I dwell in this episode on a small point Patrick Radden Keefe made in Monday's episode: How to know the proper arc for any story you report and write. That principle is called the And rule and it's guided me through more than 15 years in journalism and six years in the book publishing world. I think the And rule is applicable to any documentary filmmaker and maybe even screenwriters. 

 

I don't want to explain it here—listen to the episode! But I will say that I use it as a guide this story, which I wrote for GQ in 2017. That story was influenced by pieces like these, which LA-area newspapers put out. And they hinted how there might be a larger story for me to tell.