People generally set out to write their memoirs in times of relative boredom or malaise—in other words, when they’ve retired. Not so for Graydon Carter. He began working on his new memoir, When the Going Was Good, just after leaving his post at the helm of Vanity Fair, where he was editor for 25 years, and as he was starting AIR MAIL. But then, whether Carter was lampooning the excesses of 1980s New Yorkers in Spy, hosting Oscar parties for the ages at Vanity Fair, or poring over the seating charts for his Greenwich Village restaurant The Waverly Inn, he never was one to loaf. On this episode of Table for Two, he joins host Bruce Bozzi to discuss his experience working as a railroad lineman in Canada, the moment he realized the golden age of print was nearing its end, and how he was able to effectively separate his work and family life.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.