of a glorious China that’s completely separate from the influence of the West.
And it’s really interesting because you can see the influence of these 14th century costumes. They’re not only for Instagram, you can see influences in the newest line of Adidas clothes that are only made in China. They have these 1400s motifs in them and a lot of Chinese brands are integrating these ancient motifs. It’s a purified version of China that’s completely separate from American influence. I was like, “This is fascinating.” I really was ready to write it off. This is the thing with clothing, it seems so superficial and so silly on the outside. And then as soon as you start interrogating it’s so interesting.
How do you know when a topic is worthy of a season-long deep dive, like prep or gear, or a one-episode exclusive?
When it’s a multi-part series, it always surprises me. I did this multi-part series on preppy clothes, and that was originally just going to be one episode. I was like, “Oh, it’ll be fun to do one about, whatever, Abercrombie & Fitch and my own childhood trauma,” and then dug into it for two seconds and I was like, “Oh, maybe this is three episodes. Oh, maybe this is five. Oh wait, it’s seven.”
And honestly, as the years go on since I made that series, I’m like, I could do a whole follow-up. There’s so much more. Which is the really interesting thing about fashion because it’s a never-ending story. It’s constantly changing, it’s constantly being updated, it’s constantly being revived. And the truth of the matter is I’m sure a lot of episodes could have been multi-part series. I’m sure a lot of them could have gotten that treatment, but sometimes an episode is just due and it has to just be one episode. It can’t be a multi-part series that takes two years to make. I do this work because it’s my passion and because I love it and also because it’s how I eat and pay my rent.
How did you approach your upcoming book on the Antwerp Six? Was that an entirely different process to writing the podcast?
Can I be super honest with you, Scarlett? It was a little mercenary. I didn’t come up with this idea. It was given to me by a publisher. I love the idea of an assignment. It’s my first time writing about high fashion, designers who put on runway shows and sell avant-garde clothes. Because normally I really like to talk about pattern makers and fit models and the nitty-gritty parts of clothing that don’t have a publicity team. So this was all really, really new to me and it was really different. Also, it all takes place in Belgium, mostly in a language that I’m not fluent in, mostly before I was born. It’s been very hard to try to wrap my head around a true sequence of events of what happened in the story of six different designers coming together.
The difference in podcasting is I’m always present because it’s my voice because I’m there in that phone booth acting it out. I can’t not be a part of it. But in a book, I had to ask myself, “Okay, do you want to be a part of this? Are you going to be in the narrative?” And the answer I decided was no, for all the reasons I just said. So it’s a very straightforward telling of events. It’s super different from the way that I normally do things.
But something I did notice that was really different is my editor kept being like, “Stop quoting other people. You can say things. You’re the author. You can just write stuff instead of quoting other people all the time.” I was like, “Oh, that’s radio, thinking that I have to bring in other people all the time.” So I’m still learning how to do that.
What was the process like of working with an editor? Because obviously you write, record, edit the podcast yourself, so how did you give yourself over to that editing process?
I normally hire an editor for my big projects and I love being edited. It’s one of my favorite things. It feels like getting a horrendous back-cracking massage. I didn’t know how book editing works. I still don’t know how book editing works. I still have to turn it in and receive another edit and I’m like, “What will this be? How thorough will it be and what will the copy edit be like?”
Did you deal with imposter syndrome at all, especially being approached to write this book? And if so, how did you get through that?
Definitely, especially because some of the designers I profile literally called me and accosted me and they’re like, “Who even are you? Why are you writing this book?”
Whoa.
It was really hard. It was really hard, I think, especially because they’re so established and it’s not really a great time to be an American right now. And I totally get it. They’re like, “We don’t want to talk to you.” But it’s like I made a promise. I have a deadline. I have to do this. I’m going to be a professional. And it was more journalist-y in a Janet Malcolm way, being a real pest in a way that I don’t actually like. I’m used to talking to people who are generally pretty happy to see me and answer my phone calls. I’m not so used to haranguing people and pestering them to let me interview them. It was really different. It was a lot of hard work.
How did you remedy that? Did any of these designers finally come around once you explained the scope of the book and stuff?
Some people warmed up and some didn’t and that’s life. I spoke with four of the Antwerp Six designers. One was unreachable and one refused to talk to me, which is fine. The big thing was I learned Dutch for this project so I could read all their archives, and I relied on past archives a lot and I relied on other journalists. The designers who did talk to me spoke to me fairly extensively and really openly, which I appreciated. And one of them I became fairly close with and she passed away last year, and it was just the honor of a lifetime to be able to spend time with her before she died.
Before I turned the recording on, I said I was nervous about being on the other side from a professional interviewer even though I interview people all the time. But to turn it around to you, how are you with being the one being interviewed, especially in the lead up to presumably a lot of publicity that you’re going to be doing around this book?
I think you’re the first person to ask me about this. I know that part of the contract of being interviewed is that it’s not just therapy for me, it also has to be entertaining. I think that will prove to be quite hard and that I still am struggling with: “Who am I to tell this story?” No one wants to hear someone just complain about how difficult writing is. That’s boring and cliche and also no one takes you seriously because it’s like it’s not manual labor. I’m figuring this out in real time. I’m like, “How am I going to talk about it? How am I going to make it fun and breezy without being like, ‘I hated every step of this’?”
Of any audience to hear you say that, The Creative Independent is probably the most receptive one!
It’s a perfect test ground.
Exactly. And I think if this is indeed your first inkling of how you will talk about the book, I’m honored to have been that person.
You’re dipping me in the water very gently. It’s a sweet little baptism. Thank you.
Avery Trufelman recommends:
Watching videos or Rosalia’s concert footage and listening to LUX
Andrei Tarkovsky movies. I just watched Ivan’s childhood this weekend and I’m still quaking thinking about it.
My friend Helen just wrote the most stunning book about migration, mythologies and coyotes. I love that the format is phone-sized so I don’t even look like I’m reading a book.
My favorite podcast is The Intelligence, from The Economist. My mornings are empty without it.
Listening to live sets from The Lot radio. I love that it’s near my apartment so if I really like the set I can just go see it.
This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Scarlett Harris.
Scarlett Harris | Radio Free (2026-08-19T07:00:00+00:00) Writer and podcaster Avery Trufelman on knowing when to put yourself in the story. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/08/19/writer-and-podcaster-avery-trufelman-on-knowing-when-to-put-yourself-in-the-story/
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