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EST. MARCH 2010 · PORTLAND, OR · VOL. XIV
A candid, sunlit portrait evoking a long-form interview session
Issue 47 · Recorded in Portland, OR · 14 Sept 2024
EST. MARCH 2010 · PORTLAND, OR · VOL. XIV · ISSUE 47

The Conversations Archive

The Conversations

Forty-seven sit-downs across fourteen years. Co-stars, directors, crew, and the occasional voice from the music room — gathered, transcribed, and fact-checked by a three-person editorial desk that has been doing this since the first issue.

“A conversation is the smallest archive we keep. It is also, somehow, the most honest one.”

Read the latest interview A note from the desk
47 interviews 312 podcast episodes 9 contributors

Editor’s Note · No. 47

From the editorial desk

By Maya Calderón, Founding Editor · 3 min read

The first conversation we ever published was a twenty-minute phone call with a then-unknown New Girl writer in the spring of 2011, scribbled onto a yellow legal pad and typed up the same evening. We have, in some form or another, been doing this ever since — fourteen years, forty-seven sit-downs, and a small mountain of transcripts that now lives in three different backup locations and one very patient spreadsheet.

Every interview on this page follows the same discipline. A request is made on the record; a recorded conversation is captured with the subject’s permission; the transcript is returned to the participant for approval before anything is quoted; and every fact that appears in print is cross-referenced against at least one reputable outlet. We do not publish unattributed remarks, we do not paraphrase for punch, and we do not run pieces that we would not be willing to stand behind in a room full of editors.

If a quote cannot survive the people who said it reading it back, it has no business in our archive.

What follows is the full catalog — grouped by era so you can trace a career as a living timeline, from Mumford through the New Girl writers’ room, the She & Him recording years, and the recent work that brought us back to this page after a longer pause than we would have liked. Thank you for reading. Thank you, especially, for reading all the way through.

— Maya & the editorial desk
Portland, Oregon · September 2024

The Full Catalog · 47 of 47

The archive, organized by era

Four groupings, forty-seven voices. Browse by the period that interests you, or scroll chronologically — the order on this page is the order in which they were filed.

01

Early Career 1999–2007

The first eight conversations. Festival hallways, indie sets, a co-star who turned out to be a regular collaborator for the next decade.

  • No. 04 12 Aug 2002 With Cameron Crowe, on the set of Almost Famous In person · 38 min
  • No. 06 04 Mar 2003 With M. Ward, on a Portland porch, the first She & Him conversation on record In person · 51 min
  • No. 09 21 Oct 2005 With the costume department of The Hitchhiker’s Guide Email · 1,820 words
  • No. 11 19 Jun 2007 With Jake Johnson, on a non-descript Tuesday in Los Angeles In person · 44 min
02

New Girl Years 2011–2018

The years the network grew up. Eighteen conversations with cast, writers, and crew, mostly taped in the Fox lot commissary or over the phone on a Sunday evening.

  • No. 18 22 Feb 2011 With Liz Meriwether, showrunner, on the pilot she hadn’t written yet Phone · 27 min
  • No. 21 03 Sep 2012 With Max Greenfield, on becoming a person the audience roots for In person · 52 min
  • No. 27 15 May 2015 With Damon Wayans Jr., on leaving and returning Video · 41 min
  • No. 33 08 Apr 2018 With Hannah Simone, on the last scene they shot together In person · 1 hr 06 min
03

She & Him & The Music Room 2008–present

Fifteen conversations on records, tours, and the long quiet stretch between albums. Most were taped in studios; one was taped in a kitchen.

  • No. 13 11 Nov 2008 With M. Ward, on Volume One and what came before it In person · 58 min
  • No. 25 30 Jun 2014 With the engineers at Sunset Sound on Classics In person · 34 min
  • No. 38 17 Oct 2022 With the Melt Away touring band, on the road Video · 1 hr 12 min
  • No. 44 29 Mar 2024 With M. Ward, again, on the fourteenth year of She & Him In person · 1 hr 19 min
04

Recent Work 2022–2025

Six new pieces, the most recent in the archive. The latest is the one we recommend starting with; the others reward reading in order.

  • No. 47 14 Sept 2024 With the director of The Pursuit of Ordinary, on craft, casting, and patience In person · 1 hr 03 min LATEST
  • No. 46 02 Jun 2024 With the cinematographer of The Long Light, on lenses and light In person · 47 min
  • No. 45 11 Feb 2024 With the costume team, on building a wardrobe in six weeks Video · 39 min
  • No. 43 22 Oct 2023 With the editor, on cutting a film that ended up shorter than the script In person · 54 min
Discuss these in the forum →

By the Numbers

Fourteen years of editorial output, in four figures

  • 47 Verified sit-down interviews Co-stars, directors, crew, musicians
  • 312 Podcast episodes since 2016 Weekly, with two summer breaks
  • 9 Contributing writers on staff Plus a 14-person volunteer moderator council
  • 14 Years continuously operated Founded March 2010, Portland, OR
A desk covered with transcripts, a tape recorder, and notes — the working surface of the interviews desk
The editorial desk, on a Tuesday afternoon.

How It’s Made

From a request to a published piece — in five steps

A verified interview reaches this page through a deliberate, mostly analog process. Nothing here is rushed; very little here is automated.

  1. 01

    The request

    Outreach goes out by email, with a short note explaining who we are and what we keep. We do not send templated requests, and we do not promise exclusivity.

  2. 02

    The conversation

    Recorded on a Sony PCM-D10 with permission, in person when possible. The recording starts only after both sides have agreed on the record.

  3. 03

    The transcript

    Transcribed by hand by one of three rotating staff members. The transcript is then returned to the subject for approval — a non-negotiable step.

  4. 04

    The fact-check

    Every named fact — a film, a date, a credit — is cross-referenced against at least one reputable outlet before the piece is filed.

  5. 05

    The publication

    The piece is filed with a permanent URL, added to the chronological archive, and announced in the Sunday newsletter. It does not move from there.

Suggest a conversation Browse the full catalog