Papa’s Family Roundtable #3 — Brittany Maynard, Jan Hooks
It happened. I managed to wrangle my mother once more to join me and my brother on-air to discuss terminal cancer patient Brittany Maynard and her decision to take her […]
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy NPR as much as the next lazy slob who believes a commute contains time enough to both enlighten themselves and hurl torrents of obscenity at their fellow traffic-bound wage slaves. But the the voices on my local NPR station, WAMU, make listening very, very difficult. From Diane Rehm (who, admittedly, has a medical condition, so I’m a bad man for saying this) sounding like Death itself to Kojo Nnamdi, who sounds one bad caller away from declaring “I’m the captain, now,” I’m obsessed with the incredible degree of vocal oddity coming out of my speakers.
But before we get to WAMU’s aural assault, I talk about Mike Sacks‘ Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations With Today’s Top Comedy Writers, quite possibly the best book I have ever read on the subject of comedy itself. If you have any aspirations whatsoever in the field or simply are a fan, you need to pick up a copy of this book. Mike’s conversations with the top talent in the field today read like an incredibly funny manual of how to get into the business, and I have found myself stuck to the book since it arrived at my house. (Metaphorically stuck. My hand washing regimen is fine.)
All that plus an in-studio appearance from DC-area comedian Derek Sawyer make for an hour you don’t want to miss. (And if you love the show and want to do me a huge service that helps word about it get out, please leave some reviews over on the iTunes and Stitcher pages linked below. Tschüss!)
Click here to listen to this episode using your browser. Click here to listen using the much nicer iTunes player (and subscribe to the show to help our ranking). And mobile users click here to listen via the Stitcher app. (You can subscribe there as well and never miss an episode.)
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Dante on October 16, 2014
Yeah, I thought that lady was was like 90 and about to keel over at any minute. She’s definitely got a memorable voice. I figure she’s still got a second life account and hosts parties where she talks the whole time. Turns out she’s “only” 78, not sure about the second life account though.