229. David Sedaris (Jason Plays Favorites #1) – Sir David of the Spotless Roadways

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2020

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] Life is full of horrible things. I dare you to deny it. Things like death, sickness, and alcoholism. And did I mention death, which lies in wait for us all? But if you talk about these things at dinner parties, or at work, or to someone you have just met in line at the grocery store, you risk being branded a negative person. In some circles, such as the state of California, negativity is like leprosy. It can really mess up your social life. This does not seem to trouble my guest today, who has spent much of his life turning horrible, true stories into festive comedy. like many people, I first heard David Sedaris’ unmistakable voice on public radio in the late 90s. My sister and I took a couple of his audio books on a road trip across America in her red Saturn with a bumper sticker on the back that read “Humanity is Trying”. Having Sedaris along as company somehow made the endless miles of Stuckeys’ and strip malls, and the weeping people at Elvis‘s grave side in Graceland a little less alien and terrifying. In his latest book, Calypso, David is doing his thing better than ever. It’s about what’s on his mind these days, from decluttering the English countryside, to feeding a surgically removed lump of fat to a snapping turtle, to a sister’s suicide. Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode: Martin Amis on the “etiquette” of good writing Lucy Cooke on the extraordinary genitalia of female spotted hyenas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Jason Gots here and this is a new experiment.
0:06.0	Throughout the next couple months, I'm going to be running some of my favorite past episodes of Think Again.
0:16.0	This is until March 22nd, which will be my last day on the show.
0:35.6	And because this is kind of the winding down time for me here, I thought it would be nice to listen back to some of my favorites and share some new thoughts on them.
0:40.8	So the rule is that I need to do that extemporaneously. I'm not going to edit these little monologues. And so I hope that they are actually interesting. But let's see.
0:49.0	Anyway, today's episode is with David Sedaris, who is an incredibly funny, sweet man.
1:00.6	And what, you know, listening back to it today, we originally recorded this on, in June of 2018, two years ago.
1:09.0	I mean, I think, first of all, I just love how our energies are
1:15.1	matching. I mean, how kind of calm and present he is. You know, he's just totally there.
1:24.0	He's listening. After that interview, I, when a week later or something i received a postcard in the mail
1:32.7	from him um which which really touched me it's the only time that any guest of the show has ever
1:39.5	done that thanking me for the the conversation and talking about some of the things we'd talked about.
1:46.7	And particularly, like, one of the things that really moves me listening back is the conversation about his sister.
1:55.5	And, you know, what it is to lose somebody that you had difficulty, you know, someone that, like,
2:07.2	can't help but mean a lot to you, but that you had difficulty being with when they were
2:12.5	alive, that you couldn't help, you know, his experience of having to literally shut her out
2:19.6	in order to survive and do his own work and then losing her.
2:29.5	Yeah, I mean, just listening back to that, that's really affecting.
2:32.9	And I also, listening back, I think this just listening back to that, that's really affecting. And I also, listening back,
2:35.7	and I think this is always the case probably, I just keep thinking, I hear these moments where I'm like,
2:42.4	oh, I wish I had just shut up and let him speak instead of trying to jump in. I mean, I was
2:48.3	excited. I was enjoying the conversation. You know, sometimes maybe I was trying to keep things moving or whatever, but lots of little opportunities.
	...

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