86. Closing Night Event: Susan Orlean with The Current’s Matt Galloway

Our closing night event features an author and journalist who has been shaping the cultural narrative for decades. Along with The New Yorker, where she’s been a staff writer since 1992, Susan Orlean has written for Rolling Stone, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and Esquire, always with her distinctive voice. Having enthralled us with bestselling books like The Library Book and The Orchid Thief, Orlean invites readers into her own extraordinary story in her eighth book, Joyride. Infused with an irrepressible exuberance, Orlean’s memoir traces her career through a golden era of journalism, and offers up invaluable advice for writers and anyone else pursuing a creative path. She speaks with CBC The Current’s Matt Galloway about confronting writer’s block, the shifting landscape of journalism, and how she follows her curiosity to the most unexpected places.

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Event Participants:

Matt Galloway

MATT GALLOWAY is the award-winning host of The Current, CBC Radio's flagship current affairs program. He has been with CBC Radio for more than 20 years. In addition to hosting Metro Morning for more than a decade, he has also anchored CBC Radio's coverage of the Olympic Games on several occasions, including Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, as well as the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In 2025, Galloway and The Current won the Edward R. Murrow Award For Outstanding Journalism for their coverage from Arizona in the lead-up to the US election.

Susan Orlean

SUSAN ORLEAN has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992 and is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book and The Orchid Thief. She lives in Los Angeles and can be found at SusanOrlean.com and on Substack.