Notes and Links to Tom Junod’s Work

Tom Junod is an ESPN senior writer who has written some of the most enduring and widely read longform journalism of the last 30 years.

He joined ESPN in 2016 and has specialized in deeply reported stories on subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali’s funeral to Tom Brady’s desire to play forever. He has been nominated for an Emmy for his work on “The Hero of Goodall Park,” an E60 program on the ancient secrets that were revealed when a car drove on a baseball field in Maine during a Babe Ruth League game in 2018.

In a 2022 piece, “Untold,” he and ESPN investigative reporter Paula Lavigne spent nearly two years uncovering the horrific crimes of Todd Hodne, a Penn State football player who in the late 1970’s terrorized State College PA, and Long Island, NY, as a serial sexual predator.

Before coming to ESPN, Junod wrote for GQ and Esquire, where he won two National Magazine Awards and was a finalist for the award a record 11 times. For Esquire’s 75th Anniversary, the editors of the magazine selected his 9/11 story “The Falling Man’ as one of the seven top stories in Esquire’s history. In 2019, his story on beloved children’s TV host Fred Rogers, “Can You Say…Hero?,” served as the basis for the movie “A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys.

His work has been widely anthologized in collections including The Best American Magazine Writing, the Best American Sports Writing, the Best American Political Writing, the Best American Crime Writing, and the Best American Food Writing.

Buy In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to be a Man

Esquire: “Mr Rogers Changed Tom Junod's Life. Here's the True Story Behind A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Esquire Magazine: “Can You Say…Hero” Article about Fred Rogers

New York Times Review: “Tom Junod Would Like to Tell You about His Father”

“My Father’s Fashion Tips”-1996 GQ Article

“Untold”: 2023 Article from ESPN Regarding Penn State and Todd Hodne

At about 1:00, Tom talks about his night and days leading up to Pub Day, and the sometimes-arbitrary nature of publishing and Pub Day

At about 3:00, Tom talks about his upcoming book tour/events

At about 4:15, Tom highlights the greatness and importance of Amy Wallace and her work, an upcoming conversation partner for him

At about 6:30, Pete is highly complimentary-joining thousands and ten of thousands of fans-of Tom’s legendary “The Falling Man” article

At about 7:05, Tom responds to Pete’s questions about the ways in which Jerry Sandusky haunts Tom and Paula Lavigne’s master class in journalism, “ ”

At about 12:00, Tom expands on how the article about Todd Hodne pointed out the lies and hypocrisy regarding Joe Paterno and Penn State

At about 13:35, Tom responds to Pete’s questions about the seeds for In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to be a Man; he emphasizes the importance of a 1996 GQ article

At about 17:30, Pete brings up some intriguing quotes in making some connections between Lorenzo Carcaterra’s A Safe Place and Tom’s memoir

At about 18:30, Tom highlights the classic portrait of her father for the GQ article by Marion Ettlinger (also featured in the book), and talks about his father’s essence being captured

At about 20:20, Tom responds to Pete asking about his father Lou as a distinctive type of “man’s man”

At about 25:00, Tom talks about his dad as “Italian-adjacent”

At about 26:30, Tom discusses the two funeral services held for his father, and how “having the last word” in dealing with his father led to him becoming a writer

At about 30:50, Tom highlights a stunning eulogy from a former lover of his father

At about 32:10, Tom responds to Pete’s questions about balancing his father’s behaviors in his mind and in his feelings towards him; Tom emphasizes the “suspicions” about his father that he harbored for decades about his father

At about 36:50, Tom talks about love “unlocking” so much for his writing of the book, including his father but also his wife, his mother, his siblings, his aunts, etc.

At about 38:55, Tom reflects on ideas of grace and scrutiny involving his father, his paternal grandmother, and their life histories

At about 42:35, Tom responds to Pete’s question about how his life with his father has affected him as a father

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Please tune in for Episode 329 with Grant Ginder Please tune in for Episode 325 with Grant Ginder, the author of the novels Let’s Not Do That Again, Honestly, We Meant Well, The People We Hate at the Wedding, Driver’s Education, and This is How It Starts, a few of which have been made into movies. His latest is So Old, So Young.

The episode airs on March 13 or 14.

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