Rosecrans Baldwin is a writer and regular contributor to GQ. His latest novel is The Last Kid Left. “It requires a lot of preparation in order to just have lunch with Roger Federer. Being a person who tends toward anxiety and also a former Boy Scout—put those two things together and I will exhaustively prepare so that I can come across like a complete idiot. The idea of sitting down with someone like that is that you should know everything about their life and their career so that you can go in with 12 questions in the back of your mind.” Thanks to MailChimp, Breach, CoinTalk, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019) @rosecrans Baldwin on Longform rosecransbaldwin.com [1:15]The Morning News [1:50] "My Life Cleanse: One Month Inside L.A.'s Cult of Betterness" (GQ • Nov 2018) [9:15] "The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the High" (Jay Caspian Kang • The Morning News • Oct 2010) [11:40] All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel (Anthony Doerr • Scribner • 2017) [12:15] "A Year of Kibble-and-Playdates Calculus" (New York • Oct 2007) [12:45] Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down (Picador • 2013) [13:00] Baldwin's archive at GQ [13:05] "Am I Too Old to Win the U.S. Open?" (GQ • Sep 2014) [13:45] "Will Roger Federer Ever Be Done?" (GQ • Mar 2017) [18:35] "Welcome to Camp Midlife Crisis!" (GQ • Aug 2016) [22:40] "Learn to Kill in Seven Days or Less" (GQ • Mar 2014) [33:50] Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace (Margaret Thaler Singer • Jossey-Bass • 2003) [34:20] "I Cried Enough to Fill a Glass" (Mark Fisher • Washington Post • Oct 1987) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices