Podcasts about fc2

#ビンビンアイドルフェス2025 #横井佳 #パロディーソング #替え歌ではなくオリジナルです やみっちFC2さんの企画に参加すべく10年前から歌っている曲を久しぶりに録音してみました。 あくまでオリジナル曲です。 『世界に一つだけの花屋さん』（歌詞） No.1を花屋さんの店長さんは狙っている 花屋の店先に行きゃそりゃ色んな花はありますよ 人それぞれの好みに合わせて色んな花はありますよ その中にとりあえず並んどきゃ買ってもらえるかもしれない バケツの中で胸を張ってたら買ってもらえるかもしれない それなのに花の皆さんはどうして花屋さんに感謝しない ひとりひとりの違いばかりを主張しておられますが 偉いのは 世界に一つだけの花屋さん 一店舗ごとに経営努力をしてる その花屋さんに並べるように一生懸命に咲けばいい 困って悩んでもらえるのも花屋さんのお陰です 頑張って咲いたことを評価されるのも花屋さんのお陰です 色とりどりの花束になるように詰め込んでくれた花屋さん やっと店から出てきた客に笑顔で売り込んだ花屋さん 名前も知らなかった花を有名にしてくれた花屋さん 誰も気づかなかった花を有名にしてくれた花屋さん 偉いのは 世界に一つだけの花屋さん 一店舗ごとに経営努力をしてる その花屋さんを盛り上げるために一生懸命に咲けばいい 小さい花も大きな花も売ってくれる花屋さん No.1の花もビリの花も店長さんは分かっている

  Notes and Links to Jason Bailey's Work        Jason Bailey is a film critic, author, and podcaster. His work has appeared in The Playlist, The New York Times, Vulture, Vice, Rolling Stone, and Slate, among others. He is the editor-in-chief of Crooked Marquee, the former film editor at Flavorwire, and the author of six books-the most recent is Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend. He lives in the Bronx with his wife and two daughters. Buy Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend   Jason's Website   NPR Interview Re: Gandolfini     At about 2:25, Jason talks about book events and good places to buy his book, included Matt Zoller Seitz's dynamic website  At about 4:00, Jason talks about the incomparable Edoardo Ballerini as his audiobook narrator At about 7:05, Jason talks about his cinematic and reading influences since childhood; he tells a story of seeing “At the Movies” and becoming a cinephile and movie criticism fan At about 12:10, Jason responds to Pete's question about career thoughts in his adolescent years revolving around moviemaking/writing about movies At about 15:10, Jason talks about his approach in watching movies and whether or not he can watch a movie while “cleansing his mind” and not watching for “work” At about 16:40, Pete asks Jason about him going to movie theaters often At about 19:15, Jason responds to Pete's question about favorite movie(s)/movies that explain his aesthetic, and the two discuss The Godfather Part I and Part II (and Part III!) At about 23:35, Jason talks about being “sympathetic and empathetic and complex” in his depiction of James Gandolfini At about 27:30, Jason shares feedback he received from Sopranos crew members and Drea DeMatteo in particular about James Gandolfini's complicated legacy At about 29:50, Jason talks about how his moviemaking history makes him more sympathetic in reviewing movies   At about 33:45, Jason explains his background as a fan of James Gandolfini in connection to his earlier roles and his Sopranos role At about 38:50, Jason and Pete talk about post-Sopranos roles for James Gandolfini, typecasting, and delivery for iconic and moving lines At about 40:35, Jason gives background on James Gandolfini's view of the acting life and the importance of actors At about 43:30, Jason responds to Pete's questions about James Gandolfini's Italian identity At about 44:40, Pete and Jason discuss James Gandolfini's real-life and lack of real-life organized crime connections and Tony Soprano-esque accent At about 46:10, Jason tells an interesting, seemingly untold, story about James Gandolfini and dropping out of a Mafia movie At about 47:50, Pete shares a Sammy “The Bull” Gravano story and Jason talks about James Gandolfini choosing roles to “put the last nail in that Tony Soprano coffin” At about 50:15, The two discuss the haunting of James Gandolfini balanced with the great role of Tony Soprano At about 53:20, Pete uses a supposed “jump the shark” moment to ask Jason about James Gandolfini being incredibly hard on himself  At about 55:25, Jason comments on the dichotomy between James Gandolfini's incredibly selfless, and sometimes selfish, behavior At about 58:00, The two reflect on a sense of seeming-contentment and fading health At about 1:00:00, Jason responds to Pete's questions about “treading lightly” regarding revelations and sympathetic coverage of such a beloved figure At about 1:02:00, The two discuss revisiting The Sopranos dream scenes and the famous last scene after James Gandolfini's death At about 1:03:00, the two discuss the last scene(s) shot for The Sopranos At about 1:04:00, Enough Said and its poignancy is discussed in terms of the potential of James Gandolfini's acting range At about 1:07:15, Jason describes the “gift” that is the final quote in the book, from Robert Iler At about 1:08:00, Jason shares contact info and buying info for his book, from Abrams Books        You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow Pete on IG, where he's @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode.       Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. His conversation with Episode 270 guest Jason De León is up on the website this week. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review.     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl      Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting his one-man show, his DIY podcast and his extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    This month's Patreon bonus episode will feature an exploration of the wonderful poetry of Khalil Gibran.    Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show.    This is a passion project, a DIY operation, and Pete would love for your help in promoting what he's convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 284 with Vanessa Saunders, a Professor of Practice at Loyola University New Orleans. Her writing has appeared in Sycamore Review, Los Angeles Review, Stockholm Review of Literature and other journals. Her novel, The Flat Woman, won FC2's Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize.    The episode airs on May 6.

無料ホームページスペース「FC2WEB」が6月30日でサービス終了　24年の歴史に幕。　FC2は4月14日までに、無料でWebページを作成できる「FC2WEB」のサービスを6月30日で終了すると発表した。終了の理由は「FC2WEBのシステムは20年以上稼働を続けており、システムやサーバの老朽化が進んでいるため、保守が困難な状況」と説明。そのため、開発・保守を続けている「FC2ホームページ」にサービスを一本化するという。

後継サービス・FC2ホームページへの移行が可能です。

　株式会社ドワンゴは3月3日、同社が保有するコメント配信システムに関する特許権に基づいて、FC2, INC.等に対する特許権侵害訴訟の上告審について発表した。

#おやすみボイス選手権2025 #横井佳 #確実に寝れる #オチまで聴いて #販売したい やみっちFC2さんが主催する「おやすみボイス選手権2025」のエントリー作品です！ 後日YouTubeにもupします！ 音源が欲しい方はご連絡ください！ 無償でデータを提供します！ これでアナタも快眠！

Send us a textLoyal listeners, how would you describe FC2.0 to those wanting a podcast referral? We get so captivated by our conversations that we imagine you might like to listen in. A bit too narcissistic? Probably. Our 47th president is setting the pace for all of us. But we also hope that when you hear us rave about a TV or movie experience that we enjoyed you might find our reviews helpful. Mostly, we hope listeners are inspired to grow a few friendships around frisky, playful, and Jesus-welcoming conversations… and we pray our example helps.

「MLSネクスト・プロのタコマ、神戸の山田海斗を期限付き移籍で獲得」　　アメリカ、メジャーリーグサッカー（MLS）の公式育成リーグであるMLSネクスト・プロに参戦するタコマ・ディファイアンスが、J1王者のヴィッセル神戸から18歳のDF山田海斗を2025シーズンに向けて期限付き移籍で獲得することを、1月17日に正式に発表した。　タコマはMLSのシアトル・サウンダーズのリザーブチームで、2019年に改称するまでシアトル・サウンダーズFC2と呼ばれていた。2025年に更新されたシアトルと神戸の提携が、早くも成果を生み出した形となった。　山田は神戸U-18の主力として2023年と2024年の2シーズンにわたり活躍し、それぞれ1,890分、1,874分のプレータイムを記録。守備の中心として活躍しながら、攻撃参加でも可能性を示し2年間で3ゴールと1アシストを記録しており、将来を期待させる選手として評価されている。今回の山田の加入はチームの守備陣をさらに強化することを目的とされているとのことだ。　シアトルと神戸の提携は、両クラブ間の親善試合や合同ユースキャンプ、共同チャリティーイベントなどを通じて、さらに発展する可能性がある。また、神戸が2023年にプレミアリーグのアストン・ビラと提携したことで、将来的にはビラとの連携やイギリスでの親善試合、選手移籍など、欧州、アメリカ、アジアの新たな国際的な展開も話題に上りそうだ。　山田の移籍は、この長期的な提携の第一歩と捉えられており、若き才能が新たな環境で成長する姿に注目が集まる。また、今後も山田に続く選手発掘が期待されている。

#ビンビン紅白2024 #横井佳 #やみっちFC2 #実話 #弾き語り #ビンビン紅白2024特別版 Radiotalk M-1グランプリと並んでRadiotalkの、やみっちFC2の年末恒例イベントとなったビンビン紅白歌合戦に横井佳も初出演！ みんなも一緒に歌おう！

Send us a textWe know we're biased, but from start to finish in this episode, it felt like we set a new record of hard laughter during a single show. Admittedly, we road the coattails of last week's wedgie guffaws. But then, as often happens in FC2.0, we got to eavesdrop on David's therapy-seeking confessions to Dr. Dave. Let's just say it might take some healing before we can hold eye contact with one another in the immediate future. 

This episode's title was tough to land. If you've come to love our distinctively free-wheeling conversations at FC2.0, you'll enjoy this dance fest. We routinely pounced on and hijacked one another's topics, took them for a quick surfboard ride, then quickly caught another wave. One of the foamy curls we hung ten on was David's admission that he likes laughing at old people's troubles. Since Dr Dave is now 70, you might want to bookmark this moment as the day when it was no longer pure fun to be podcast partners. We're calling our sons to the green room.

Dave V and Roger V, we heard you. The week of August 8, 2024, will go down in history(!) as a shameful betrayal by the two lame hosts of FC2.0. Although, if you listen carefully to the details of this week's podcast, it does seem like one David owns more of the responsibility for our non-transmission than the other does. But, hey, since there's no "I" in team, why make it a big deal, right? We've got other bullhorn messages to stir us up. Seriously, thx for your patience. Have fun.

Keenly connected to contemporary headlines, your FC2.0 team jumped into the controversy surrounding the opening ceremony at the Olympics. As a result, we also took a swim in the Social Media River, mindful that even the Seine running through Paris may be less murky and polluted, especially for Christians. Thank God that Dr Dave's middle name is both a calling and a gift … we think.

One of the things we pride ourselves in delivering through our FC2.0 podcasts is a willingness to dive into our conversational walk-abouts without holding back. We fancy ourselves as comfortably authentic. No spin that's not exposed. That's why we might need to apologize for today's episode. As it turns out, David's desire to chat about "fibby-fibs" may have been a veiled attempt to coax Dr. Dave from his sleepy state for the sake of a more energetic, entertaining listening experience. Alas, this truth was left unsaid during our recording. Pray for us.

When loyal FC2.0 listeners have built their week around the expectation of our podcast being delivered by Thursday midday and it shows up on Saturday morning, confidence is shaken. Justifiably so. Having fun is one thing. Chilling with friends is OK, but there are times we simply need to get the right things done on time. Is that so hard to ask? Can we just agree it's OK to move directly to the mission that brought us together without the need to be coddled by preliminary pleasantries? Apparently not, as Dr Dave learned on location among the smarty-smart crowd in Houston. What's love got to do with it?

"X" marks the spot. In today's episode, it led to an ego-bruising delay of our scheduled recording. One feature of FC2.0 is that we Davids process our conflicts in real time, hoping we might bring benefit to listeners regardless of the personal pain. Or the giggles. We're ambidextrous that way…though David fancies himself a joy-eater. Maybe that's why he felt free to drag Dr Dave into yet another defense of his soon-to-be-recycled "Hungry Eyes" birthday picture. 

Many of us live in privacy and no space is more sacred than our bedrooms. It may not surprise loyal FC2.0 pod-heads to learn that David not only saw his neighbor through his 2nd story bedroom window, he responded to a beckoning wave. His cross-the-street encounter offers an apt and weighty metaphor for today's confusing social landscape; the unsettling wave came from a hulking, hairy human wearing a skirt and a smile. The old rules just don't work anymore…

We're hoping our loyal FC2.0 listeners appreciate the therapeutic breakthrough that took place on this episode. It's possible that our growth is a less entertaining podcast than we can usually deliver. If so, we apologize and pledge to do better next time. But somewhere in the middle of our haughty critique of elites and their snooty ways we realized that we are they. Our saving grace is that we exist here to simply talk (not live) a good game. Elitism is kind of icky.

If we were submitting an episode of FC2.0 for Grammy consideration (is that possible?), this might be the one. The giggles threaded their way through guffaws and groans as we talked about how surveilling Pappy might lead to disturbing discoveries about his cozy relationship with a wooden spoon. David's Saturday laughter gig in a Catholic church left enough residue to celebrate how ALL THINGS are a gift from God. We're claiming the joy while we search for our own utensils of comfort.

Some delays are due to natural causes. Planes don't fly on time when storms and fog are everywhere. In a similar way, your FC2.0 podcast is 24 hours late because David had "one of those days" …the kind we've all experienced. Please feel his pain as you listen in. And please hide your fantasy-inducing garden rakes. Most of all, don't use Dude Wipes.

Some people have a glow about them. After connecting with them, you can FEEL the warmth of life being transferred your way. That's glow. And if you're married long enough, you accumulate stories about conflict. So, the FC2.0 question we explored is: "How can we glow when we argue?" Lots of name dropping as we hunted for answers. Meanwhile, we truly hope our wives don't listen to this episode.

Don't you just love it when you discover how some things, when smushed together, make for a great tasting treat? As we zig-zagged through today's unscripted podcast we told a couple of stories and David tested out an idea for a comedy bit that makes for a sandwich worthy of its own name on the menu. That's how we came up with this title. Your assignment, loyal FC2.0 listeners, is to revisit the title after you hear what we giggle about in this episode and see if you enjoy a lingering laughter aftertaste!

Our first podcast of 2024 had a bit of holiday residue in it. Forgive us for being a bit distracted by news of who's on the Epstein list. And forgive us for disrespecting one of the great physicists of our time. Also, please forgive us for embarrassingly poor imitations of people we truly admire. One more thing: could you forgive us for spending even a smidge of time talking about goals for the new year? Maybe we should have agreed on the worthy goal of needing less forgiveness from our loyal FC2.0 listeners.

Join co-hosts Annie Liontas and Lito Velázquez in conversation with LitFriends Lucy Corin & Deb Olin Unferth about their travels in the Sahara, ancient chickens, disappointments, true love, and why great books are so necessary. Our next episode will feature Melissa Febos & Donika Kelly, out December 22, 2023.   Links Libsyn Blog www.annieliontas.com www.litovelazquez.com https://www.lucycorin.com https://debolinunferth.com LitFriends LinkTree LitFriends Insta LitFriends Facebook   Transcript Annie Lito (00:00.118) Welcome to Lit Friends! Hey Lit Friends!   Lito: Welcome to the show.    Annie: Today we're speaking with Lucy Corin and Deb Olin Unferth, great writers, thinkers, and LitFriend besties.    Lito:  About chickens, the Sahara, and bad reviews.    Annie: So grab your bestie   Annie & Lito: And get ready to get lit!   Lito: You know those like stones that you can get when you're on like a trip to like Tennessee somewhere or something, they're like worry stones? Like people used to like worry them with their thumb or something whenever they had a problem and it would like supposedly calm you down. Well, it's not quite the same thing, but I love how Deb describes her and Lucy's relationship is like, “worry a problem with me.” Like let's, let's cut this gem from all the angles and really like rub it down to its essential context and meaning and understanding. And I think essentially that's what like writers, great writers, offer the world. They've worked through a problem and they have answers. There's not one answer, there's not a resolution to it, but the answers that lead to better, more better questions.    Annie: Yeah, and there's something so special about them because they're, worry tends to be something we do in isolation, almost kind of worrying ourselves into the ground.   Lito: Right. Annie: But they're doing it together in collaboration.    Lito: It's a collaborative worry. Yes, I love that.    Annie: A less lonely worrying.    Lito: It's a less lonely place to think through these things. And the intimacy between them is so special. The way I think they just weave in and out of their lives with each other, even though they're far away from each other.   I think there's a romantic notion that you're tuned into about Lucy and Deb's trip to the desert. Do you want to say something about that? There's a metaphor in it that you really love, right?    Annie: (1:52) Yeah. Well, so I remember when we first talked about doing this podcast and invited them, we were at a bar at AWP, the writer's conference. And they were like, oh, this is perfect. We just went to the Sahara together. And I was like, what? You writers just decided to take a trip together through the desert? And they said, yeah, it was perfect. And they have adorable photos, which we of course are going to share with the world. Um, but it felt like such a, I mean, the fact that they would go on that kind of adventure together and didn't really plan ahead, I think it was just Deb saying, I really want to go to the desert. And Lucy saying, sure, let's go. Which feels very much a kind of metonym of their friendship in some ways.    Lito: Absolutely.    Annie: (2:42) Yeah. That they wandered these spaces together. They come back to art, right? Art is a way for them to recreate themselves and recreate their friendship. And they're doing such different things on the page.    Lito:  Oh yeah, no, they're very different writers but they do share a curiosity that's unique I think in their friendship, then unique to them.    Annie: Yeah and a kind of rigorousness and a love for the word.    Lito: (3:10) Oh and a love for thinking and reading the world in every capacity.    Annie: Tell me about your friendship with Lucy because you're quite close.   Lito: I was at UC Davis before it was an MFA program. It was just a Master's. After undergrad, I went to the master's program because I wasn't sure if I wanted to be an academic or do the studio option and get an MFA. I loved how Lucy and the other professors there, Pam Houston, Yiyun Li, showed us the different ways to be a writer. They couldn't be more different, the three of them. And, I particularly was drawn to Lucy because of her sense of art and play and how those things interact.    Lito: (03:59) And here was someone that was extremely cerebral, extremely intelligent, thinking through every aspect of existence. And yet it was all done through the idea of play and experimentation, but not experimentation in that sort of like negative way that we think of experimentation, which is to say writing that doesn't work, but experimentation in the sense of innovation. And. Lucy brought out my sense of play. I got it right away, what she was going for, that there is an intellectual pleasure to the work of reading and writing that people in the world respond to, but don't often articulate. Lucy's able to articulate it, and I admire her forever for that.    Lito: (4:52) And perhaps I'm not speaking about our friendship, but it comes from a place of deep admiration for the work that she does and the way she approaches life. You have a special relationship with Deb. I would love to hear more about that.    Annie: (5:04) Yeah, I think I've been fangirling over Deb for years. Deb is such a special person. I mean, she's incredibly innovative and has this agility on the page, like almost no other writer I know. Also quite playful, but I love most her humanity. Deb is a vegan who, in Barn 8, brings such life to chickens in a way that we as humans rarely consider. There's an amazing scene which she's like with a chicken 2000 years into the future. Also, I know Deb through my work with Pen City, her writing workshop with incarcerated writers at the Connally Unit, a maximum security penitentiary in Southern Texas.   Lito: How does that work? Is it all by letter or do you go there?    Annie: (5:58) Well, the primary program, you know, the workshop that Deb teaches is on site, and it's certified. So students are getting, the incarcerated writers, are getting now college credit because it's an accredited program. So Deb will be on site and work with them directly. And those of us who volunteer as mentors, the program has evolved a little bit since then, (06:22) but it's kind of a pen pal situation. So I had a chance to work with a number of writers, some who had been there for years and years. And a lot of folks are writing auto-fiction or fiction that's deeply inspired by the places they've lived and their experiences. It's such a special program, it's such a special experience. And what I saw from Deb was just this absolute fierceness. You know, like Deb can appear to be fragile in some ways (06:53.216), and it's her humanity, but actually there's this solid steel core to Deb, and it's about fortitude and a kind of moral alignment that says, we need to do better.    Lito: We have this weird connotation with the word fragile that it's somehow bad, but actually, what it means is that someone's vulnerable. And to me, there is no greater superpower than vulnerability, especially with art, and especially in artwork that is like what she does at the penitentiary. But, can I ask a question?    Annie:  Sure.   Lito: Why is it so special working with incarcerated folks?    Annie: (7:27) Oh, that's a great question. I mean, we need its own podcast to answer it.   Lito: Of course, but just sort of the...    Annie:  I think my personal experience with it is that so many incarcerated writers have been disenfranchised on all levels of identity and experience. Voting rights, decent food, accommodations, mental health, physical, you know, physical well-being. And we can't solve all those problems necessarily, at least all at once, and it's an up, it's a constant battle. But nothing to me offers or recognizes a person's humanity like saying, "tell us your story. Tell us what's on your mind. We are here to hear you and listen."  And those stories and they do come out, you know, there have been other programs that have done this kind of work, they get out in the world and there's, we're bridging this gap of people we have almost entirely forgotten out of absolute choice.  (8:27) And Deb is doing that work, really, I mean she's been doing that work for a long time and finally got some recognition for it, but Deb does it because she's committed.   Lito: That is really powerful. Tell us your story. Tell us your story, Lit Fam. Tell us your story. Find us in all your social media @LitFriendsPodcast or email us at LitFriendsPodcast@gmail.com   Annie: We will read all your stories. We'll be right back with Lucy and   Deb.   Lito: (09:00) And now, our interview with Lucy Corrin and Deb. Lucy Corin is the author of two short story collections, 100 Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses and The Entire Predicament, and two novels, Everyday Psychokillers and The Swank Hotel. In addition to winning the Rome Prize, Lucy was awarded a fellowship in literature from the NEA. She is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and a professor of English in the MFA program at UC Davis.    Annie:  Deb Olin-Unferth is the author of six books, including Barn 8, and her memoir, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Deb is an associate professor in creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. She founded and runs Pen City Writers, a two-year creative writing certificate program at Connally, a maximum security prison in southern Texas. For this work, she was awarded the 2017 Texas Governor's Criminal Justice Service Award.   Lito: (09:58) Annie and I thought this up a year ago, and we were talking about what is special about literary friendships and how writing gets made, not as we all think, totally solitary in our rooms alone, but we have conversations, at least I think this way. They're part of long conversations with our friends, our literary friends and living and dead, and you know, all times, in all times of history.   But the idea here is that we get to talk to our literary friends and people we admire and writers who are close friends with each other and friendships in which literature plays a large role.   Annie: (10:37) Yeah, and I'll just add that when we first floated the idea of this podcast, you know, your names came up immediately. We're so in awe of you as people and practitioners and literary citizens, and we love your literary friendship. I mean, I really hold it dear as one of the best that I know of personally.    Lucy, I think of you as, you know, this craftsperson of invention who's always trying to undo what's been done and who's such an amazing mentor to emerging writers. And Deb, you know, I'm always returning to your work to see the world in a new way, to see something I might have missed. And I just, I'm so moved by your generosity in your work and in your life's work with Penn City and elsewhere, which I'm sure we'll have a chance to talk more about.   Annie: (11:30) But I think I recall the first day I realized how close the two of you were when Deb told me that you all were taking a trip to the Sahara. And I was like, oh, of course, like, of course, they're going to have desert adventures together. Like, this makes so much sense. So I hope we'll, you know, we'll talk more about that too.    Annie (11:53) But we're so grateful to have you here and to have you in our lives. And we're going to ask you some questions to get to know a little bit more about you.    Deb:  Sounds great.    Lucy: Thanks.    Deb: It's great to be here. It's really great to see everybody.    Lito: Thank you so much for being here. Deb, will you tell us about Lucy?   Deb: (12:16) I mean, Lucy's just one of my very favorite people. And I feel like our friendship just started really slowly and just kind of grew over a period of many years. And some of the things that I love about Lucy is she is, well, of course, she's a brilliant genius writer. Like, I mean, no one writes weird like Lucy writes weird and no one writes like more emotionally, and more inventively and some of her books are some of my favorite books that have ever been written. Especially her last two books I think have just been such just major literary accomplishments and I just hold them so dear.    (13:05) And as a friend some things that I really love about her is that she will worry a problem with me that's just bugging me about like literary culture or about writing or about, you know, just it could be anything about aesthetics at all. And then she'll literally talk to me about it for like five or six days straight without stopping. Like we'll just constantly, dinner after dinner, like, you know, if we're on a trip together, just like all day, like I'll wake up in the morning and I'll be like, here's another piece of that pie. And then she'll say, oh, and I was thinking, and then we'll like go off and work and then we'll come back at lunch and be like, "and furthermore," you know? And by the end, I remember at one point we were doing this and she said, this is a very interesting essay you're writing. And of course, like it wasn't an essay at all, but it was just like a way of thinking about the way that we were talking.   (14:06) And then she is hilarious and delightful and just like so warm. I don't know, I just love her to pieces. She's just one of my favorite people in the whole world. I could say more, but I'll stop right there for a minute.    Annie: Lucy, tell us about Deb.    Lucy: (14:24) Yeah, I mean, Deb, I mean, the first thing, I mean, the first thing you'll notice is that Deb is sort of effortlessly enthusiastic about the things that she cares about. And that's at the core of the way that she moves through the world and the way that she encounters people and the way that she encounters books.   (14:44) I'm more reserved, so I'll just preface what I'm going to say by saying that like, my tone might not betray my true enthusiasms, but I'll try to list some of the things that I think are special and extraordinary about my friend Deb.   One is that there's this conversation that never stops between the way that she's thinking about her own work and the way that she's thinking about the state of the world and the way that she's thinking about the very specific encounters that she's having in daily life. And so like moving through a conversation with Deb or moving through a period of time with Deb in the world, those things are always in flux and in conversation. So it's a really wonderful mind space to be in, to be in her presence.   (15:35) The other thing is that she's like the most truly ethical person that I am close to and in the sense that like she thinks really hard about every move she makes.   The comparison I would make is like you know Deb is like at the core like, the first thing you might notice about Deb's work is that she's a stylist, that she works sentence by sentence and that she always does. But then the other thing she does is that she's always thinking hard about the world and the work, that it never stays purely a love of the sentence. The love of the sentence is part of the love of trying to understand the relationship between words and the world.    (16:15) And, and they're both an ethics. I think it's an ethics of aesthetics and an ethics of trying to be alive in as decent way as you can manage. And so those things feed into the friendship where she's one of the people who I know will tell me what she really thinks about something because we can have a baseline of trust where then you can talk about things that are either dangerous or you might have different ideas about things or you may have conflict.    (16:47) But because of my sense of who she is as a person, and also who she is with me, we can have challenging conversations about what's right about how to behave and what's right about how to write. And that also means that when the other parts of friendship, which are just like outside of literature, but always connected, which, you know, about your own, you know, your other friendships, your, the rest of your life, your job, your family, things like that, that you wanna talk about with your friends. Yeah, I don't know anybody better to sort through those things than Deb.    And it's in part because we're writers, and you can't separate out the questions that you're having about the other parts of your life from who you're trying to be as a writer. And that's always built into the conversation.   Annie: (17:40) I knew we asked you here for a reason.   Lito: We'll be right back.    Lito (17:58) Back to the show.    Annie: I'm hearing you, you know, you're both, you're sort of really seeing one another, which is really lovely. You know, you're, Deb, you're talking about Lucy wearing a problem with you, which I think conveys a kind of strength and... Of course, like I'm quite familiar with Deb's like strong moral anchors. I think we all are and truly respect, but I'm just wondering, what do you most admire about your friend? What do you think they give to the world in light of this portrait that you've given us?   Deb: (18:28) Lucy is a very careful thinker, and she's incredibly fair. And I've just seen her act, just behave that way and write that way for so many years and it just the quality of it always surprises me.  Like I mean, there was a writer, most recently there was a writer who's been cancelled, who we have spent an enormous amount of time talking about and trying to figure out just exactly what was going on there. And I felt like Lucy had insights into what had happened and what it was like on his end and what about his culture could have influenced what happened. Just all of these things that were.   (19:36.202) It was so insightful and I felt like there's no way that I could have moved that moved forward that many steps in my understanding of what had happened. And in my own like how I was going to approach what had happened. Like there's no way I could have done that without that just constant just really careful thought and really fair thought. Just like trying to deeply understand. Like Lucy has an emotional intelligence that is just completely unparalleled. That's one thing I really love about her.    Another thing is that she's like up for anything. Like when I asked her to go to the Sahara with me, I mean, she said yes in like, it was like not even 12 seconds. It was like 3 seconds, I think, that she was like, yeah.   Annie: You need a friend who is just gonna go to the Sahara.    Lucy: Deb, I don't even know if you actually invited me. The way I remember it is that you said something like, Lucy, no one will go to the Sahara with me. And I said, I would go to the Sahara with you.   Lito: That is lovely.   Lucy: (20:53) It's in Africa, right?    Lito:  Was there something specific about the Sahara that you need to go over for?   Deb:  Yeah, I mean, there was. It's a book I'm still working on, hopefully finishing soon. But it's mostly it's like...I just always wanted to go to the Sahara. My whole life, I wanted to go to Morocco, I wanted to go to the Sahara, I wanted to be surrounded by just sand and one line. You look in 360 degrees and you just see one line. I just wanted to see what that was like so badly, stripping everything out, coming down to just that one element of blue and beige. I just wanted that so much. And I wanted to know that it just went on and on and on and on.   (21:48) Yeah, and you know, people talk a big talk, but most people would not go. And so at one point I was just kind of rallying, asking everyone. And then Lucy happened to be in town and I just mentioned to her that this is happening. And then she said, yeah, and then we went for like a long time. Like we went to Morocco for like over three weeks. Like we went for like a month.    Lucy:  A month.    Deb: Yeah, crazy. But she's always like that. Like whatever I want to do, she's just up for it. I mean, and she called me up and she's like, hey, we want to come to Austin and like, go to this place that's two hours from Austin where you can see five million bats, right? Five million bats? Or was it more? Was it like 20 million?    Lucy:  That's right.    Deb: It was like 20 million bats and a lot of them are baby bats. It's like mama bats and baby bats.     Lucy: Yeah, like it's more when there's the babies.   Deb: (22:46) And yeah, and you were like, I want to come with them as the babies. Yeah, we like went and she just like came and Andrea came, and it was just absolutely beautiful.    Lucy: Well, you were just right for that adventure. I knew you would want to see some bats.    Lucy: Well, I could I could say a couple of more things about what Deb gives the world.    Annie: Sure. Love it.    Lucy: So some of the things that Deb gives the world and though when I listen to you talking about me, I realized why these things are so important to me, is that you have a very steady sense of who you are and a kind of confidence in your instincts. That I know that some of the ways that I worry things through are really productive and some of them are just an ability to see why I could be wrong all the time, and that can stymie me.    (23:48) And one of the things that I love about you and the model that you provide for me in my life is an ability to understand what your truth is and not be afraid to hold onto it while you're thinking about other people's perspectives, that you're able to really tell the difference between the way that other people think about things and the way that you do.   And it doesn't mean that you don't rethink things, you constantly are, but when you have a conviction, you don't have a problem with having a conviction. And I admire it enormously. And I think it allows you to have a kind of openness to the world and an openness to people who are various and different and will challenge you and will show you new things because you have that sense that you're not gonna lose yourself in the wind.    Deb: Mmm. That's really nice.   Lito: I am in awe of everything you've said about each other. And it makes me think about how you first met each other. Can you tell us that story? And why did you keep coming back? What was the person like when you first met? And why did you keep coming back to each other? Do you want to tell Lucy?     Lucy: Yeah, I'll start and you can add what I'm missing and... (25:06) tell a different origin story if you want. But I think that what we might've come to for our origin story is that it was one of the, one of the early &Now Festivals. And the &Now Festival is really great.   Lito: Could you say what that is? Yeah, say a little bit about what that is.   Luch: Oh, it's a literary conference that was started to focus on small press and more innovative—is the term that they used at the time anyhow—innovative writing as a kind of response to the market-driven culture of AWP and to try to get people who are working more experimentally or more like on the edge of literary culture less mainstream and give them a place to come together and have conversations about writing and share their work.   So it was one of the early ones of those. But I think it was, I think we figured out that there were like, yeah, there were three women. It was me, you, and Shelley Jackson. But it was, there were not that many women at this conference at the time. And we were, and I think we were noting, noting our solidarity. Yeah. And that, that's what. That's like some of the first images.   But I knew we were like aware of each other because in some ways we have tended to be up for the same jobs—Deb gets them—up for the same prizes—Deb gets them first, I'll get them later. And so I see her as somebody who's traveling through the literary world in ways that are... I mean, we're very different writers, but as people... You know what I mean? But I still... We still actually...come from a lot of the same literary roots. And so it makes sense that there's something of each other in the work that makes us appeal to overlapping parts of the literary world.   Deb: Yeah, I definitely think that there was in our origins, not only do we come from the same sort of influences, and just things that we admired and stuff, but I also feel like (27:28.018) a lot of our early work would have appealed more easily to the exact same people. As we've gotten older, our work isn't quite as similar. We're a little more different than we used to be. But there's still enough there that, you know, you can see a lot of the same people admiring or liking it.   But I was remembering that first time that we met, you playing pool. And we were, so we were like at a bar and you were like, and you were playing pool, and you had like just had a book out with FSG, I think, or something. I don't know if I even had—   Lucy: FC2. Very different.   Deb: FC2. That's right. FC2. And the FC2 editor was there. And I don't think I even had a book out. I don't remember what year this was. But I don't think I had any kind of book out. All I had was I had nothing, you know. And I was just so in awe of FC2 and the editor there, and you there, and like you could play pool, and I can't play pool at all. And it was just, it was—   Annie: Lucy's so cool. Yeah, she was cool. She was cool. And Shelly Jackson was cool. And it was like all the cool people were there and I got to be there, and it was great.   And then, yeah, and then I think how it continued, I don't know how it continued, we just kind of kept running into each other and just slowly it built up into a really deep friendship. Like at some point you would come through town and stay with me.   (29:25.782) And we moved, we both moved around a lot. So for a while there, so we kind of kept running into each other in different places. We've never lived in the same place.   Lucy: No, never.   Lito: How have you managed that then? Is it always phone or is it texting, phone calls?   Lucy: Well, we'll go through a spate of  texting.   Deb: Yeah, we do both. I think I like to talk on the phone.   Lucy: Yeah, I will talk on the phone for Deb.   Annie: The mark of a true friendship.   Lito: (30:01) Time for a break.   Annie Lito (30:12.43) We're talking with Lucy Corin and Deb Olin Unferth.   Lito: How has literature shaped your friendship then? Despite being cool. What kind of books, movies, art do you love to discuss? You can name names. What do you love talking about?   Deb: Well, I remember the moment with Donald Barthelme.   Lucy: That was what I was gonna say.   Deb: No, you go ahead.   Lucy: Well, why don't?   Deb: Oh, okay, you can tell it.   Lucy: I mean, I'll tell part and then you can tell part. It's not that elaborate, but we were, one of the things that Deb and I do is find a pretty place, rent a space, and go work together. And one time we were doing that in Mendocino and Deb was in the late stages of drafting Barn 8 and really thinking about the ancient chickens and the chickens in an ancient space. And we went for a walk in one of those very ferny forests, and Deb was thinking about the chickens and among the giant ferns. And I don't know how it happened, but Deb said something with a rhythm. And we both said to each other the exact line from Donald Barthelme's "The School" that has that rhythm.   (31:34) Is that how you remember it though? You have to tell me if that's how you remember it.   Deb: That's exactly how I remember it. Yeah. And then we like said a few more lines. Like we knew even...    Lito: You remember the line now?   Lucy: I mean, I don't... You do. If you said it, I could do it. I'm just... I was thinking before this, I'm like, oh God, I should go look up the line because I'm not going to get it right, like under pressure. It was just in the moment. It came so naturally.   Deb: It was one of those lines that goes... (32:03) Da da da-da da, da da da-da-da. There's a little parenthetical, it's not really in parentheses in the story, but it might be a little dash mark. But it has, it's something like, "I told them that they should not be afraid, although I am often afraid." I think it was that one.   Deb: I am often afraid. Yeah. And then it was like, we just both remembered a whole bunch of lines like from the end, because the ending of that story is so amazing. And it's, so the fact that we had both unconsciously memorized it and could just like.   And it was something about just like walking under those giant trees and having this weekend together. And like we're like marching along, like calling out lines from Donald Barthelme. And it just felt really like pure and deep.   Annie: It's I mean, I can't imagine anything sounding more like true love than spontaneously reciting a line in unison from Barthelme. And, you know, you both are talking about how your work really converged at the start and that there are some new divergences and I think of you both as so distinct you know on and off the page. There's like the ferociousness of the pros and an eye towards cultural criticism and I always think of you as writing ahead of your time. So I'm just wondering how would you describe your lit friends work to someone, and is there something even after all this time that surprises you about their writing or their voice?   Lucy: I mean, what surprised me recently about Deb's voice is its elasticity. I came to love the work through the short stories and the micros. And those have such a distinct, wry kind of distance. They sort of float a little separate from the world, and they float a little separate from the page.   (34:10) And they have a kind of, they have a very distinct attitude and tone, even if the pieces are different from each other, like as a unit. And that's just really different than the voice that you get in a book like Barn 8 that moves through a lot of different narrators, but that also has just a softer relationship with the world. Like it's a little more blends with the world as you know, it doesn't stay as distant. And I didn't know that until later.   Vacation is also really stark and sort of like has that distinctiveness from the world. And so watching Deb move into, you know, in some ways like just more realistic, more realistic writing that's still voice-centered and that still is music centered was a recent surprising thing for me.   But I'm also really excited about what I've read in the book that in the new book because I think that new book is sort of the pieces that the bits that I've read from it are they're marking a territory that's sort of right down the middle of the aesthetic poles that Deb's work has already hit I mean the other thing is that you know Deb does all the genres. All of the prose genres. Every book sort of is taking on it is taking on a genre And the next one is doing that too, but with content in a way that others have been taking on new genres and form. And so...    Lito: I love that. And I like that it's related to the music of the pros and sound. I feel like musicians do that a lot, right? There's some musicians that every album is a new genre or totally different sound. And then there's artists who do the same thing over and over again. We love both those things. Sorry, so Deb...   Deb: So I love how complicated Lucy can get with just an image or an idea. I just feel like no one can do it the way that she can do it. And my like her last in her last book, which I love so much, we're just brought through all these different places and each one is sort of (36:31.29) dragging behind it, everything that came before, so that you can just feel all of this like, pressure of like the past and of the situations and like even like a word will resonate. Like you'll bring like, there's like a word on maybe page like 82 that you encountered on like page 20 that like the word meant so much on page 20 that it like really, you can really feel its power when it comes on page 80.   And you feel the constant like shifting of meaning and just like the way that the prose is bringing so much more and like it's like reinterpreting that word again and again and again, just like the deeper that you go, like whatever the word is be it you know house or home or stair or um you know sex, whatever it is, it's like constantly shifting. (37:40.952) And that's just part of like who Lucy is, is this like worrying of a problem or worrying of a word and like carrying it forward. And so yeah, so like in that last book, it just was such a big accomplishment. And I felt like it was like her best work yet.   Lucy: So I will say, try and say something a little bit more specific, then. (38:09) Like I guess in the sort of 10 stories that I teach as often as possible in part because I get bored so easily that I need to teach stories that I can return to that often and still feel like I'm reading something that is new to me is the title story from Wait Till You See Me Dance and that story is a really amazing combination of methodical in its execution, which sounds really dull.   But what it does is sort of toss one ball in the air and then toss another ball in the air and then toss another ball in the air. And then, you know, the balls move, but you know, the balls are brightly colored and they're handled by a master juggler. So it's methodical, but it's joyful and hilarious. And then, and then, and you don't   And the other thing is that Deb's narrators are wicked and like they're wicked in the way that like… They are, they're willing to do and say the things that you secretly wish somebody would do and say. That's the same way that like, you know, in the great existential novels, you love and also worry about the protagonists, right? They're troubled, but their trouble allows them to speak truthfully because they can't help it. Or they can't help it when they're in the space of the short story. It's that like, you know, the stories are able to access—a story like this one and like many of Deb's—are able to access that really special space of narrator, of narration, where you get to speak, you get to speak in a whisper.   Annie: You get to speak in a whisper. That's beautiful, Lucy. You get to speak in a whisper.   Lito: We'll be right back.   Lito: (40:15) Welcome back.   Annie: I'm wondering about what this means, you know, how this crosses over to your own personal lives, right? Because of course, literary friendships, we're thinking about the work all of the time. But we're also, you know, when I think of my literary friendship with Lito, I think of him as like a compatriot and somebody who's really carrying me through the world sometimes. I'm wondering if there was for either of you, a hard time that you went through personally, professionally, you know, whether it's about publishing or just getting words on the page or something, you know, um, you know, family related or whatever, where you, um, you know, what it meant to have a literary friend nearby at that time.   Lucy: I mean that's the heart of it.   Deb: Yeah, I mean for sure.   Lucy: One happened last week and I'm sort of still in the middle of it where you know my literary mentor is aging and struggling and so that's painful for me and who gets that? Deb gets that.   The other one, the other big one for me was that the release of my last novel was really complicated. And it brought up a lot of, it intersected with a lot of the things going on in my family that are challenging and a lot of things that are going on in the literary world that are challenging. There were parts of that release that were really satisfying and joyful, and there were parts of it that were just devastatingly painful for me.   And, you know, Deb really helped me find my way through that. And it was a lot, like it was a lot of emotional contact and a lot of thinking through things really hard and a lot of being like, "wait, why do we do this? But remember, why do we do this?" And Deb was the person who could say, "no, you're a novelist." Like things that like I was doubting, Deb could tell me. And the other thing is that I would come closer to being able to believe those things because she could tell them to me.   Annie: Lucy, can you talk a little more about that? Like what did that? (42:27.126) What did that look like, right? Like you talked about resistance to phone calls, and you're not in the same place.   Lucy: It was phone. Right, it would be phone or it would be Zoom or it would be texting. And then, you know, when we would see each other that would be, we would reflect on those times in person even though that wasn't those immediate moments of support and coaching and, you know, wisdom.   Annie:  And that requires a kind of vulnerability, I think, that is hard to do in this industry, right? And I'm just wondering if that was new for you or if that was special to this friendship, right? Or like what allowed for that kind of openness on your part to be able to connect with Deb in that way?   Lucy: I mean, I think I was just really lucky that we've had, like even though we have really, I think, only noticed that we were close since that Morocco trip. Like that was a little bit of a leap of faith. Like, "oh my gosh, how well do I know this person and we're gonna travel together in like circumstances, and do we really know each other this way?" But the combination of the years that we've known each other in more of a warm acquaintance, occasional, great conversation kind of way towards being somebody that you, that you trust and believe and that you have that stuff built in.   And, you know, that over the years you've seen the choices that they've made in the literary world, the choices they've made in their career, when they, you know, everything from, you know, supporting, you know, being a small, being small press identified and championing certain kinds of books over other kinds of books. And like those, just like watching a person make choices for art that you think are in line with the writer that, watching her make choices in art that are in line with the writer that I wanna be in the world makes it so that when you come to something that is frightening, that's the kind of person you wanna talk to because she's done that thinking.   Deb: Yeah, I mean, I feel like there are like so many things that I could say about that. Like one thing is that the kind of time that I spend with Lucy is really different from the kind of time that I spend with most people. Like most people, (44:51) they come to town and I have dinner with them. Or I go to like AWP or whatever and we go out for dinner. Or maybe I spend like one night at their house like with their partner and kid or something, you know. But Lucy and I, we get together and we spend like four days or something all alone, just the two of us, you know, or a month or whatever. And we don't spend a ton of time with other people. And so there's, but then we also do that, but just like not very much.   And so there is something that just creates, like that's a really good mode for me. It's a, that's like the way that I make really deep friendships that are kind of like forever-people in my life. And I've always been like that. And so, but not a lot of people are willing to sort of do that with me. Like, I have so many acquaintances, I've got like a million, I feel like I could have dinner with someone just about any night, as long as it's only like once every few months or something, you know, but I don't have people who are willing to be this close to me, like spend that kind of time with me one-on-one. And the fact is like, they're not that many people that I really feel like doing that with.   And you know, every time Lucy and I do one of these, I just come away feeling like I thought about some really important things and I talked about some really important things and I saw some beautiful things because Lucy always makes sure that we're somewhere where we can see a lot of beauty. And so that just means so much to me. And it's like, and so for me it creates like a space where, Yeah, I can be honest and vulnerable, and I can also tell her, if I can tell her things that I don't tell other people, or I can be really honest with her if I feel like, if I'm giving her advice about something, I can just be honest about it. And so it's really, really nice.   (47:07) I mean, the other thing is like, we're so similar. Like we've made so many similar life choices. And we've talked about that. Lucy and I have talked about that. Like, you know, we both chose not to have kids. We live pretty, like we're both like kind of loners, even though we have partners. Like I think our partners are more like, they just kind of would, they would prefer that we.   I don't know, I shouldn't probably say anything, but I know that Matt would prefer if I was not quite as much of a loner as I am. Yeah, so I look at Lucy and I see the kind of person that I am, the kind of person I wanna be, so if I have a question, I mean, it happens.   Lucy mentioned a couple of things. I have... You know, she's had some pretty major, major things. I have like little things that happen all the time, and they just like bring me to tears.   Like there was this one moment during the pandemic when I was like driving across the country by myself. I was like in Marfa, and I was trying to get to California and I had like a toilet in the back seat. Remember when we were all doing that kind of thing?   Lucy: It was really amazing.   Deb: It was so crazy.   Lucy: But Deb, not everybody had a toilet in their back seat.   Annie: I know. I need that now.   Deb: It still comes in handy.   Annie: I'm sure.   Deb: (48:43) And I was in, and yeah, Lucy is amazing. She'll talk to me on the phone, but Lucy will do because I love to talk on the phone and I love to Zoom. Lucy does not. So she'll tell me in advance, okay, I will talk to you, but it's gonna be for like 20 minutes or I'm gonna have to get off like pretty soon.   But she Zoomed with me and Marfa and I just didn't realize how upset I was about this one rejection that I'd gotten. And it was a really small rejection, I don't know why it bothered me so much, but I just like started crying and like I was like way out in like so many miles from any so many hours from anyone I knew and you know the world was going to shit, and I'd gotten this like tiny rejection from a magazine like a little like I had it was the page was it was like a piece that was like a page long or something, and Lucy just like knew exactly why I I was so upset, and just was able to talk to me about what that meant to me. And just refocus me to like, "look, you don't have to write those. You don't have to be that writer. You don't have to do that." And it was so freeing to know that I didn't always have to be, I don't even know how to describe it, but it was meant a lot. And things like that happen all the time.   Annie: (50:15.265) That's such a wonderful model of mutual support.   Lucy: We'll be right back.   Annie: Hi Lit Fam. We hope you're enjoying our conversation with Lucy Corin and Deb Olin Unferth, and their love for the word, the world, and each other. If you love what we're doing here at LitFriends, please take a moment now  to follow, subscribe, rate, and review our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Just a few minutes of your time will help us so much to continue to bring you great conversations like this week after week.  Thank you for listening. Back to a conversation with Lucy Corin and Deb Olin Unferth.     Annie: I'm also aware that we're working in an industry that's a zero-sum construct. And, you know, Lucy, you were sort of joking earlier about... Deb winning all of the awards that you later got. But I am curious, like, what about competition between literary friends when we're living in a world with basically shrinking resources?   Lucy: I feel competition, but I don't really feel it with my literary friends. Does that make sense? Like, I'll feel it with my idea of somebody that I don't really know except for their literary profile, right? But when someone like Deb gets something, it makes the world seem right and true, right? And so that's not hard to bear, right? That's just a sign of a good thing in a world that you're afraid isn't so good.   Deb: I guess I feel like if Lucy gets something, then that raises the chances that I'm gonna get something. I'm gonna get the same thing. Because if we're kind of in the same, like we both published with Grey Wolf, we both have the same editor, so we've multiple times that we've been on these trips, we've both been working on books that were supposed to come out with Graywolf with Ethan. (52:16.3) You know, so I feel like if Lucy gets something, then the chances go up.   Like there was just, something just happened recently where Lucy was telling me that she had a little, like a column coming out with The Believer. And I was like, "oh my God, I didn't even know that they were back." I'm like, "man, I really wanna be in The Believer. Like, I can't believe like, you know, they're back and I'm not in them. I gotta be in it. I said that to Lucy on the phone. And then, like the very next day, Rita wrote me and said, "Hey, do you want to write something?"   And so I wrote to Lucy immediately. I was like, did you write to Rita? And she was like, "no, I really didn't." So it's like, we're in the same— Did you, Lucy?   Lucy: No, I didn't! Rita did that all by herself.   Lito: You put it out into the universe, Deb.   Annie: Lucy did it. Hot cut, Lucy did it!   Deb:  So we're like, we're like in the same, I feel a lot of the time like we're kind of in the same lane and so that really helps because like, I do have writer friends who are not in the same lane as me and maybe. Like I'm not as close, but maybe that would be, but if I was as close, maybe that would cause me more confusion. Like I would be like, you know, "geez, how can I get that too? Or it's hopeless, I'll never get that, you know? So I just don't do that thing," or something. So that's really comforting.   Lito: What are your obsessions?   Lucy: Well, I mean-   Lito: How do they show up on the page?   Lucy: I feel like it's so obvious with Deb that like, you know, Deb got obsessed with chickens, and there was a whole bunch of stuff about chickens. First there was a really smart, brilliant Harper's essay where she learned her stuff. And then there was the novel where she, you know, imagined out the chickens (54:19) to touch on everything, right?   Annie: Then there was a chicken a thousand years in advance.   Lucy: Right, and then there's a beautiful chicken art in the house, and there's, you know. And I'm sure that she's gotten way more chicken gifts than she knows what to do with. But then the Sahara, like, you know, she was obsessed with the Sahara and you'll see it in the next book. It's gonna be— It's not gonna be in a literal way, right? But it'll be like, you'll feel the sand, you'll feel that landscape.   So I don't know, like I feel like the obsessions show up in the books. I mean, are there, I mean, this is a question like, Deb, do you think you have obsessions that don't show up in your work? We both have really cute little black dogs.   Deb: (55:07) Oh, not really. I mean, but I do get obsessed. Like I just get so, so like obsessed in an unhealthy way. And then I just have to wait it out. I just have to like wait until I'm not obsessed anymore. And it's like an ongoing just I'm like, OK, here it comes. It's like sleeping over me. Like how many years of my life is going to be are going to be gone as a result of this?   So I'm always like so relieved when I'm not in that space. Like Lucy's obsession comes down to that, with her language, that she's like exploring one idea, like she'll take an idea and she like worries that over the course of a whole book and that she'll just it's like almost like a cubist approach. She'll be like approaching it from so many different standpoints. And that is like, I mean, Lucy is so smart and the way that she does that is just so genius. And so I feel like that's the thing that really keeps drawing me to her obsessions, that keeps bringing me back to that page to read her work again and again. And yeah, and that's how she is in person too.   Lito: Why do you write? What does it do for the world, if anything?   Lucy: (56:37) I know I had a little tiny throat clear, but I think it was because I'm still trying to figure it out because I feel like the answer is different in this world order than it was in earlier world orders. Like when I first answered those questions for myself when I was deciding to make these big life choices and say, "you know, fuck everything except for writing," like I was answering, I was answering that question a different way than I would now, but I don't quite have it to spit out right now, except that I do think it has something to do with a place where the world can be saved. Like, writing now is a place of respite from the rest of the world where you can still have all of these things that I always assumed were widely valued, that feel more and more narrowly valued. And so I write to be able to have that in my life and to be able to connect with the other people who share those kinds of values that are about careful thinking, that are about the glory of the imagination, that are about the sanctity of people having made things.   Annie: Lucy, I need that on my wall. I just need to hear that every day.   Deb: I mean, I feel like if I can think about it in terms of my reading life, that like art changes my mind all the time. Like that's the thing that teaches me. Like I remember when I was a kid, and I lived right near the Art Institute of Chicago, and I remember going in, and they had the Jacob Lawrence immigration panels, migration panels up there that was like a traveling exhibition. And I had none of that information. I did not know about the Great Migration. I just didn't know any of that. So I just remember walking from panel to panel and reading and studying it, (58:47.952) reading it and studying it and just like getting like just getting just it was like a It was such a revelation and I just learned so much and like changed my mind about so many things just in that moment that it was like I'll never forget that.   And I feel like I, I totally agree with Lucy that the reasons that I write now and the reasons that I read now are very different than they were like before, say 2015, or something. But that, that maybe it has its roots in that sort of Jacob Lawrence moment where, you know, just I read these things and it's, I like, I love sinking deep into books that are really changing my mind and like teaching me about the world in ways that I never could have imagined, and I love that so much and I… I don't know if I have that to offer, but I really try hard, you know. Like I tried that with the chicken book. I'm kind of trying that, I hope, in this book that I'm trying to finish and— ha finish!—that I'm trying to get through. And so I think that that's why I think that art is so important.   I don't know if that's truly why I write though. I feel like why I write is that I've always written, and it's like I love it so much. Like I just, sometimes I hate it, sometimes I hate it for like a whole year or whatever, but it's just, it's so much a core of who I am. (01:00:39) And I just, I can't imagine my life any other way. It's just it's just absolutely urgent to me.   Annie: Yeah, urgent. Yeah. I think we all feel that in some way.   Annie:(01:01:04.374) Thank you both for talking to us a little bit about your friendship and getting to know a little bit more about how you started and where you're at now. We're going to move into the lightning round.   Lito: Ooooo Lightning round.   Annie: (01:01:16) Deb, who were you in seventh grade? Who was I in seventh grade? In one sentence, oh my God, the pressure is on. I was unpopular and looked, my hair was exactly the same as it is now. And I wore very similar clothes.   Lucy: (01:01:44) I was a peer counselor, and so I was like the Don who held everybody's secrets.   Lito: Beautiful. Lucy.   Lucy: It saved me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had a place in that world.   Annie: Makes so much sense.   Lito: Wow. Who or what broke your heart first, deepest?   Lucy: I mean, I would just say my mom.   Deb: I guess, then I have to say my dad.   Annie: Okay, which book is a good lit friend to you?   Deb: Can I say two? The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein and The Known World by Edward P. Jones.   Annie: Excellent.   Lucy: My go-to is White Noise. Still. Sorry.   Lito: No need to apologize.   Lucy: Yep.   Annie Lito (01:02:27) Who would you want to be lit friends with from any point in history?   Lucy: For me it's Jane Bowles.   Deb: Oh, whoa. Good one. She would be maybe a little difficult. I was gonna say Gertrude Stein, then I was like, actually, she'd be a little difficult.   Lucy: What a jerk!   Deb: I think Zora Neale Hurston would be fun.   Lucy: Well, yeah, of course. For sure.   Annie: We were gonna ask who your lit frenemy from any time might be, but maybe you've already said.   Lucy: Oh, right. I accidentally said my lit frenemy instead of my lit friend.   Annie: Yeah.   Lucy: Mm-hmm.   Deb: (01:03:08) A frenemy from any time?   Annie: Any time. Yeah, it doesn't have to be Jonathan Franzen. I feel like most people will just be like Jonathan Franzen. But it could be any time in history.   Deb: I mean, if you're gonna go that route, then it would probably be, um, like...   Lito: Kierkegaard.   Deb: I don't know, maybe Nietzsche? If you're gonna go that route, if you're gonna go like, like existential philosophers.   Annie: (01:03:34) That's great.   Lito: That could be a podcast too.   Annie: Just like epic frenemy. The most epic frenemy.   Lito: (01:03:35)  Well, that's our show.   Annie & Lito: Thanks for listening.   Annie: We'll be back next week with our guests Melissa Febos and Donika Kelly.    Lito: Find us on all your socials @LitFriendspodcasts   Annie: And tell us about an adventure you've had with your Lit bestie. I'm Annie Liontas.   Lito: And I'm Lito Velazquez.   Annie: Thanks to our production squad. Our show was edited by Justin Hamilton.   Lito: Our logo was designed by Sam Schlenker.   Annie: Lisette Saldaña is our Marketing Director.   Lito: Our theme song was written and produced by Roberto Moresca.   Annie: And special thanks to our show producer Toula Nuñez.   Lito: This was Lit Friends, Episode 2.

If you're a loyal FC2.0 podhead and you're frankly tired about our health-related discussions lately, we hear you. Frankly, we're tired of talking about our maladies. So our tactic in this episode is to accelerate from COVID concerns or pinkeye social isolation to the Big Endgame facing us all. Musing about the music we'd want played at our funerals gave us great delight. We only hope our loved ones are listening. If not, may Norman Rockwell paintings populate your dreams, beloved. Enjoy!! NOTE: DR failed to hit "UPLOAD" on Thursday…apologies to listeners for the senior moment!!

It may be that you had not reckoned with the risk involved in professional dart throwing. Well, on the heels of tough news for dart-ists around the world, we decided to dive into a headline that we know very little about. Honestly, this may be what distinguishes FC2.0 from other run-of-the-mill podcasts - we fearlessly engage topics without feeling the slightest need to conceal our ignorance. We're simply going for the giggle. Enjoy!

Two themes dominated our conversation in this episode. The first was to consider how, why, when, and where we might be inclined to feel like an exchange with someone is actually wasting our time. (Ironic, given what we actually talk about in our podcast, right?) The second was to wonder what price might buy official FC2.0 endorsements …and whether Howie Long actually wears Skechers. 

The implicit covenant we two Davidic hosts have with our loyal listeners is that we will be honest. Today's episode should be reassuring to FC2.0 podheads; even when our conversation sparks painful memories we bravely engage. Somewhere in the midst of whining about whatever happened to the art of loving correction (even when expressed by Pappy's perforated board of education) we managed to giggle. And even cuss a bit.

Turning out and burning out, and turning out the same! This episode we return to find Austin FC in another break after back-to-back-to-back last second limit pushing matches, FC2's stupendous season winding down, and playoff scenarios for our struggling Oaks and our little Acorns. Creators & Guests Roca - Host Jamie Aldridge - Guest

In clear violation of FC2.0 protocols, David brought a pre-meditated agenda to this podcast episode. But — as is common — the cultural norms we've established were able to triumph over the Funny Guy's wily attempts to manipulate the program. Longtime listeners will note the familiar pattern. One of us says something…anything…to grab the other's attention. We launch into a curious probe and get ridiculous. Our wondering today hung on some Hoosier colloquialisms that don't make sense. But those long in the tooth will probably giggle with us.

Loyal listeners might have noticed the 24 hour delay in our FC2.0 podcast this week. We apologize for any disruption to your workout routines or white noise induced sleep. Our zig zag life patterns don't always land us at a shared intersection with the precision timetable of German commuter trains. Ours is more like a wagon train. But, hey, if you've got any helpful knowledge to share with us we are all ears. Unless we're like a few people we talked about today whose body parts on display were everything but ears.

We sometimes wonder if listeners experience our 30 minute episodes flying by as quickly as we do when we laugh practically non-stop through our conversation. Today, even as Dr Dave was fishing for a little empathy about his stumble-bum injury, it was clear that David had a listener's gift to share. Dr Ron Coffey asked Artificial Intelligence to generate a poem about FC2.0. Apparently he fed the system info with a tad bit of bias. Much like the writers of Barbie must have done…according to David's movie review.

WARNING: If you fancy yourself to be a bit delicate, this FC2.0 episode might be one to avoid. We migrated back to proper decorum by the time we concluded our conversational frolic, but before we put this recording in the can we spent a bit too much time talking about being in the can. As brave listeners will soon discover, we will not take kindly to requests to clean up our act…or prayer requests, for that matter.

We have so much fun in the unplanned conversations we record for FC2.0 and the joy of including others is pure bonus. You can try this at home. Pick a topic, any topic. Chase the crumbs. Pick up speed when you feel giggly. Never hesitate to include Jesus in the mix; inviting him into a party is an epic move, not a laugh killer. So when Dr Dave summed a thought with a word retrieved from his mind's deep storage, we celebrated the delightful gift of such a rare appearance. Maybe we made too much of today's surprise…but we ended, like always, with huge smiles. Enjoy!

Giddy. Twitchy. Probably a bit too "inner circle" for great entertainment. But – true to form – our FC2.0 brand is to give listeners a front row seat at the joy of an unlikely friendship between a guy who makes his living being funny and a guy who lives on Social Security paychecks (and is relieved by the debt ceiling negotiations - isn't it great that government works so well!!?) We're about to gather over chimichangas and wanted you to feel our vibe. Even if Neil Diamond does the intro.

Is there efficacy to venting? (Sorry. That reads like the title of an article in the Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences…pretty sure that's not our audience.) We're simply two clowns who started off whining in this episode , giving the Vent Dog within us too long a leash. Eventually we asked how such tasty complaining actually helps us enjoy living with Jesus and representing him well in the world. If only one FC2.0 listener curbs the impulse to parking lot rumble with other fans at 12-year-old baseball games over their music playlist, we've done good here.

Our staggered start for recording today was not that unusual. We often slide Zoom times around to accommodate our other important activities. And, as we explored during this episode, what rises to the level of a priority can, at times, be puzzling. (You'll enjoy this cryptic clue once inside this FC2.0 conversation.) But you will also hear the quaver in David's voice as he retells a fresh encounter he had minutes earlier with a 3rd grader who, according to spelling standards, might have to be held back for a year. This podcast is jam-packed with surprise morsels - enjoy!

Rodney! Rodney! This episode we're celebrating our first win in the Open Cup, a national team callup, FC2 stays undefeated, and a prince finally ascends to his throne.   

One of the challenges erstwhile podcasters are familiar with is how to title an episode so that it accurately represents the discussion and is, at least, somewhat attractive. Loyal listeners of FC2.0 know that the wild ride we enjoy for about 30 minutes weekly  is seldom a single-topic focus. Today was no exception. But, on behalf of everyone who tilts toward weight gain and have been a tad nervous about getting older, please take a beat to share our pain. It's far too common. Tucked into life's daily, tiny details. Like tying your shoes.

The human body needs at least a gallon of goals a week to live! This episode finds Austin in the midst of a goal drought, celebrates FC2 dominance, and looks forward to another trip to Hollywood.    

As it turns out, both members of the FC2.0 podcast team have reasons to love those moments that feel awkward. David pounces on the comedic opportunity like an eagle swooping in on an innocent barnyard chick. Dr Dave is equally eager to capitalize on an occasion that has vulnerability and growth possibilities. Since most of us can at least swap stories of times when awkwardness hinders rather than helps, we wonder if this might be a way we could make a buck tag-teaming to share our expertise. Let us know what you think…unless that seems too awkward…

Mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice! This episode returns home to Q2 after checking out at the Hotel California, celebrates FC2 and Academy dominance, and gets ready to serve up some poutine this weekend. 

Standing on a hill in the mountain of dreams, taking three points is not as hard, hard, hard as it seems! This episode catches up with the FC2 and Academy teams, gets ready for a west coast kick, and covers a cornucopia of women's soccer in Austin!   

Get your notepads ready. This episode drops some sweet skills on our FC2.0 listeners. All of us have had occasion to either deliver some communication that's met with glazed-eye unresponsiveness or you've been the un-responder yourself, offering a few guttural sounds in an attempt to be less harsh than the Boring Moment deserves. We've got some tips for navigating these social speed traps. Gosh, this was fun!

Happy New Year, everyone! We greeted 2023 with some deep conversation about how to upgrade our Christmas card strategies, four words that deserve thought and prayer, and a confession that we couldn't stop giggling about. You may be asking, "How does listening to FC2.0 benefit me?" Yup. That gets at the question of the day.

There is no denying that this episode might be painful for listeners. David's otherwise pleasant voice got walloped by some seasonal bug. But he's a seasoned performer, and the show must go on…even when we're not making a buck to record FC2.0. If you like watching Yellowstone, you might enjoy David's John Dutton impersonation. And no one will like Dr Dave's version of that female cowhand who composts her every word.

The FC2.0 duo is, after all, only human. Perhaps when one of us shows up to record with an axe to grind (hmmm, could be Freudian slip), a little tolerance might be granted as we simultaneously seek to record an entertaining podcast and get after what the real issue is. David pounced with a bit of ferocity on all the noise-making celebrations surrounding Brittany Griner's release from Russian prison. But it just might be that his real issues trace back to the TSA agent who confiscated the $40  cologne he tried to smuggle through the checkpoint. Stupid rules…

A bonus treat for loyal FC2.0 listeners. We release this episode a day before you sit in traffic on your way to a Thanksgiving feast with friends and family. And if you are heading to a vegan hosted shared experience, you've got shared empathy from one of us and disdain from another. What to talk about around the table? Well, we fixated on one word quite a bit during this podcast, decided not to put it in print, and advise against making it a conversation topic at a gathering of loved ones. Giggle quietly as you endure the highway crowds en route to gratitude. 

We were downright silly on this episode of FC2.0. If you listen carefully you might be able to pick up on the moment the conversation pivoted from helpful to useless (not to be confused with David's weekend comedy destination in Florida – EUSTIS…). We offered mumbly assistance to those needing escape from their Life-Is-Annoying trend line. In fact, we probably added frustration to those with an Eeyortic affliction by trying. That's when we stumbled into NPR's better way of broadcasting and abruptly decided to make up a story about the world's richest man. Enjoy!

First things first. It's David's birthday and it was pure delight to share 32 minutes on this precious day of celebration with the entire FC2.0 pod-family. Unfortunately, David has lately been experiencing a bit of angst over some aging processes. So some of what happened on today's episode was Dr Dave consoling the birthday boy. Even more unfortunately (for our comedian), Dr Dave was less inclined to offer empathy than make sure we had a fun conversation that included "Jesus" as the best Freudian slip of all.