WNYC's Tiffany Hanssen on Her Debut Crime Thriller Novel

Summary

Podcast Summary: Tiffany Hansen on Her Debut Crime Thriller Novel

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Tiffany Hansen
Episode Air Date: August 11, 2026
Topic: Tiffany Hansen’s debut crime novel, "My Name Was Jerry Sass"

---

Episode Overview

In this engaging conversation, Alison Stewart interviews her WNYC colleague, Tiffany Hansen, about Tiffany’s debut crime thriller novel, My Name Was Jerry Sass. The discussion traverses the novel’s inspiration, its characters (many of whom are drawn from Tiffany’s real life), the themes of grief and revenge, and Tiffany’s personal writing process. Listeners get a first-hand view of how a working journalist and producer crafted her first published novel while balancing a demanding job and pandemic uncertainties.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Origin of the Novel and Jerry Sass

• Hansen’s Writing Background

  • Tiffany describes herself as someone who’s “always been writing,” but didn't necessarily set out to become a novelist.

    "I've always been writing. I think writer's always going to write... I don't think it was ever a case of I'm going to do this thing. It was more just the story came together in such a way that I thought, this is pretty good." (Tiffany Hansen, 01:31)

  • The idea for a novel grew organically from personal circumstances and curiosity.

• Inspiration from Family History

  • Jerry Sass is a loosely fictionalized version of Tiffany's own estranged father.
  • During the pandemic, Tiffany used a DNA test and discovered four half-siblings, uncovering stories about her father which became fodder for fiction:

    “My running joke is I grew up an only child. I'm now the youngest of five.” (Tiffany Hansen, 02:16)

  • Jerry is depicted as morally ambiguous, with Hansen emphasizing:

    "I'm not gonna say he was a hitman for sure. I'm not gonna say he wasn't. But we can all agree that he was not a good D." (02:16)

Crafting Jerry Sass’s Voice and Perspective

• Writing in a Male Voice
  • Tiffany asserts her comfort with the "man’s world" and how this helped her shape Jerry’s character:

    “I am very fluent at speaking man. I've grown up in a man's world... once I kind of knew where he was coming from, his voice really followed pretty easily.” (03:43)

• Jerry in Purgatory
  • The novel is structured so that Jerry narrates part of the story from purgatory, reviewing his own life without conventional remorse:

    “I'm not sure that's the case for Jerry. I think there's a part of him that thinks that he did the best that he could by God... no one should be condemned for that.” (Tiffany Hansen, 04:25)

Early Sass: Portraying Grief and Revenge

• Introduction to Early
  • Early, Jerry’s daughter, is the protagonist driven to avenge her father’s death.
  • She’s inspired by Tiffany’s half-sister and serves as a sort of “alter ego”:

    "No, it's. She's really maybe my alter ego. What I would have loved to have been like, she's a little bit of my half sister who's a firecracker." (Tiffany Hansen, 05:49)

• Relationship with Jerry / Father-Daughter Dynamic
  • Early and Jerry are portrayed as having a loving (if imperfect) parent-child bond:

    “He takes care of her in that way, in his way, of course... she's his little bird.” (Tiffany Hansen, 07:11)

• Grief as Motivation
  • Early’s grief is channeled into vengeance, echoing the ethos Jerry passed down:

    “She is. Percent driven by revenge because of that grief. And I think in a way that Jerry instilled in her, that no holds barred, don't take any from anybody way about her.” (Tiffany Hansen, 07:18)

  • Tiffany reflects on the subjectivity of grief and its power to activate unexpected responses.

Other Character Inspirations: Father Dan

• A Real-Life Inspiration
  • Father Dan, a character in the novel, is inspired by Tiffany’s real-life friend who is an actual priest.
  • Tiffany highlights the human side of clergy, and how, like Jerry, Father Dan wants to be seen as a full person, not just a role:

    “People don't treat him as a person, they treat him as a priest.” (Tiffany Hansen, 08:37) "Everybody just longs to be seen as a human being. And I think... this is what Jerry gives him. Jerry gives him that feeling of being seen." (Tiffany Hansen, 09:23)

Writing Process and Balance

• Naming Characters (“Early”)

  • The protagonist’s name came intuitively; Tiffany acknowledges the mysterious nature of the creative process:

    “It just kind of came to me... Process is such a weird, amorphous, mystical experience of stuff just comes to you in the shower... or when I wake up..." (Tiffany Hansen, 10:00)

• Balancing Action and Emotion

  • The novel balances caper-style action with emotional depth, reflecting the complexity of its characters:

    "If you want a book that's fun to read and like, stuff happens and things explode and people get killed, that's this book. And also... it's about a man who's going through a crisis of faith... We're not all one thing." (Tiffany Hansen, 11:07)

• Juggling a Full-Time Job

  • Writing served as a creative outlet and form of relaxation for Tiffany:

    “It's... a way to unplug. It's a way to, you know, instead of doom scrolling, instead of watching veep for the 10,000th time... I do this.” (Tiffany Hansen, 12:06)

Advice for Aspiring Writers

• On Starting and Finishing
  • Tiffany’s main advice: Just finish it.

    "The thing you have to do is finish it. ...We can all start something, but so few of us follow through and finish. And if you don't, then it won't ever go anywhere." (Tiffany Hansen, 12:38)

• Sense of Accomplishment
  • Finishing brought an enormous sense of relief and achievement—tempered by the reality of edits:

    “I felt such a huge relief. Like, I did a thing. ...Until you get in to the 75 rounds of edits.” (Tiffany Hansen, 13:13)

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “My running joke is I grew up an only child. I'm now the youngest of five.” (Tiffany Hansen, 02:16)
• “I am very fluent at speaking man. I've grown up in a man's world.” (Tiffany Hansen, 03:43)
• “She is... percent driven by revenge because of that grief.” (Tiffany Hansen, 07:18)
• “Everybody just longs to be seen as a human being.” (Tiffany Hansen, 09:23)
• “The thing you have to do is finish it. ...We can all start something, but so few of us follow through and finish.” (Tiffany Hansen, 12:38)

---

Key Timestamps

• 00:33 – Introduction and background on Tiffany’s path to writing
• 01:31 – Hansen’s reflections on her ambition and literary identity
• 02:16 – Personal discoveries about her father and family history
• 03:43 – Discussion of finding Jerry Sass’s voice
• 04:25 – Philosophical discussion on remorse and self-justification
• 05:49 – Introduction to Early Sass and her inspiration
• 07:18 – Exploring grief, revenge, and character motivation
• 08:37 – Real-life inspiration and portrayal of Father Dan
• 10:00 – The creative process and character naming
• 11:07 – Balancing action with emotional narrative
• 12:06 – How writing fit into Tiffany’s daily life
• 12:38 – Advice for aspiring writers and finishing the work
• 13:13 – The emotional impact of completing the book

---

Conclusion

This episode of All Of It offers an intimate look at how a deeply personal quest for family truth became a fast-paced, original crime thriller. Tiffany Hansen’s candor about her process, her embrace of character complexity, and her advice for beginners resonate throughout the conversation. Through Jerry, Early, and Father Dan, Hansen explores themes of identity, remorse, grief, and human connection—while reminding listeners, above all, to just finish the story.

Transcript

[Announcer]

Paragould has luxury home's largest selection of outdoor furniture, lighting, decor and more. Access more than 2,000 of design's best brands with beautiful all weather pieces in every style from traditional to modern. Plus enjoy free design services and full service delivery on most items. Shop in store and [e-mail] Paragould luxury lives here.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. I've known Tiffany Hansen as a colleague here at wnyc, but I did not know that while the rest of us were doom scrolling to unplug after work, she was writing a novel. My Name was Jerry Sass follows a man with organized crime connections who is murdered and sent to purgatory. Back on earth, his daughter early sets out to avenge his death. Like father, like daughter. The novel also has a personal origin. Jerry was loosely inspired by Tiffany's own father, whom she did not know growing up. While researching him during the pandemic, she discovered four half siblings she never knew she had. As Tiffany joked, she grew up as an only child and is now the youngest of five. Publishers Weekly called the book a knockout. My name was Jerry Sass is out now. I was curious if Tiffany always wanted to write a novel.

[Tiffany Hansen]

I don't think I ever thought of myself as a novelist or that I maybe even still think of myself as a novelist. I've always been writing. I think writer's always going to write and, you know, a good product of the liberal arts education that I am, always thinking creatively, always writing things down, writing stories that no one should ever see. And. And so I don't think it was ever a case of I'm going to do this thing. It was more just the story came together in such a way that I thought, this is pretty good. I might as well, maybe I'll like, see if somebody else likes it. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

How did Jerry Sass come to you?

[Tiffany Hansen]

Yeah. So Jerry Sass is a very loosely fictionalized version of my father. My father is someone who I did not grow up with. I did not know. And during the pandemic I did. We all had time on our hands and I thought it would be a good idea to just see what I could find out about the guy. Couldn't find out very much about him. And so my husband suggested that I do the Ancestry.com DNA test thing. Found a couple of half siblings that I didn't know. I had my joke. My running joke is I grew up an only child. I'm now the youngest of five. So Jerry was. Jerry was an Interesting character. So I found out a lot about him from my half siblings. And obviously, if I'm saying that this is sort of a loose fictionalization of him, he wasn't a great dude. I'm not gonna say he was a hitman for sure. I'm not gonna say he wasn't. But we can all agree that he was not a good D. And so it really just came from finding out these little tidbits about him and not having grown up with him. I was always making up stories about him anyway, and so this just sort of seemed like, you know, the natural progression, I guess.

[Announcer]

How did his voice come to you?

[Tiffany Hansen]

I. Alison, we. I am very fluent at speaking man. I've grown up in a man's world. I'm very fluent in it. And I think for me, it was a voice that was just. It was fun more than anything. It wasn't that I thought too much about what his personality would sound like once I kind of knew where he was coming from. His voice really followed pretty easily.

[Alison Stewart]

Jerry talks to us from purgatory.

[Announcer]

We learn about his life.

[Alison Stewart]

And you write, Jerry's highlight reel was

[Announcer]

not at all a comfort to him. What did you want the reader to sort of understand about Jerry?

[Tiffany Hansen]

You know, I think that there's a notion that especially when someone is a position of having to review their life, that they will come to terms with the things that they did wrong or could have done better or in situations where they could have been better, and that they will say they will come to some remorse for that or regret for that. I'm not sure that's the case for Jerry. I think there's a part of him that thinks that he did the best that he could by God, and. And nobody should be condemned for that, and no one should be condemned for that. And so I think his is a story of how do we treat people who feel that they are just doing the best that they can do with the hand that they've been dealt with.

[Alison Stewart]

My guest is Tiffany Hanson, who has written her debut novel about a hitman who gets killed and the cascade of events that happened because of it. The book is called My Name Was Jerry Sass. It's out today early. Sass is his daughter? Yep. Where do we meet her? When we first meet her in the

[Tiffany Hansen]

book, we first meet her when she gets up and she's going to check on her chickens in her chicken coop. And she, you know, Jerry is gone for the day. She presumes, you know, she's. She's actually a little Bit more. I know a lot of people think that I'm sick. Supposed to, like.

[LifeLock Advertiser]

Right.

[Tiffany Hansen]

The natural thing is like, oh, if this is your dad, then this must be you. No, it's. She's really maybe my alter ego. What I would have loved to have been like, she's a little bit of my half sister who's a firecracker. So she. We meet her when she is still believing that her father is alive, and we see her eventually come to terms with his death in a way that is very Jerry Sasse. That is very much in a way that he taught her to be. Which is unapologetic.

[Alison Stewart]

What would you describe as their relationship?

[Tiffany Hansen]

Oh, he loves her. He dotes on her. He. She is. You know, and I wonder. Let's psychoanalyze me, Allison. I think I would have loved that. I use. Part of those stories I used to tell about my dad was that he was some kind of Daddy Warbugs figure who, like, lived in this big mansion on the cliffs, you know, overlooking the Pacific Ocean in California somewhere. And he was gonna just, like, swoop in and I was gonna. I don't know, doing what in this mansion? What I thought I was going to be doing. But she. He takes care of her in that way, in his way, of course, and in a way that is sort of. He's not Daddy Warbucks, but he has that, you know, she's his little bird. She's his little bird.

[Alison Stewart]

Early experiences grief in some ways that people might find odd. What does grief do to her?

[Tiffany Hansen]

It focuses her. She is. Percent driven by revenge because of that grief. And I think in a way that Jerry instilled in her, that no holds barred, don't take any from anybody way about her. And it activates her in a way that is, like you say, a little bit surprising. But to your point, I think grief is so different for everyone. And there's truth to that, that everybody's journey is different when confronted with grief. And she does confront it eventually. You know, she has her breakdown. She has her moment. She. Moments. She has her moments. But I think it's a. It's a personal journey that maybe not everyone can relate to in terms of, you know, nobody's going to start packing a Colt and hitting the road and taking off after some bad guys when they are overcome with a wash of grief. But you might like to.

[Alison Stewart]

Father Dan is a third person you meet who is Father Daniel.

[Tiffany Hansen]

Father Dan is also a real person, believe it or not. Yeah, He. I. Because I am a lapsed Catholic, I Can I call him not my priest. I call him a friend, which is probably more accurate. He's. He. I will. I should preface this by saying he's a real person, but he's not at all like the Father Dan in the book, who is very much not priestly like in his behavior as well. But so he came, he came to me because I. I love my friend Father Dan so much that he really came out of that love and I wanted to have. What is so interesting to me about the real Father Dan is this notion that people don't treat him as a person, they treat him as a priest.

[Alison Stewart]

They treat his collar.

[Tiffany Hansen]

They treat his collar. He, he. He's a guy, you know, he. He'll go out and have a beer with me. And he, like, everybody just longs to be seen as a human being. And I think that the d. The book is very similar to that. He just. And this is what Jerry gives him. Jerry gives him that feeling of being seen as a human being. And that's why Jerry's death hits him so hard.

[Alison Stewart]

So we know what you got Jerry from and where you got Dan from. How did you decide on calling her early?

[Tiffany Hansen]

You know, I have no idea. I mean, that really was one of those moments where it just kind of came to me. And I think that this is why I think, I think about this in our position. Sometimes when we ask people about Process, we ask them about writing a book or writing, you know, what it's like to write a Tony Award winning musical. Right. And I think. I don't know how I would answer that because Process is such a weird, amorphous, mystical experience of stuff just comes to you in the shower in the middle of the night when I wake up in the morning and I think, oh, this is what I need to do. And so the answer sometimes for those questions is, ah,

[Announcer]

well, it's interesting because

[Alison Stewart]

you talk about process. This book, it's sort of a caper as well. Your characters go through it. Car chases and there's bars. First of all, how did you know enough was enough? Because it could have been all car chases. It could have been all bar fights. When did you know was a time like, I need to pull back here?

[Tiffany Hansen]

You know, it was. This is an interesting thing where you try to balance that propulsive nature, right? This is the propulsion of the book. I say that there's kind of two. Two ways to look at it. Look, if you want a book that's fun to read and like, stuff happens and things explode and people get killed, that's this book. And also. Right, and also it's that grief you were talking about. And also it's about a man who's going through a crisis of faith. And it's sort of just a reflection of kind of who I am. And I think most people are like that. We're not all one thing. We're not all. Me and Allison driving down the road at 100 miles an hour, we'll do it. But we also do other stuff, you know, so it's just, it feels like a natural balance to me.

[Announcer]

You have a full time job here.

[Tiffany Hansen]

Yeah, I do.

[Announcer]

How did you find time to write?

[Tiffany Hansen]

It's for me, it's entertainment for me, it's a way to unplug. It's a way to, you know, instead of doom scrolling, instead of watching veep for the 10,000th time, instead of watching, you know, something I don't even care about on television, I do this. I do this. Yeah.

[Announcer]

What advice would you give to someone who's listening, who thinks they have this novel in them, it's somewhere bubbling inside of them. What would you tell them to.

[Alison Stewart]

How to start.

[Tiffany Hansen]

Yeah, do it. I mean, the somebody once said to me, the thing you have to do is finish it. Just finish it. I know. I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and said, I have this book. I started and I have a page done. I have two chapters done. I have this done. I have done. And my response is always, then finish it. Finish it. We can all start something, but so few of us follow through and finish. And if you don't, then it won't ever go anywhere.

[Announcer]

What did it feel like when you finished it?

[Tiffany Hansen]

I felt such a huge relief. Like, I did a thing. I did a thing. I mean, that's kind of crazy, Alison. I did a thing. I wrote a book.

[Alison Stewart]

Like what?

[Tiffany Hansen]

And so I felt a tremendous sense of, of accomplishment. Until you get in to the 75 rounds of edits.

[Alison Stewart]

That's another story.

[Tiffany Hansen]

And then it's like, okay, wait, I'm not done.

[Alison Stewart]

Apparently that was WNYC's Tiffany Hansen about her debut novel. My name was Jerry Sass. It is out now. And that's all of it for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.

[Shelby Power Advertiser]

What if your drive was fueled with more, like, more protection for more time on the road? Shelby Power Nitro plus provides more protection for longer lasting engines. So it helps keep your engine running like new for whatever drive is ahead. Shelvi Power Nitro plus engine performance that lasts compared to minimum detergent gasoline. With continuous use of Shelby Power Nitro plus and gasoline direct injection engines, actual effects and benefits may vary. See Shell Us More Protection for more information.

[LifeLock Advertiser]

Lots of places can expose you to identity theft.

[Announcer]

Oh no.

[LifeLock Advertiser]

That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away, all through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 30% your first [e-mail] podcast terms apply.