Pursuit editor Kim Green hosts Erika Krouse, author of a memoir about a landmark Title IX investigation.
Erika Krouse, an award-winning writer of fiction and nonfiction, has the kind of face that inspires confidences. Strangers often confess their secrets to her. And she has a talent for listening — to what people say AND what lies behind their silences. These gifts landed her a gig as a private investigator, working a landmark Title IX lawsuit involving sexual assaults at a prominent university.
It was the investigation of a lifetime for any investigator. But for Krouse, who had her own history of trauma and violence, the case felt personal — so personal, she wondered whether she should turn it down. But her desire for agency and justice (and a regular paycheck) won out, and drove her to work the case with a fervor that bordered on obsession.
Guest host Kim Green talks with Krouse about her new book: TELL ME EVERYTHING: The Story of a Private Investigation. It’s been lauded by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Slate and excerpted at CrimeReads. The memoir details her role in that five-year case — and how the work began to consume her life. Krouse reveals her investigative methods and complicated motivations with blistering self-awareness and candor and masterfully weaves her personal story of trauma and recovery through the narrative of the case.
In the webinar, we zoom in on the sorcery of convincing witnesses to open up — how P.I.s deploy empathy, skills of observation, and sometimes, a pretense of connection as superpowers of persuasion. And we tackle the ethical question of how much to consider individual witnesses’ best interest in the context of the job — and a wider search for justice.
“What worked with all these witnesses was what worked with everyone else: total devoted attention.” —Erika Krouse