Episode · How I Write · 2026-04-08
Books mentioned on Patrick Radden Keefe: How to Write Captivating Stories | How I Write
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David Perell discussed Titan by Ron Chernow. Patrick Radden Keefe criticized In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Titan
Titan by Ron Chernow is a comprehensive biography detailing the life and monumental business career of industrialist John D.
Discussed“Like, I don't want to pick up Titan, read about John D. Rockefeller's tie when he's 11 years old.”
Where to get it
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In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a foundational true-crime masterpiece that details the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Kansas and the subsequent capture of the killers.
Critiqued“It's one that I have a slightly ambivalent relationship to because to take, you know, a lot of people would point to In Cold Blood by Truman Capote as the book that sort of gave birth to the tradition, but the truth is there's a lot of stuff in that book that's not true.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (5) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Rogues
“I mean, to give you an example, there there was a guy named Mark Burnett who I wrote a big profile of in the New Yorker that's in my collection, Rogues.”
Plugged London Falling
“I have this new book that I have, London Falling, is a story of a 19-year-old kid who died in 2019 in mysterious circumstances.”
Plugged Say Nothing
“My book say nothing is kind of a whodunit. It's about a murder that happens in 1972 and at the end you find out who did it.”
Plugged Say Nothing
“I mean, I think it's hard because I don't you know, in the case of my book, Say Nothing, where it's about this murder and then at the end I kind of figure out who the murderer was.”
Plugged London Falling
“So, I think about those questions of ambiguity all the time and um I think if you do it in a kind of artful, thoughtful way, readers actually appreciate it. I think what people don't want is for you to take something that's ambiguous and just kind of clean it up around the edges for the sake of narrative coherence.”