Season 5 Episode 9 | Stephen Marche | Writing, Failure, Endurance...and Civil War

On this week’s episode, I had a wide-ranging, bracing conversation with Stephen Marche on Some Things Considered—a writer I’ve admired since his Esquire days, and one whose work feels more urgent by the year.

We focused on two recent books that feel both timely and enduring: The Next Civil War and On Writing and Failure.

A few key threads from our conversation:

* The Next Civil War now reads less like prophecy and more like reportage. What once felt foreboding increasingly feels like documentation.

* What’s changed in America isn’t belief so much as amplification—fear and grievance supercharged by media, money, and political incentives.

* Narrative matters more than facts. The stories a society accepts eventually become its reality.

* Incoherence is not a weakness of extremist movements—it’s often part of the appeal. Hidden knowledge and insider logic create devotion.

* Trump wasn’t an aberration so much as an apotheosis of forces long ignored.

* Liberals and progressives continue to underestimate the power of story—and often lose not on policy, but on narrative.

* On Writing and Failure is essential reading for writers: unsentimental, clarifying, and strangely encouraging.

* All writers fail. Most writers struggle. The only variable that matters is perseverance.

* “No whining” isn’t cruelty—it’s honesty.