Celebrated author Walter Kirn joins Allison on Media Mayhem and speaks with insight and brilliance about the state of American politics and the fun house mirror of class that informs us. From the current election and media horse race, to detailing his own relationship with modern criminal Gatsby, “Clark Rockefeller,” Walter and Allison talk frankly about the fascinating perception shift of journalists and the public at large.
While so many outlets urge their audience to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, this discussion brings the focus back to the truth beyond the manipulation.

Walter Kirn is a graduate of Princeton University. He has published a collection of short stories and several novels, including Thumbsucker, which was made into a 2005 film featuring Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn; Up in the Air, a feature film directed by Jason Reitman; and Mission to America. He has also written The Unbinding, an Internet-only novel that was published in Slate magazine.
Kirn has also reviewed books for New York Magazine and has written for The New York Times Book Review and New York Times Sunday Magazine, and is a contributing editor of Time, where he has received popularity for his entertaining and sometimes humorous first-person essays among other articles of interest. He also served as an American cultural correspondent for the BBC.
In addition to teaching nonfiction writing at the University of Montana, Kirn was the 2008-09 Vare Nonfiction Writer in Residence at the University of Chicago.