Matt & Annie are back with a holiday themed episode. We talk about our family traditions, things we like about the holidays, and whether or not Die Hard is, in fact, a Christmas movie. We're taking a break for the rest of the year and will be back in January with a new episode. Have a good holiday and new year. See you in 2020!

Trans Siberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells is our intro for the week and Last Christmas by Wham! closes us out. 

A previously recorded episode where Matt & Annie discuss what they're reading and the fall holidays. Matt talks about his baby on the way.

UPDATE: Checking In has added a new addition: a healthy baby girl!

Annie & I are back to the studio with newest episode. We discuss the things we've been reading and watching. We talk about what the Great American Novel is, David's new Science Fiction book group and the Digital Media Lab. In the second half, we talk about Halloween and the upcoming library programs and events that will be happening.

Books

Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, & Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin

My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh

The War on Normal People by Andrew Yang

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I Am the New Black by Tracy Morgan

Movies

Plus One

Booksmart

Love & Mercy

Desk Set

Television

Black Mirror

The Last OG

The Barenaked Ladies "Brain Wilson" closes us out for the week.

On this episode of Checking In, Shirley Maylock joins us to discuss being a radio performer on the hit show The Lone Ranger. She talks about her time in radio and growing up in Detroit. She sees podcasting as the radio shows of the present and is surprised in the type of resurgence this form of media has. It's an exciting conversation and we hope you enjoy it.

After the break, Annie & I talk about the things we've been doing and get sidetracked talking about studios teenagers and microbrews. Thanks for listening.

Books:

Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Watching:

27 Dresses

Gilmore Girls

Succession

New Girl

Chef Volume 2

Maren Morris' "Once" closes this weeks episode out. 

We are back with another episode of Checking In. Today's episode we will do our usual catching up with the things we've been doing the past couple weeks. After the break we talk about our favorite background TV shows. They're the kind of shows we like on while we're doing other things. We hope you enjoy our picks.

Books:

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene

Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV - Warren Littlefield

TV Shows:

Glow, Season 3

The Good Place, Season 3

When They See Us

New Girl, Season 7

Background TV Shows:

Gilmore Girls

Cheers, Friends, Wings, Frasier (Jim Burrows Universe)

Parks & Recreation

Futurama

New Girl

Background Movies:

You've Got Mail

The Love Letter

Carla Bruni's cover of ABBA's The Winner Takes All sends us off for the week. If you have any favorite background shows or would like to send us a question, email us at [email protected]. If we get enough questions we'll do an episode dedicated to those.

Annie & I are back with an episode about going back to school. We reminisce about our days in school and discuss education in general in the year 2019. We also continue to talk about the books, movies, TV shows, and music we've been consuming.

Books

Beautiful Music by James Zadoorian

This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews

Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown

Boom Town by Sam Anderson

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Movies

A Star is Born (1937, 1954, 1976, 2018)

TV Shows

GLOW

New Girl

Music

Florence & the Machine

Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall closes us out this week. Thanks for listening. 

Matt & Annie are back to talk about the great outdoors. First, we talk about the stuff we've been doing the past couple weeks: the books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and video games.

Books:

Recursion - Blake Crouch

Circe - Madeline Miller

Sadie - Courtney Summers

Doing Harm... - Maya Dusenbury

Gypsy Moth Summer - Julia Fierro

Beautiful Music - Michael Zadoorian

Wheelman: Lance Armstrong... - Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

Movies/TV Shows:

Fighting With My Family

L.A. Story

Queer Eye

I Think You Should Leave

The Boys

GLOW

Altered Carbon

Super Store

Podcasts:

Nice Try

Strong Songs

Childish Gambino's "Outside" fittingly closes us out this week. Thanks for listening.

Annie & Matt discuss Stranger Things 3 and our thoughts about the season as a whole. We also talk about the books we're reading and shows we're watching. Continuing our theme of Summer, we talk about activities we did and hope to do before it's over. 

*Our Stranger Things 3 Discussion ends at the 13:50 mark if you haven't watched and want to avoid spoilers.*

Things We Talked About:

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Fools Gold

Stranger Things

GLOW

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Bruce Springsteen's Darkness at the Edge of Town closes us out for the week.

This episode of Checking In Annie & Matt have new books they've been reading. In addition to books, some TV watching has taken place. Annie has watched one episode of Stranger Things. One does not simply watch one episode at a time...

Books Discussed

Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirsehbaum

Bunny by Mona Awad

Palaces for the People by Eric Klienenberg

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Happy City: Transforming Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery

Boom-Town by Sam Anderson

Doc Martin watchalikes

Hamis Macbeth

Kingdom

Indian Summers

Annie's Summer Movies

The Great Outdoors

Weekend at Bernie's

What About Bob?

Roxanne

Matt's Summer Movie

Back to the Future AKA the best movie ever made

TV

Little Big Lies

Stranger Things

Right Now: Aziz Ansari Special

The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" closes us out this week.