Nerd Alert with Sonja Bentley Zant Sonja The Writer

This is the final episode of Season One of NERD ALERT, and it is the exploration of how stories and the people who tell them are influenced by their very own "unreliable narrators." Sonja goes back in time and revisits her experiences in journalism school, and how difficult it was to try to remove all of the color and imagination in her writing when she was reporting a story. But one discovery leads to another in this podcast, and Sonja uses three primary podcast NERD ALERTS to explore her thoughts, and a couple of bonus articles to add to your experience. // 1) Tricky Podcast (http://trickypod.com) // 2) Man in the Window (https://wondery.com/shows/man-in-the-window) // The Writer's Panel with Ben Blacker (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/forever-dog-podcast-network/nerdist-writers-panel/e/54864167) // Article 1) Why The Golden Age of Newspapers was the Exception Not the Rule ( https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/05/why-the-golden-age-of-newspapers-was-the-exception-not-the-rule/) // Article 2) The Podcast Review (https://podcastreview.org/review/man-in-the-window/) // You can read Sonja's blog (www.sonjawrites.com) and follow her on Instagram @sbzthewriter.

Thanks for checking out this bonus episode of NERD ALERT. I briefly mention this bonus in the full-length episode of To Be Fair, and it contains a NERD ALERT podcast suggestion for another fantastic Pushkin Industries series called "Deep Background with Noah Feldman." In this bonus content, I'm going to bring out some thoughts about how fairness plays into the topic of collegiate level sports as well as college admissions. It's not an easy thing to get my arms around, so I decided it might be best to keep this content brief. "Fairness" when it comes to college sports and academia feels a little loaded right now, so I just want to get started with a conversation and see where it leads!! Anyway. I've got three NERD ALERT links to include in these show notes // 1) Article on Ringer about the Fair Pay to Play Bill // 2) CNN Article on College Admissions Cheating Scandal // 3) Deep Background with Noah Feldman Ep 1 //

Thank you for joining me for another episode of NERD ALERT! In this episode, my little 4-year-old buddy, Everly, helps me as I read one of the posts off of my blog called Dog in the Fight. Sometimes it seems like people don't like to play by the rules anymore, and for me at least, I have trouble orienting myself to that reality. So in this episode, I take a deeper look at how rules, empathy, and morality all come together to complicate something that seems like it should simply be black or white. // There are two NERD ALERTS in this episode: 1) Podcast: Against the Rules with Michael Lewis // 2) Podcast: Revisionist History Season 4: Three Part Series -- Episode 5: The Standard Case; Episode  6: Dr. Rock's Taxonomy & Episode 7: Descend Into the Particular // Also, here's a link to my blog, SonjaWrites // You can also follow me on Instagram @sbzthewriter // Also, I want to thank my "fake sponsor," Pushkin Industries for making such excellent podcasting content!!

A super timely podcast that I subscribe to every week ended up adding a useful layer to the topic of how "stories converge," and how important it is for us to talk about them! Cheers!! // This American Life: Episode 683 - Beer Summit

Thank you for joining me another episode of NERD ALERT! In this episode, I'm featuring a post that appeared on my blog the day after it went live. I felt compelled to post that particular entry on my blog because I hadn't quite worked out how tricky it was going to be to tell my story when the story of my life involves my husband, too! So it got me to thinking about how complicated it can be WHEN STORIES CONVERGE. // There are two main NERD ALERTS in this episode: 1) Podcast: Slow Burn Season 2 -- The Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky Scandal // 2) Podcast: Confronting OJ Simpson with Kim Goldman // Also, here's a link to my blog, SonjaWrites. The post featured in this episode was called Not Just My Story. // You can also follow me on Instagram @sbzthewriter

This bonus episode features a fantastic interview between Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis -- two famous authors, turned podcasters! The reason for this interview is to talk about Michael's new podcast series called Against the Rules. But the NERD ALERT in this short bonus only focuses on Episode 8 of Against the Rules, which provides a peek into the podcasting and creative process of two people Sonja Bentley Zant admires very much! And when added to the conversation that was started in Episode 02, this podcast interview helped Sonja further explore the idea that the authenticity of content -- not the perfection of it -- might be the thing that matters most! // Against the Rules Episode 8 // To follow Sonja on Instagram: @sbzthewriter // To read her blog: SonjaWrites