Assigned Reading

April 29, 2016August 27, 2017

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.

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.

Episode 39: In Praise of Youth

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This week Dave and Steel are joined by their friend Spencer. Together the three of them catch up on old reading assignments, talk about child prodigies, debate whether various prominent public figures peaked early or late in their career, play youth-themed music by the Jackson 5, Hanson, Laura Marling, Big Star, Peter Tosh, and Cat Stevens and Dave shares some heartbreaking book wisdom from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Links

Wunderkinder: Child Prodigies

Wikipedia’s list of child prodigies
The sad story of William Sidis
Mental abacuses!

OTC Debate: Picasso or Cezanne

University of Chicago economist David Galenson wrote a book called Old Masters and Young Geniuses, in which he theorized that there are two types of creative minds: “Old Masters” and “Young Geniuses.” He argued that some people (like Picasso) hit their creative peak relatively quickly with an intense burst of production in their youth. Other geniuses (like Cezanne) peak later in life, after a lifetime of tinkering and amassing experience. We decided to debate whether various public figures were Picassos or Cezannes.

Unchained Melodies: In Praise of Youth Edition

Book Wisdom

This week Dave shared a passage from Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road.

Featured image by Rosino

October 23, 2015August 27, 2017

Episode 37: Owning It

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This week Dave and Steel are joined once again by Dave’s old neighbor Matt Brown. Together the trio discusses Matt’s vinyl collection, the best and worst American sports teams owners in recent memory, give their recommendations for book of the year, play great music by Pavement, Jonathan Candido, Andrew W.K., The Baseball Project, and Barrett Strong, and share book wisdom from Don DeLillo’s first novel, Americana.

OTC Sport Team Owners

BASEBALL

BAD

Frank McCourt [Dodgers]
Marge Schott, the racist, chain-smoking cheapskate who used to own the Reds.

GOOD

Bill Veeck, the best owner of all time. Just watch the first 2 minutes of this if you need proof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6pUm5SHfMA

FOOTBALL

BAD

Mark Davis and his amazing hair cut. He co-owns the Oakland Raiders with his mother.
Dan Snyder [Washington Redskins]. I may not be an expert in this but the name seems racist.
Jim Irsay [Colts] and his ‘shadow life‘.

GOOD

Green Bay Packers, Inc., the only community owned team in major American pro sports.

BASKETBALL

BAD

Donald Sterling [LA Clippers]. This guy’s whole life. Holy crap.

GOOD

Steve Ballmer [LA Clippers]. Amazing everything. THIS COMPANY YAAAAAAAAAAAASSSS!
Jim Dolan [NY Knicks]. Amazing musician, bizarre friendship with Isiah Thomas
Mikhail Prokhorov [Brooklyn Nets]. Just read this. Yikes.
Ozzie and Daniel Silna [Spirits of St. Louis]. These brothers and former ABA team owners worked out a deal guaranteeing them a fixed share of TV money in perpetuity for giving up their team. Best legal deal of all time?

Books of the Year

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn: The Final Empire [Dave]
Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony [Steel]
William T. Vollmann’s The Dying Grass [Matt]

Unchained Melodies: Sports Owner Theme Songs

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage came from Don DeLillo’s 1971 debut novel, Americana.

June 19, 2015August 27, 2017

Episode 21: Pickup Basketball, Assigned Reading, Expert Testimony: Urban Planning, Unchained Melodies, and Those Winter Sundays

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This week Dave and Steel are joined by their friend Spencer. Together the trio discusses Steel and Spencer’s pickup basketball escapades, give reports on their recent reading (books by Thomas Pynchon, Dan Simmons, and Sabine Heinlein) and give each other new reading assignments (books by Frank Herbert, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Ignazio Silone, Brandon Sanderson, Daniel Kahneman, and Alexander Dolgun), Dave & Steel ask Spencer all their burning questions about urban planning and transportation issues, share great music by Dawn Landes, Saintseneca, Christopher Paul Stelling, Strand of Oaks, Adult Mom, and Konono No. 1, and drop a beautiful poetic tribute to fathers from the twentieth-century American poet Robert Hayden.

Episode 13: Ringworld, Sci-Fi Stack Exchange, Assigned Reading, Would You Rather?, Unchained Melodies, and I, Robot.

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This week Dave and Steel are joined once again by their friend Spencer to discuss lots and lots of very nerdy things. The episode begins with a discussion of Larry Niven’s Ringworld, and just goes downhill from there, descending into an exploration of arcane Star Wars and Star Trek trivia (anti-Wookie prejudice, the battle at Wolf 359, and Han Solo’s murderous encounter with Greedo). The trio also give each other some reading assignments, play a few rounds of an old “Would You Rather?” game Steel designed in college, share music from Phox, King Creosote, Torres, Blur, Blue Sky Black Death, and Vajra, and Dave drops some ominous wisdom from I, Robot Isaac Asimov’s classic collection of short stories.

Links

Ringworld

Ringworld is a series of 5 books written by Larry Niven between 1970 and 2002, with four prequels, cowritten with Edward Lerner and published between 2007 and 2010. Read more about the Ringworld at its wiki.

Sci-Fi Stack Exchange

Question #1: About Chewbacca (from Star Wars 4-6)

Question #2: About the Battle of Wolf 359 (from Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Question #3: About Greedo and Han Solo (from Star Wars 4)

Dave assigned Dan Simmons’ sci-fi classicHyperion to Steel.

Steel assigned Sabine Heinlein’s nonfiction Among Murderers: Life After Prison to Dave.

Dave and Steel assigned Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 to Spencer.

Would You Rather?

Way back when Steel was a freshman in college he wrote out a big, strange “Would You Rather?” quiz and administered it to dozens of friends. It’s now been revised slightly and turned into a 50 question Qualtrics survey, which you can take here.

Unchained Melodies

Phox — 1936

King Creosote — My Favourite Girl

Torres — Strange Hellos

Blur — Lonesome Street

Blue Sky Black Death — Threats (Instrumental)

Vajra — Earthscape 2039

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage comes from “The Evitable Conflict,” a short-story in science-fiction pioneer Isaac Asimov’s collection I, Robot.

Links

OTC Quick Hits