Category: Podcasts

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

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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.

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Episode 53: #ToniBraxton

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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

+

#ToniBraxton #4eva! #ThnxAshleysDad!

Book Wisdom

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

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Episode 52: Mornin' Mark

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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).

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Episode 51: Hey, Sister!

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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.

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Episode 50: Our Golden Anniversary

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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

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Episode 49: On the Road Again

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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

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Episode 48: Cities of the Future

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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 predictions. Top 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.

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Episode 47: Occupy OTC

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In this episode, Dave and Steel are joined once again by their old friend Spencer. Together the three of them discuss the top ten topics of conversation among the ‘patriots’ occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, answer listener questions about what to eat and how to keep yourself entertained if you decided to occupy a federal building, talk about ghost towns, share great music to occupy federal buildings to by Rage Against the Machine, Courtney Barnett, Twisted Sister, Ted Nugent, Woody Guthrie, and T. Powell, and drop some immortal book wisdom from Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Resistance to Civil Government”.

Links

Top 10 Topics of Conversation Among the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Occupationists

10. Best attire for occupation.
9. Supplies.
8. Guns & ammunition (and their various -bores)
7. How socialism is the worst
6. Soldering stuff. Your favorite soldering iron, techniques, etc.
5. Beard grooming
4. MREs and other food served in pouches
3. Survivalism: including how to catch rabbits in snares; making fires out of nothing; tracking stuff [esp. people]; walking silently like you’re a native, primitive shelter building; also yurts and snow caves; leather working.
2. Making your own jerky
1. What manner of heartbreak led you to this place today (she was probably beautiful).

Ask OTC

Best Films to Watch During a Federal Occupation

Red Dawn

The Rescue

The Full List of Supplies Required by Malheur Occupationists

Ghost Towns

Unchained Melodies: The Occupying Federal Buildings Edition

Book Wisdom

This week Steel shared passages from Henry David Thoreau’s classic essay urging nonviolent resistance to unjust governments, “Resistance to Civil Government.”

Featured image by DonkeyHotey

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Episode 46: New Year's Predictions

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This week Dave and Steel are rejoined by their friend Aaron to discuss their New Year’s Resolutions and New Year’s Predictions. Dave shares his top five presidential haircuts of all time, the three of them give their predictions for 2016 and 2116, they share extreme stories of human endurance on another installment of To the Limits, share great dance party music from Prince, Outkast, the Notorious B.I.G., LCD Soundsystem, Missy Elliott, and Miley Cyrus, and Steel shares New Year’s themed poems from Naomi Shihab Nye, Louis Zukofsky and W. S. Merwin.

Links

Presidential Hair

Big prediction for the coming year: presidential hair will become a major issue in 2016. With that in mind, here’s our list of the top 5 presidential hairstyles of all time.

  1. John Adams: the Nohawk.
    John Adams
    John Adams modeling the Nohwak

    Adams’ celebrity doppelgänger: Paula Dean.

  2. James K Polk: the original mullet.
    James K. Polk
    James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States and inventor of the mullet.

    Polk’s celebrity doppelgänger: Mel Gibson

  3. Franklin Pierce: the curly elevator.
    Franklin Pierce
    Franklin Pierce, sporting the ‘Curly Elevator’

    Pierce’s celebrity doppelganger: Lyle Lovett

  4. Andrew Johnson: the man bob
    Andrew Johnson
    Andrew Johnson proudly sporting the ‘man bob’

    Johnson’s celebrity doppelgänger: Tommy Lee Jones

  5. John F. Kennedy: the handsome man

    John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy, owner of the ‘handsome man’ since he was a child.
  6. HONORABLE MENTION: William Howard Taft: the wounded walrus.
    Willam H. Taft
    Taft relaxes, secure in the knowledge that no one can do the wounded walrus quite the way that he can.

    Celebrity doppelgänger: Richard Riehle

To The Limits

  • Carlton Williams, a 50 year old Welsh construction worker living in Australia, completed 2,221 pushups in one hour. He broke his own record, which had previously been 1,874 to 2,221–which is unworldly!
  • George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen were the first people to even row across the Atlantic Ocean, which they did in 1896 for a $10,000 prize that never came. Their time record for rowing the North Atlantic Ocean was not broken for 114 years, and then by four rowers instead of two.
  • In November, Shia Labeouf participated in a fascinatingly mundane movie marathon where he sat in a New York theater and watched all of his movies. It lasted three days and consisted of 29 movies. The public was allowed to come into the theater, and watch Shia’s movies with Shia. A live feed was broadcast where you could watch Shia’s face react to his own movies. At one point he fell asleep in the aisle during “Transformers 3.” Perhaps the most amazing thing about this was that Shia wore a giant winter coat with a hoodie underneath it the entire time. You’d think he’d get really sweaty.

Unchained Melodies: New Year’s Eve Dance Party

Book Wisdom

This week Steel shared three New Year’s themed poems: “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye; “[untitled]” (Celia’s birthday poem) by Louis Zukofsky; and “To the New Year” by W.S. Merwin.

Featured image by seanmcgrath

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Episode 45: Everybody's A Critic

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This week Dave and Steel are joined by Steel’s old friend Aaron Peck, a real-life professional film critic. Together the three of them recap their holiday adventures with children, talk with Aaron about his expertise in running, reading, and reviewing films (Aaron shares his perspective on the best films of 2015), play great movie soundtrack music from The National, Van Morrison, Bill Conti, R. Kelly, The Who and Radiohead, and Aaron shares some book wisdom from Roger Ebert’s memoir Life Itself.

Links

Expert Testimony: Aaron Peck

Reading:

Aaron’s Best Books of 2015:

Films

Film recommendations
Aaron’s Best Films of 2015:

All the new releases Aaron saw in 2015, ranked (1-120!).

Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013) [for Steel]

Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-Ho, 2013) [for Steel]

The Raid (Gareth Evans, 2011) [for Dave]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f6f_kfp1Z8

The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011) [for Dave]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRYA1dxP_0

Lost the Plot

Daylight (1996)

Unchained Melodies: Classic Tracks from Film Soundtracks

Book Wisdom

This week’s book wisdom came from legendary film critic’s Roger Ebert’s memoir Life Itself.

 

Featured image by blondinrikard