Tag: Tony Ganzer

My Favorite Non-Fiction Books of 2023

Favorite Non-Fiction 2022
My 2023 Wrap up continues and now we’re on to the Non-Fiction list. While I liked a number of works that didn’t make this list, I felt strange calling them a “favorite.” So, we have 7 instead of the nigh-obligatory 10. These are the ones that stuck with me through the year; the ones I cited in conversation; that I thought about when reading something else or watching something on TV. Yeah, there’s some overlap between this list and the audiobook list from yesterday—lately, most Non-Fiction books I work through are in audiobook format. So it makes sense, even if it makes this post seem like an echo.

As always, I only put books that I’ve read for the first time on this list. I don’t typically return to NF books (outside of looking up things for one or three points), but occasionally I do—for example, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs would get a permanent spot on this list, were it not for this rule.

(in alphabetical order by author)

Cunk on EverythingCunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena

by Philomena Cunk

My original post
If you’ve ever watched a video clip or a full episode of Philomna Cunk’s various shows/specials, you know just what you’re going to get in this Encyclopedia. If you don’t, finish reading this post and then go find some. Probably pound-for-pound the funniest thing I read this year. Utterly useless outside of that—in case that wasn’t clear. Whether you go from cover to cover, or dip into it here and there (probably for longer than you intend to)—these brief entries are almost certainly going to be a burst of entertainment for you. Not all of them are going to work for every reader—but never fear, just turn the page and you’re probably going to come across one that will.

4 Stars

Like, Literally, DudeLike, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English

by Valerie Fridland, Narrated by Valerie Fridland, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Keylor Leigh, Andrew Eiden, Christopher Ryan Grant, Ellen Archer, Eileen Stevens and Nicky Endres

I’m a sucker for entertaining books about language, grammar, etc. Fridland’s apologetic for “Bad” English drives my inner prescriptivist, up the wall—but she joins the growing number of writers who are sealing up that prescriptivit’s coffin. How good is this book? Her chapter (or maybe it was a section of a chapter) on “Um” and “Uh” was fascinating. If she can pull that rabbit out of a hat, imagine how good she can be when she talks about the use/overuse of “like,” the history of “Dude,” or the figurative use of “literally”—and so much more. I spent most of the time listening to this book just geeking out in a way that made me regret not becoming a sociolinguist myself.

4 Stars

Kneading JournalismKneading Journalism: Essays on baking bread and breaking down the news

by Tony Ganzer

My original post
There’s just so much to commend about this book that this little paragraph isn’t going to come close to hitting it all. Partial memoir, small bread-recipe book, and some great insights into the state of journalism and what it means for our society. This is a great read—challenging, but in a friendly, welcoming way. Thoughtful and thought-provoking without being combative or overly critical. Ganzer has a point of view—and makes no claim about lack of bias here—but isn’t pushing a partisan outlook, just a pro-responsible press outlook. Brief, but not insubstantial.

4 Stars

Nasty, Brutish, and ShortNasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids

by Scott Hershovitz

My original post
This was a great listen—Hershovitz is the kind of lecturer you want to pay attention to (or so imagine based on this). This book succeeded on multiple fronts: it was frequently amusing, if not downright funny; it was educational; it was insightful (even when I disagreed with what he did with the insights); it was thoughtful; it offered (largely by example, not being didactic) good parental advice; and kept this particular listener fully engaged throughout. Just what you want from an audiobook.

3.5 Stars

100 Places to See After You Die100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife

by Ken Jennings

My original post
A fun and informative traveler’s guide through afterlives depicted in Mythology, Religion, Books, Movies, Music and Theater, and from a few other sources. Jennings brushes against irreverancy, but (I think, I’m open to correction) stays on the respectful side. I absolutely had a blast with this—and learned quite a bit, too. It’s one that I’ll return to primarily as a reference, but I will appreciate the perspective and humor as I check my facts. The only problem I have with it is the lack of footnotes/endnotes—I want some source material!

4 1/2 Stars

Sundry Notes of MusicSundry Notes of Music: an Almost Memoir

by Ian Shane

My original post
Given how much I like Shane’s novels, it’s probably to be expected that I enjoyed getting some insight into the novelist. And as most of his novels are centered around music/people obsessed with music, it’s fitting that this memoir focuses on songs. There are parts of this book that are very funny—some bittersweet, some tragic, some simply thoughtful. Multiple essays will hit all of those points and more. They’re all engaging in various ways. Not one track on this playlist is going to leave you looking for the skip button.

4 Stars

The Worst We Can FindThe Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies

by Dale Sherman

My original post
Sherman is a man who knows about riffing on movies and helps the readers get a better knowledge of it, too. Yes, the focus is on Mystery Science Theater 3000‘s original run (runs?), but he talks about the show’s predecessors and the various projects that have sprung from it, too. Even if you know a lot about the show, its performers, etc., you’re probably going to learn something. And if you don’t? You’re going to enjoy the dashes of perspective that Sherman gives about movies in general and MST3K specifically. Everyone who did what they could to keep circulating the tapes in the 90s is going to eat this book up. Fans of more recent vintage likely will, too.

4 Stars

A Few Quick Questions With…Tony Ganzer

Earlier today, I posted my two cents about Ganzer’s book, Kneading Journalism, and now I have the opportunity to share this Q&A with the author. The note at the beginning was just something I included for him, but I enjoyed his response enough that I thought I’d throw it in.

There’s an intimidation factor I hadn’t anticipated in asking questions to 1. a journalist and 2. a journalist about a book on journalism. Hopefully this is worth your time 🙂
I really appreciate you taking the time to read these essays and wanting to engage in dialogue. Hopefully the feelings of intimidation and hunger subside with some bread and good chatting!

Could you take a moment or two to introduce yourself to my readers? What set you on the path to writing this book, describe your path to publication, and so on?
For most of my career I have been a public media broadcaster, working for NPR stations in the US, and was previously a correspondent for an English-language service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. I’ve been fortunate to have covered everything from tracing the Ricola production cycle from Alpine herb farm to cough drop, to the realities of Swiss gun culture. From the earliest experiences of “real world” journalism, though, I’ve been confronted with the juxtaposition of reality versus ideal. I wanted to tell sound-rich, character-filled stories all the time, but modern journalism is still very much a “feed the beast” apparatus all too often chasing minutiae and scandal. So more than 15 years ago I started writing short essays on my craft, and posting them on my website. I’d reflect on whether Glenn Beck being interviewed by Anderson Cooper on Glenn Beck’s show about Glenn Beck’s book was appropriate. Or I’d reflect on whether journalism as a craft is being practiced by other industries as a kind of “outsourcing” of journalism. These essays were part journal, part industry critique, and part lodestar to anchor me in my beliefs about what is good or bad about the industry. Journalists tend to be—and I’m speaking anecdotally and personally—a fairly cynical bunch, and in recent years I haven’t seen enough to salve that cynicism. The COVID period was strange on its own, but it goes well beyond that. Amid ever nastier political rhetoric about “the media,” amid disinformation campaigns, amid the continued deterioration of the journalism labor market, and amid personal and professional soul-searching, I looked for a way to more deeply preserve that “lodestar.” Given how important bread baking had become in my life—for food and mental health—I thought I had a unique enough idea, and after being hit by a car in March 2020 (a story for another Q&A!) I was even more determined to see it all the way to the end. I thought about the traditional publishing route, but decided to remain an independent publisher to make exactly the kind of essay collection I wanted, and to build publishing skills. I hired a talented illustrator, Nicole Falatic, and a newspaper editor friend, Brian Beesley, to keep me sharp. It just so happened that this project was wrapping up at the same time I decided to step away from daily news. I finished my MBA and found a job outside of journalism, and began a detox from push alerts. The book acts as a kind of a love letter to the brand of journalism I wanted to practice and I think we need especially now.

I think I missed your time at the UI’s Argonaut by a semester or two, but I enjoyed knowing there was a common-bond there. Something I’ve often wondered—does working on a student newspaper prepare you in any way for “real world” journalism?
To a degree, yes, if you have a well-structured program, and good advisers (which the UI does). The student newspaper, radio, and television could be seen as journalism with training wheels. You need to learn how to talk to people and to listen. You face ethical questions of what to report and how to frame stories. And something else people may not think about is how often nowadays student media are a first line of accountability and challenge to university administrations. Information can travel quickly on campus, and student reporters may be clued into big and small stories before they break into non-student press. One of my beats (areas of focus) while at the student paper was administration, which might sound boring, but it gave me a chance to build sources and explore budget issues. And sometimes big stories break on campus, even at the UI, requiring students to mature in their practice of the craft. After the FBI descended on campus, a colleague and I explored whether students’ rights were violated by interrogations. My experience in student media positioned me to be able to help tell that story then, and build experience that I applied once in the “real world.”

I thought the idea behind the “combination of baking and thoughts on the craft of journalism” was a stroke of brilliance—did that idea come to you fully-formed, or did you have to work your way to it?
Thank you for that—I know it’s definitely a niche combination! I had been tossing around the idea of combining my bread baking with my journalism for a while, but I didn’t know what it could be. I had been an assistant baker at a food co-op for a few months after college, but didn’t begin re-upping my bread skills seriously until 2018 as a stress reliever, and I thought maybe I could do a vlog following my progress. Being a radio guy, I’ve always felt weaker in video production and I like to learn through doing. So a vlog could help me improve in video (and early episodes show I needed practice!) while improving with bread as well. Now this is a bit of a random turn, but I had a chance online encounter with members of a passionate fandom for Korean megagroup BTS, which led to literally thousands of social media messages to me explaining the culture, philanthropy, and support network of their fandom. Long story short: for a time, I became a go-to resource for some people’s questions about journalism and the framing of stories. Usually this came after a writer was seen as misinterpreting the motivations or beliefs of this fandom. I asked whether some of these people would like me to try to demystify journalism and maybe throw in some bread baking, and there seemed to be some interest. So I began making vlogs showing my very amateur bread skills while I tried to explain something about journalism. Looking back at those breads…well, not all of them are pretty, but the project was more about personal progress (even through failure) and dialogue—if it’s not fully formed yet, well that’s part of it. Over time my breads improved, and I further refined my thinking about journalism. Eventually, I got to a point where I thought I could really elevate the concept with research and memoir, and the book was born.

You’ve traveled a lot as journalist—how would you say that journalists/journalism is regarded in other parts of the world? Either the work of foreign journalists or their fellow-citizens?
This is a tough question because I don’t want to generalize. There are nuances in every country to the relationship with the press. Most of my experience has been in the “West,” namely Europe and the US, in which there is more or less the understanding that quality journalism is valuable and that journalists should be serving the public. I say “more or less” because recent years have seen our common language and perceptions about journalism splinter into an unrecognizable battleground of semantic and ad hominem attacks. Even when speaking with people who are hostile toward “the media” I tended to be able to find space to dialogue with them on a person-to-person level. The desire to be heard and understood is the same in rural Ohio or Idaho as it was in a tea bar in Zurich with members of the Palestinian diaspora. But here are two observations: I will say that Germans, in my experience, were much better about news literacy than the US—that’s to say Germans typically knew about the top stories, and had read enough to form a fairly nuanced opinion about a range of issues. When living in Berlin I would often be on a morning train next to workers just getting off the night shift. These working-class guys would be drinking a beer at 7 or 8 in the morning, looking through the paper and having a great conversation on fiscal policy or foreign affairs. Maybe it was just my train, but that image stuck with me. Germany has faced populism and tabloid frenzies as other countries have, but I still considered their general news literacy very high. Second observation: it seems no matter where you are, people with power are generally accommodating to the press so long as they are not the target of a report. If a story can be used to further their goals—either noble or self-serving—they’ll be very helpful. It makes sense that someone would want their narrative to get the widest amplification possible, but when they actively obscure information, manipulate facts, or just lie, then the end product is at best incomplete and at worst propaganda. Even with journalists no longer playing the role of “gatekeepers” of information as in the past, the skills they should have are meant to help filter and counteract such manipulation…assuming they are truly independent of political favor or ideology.

You talk about the effect of having public officials calling the press an “enemy of the people.” Have things improved in the last year or two, or do you think it’s continuing?
Have things truly improved? No, I don’t think so. What’s happened—and this is just my opinion, of course—is we’ve entered a kind of ideological Cold War with our media. For the most part, the country has gone beyond just media echo chambers which reinforce perspectives or preconceptions. Increasingly we are living in parallel societies based on political, religious, cultural, or social identities in which we mostly hear information as being from “friend” or “foe.” These ideological ecosystems then work to defend the “friends” and defame the “foes,” reality be darned. Occasionally there are skirmishes and proxy wars fought on individual issues, or judicial or government nominees, or federal debt limits, but these events are just grist for the ideological mill working to perpetuate divisions. There are “neutral” players in the ecosystem. For news outlets, these may be the straight shooters just trying to document our times (a wire service like Reuters, for example) but they are often only paid attention to when they can fit the “friend” or “foe” role. The COVID pandemic showed the extent of the divisions, not just in discussions about state and federal response and economic aid (and potential misuse and/or fraud) but also in vaccines and medical advice. Many people died, it wasn’t clear how long the worst of the pandemic would last, and we needed an adult conversation about what we should do to protect ourselves and our posterity. Instead, the parallel societies did what they did best: partitioned reality and perception to accept information that was seen as coming from “friends” or “foes.”

To extend the Cold War analogy, what happens in the end? The opposing sides remain existential threats to a healthy democracy so long as dialogue is seen as a dirty word. It’s not about friends or foes, it’s about fellow citizens with their own perspectives which would add to a nuanced conversation. Is it easy? No. It is necessary? Yes. I try very hard to make personal connections with people when I speak to them for an interview or just in life. I’m not an idealogue, I’m not pushing a narrative—I’m just a guy investing time and energy in this interaction. Think of it as creating the Cold War “red phone” hotline to deescalate tensions. At the other end of the line wasn’t an ideology, it was a person.

Would you say you’re fairly optimistic or pessimistic about the next, say, 50 years of American journalism?
Wow, 50 years!? You think back 50 years from now, and we’re in the midst of the Watergate scandal, which many people see as the dawn of a new era for modern journalism. In the ultimate check on power at the highest levels, journalists proved their worth. A generation or two of journalists looked to emulate that check on power, even as the economics and tools of the trade vastly transformed journalism. Projecting 50 years beyond this point, I think there are a few things that are likely to happen:

  1. The ideological separations of our media will continue. The democratization of technology has allowed bloggers, podcasters, activists, malcontents, and everyone else to flood the world with niche perspectives, just as corporate and political media operations continue to further the “friend” and “foe” partitioning. We’re coming full circle to the partisan beginnings of the American press, and I don’t think it’s a good thing.
  2. Meanwhile, what we understand as “modern journalism”—well reported, nuanced, ethical—will continue to face financial pressures. Philanthropy will fund some operations for a time, as will corporations, but the net effect will be a smaller and smaller field of professionalized journalists. Work may be found behind subscriptions or paywalls or media bundles, meaning there will be further proliferation of free media of varying quality and perspectives, while the best stuff will be consumed by a shrinking number of citizens willing to pay for it.
  3. Because AI is all the rage right now, I do want to mention the potential for further evolution of robot writers. AI been used for years to create journalistic work, notably with financial news. If quarterly results stories are formatted the same way, every time, except for the numbers, then journalists can be freed up while the computers fill in news story mad libs, right? Further, AI could continue to scrape sentences and media from other websites to create for every user a personalized news report, with increasingly complex multimedia elements which may or may not be credible. I think AI-generated content will likely increase in an assistive capacity, for data crawling, visualizations, and perhaps even some basic writing. I think this technology has the potential to flood the mediascape with more and more questionable material, making it harder and harder for people to sniff out quality information. I’ve already pulled way back on my social media use (save for posting bread pictures) as a way to protect myself from “fake news.” This struggle will continue.

I hope we’ll see a renaissance of journalism, but the craft is on the backfoot.

We have to talk bread a bit—and frankly, as hungry as the book made me, I think I could go on for a while. Did you have to cut any recipients for space (or because you couldn’t think of an essay to pair them with)? What kind of feedback are you getting on including them? What’s your favorite to eat? Bake? (whether it’s in the book or not)
There’s a recipe for Swiss braided Zopf bread I came across years ago and I would’ve loved to include that because it’s an impressive bread (looks like a Challah) that makes a good gift. I also have a recipe for hot dog buns that I made into pull-apart dinner rolls that can be baked with Camembert. This may be controversial, but: bread recipes are pretty ubiquitous. The ingredients themselves have been more or less the same through the course of all bread history, so it’s the description and execution of the process which adds a personalized flavor. Those are two breads I left out because I didn’t want to force the concept too much—am I writing an essay because I think it should be written, or just because I have another bread to include? I also wanted the breads to be as accessible as possible. I’m not a bread sommelier, just a guy sharing what I’ve learned so far!

I think most of the response I’ve gotten so far has been about the bread, and not the essays! And that’s fine by me, because it means people took some time to at least try something new. But this concept of mixing bread and journalism has generally been well-received. It’s unusual, but taken seriously. And I do feel like I’ve been able to build a small community of bakers both new and experienced.

It’s tough to decide on a favorite bread. I think I like the Rosemary Asiago bread because it’s hard to screw up—cheese tends to be very forgiving on bread! I sometimes will make this bread into rose buns (sometimes called flower buns) which is a nice treat for the kids.

I’ve also just started exploring pain d’épices, which is just honey-based spice bread. I’ve not tweaked the recipe enough to consider it enough of my own, but it’s a good addition to the dessert arsenal alongside my Irish Gingerbread.

There’s a game we play around here, called “Online Bookstore Algorithm”. What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Kneading Journalism?
Oh—what a challenge!

Maybe Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, since I take a unique track into the topic!

A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain, even though it’s a different vibe, maybe someone would like a less-than-conventional take on food and stories.

And a recent book: maybe The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro. This memoir by NPR host Shapiro is a different kind of book, but still uses the lens of journalism to explore the world, as I tried to do.

What’s next for Anthony Ganzer, author? Do you have other books in you?
I would like to think I do. I’m not sure it will be the same kind of book (Kneading More Journalism? Kneading Journalism Harder?!) I’ve traveled so much in my life, and have talked to so many kinds of people, I feel like there is something to be said about lessons I’ve learned about myself through sometimes very personal moments with interviewees. I have a podcast where I use narrative journalism to explore issues of faith, and I thought they might eventually weave themselves into a book-appropriate format. Journalism tends to be a fairly non-religious industry, or at least that’s how it seems, so it could be a powerful lens to examine my reporting and my personal faith journey. It’s an idea at least!

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Kneading Journalism. I really enjoyed it, and hope it finds an audience.


Kneading Journalism by Tony Ganzer: Thoughts on Bread and the Press

Be sure to come back later this morning for a Q&A with the author!


Kneading JournalismKneading Journalism:
Essays on baking bread and
breaking down the news

by Tony Ganzer

DETAILS:
Publisher: Cherry Mountain Media
Publication Date: March 17, 2023
Format: eBook
Length: 166 pg.
Read Date: April 14-29, 2023


What’s Kneading Journalism About?

This book is centered on the idea of the kitchen table—a (perhaps mythological) place where people can sit down, have a meal, and discuss a wide range of issues with respect and frankness. What can be found in every culture on the globe on those tables as a staple—particularly when enjoying the company of someone outside your household? Bread.

Ganzer used to work in a bakery and has recently gotten serious about his breadmaking again. He brings bread into this collection in two important ways. First, he includes a recipe for a different kind of bread to accompany every essay. Secondly, he incorporates something about the enjoyment, projection, and/or history of a bread into the essay about journalism (this sounds like it’d take some stretching or forcing of the issue—but it doesn’t. Or Ganzer’s just so good that he can force it without it feeling that way).

Beyond that—the essays themselves are about the state of journalism/news media in the U.S. and in other countries around the world (not exhaustively, just where Ganzer has some experience), along with personal reflections on his career in journalism. Some of the topics he covers are: journalism education (and how it can help “consumers” as well as “producers”); Machiavelli and his relation to the media as well as contemporary equivalents; The Daily Show and similar “journalism cosplay”; and being a reporter in the middle of the Egyptian revolution.

Bread

I want to start by saying how much I love this way of organizing the essays and the motif of the bread.

I’m no expert, but the recipes (advertised as for any level of baker) do look easy enough and pretty tasty. I need to get around to trying them someday.

But more importantly, the way that Ganzer weaves the various breads and factoids about it (wow, Germans seem to love the stuff) into these essays is really commendable and helps hook the reader into the rest.

Journalism

Ganzer is an advocate for and believer in a certain type of journalism—one that cares more about informing citizens for the public good, not one that’s about reinforcing our own bias.

To say that he takes a dim view of most cable news would be an understatement. He’s also not crazy about the way that public figures are calling the press the enemy of the American people—and going out of their way to erode trust in the press. Since Watergate, American esteem of reporters has shifted, and over the last few years that shifting has sped up.

What Ganzer wants to reinvigorate is a respect for constructive journalism. Reminding the reader that reporters can—and should—serve a vital function in society. Particularly in a democracy.

He compares and contrasts, for example, the way the press has been viewed and used throughout history, as well as in other parts of the world—like Egypt and Germany.

I’m going to cut myself off here before I say too much about Ganzer’s arguments—he’ll do a much better job of it, and I don’t want to muddy the waters.

So, what did I think about Kneading Journalism?

This is a great read—challenging, but in a friendly, welcoming way. Thoughtful and thought-provoking without being combative or overly critical. Ganzer has a point of view—and makes no claim about lack of bias here—but isn’t pushing a partisan outlook, just a pro-responsible press outlook. Brief, but not insubstantial.

I enjoyed reading these essays and appreciated the insight and opinions. But I couldn’t stop with just reading—I spent time afterward thinking about the individual essays as well as the book as a whole. Both in terms of the content of the essays as well as in how to apply and evaluate what I read/watch.

I’m afraid this isn’t going to find the readership it deserves—but I hope it does find readers that the message resonates with and that they can at least spread the ideas and carry them into their own lives and media consumption. It’s something all Americans need to think about before it’s too late.

I encourage you to read and think about this. I’d grab a new book by Ganzer without much thought and would hope that there are other books like it out there for me to read, too.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion.


4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén