COVID Check-In with Brett Martin

Virtual Memories Show
COVID Check-In: Brett Martin

James Beard Award-winning writer Brett Martin checks in from New Orleans. We talk about his brand-new Best New Restaurants In America feature in GQ, how the world’s changed since he finished this annual tour and how this edition helps celebrate restaurants both for what they are and what they do. We get into his last great meal, the communal & celebratory spirit of New Orleans, the way he misses all the things he used to gripe about (travel, hotel rooms, etc.), the uncertain future of our alma mater, Hampshire College, my envy at what a fantastic writer he is, why he’s not bingeing prestige TV despite writing a book on it, his regular Meal of Bretts at Crescent City Steakhouse, and more! Give it a listen! And go read Brett’s Best New Restaurants In America GQ feature and his book, Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution, From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad!

You can listen to all these COVID Check-In episodes at The COVID-19 Sessions.

Listen to the conversation! Then check out the archives for more conversations from The Before Times.

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About our Guest

Brett Martin is the author of Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution, From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad (2014). He is a Correspondent and Chief Food Critic for GQ Magazine, a two-time James Beard Award winner and a six-time selectee of the annual Best Food Writing anthology. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, the New York Times and The New Yorker, among others, and on public radio’s This American Life. You can follow him on twitter at brettmartin and and listen to our full-length podcast.

Credits: The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Cloudlifter CL-1 and a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photos of Brett by him. It’s on my instagram. Other photos from GQ’s Best New American Restaurants feature, from left: Amanda Ringstad – Gado Gado; Hana Mendel – Pasjoli; and Aubrey Trinnaman – Nari

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