Sarah Marshall (writer)

Marshall has lived most of her life in Portland, Oregon, including part of her childhood on Sauvie Island.

She received both undergraduate and MFA degrees from Portland State University, and has also taught writing at Portland State.{{Cite web |title=A Portland-Raised Podcaster Talks Hunkering Down with Her Parents |url=https://www.pdxmonthly.com/health-and-wellness/2020/07/a-portland-raised-podcaster-talks-hunkering-down-at-her-parents |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Portland Monthly |language=en-US}}

In 2014, Marshall published an 11,000-word essay titled Remote Control in The Believer. The story posits that Tonya Harding was "unfairly vilified" by the media in order to better shape and sell a narrative.{{Cite web |last=Schwiegershausen |first=Erica |date=2014-01-08 |title=Was Tonya Harding a Victim, Too? A New Essay Investigates |url=https://www.thecut.com/2014/01/new-essay-was-tonya-harding-a-victim-too.html |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=The Cut |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |date=2014-01-01 |title=Remote Control |url=https://www.thebeliever.net/remote-control/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Believer Magazine |language=en-US}}{{cite magazine |last=Marshall |first=Sarah |url=https://believermag.com/remote-control/ |title=Remote Control: Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, and the Spectacles of Female Power & Pain |magazine=The Believer |date=January 1, 2014 |access-date=December 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805052053/https://believermag.com/remote-control/ |archive-date=August 5, 2018 |url-status=live }} Marshall's piece was featured by Time magazine, and her piece is oft-referred to as a defense of a misunderstood woman in history.{{Cite web |last=Oshinsky |first=Sandy Allen, Dan |date=2014-01-05 |title=9 Feature Stories We're Reading This Week: Serpent Handlers And A Rivalry Remembered |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/sandraeallen/9-feature-stories-were-reading-this-week-12-30 |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=BuzzFeed |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Oregonian/OregonLive |first=Katy Muldoon {{!}} The |date=2014-01-04 |title=Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan: still making news 20 years after knee-whacking scandal |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/tonya-harding/2014/01/tonya_harding-nancy_kerrigan_s.html |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=oregonlive |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Schmitz |first=Ashleigh |date=2014-01-09 |title=The Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan Scandal Turns 20: Is Harding a Victim, Too? |url=https://parade.com/250941/ashleighschmitz/the-tonya-harding-nancy-kerrigan-scandal-turns-20-is-harding-a-victim-too/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays |language=en}}{{Cite magazine |date=2022-02-22 |title='You're Wrong About' Host Sarah Marshall on Revisiting Misunderstood Women |url=https://time.com/6149560/youre-wrong-about-sarah-marshall-interview/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |magazine=Time |language=en}}

As of 2023, Marshall said that she has never met Harding, a fellow Oregon native, despite being in talks with Harding's manager at one point. She stated that meeting Harding is not something she feels is necessary, noting "I don't think [Tonya Harding] would want to meet some woman who has all these thoughts about her career. She seems happy."

Marshall cohosted the series Late Night Love Affair in 2015 with Candace Opper. They discussed various literary topics, including a book review of Manson family member and convicted murderer Susan Atkins' Child of Satan, Child of God.{{Citation |last=Late Night Library |title=Margaret Atwood – Surfacing |date=2015-01-08 |url=http://archive.org/details/podcast_late-night-library_margaret-atwood-surfacing_378577342 |access-date=2023-07-03 |language=English}}{{Citation |last=Late Night Library |title=Susan Atkins – Child of Satan, Child of God |date=2015-05-21 |url=http://archive.org/details/podcast_late-night-library_susan-atkins-child-satan_342767495 |access-date=2023-07-03 |language=English}}

After her work on the Tonya Harding piece, Marshall was contacted twice by Michael Hobbes, first anonymously via fan-letter while working for a human-rights organization, and later while he worked at The Huffington Post when he wanted to collaborate with Marshall on misunderstood history. Starting in 2018, Marshall and Hobbes co-hosted the podcast You're Wrong About where they discussed misunderstood or misinterpreted events from history. Hobbes left the podcast in 2021 with Marshall continuing as a solo host.{{Cite magazine |date=2022-06-17 |title=You're Wrong About's Sarah Marshall on What Comes After Revisionist History |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/06/youre-wrong-abouts-sarah-marshall-on-what-comes-after-revisionist-history |access-date=2023-07-02 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}

Marshall hosts the podcast You are Good, previously known as Why are Dads, with Alex Steed. The hosts "attempt to understand what the hell it means to be the grown children of dads and other dad-like figures. And, as they do with all difficult subject matter, they do so by looking through a pop culture lens."{{cite web | url=https://www.remembersarahmarshall.com/podcasts | title=Podcasts }}{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=Chloe |date=2021-06-16 |title=You Are Good: A Film Podcast Unafraid of Feelings |url=https://podcastreview.org/review/you-are-good/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Podcast Review |language=en-US}}

Marshall has frequently discussed the topic of Satanic panic, a moral panic of largely unsubstantiated allegations of child sexual abuse starting in the United States in the 1980s. Marshall has discussed the possibility of writing a book on the matter of the Satanic panic, but has not published anything as of 2025.{{Cite web |last=Illing |first=Sean |date=2021-05-25 |title=Why are we so worried about Satan? |url=https://www.vox.com/2021/5/25/22356338/satanic-panic-america-sarah-marshall |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Vox |language=en}} The Satanic panic was frequently referenced in episodes of You're Wrong About specifically as a means of comparison to absurd or ridiculous events.

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:The Believer (magazine) people

Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon

Category:American women podcasters

Category:American history podcasters

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Portland State University alumni