Justin Heckert (2013)

Published: Sept. 10, 2019, 5:15 p.m.

This is a rebroadcast of the original episode of Gangrey: The Podcast, featuring Justin Heckert. It originally aired in January 2013. Heckert talked with host Matt Tullis about his story \u201cThe Hazards of Growing Up Painlessly,\u201d which ran in The New York Times Magazine in November 2012. The story is about a 13-year-old girl who has a medical condition that makes it so she can\u2019t feel pain. \n \nSince joining the podcast, Heckert has reported and written a lot of other amazing stories. His story, \u201cSusan Cox is No Longer Here,\u201d ran in Indianapolis Monthly, and was later republished by River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. It\u2019s a haunting piece that looks at what happens when life, and death, don\u2019t go the way we expect it to. \n\nIn March 2014, he wrote a piece on Puddles the Clown for Grantland. In July 2018, he wrote about the last Blockbuster video store for The Ringer. And in August, he wrote about a year-long quest to save an injured loggerhead turtle. That story ran in Garden & Gun magazine.\n \nTullis also interviewed Heckert a second time in 2015 when he did an annotation of his Men\u2019s Journal story \u201cLost in the Waves\u201d for Nieman Storyboard.\n \nHeckert has written for dozens of magazines, including Esquire, GQ, ESPN The Magazine, Men\u2019s Journal, and Sports Illustrated. He has twice been named the City and Regional Magazine Association\u2019s writer of the year.