Ep 074 - Orange Is The New Black, by Piper Kerman

Overdue

Headgum

Craig Getting, Arts, Books, Podcasts, Literature, Comedy, Andrew Cunningham

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2014

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There's a fair chance that you're familiar with Piper Kerman's Orange Is The New Black through the award-winning Netflix drama. This week we wanted to go to the source material and read the original memoir, not just to compare and contrast the book and the show but so we could separate fact from fiction and learn more about what's really going on in women's prisons.

Like the show, the book is sometimes funny, often sad, and occasionally bleak. Kerman's stance against mandatory minimum sentencing—an aspect of the justice system that makes even first-time drug offenders do hard time—and the waste inherent to America's massive prison system is often more eye-opening than the heightened drama presented on the show. Even though Piper has an extensive support network and a "normal" life waiting for her when her sentence is not, many of these women do not.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	While Andrew and Craig believe the joy of discovery is crucial to enjoying any well-told tale,
0:05.1	they will not shy away from spoiling specific story beats when necessary.
0:10.4	Plus, these are books you should have read by now.
0:30.0	I sat in a bar and cheered for 12-year-olds playing baseball on national television today.
0:42.6	What? Why? Because it's a little league-world series.
0:47.7	Is that a thing? I know that there's somebody who's really good.
0:51.3	All right, you're going to know her name, right?
0:53.9	All right, I'm going to tell you about it. Welcome to Overdo. This is the podcast
0:56.9	about the books that you've been meeting to read. My name is Craig.
0:59.7	My name is Andrew. And I am a huge fan of the Taney Dragons. We believe in dragons.
1:06.6	What is that? Tell me what the Taney Dragons are. They are the championship little league team
1:11.6	from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I think either the first, definitely the, they're probably the first
1:18.8	team out of Philadelphia to make it to the little league-world series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
1:23.6	It sounds like you have exhaustively researched this. No, I know that their star player,
1:30.0	Monet Davis, is the one. She's the first girl to win a little league-world series game as a picture.
1:39.9	And only the fourth to collect an RBI, which she did this evening.
1:46.4	There have maybe been 18, I think, girls to play in the 75-year history of the little league-world
1:52.1	series. So it's a pretty big deal. She's pretty good. Are there rules that women can't play
1:59.8	MLB baseball or is it like a WMBA type situation? I don't know where women who play baseball play.
2:08.4	They, I think there's underground baseball network. As you know, the film League of Their Own,
2:15.2	you know that there used to be a professional baseball association for women. That was widely
2:21.2	trumpeted. I don't know what professional options exist for women in baseball, but I thought
	...

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