Like most episodes, this one consists of two segments. In the initial segment, Ames and Trauman talk about their adventures into the world of DIY audio cables. Though not without challenges, their efforts were ultimately successful. They reflect on the practical rewards and emotional satisfaction of measuring, stripping, soldering, and testing. And of course the conversation moves beyond the specifics of cable-making in general to larger questions about the value of DIY approaches to scholarship and creative work. And Ames makes Trauman blush. Like three times.
In the Creative-Critical-Scholarly-Spotlight (CCSS) section, Ames points to a few different texts. They include:
- Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society (Vol. 5.2: Special Issue on Race, Rhetoric, and the State).
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine.
- Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This episode’s second segment brings to your the penultimate discussion of J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s experimental storytelling project S. Even thought we LOVE this book, it’s certainly not without its flaws. This is easily our most detailed discussion, and we take the authors to task in a couple of ways they didn’t really deliver on the enormous early promise of this project.
And stay tuned for an additional blog post where Trauman offers more detailed information about the cable making materials and techniques he and Ames discuss in this episode.
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