Hi Loyal Readers. Thank you for opening this week’s issue of Article Club.

Today’s issue is dedicated to a great conversation I had with Caitlin Moscatello, author of this month’s featured article, “The Monster at the Dinner Table.” In case you hit a paywall, here’s a gift link.

About the article

This is an article about a newish and very scary disorder that is affecting kids. It’s called ARFID, which is short for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. Kids with ARFID lose their interest in eating. Sometimes it’s mild — maybe your kid eats only one type of food, like chicken nuggets. But in some cases, it’s extreme — as in, your kid doesn’t eat at all.

About the author

Ms. Moscatello is a features contributor to New York Magazine, and has also written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, TIME, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other outlets. She’s a National Magazine Award finalist, and also the recipient of a Front Page Award. Her book SEE JANE WIN: The Inspiring Story of the Women Changing American Politics (Dutton) is a New York Times Editor’s Choice selection, and has been called “a profoundly inspiring work of journalism” by Apple Books. Caitlin is co-executive producer of the three-part HBO docuseries “An Update on Our Family,” which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film festival. The series is inspired by her 2020 New York Magazine feature Un-Adopted.

About the interview

I deeply appreciated speaking with Ms. Moscatello. We talked about a number of topics, including:

* how this piece originated

* how being a parent affected her reporting

* how she built trust with her sources

* how she balanced demonstrating compassion for the parents, while also making sure to be accurate about how ARFID manifests

In addition, Ms. Moscatello shared how she approaches the writing process, including how she organizes her longform articles. For example, she knew that this piece couldn’t begin with a medical examination of ARFID’s causes and impact on families. That would be too much dense information too soon. That’s why Ms. Moscatello decided to introduce Laura, Mark, and Amelia first. (Very effective, I thought.)

I also liked hearing that Ms. Moscatello is a “top-to-bottom writer,” meaning she begins at the beginning and ends at the end, rather than writing different sections out of order. You can listen to her elaborate on that idea here:

 The way my brain works, I need to start at the top and go in in order. So it’s really, I spend so much time on an opening paragraph. It is not abnormal for me to spend four days or five days on an opening paragraph. And the first part of a piece is always the densest and most difficult for me to get going.

I hope you enjoy the interview. Once again, huge appreciation to Ms. Moscatello for generously saying yes to Article Club.

An invitation to our discussion on October 26

I warmly invite you to participate in our discussion on Sunday, October 26, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. We’ll meet on Zoom. You can sign up below, it’s free.

Thank you for reading and listening to this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

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