Ilana Kaplan on Halsey, Phoebe Bridgers, and writing celebrity profiles in a pandemic

The guest in this episode is Ilana Kaplan, a prolific freelance writer who has written many features for many major publications including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Elle, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and GQ. In this episode we talk about how she's gone about writing profiles with major celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Lenny Kravitz during the pandemic, her very positive experiences with Halsey and Phoebe Bridgers, and how Rob Sheffield inspired her to become a writer.

 

Here's a few of the articles that Ilana wrote this year that are mentioned in this episode:

 

• Phoebe Bridgers profile for Vulture • Halsey profile for Vogue • Paris Hilton profile for NY Times • Jessica Simpson profile for LA Times • Hayley Williams profile for LA Times • Die Jim Crow feature for LA Times • Kylie Minogue interview for Elle • How Dance Music Defined a Year When We Couldn’t Dance for Ringer