

Reactions to new memoirs from Lena Dunham and Lindy West show how much the internet has changed. We're sorry, but something went wrong while fetching your podcast feeds. Please contact us at plus@slate.com for help. Episode Notes On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by author Leigh Stein, who landed her first book deal in the 2010s personal essay boom. With new memoirs from Lindy West and Lena Dunham, it feels like confessional writing is getting a 2020s rebirth. However, reactions to viral personal essays, like those in The Cut, prove social media has become a much different beast. Now, writing a personal essay is not only much more fraught, but can be downright dangerous. Did the personal essay change, or did we? This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay. Bonus Episode Bonus: What Happened After A Viral Lindy West Essay Leigh Stein’s essay about Lindy West’s memoir went viral, and provoked a telling response.
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