Fan's Notes

Oct 27 2022 17
Fan's Notes Podcast artwork

We’re Adam Price and Jesse Paddock, and this is our podcast Fan’s Notes. Basically, it’s us yakking about two of our favorite things: books and basketball. Each episode will feature us discussing one of our favorite books, and then segue into some aspect of basketball (usually NBA-related but not exclusively.) We’re hopeful that the two will resonate in some thematic or aesthetic ways, but if not the conversation should still be lively.

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Episode 101: Iris Murdoch

Oct 27 2022 121 mins  
The day has come. After a very long hiatus, we are back, with a brand new episode in tow. Isaac Butler joins us (at the 35 minute mark) to discuss Murdoch's style, her debt to Shakespeare, and the confounding-but-brilliant way she handled structure and perspective in her novels. An hour later, we switch over to the NBA, with a look at whether any of the early-season trends will hav

Episode 100: MOBY. EFFING. DICK.

May 24 2021 175 mins  
It is time, on this the 100th and final Fans Notes, to talk about THE GOAT, by which we mean of course THE WHALE. That's right, folks; we decided to enter the belly of the leviathan alongside Ahab, Melville, Queequeg and his husband Ishmael, and all the other presences--mortal, demonic or spermacetaceous-- that may be stowed away on board the Pequod. It's a wild ride. Then, at the

Episode 99: Charles Portis

Apr 13 2021 91 mins  
In our penultimate episode (for now, at least!), we celebrate the work of this master of American comic voice who died early last year. Here's an hour of us giggling and gasping and quoting at length from the five novels he published in his life, and I think it's fair to say that listeners will find the experience to be either joyful or tedious, and perhaps each in turn. As mentio

Episode 98: THE GO-BETWEEN

Feb 27 2021 40 mins  
In this (formerly) subscribers-only episode, we discuss LP Hartley's great... maybe not great, but pretty darn good 1953 novel, The Go-Between.

Episode 97: Jane Bowles' TWO SERIOUS LADIES

Feb 21 2021 70 mins  
We're delighted to welcome Elisa Gabbert back to the pod, and grateful that she was willing to come on and talk with us about this odd, hilarious and unforgettable book. Around the one hour mark, we discuss the current state of the NBA MVP race. Join us next time, when we take a look at L.P. Hartley's THE GO-BETWEEN.

Episode 96: Our Least Favorite Books

Jan 25 2021 87 mins  
On this hateful, hate-fueled pod, we discuss novels and authors that occupy a special place in our personal circles of book hell. And after that, a discussion of James Harden to the now very hateable Brooklyn Nets!

Episode 95: Denis Johnson's TRAIN DREAMS

Jan 09 2021 58 mins  
We regret to inform you that, in the course of our discussion of TRAIN DREAMS, we got waylaid in a STONER-shaped ditch. We spend a good deal of time fruitlessly comparing the two books, while trying to pin down what exactly Johnson is up to in this novella. At the 40 minute mark, we praise the Hawks and Suns for choosing a direction for their respective franchises and sailing towar

Episode 94: Pod Le Carre

Dec 24 2020 72 mins  
We discuss John Le Carre's CALL FOR THE DEAD, the first of the Smiley books. Why is George Smiley such an indelible character, and what was it about the Cold War and East Germany that played to Le Carre's strengths? Then a brief discussion of the Giannis supermax, James Harden, and coolness as a cultural value.

Episode 93: John Williams' STONER

Dec 13 2020 68 mins  
Our mileage varies on STONER, which is either movingly muted or grayly inert, depending on which of us you ask. We interrogate the book's tone for clues as to whether it valorizes or deplores its main character's incurable passivity. At the 50 minute mark, we debrief on the distressed asset trade the Rockets and Wizards made, swapping Russell Westbrook and John Wall, and whether it

Episode 92: The Accountability Pod

Dec 01 2020 75 mins  
On this (possibly not) long-awaited pod, we sift back through five years of NBA Draft episodes. What did we get right, what did we get not so right, and how might we adjust our draft philosophy in the future? And, most importantly, who picked Zhou Qi as a top-five prospect? Join us on a special trip down Hot Take lane!