John and Craig welcome back screenwriter Mike Makowsky (Death by Lightning, Bad Education) to ask, how do you dramatize a historical event that no one's heard of? They look at the dramatic engine behind the Garfield assassination, the long journey Death by Lightning had to getting made, and the importance of finding great stories in obscure history. We investigate the peculiar habits and compulsions of our own writing practices, and see how personality typologies can help figure out what makes our characters tick. We also follow up on a certain orange book, breaking into Hollywood in your 30's, and offer our thoughts on the impending sale of Warner Bros. In our bonus segment for premium members, which TV shows had the best "coaching trees"? We marvel at the writers' rooms that launched the most successful writers today. Links: <ul> <li><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81438325">Death by Lightning</a> on Netflix</li> <li>Mike Makowsky on <a href= "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6782145/">IMDb</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mike.makowsky/">Instagram</a></li> <li><a href= "https://johnaugust.com/2020/scriptnotes-episode-448-based-on-a-true-story-transcript"> Episode 448</a> (The last time Mike was on the podcast)</li> <li><a href= "https://www.theringer.com/2025/11/19/tv/tv-show-coaching-trees-ranking?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email"> Which TV Show Has the Best Coaching Tree?</a> Alan Sepinwall for The Ringer</li> <li><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23372759/">Size matters: a single representation underlies our perceptions of heaviness in the size-weight illusion</a></li> <li><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38780803/">New evidence for the sensorimotor mismatch theory of weight perception and the size-weight illusion</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.friedmanpersonnel.com/">Friedman Personnel Agency</a></li> <li><a href= "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114423/destiny-of-the-republic-by-candice-millard/"> Destiny of the Republic</a> by Candice Millard</li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHvXl4aH-6E">The Ballad of Guiteau</a> from Assassins</li> <li><a href="https://gretchenrubin.com/four-tendencies/">The Four Tendencies</a> by Gretchen Rubin</li> <li><a href= "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/632029/writers-guide-to-character-traits-by-dr-linda-edelstein/"> Writer's Guide to Character Traits</a> by Linda Edelstein</li> <li><a href= "https://www.wired.com/story/a-fentanyl-vaccine-is-about-to-get-its-first-major-test/"> A Fentanyl Vaccine Is About to Get Its First Major Test</a> by Emily Mullin for WIRED</li> <li><a href= "https://www.hbomax.com/shows/heated-rivalry/50cd4e99-04ee-427b-a3b4-da721ed05d9c"> Heated Rivalry</a> on HBO Max</li> <li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3673480/">The Good Lord Bird</a></li> <li><a href="https://scriptnotesbook.com/">Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!</a></li> <li><a href= "https://cottonbureau.com/people/scriptnotes-podcast">Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!</a></li> <li><a href="https://blog.quoteunquoteapps.com/">Check out the Inneresting Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/">Become a Scriptnotes Premium member</a>, or <a href= "https://scriptnotes.supportingcast.fm/gifts">gift a subscription</a> (now with fewer emails!)</li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ScriptnotesPodcast">Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube</a></li> <li>Scriptnotes on <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/clmazin/">Instagram</a></li> <li>John August on <a href= "https://bsky.app/profile/johnaugust.bsky.social">Bluesky</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en">Instagram</a></li> <li><a href= "http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros">Outro</a> by Luke Foster (<a href= "http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed">send us yours!</a>)</li> <li>Scriptnotes is produced by <a href= "https://www.drewmarquardt.com/">Drew Marquardt</a> and edited by <a href="https://www.matthewchilelli.com/">Matthew Chilelli</a>.</li> </ul> Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode <a href= "http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/716standard.mp3">here</a>. (9:00) <a href= "https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/scriptnotes-a-book-about-screenwriting-and-things/id1779645741">Scriptnotes: A Book About Screenwriting and Things That Are Interesting to Screenwriters (Unabridged)</a>

Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

716 - Personality Typologies

Scriptnotes Podcast

AI Chapters

AI Insights

Reviews