It's Pretty OK

This week, the gang is talking about AirPods. Are they functional? What about practical? And does buying them make you part of a cult?

MUSIC: “Breathless on DVD” - Antarctigo Vespucci

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Do AirPods Make You Look Rich? These Millennials Think So (Wall Street Journal - paywalled)

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You’ve maybe seen articles about millennial burnout in the New York Times or on BuzzFeed. The job market is still often brutal to navigate for young people, combined with rapidly-inflating costs of living and not-so-rapidly-inflating wages. And through all of it, there’s a chorus of Elon Musks and Gary Vaynerchuks shouting about “hustling,” “grinding,” and how if you’re not working 100 hours a week, you’re a failure. But there are skeptics out there who chalk it up to their favorite boogeyman—the coddled, entitled millennial who isn’t willing to “pay their dues” or “put in the work.” This week, Sean, Pierce, and Max talk about it all: burnout, the culture of “side hustles,” self-care, and why it’s sometimes good to just park yourself on the couch and watch TV or take a nap.

MUSIC: “Burnout” - Green Day

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Kevin joins Pierce and Sean for a discussion of college basketball’s longtime loathsome villains, the Duke Blue Devils. Has Duke become less hatable in the 2010s? And what the hell is Coach K doing playing a zone? As always, Pierce apologizes. And Sean shouts out a fantastic new book on A Tribe Called Quest.

MUSIC: “Jazz (We’ve Got)” - A Tribe Called Quest

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Go Ahead in the Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib (Indiebound)

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Ugh, it’s a rough time to be a New Orleans sports fan. Not only are the loathsome New England Patriots champions after beating the Los Angeles Rams in an all-around terrible Super Bowl that Sean feels like the Saints were shafted out of, but now the best player to ever suit up for his NBA team wants out — and he wants to go to the damn Lakers. He talks to Max and Pierce about Anthony Davis’s trade request, what it’s like to know that your franchise players are always going to want to leave, and where to go from here.

MUSIC: “Two Cups of Tea” - Star Fucking Hipsters

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Last time we dove deep into a TV episode, Sean and Pierce dissected Mad Men’s “The Suitcase.” This time, Max is present as well for a discussion of “Ozymandias,” the Rian Johnson-directed Breaking Bad masterpiece. Pierce gives a stirring reading of the original Shelley poem before the gang talks about the sights and sounds of “Ozymandias” and explores how this is the episode where everything falls apart.

MUSIC: “Take My True Love By The Hand” - The Limeliters

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Ozymandias - As Read By Bryan Cranston: Breaking Bad (YouTube)

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The gang opens the show with a tribute to Vanguard founder Jack Bogle. Then, an announcement of new price hikes by Netflix brings up the question of whether cord-cutting is actually more expensive than cable packages and a discussion of Netflix’s impending content crisis.

MUSIC: “Pain Killer” - Iceage

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Netflix’s upcoming content crisis, in one chart (Vox)

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These days, it seems like all the food is going into bowls. Between Chipotle and Sweetgreen and Chopt and Cava and all of the other places that make mildly-to-egregiously-overpriced lunches for America’s millennial workforce, the focus appears to have shifted from the humble sandwich to salad bowls, burrito bowls, Mediterranean bowls, and on and on and on. Why is this happening? And, as we often ask, is it a good thing?

MUSIC: “Me & My Dog” - boygenius

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Patton Oswalt on KFC Famous Bowls (YouTube)

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Last night, No. 2 Clemson took a big lead early and never let up, cruising to a dominant 44-16 national championship win over No. 1 Alabama behind three passing touchdowns from true freshman Trevor Lawrence (two to wideout Justyn Ross) and three scores from tailback Travis Etienne.

It was the fourth year in a row that the two squads met in the College Football Playoff, and the third in that span where the title was on the line, so leading up to the game, there was a tremendous backlash from fans and media calling the predictable championship matchup boring and bad for the sport. But is there actually an argument that dynastic teams dominating their respective sports is actually a good thing? Sean certainly thinks so.

MUSIC: “Holding Out” - Metric

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Short-shirt company Untuckit has ridden the casual-workplace trend all the way to a search for funding that would value the company at a staggering $600 million. That valuation is nothing compared to what investors decided logoless shoe mavens Allbirds was worth. So how did we get here? And does middle school maybe have anything to do with it?

MUSIC: “Nameless, Faceless” - Courtney Barnett

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Merry Christmas! Hopefully you’re enjoying the holidays in the company of family and friends. And maybe, if you’re lucky enough to still be off work/school/etc., you’ll be settling in on Wednesday to watch some Boxing Day Premier League action. This week, the gang discusses the “Festive Fixtures” blitz that sees every club in England’s top league playing four matches in a blistering 14-day span.

MUSIC: “Atlas Drowned” - Gang of Youths

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