Episode 57: [Hidden Track]

This week Dave and Steel welcome their old buddy Spencer back to the show. Together, the trio discusses their dream tattoos, the NBA playoffs, great moments in terrible officiating, the best sports gambling moments in life and film, share some monumental hidden tracks from Travis, Todd Snider, Cracker, The Beatles, Wilco, and Beck, and Dave shares some beautiful Andy Pafko/Bobby Thomson-related book wisdom from Don DeLillo.

Links

Great Moments in Sports Gambling

Unchained Melodies: Hidden Track edition

Book Wisdom

This weeks’ edition of Book Wisdom came from Don DeLillo’s description of Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” in his masterwork Underworld.

 

Episode 56: Flip the Switch! Jordan Faux for President in 2020

Jordan Faux for President in 2020

This week Dave and Steel are very pleased to break some super important political news as Jordan Ford Faux announces his presidential bid for 2020. We discuss The People’s Elbow, his newly formed political party, cover some very important platform positions, hear his take on the most pressing issues of tomorrow, listen to his ideas for appointees to serve in “The Cabinet” (his official White House band), and hear a preview of some of his campaign music (Starship, Kurtis Blow, Neil Diamond, Wilco & Billy Bragg, White Zombie).

Flip the Switch: Jordan Faux for President in 2020!

Episode 55: Politics, Presidential Style

This week Dave and Steel are joined by their old buddy Jordan to discuss the biggest news of the day. They cover sportsball (NBA PLAYOFFS! LEICESTER CITY!), as well as the most important questions facing this year’s voters as they seek to decide who should become the next president of the United States, share some aspirational music for several of the leading candidates from Beyonce, Pink Floyd, Bill Frisell, Eminem, Tim McGraw, and Neil Young, and Dave shares some beheading book wisdom from A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones fantasy epic.

It’s a shorter episode this week, but we’ll release a VERY SPECIAL POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT in the very near future, so hang tight for that. All we’re able to say for now is that it’s going to be shifting some tectonic plates, electorally speaking.

Episode 54: Everything You (N)ever Wanted to Know About Babies

This week Dave and Steel bring back their old friend Amy (Scott) Anderson. Together the trio discuss epic meltdowns, some amazing things that have they’ve been dying to share with each other during Dave’s paternity leave, talk (for a long time) about babies and parenting, share great music they’ve been digging recently by AURORA, the Strumbellas, Pinegrove, AdriAnne Lenker & Buck Meek, and Whitney, and Amy drops some impressive book wisdom from Paul Kalanithi’s touching memoir When Breath Becomes Air.

Links

OTC Quick Hits

Assigned Reading

Unchained Melodies: Songs We’re Into Right Now Edition

Book Wisdom

Amy read a moving passage from Paul Kalanithi’s memoir When Breath Becomes Air, in which a dying father gives his final message to his infant daughter.

Featured image: Things not going so well for golfer Jordan Spieth, whose Masters collapse inspired our epic meltdown opening segment on this episode.

Episode 53: #ToniBraxton

Dave is out for a bit because his wife just had twins, so Steel hosted this episode solo. To remedy Dave’s absence, he brought on two old friends: Kate Kelly and Ashley Sanders. Together the three of them discussed the Virtues (Night) that initially brought the three of them together, shared small talk stories touching on staged child abductions for TV morning shows, dental dams, and failed sperm banks for geniuses (genii?), talked about their current obsessions (changing our minds, the Internet/AI, Charles Rezikoff), had a segment of expert testimony in which we discussed Planned Parenthood, ghostwriting for a legal firm, revealed where Kate gets her iconic cat-eye frames, parsed the definition of style, and gave our male listeners six life-changing style tips, among other things. As if that wasn’t enough, we also played great music by powerful women like Sia, Toni Braxton, Matson Jones, Dar Williams, Nina Simone, and Thunderbitch, and closed with some powerful book wisdom from Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook.

Links

Small Talk

  • I am on an email listserv for media stuff in NYC and the other day, an email came over the server from The Today Show asking for parents who would be willing to to let their kid be pretend-abducted on national television while a child abduction expert watched and analyzed what the kid did so he could give the kid and parents TIPS later on how to … be abducted better? Anyway, they were offering 15 minutes of fame and maybe, they didn’t know, a couple of martial arts classes if they could swing it? The response was amazing. [Ashley]
  • In another galaxy, on another podcast far, far away I explained what a dental dam is to a pretty large live audience. So, that is my life now, I guess. [Kate]
  • Robert Graham, super insane millionaire shatterproof eyeglasses magnate who tried to start his own utopian island and The Repository for Germinal Choice, a racist sperm bank for people with super high IQs. [Steel]

Unchained Melodies: Powerful Women Edition

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#ToniBraxton #4eva! #ThnxAshleysDad!

Book Wisdom

This week Ashley shared an inspiring passage from Doris Lessing’s classic The Golden Notebook.

Episode 52: Mornin' Mark

This week Dave and Steel are joined by one of their oldest friends, Mark Eliason. Together the three of them discuss Mark’s untreated tuberculosis, wow each other with some great small talk topics ($100,000 trash men, the long history of professional farting, and intermodal freight transport), ask Mark a bunch of questions about Bane & Company, his three advanced degrees, and his longstanding love affair with Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr., play six songs by U2, and hear some Wright brothers inspired book wisdom from David McCullogh’s biography of the aviation pioneers.

Links

Opening Segment

A list of great lives felled by tuberculosis.

Small Talk

Expert Testimony

Adam Clayton
Adam Clayton in full Jetsons regalia

Unchained Melodies: U2 Edition

Book Wisdom

This week Mark shared a passage from David McCullough’s biography of the Wright Brothers.

Featured image: Mark Eliason performing at NoiseFest 2K5 (Provo, UT).

Episode 51: Hey, Sister!

This week Dave and Steel are joined on the podcast by Dave’s older sister Melissa. They talk parenting, discuss some fantastic business ideas(OTC Shark Tank, basically) that will be sure to revolutionize your life, especially if you’re a discreet midget looking for meaningful work, have a segment of expert testimony with Melissa in which we discuss mothering and postpartum depression, play hauntingly sad songs by Patty Griffin, Bon Iver, Fountains of Wayne, Noah and the Whale, Daniel Johnston, and Dar Williams, and share some classic Arnold Lobel Frog & Toad book wisdom. Enjoy!

Links

Unchained Melodies: Depression Edition

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage of book wisdom was Arnold Lobel’s classic story “Cookies” from the book Frog & Toad Together.

Featured image: Melissa and Dave and their siblings as children. You can probably guess which one Dave is.

Episode 50: Our Golden Anniversary

This week Dave and Steel celebrate recording their 50th episode of Off The Chain (our golden anniversary!) by running through several listener questions, playing another round of Lost the Plot, sharing some all-time great contributions to small talk, playing timeless music by The Beatles, Otis Redding, The Refreshments, and Quasi, and sharing some book wisdom from John Steinbeck. This one’s a classic.

Links

A look back on the first 50 episodes

Guest Totals

    • 9 episodes: No guest [eps. 44, 43, 23, 11, 10, 9, 3, 2, 1]
    • 7 episodes: Spencer! [48, 47, 39, 21, 13, 12, 4]
    • 6 episodes: Jordan (if we count #49) [38, 33, 15, 5, 4]
    • 3 episodes: two-way tie: Howard [41, 28, 27] & Katie [26, 25, 14]
    • 2 episodes: seven people: Aaron Peck [46, 45], Matt Brown [37, 36], Zac Beus [35, 34], Josh Harder [32, 31], Julia Dauer [30, 29], Rosie [40, 17], Ryan [7, 6]
    • 1 episode: ten people: Dan Jennejohn [42], Jarom Sidwell [41], Eric Vivier [24] Rose & Emeline [22 — No DAVE!], Jon Stoffer [20], Alan Stoffer [19], Oliver Bendorf [16], Arianne [brief cameo in Ep 18], Amy (Scott) Anderson [8]
    • EPISODES WITH GUESTS: 40 of 50!
    • EPISODES WITHOUT DAVE: 1
    • EPISODES WITHOUT STEEL: 1
    • TOTAL NUMBER OF UNIQUE GUESTS: 21 [7 women in 10 episodes, 14 men in 30 episodes]

Most visited episodes

  1. Ep. 01 [1565 hits]
  2. Ep. 21 [1260 hits]
  3. Ep. 33 [605 hits]
  4. Ep. 31 [566 hits]
  5. Ep. 23 [462 hits]
  6. Ep. 03 [439 hits]
  7. Ep. 10 [406 hits]
  8. Ep. 17 [397 hits]
  9. Ep. 08 [371 hits]
  10. Ep. 13 [359 hits

Unchained Melodies Data

231 Songs in the Spotify Master playlist by 200ish bands.

Most Common Letter Names for Bands We’ve Played:

B: 34
S: 19
M, C: 16
D: 15
A, R: 13
L, P: 12

Least Common Letter Names for Bands We’ve Played:

I, X, Y, Z: 0
Q, U: 1
E, O: 2

Small Talk

  • The Penuma, a silicon Penis Implant, is real. James Elist, an LA surgeon, is the only person approved to use it by the FDA and has inserted it in about 1300 men.
  • NBA 2K is being sued for copyright infringement due to tattoo reproduction.

Unchained Melodies

Book Wisdom

This week Dave read a passage from John Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl classic The Grapes of Wrath.

Featured image by takomabibelot

Episode 49: On the Road Again

This week’s episode had some technical difficulties and the audio has some issues with sound quality. We tried to fix it, but occasional clicking sounds are still audible for much of the episode. We’ll do better next week.

This week Dave and Steel are joined by their friend Jordan–together the three of them spend about an hour talking about fatherhood, family, and survival as it relates to Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, give updates on the life and times of American hero Vin Diesel, play great music by David Bowie, William Onyeabor, Interpol, and Dethklok, and share some wrenching book wisdom from the American poet George Oppen.

Links

Diesel: Running on Gas

Unchained Melodies: Bowie Tribute and Soundtrack to The Road

Book Wisdom

This week’s segment of book wisdom was section 5 of George Oppen’s poem “Route” from his 1968 collection Of Being Numerous.

Featured image by Gilbert-Noël Sfeir Mont-Liban

Episode 48: Cities of the Future

This week Dave and Steel were joined once again by their old friend Spencer to discuss the perils and joys of home ownership, what cities of the future will look like, share some fantastic ideas for small talk (laying the heat when you next play Uno, gold-plated donuts, and Bigfoot hunting), share great music from Coldplay, Cake, Clem Snide, The Shins, The Fruit Bats, and Vajra, and Book Wisdom from Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace.

Links

Cities of the Future

    • Futurama: The 1939 World’s Fair in NYC
      • Thanks to The Institute for the Future, you can become a foresight practitioner [just $4500 for governmental employees!]
      • A recent Wired Magazine Future of Cities feature. Highlights: pneumatic tube garbage cans, cable cars in Medellin, informal transit system in Nairobi.
      • The World Future Society [Futurist magazine]’s weirdly super-specific predictions. Highlights: Traffic congestion will increase by more than 30% in 18 U.S. cities by 2030 [topped by Raleigh, NC of all places!]; Biofuel-powered hypersonic jets will shuttle passengers between London & Tokyo in less than 2 ½ hours by 2050; Dubai’s airport will be the busiest in the world, serving over 75 million passengers annually by 2015.
      • BBC predictions. Living street lights, farm scrapers, robo-taxis, etc. Pretty sensible, really.
      • CNN predictionsTop 10 future engineering predictions: super deep basements, floating sea cities, High-rise or rooftop farms, 3D printed homes, buildings with their own micro climates, huge bridges that span entire cities, spaceports with easy access to the Moon / Mars, super high buildings — cities in the sky, underwater cities, collapsible / stackable living pods
      • Elon Musk’s Hyperloop
      • Technology Ages in Reverse. According to one view of the future, 500 years from now our cities are more likely to look like they did during the American Revolution than what they look like now.

Small Talk

Unchained Melodies: Old Buddy, Old Pal Edition

Book Wisdom

Spencer shared passages from Volume III, Part I, Chapter I of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.