Yup, I finished all of the Grid podcasts last week actually. A solid listen. Love the concept and all, but it still does not crack my top 5 poker podcasts. Mainly because I care little for HHs, but also because I struggle to focus on them while multi-tabling online as opposed to a one-on-one interview where the narrative/subjects are more linear and require less attention. Top 5 podcasts would be respectively :

- Joey Ingram's The Poker Life and HSPLO (love the light heartedness and some interviews are GOAT, namely Garrett's and Greenstein's ).
- Olivier Busquet's Two lives (Potential to be #1 on my list)
- DAT Poker Podcast. Was more a fan of the 2 + 2 one, but still really enjoy terrence and Adam and Russ. Negreanu is alright, I guess, but he does still away the show at times with his cringe-worthy self-righteous POV's, me thinks...
- The Poker Central. Love the character of Brent and how he plays the idiot in an endearing and transparent way
- The Chip Race. I met/played with both Dara and David. I like the variety of their show going through numerous interviews, HHs and the latest in the poker world.

I would put The Grid in the next tier, alongside Poker Stories and The Rake. Loved Berkey's interview though. He is very well spoken and has an outstanding mind Am curious about your ranking Ben???

Yup, I guessed as much. My dad often speaks of the French Cajuns that he encountered/chatted with in the Bayous, but my old man gets really passionate about stuff and it is hard at times to separate facts from exaggeration in some of his stories That said, he does deliberately seek out to speak to French folks, as the History of the French language in America is definitely a subject he devours

To add to the podcast recs, everyone check out another newish one, The Hero’s Journey podcast. I’ve listened to three of them so far (Obst, Lichtenberger, and Shahade) and they have all been great. The host does a phenomenal job and is very likable. Looking forward to listening to the remaining episodes. I’ve enjoyed the Busquet podcast as well and have listened to every episode of it but I personally prefer this one so far on average.

Is this a poker or book podcast?

I forgot to add the DGAF Sessions podcast in my top 5-6 list

It's a poker podcast inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept of "the hero's journey," where each interviewee answers questions from the perspective of his or her own hero's journey. Highly recommend Joseph Campbell books and his PBS series as well!

Hummmm, link... I can't find it for the life of me I found this one which seems alright, but pertains to movies : https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the...?autoplay=true

Btw, Filmspotting is my fav for cinema

It's sponsored by Run It Once Poker and all episodes have been released as videos on their youtube channel. I haven't watched it on there but have been listening to the eps on Spotify, author Run It Once Poker. Whoops, now see the title is A Hero's Journey, if that helps.

Thanks for the rec re: Filmspotting, I'm starting to get more into podcasts in general, might check it out.

Thanks a bunch, Russell. I found the whole episode fascinating, and plan to go back through it to take notes. Redhill strikes me as very perceptive, and I liked the comparisons he draws between writing and gambling. As the last guest discusses at length, we're increasingly living in a society/a political landscape that thinks of in terms of risk and winning and losing. The link that you sent is broken, but I found it here, for anyone else who's interested.

I thought that the episode was so well done that I subscribed to the Ideas podcast and checked out another episode by the same reporter, Lisa Godrey, called The Joy of Mediocrity. The episode explores the problems of what one philosopher calls "the excellence conspiracy":

I haven't finished the episode yet, but the subject of greatness-seeking and self-mythologizing has been on my mind lately, in part because of this

I'm about halfway through the James Obst episode of A Hero's Journey. Not sure how I feel about the host, but to his credit he pushes the conversation in interesting directions and the Joseph Campbell theme maps well onto certain parts of the poker world. I've always respected Obst a bunch, and I appreciate his attempts to explain his obsession with one day competing in Wimbledon. I also wonder if he'd benefit from a "good enough" mentality...although it seems like, for him, that ship may have sailed long ago.

Thanks for the recs, Dubn. I don't listen to many poker podcasts, so I'm not best suited to come up with rankings. My favorite by a pretty wide margin is The Thinking Poker Podcast, which I've mentioned a few times itt. Sessions and Two Lives would also be at the top of any list. I used to listen to the 2+2 pod and enjoy Terrance/Adam quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I could take that much Negreanu. (I will say--this is something that Obst also mentioned--that DeeNegs is a legendary talent of the game, esp in terms of his ability social skills/ability to manipulate the metagame, and I have much respect for him in that arena).

What about non-poker pods? I'd appreciate any recs from you and others. I'll poast a top 5ish list of my own soon...for now, though, it's time to go run 10 miles while listening to Tools of Titans on my FitBit. How else am I going to win Sunday?

I indulge in A LOT of podcast consumption during my online grind, but most of my selections revolve around a few areas of interests : Bball (mainly the Toronto Raptors AKA the NBA Champions ), poker, cinema and politics. Here are a few :

Filmspotting : I mentioned this one recently, but it begs to be repeated I enjoy the calming voices of the hosts, their thorough analysis, movie choices and intellectual intake

30 for 30 : Enuff said

The Daily : Presented by a journalist from the New York Times, I enjoy how the host digs into one precise subject everyday and does an in-depth approach, as opposed to overseeing all of that day's news. Also looks into some international subjects, which I greatly appreciate.

Pod Save America : When Trump first got elected, I loved-to-hate on him. But got fed up with focusing so much on USA #1 (as a non-American), but have started listening again as a great and entertaining source during this COVID-19 worldwide shutdown. The guys are smart, engaging and blunt as f**k

No Dunks : Same crew that brought us The Starters. Even when they sway away from basketball, I have grown to like all the hosts and find them charismatic and funny as hell

The Ringer : Even if Bill Simons being a Celtics and Philly homey tilts me af (as do his strong-takes/Conspiracy theories/click-bait stances), they have several solid podcasts on there. Namely The Ringer Show, The Mismatch, The Rewatchables (cinema podcast) and Westworld : The Reccapables

Am also curious about various suggestions, namely on the COVID-19 right now.

Thanks, btw, for the Hero's Journey + Campbell recs

Very nice! For some reason, despite being a pretty big NBA fan, I don't listen to beeball/sports pods at all. Once the season kicks back up in 2025, I'll check these out.

Here are the pods I listen to the most. First of all, big +1 to The Daily. I probably listen to it more than any other pod.

Interview-based

*Bookworm [mainly fiction...the host, Michael Silverblatt, was born to host this show]
*Longform [nonfiction/journalism]
*The NYT Book Review
*Conversations with Tyler [the host is very solid...I believe he's an econ prof, but he's a polymath who brings on all kinds of people]
*The Mental Illness Happy Hour [kind of like the Marc Maron pod, but better/weirder]
*Making Sense with Sam Harris [culture wars, philosophy etc]

NonInterview-based

*On the Media [a sort of meta-take on how issues are being reported. A politics-obsessed buddy of mine recommended this, and it is indeed solid]
*Planet Money [economics, finance, wealth etc]
*Philosophize This [I recently discovered this one, and the host really impressed me. Birds-eye view of lots of the big traditions]
*Reply All [sort of defies description...about the internet. A recent episode, The Case of the Missing Hit, is probably the best single podcast episode I've heard in a long, long time]
*American Diagnosis [health care]
Dubn, to your question of COVID19 resources, I'm literally just seeing now that the creators of the pod above are hosting a new pod called Epidemic all about the virus. That sounds promising, and I generally listen to The Daily, although trawling Twitter has been the best way for me to stay up to speed, by far.

I've yet to find a good pod about religion and faith (that isn't heavily biased against religion, like Harris and his crew). I've listened to a few episodes of The Liturgists and On Being but haven't been all that impressed.

And finally, one more poker rec, The Mindset Advantage. Solid in general, and there's an outstanding recent episode in which Jason Koon discusses overcoming serious childhood trauma.

Thanks for that. I enjoyed it greatly, and the vastness of March made it somehow more poignant.

Glad to hear it. Happy Easter!

Bob Revisits the Thinking Poker Podcast

Will Mardi Gras happen next year? Is teaching over Zoom the worst thing ever? And how great, really, is Where's Waldo? Andrew Brokos and I discuss these topics and more on Episode 324: Pandemic Poker of Andrew and Nate's podcast.

Back in a few days with an April update.

I have not had the pleasure (or displeasure) of trying to teach a class with Zoom. But we did install it to share happy hour with friends in other states, and I have to say it works a lot better than the packages we used to use for work (GoToMeeting and Webex).

Great discussion with Andrew Brokos - and nice read on the river when the lady says "glad no snap call" - that would be unusual indeed IME if she shows up with AA or AJ after saying that.

FYI I gather Casino LOL is planning to open next month assuming the Gov relaxes guidelines some in May. I won't be an early adapter if they do, and in any case my guess is poker will the last game to be restarted. Maybe by the next time you come to town though.

I've also enjoyed Zooming with fam, friends, coworking peeps, my writing group, etc. It fills an important gap, albeit imperfectly.

Glad to hear you liked the discussion. It was fun. Re. the J8 hand, not sure if I could bring myself to fold in any situation, but my decision might be impacted by river sizing. If she jams over a PSB it would feel *really* strong, whereas if I bet 1/3 and get jammed on, maybe I induced KJ to spazzshove. The bottom line...


Maybe December in AZ will mark my return to LOLive poker...

April Recap


All things considered, a good month. I've gradually tuned out the incessant apocalyptic chatter and whittled down my doomscrolling, focusing on things that provide happiness and structure: runs, dogwalks, reading, writing, games, chats. Unfortunately, through no one's fault, some of my communities are slipping away. Today I Zoomed with members of my co-working space, which I've been a part of for over five years. People have come and gone (which is an attractive part of these spaces) but a core group of us have been there from the almost-beginning. It seems that the space will likely shut down or change identities.

The poker community is in flux, too, of course, and I wonder what things will look like down the road. For all the discussion of Zoom exhaustion, there are clear benefits, and one of them is hopping on home games while seeing the faces of fellow cardroom regs. This softens the blow of social distancing, for now.

One upside of the last month or two is that I'm able to write without distraction. Neighbors joke that I'm always in my office—our sunny front stoop that looks onto a quiet leafy street—and I have no intention of leaving anytime soon.

I've been reading widely and randomly. On pandemic-related matters, NYC Dr. Helen Ouyang's Covid Diary is the one to read (grim, but good)
I'm still reading one Chekhov story every day, with dozens (hundreds?) more to come. What's astounding is the range and breadth of his output. I can't remember where I got this quote. Strike that, reverse it: I do! It's from a NYT review of this new translated collection of his stories.
I've also been visiting some old friends:


Finally, in these times of fragile and crumbling communities, it's nice to be able to poast in this too-old obscure PGC and update my fellow degens. (Not you, dear reader. I mean the community as a whole, of course. )

Operation Deny Garick
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Poker Faces in the Crowd: Big Red

In this month's issue of 2+2 Magazine, I wrote about a smackdown at Harrah's Nola (aka Brawler's Paradise) during the 2015 WSOP Circuit Event. Good times were had by some.

Man, I am glad that you are still filling this forum with such valuable content. I only get onto 2+2 every so often, and when I do it is you and Dubn's threads I go to look at. The two of you almost seem to carry an ancient sagacity that you express well in your writing and thoughtful approach to life.

I hope that all is well (as well as can be) in your world. I will continue to look forward to your future entries.

Glad you appreciate Zombie! Hope things are good with you. I just taught my first Zoom class. Bleh!

Speaking of undeniably Valuable Content, I give you my theme song for May:

So glad I am not TAing right now. Zoom classes sound like the nut low. Might as well just assign a video.

OTOH, doing my oral exam for comps via Zoom was nice. Pretty low stress, and awkward pauses easy to blame on the technology.

so far so good. lolsampelsize, but I think it'll be fine, even as a discussion-oriented class. What I couldn't endure would be back-to-back-to-back-to-back Zooming, which fortunately shouldn't be a thing.

Do I get to offer you a Congrats on passing?

Yes, and thank you. I have joined the ABD hordes. Took a week off, but time to get to work on that dissertation, now.

Agree that Zoom could work for a small seminar, but for a lecture class it sounds horrific.

You have a topic yet? You should come down to the Nola WWII museum for "research."

May Recap



Still alive

Here's a short piece, a short novel, and a documentary. And another short piece, because beeball.

"**** the Bread. The Bread Is Over" by Sabrina Orah Mark

Levels of Life, by Julian Barnes

Hail Satan?


"The Ramshackle Garden of Affection," by Ross Gay and Noah Davis
GG Covid! The experts are saying it's safe to go out again. If you need me, I'll be at the Seminole Hard Rock

New Friend

Operation Deny Garick
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[QUOTE=bob_124;56186027][B]
"**** the Bread. The Bread Is Over" by Sabrina Orah Mark
Nice essay - reminds me of when I was interviewing potential senior staff. To me it was solely about getting the best person for the job but not that big a deal personally - if not this one move on. But from their point of view a really big deal.