“Not to confuse journalism with newspapers. Newspapers are one set of communication methods. But it's certainly not the only one. If they have the right mindset, and that's what I try to get them to do, there are so many more opportunities. You can go out and do a podcast, or you can do a newsletter. You can't think of it as I need to work at The New York Times. You have to think of it as I need — I need — to tell stories, and I've got this curiosity.”

Anthony DePalma is a journalist and professor at Columbia University. He’s the author of several books, his latest being On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. It’s published by Mariner Books.

He spent 22 years as a reporter for The New York Times, and another 8 as a stringer for them, so, let’s do the math … that’s 30 years. He reported a lot on Mexico and Cuba, as well as Albania, Guyana, and Suriname. You can find him at anthonydepalma.com and on the Facebooks and Substacks, at anthontyrdepalma

Anthony DePalma has been all over the world telling true stories. He’s the author of The Cubans, City of Dust, The Man Who Invented Fidel, and Here: A Biography of the New American Continent.

In this conversation we talk about:

• How not to confuse journalism with newspapers
• The NEED to tell stories
• The stunning lack of curiosity among young journalists
• Not wearing headphones on walks
• Accelerated intimacy
• Challenge of being of satisfied with the writing
• Still being a WIP
• What to do when you can’t be everywhere at once
• Cutting 30-40% of his ms
• Radical pragmatism
• What makes St. Benedict’s tough
• And how grafting apple trees is like writing

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Welcome to Pitch Club

Show notes: brendanomeara.com

"When I was writing the book, I used a lot of my interest in art criticism and nature writing to get cross pollinate into my sports writing. And I really try not to fall into a rut and just read only adjacent to my own subject or my own field," says Giri Nathan, author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men’s Tennis.

Today we have Giri Nathan (@giricube on IG), he is a staff writer/cofounder of Defector and the author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men’s Tennis. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in the last couple years. It’s funny and voicey and if David Foster Wallace’s tennis writing made sweet, sweet love to John McPhee’s Levels of the Game, you get Changeover. How Giri is able to illustrate why Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are so captivating and capable of inheriting the mantle held by Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokavic (who’s still going) is a triumph. This book may very well be the future of sports biography in that access to principal figures is almost impossible so you have to approach your subject more with a critical eye, like an art critic, and we talk about that …

Giri Nathan’s work has appeared in New York Magazine, The NYT Book Review, The Believer, and National Geographic. He made the 2025 edition of the Year’s Best Sports Writing and The Best American Food & Travel Writing.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Him taking John McPhee’s CNF class at Princeton
• Art criticism and nature writing as influences for Changeover
• Losing fandom
• The relationship to personality and style
• Writing from contemporaneous excitement
• Writing the fun scenes
• The insider-outsider perspective
• And keeping a running list of adjectives so he doesn’t repeat himself

Really fun stuff here.

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Welcome to Pitch Club

Show notes: brendanomeara.com

"I think, like all writers, I will feel an itch that I have to scratch. There will be an idea in my head that I've got to get down on paper, whether I follow through with it or not," says R. Renee Hess, author of Blackness is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey.

Who do we have this week? It’s R. Renee Hess, but you can all her Renee, of Black Girl Hockey Club. She wrote the essay collection Blackness is a Gift I can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey. It’s published by McClelland & Stewart.

After Renee finished her schooling and got a job and had some money, she sought to find a sport to follow that cut against the grain. Instead of baseball, football, or basketball, she thought, maybe hockey and it didn’t take long to realize that there very few Black people on the ice and in the stands. And even fewer Black women in the stands. In 2018, she launched Black Girl Hockey Club, a nonprofit organization that focuses on equity and including for Black women in ice hockey.

Renee was named one of three finalists for the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award in 2021 for positively impacting the community, culture, or society through the sport of hockey. Her work has appeared in Black Nerd Problems, Spectrum Magazine, and Racebaitr. You can learn more about Renee and her work at blackgirlhockeyclub.org and find her on the socials at @blackgirlhockeyclub

In this conversation we talk about:

• Tackling other genres
• Short Fiction
• Reading as a writer
• Going back to the classics
• What sustains the writing
• Taking representation further
• And focusing inward vs. outward in her BGHC work

Really fun conversation about the important work she’s doing and the work she draws inspiration from.

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Welcome to Pitch Club

Show notes: brendanomeara.com