OM DENNE EPISODE
Title: From Courtroom to Novelist: Jon Gegenheimer's Journey
Description:
Jon Gegenheimer has spent his professional life establishing what actually happened — first as a trial lawyer and military counterintelligence interrogator, then across nearly four decades as the elected Clerk of Court for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, keeper of the record itself. His novels do the opposite: they begin in history's blank spaces and ask what might have happened. Dickens' unfinished novel. An imagined 1939 golf match between Churchill and Hitler. What connects the courtroom to the novels is a single obsession: reading people.
In this conversation, Spencer and Jon talk about evidence versus imagination, what a lifetime of watching people under pressure teaches you about human nature, and why fiction became the second act of a life spent with the facts.
In this episode:
- How a legal career shapes a novelist — trying cases teaches you to read people
- Hurricane Katrina as the catalyst for his fiction writing
- Blending historical fact with fiction — all of his stories are footnoted
- Alternative history and the imagined 1939 Churchill–Hitler golf match
- Why you can't appease tyrants
- The film potential of his novels
About the guest:
Jon Gegenheimer is a longtime practicing attorney, elected court official, and novelist whose work explores the intersections of law, history, morality, and human nature. His novels include The Griffin Murders, The Canon Code, and Churchill vs. Hitler: The Untold Golf Match that Changed History. His books are available at jongegenheimer.com and the Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans.
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