Scott and Erik and myself jibber-jabbered for a good long time about the Big Game this weekend. There were… digressions, including the Revenge of the Dad Bods, and the Hall of Fame case of Eli Manning.

Transcript is here. And subscribe!

Photo credit: By Infrogmation of New Orleans – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107911642

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Last week, I sat down with Scott and Robert for a freewheeling conversation focused largely on all things Dylan, at least of recent vintage. This included talking about the 27 disc box set of Bob Dylan’s live recordings from 1974 with The Band, which I wrote the liner notes for. Scott is an avowed fan of Before the Flood, and has spent the last several months inhaling all of the shows in the set, which is no small feat, indeed. (Real heads may also remember the time that Robert, Scott and I did a laudatory podcast remembering Robbie Robertson, where Scott’s love of The Band and Robbie was revealed anew.)

We also talked A Complete Unknown, the new biopic from James Mangold about Zimmy starring Timothee Chalamet. Did we like the picture? Find out right now.

Um, let’s see what else? I believe there was some discussion of the Rolling Thunder Review and the piece I wrote for Pitchfork about Desire. You should also check out Ratso Sloman’s essential book On the Road With Bob Dylan if you really want to get under the hood on the Rolling Thunder Review. 

We also reminisced fondly about the late Garth Hudson, the wild, beautiful, eccentric keyboard player for The Band, who left us a couple of weeks ago. For those in need of a comprehensive look at Garth’s incredible career and talent, I encourage you to spend some time with Franz Nicolay’s excellent essay about the man that he wrote for The Ringer. 

Also, if you wanna hear a rad version of “Tough Mama” from the 1974 tour that I recommended to Scott since it’s one of his favorites from Planet Waves, head here. 

I’m sure there’s a bunch of things I’m forgetting, so just listen to the pod.

Transcript available here.

Find the LGM podcast at:

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Last week Scott and I sat down with friend-of-the-blog Chris Koski to talk through what we now know about what happened in November. We worked through what data exists about the demographic breakdown of the election, talk problems internal to the Democratic coalition (“the Groups”), discuss the relevance of October 7 to the outcome, and finally share some thoughts on what 2028 might look like. Give it a listen!

Transcript is here.

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In Part II of our NFL podcast, we discuss the broadly competitive NFC playoffs. Part I is here. Enjoy!

Transcript is here.

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In anticipation of tomorrow’s games we recorded a two-part podcast on the NFL playoffs. In the first half (below) we worked our way through the AFC side, ending up with two championship predictions between the three of us. We also talked “Black Monday,” which saw the firing of several NFL coaches and coordinators. One that we missed, because of the timing of the pod, was Antonio Pierce’s firing by the Raiders (who have since also let Tom Telesco go).

Have a listen, let us know your thoughts…

Transcript available here.

Photo Credit: By All-Pro Reels – https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeglo/52391339069/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123513956

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One thing we discuss in the latest ediiton of our NFL podcast (see below!) is the concerns about the rough rookie season that Caleb Williams is having. I roughly half-buy this apologia for Williams — nobody will confuse Shane Waldron with Andy Reid, the skill talent Chicago has is solid on paper but not a great fit for a McVay-derived system — and it would br way to early to write him off. On the other hand, I think there’s reason for pretty serious concern, starting with the fact that I’m not inclined to just quickly yadda-yadda over the fact that Waldron had above-average offenses two years in a row with Geno Smith at QB.

I am, however, going to object to this:

The quarterback billed as a generational prospect is off to a generationally disappointing start.

Caleb Williams was a good prospect, a solid #1 pick, and that’s all he was. He was not a “generational” prospect. There is by definition not a “generational” pick in most drafts. Williams regressed in his senior year — he wasn’t mentioned on a single Heisman ballot and didn’t deserve to be — and showed a lot of the problems he’s shown at an NFL level. Had the Bears taken Jayden Daniels at #1 this would have been mildly surprising, not shocking. Please stop using this word to describe every B+/A- QB prospect who got buzz before his junior year, Thank you.

And BTW one way you can tell that in the NFL tanking is an idiotic strategy is that the last genuinely “generational” prospect to actually become a generational NFL player was Peyton Manning.

Podcast transcript available here. These are time-cinsuming to produce and edit, so if you enjoy please consider becoming a Patreon. Enjoy!

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In the second half of our interview with Chris Kempshall, we continued our discussion of the History and Politics of Star Wars. This included discussions of the depiction of warfare across the series, the depressing collapse of every democratic project in the series, and finally of the failure of the Jedi Order. As we note in the podcast, the sequel trilogy aren’t just sketchy films; together, they represent a profoundly depressing coda to the events of Return of the Jedi.

Later in the podcast we turn to Kempshall’s more recent book, the Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. This is an in-universe history of the Galactic Empire written by the historian Beaumont Kin, portrayed above by recovered hobbit and former bassist for Drive Shaft Dominic Monaghan. This means that, effectively, Dan and I interviewed an in-universe Star Wars character, which I believe makes the LGM Podcast canon as far as Disney is concerned.

Transcript available here.

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Last week Dan and I had the opportunity to speak with Chris Kempshall, author of The History and Politics of Star Wars and of The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. The conversation was so productive and enjoyable that we went on for long enough to justify two podcast episodes. In the first we work through the academic logic of writing books on Star Wars, then move into an in depth discussion of the first chapters of History and Politics, particularly the history and politics of the Galactic Empire. We’ll post the second ep next week.

This one is really fun. Transcript available here.

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Rob, Erik and I were fortunate to be able to chat with David Nir, formerly of Daily Kos elections and now at an indispensable Substack, the Downballot. We discuss a wide range of issues about the non-presidential races in the 2024 elections. This was a terrific conversation and I learned a lot from it, as always.

These podcasts are time consuming to do and produce, so contributions to our Patreon are much appreciated.

Transcript available here.

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Here’s the second half of our NFL preseason podcast, focusing on the NFC.

Should be fun tonight with the NFL starting! Unfortunately, I have to finish an article before I can watch, so we will see, but Chiefs-Ravens, dang, that’s a heck of an opener!

The AFC Preview is here:

Transcript is here.

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