Tag: Expert Testimony

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Episode 42: Engerland, Oh Engerland

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This week Dave and Steel were joined by their old friend Dan to discuss the joys and virtues of the North of England, where each of the three served an LDS mission in the early 2000s. We talked about England for a long time, which was probably cathartic for all of us. Dan also did a great round of Expert Testimony: answering questions about weightlifting, hair care, clean energy business models, Middle Eastern food and weather women, and boxing, and we all shared great British Invasion music from The Rolling Stones, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Joe Cocker, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Lindisfarne and Steel read the Philip Larkin poem “The Explosion”.

Links

Unchained Melodies: British Invasion

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage of book wisdom was Philip Larkin’s gorgeous poem “The Explosion“

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Episode 41: College Memories

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On this week’s episode, we reunited with two old college friends, Matt Howard and Jarom Sidwell. The four of us shared stories of our undergrad adventures, talked about our favorite early morning cartoons and breakfast cereals, caught up with Jarom, who gave up a Hollywood animation career to spend more time with his young family, played tearjerkers from animated films, and heard some book wisdom from C. Terry Warner’s The Bonds that Make Us Free.

Links

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Episode 38: All Hallows' Eve!

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This week Dave and Steel are joined by Jordan for a special Halloween edition of the podcast. We discuss our all-time greatest Halloween costumes, share spooky stories, talk about scary films we’ve enjoyed, give an update on Vin Diesel and his latest Witch Hunter film, share spine-chilling tunes from Thurl Ravenscroft, Perfume Genius, Henry Hall, Nina Simone, Vince Staples, and Mastodon, and read a scary story to tell in the dark.

Links

Diesel: Running on Gas

  • Grantland’s Shea Serrano developed a Vin Diesel character matrix that we all agree is pretty accurate.
  • The folks at the Nerdist invited Vin to join a round of Dungeons and Dragons. They made a short teaser, called D&Diesel:

Unchained Melodies: Spooky Songs Edition

Book Wisdom

Jordan read “The White Wolf” from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a book which features haunting tales collected and retold by Alvin Schwartz and very memorable illustrations by Stephen Gammell.

Featured image by vandalog

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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.

Links

Recommended Record Labels

OTC Sport Team Owners

BASEBALL

BAD

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

GOOD

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

Unchained Melodies: Sports Owner Theme Songs

Book Wisdom

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

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Episode 34: A Mighty Wind

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This week Dave and Steel are joined by Dave’s old neighbor Zac, an accomplished pianist (you probably know him from his work with world-renowned Neil Diamond cover band Diamond in the Rough or his life-changing guest session with George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars at a Barack Obama inauguration with the Congressional Black Congress in a DC hotel) and holder of a five-year chip for meritorious bus driving in the Mesa Unified School District. He’s a big deal, obviously! In addition to Zac’s “expert testimony,” in which he explains the cultural value of jazz to the philistinic hosts, and gives some tips for avoiding disciplinary hearings as a high school bus driver, the trio share the latest in Vin Diesel developments, some great music featuring wind instruments from Beirut, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, Vulfpeck, and Tjupurru, and Dave drops some great vehicle related wisdom from Flannery O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood.

Links

Vin Diesel: Running on Gas

  • Vin’s a must-follow on Instagram
  • The Last Witch Hunter is less than one month away.
  • Although the search for a director for Fast & Furious 8 continues, Vin promises a closing trilogy for the series.

Unchained Melodies

Songs with wind instruments

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage was chosen by Dave and comes from Flannery O’Connor’s first novel Wise Blood.
Featured image for the post by Tom Marcello

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Episode 32: Back to School, Expert Testimony: Ed Tech and Uvula Facts Edition, OTC Disaster Movies, Unchained Melodies: Back to School Edition, and Two Poems

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This week Dave and Steel are joined once again by their friend Josh. They share back to school memories (lots of bus ride reminiscing), ask Josh about his loved of technology, pedagogy, video games and uvulas, and then Dave and Steel share some great music from Pulp, The Korgis, Modest Mouse, Blackalicious, Bombadil, and Camera Obscura, before Steel ends the episode by dropping some anti-teacher book wisdom from Roger Waters and Philip Levine.

Links

Expert Testimony

Israeli researchers explain the purpose of our uvula.

Unchained Melodies: Back to School Edition

Book Wisdom

This week Steel read the opening lines from the immortal Roger Waters’ poem “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” and Philip Levine’s “M. Degas Teaches Art and Science at Durfee Intermediate School, Detroit 1942“.

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images

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Episode 30: The Skunk & Following People, Expert Testimony: Lexington, Kentucky Edition, Ask OTC, Unchained Melodies: Songs About Animals, and The Seed Beneath the Snow

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This week Dave and Steel are joined once again by their friend Julia. Together they share stories of spying and following people, quiz Julia about all things Kentucky and ancient Greece, answer listener questions about Vin Diesel, eighteenth century literature and college, share great music from Beth Orton, Hayden Thorpe, David Gray, Joanna Newsom, Warren Zevon, and CocoRosie, and Steel shared a passage from Ignazio Silone’s novel The Seed Beneath The Snow.

Links

The Skunk

Dave recommends the children’s psychological thriller The Skunk by Mac Barnett.

Expert Testimony

Ask OTC

  • Check out Vin Diesel’s fake beard in his new witch-hunter movie.
  • Carry your book in a wagon when you go to college kids. That is all.

Unchained Melodies

Beth Orton — Dolphins

Hayden Thorpe — Goodbye Horses

David Gray — One with the Birds [Bonnie “Prince” Billy cover]

Joanna Newsom — Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie

Warren Zevon — Werewolves of London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpYBT0XyvA

CocoRosie — Werewolf

Book Wisdom

This week’s edition of Book Wisdom comes from Ignazio Silone’s The Seed Beneath the Snow, the third novel in his Abruzzo trilogy, which also includes Fontamara and Bread & Wine.

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Episode 28: Expert Testimony: Self-Help, Teen Boys and Tull edition, To the Limits, Ask OTC, Unchained Melodies: Jethro Tull Forever, and The Things They Carried

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He’s back, by popular demand! Following up on last week’s amazing appearance, Dave and Steel bring back their old buddy Matt Howard. In this episode, Howard explains his love of self-help books, troubled adolescent boys, and Jethro Tull, the trio discuss the incredible exploits of the Iron Cowboy, the unnamed peasant woman who gave birth to 69 children, and Jack LaLanne, take some great listener questions, put together a life-changing Jethro Tull musical marathon and drop some sobering book wisdom from Tim O’Brien’s collection The Things They Carried.

Links

To the Limits

Ask OTC

Paul O’Neill — A True Yankee

Rickey Henderson — The Greatest Basestealer of all-time

Jim Abbott’s No-hitter

Unchained Melodies — Jethro Tull Edition

Skating Away (on the Thin Ice of a New Day)

Bungle in the Jungle

Bourée

Life is a Long Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE8YLPHZImw

Thick as a Brick

My Sunday Feeling

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage came from the opening story of Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam book The Things They Carried.

BONUS TULL!!!!

Aqualung

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Episode 24: Life Hacks, Small Talk, Expert Testimony: Mississippi, Duke Basketball, and Buffalo!, OTC Authors: Thomas Nashe, Unchained Melodies, and The Genealogy of Morals

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This week Dave and Steel are joined by Steel’s graduate school buddy Eric. Together the trio share some recent life hacks, discuss the New Horizons spacecraft’s visit to Pluto (and its cargo of human remains), Sepp Blatter’s pope-blessed gold cross, and the strange phenomena of enormously popular online videos of other people playing video games. We grill Eric about all things Mississippi, his past life as an executive at Steve & Barry’s and a proud inhabitant of the Krzyzewskiville tent village, and his longstanding love for the Buffalo Bills, and Eric introduces us to the wild world of late 16th century English satire via the esteemed personages of Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey. We round the episode off with great Mississippi-connected music from Bob Dylan, The Weeks, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Mavis Staples, and Mountain, and Eric drops some book wisdom from Friedrich Nietzsche about the dangers of believing that we can achieve objectivity.

Links

Life Hacks

Small Talk

Expert Testimony

Thomas Nashe

Unchained Melodies

Bob Dylan — Oxford Town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSf_n8RispY

The Weeks — Dear Bo Jackson

Muddy Waters — I Can’t Be Satisfied

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSF-T5gwdxU

B.B. King — 3 O’Clock Blues

Mavis Staples — Down in Mississippi

Mountain — Mississippi Queen

Book Wisdom

This week’s passage of Book Wisdom comes from nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals.

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Episode 22: Adventures in Homeschooling, Small Talk, Expert Testimony: Parenting and Creativity, Everyday Heroes, Unchained Melodies, and I Hate To Leave This Beautiful Place

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This week Dave was out, so Steel had to hold down the fort without him. Fortunately, Rose and Emeline were available, and together the three of them had a delightful time, discussing Rose and Emeline’s homeschooling experiences, a newly discovered connection between the brain and the lymphatic system, the survival ability of the word ‘mother’, and the surging greatness that is emoji. The three of them also discussed some of the challenges of parenting and their struggles to balance familial commitments with the desire for a creative life, what it’s been like raising boys, the style era they’d feel most at home in, and three everyday heroes (all women) they wanted to praise. In this week’s edition of Unchained Melodies, the focus was on songs sung in languages other than English, and they shared great sounds from Fran Jeffries, Peter Pan Complex, Ana Tijoux, Natalia LaFourcade, Glen Check, and Super Furry Animals, before Rose shared some moving book wisdom from an Inuit folklorist recounted in Howard Norman’s memoir I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place.

Links

Small Talk

Everyday Heroes

Unchained Melodies

Fran Jeffries — Meglio Stasera

Peter Pan Complex — 자꾸만 눈이 마주쳐 (Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)

Ana Tijoux — 1977

Natalia LaFourcade — Aventurera

GD & TOP – 집에 가지마 (Glen Check Remix)

Super Furry Animals — Ymaelodi Â’r Ymylon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdUx2SYOiEk

Book Wisdom

This week’s edition of book wisdom was read by Rose, and came from Howard Norman’s memoir I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place.