Podcasts about weekend edition saturday

Zoë comes over for dinner.By Quinn_McMullen, in 8 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels. Chapter 5Later, Zoë called and said Friday would be a nice evening for dinner. I asked if there was anything she couldn't eat and she said she avoided anything spicy; it wasn't good for her stomach. I called Chris for dinner advice and she said that Zoë eats anything, but she ate like a bird. Small portions would be smart.The next day, Friday, I tuned up my bicycle. I was surprised I didn't get a visit from Chris. I did laundry, setting up a drawer in the bedroom for her work clothes. I also tidied up around the house, dusted and vacuumed. It wasn't that I was a neat freak, but I wanted Zoë to see my farmhouse at its best.The dinner plan was a basil, mozzarella chicken dish that I had invented for Roz. I hadn't made it for at least five years. I was growing fond of Zoë. While a romantic dinner did not fit into the profile of a friend with benefits, I wanted to let her know that I treasured her friendship. For me, making the chicken dish for Zoë felt like a unique gift I could give her. I was unwrapping a piece of my past and presenting it anew.I had fresh zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce greens, green beans, oregano, parsley, and basil from the garden. I also picked a quart of late season raspberries from my bushes. On the way into town, I was inspired to stop by the hardware store and have two extra house keys made. I stopped by the liquor store and selected a nice Napa Valley chardonnay.Zoë was due at six, so I showered and shaved extra close at four. Figuring commando was best, I put on a pair of Dockers and a dress shirt. By quarter to six, I had the dinner all prepared and the table set. I made sure that the portions were small so that she wouldn't feel bad if she left something on her plate. It was still light outside, but I decided to light the candles anyway. I hoped they would create the kind of atmosphere that I was looking for. I got out my good china and set the dining room table according to Emily Post's etiquette guidance. Everything was prepared, all I had to do was serve the meal.Zoë appeared at my mudroom door at five to six. She was going to knock, but she saw me coming and smiled. I opened the door and she stepped in.Normally Zoë's hair was straight, but this evening it had a bit of curl and wave to it. Her dress was a pastel green. It reminded me of a dress from Greek mythology. It came up and fastened behind her neck leaving her shoulders, back, and arms bare. The neckline plunged to a little gold band that encircled her waist. While the dress was daring, it didn't expose anything. The hem was below her knee, and she wore matching flats.She immediately put her arms around my neck, "Hey."I put my hands on the small of her bare back, as she went on her tiptoes, closed her eyes, and gently kissed me. She hung her small purse on a coat hook by the door."Zoë you are simply mesmerizing this evening.""Thanks. Chris helped me get ready.""Well, thank you for taking the time to be such an enchanting dinner date."I offered her my arm, "Please come in my dear. I have a very nice dinner prepared."I escorted her to the dining room.She exclaimed, "Oh, this is so nice!"I held out the chair for her and she sat down.I went into the kitchen and brought out the bottle of wine, then returned for the salad. "What type of dressing would you like, my dear?""Do you have ranch?"I nodded. I retrieved two bottles of dressing: ranch and creamy Italian. I sat down and poured a little wine in each of our glasses. I wanted us both stone cold sober, but the wine went well with dinner.Zoë was glowing, "This is a beautiful salad, Quinn.""It's all from my garden.""You are quite the gentleman farmer, aren't you?""It keeps me out of the bars."She smiled. We finished our salads without any conversation. I didn't know if she was being bashful or was just naturally quiet, but she just looked at me and smiled a lot. I cleared away the salad bowls.In the kitchen I plated the chicken, roasted zucchini, and green beans. I remembered small portions for Zoë. I put a little garnish of parsley on the side. I put the plate in front of her from the side as a waiter would do and then set a basket of dinner rolls in the center. I joined her at the table."Oh Quinn, this looks wonderful.""It's my own recipe that I invented for Roz many years ago. I wanted to make you something special.""Not only a gentleman farmer, but a chef!""I hope you enjoy it, my dear."She placed her hand on my arm, "Do you have any idea how sweet this is?"She was smiling intensely as a tear rolled down her cheek."What the matter?""Quinn, this is one of the most thoughtful things anyone has done for me. I feel like royalty. You are treating me like a princess."I put on my fake British accent, "Only the finest for her majesty."She squeezed my forearm, "Thank you.""You are most welcome."Zoë cut a small bite off the chicken and placed it in her mouth. Her eyes went wide.She chewed and swallowed, "Oh Quinn, this is so good.""I'm glad you like it."She took a bite of zucchini, "Oh, this is good too. What did you do to it?""Not a lot. Some quality Spanish olive oil, a sprinkling of crushed fresh basil and oregano. About 20 minutes on each side on the grill. The beans are only steamed with melted butter.""Well, it is so good."Trying to keep the conversation going I asked, "So what have you been up to since I saw you last?""Mostly I have been trying to get used to having a five-year-old in my house. I am definitely not cut out for motherhood. I don't know how Chris or any other mother does it. Jackie goes non-stop and then he crashes. I know, I'm supposed to call him John, but a name is a hard habit to break.""My grandkids do the same to me.""How old are they?""Seven, five, and three. I love them dearly, but they are exhausting."We had a very nice conversation on how to deal with little kids.Zoë ate most of her meal, then looked a little sheepish, "Quinn, please don't think I didn't love this, I've just had some intestinal issues recently and I don't want to press my luck.""That is quite all right, my dear."I removed our plates. In the kitchen I placed the raspberries into small bowls with a dollop of freshly whipped cream on top.I placed the bowl in front of her, "Fresh berries and cream for her majesty.""Oh, I love raspberries.""I picked these this afternoon."She took a dainty bite, "Oh, those are so sweet. I didn't know you had berry bushes.""Blueberries too, but they're out of season now.""Quinn, you are just more and more impressive each moment. Lean over here, I need to kiss you."I leaned over and she softly pressed her lips to mine. She opened her mouth and I touched her tongue.Zoë leaned back with her eyes closed.She opened them slowly, "That may be the nicest part of this entire dinner."I took my wine glass, "May I make a toast, my dear?"She picked up her glass and smiled."Here's to a stunningly beautiful dinner companion and a treasured friend."We clinked glasses and took a sip.Zoë said, "If I may." She looked into my eyes, "Here's to the kindest, sweetest, and sexiest date a girl could ever have."We clinked glasses again. I finished my berries and cream first and just looked at Zoë. I could feel a wide grin on my face.She looked at me, "What?""This makes me very happy. Making you a nice dinner, spending some quality time with you. I can't remember when the last time I had such a delightful evening."Zoë blushed and put her hand on my arm again, "You're the best." We finished dinner. I put the leftovers in the fridge and left the dishes for later. We went into my living room. I turned on the end table lamps as the daylight was fading. I sat down on the couch. I expected Zoë to sit next to me with her back to the couch. Instead, she hiked up her dress and sat down next to me, but cross-legged facing me. The dress still covered her legs. She took my hand and held it in her lap. She looked serious and I could feel a serious conversation coming on.Zoë began, "Yesterday, I went on a really long hike. I did a lot of thinking."I opened my mouth to say something, but she placed her finger on my lips. "You'll get to talk Quinn, but you've got to let me say this. If you interrupt me, I'll lose my train of thought."I nodded.Zoë took a deep breath. "First, what you said in your toast goes for me too. I absolutely treasure your friendship. You are the sweetest and dearest man I know. I don't ever want to do anything that will hurt us or hurt you. You are such a dear, sweet man. I just said that." She laughed at herself, then took another breath. "The other day was magical. I have had sex with three men before you, but I don't think I would say that I made love to any of them. Wednesday was the first time I made love. It was so special."I started to say something and she held up a finger, "Wait. There's more."She took a deep breath and she seemed to struggle to find the words, "I love you Quinn McMullen more than you will ever know."My mind started racing. She loves me. I barely know her.Zoë continued, "Even though you probably love me too, I know your heart belongs to Chris. You can't deny this. I've seen the way you have looked at her ever since she came here. Your conversations look like your hearts are joined through your eyes."She wiped her eyes, her voice started to break a little, "Quinn, I am so cool with that. When we were talking about being married the other day and you talked about finding the right person, I knew I could never be that person for you. I think Chris is that person. Chris and I talked about it for hours after Jackie went to bed last night."She took another deep breath, "Wait there's more."Another deep breath and Zoë continued, "I really like Chris' idea of a friend with benefits. Neither one of us are in a real relationship, but we can care for one another. I care for you so deeply. I love you so much. At times my heart aches for you. We can give each other pleasure. We can be so good for one another."She took another deep breath, "Okay, I'm done for now.""I can go for that.""That's all you have to say?" She looked shocked."First, Zoë, please don't write yourself off. I don't want to give you false hope, but before this week I really didn't know you. I still don't know much about you. Yes, Chris and I have been eye flirting for years. Yes, I do love her so. Here's the thing. I don't know if I can be a father again. We talked about it earlier this week. She is a package deal. She comes with baggage called Jackie. Actually, she doesn't think I could be a step-dad again."I took her hand, "Zoë, when you told me just now that you loved me, I never knew you cared for me like that. I probably have been too self-centered in my grief to realize it. Please don't write yourself off. You're a beautiful, brilliant woman with a heart of gold."I brought her hand to my lips and kissed it. "After Chris put the idea in my head about friends with benefits, I had to go do some research. I think it is a good idea, but it sounds like we need to agree to rules.""Oh, that's a good idea.""Okay, so the first rule should involve dating others.""We can absolutely date others. Should we have to tell each other about it?"

Jaye Johnson is a Peabody award-winning journalist, filmmaker, producer, and writer exploring the ways cultural expectations shape our public and private behavior. She is the founder and editor of The Pleasure Report, an online space that explores the intersection of politics, culture, and pleasure. As a TED Resident, she has been writing and speaking about sexuality and sense education. Her TED Talk, What We Don't Teach Kids About Sex, has been viewed 3.5 million times and is translated into 27 languages.Joe Richman is the founder of Radio Diaries, a Peabody award-winning producer and reporter whose pioneering series Teenage Diaries brought the voices of teenagers to a national audience on NPR's All Things Considered. Before founding Radio Diaries, he worked on the NPR programs All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday, Car Talk, and Heat. Joe also teaches radio documentary at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. The LA Times called Joe “a kind of Studs Terkel of the airwaves.”Being Close with Michael Franti Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST---Wanna help Zak continue making this show? Become a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow

This week on The Treatment, Elvis welcomes Grammy award winning musician and composer Branford Marsalis, whose latest project is the score for the Netflix biopic Rustin. Next, Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon joins to talk about his new audiobook Swingtime for Hitler about the Nazis' use of jazz music as propaganda. And on The Treat, Totally Killer director Nahnatchka Khan talks about the scary movies she wasn't allowed to see as a kid (but did anyway).

The growth of the Black Lives Matter movement through the 2010s catalyzed a resurgence of Black activism in professional sports that had its climax in 2020 with the athletes' boycott following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Just a few years later, this energy seems to have dissipated. What happened, and how can we comprehend these recent events in the longer arc of Black activism in sports? Sports journalist and author Howard Bryant joins the Edge of Sports for a look at the build-up to 2020 and how many athletes' politics were co-opted in the aftermath.Later in the show, we have Choice Words about the social cost of smartphone sports gambling becoming the economic lifeblood of sports.And in our segment, Ask a Sports Scholar, we speak with Hofstra University Professor Brenda Elsey, whose research focuses on the development of women's soccer internationally, as the FIFA Women's World Cup tournament approaches.Howard Bryant is the author of ten books, including the forthcoming Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America. He has been a senior writer for ESPN since 2007 and has served as the sports correspondent for NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday since 2006.Dr. Brenda Elsey is a professor of history at Hofstra University, where she focuses on the history of popular culture and politics in twentieth century Latin America, in addition to gender, social theory, sports, and Pan-Americanism. She is the author of Futbolera: Women and Sport in Latin America.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The growth of the Black Lives Matter movement through the 2010s catalyzed a resurgence of Black activism in professional sports that had its climax in 2020 with the athletes' boycott following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Just a few years later, this energy seems to have dissipated. What happened, and how can we comprehend these recent events in the longer arc of Black activism in sports? Sports journalist and author Howard Bryant joins Dave Zirin on Edge of Sports for a look at the build-up to 2020 and how many athletes' politics were co-opted in the aftermath.Later in the show, Zirin shares some 'Choice Words' about the social cost of smartphone sports gambling becoming the economic lifeblood of sports. And in our segment 'Ask a Sports Scholar', Zirin speaks with Hofstra University Professor Brenda Elsey, whose research focuses on the development of women's soccer internationally, as the FIFA Women's World Cup tournament approaches. Howard Bryant is the author of ten books, including the forthcoming Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America. He has been a senior writer for ESPN since 2007 and has served as the sports correspondent for NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday since 2006.Dr. Brenda Elsey is a professor of history at Hofstra University, where she focuses on the history of popular culture and politics in twentieth century Latin America, in addition to gender, social theory, sports, and Pan-Americanism. She is the author of Futbolera: Women and Sport in Latin America.Studio Production: David Hebden, Cameron GranadinoPost-Production: Taylor HebdenAudio Post-Production: David HebdenOpening Sequence: Cameron GranadinoMusic by: Eze Jackson & Carlos GuillenHelp us continue producing Edge of Sports with Dave Zirin by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer:Donate: https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-donateSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/eos-pod-subscribeLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Jaye Johnson is a Peabody award-winning journalist, filmmaker, producer, and writer exploring the ways cultural expectations shape our public and private behavior. She is the founder and editor of The Pleasure Report, an online space that explores the intersection of politics, culture, and pleasure. As a TED Resident, she has been writing and speaking about sexuality and sense education. Her TED Talk, What We Don't Teach Kids About Sex, has been viewed 3.5 million times and is translated into 27 languages.Joe Richman is the founder of Radio Diaries, a Peabody award-winning producer and reporter whose pioneering series Teenage Diaries brought the voices of teenagers to a national audience on NPR's All Things Considered. Before founding Radio Diaries, he worked on the NPR programs All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday, Car Talk, and Heat. Joe also teaches radio documentary at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. The LA Times called Joe “a kind of Studs Terkel of the airwaves.”---Being Close with Michael Franti---Call Zak with your relationship advice at 844-935-BEST---bestadvice.showIG: @bestadviceshowZak's twitter: @muzachary

The quest to find the headwaters of the Nile River was the mid-19th century's equivalent to the space race. In her new nonfiction book, River of God, Candice Millard follows the story of two bitter rivals on an adventure into uncharted places to claim that prize for England. In an interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, Millard spoke about the complicated legacy of the Nile's exploration and the arrogance behind "discovering" a land that has been populated for millions of years. And don't say we didn't warn you about the part where a beetle gets in someone's ear...

It's been 28 years since Apartheid ended in South Africa, but the country's people are still wrestling with the aftermath of segregationist policies. In her book, The Inheritors, journalist Eve Fairbanks shows – through the stories of three people – how decades of institutionalized racism etched themselves into the country's psyche. In an interview with Ayesha Rascoe on Weekend Edition Saturday, Fairbanks said she wanted to help people understand South Africa and its history in a more complex and nuanced way.

We're joined by Howard Bryant, senior writer at ESPN and sports correspondent for NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, and Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe sports reporter and author of "Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics."

Nailing the balance between humor and heavy, dark topics is a difficult feat. Night of the Living Rez by author Morgan Talty meets the mark. His collection of interconnected short stories tell the story of a Native American woman and her son who return to their reservation island in Maine. The two start living with a volatile alcoholic and the stories chronicle what that life looks like as the son grows up. Debut author Talty sat down with Melissa Block on Weekend Edition Saturday to talk about his work.

In Sudhir Venkatesh's The Tomorrow Game, two teenagers on Chicago's South Side face each other in a story that conveys the pressures and motivations boys face when buying guns. Venkatesh, a professor of sociology and African American studies at Columbia University, tells a true story (with names changed to protect privacy). In an interview with Weekend Edition Saturday, Venkatesh tells Susan Davis about the systemic and cultural challenges that kids face in poor neighborhoods, and says that if we want to solve the problem of gun violence, we must include them in the conversation.

Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker are old enough to remember Jim Crow in the South. But they recognize the part of the country they grew up in for both its flaws and its significant role in the history of the country. In their new book, The Southernization of America, Tucker and Gaillard make an argument about how the South shapes the nation's political and cultural landscape – for good and bad. In an interview with Debbie Elliott on Weekend Edition Saturday, they discuss the South's problematic contradictions and pushback now by some against learning about them.

As a little boy grieving his mother, Séamas O'Reilly couldn't entirely grasp the monumental task it was for his father to have to raise 11 children all on his own. In his new memoir, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, he uses humor to get through all the sad, tragic parts of his childhood and to help celebrate the joy and love of his unusually large family. In an interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, O'Reilly spoke about how his memoir is ultimately a tribute to his father who, despite the circumstances, was always a source of delight.

Few people have spoken as honestly and openly about the joys and challenges of fatherhood as Scott Simon, author and host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. For Father's Day, Geoff Simon spoke with Simon to gain his perspectives on being a dad. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Few people have spoken as honestly and openly about the joys and challenges of fatherhood as Scott Simon, author and host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. For Father's Day, Geoff Simon spoke with Simon to gain his perspectives on being a dad. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Author Dan Chaon wanted to find a way to write about current times – instability, fear, political division – by creating an alternate version of America. Set in the future, his new book Sleepwalk is a dark and shadowy dystopia "one more pandemic away." Through the story, however, his eccentric main character discovers a longing for kingship and connection that was partly inspired by Chaon's experience as an adoptee meeting his biological father. In an interview on Weekend Edition Saturday, Chaon told Scott Simon that novels are like black holes: Everything you see in the world gets sucked into it.

Money is all things... or it can become all things, says Hernan Diaz, author of Trust. In his new book, readers are presented with narratives on wealth, reality, and a woman set on separating fact from fiction. In an interview on Weekend Edition Saturday, Diaz told Scott Simon that he thought a lot about money in the writing of this book, particularly about its power to warp and test reality. And although he wanted this story to be about money and class, he also wrote a book that gives women agency in narratives they've often been erased from.

After more than a dozen novels and collections of short stories, Irish writer ColmTóibín recently published his first book of poetry. His new collection, Vinegar Hill, examines a wide range of subjects: from mortality, religion, and the current political climate, to the power of poetry in life's most important moments. To celebrate Poetry Month, Tóibín read some of his poems to Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, and said that he wanted to write without the usual adornments of poetry. In a way, he hopes the simplicity of his writing will have more expression and power.

For this month’s Letter from the Editors, Zoë spoke with three feminist activists behind a virtual cooking class in support of Feminist Workshop (a Ukrainian NGO). In this podcast, they discuss food, war, and feminist organizing. This podcast was written and produced by Zoë Johnson with original music by the Electric Muffin Research Kitchen. SHOWNOTESTranscriptRead the show transcript here.ResourcesLearn more about Feminist Workshop and donate to their feminist and queer mutual aid in Lviv via GoFundMe;Check the list of feminist, LGBTQI, disability justice groups in Ukraine and donate to them directly;Read the Solidarity Statement and Call for Action; andFollow Sonaksha Iyengar, who did the beautiful graphics for Cooking Up Resistance.Featured Audio Clips Woman at war by Benedikt Erlingsson (2018): Ukrainian folk singers Feminist Workshop: “Sex, Freedom, Money: What more do feminists want? (“СЕКС, СВОБОДА, ГРОШІ: ЧОГО ЩЕ ХОЧУТЬ ФЕМІНІСТКИ?”)NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday: “Ukrainian women are volunteering to fight, continuing a tradition” Get full access to Feminist Food Journal at feministfoodjournal.substack.com/subscribe

Dave Iverson was a 59-year-old KQED broadcast journalist and filmmaker when he decided to do something he'd never imagined. He moved back into his childhood home when his 95-year-old mom could no longer care for herself. Dave's new memoir Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, An Aging Son and Life's Final Journey is the story of their 10-year caregiving journey, lasting until his mother's passing at the age of 105. It's a book Michael J. Fox calls “A gift—a modern classic of frontier literature documenting the uncertain journey into the country of caregiving.” In this special Commonwealth Club presentation, KQED's Scott Shafer will interview Dave about his new book and our growing eldercare crisis. Someone turns 65 every eight seconds in this country, and the pandemic's ongoing toll on nursing home residents has prompted more people to consider caring for an aging parent at home. Yet what lies ahead when someone makes that choice? Join Scott Shafer and Dave Iverson for an intimate, unvarnished conversation about the challenges, choices and unexpected rewards of caring for someone during life's final journey. Our moderator will be award-winning journalist Scott Shafer. Shafer is senior editor of the California Politics and Government Desk at KQED, where he leads the politics team's coverage of the state. He is also co-host of the weekly radio program and podcast series "Political Breakdown." Shafer has covered stories for National Public Radio programs, including "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday." He collaborated on and hosted "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown," an eight-part series about the life and political career of the former California governor. He previously hosted "The California Report." MLF ORGANIZER Denise Michaud NOTES MLF: Grownups This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. SPEAKERS Dave Iverson Writer; Documentary Film Producer and Director; Retired Broadcast Journalist; Author, Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, An Aging Son and Life's Final Journey In Conversation with Scott Shafer Senior Editor, Politics and Government Desk, KQED; Co-Host, "Political Breakdown" Podcast This program was recorded live in San Francisco on March 31st, 2022 at the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to TechTime Radio with Nathan Mumm, the show that makes you go "Hummmm" Technology news of the week for January 31st – February 6th, 2022.Today on the show, Facebook's Crypto Project Is Officially Dead, Elon Musk says Robots to be a more significant business than Tesla cars. We now have faith in the Metaverse with a VR Quest for Community and Fellowship along with TechTime's “Best of the Best from CES 2022,”  our review show of the Consumer Electronic Show from Vegas. We have other favorite features including, "This Week in Technology," of course, "Mike's Mesmerizing Moment," and, of course, our "Pick of the Day" whiskey tasting. So sit back, raise a glass, and Welcome to TechTime with Nathan Mumm.Episode 86:  Starts at 3:18--- [Now on Today's Show]: Starts at 5:40--- [Top Stories In The First Five Minutes]: Starts at 8:54Elon Musk: To focus this year on robots. Let's listen to his own words on what he told investors on the earnings call for Tesla. - https://tinyurl.com/yc4xes68 Faith in the Metaverse: A VR Quest for Community, Fellowship - https://tinyurl.com/2p94x4ch Facebook's Crypto Project Is Officially Dead--- [Pick of the Day - Whiskey Tasting Review]: Starts at 20:50Earl Settler Bourbon | 80 Proof | $9.99--- [Technology Insider]: Starts at 22:25TechTime's “Best of the Best from CES 2022,”  our review show of the Consumer Electronic Show from Vegas 2022--- [This Week in Technology]: Starts at 37:36January 30, 1982Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple II boot program called “Elk Cloner“.--- [Stories You Didn't Know]: Starts at 43:39How Streaming Services have resulted in over-anxiety and has left us with too much to watch. A Sea Shanty for IT workers: How about some IT music? Scott Simon- Host, Weekend Edition Saturday and Up First has come up with a few sea Shanties over the past week for IT workers. --- [Mike's Mesmerizing Moment brought to us by StoriCoffee®]: Starts at 48:47Lie Detector Devices--- [Pick of the Day]: Starts at 51:34Earl Settler Bourbon | 80 Proof | $9.99 Mike: Thumbs Down Nathan: Thumbs Down

Mentioned in this week's podcast: 'Design To Live' details refugees' ingenuity in creating life in camps, November 13, 20218:49 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday; Editors Azra Aksamija & Raafat Majzoub Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp; Tracey Baptiste's The Jumbies; Diane Wilson's The Seed Keeper; Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D. ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction--from Childhood Through Adulthood --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/valerie-dilorenzo/message

As many as 100,000 Afghans — those who worked with the U.S. military over the years, and their families — are trying to get out of the country. But access to the Kabul airport is controlled by the Taliban, and the American military says evacuating American citizens is its 'first priority.' Among the Afghans trying to flee are those who've applied for or been granted a Special Immigrant VISA. James Miervaldis, chairman of No One Left Behind — which helps Afghan and Iraqi interpreters resettle in the U.S. — tells NPR the process has been frustratingly slow. For Afghans and the families who do make it out, those who wind up in the United States will be offered help from organizations like the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the group's president and CEO, tells NPR how the resettlement process unfolds. This episode also features stories from family members of Afghan refugees already living in the U.S., which which first aired on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, with production from Hiba Ahmad and Ed McNulty. Correspondent Eleanor Beardsley in Paris reported on Afghan refugees in France. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

As many as 100,000 Afghans — those who worked with the U.S. military over the years, and their families — are trying to get out of the country. But access to the Kabul airport is controlled by the Taliban, and the American military says evacuating American citizens is its 'first priority.' Among the Afghans trying to flee are those who've applied for or been granted a Special Immigrant VISA. James Miervaldis, chairman of No One Left Behind — which helps Afghan and Iraqi interpreters resettle in the U.S. — tells NPR the process has been frustratingly slow. For Afghans and the families who do make it out, those who wind up in the United States will be offered help from organizations like the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the group's president and CEO, tells NPR how the resettlement process unfolds. This episode also features stories from family members of Afghan refugees already living in the U.S., which which first aired on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, with production from Hiba Ahmad and Ed McNulty. Correspondent Eleanor Beardsley in Paris reported on Afghan refugees in France. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

On this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a followup to previous conversations about why fatal crashes have increased despite traffic volumes declining substantially during the pandemic.  Following up on previous episodes featuring a number of Michigan experts on the topic, this week's conversation features a perspective from a neighboring state. Michael Hanson, director of Minnesota's Office of Traffic Safety, joins the podcast after an interview on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. (Kudos to Hanson for emphasizing driver responsibility and why these are crashes and not “accidents.”) Preliminary numbers indicate 1,032 people died from crashes on Michigan roads in 2020, while the number was 985 in 2019. This, despite traffic volumes being down as much as 60 percent in the weeks immediately following stay-home advisories from the outbreak and remaining down around 20 percent through the rest of the year. With many fewer vehicles on the roads and reduced congestion, Hanson echoes the analysis of other experts about eye-popping speeds. Hanson also talks about what law enforcement officers are seeing in Minnesota, which mirrors observations from law enforcement officers in Michigan.  In Minnesota, Hanson talks about the axiom that speed kills and says authorities are tackling the problem with some creative initiatives.

Many people may be tuning to television Friday evening for the final episode in which Alex Trebek hosts the game show "Jeopardy!" Trebek died in November of cancer . For all the years "Jeopardy!" has been on, and remember it existed before Trebek started as host, the program been a test of memory for both contestants and viewers. On the small chance you don't know how "Jeopardy!" is played, Trebek explained the rules at the beginning of the show. “You know how we play it. We provide the categories and the answers. And it's then up to our contestants to give us the right question,” he said. For example, if we said the category was "Radio Hosts" and the answer was "He hosts Weekend Edition Saturday ," the correct question would be "Who is Scott Simon?" For many, that was probably an easy example. Being correct in "Jeopardy!," and in life, can be much harder. Wisconsin researchers know plenty about memory and brain science. UW-Madison Psychology and Psychiatry Professor Brad Postle is

The New Yorker contributor Barry Blitt; cartoonist Pia Guerra; and Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes explore the art of political cartooning with Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. For more info, visit jfklibrary.org/forums.

Episode 093 of the Quarantine Tapes sees Paul Holdengräber and sports journalist Howard Bryant take a deep dive into how the sports world is responding to the ongoing protests. Howard tries to parse what is performative and what is powerful in the response from both athletes and the corporate sports culture in the past weeks. Paul and Howard also dig into the history of protest in sports and talk about how Howard has been thinking lately about figures like Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson. Finally, Howard offers his opinion on what dissent and protest in sports may look like in the future.Howard Bryant is the author of nine books, Full Dissidence: Notes From an Uneven Playing Field, The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America and the Politics of Patriotism, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, the three-book Legends sports series for middle-grade readers, and Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, and contributed essays to 14 others. He has been senior writer for ESPN since 2007 and has served as the sports correspondent for NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday since 2006. In 2017, he served as the guest editor for the Best American Sports Writing anthology. Previously, Mr. Bryant worked at the Washington Post, the Boston Herald, The Record (Hackensack, NJ), the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune.

YASMIN WILLIAMS is an acoustic finger style guitarist with a nod to the great MICHAEL HEDGES. Growing up in northern Virginia, her music has been commonly described as refreshing, relaxing, and unique and has been called some of the most imaginative guitar music out today. She utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. She has won various local talent shows, was a finalist in the Rolling Stones Young Gun guitar competition, was the Grand prize winner of New York University’s Ultra Violet Live talent show, and won the grand prize in Culpeper Has Talent. She was recently featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday show. EMILY WOLFE transcends the ranks of ordinary musicians. Her creative songwriting keeps her fans aglow thanks to her strong, powerful lead vocals and dominating guitar style. This Austin, TX’s resident rocker has shared stages with the likes of Heart, The Pretenders, Peter Frampton, Billy Gibbons and Gary Clark Jr. Wolfe a self-taught guitar player starting at the age of 5, has honed her craft over the past 22 years and has been described as a sonic merging of PJ Harvey and Jack White. Featured by the Wall Street Journal, MTV, NPR, and American Songwriter, Emily Wolfe is definitely one to watch. She released a debut self-titled, full-length album earlier this year.

Zach has the honor of speaking with Howard Bryant, an award-winning author and senior writer at ESPN, about what prompted him to write his latest book, Full Dissidence, and how he landed on the title, and Howard also talks a bit about some of the differences between power and money. Howard also touches on his coverage of Colin Kaepernick's workout, and he graciously shares his concerns about the direction of this country, particularly in the area of journalism.Connect with Howard on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and don't forget to check out his website.Learn more about Howard's latest book, Full Dissidence, by clicking here.Interested in finding out more about Howard's other books? Click here to be redirected to his Amazon page.Visit our website!TRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? It's Zach with Living Corporate, and you know what we do. Every single week we're having real talk in a corporate world. We do that by what? Having authentic conversations with black and brown thought leaders, activists, educators, executives, recruiters, entrepreneurs, anybody really who's willing to center underrepresented experiences in the workplace. And man, I'm just really excited, because this week we have Howard Bryant on the podcast. Howard Bryant is the author of nine books, the most recent being Full Dissidence: Notes From an Uneven Playing Field, and he's contributed essays to 14 others. He is a two-time Casey Award winner for best baseball book of the year, and a 2003 finalist for the Society for American Baseball Research Seymour Medal. The Heritage was the recipient of the 2019 Nonfiction Award from the American Library Association’s Black Caucus and the Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazard Donald Award for Outstanding Work in African American Studies awarded by the Popular Culture Association. He has been a senior writer for ESPN since 2007 and has served as the sports correspondent for NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday since 2006. In 2017, he served as the guest editor for the Best American Sports Writing anthology. He has won numerous awards, as y'all should've heard by now, [laughs] and he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2016 and 2018, both for commentary, and earned the 2016 Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. In addition, Mr. Bryant has appeared in several documentaries, including Baseball: The Tenth Inning and Jackie Robinson, both directed by Ken Burns, and Major League Legends: Hank Aaron, produced by the Smithsonian and Major League Baseball. Mr. Bryant, welcome to the show, man. How are you doing?Howard: I'm good. Thank you for having me.Zach: Man, thank you for being here. Let me start off by saying I was familiar with your work because, you know, I'm an ESPN consumer, but it was over the past few months in your--and really, like, frankly the past over a year or so of your coverage of Kaepernick, but particularly the workout that had me really investigate your work and pre-order Full Dissidence. Can we talk a little bit about what prompted you to write this book and how you got to the title for the book?Howard: Well, I think that the first question is... I think time, you know, got me--when you work on projects and when you write, it's an organic process in so many different ways. You don't really even know what you're gonna be working on, but the environment around you begins to dictate an urgency, and things start telling you that, "Okay, these are subjects--" As I always say, if an idea comes and goes, it's really not that important. If it keeps staying with you and keeps staying with you, then you have to pay attention to it. And what was happening I think in this country, if you start to look at the accumulation of the election of Barack Obama followed by Trayvon Martin followed by Jordan Davis and Ferguson and Eric Garner and all of these different things that were happening, also then followed by Kaepernick and then followed by the election of Donald Trump. You've got so many issues here that you have to pay attention to, and especially as African-Americans, you feel certainly that--the racial component of all of these ideas hit you close to home. They're not just topics. It's not just a subject for you. And I think for me what was really becoming more and more clear was that they were all connected and that the connectedness of it told you that there was something else happening that you need to explore, especially--to be more specific, I would think certainly the 2016 election made me think--it made me re-examine the relationship that I had with my white friends and my white colleagues and the people that I grew up with and all of these folks that you associate with who, in so many different ways, would want you to believe and that you would want to believe were your friends for life or that you had great relationships with and that you had great professional relationships with, and then you get to a place like this, you know, election-wise, and you start to see the gap, or when you start talking to your white colleagues about policing and you start hearing how wide the gap is between you, and then you start looking at the gap as well between what was being said about--you know, about America and its post-racial potential during the Obama administration, and then you go from that to this presidency. It just made me look at all of these different components as a black man, and you had to start reassessing the relationships and what they meant and what it meant for me personally.Zach: Man, that's just a really--well, thank you for that and the context. You're absolutely right. I recall--it's interesting because I've had long-standing relationships with white folks, and I recall during the election, leading up to it and then of course after the results, having certain conversations that I just made a presumption that we agreed about or that I would just think that--Howard: "We're on the same side."Zach: [laughs] Right? And then you have a conversation or you say something and you say--you know, you have a point of view on something that's pretty pointed or matter-of-fact, and then not to get that same level of acknowledgement back almost like--you know, you might say something like, "You know, this is clearly wrong," and then, you know, you get back a "Well, is it? I don't know." Howard: They're like, "Oh, is it really clearly wrong?" Yeah. I mean, for me the first moment of it was October 1st, 2008, and I remember this specifically because I was driving to Logan Airport in Boston. I was going down to Atlanta to go to Hank Aaron's house. I was interviewing him for my Hank Aaron biography, so I remember the date clearly. And I was on the phone with a friend of mine who I had known since we were in middle school, and she was--you know, she's a white woman, and I'm driving to the airport, and we were talking, and at some point she sort of said out loud that Sarah Palin was far more qualified to be president than Barack Obama, and that stopped me--I almost drove off the road.Zach: That would've stopped me dead. [laughs]Howard: Right? So that was the first moment where it was like, "You know what? You can't assume anything," and it really started to begin this reassessment. And it wasn't simply that we had differences of opinion. You can vote for whoever you want to vote for and I can vote for whoever I want to vote for, but the issue was more about values, and it was more about what's being said and how white people are able to balance these viewpoints and the values of these people that they're supporting and still be able to consider themselves great, great, close friends with black people, and it struck me that the reason why they're able to do this is because for them race and politics and these things, they're just topics. It's just a subject, and--Zach: They're like thought exercises, right?Howard: Well, exactly. And it may be more to them on some level, that it's not just a topic because you care about the dolphins or you care about the environment or you care about whatever, but what it is is that they're able to co-exist. They're not line-in-the-sand "I can't hang out with you" issues. It's like, "Okay." The thing that had struck me was the number of times that you've had people talk about, during the impeachment, the end of democracy, and they would use these apocalyptic terms. You know, January 21st, 2020, the day democracy died, and then in the very next sentence talk about, you know, "I can't believe how my Trump-loving friends are--" You know? I'm like, "Well, wait a minute. If you're able to break bread with these folks, and you're able to just flip the switch that it's a difference of opinion, then it's not apocalyptic." Apocalyptic means I need to make life and death choices here. I need to make survival or non-survival choices. That's what apocalyptic means to me. It means the apocalypse is coming, right? And so for me I was realizing that as a black man and as a writer and somebody who thinks about these issues as more than just topics, I wanted to re-assess the people in my life, and I wanted to re-assess these issues, and I wanted--and I think one of the things in the book that was so important to me was in that re-assessment I couldn't help but keep coming back to the importance of where Colin Kaepernick fit in this in the first chapter. I remember right when the election hit I said to a bunch of friends, "A lot of relationships are gonna change after this day," and I was really in some ways talking about myself. But what I meant about Kaepernick is here was a guy who hadn't played football since 2016 and yet he still finds himself completely at the center of the culture. He still creates or elicits such an enormous physical response from people, and my question in that first essay, what Colin Kaepernick taught us, was really to ask one major question. I mean, there's a bunch of different ideas in that essay, but one of the overarching questions for me was why is it so important for this culture to destroy this man? It's bad enough that he's not playing football, the fact that when Nike rehabilitated him with just a commercial, one 90-second commercial, you had people trying to boycott Nike. Zach: Burning it. Burning clothes.Howard: Exactly. You had people--and they weren't just people, they were law enforcement, retailers, people in the mainstream. People in positions of authority.Zach: Institutions, yeah.Howard: Exactly, going out of their way to make sure that this man didn't have anything. So you didn't want him--so it's bad enough that he's not gonna play, right? Okay, so he lost his livelihood there. You don't even want him to have a source of income.Zach: "We gotta destroy his character."Howard: Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask this question - "Why is this so important?" I mean, supposedly this is America where everybody is able to have their opinions and that's what makes us different from these other countries, you know? They don't lock you up and kill your family and do all of these different things for disagreeing with government or disagreeing with institutions, and yet you're trying to destroy him. You're not trying to take his life, but you're trying to take his livelihood, and that struck me as important.Zach: Howard, it's interesting, you know--the line you just said, "Why is it so important that we destroy this man?" That was something that you actually said--you said it on air, [laughs] and so--Howard: Yeah, on Stephen A.'s show. Zach: Yeah. [laughs] It seemed like you were, like, the--it was, like, you and I'ma say Bomani Jones were, like, for me, the only black men I saw in media initially, right? So people came back. Like, other folks--Shannon Sharpe came back and he said, "I was wrong," but initially you and Bomani Jones were the only black male voices that I heard in the sports space, like, either defend or objectively discuss Kaepernick when the whole workout situation came up. Was there tension there because of that? It just seemed--and maybe because of me, I'm on the outside looking in as a consumer, 'cause I really--I was watching, and it was your tweet thread that I was sharing with all of my friends and my colleagues and my network and everything about "Hey, this is what's going on. Look at what Howard Bryant is saying. He was there at the workout," but it seemed as if you were, like, one of, again, two voices really not kind of following the same cadence of questioning Kaepernick's content, questioning his motivations, questioning his ability. Am I off-base by saying that?Howard: No, you're not, and I was concerned--and let's be honest, you know? I'm concerned about the direction of this country, and if you are concerned about the direction of the country, you have to be triply concerned about the position of black people. Because if things are going bad, you know we're gonna get it worse. And so to me, one of the areas where I had the most concern is in our journalism. It's very basic stuff, and I was concerned, and disappointed in so many ways, during, you know, my time down there in Atlanta and the coverage that followed, because I didn't do anything remarkable. I did what we're trained to do. It's simply journalism. But it shows you where we are in the culture. It shows you where we are as a country. If people treated that like there was some--like I went above and beyond the call of my job. I just did my job. That was it. The job was to go down there and find out what was happening and talk to people and find out what the deal was. That's it. It wasn't like it took any great deal of courage to go do that. You went down there, you talked to both sides, you found out what both sides' positions were, and you recognize--because we're not, you know, stenographers, you don't [write?] them both equally. You also put your brain in the middle of it, and you filter out what is accurate, what is inaccurate, and sort of how this deal and how this workout fell apart. The problem was, and the problem is of course, that Colin Kaepernick is a lightning rod in so many ways, but you also have a media that is so tilted towards the powerful. You've got rights holders. You've got relationships. You've got business relationships that, you know, are going to overwhelm, in some ways, the journalism. I had an interview the other day and somebody said to me, "Well, I think on balance, when you look at everything, Colin Kaepernick has really been lauded and appreciated and celebrated by media," and I was like, "Are you out of your mind?"Zach: That's not true at all.Howard: I said, "I find Colin Kaepernick's position to have been distorted from Day One."Zach: Absolutely. Yes.Howard: Because every person that goes out there and talks about the military when Colin is talking about policing is inherently distorting his message. If you're talking about, you know, being American or un-American, you're distorting his message. I never felt like he was being treated fairly in any of this because the message kept getting distorted, and we're supposedly very, very smart people, so it's not that complicated a message. Zach: You know, and it's interesting because--so to your point around distorting the message, even from the jump when he said, "Look, I'm protesting police brutality and white supremacy in this country," I don't recall anyone ever zooming in on the white supremacy part, like, in the punditry or the media talking heads, right? Like, we would zoom on--Howard: Well, why would they? They're the bulls-eye. He's indicting them. He wasn't indicting police only, he was indicting them as well, and I think that one of the big issues that struck me in this entire sort of story, and also one of the reasons for writing the book, was the fact that the idea--over the course of my lifetime, all 51 years of it, the American flag was always a symbol of aspiration, just like the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of aspiration. "Come here and you can do better. Come here and you can improve. Come here and you can go as far as your ability and talent takes you," and it was always aspirational when it came to race. Even, you know, your white friends would look at you and go, "Yeah, I know it's not fair, but we're better than we were," and "I know it's not--you know, this isn't right, and we've got a long way to go, but we're better than we were," right? That was always the message that was sent to me. Today the flag is no longer aspirational. The flag is a symbol to be obeyed, and if you don't obey it, you're un-American, you're a traitor, you don't deserve anything, and that is a fundamental shift. And that is a fundamental shift that I would point back to 9/11. And so when you start looking at what this country is, if the attitude is "If you do not obey, then you are a traitor," then what does that mean for black people, where the rules and the laws have needed to be changed just to give you a shot at what we call the American Dream? It puts us in an incredibly difficult position and, in a lot of ways, a position where--you hear what the president has done along the Kaepernick story, which is to essentially say "Well, maybe he doesn't belong here." It's to say that you aren't American. It's a very dangerous place.Zach: Well, you're absolutely right, and going back a second, I know one thing--one thing that trips me out is when folks say, you know, "We're not what we were. We've come a long way." It's like, "Look, if where you started was y'all can't sit at a lunch table with us, y'all can't use the bathroom with us, and now we can... that's not a long way," and, you know, it's almost like if your team was--I feel like Bomani Jones said this example, like, years ago. Like, if your team was, like, 0-16 last year and now y'all are, like, 2-14, it's like... there's been progress, but is that really something that we want to celebrate? Like, we still have--we have so much further to go that why are we even talking about this? Let's just continue--Howard: And also do I consider it progress because you're willing to treat me like a human being? What did I actually earn?Zach: That part.Howard: What have I done? I mean, what has been earned here? What has been gained? So this conversation isn't between you and me. This conversation is between you and you, you know? This conversation is between you not giving me rights and you creating a culture that denied my rights and you relenting a tiny bit so now I get a little bit of rights, but my situation hasn't really changed. This is between you and the mirror. Zach: So in your book you talk about the role that fear played in NFL players not supporting Kaepernick in his protest, right? And this was interesting to me in real-time, because I am--I'm a younger professional. I can't say I'm young, Howard, 'cause I'm 30. So I'm not, like, young, but you know what I mean. Like, I'm younger.Howard: Yeah, you're pretty young.Zach: I'm pretty young, right? So I'm moving around, and this was a few years ago, so I'm in my mid-20s, and I'm looking at all this in real-time and I'm like, "Dog, these guys got--these are millionaires, right? Why are they not--you know, they have acc--" In my mind, 'cause I'm--again, I'm in my mid-20s. I'm making, like, I don't know, like, 60, $70,000, so I'm a quote-unquote "average guy," and I'm confused because I'm trying to figure out why it is that they're not speaking up, but in your essay you highlight some of the differences between, like, power and money. Can we talk about that a little bit more? Because I think it's easy for folks to presume that if you have money you naturally have some amount of power.Howard: Yeah, absolutely, and I think that what we've got here--there's a couple of things that take place, right? And you can think about this as aspirational and think about it as progress, or you can assess it in any way that you'd like, but the question that I've been asking myself is--sports is the only industry that I can think of, and that includes music and entertainment, where there is famous men and famous women who are labor but still make millions of dollars. Tom Hanks makes $20 million per picture. Samuel L. Jackson, you know, $20 million per picture, and so--you know, Scarlett Johansson it's $15 million per picture, however much she makes per movie. So these are enormous, ball player-level sums of wealth, but sports is the only occupation that I can think of where we have this assumption or this instinct that management and the front office is supposed to resemble the workforce. It really is curious in that way, because if you look at farming, and you go fly out to California, there's a whole bunch of brown, Mexican strawberry pickers out there, and nobody is looking at them and saying, "Well, damn, the workforce is 70% or 80% Latino. How come the management isn't 70 or 80% Latino?" If you go to a strip club, there's a whole bunch of women out there making a whole bunch of money for the building, but nobody is saying, "Well, how come the women don't run the business?" But we do in sports. You know, 80% black men in the NBA, 70% black men in the NFL, and we say, "Well, why aren't they running the show too?" And the reason to me is the enormous over-estimation of money. It's because they make so much money we think they have power, but they're still just labor. They're incredibly well-compensated labor, but they're still labor, and sports is the one place, you know, where we over-estimate money, and we recognize, when we get to situations like Kaepernick's or you get to situations like hiring and you recognize, "Oh, there's a limitation to the money," that they're still paying you to provide a service to them. You're still a worker. You're still labor. There isn't, in their mind, the expectation that that's gonna translate into a pathway to management or ownership. It doesn't work that way, and I think people are finding out the hard way. Like, for example, you had asked me earlier the reason for the title "Full Dissidence," and the title, you know, simply comes from this feeling of recognizing that, you know what, it's not gonna necessarily happen for me the way they've told me if I do all these right things, and I think the NFL coaches are sort of having that full dissidence moment in their occupation. They're realizing that no matter, you know, how many Rooney Rules you have or how many assistant coaching jobs and how much experience I have that "that pathway may not exist for me," and I think from a working labor, occupational standpoint, it's a cold bucket of water in the face.Zach: I agree, of course. I think it's interesting because we have been--I know that I was, by my teachers, by black, brown, and white folks alike, that, you know, if you're good enough you can out-perform racism. You can out-perform--Howard: Yeah, exactly. Bomani brought up that point as well, that nobody has ever out-performed racism.Zach: And that, you know, if you get enough dollars, that financial capital will eventually translate into some form of white capital that you can, you know, leverage to get--Howard: To get a seat at the table. I remember when I was working on The Heritage I had a fantastically honest and frank conversation with Al Sharpton about this. So we're in his office in New York, and we're talking about this, and, you know, it's a despairing conversation in some ways because you're realizing, "Okay, well, where is the pathway?" And I finally said to him--I said, "Well, you know, Rev, maybe Michael Jordan had it right. Maybe, you know, for all the criticism that Michael Jordan gets, maybe Michael Jordan realized, even though he is an owner, you know, he recognizes that there's not an open pathway to ownership and you're not necessarily gonna get a seat at the table, so maybe the goal is to simply get as much money as you possibly can, that money is the one thing that they're willing to give you. They're not gonna share the power, but they will give you the cash. So maybe you should work on getting as much of that as you can, and that's gonna buy you at least the individual and the family freedom to live a better life." And Sharpton said, "Well, you're right, you're right... but you're still a coward. Even though you may be right, that still makes you a coward." [Zach laughs] Zach: I'ma keep it a bean with you, 'cause I was talking to my people, right? And I just said--I said, "Dog, Howard Bryant is a real one, dog. Like, he's out--" And you're right, you're right. You were saying that you were just doing your job. You were just doing your job by going out there and reporting the facts, but doggone it, man, you was looking like Fred Hampton in these streets, man. Like, you were the only--Howard: Well, and that shows you where we're at though. It says less about me and more about us.Zach: Yeah, the system. No, you're absolutely right. I do feel like we're able to see the capitalistic jig really clear in sports, but do you believe that it's exclusive to sports, or do you think that, like, the patterns that we see in terms of how these systems are all--how they work together in certain ways transcends just, like, the sporting arena?Howard: No. I think that--one of the reasons why I did Full Dissidence was because there's so much overlap that you needed to pull outside of sports, that what was happening in sports is the exact same thing that's happening in the culture, and the difference is--the reason why it was important to pull some of these ideas out of sports is because people treat sports like it's the toy department. They don't treat it seriously, but yet if you took some of these exact same ideas and brought them into the workplace, into the corporate, into the white collar, then people might look at them differently, and people might view it as, "Oh, now this is serious." You know, the reason why you don't look at it very seriously in sports is because 1. sports is entertainment for a bunch of people, and 2. we dismiss sports because the players make so much money. So it's almost as if "Well, because they make money, they can't have any grievance, any gripes, any concerns, any thoughts, any contributions." So absolutely I think that things are overlapping each other, and one of the most important ways that they're overlapping is the way that the corporate side and the military side know how important sports is because you've got so many bazillion channels on TV now. You've got so many different ways that the culture is separated. Sports is the one place where everybody's watching the same thing. You watch the Super Bowl, you still got 100 million eyeballs on one event, and you don't--it's not The Tonight Show anymore, you know? Or it's not the old days where everybody's watching MASH or Happy Days or All in the Family, but when it comes to sports people are still watching, so they know that's where the eyeballs are. So sports becomes actually more important. There's a reason why, when you're watching the NFL, you see all of the flags and the fly-overs and the military and all that, because the military is actively using sports as a recruiting tool because there are so many people looking at it.Zach: So you talked about 2008. That was certainly a pivotal year. I think about 2008, and I also think about 2016, right? You had the end of an era with Obama, of this [sarcastically] post-racial utopia, and this--Howard: Which it wasn't.Zach: [laughs] Thank you for--I appreciate that, because there will be folks, Howard, who won't pick up on the sarcasm, so thank you.Howard: Mm-hmm.Zach: And then we had the formal election of Trump, right? And Kaepernick was in the forefront in the concept of his protest, the ongoing discussions about policing--a lot of those discussions came more in the center. Ta-Nehisi Coates and his writing also became more, like, actual talking points. Like, it was an interesting year for black folks, and as someone who is in professional services as a consultant, I can say that you could really see the tone of the workplace shifting too because, again, we don't live compartmentalized lives, right? Like, you know, you just talked about sports permeating and everyone looking at it, and even if you're not a sports fan, those topics are becoming more and more mainstream, and I believe that all of these things came together, and even just the tone--just the way that black and brown folks were working and showing up and even, like, topics around diversity and inclusion, they changed, right? Like, those conversations became more on the forefront. You talked about a conversation you had with Reverend Al Sharpton. Can we talk about any other shifts that you've been seeing--you know, again, we talked about even your appearance on different shows and things of that nature. Do you feel as if you've felt shifts as a black journalist dealing with either white journalists or other black journalists as it comes to concepts around dissidence?Howard: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, and I think that the problem that you have in sports is that sports has been telling you one of the biggest lies for pretty much all of our lives, that sports is the place of the meritocracy, sports is the antidote to racism, that it doesn't make a difference if you're black or white, it doesn't make a difference if you're Latino or Asian. If my score beats your score, I win, and that's the American Dream right there, right? That's why sports was at the center of integration, you know? If black people can fight in a war, how come they can't hit a baseball? Right? And whoever's got the fastest 40 time or the fastest 100 time, they win. There's your meritocracy, and yet you find out in sports, when you look at what's been taking place in this business, that it's really no different from anywhere else, and I think that the hard part that people of color, you know, especially black people find in the workforce is they're finding that that shift is hitting them directly, and it's hitting them in places where they may not have anticipated. I'm very nervous for your generation. I'm very concerned about young, black professionals in the business today, for some of them whose first election was Obama, you know? That was the first year they were eligible to vote, and the expectations that they have, and even the elites, you know? The black students who are going to the Ivy League schools and to the Harvards and also to the Dukes and the Stanfords and the rest of these--you know, Vanderbilt and these other elite schools, and then they get into the workforce, and then they find out that things haven't changed, that they thought they were different. They thought that these old ideas didn't apply to them because we had treated the Obama election as such a demarcating line, and in retrospect it turns out to have not been such a demarc--in fact, what it did was it was a retrenchment. It was a reminder historically that whenever black people receive some form of victory, the backlash is harsh and swift and very severe and very clear, and in discovering that, I wonder what your generation and what that generation of black professionals, how they're gonna deal with it, this expectation of equality, this expectation that they are going to be that first black generation where merit actually does count. And then you find out in the corporate world, you walk in, and whether we're talking about sports with the Selig Rule or the Rooney Rule or the lack of black college coaches, or then you walk into the white collar world and you realize who's getting promoted and who's not and the diversity and inclusion initiatives and all of that, and you do have to ask yourself the same question over and over again, and that is if you need a policy to tell your bosses to even--not even hire, but just to interview people, you've got major, major, major problems, and you're not anywhere near as ahead as you think you are. Zach: Howard, and that's why--and, you know, I'm not a sports journalist, right? So I would say I am a casual consumer of sports, but that's--the Rooney Rule, just from, like, a human capital, change management--'cause that's my space, right? So just from, like, a business perspective, I found the Rooney Rule to be disingenuous at its heart, because it's like, "Okay, you're just saying that we have to interview people." I don't believe that correlates to you actually hiring more people, and we have tons of evidence--and, like, it's like the Rooney Rule continues to come up every handful of years about, you know, how effective is it really, and yet we haven't changed it. But it's like, "You creating some formal rules to interview typically black men for these coaching roles doesn't actually address the heart of the matter, which is that you don't inherently see these individuals as leaders of people."Howard: The question is, for the corporate world, and I've asked this question numerous times when I do these types of stories, are you grooming me to replace you? Because if you're not grooming me to replace you, then all of this is performative. Do you look at me and are you willing to have me be the face of your institution? You know, that is not a hard question to answer, but it's a very hard question to acknowledge, because the answer is generally no. I have made this argument to people, and people don't like it because, you know, they think it's too political because they don't want to confront their own history, but you can just look it up. It's not hard. I've always told people that if you are anti-big government you are anti-black, and people say, "No, no. I'm just a libertarian." And I'd say, "No," which is also my way of being direct, because anti-big government is a clear Republican platform. Whether you're black or white, if you are a Republican who supports the shrinking of government, chances are you're a racist. And why would I say that? I say that because historically, if you look at hiring patterns since the end of World War II, the federal government built the middle class, the black middle class. The federal government, you know, in terms of hiring, in terms of civil service jobs, the federal government built the black middle class, and as you start to shrink those positions, you shrink the black middle class. Whether you're doing it by design or whether indirectly, the end result is the same, and what I'm getting at here, for your space, is that the private, corporate sector still does not routinely and prominently hire and promote black people. It still doesn't, and so if you're going to cut the number of government jobs, whether it's state, whether it's federal, post office, whatever you want to call it, you are actively crushing the black middle class. This is the reason why these diversity and inclusion initiatives are so important, because this corporate world is not making those hires, and because they're not making those hires and because they can't be compelled to make those hires, you are at the mercy of what you may what you want to call progress or what we know to be lack of progress. So at some point--like, for example, you know, I went--and I think there's an anecdote... yes, there's an anecdote in the book about this, that I was at a diversity and inclusion event in Boston, and all of these CEOs sat down, and it was amazing. The first panel had a group of really well-prepared women making their pitches about, you know, some of their initiatives they're working on, and they were all so prepared, and it was crazy because they were incredibly polite. So they were incredibly well-dressed. They knew this was a shot to be on a major stage talking to major players in their industry at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. And they didn't interrupt each other, and they all did their presentations, and it was--you know, I understood it. It made sense. And then the next panel were the CEOs, and it looked like a country club. They were all wearing their suits, but they weren't necessarily--I don't even know if they were ironed. I mean, they just showed up because they're the bosses. They were in charge. Some of them wore ties and some of them didn't. They did not look at this like they were showing to this audience of black and brown women, you know? They weren't. It was very chummy. And they sat down, and they yucked it up with each other, and they cracked jokes and interrupted each other, because they were the bosses. They were in charge. And one of the most remarkable things that came across this entire event was when one of them talked about diversity and inclusion and promotions and talked about how it was easier for them to promote white men, because if white men in their offices didn't get jobs they were gonna make the biggest noise. They were gonna complain the most. They were gonna be the most disruptive. And the black women and the white women in the business were less likely to complain, which made it easier to pass them over for jobs. And it was a stunning, absolutely stunning, admission at a diversity and inclusion seminar.Zach: At an actual--targeted for this particular space.Howard: Exactly. Here was the beauty of this, which was obviously heartbreaking and painful, but it was the beauty of it. It was said so matter of factly that they didn't even know what they were admitting. They were essentially admitting that "No, we're not--" You know, "We'd like to hire you, but we know--" Because they were taking the path of least resistance. If I promote this guy or this woman, then this guy's gonna complain and be disruptive, so I might as well give him the promotion so at least I can have harmony. I can have the appearance at least of order. It's essentially almost like the corporate indictment of Martin Luther King, Jr. [?] white moderate, "order over justice." As long as nobody's mad and nobody says anything, everything's cool. And it's like, "No, wait a minute. You're contributing to this by having no courage. And by the way, if you're the boss and you've got a disruptive employee, he's insubordinate. You've got the power to do something about that." And that's the reason why that chapter in the book is called The Mediocre White Boy, because these guys are protecting each other at the expense of your advancement.Zach: Man. You know, your book collects a series of pieces, all of them powerful. The bylines of many of them I read was this concept of, like, self-erasure, right? So there were multiple instances where athletes would say, you know, "I'm not black, I'm this," or "I'm not anything, I'm just me," and, you know, I see a similar pattern for well-to-do black professionals, like, executives. I've literally met folks who will say, "Well, I'm not just black. I'm also a tennis player." [laughs] Or "I'm just me," you know? "That's part of who I am, but I'm a complex person," or--Howard: One of the biggest problems that we have in business and when we talk about ourselves is the idea of what blackness is, and we do this to ourselves, and when we do it to ourselves, then that gives white people license to do it ten times worse to us. And when you watch, you know, film, and you watch Hollywood and you watch everything, they essentially assume there's one black experience, because we attack each other so often on authenticity. And, you know, one of the reasons why I did this book was because I felt like there was an opportunity to talk about certain elements of the black experience that never get discussed. I mean, one of the beauties of Ta-Nahesi Coates' writing is that he writes very specifically about a very specific black experience, his experience, you know, in Baltimore and as a professional, and he writes about being black in black communities. The same is true for a bunch of other writers, but one of the areas that we never really talk about is that post-1960s, post-1950s aspirational, you know, black families who made that decision--the same decision that white people made, whether it was white flight or black flight--that "I'm going to take my kids out of the black community and move them into the white spaces." And what happened to those black kids who grew up immediately and always as the only black kid in class? You're the only black kid in the first grade. You're the only black kid in the twelfth grade. You essentially live in a world of whiteness, and why are we asking you to live in this world of whiteness? For education. Your parents are doing this for you. They're doing this because--like, in my case, when we left Boston, we were trading the physical violence of a tough, tough neighborhood for the emotional violence of being the only black kid in a room full of white people. So eventually as that toll begins to mount on you, you enter these white corporate spaces, and you recognize very quickly the price of being black and the anti-blackness that you're surrounded by. And sometimes you hear, or a lot of times this becomes the price for you to advance - not to be black, not to talk about being black, not to be proud of being black. You hear black people say this all of the time. "Well, I don't want to be a black writer. I just want to be a writer who happens to be black." What on earth does that mean? "I'm not a black doctor. I'm a doctor that happens to be black." And what you're really saying is that "I can't carry this anymore. I don't want to carry this, because if I carry this with me I may not advance and I gotta answer questions I don't feel like answering." And you see it in sports especially where sort of this deal is they're going to trade your blackness for money, okay? "We're gonna pay you millions of dollars, but we don't want you talking about issues that are important to black people." So I began to think about this in two of the chapters. One is called "The Worst Thing in the World" and the other one is called "The Lost Tribe of Integration," which is that when I started thinking about the arc of my own life, that the arc is that your life will improve the faster and quicker you get away from black people. If you get away from the black community, your schools get better. If you get away from talking about black issues, then you're not a troublemaker at work anymore, you know? If you don't advocate for black people, then people will look at you and tell you that you've transcended race, as if looking in the mirror is something that you should not want. Zach: You know, what's really interesting about that is even in the diversity and inclusion, like, corporatized space--and I've noticed this as me as a black man, like, the more that I'm able to say things like, "It's not just about race and ethnicity, it's also about diversity of thought--" If even in the space that was supposedly built so that we can have equity for black and brown people and historically marginalized and oppressed groups--even in this space, if I, in my rhetoric, in my general language, if I eschew ethnicity, that is also [?]--Howard: If you advocate directly for black people, you are putting your entire career in danger. And I say this now, and people look at me, and they don't like to hear it, but I'll say it now, I'll say tomorrow, and I said it yesterday - diversity is anti-blackness, because what we're really talking about here when you look at the statistics and when you look at the reasons for the Rooney Rule--you're not looking at the Rooney Rule because Asians are underrepresented, but when you're having your diversity and inclusion initiatives, especially if you're talking about technology--if we're going to Silicon Valley, you're not looking at the Middle-Eastern or the Indian or the Asian and say, "Gee, they're not advancing." What you're looking at is a white space that has no black people, and so many of these D&I initiatives began with black people. It was about black people. It was for black people. But when you do something directly for black people, people get offended. They get mad. They don't want to hear it. They feel like, "Well, what are you giving them special treatment for?" Because you gave us the special treatment of not letting us play. You've been giving us special treatment since we got here. It's just not the special treatment that is a positive special treatment. It's negative, but it's still special. So what has happened in these spaces now is to minimize the idea that you're giving black people special treatment, now you just talk about non-white male treatment. But non-white male treatment does not necessarily address the inequities for black people specifically. So D&I suddenly becomes hiring white women, and so white women--who are often part of the patriarchy, who are always second on the food chain, who can marry into wealth faster than everybody, and if you look at your statistics, marrying into wealth is still the fastest way to become wealthy. The most reliable way to become wealthy isn't going to college, it's to marry into it. So now when you start to look and your demographics change, now all of a sudden--we had 89% white men in a given position, now it's 69% white men in a given position, but it's 29% white women. What does that actually do for black people? So you've got your diversity, but you haven't helped black people. You haven't helped the people on the bottom who were supposedly the target of this initiative. But you've got your diversity, you know? You've got seven white men, two white women, and one--you know, one Asian man, but what does that do for the person on the bottom? It didn't help them at all, yet your numbers are different and you can say, "We've improved diversity by 30%," but what happens to me? You haven't helped me at all. Zach: So we typically have sound effects, Howard, but you've been so fire that I'm not even trying to, like, dilute what you've been saying. So do you ever imagine a world where marginalized communities collectively go full dissidence in their places of work? And, like, if so, what in your mind would that look like?Howard: Well, the answer's no because you've got to eat. I mean, the answer's no because eventually, you know, when you start looking at the actual numbers, the numbers tell you that--they're so overwhelming, that there's only a few of us that are gonna be able to succeed, and so very few people are going to be willing to risk that. I mean, I look at myself and I look at the numbers and I say to myself, "There's nothing special about me," and then you look at the actual number of black people who have my job and you go, "Oh. On second thought, there is something special," because you're one of the few people who actually has a platform, who actually has a chance to say something.Zach: Howard, man. I'm serious. I'm telling you, man. I'm not joking. When you got up on there and you started talking like that, me and all of my friends were like, "Yo... this is gonna be the last time we see this dude up here." [laughs]Howard: Exactly, right? But see, I look at it this way. ESPN hired me to do this. They didn't hire me to act like Bill Simmons or to act like Rick Reilly or to act like Stephen A. They said, "You go out and do what you do best." Now, obviously when you're gonna do this, when you're going to say these different things, it goes back to what you were saying earlier about "Do you want diversity of color or diversity of thought?" Normally, what a lot of corporations want is they want diversity of color, but they don't want diversity of thought because diversity of thought challenges them way too much. So what they would really like is they would like a gigantic, pretty rainbow of different colors who are all represented who all think the same way so the company's not challenged. I understand that part. I don't always subscribe to that part, because as a journalist, you're asking me to represent people who don't have the opportunity to speak, and so I try to do that. That's part of the job, or at least it was part of the job and it should always be part of the job. So the issue is, to answer your question, what needs to happen and how do I envision that? What does that look like? Well, how it looks to me is I think it's more of a mental liberation than a physical one. I think to me, when I think about full dissidence as an idea--and I think I end the book with it--is it's the recognition that you can find your own living space and not let people lie to you or not feel like you have to buy in. You've got to be willing to see through what's happening right now. Look at what's happening to your situation, and then you need to discover your own strategies to find your own peace within it. But the problem that I see is the number of black people in the business who were so [?] and so happy that they get in that they buy into it and they think they're different and they're like, "Okay, everything's changed," and then they get punched in the face. And then they get punched in the face and they had their hands down, and what I'm trying to say is if you're gonna navigate this environment, navigate the environment, but make sure your hands are up and know that punch is coming, because that punch always comes. Ask your parents. Ask your grandparents. That punch always comes. So what you're really asking me in some ways, whether you're doing it directly or not or intentionally or not, is do I see white people changing so there's no need for this, and the answer is no, I don't see that. What I see--and that's one of the reasons why in the book I say it's not a survival guide, it's simply what I see--what I see is the necessity for black people to hold on to their blackness, to keep it and to not trade it and not sacrifice it under this idea that "If I do the right things and if I say the right things I'm gonna get accepted as an American," because it hasn't happened yet, you know? That's the big thing for me, that you look at the--you know, you go watch a movie like Gloria or go read the history of, you know, black participation in warfare, that if you fight for your country or if you win the medals or if you build the charter school or if you, you know, give the money to whatever foundation, that you are finally gonna get accepted, and it goes back to what you were saying. It's that whole idea of outperforming racism. I guess the best way to say it is--what is full dissidence? Full dissidence is the recognition that you cannot outperform racism. That's what it feels like to me.Zach: Man, thank you so much for being on the podcast. This has been incredible. Y'all, make sure y'all check out his--everything's in the show notes. The author, his name is Howard Bryant. The book is called Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field. Make sure y'all check it out. This has been Zach with the Living Corporate podcast. Make sure you check us out on Instagram @LivingCorporate, Twitter @LivingCorp_Pod, and we're on Google, man. Look, we're all on Al Gore's Internet, man. Livingcorporate.co, .us, .net. Howard, listen, man, we understand how theses SEOs work. We've got all the domains, Howard, except for LivingCorporate.com. Australia has that domain somehow. I don't know what's going on. We're gonna try to get it, but look, [Howard and Zach laugh] y'all make sure y'all hit us up. I can't thank you enough, Howard. Until next time, we'll catch y'all, man. Peace.

When Maria Marten disappeared from the English village of Polstead in 1827, her lover said that they had married and were living on the Isle of Wight. But Maria's stepmother began having disturbing dreams that hinted at a much grimmer fate. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Red Barn, which transfixed Britain in the early 19th century. We'll also encounter an unfortunate copycat and puzzle over some curious births. Intro: In 1859, a penurious Henry Thoreau donated $5 to a college library. Georges Perec rendered "Ozymandias" without the letter E. Sources for our feature on the Red Barn: James Curtis, The Murder of Maria Marten, 1828. Shane McCorristine, William Corder and the Red Barn Murder: Journeys of the Criminal Body, 2014. Lucy Worsley, The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock, 2014. James Moore, Murder at the Inn: A History of Crime in Britain's Pubs and Hotels, 2015. Colin Wilson, A Casebook of Murder, 2015. Maryrose Cuskelly, Original Skin: Exploring the Marvels of the Human Hide, 2011. Henry Vizetelly, The Romance of Crime, 1860. "Trial of William Corder for the Murder of Maria Marten," Annual Register, 1828, 337-349. James Redding Ware, Wonderful Dreams of Remarkable Men and Women, 1884. Jessie Dobson, "The College Criminals: 4. William Corder," Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 11:4 (1952), 249. Richard Grady, "Personal Identity Established by the Teeth; the Dentist a Scientific Expert," American Journal of Dental Science 17:9 (1884), 385. Harry Cocks, "The Pre-History of Print and Online Dating, c. 1690-1990," in I. Alev Degim, James Johnson, and Tao Fu, Online Courtship: Interpersonal Interactions Across Borders, 2015. Sarah Tarlow, "Curious Afterlives: The Enduring Appeal of the Criminal Corpse," Mortality 21:3 (2016), 210–228. Ruth Penfold-Mounce, "Consuming Criminal Corpses: Fascination With the Dead Criminal Body," Mortality 15:3 (August 2010), 250-265. "The Trial of William Corder, for the Wilful Murder of Maria Marten, Etc.," 1828. "The Trial, at Length, of William Corder, Convicted of the Murder of Maria Marten," 1828. "An Accurate Account of the Trial of William Corder for the Murder of Maria Marten," 1828. "The Trial of William Corder at the Assizes, Bury St. Edmunds," 1828. "Dream Testimony," Notes & Queries 52, Dec. 27, 1856. Paul Collins, "The Molecatcher's Daughter," Independent on Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006, 20. Peter Watson, "Alternatives: Natural Barn Killer," Guardian, Feb. 19, 1995, 23. Jonathan Kay, "Lessons From a Molecatcher's Daughter," National Post, Jan. 9, 2007, A17. Michael Horsnell, "Red Barn Murderer Finally Laid to Rest," Times, Aug. 18, 2004, 10. Max Haines, "The Red Barn Murder," Sudbury [Ontario] Star, Aug. 16, 2003, D.11. Maryrose Cuskelly, "Of Human Bondage," Australian, June 3, 2009, 18. "Gruesome Murder Still Has the Power to Fascinate," East Anglian Daily Times, Oct. 28, 2013. "True Crime From the 1820s: Shades of Capote," Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio, Oct. 28, 2006. Colin Wilson, "A Murder Mystery: Why Do Some Killings Dominate the Headlines?", Times, Jan. 28, 2006, 25. Pamela Owen, "The Day Murder Became a National Obsession," The People, Sept. 22, 2013, 34. Stephanie Markinson, "Dark History," Yorkshire Post, Jan. 10, 2020, 7. "Collection Articles: The Trial, at Length, of William Corder, Convicted of the Murder of Maria Marten," British Library (accessed Feb. 2, 2020). Alsager Richard Vian, "Corder, William," Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol. 12. Alsager Vian, "Corder, William," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Sept. 23, 2004. Listener mail: Malcolm Gladwell, "Safety in the Skies," Gladwell.com, Oct. 1, 2001. Hugh Morris, "The Strangest Stories From the Golden Age of Plane Hijacking," Telegraph, July 5, 2019. Thom Patterson, "How the Era of 'Skyjackings' Changed the Way We Fly," CNN, Oct. 2, 2017. "Three Cheeseburgers and a Rental Car," Fear of Landing, July 26, 2019. Wikipedia, "D. B. Cooper" (accessed Feb. 4, 2020). Joni Balter, "Attorney: Hijacker Couldn't Hurt Anyone," UPI, Jan. 21, 1983. "Man Killed in Attempted Hijacking on Coast," UPI, Jan. 21, 1983. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by both Ronald Gainey and Chris Zinsli, based on an item they heard on the podcast 99% Invisible. Here are four additional corroborating links (warning -- these spoil the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

On today's episode, Adam interviews legendary journalist and author Scott Simon about his new books Sunnyside Plaza. The book is all about his time working with people who had developmental disabilities and how seeing the world through a different lens. They also discuss baseball, writing for children, and much more. 

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE 176 WITH AJ JACOBSA.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help.He is also editor at large at Esquire magazine, a commentator on NPR and a columnist for Mental Floss magazine. He is currently helping to build a family tree of the entire world and holding the biggest family reunion ever in 2015.His first book is called The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Simon & Schuster, 2004). The memoir — which spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list — chronicles the 18 months Jacobs spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a quest to learn everything in the world. It was praised by Time magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Janet Maslin in the New York Times and AJ’s uncle Henry on Amazon.com.After trying to improve his mind, he turned to his spirit. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) tells of his attempt to follow the hundreds of rules in the Good Book. It spent three months on the NYT bestseller list, and was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and others. It appeared on the cover of the evangelical magazine Relevant, but was also featured in Penthouse. (Jacobs is proud to be a uniter, not a divider).In 2012, Jacobs completed his mind-spirit-body self-improvement trinity with Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. It is the tale of his quest to be as healthy as humanly possible for which he revamped his diet, exercise regimen, sleep schedule, sex life, posture and more. He wrote the book on a treadmill desk (It took him about 1,200 miles).He also published a collection of essays called My Life as an Experiment: One Man’s Humble Quest to Improve Himself (2010). The book contains experiments featuring George Washington’s rules of life, marital harmony, marital disharmony, multitasking and nudity – not in that order. It includes the Esquire piece ‘My Outsourced Life,’ which also appeared in Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Workweek.Jacobs’s new book It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree.” It’s about the extraordinary changes happening in family research and DNA, and how they have an impact on politics, race relations, health and happiness. The book has been praised by Kirkus (“delightful”), Booklist (“a real treat”) and Publisher’s Weekly (“entertaining and lively.”)In addition to his books, Jacobs written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine and Dental Economics magazine, one of the top five magazines about the financial side of tooth care.He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, Conan and The Colbert Report.He has given several TED talks, including ones about living biblically, creating a one-world family, and living healthily.He is a periodic commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, where he dispenses world-shaking historical trivia, including segments on tennis, royalty, and congress behaving badly (the 19th century Vermont lawmaker who spat chewing tobacco in his opponent’s face).He writes a bi-weekly advice column for Esquire.com called “My Huddled Masses” Jacobs crowdsources the advice, asking his 120,000 Facebook followers for their insights on etiquette, moral dilemmas and how to deal with overabundant arm hair.He writes another advice column for Mental Floss magazine in which he tries to make readers feel better by describing daily life past centuries. The good old days were terrible (“mind-bogglingly dirty, painful, fetid, smelly, sickly and boring”).He is also a columnist for the LinkedIn Influencers program. His pieces include ‘The Six Most Important Business Lessons from All of History‘ and An Entrepreneur’s Most Powerful Tool: Self-Delusion.Jacobs grew up in New York City. His father is a lawyer who holds the world record for the most footnotes in a law review article (4,812). His wife works for a highbrow scavenger hunt called Watson Adventures. He lives in New York with his family.- https://ajjacobs.comPlease do NOT hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email mark@vudream.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

YASMIN WILLIAMS is an acoustic finger style guitarist with a nod to the great MICHAEL HEDGES. Growing up in northern Virginia, her music has been commonly described as refreshing, relaxing, and unique and has been called some of the most imaginative guitar music out today. She utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. She has won various local talent shows, was a finalist in the Rolling Stones Young Gun guitar competition, was the Grand prize winner of New York University's Ultra Violet Live talent show, and won the grand prize in Culpeper Has Talent. She was recently featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday show. EMILY WOLFE transcends the ranks of ordinary musicians. Her creative songwriting keeps her fans aglow thanks to her strong, powerful lead vocals and dominating guitar style. This Austin, TX's resident rocker has shared stages with the likes of Heart, The Pretenders, Peter Frampton, Billy Gibbons and Gary Clark Jr. Wolfe a self-taught guitar player starting at the age of 5, has honed her craft over the past 22 years and has been described as a sonic merging of PJ Harvey and Jack White. Featured by the Wall Street Journal, MTV, NPR, and American Songwriter, Emily Wolfe is definitely one to watch. She released a debut self-titled, full-length album earlier this year.

Journalism lost a trailblazing voice yesterday. Cokie Roberts, who covered Congress for NPR beginning in the 1970s and later joined ABC News, passed away at the age of 75. Schooled early in political rivalries and genteel Southern manners, Roberts became a legendary reporter and best-selling author. On Second Thought spoke with Scott Simon , host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday , to ask about his longtime colleague and friend.

AJ Jacobs (@ajjacobs) is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig and Editor-At-Large at Esquire. He has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Thanks a Thousand–the secret to happiness through gratitude; The Year of Living Biblically–where he followed the Bible word-for-word; Drop Dead Healthy–his overly extreme attempt to become the healthiest human, ever; It’s All Relative–the world’s most entertaining family tree…among others. He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, The Ferriss Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, Conan and The Colbert Report, given several TED talks and is a periodic commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.In today’s episode we discuss:- How AJ met Tim Ferriss and helped him write a bestseller- The pros and cons of genetic testing and ancestry- Is religion net positive or negative on the world- The secret of happiness- How to go about fixing media and fake news- Why AJ’s worried about data privacy and surveillance- How to deal with existential risk- Why we need clean meat now- What AJ learned from following conventional health advice- The state of the publishing industry today- What to do when good advice backfires- How to choose projects to work on- The reason biology is such a scary medium to manipulate- Unintended consequences of 23andme

The second-bloodiest riot in the history of New York was touched off by a dispute between two Shakespearean actors. Their supporters started a brawl that killed as many as 30 people and changed the institution of theater in American society. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Astor Place riot, "one of the strangest episodes in dramatic history." We'll also fertilize a forest and puzzle over some left-handed light bulbs. Intro: In 1968, mathematician Dietrich Braess found that installing a traffic shortcut can actually lengthen the average journey. What key is "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" written in? Sources for our feature on the Astor Place riot: Nigel Cliff, The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America, 2007. Richard Moody, The Astor Place Riot, 1958. Lawrence Barrett, Edwin Forrest, 1881. Joel Tyler Headley, Pen and Pencil Sketches of the Great Riots, 1873. H.M. Ranney, Account of the Terrific and Fatal Riot at the New-York Astor Place Opera House, 1849. Leo Hershkowitz, "An Anatomy of a Riot: Astor Place Opera House, 1849," New York History 87:3 (Summer 2006), 277-311. Bill Kauffman, "New York's Opera House Brawl," American Enterprise 13:4 (June 2002), 51. M. Alison Kibler, "'Freedom of the Theatre' and 'Practical Censorship': Two Theater Riots in the Early Twentieth Century," OAH Magazine of History 24:2 (April 2010), 15-19. Edgar Scott, "Edwin Forrest, First Star of the American Stage," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 84 (1960), 495-497. Adam I.P. Smith, "The Politics of Theatrical Reform in Victorian America," American Nineteenth Century History 13:3, 321-346. Daniel J. Walkowitz, "'The Gangs of New York': The Mean Streets in History," History Workshop Journal 56 (Autumn 2003), 204-209. Gretchen Sween, "Rituals, Riots, Rules, and Rights: The Astor Place Theater Riot of 1849 and the Evolving Limits of Free Speech," Texas Law Review 81:2 (December 2002), 679-713. Michael J. Collins, "'The Rule of Men Entirely Great': Republicanism, Ritual, and Richelieu in Melville's 'The Two Temples,'" Comparative American Studies 10:4 (December 2012), 304-317. Loren Kruger, "Our Theater? Stages in an American Cultural History," American Literary History 8:4 (Winter 1996), 699-714. Dennis Berthold, "Class Acts: The Astor Place Riots and Melville's 'The Two Temples,'" American Literature 71:3 (September 1999), 429-461. Cary M. Mazer, "Shakespearean Scraps," American Literary History 21:2 (Summer 2009), 316-323. Barbara Foley, "From Wall Street to Astor Place: Historicizing Melville's 'Bartleby,'" American Literature 72:1 (March 2000), 87-116. Neil Smith, "Imperial Errantry," Geographical Review 102:4 (October 2012), 553-555. Betsy Golden Kellem, "When New York City Rioted Over Hamlet Being Too British," Smithsonian.com, July 19, 2017. Amanda Foreman, "A Night at the Theater Often Used to Be a Riot," Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2015. Scott McCabe, "At Least 22 Killed in Astor Place Riots," [Washington, D.C.] Examiner, May 10, 2011. Timothy J. Gilfoyle, "A Theatrical Rivalry That Sparked a Riot," Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2007, 14.11. Paul Lieberman, "The Original Star; On His 200th Birthday, America's First 'Celebrity' Actor, Edwin Forrest, Still Has Fans," Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2006, E.1. Michael Grunwald, "Shakespeare in Hate; 150 Years Ago, 23 People Died In a Riot Over 'Macbeth,'" Washington Post, March 28, 1999, G01. Mel Gussow, "Richard A. Moody, 84, American-Theater Expert," New York Times, April 4, 1996. Frank Rich, "War of Hams Where the Stage Is All," New York Times, Jan. 17, 1992. "Theater: When 'Macbeth' Shook the World of Astor Place," New York Times, Jan. 12, 1992. "The Biggest Publicity Coup in the History of the Stage," New York Tribune, May 4, 1913, 4. "Death of an Aged Actress," New York Times, March 17, 1880. J. Brander Matthews, "W.C. Macready," Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly 10 (1880), 97-101. "The Astor Place Riots," New York Times, April 11, 1875. "An Old Story Retold; The Astor Place Riot -- Reminiscences of Macready," New York Times, April 3, 1875. "Dreadful Riot and Bloodshed in New York," British Colonist, May 23, 1849. "Remembering New York City's Opera Riots," Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio, May 13, 2006. Listener mail: M. Ben-David, T.A. Hanley, and D.M. Schell, "Fertilization of Terrestrial Vegetation by Spawning Pacific Salmon: The Role of Flooding and Predator Activity," OIKOS 83 (1998), 47-55. James M. Helfield and Robert J. Naiman, "Effects of Salmon-Derived Nitrogen on Riparian Forest Growth and Implications for Stream Productivity," Ecology 82:9 (2001), 2403-2409. Wikipedia, "Salmon" (accessed July 13, 2019). Paul Clements, "An Irishman's Diary on Football Legend Danny Blanchflower," Irish Times, April 11, 2015. "Danny Blanchflower," Big Red Book (accessed July 13, 2019). Alex Finnis, "Jersey Is Being Terrorised by 100-Strong Gangs of Feral Chickens Waking Up Locals and Chasing Joggers," i, June 18, 2019. "Jersey Residents Annoyed by Feral Chickens," BBC, July 6, 2018. "Channel Islands Residents Cry Foul Over Feral Chickens," Morning Edition, National Public Radio, June 28, 2019. Daniel Avery, "Gang of 100 Feral Chickens Terrorizing Town," Newsweek, July 2, 2019. Will Stewart, "Russian Hermit Cut Off From World Refuses to Leave Despite Rocket Debris Fears," Mirror, June 21, 2019. "Siberian Hermit, 75, Who 'Lives in 18th Century' Refuses to Be Moved by Space Age," Siberian Times, June 21, 2019. A bridge of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), from listener Alex Baumans: This week's lateral thinking puzzle was devised by Greg. Here are two corroborating links (warning -- these spoil the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

This week in 'News of the Jews,' Israel's new Education Minister endorsed gay conversion therapy, a controversial and widely discredited practice. We're bringing you an interview (recorded before those comments were made) with Mathew Shurka founder of Born Perfect, an organization that lobbies against conversion therapy. Mathew tells us about his own experience—he spent five years in conversion therapy as a teen—and how he found his calling in activism after an 'It Gets Better' video he recorded in 2012 went viral. Our Gentile of the Week, recorded at our Chicago live show last month, is Greta Johnsen, who hosts the Nerdette podcast and anchors Weekend Edition Saturday on WBEZ Chicago. She tells the audience at the Logan Square Auditorium what it means to be a nerdette, shares her favorite moments of the podcast, and asks the hosts a question about Jewish food. Tell us what you really think! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win an autographed copy of our forthcoming book, The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. This week's outro music is 'Adon Olam' sung to the tune of the 'Golden Girls' theme song by Kol Zimra. The song is featured in Latter Day Jew, Aliza Rosen's new film about former Unorthodox guest H. Alan Scott. Contact info@kolzimra.com for engaging harmony music at your next simcha. This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1914, 132 sealers found themselves stranded on a North Atlantic icefield as a bitter blizzard approached. Thinly dressed and with little food, they faced a harrowing night on the ice. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Newfoundland sealing disaster, one of the most dramatic chapters in Canadian maritime history. We'll also meet another battlefield dog and puzzle over a rejected necklace. Intro: England has seen some curious cricket matches. In 1940 two Australian planes collided in midair and landed as one. Above: Crewmembers carry bodies aboard the Bellaventure. Sources for our feature on the 1914 sealing disaster: Cassie Brown, Death on the Ice: The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914, 2015. Melvin Baker, "The Struggle for Influence and Power: William Coaker, Abram Kean, and the Newfoundland Sealing Industry, 1908–1915," Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 28:1 (2013). Willeen Keough, "(Re-) Telling Newfoundland Sealing Masculinity: Narrative and Counter-Narrative," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association/Revue de la Société historique du Canada 21:1 (2010), 131-150. R.M. Kennedy, "National Dreams and Inconsolable Losses: The Burden of Melancholia in Newfoundland Culture," in Despite This Loss: Essays on Culture, Memory, and Identity in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2010, 103-116. Kjell-G. Kjær, "Where Have All the Barque Rigged Sealers Gone?", Polar Record 44:3 (July 2008), 265-275. Helen Peters, "Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Newfoundland History Series 8 [review]," Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 12:1 (1996). Raymond Blake, "Sean Cadigan, Death on Two Fronts: National Tragedies and the Fate of Democracy in Newfoundland, 1914–34 [review]," Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 30:1 (2015). Michael Harrington and Barbara Moon, "Tragedy on Ice: One of the Most Dramatic Disasters in Canadian History Occurred on the Newfoundland Ice Floes in 1914," Maclean's 113:48 (Nov. 27, 2000), 76. "Disaster on the Ice," [Winnipeg] Beaver 89:3 (June/July 2009), 22-23. Guy Ray, "Seal Wars," Canadian Geographic 120:2 (January/February 2000), 36-48. Jenny Higgins, "1914 Sealing Disaster," The [Newfoundland and Labrador] Independent, April 1, 2011. Sue Bailey, "Newfoundland Marks 1914 Sealing Disaster With Father and Son's Frozen Embrace," Guelph Mercury, March 30, 2014. "Frozen Embrace to Mark 1914 Tragedy at Sea," Prince George [B.C.] Citizen, March 31, 2014, A.13. "The 1914 Sealing Disaster: 100 Years Later," CBC News, March 30, 2014. Francine Kopun, "Gale of 1914 Proved Deadly," Toronto Star, April 24, 2007, A8. Tim B. Rogers, "The Sinking of the Southern Cross," [Winnipeg] Beaver 89:3 (June/July 2009), 16-22. Alison Auld and Michael MacDonald, "Questions Raised About Coast Guard's Actions in Fatal Sealing Accident," Canadian Press, March 29, 2008. Joanna Dawson, "Newfoundland's 1914 Sealing Disaster," Canada's History, March 31, 2014. Sean T. Cadigan, "Tuff, George," Dictionary of Canadian Biography (accessed June 16, 2019). "The 1914 Sealing Disaster," Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage (accessed June 16, 2019). Wes Kean and the S.S. Newfoundland. Listener mail: Wikipedia, "Rin Tin Tin" (accessed June 19, 2019). Michael Schaub, "'Rin Tin Tin': The Dog Who Never Died," National Public Radio, Sept. 29, 2011. Linda Holmes, "Rin Tin Tin: From Battlefield to Hollywood, a Story of Friendship," Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio, Sept. 24, 2011. John Banville, "Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean – review," Guardian, Feb. 2, 2012. Wikipedia, "The Lighthouse by the Sea" (accessed June 21, 2019). Wikipedia, "Political Colour" (accessed June 17, 2019). "Why Is the Conservative Party Blue?" BBC News, April 20, 2006. Wikipedia, "Red States and Blue States" (accessed June 22, 2019). Stephen Battaglio, "When Red Meant Democratic and Blue Was Republican," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3, 2016. Ruaridh Arrow, "Gene Sharp: Author of the Nonviolent Revolution Rulebook," BBC News, Feb. 21, 2011. "Commentary: Braille Restaurant Menus Are Still Hard to Find," Chicago Lighthouse (accessed June 22, 2019). Sophie Meixner and Tara Cassidy, "Braille on the Menu to Accommodate Blind and Vision Impaired Patrons," ABC News, June 1, 2018. Josh Haskell and Armando Barragan, "Blind Monrovia Student Creates Braille Menus for Local Restaurants," KABC-TV Los Angeles, May 11, 2019. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listeners Jeff and Emmett Moxon. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE 176 WITH AJ JACOBSA.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help.He is also editor at large at Esquire magazine, a commentator on NPR and a columnist for Mental Floss magazine. He is currently helping to build a family tree of the entire world and holding the biggest family reunion ever in 2015.His first book is called The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Simon & Schuster, 2004). The memoir — which spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list — chronicles the 18 months Jacobs spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a quest to learn everything in the world. It was praised by Time magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Janet Maslin in the New York Times and AJ’s uncle Henry on Amazon.com.After trying to improve his mind, he turned to his spirit. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) tells of his attempt to follow the hundreds of rules in the Good Book. It spent three months on the NYT bestseller list, and was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and others. It appeared on the cover of the evangelical magazine Relevant, but was also featured in Penthouse. (Jacobs is proud to be a uniter, not a divider).In 2012, Jacobs completed his mind-spirit-body self-improvement trinity with Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. It is the tale of his quest to be as healthy as humanly possible for which he revamped his diet, exercise regimen, sleep schedule, sex life, posture and more. He wrote the book on a treadmill desk (It took him about 1,200 miles).He also published a collection of essays called My Life as an Experiment: One Man’s Humble Quest to Improve Himself (2010). The book contains experiments featuring George Washington’s rules of life, marital harmony, marital disharmony, multitasking and nudity – not in that order. It includes the Esquire piece ‘My Outsourced Life,’ which also appeared in Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Workweek.Jacobs’s new book It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree.” It’s about the extraordinary changes happening in family research and DNA, and how they have an impact on politics, race relations, health and happiness. The book has been praised by Kirkus (“delightful”), Booklist (“a real treat”) and Publisher’s Weekly (“entertaining and lively.”)In addition to his books, Jacobs written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine and Dental Economics magazine, one of the top five magazines about the financial side of tooth care.He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, Conan and The Colbert Report.He has given several TED talks, including ones about living biblically, creating a one-world family, and living healthily.He is a periodic commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, where he dispenses world-shaking historical trivia, including segments on tennis, royalty, and congress behaving badly (the 19th century Vermont lawmaker who spat chewing tobacco in his opponent’s face).He writes a bi-weekly advice column for Esquire.com called “My Huddled Masses” Jacobs crowdsources the advice, asking his 120,000 Facebook followers for their insights on etiquette, moral dilemmas and how to deal with overabundant arm hair.He writes another advice column for Mental Floss magazine in which he tries to make readers feel better by describing daily life past centuries. The good old days were terrible (“mind-bogglingly dirty, painful, fetid, smelly, sickly and boring”).He is also a columnist for the LinkedIn Influencers program. His pieces include ‘The Six Most Important Business Lessons from All of History‘ and An Entrepreneur’s Most Powerful Tool: Self-Delusion.Jacobs grew up in New York City. His father is a lawyer who holds the world record for the most footnotes in a law review article (4,812). His wife works for a highbrow scavenger hunt called Watson Adventures. He lives in New York with his family.- https://ajjacobs.comPlease do NOT hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email mark@vudream.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help.He is also editor at large at Esquire magazine, a commentator on NPR and a columnist for Mental Floss magazine. He is currently helping to build a family tree of the entire world and holding the biggest family reunion ever in 2015.His first book is called The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Simon & Schuster, 2004). The memoir — which spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list — chronicles the 18 months Jacobs spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a quest to learn everything in the world. It was praised by Time magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Janet Maslin in the New York Times and AJ's uncle Henry on Amazon.com.After trying to improve his mind, he turned to his spirit. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) tells of his attempt to follow the hundreds of rules in the Good Book. It spent three months on the NYT bestseller list, and was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and others. It appeared on the cover of the evangelical magazine Relevant, but was also featured in Penthouse. (Jacobs is proud to be a uniter, not a divider).In 2012, Jacobs completed his mind-spirit-body self-improvement trinity with Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. It is the tale of his quest to be as healthy as humanly possible for which he revamped his diet, exercise regimen, sleep schedule, sex life, posture and more. He wrote the book on a treadmill desk (It took him about 1,200 miles).He also published a collection of essays called My Life as an Experiment: One Man's Humble Quest to Improve Himself (2010). The book contains experiments featuring George Washington's rules of life, marital harmony, marital disharmony, multitasking and nudity – not in that order. It includes the Esquire piece ‘My Outsourced Life,' which also appeared in Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Workweek.Jacobs's new book It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree.” It's about the extraordinary changes happening in family research and DNA, and how they have an impact on politics, race relations, health and happiness. The book has been praised by Kirkus (“delightful”), Booklist (“a real treat”) and Publisher's Weekly (“entertaining and lively.”)In addition to his books, Jacobs written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine and Dental Economics magazine, one of the top five magazines about the financial side of tooth care.He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, Conan and The Colbert Report.He has given several TED talks, including ones about living biblically, creating a one-world family, and living healthily.He is a periodic commentator on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, where he dispenses world-shaking historical trivia, including segments on tennis, royalty, and congress behaving badly (the 19th century Vermont lawmaker who spat chewing tobacco in his opponent's face).He writes a bi-weekly advice column for Esquire.com called “My Huddled Masses” Jacobs crowdsources the advice, asking his 120,000 Facebook followers for their insights on etiquette, moral dilemmas and how to deal with overabundant arm hair.He writes another advice column for Mental Floss magazine in which he tries to make readers feel better by describing daily life past centuries. The good old days were terrible (“mind-bogglingly dirty, painful, fetid, smelly, sickly and boring”).He is also a columnist for the LinkedIn Influencers program. His pieces include ‘The Six Most Important Business Lessons from All of History‘ and An Entrepreneur's Most Powerful Tool: Self-Delusion.Jacobs grew up in New York City. His father is a lawyer who holds the world record for the most footnotes in a law review article (4,812). His wife works for a highbrow scavenger hunt called Watson Adventures. He lives in New York with his family.- https://ajjacobs.comPlease do NOT hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email mark@vudream.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help.He is also editor at large at Esquire magazine, a commentator on NPR and a columnist for Mental Floss magazine. He is currently helping to build a family tree of the entire world and holding the biggest family reunion ever in 2015.His first book is called The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (Simon & Schuster, 2004). The memoir — which spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list — chronicles the 18 months Jacobs spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a quest to learn everything in the world. It was praised by Time magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Janet Maslin in the New York Times and AJ’s uncle Henry on Amazon.com.After trying to improve his mind, he turned to his spirit. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007) tells of his attempt to follow the hundreds of rules in the Good Book. It spent three months on the NYT bestseller list, and was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and others. It appeared on the cover of the evangelical magazine Relevant, but was also featured in Penthouse. (Jacobs is proud to be a uniter, not a divider).In 2012, Jacobs completed his mind-spirit-body self-improvement trinity with Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. It is the tale of his quest to be as healthy as humanly possible for which he revamped his diet, exercise regimen, sleep schedule, sex life, posture and more. He wrote the book on a treadmill desk (It took him about 1,200 miles).He also published a collection of essays called My Life as an Experiment: One Man’s Humble Quest to Improve Himself (2010). The book contains experiments featuring George Washington’s rules of life, marital harmony, marital disharmony, multitasking and nudity – not in that order. It includes the Esquire piece ‘My Outsourced Life,’ which also appeared in Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Workweek.Jacobs’s new book It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree.” It’s about the extraordinary changes happening in family research and DNA, and how they have an impact on politics, race relations, health and happiness. The book has been praised by Kirkus (“delightful”), Booklist (“a real treat”) and Publisher’s Weekly (“entertaining and lively.”)In addition to his books, Jacobs written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine and Dental Economics magazine, one of the top five magazines about the financial side of tooth care.He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, Conan and The Colbert Report.He has given several TED talks, including ones about living biblically, creating a one-world family, and living healthily.He is a periodic commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, where he dispenses world-shaking historical trivia, including segments on tennis, royalty, and congress behaving badly (the 19th century Vermont lawmaker who spat chewing tobacco in his opponent’s face).He writes a bi-weekly advice column for Esquire.com called “My Huddled Masses” Jacobs crowdsources the advice, asking his 120,000 Facebook followers for their insights on etiquette, moral dilemmas and how to deal with overabundant arm hair.He writes another advice column for Mental Floss magazine in which he tries to make readers feel better by describing daily life past centuries. The good old days were terrible (“mind-bogglingly dirty, painful, fetid, smelly, sickly and boring”).He is also a columnist for the LinkedIn Influencers program. His pieces include ‘The Six Most Important Business Lessons from All of History‘ and An Entrepreneur’s Most Powerful Tool: Self-Delusion.Jacobs grew up in New York City. His father is a lawyer who holds the world record for the most footnotes in a law review article (4,812). His wife works for a highbrow scavenger hunt called Watson Adventures. He lives in New York with his family.- https://ajjacobs.comPlease do NOT hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or via email mark@vudream.comLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

Zoe Chace is a reporter and producer at This American Life. “Radio is a movie in your head. It’s a very visual thing. It’s a transporting thing—when it’s done well. And it’s louder than your thoughts. It is both of those things. It would just take me out of the place that I was, where I was lost and couldn’t figure things out. ... They had a very personal way of telling the story to you, so that you kind of felt like you’re there with them. Like it’s less lonely, it’s literally less lonely to have them there. And that felt really good.” Thanks to MailChimp, Mubi, Squarespace, and Casper for sponsoring this week's episode. @zchace [02:30] Chace's Archive at This American Life [02:30] Chace's Archive at Planet Money [04:00] Longform Podcast #239: Brian Reed [05:50] S-Town [16:10] Weekend Edition Saturday [25:45] "Donald Trump: Ban all Muslim travel to U.S." (Jeremy Diamond • CNN • Dec 2015) [28:55] "I Thought I Knew You" (This American Life • Jan 2016) [33:35] "Sex, Boyhood and Politics in South Carolina" (This American Life • Feb 2016) [41:35] "The Believer" (Julia Ioffe • Politico • June 2016) [43:00] "Will I Know Anyone at This Party" (This American Life • Oct 2016) [43:30] "Party in the USA" (This American Life • Oct 2016) [50:25] "Flake News" (This American Life • Oct 2017) [55:10] "Fighting Donald Trump Cost Jeff Flake His Job. But He's Not Going Quietly" (Nash Jenkins • Time • Nov 2017) [55:20] Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle (Jeff Flake • Random House • 2017)

Everett Ruess and Barbara Newhall Follett were born in March 1914 at opposite ends of the U.S. Both followed distinctly unusual lives as they pursued a love of writing. And both disappeared in their 20s, leaving no trace of their whereabouts. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the brief lives of two promising young authors and the mystery that lingers behind them. We'll also patrol 10 Downing Street and puzzle over when a pigeon isn't a pigeon. Intro: In the 1890s, tree-sized corkscrews were unearthed in Nebraska. Pyrex vanishes when immersed in oil. Sources for our feature on Everett Ruess and Barbara Newhall Follett: W.L. Rusho, Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty, 1983. Philip L. Fradkin, Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife, 2011. David Roberts, "Finding Everett Ruess," National Geographic Adventure 11:3 (April/May 2009), 75-81,101-104. Howard Berkes, "Mystery Endures: Remains Found Not Those of Artist," Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio, Oct. 24, 2009. Susan Spano, "Not Finding the Lost Explorer Everett Ruess," Smithsonian, Nov. 4, 2011. Thomas H. Maugh II, "The Mystery of Everett Ruess' Disappearance Is Solved," Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2009. Jodi Peterson, "Everett Ruess Redux," High Country News, April 30, 2013. Peter Fish, "The Legend of Everett Ruess," Sunset 200:2 (February 1998), 18-21. Bruce Berger, "American Eye: Genius of the Canyons," North American Review 274:3 (September 1989), 4-9. Kirk Johnson, "Solution to a Longtime Mystery in Utah Is Questioned," New York Times, July 5, 2009, 13. Kirk Johnson, "Bones in a Desert Unlock Decades-Old Secrets for 2 Families," New York Times, May 1, 2009, A14. "A Mystery Thought Solved Is Now Renewed," New York Times, Oct. 22, 2009, A25. "Lost Artist Believed Living With Sheepmen," Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1935, 15. "Artist Believed Murder Victim," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 27, 1935, 9. "Burros Found in Snow Spur Hunt for Artist," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1935, A10. "Flyer-Miner Joins Hunt for Artist Lost in Hills," Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1935, 3. Norris Leap, "Utah Canyons Veil Fate of L.A. Poet: Everett Ruess' Literary, Artistic Promise Lost in His Beloved Wilderness 18 Years Ago," Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1952, B1. Ann Japenga, "Loving the Land That Engulfed Him: New Interest in Young Man Who Vanished 53 Years Ago," Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1987, F1. Harold Grier McCurdy, ed., Barbara: The Unconscious Autobiography of a Child Genius, 1966. Paul Collins, "Vanishing Act," Lapham's Quarterly 4:1 (Winter 2011). "Barbara Newhall Follett, Disappearing Child Genius," Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio, December 18, 2010. "Girl Novelist Held in San Francisco," New York Times, Sept. 21, 1929, 40. Floyd J. Healey, "Freedom Lures Child Novelist," Los Angeles Times, Sept. 21, 1929, A8. "Child Writer in Revolt," Los Angeles Times, Sept. 22, 1929, 8. Listener mail: Jane Mo, "Woman Wakes Up to Find 3 Bears Inside Her Car," KUSA, Oct. 4, 2017. Sara Everingham, "Town Under Siege: 6,000 Camels to Be Shot," ABC News, Nov. 26, 2009. Wikipedia, "10 Downing Street: Front Door and Entrance Hall" (accessed Nov. 25, 2017). Molly Oldfield and John Mitchinson, "QI: Quite Interesting Facts About 10 Downing Street," Telegraph, May 29, 2012. Wikipedia, "Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office" (accessed Nov. 25, 2017). "Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office," gov.uk (accessed Nov. 25, 2017). "Purr-fect Ending Fur Humphrey!" BBC News, Nov. 25, 1997. "'Pro-Cat Faction' Urges Downing Street Rat Rethink," BBC News, Jan. 25, 2011. "No. 10 Has Its First Cat Since Humphrey," Reuters, Sept. 12, 2007. Andy McSmith, "Farewell to the Original New Labour Cat," Independent, July 28, 2009. Lizzie Dearden, "George Osborne's Family Cat Freya Sent Away From Downing Street to Kent," Independent, Nov. 9, 2014. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Doug Shaw, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

A.J. Jacobs is a human guinea pig and the author of four New York Times bestsellers. Jacobs is the editor at large of Esquire magazine. He is a correspondent for Upwave health and fitness. He has also written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York magazine and Dental Economics magazine, one of the top five magazines about the financial side of tooth care. He has appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America. He is a periodic commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, where he discusses important trivia.

Peter Breslow is the supervising senior producer for NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday and a former producer for All Things Considered. Owen Johnson hosts.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum mourns the tragic death of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who died heroically in the line of duty on June 10, 2009, protecting our visitors and staff. This episode of Voices on Antisemitism with Scott Simon ran originally on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday.