The Other 51

In what may be the back-door pilot for an upcoming podcast about nerd and comic culture, University of Connecticut professor Alysa Auriemma returns to The Other 51. She and Brian do a deep dive into The Last Jedi (if you haven’t seen the movie, it will be spoiled for you) and what the Star Wars fanboys dislike about the movie. Alysa talks about how much she loved the story of Rey’s parentage, how great Mark Hamil was in this movie, and how much she hates Kylo Ren.

This leads to a greater discussion about diversity in comic culture. Why is it so hard for a certain population of fans to accept women or people of color as superheroes?

Also, how it is that the guy who plays Bill Weasley is also General Hux?

Annihilation: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy)

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

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If you’ve been following Brian on Twitter the past few weeks, your timeline was flooded with his student posts to the #MoritzMemeWar. 

The inspiration for that joins the podcast this week. Dr. Nick Koberstein, an assistant professor at Keuka College, created the original meme war (#kcmemewar). He joins Brian this week at Eddie O’Brien’s in Farmington, N.Y. to talk digital pedagogy in higher ed. Nick talks about the ways he tries to challenge his students in an environment that is still a bit relaxed and supportive, and how he gets students to make work that surprises him. He and Brian also talk about the importance of revisions in writing, and how to teach students to become risk takers. 

It’s a UConn guy and a Syracuse guy together, and there is no fighting and it is not a 6 overtime podcast. 

Nick Koberstein

Nick on Twitter

MoritzMemeWar

KCMemeWar

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ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is the best reporter in sports journalism. You already know this. Everyone knows this. He’s also been a friend and mentor of Brian’s for nearly two decades. 

Woj joins Brian this week and describes why he feels this is a golden age of sports journalism. Woj describes why he thinks the mobile phone did more to revolutionize reporting than almost anything else. He describes his reporting process, why it’s important to connect with sources and talk to them when you’re not quoting them. Sometimes, it’s the 53rd time you talk to a source that yields the important piece of information. Woj also talks about how he works with his ESPN colleagues, how he stays in front of stories, and how he had to make a choice between waiting for Bill Parcels and taking out his garbage. 

And, since Woj is a Bona guy, there’s the requisite 10 minutes about St. Bonaventure.

Woj on Twitter

Woj on Facebook

The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball’s Most Improbable Dynasty

Weinstein’s complicity machine

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The last time Amy Moritz joined Brian on the podcast, she said that she was working on her first book. Good little brother that he is, Brian said he’d have her back when the book was out. 

Hey, guess what? The book is out! And it’s outstanding!

Amy joins us to talk about the writing of “I Though You’d Be Faster.” She talks about where the idea for the book came from, what her writing process was like, and why she self-published. Amy and Brian talk about how newspaper writing is different than book writing and the challenges it presents, why doing just a little bit each day means so much, and why when something keeps calling you (whether it’s a book project or grad school), you’ve just got to be fierce and go after it. They also talk about  why Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is one of the best books you could ever read. Amy also drops a spoiler alert on Book No. 2.

And hey, did you know that Ernest Hemingway is a good writer?

Our new theme music this week is by Ellie Moritz. 

Kory Stamper has the best job title of any guest in the history of The Other 51. 

She’s a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster. 

She writes the dictionary. 

No, the dictionary doesn’t just appear, handed down by the grammar gods. It’s written by people. People like Kory. 

Kory talks what it’s like to wield the power to decide what part of speech a word is. She describes her job, and she and Brian talk about how people who write the dictionary are much more open about language and usage then you might assume. There’s a difference between language and writing, and Kory describes that. Kory talks about her book Word by Word and how writing the dictionary has made her more attuned to the rhythm of her language and her writing. 

Kory also gives Brian the perfect gift idea for his wife.