37 Comments

Such a great observation about overdoing the serialized shows. It used to be fun to binge watch tons of episodes. I haven’t watched tv in a while. I don’t have the attention span!

And meant to say this last episode, loved Sarah on Meghan Daum’s podcast. And if you haven’t listened to Freddie DeBoer on bari’s podcast about the glorification of mental illness, it was really good.

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Yes! That Freddie DeBoer interview was terrific, Nancy and I were talking about it the other day. -- SH

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Totally agree on both the shows and the two excellent podcasts. I'm looking forward to "The Bear" and I'm warming up to "Reservation Dogs" the more I watch it. Podcasts take more of my listening time these days compared to TV.

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Oh I need to go back and listen to SH on Unspeakable. So little time, etc!

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This is why I don’t watch tv! Podcasts!

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Yes, Sarah talking to Meghan Daum was delightful!

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I wrote most of TO THE BRIDGE on the coast in manzanita

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Manzanita is a beautiful spot. I had a great week or so camping all along that coast in November 2013 WITHOUT rain (lucky!) and of course no crowds. Such varied beauty all along that coastline and also different from the states north and south of it.

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I will give $$$ for Nancy's Crack Pie.

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The first time I saw Wilco perform “Via Chicago” live felt like a religious experience.

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Spotify two years running tells me I request Wilco the most

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I saw them on the "Ghost is Born" tour and Jeff Tweedy was newly sober and he was on FIRE. -- SH

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Not to brag or anything, but it’s a beautiful 75 degrees on the Oregon coast. But I’ll be in NYC in August, so I’ll sweatily wave towards Chinatown, Nancy :)

Great breakdown of Pollan’s tv series; as usual, I love how open minded you both are. While my mind, uhh, doesn’t need to be changed w/r/t psychedelics, it’s really heartening to witness how the discussion has shifted over the years. There’s so much potential in the drugs, and we’re only now starting to think seriously about it.

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The first time I visited Portland was June, and I was like: Why doesn't everyone live here? (And then everyone moved there. It was 2001.) Anyway, the Oregon coast is so lovely, I hope to go back some time. I remember sliding down the sand dunes fondly. -- SH

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In addition to the “Hot for Due Process” shirts, I think we also need a “AXIOMATIC!” shirt!!

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I love how happy Nancy sounds when she talks food and cooking. I envy people who enjoy cooking, even more so those who are good at it. When my mother started to teach me how to cook it felt like more like another chore on top of all my other chores. A lot of pressure to get it done on time and just so. While I do cook now for my wife and I, I’m feel more anxious about how long it will take and whether it will taste worth the effort. My wife is highly supportive though and loves everything I make - cause she’s a worse cook than me! 😆

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Same experience with mom! I’m more into cooking as I get older but now I do the spend a week on a “creation” kind of cooking rather than the “you have 45 minutes to slop the hogs” kind of cooking.

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I felt the same way when hearing Nancy talk about how cooking is relaxing for her. I totally can see Nancy cooking for a crowd.. She is probably the best host!! I can’t say for sure if cooking is relaxing for me, but I do find other kitchen chores (washing dishes, loading dishwasher, etc.) to strike the same chord. My partner and I fortunately share the cooking load and seem to both achieve adequate greatness. Hahaha!

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It’s so yummy! On the subscribe page choose Founding Member and name yer price! xx

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I haven't even listened yet, but I think some Smoke 'Em playlists are in order. I've loved all the intro/outro songs and links to songs & videos, but that Sufjan Stevens song is especially near and dear to my heart. Just when I thought you guys couldn't get any cooler...

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That whole album...Carrie and Lowell, right?

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That song is off the album Illinois, but now you’ve given me a whole new album to discover!

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I saw Sufjan Stevens perform all of Carrie and Lowell in Seattle with my daughter - I didn’t think anything could be better than Illinois but it was pretty epic.

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A Smoke 'Em playlist - yes!!!

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This podcast and notes are all great! (As usual)

And from a parallel universe: I also loved Nancy’s article focused on Small Business - on Common Sense.

Things are really rough right now, even in services/consulting. Hard to navigate it all.

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Smoke 'Em is usually with me for a 4+ mile walk but today it was a good 100 miles on my long drive back home from North Carolina -- even sweeter since I didn't know it was coming. Looking forward to watching "The Bear" and delving into the show notes.

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If you want to explore the influence of drugs and 60s counterculture on the early days of Silicon Valley, I highly recommend “What the Dormouse Said” by John Markoff. Probably one of the most unique histories of tech ever.

https://a.co/d/14BavKF

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Station Eleven - I haven't seen the series but LOVED the book. Among other things, its structuring fascinated me. It added a lot of depth to the plot and characterization. I will be reading Sea of Tranquillity soon. I'll check the show out.

I worked in a kosher kitchen for a couple of years. No dedicated station, we all did a bit of everything. Definitely a wide variety of people in that kitchen. I like reading r/kitchenconfidential in general for the sorts of things Nancy mentions - and there's a dedicated thread for The Bear: https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/. Now I'm gonna have to watch it.

As for baking and cooking, I rarely eat what I bake, since it's mostly for other people. Like Nancy, it's a way for me to show people I care for them. That's why it's so frustrating for me, an adventurous cook/eater, to make food for a family of really picky eaters. So my neighbors and I trade dishes. It's made for good friendships. But if only my kids' tastebuds would mature. I don't know how much hope to have, since their father's palate is so restricted. He's a great father and partner, but he's also the sort of guy who always orders the tonkatsu pork at a Japanese restaurant. In the Midwest at least, that's what many of the men order, while the women order sushi.

As usual, great episode!

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You're in the Midwest too?!? Yaaay

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On "Station 11" -- a favorite book of mine in the past few years; I especially enjoyed it as an audiobook. I'll go find the TV version sometime, though I hear that it's changed from the novel. I also highly recommend "The Glass Hotel", which is sort of part of the universe that St. John Mandel is building. I've just started "Sea of Tranquility" which appears to have a partial tie to "The Glass Hotel", but we'll see what happens. And an older book of hers, "The Singer's Gun", was pretty good, too. I think at this point I will read any new book she publishes.

I am a big fan of audiobooks, indeed, most things audio, have been for decades, so good for eating up the miles on runs, walks, and long drives across the country. Podcasts and audiobooks let you create the images in your own mind as you go along.

And everybody should listen to Sarah reading "Blackout" -- she does a really nice job on it. A later chapter has an added feature that you can only get in an audiobook -- haunting and powerful.

"Kitchen Confidential" -- I read many years ago and loved it, probably worth a re-read. There was also some book at the same time which was all about going to the CIA in New York; don't remember the title or author.

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Okay, the guy from The Bear has the most limpid eyes since Nicholas Cage. I'm hooked!

Second, Emma Thompson is so lovely and vulnerable in Leo Grande! How affirming for us over 40s!

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Oh, and I appreciate your endcmusic lately, polyphonic spree and sufjan 🥰

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