42. Joshua Cohen (Novelist) – Scrupulously Messy, by Which I Mean Human

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2016

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's episode Joshua Cohen, author of the "great American internet novel" Book of Numbers, says that if a cliché sticks around long enough it can become a prayer. In conversation with host Jason Gots and prompted by video interview clips featuring Henry Rollins and Nikhil Goyal, Cohen delves into secret languages, the horrors of childhood, and the dangers of overexplaining. It's a punchy and penetrating dialogue with one of our most original living authors. “Just don’t unpack shit. Let’s make the world more opaque.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?
0:03.0	Not much to it, is there?
0:06.0	Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.
0:10.0	Mmm, that is good.
0:13.0	Now that's what Asani should sound like.
0:16.0	Go all crisp in with walkers.
0:18.0	Delicious.
0:20.0	Today's show is sponsored by the Great Courses Plus, and right now, think again listeners
0:24.8	can stream Neil deGrasse Tyson's amazing class, the inexplicable universe, and hundreds
0:30.1	of other eye-opening classes taught by world-class professors on everything from cooking to
0:35.4	the ancient Etruscans for a full month absolutely free.
0:39.3	Just go to the greatcoursesplus.com slash think.
0:43.8	That's the great courses plus.com slash think.
0:48.6	Today's episode of Think Again is also sponsored by GoTo webinar.
0:52.4	It lets you connect and interact seamlessly with your target
0:56.2	audience and it doesn't suddenly freeze up or drop them or do anything else to embarrass you.
1:01.5	It just works so your potential customers can focus on what you're saying and what you
1:06.1	can offer them and not on troubleshooting their internet connection. Visit go totowebinar.com to start a 30-day free
1:13.1	trial. Again, that's go-towebinar.com.
1:17.8	Hi there, I'm Jason Gots, and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.
1:33.3	Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers around. On the Think Again podcast, we leave our comfort zone, surprising our guests and me, your host,
1:38.3	with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think's interview archives, ideas we didn't come here prepared to discuss.
	...

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