In this episode, Mandy and Mio discuss The Idiot by Elif Batuman, a semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman's freshman year at Harvard College and the summer she spends in rural Hungary. Set in the mid-90s, the novel relies heavily on Batuman's own college experiences, but it also raises the possibility that the story is being recounted by an older, certainly wiser narrator. Looking back at their own college experiences, Mandy and Mio wonder if one can ever look back without feeling too cynical about the person they used to be.
cw: spoilers
Show notes:
- "Elif Batuman" episode on the Otherppl with Brad Listi podcast
- "Elif Batuman on Fictionalizing Her Life, and Learning to Fact Check" on LitHub
- The Last Days of Disco (1998, dir. Whit Stilman)
- Mio's appearance with Leon Peckson (Part 1 and Part 2) on The Cas Garden podcast
- A tweet on theory from Amy Fallas
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Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
The fourth studio album from British folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling, Once I Was an Eagle (2013), opens with a sequence that weaves seamlessly from one track to the next. The four-song sequence, referred to as "Suite", is the subject of today's episode, in which Mandy recounts her relationship to the song. Can personal experience turn you off to an entire genre of music? What does it take to recontextualize a work of art and make it part of your story? Also, Mandy asks Mio a question about the 2016 Barcelona Figure Skating Grand Prix.
DISCLAIMER: We encountered some technical issues in recovering the audio track from our usual recording platform, so some of our early episodes this summer may feature less-than-average sound quality. We apologize for the issue and hope to fix it soon!
Show notes:
- Studio version of "Suite" (music film directed by Fred & Nick)
- 2020 BBC Proms Performance of "Suite" at the Royal Albert Hall
- "Suite" guitar tutorials by Laura Marling
- 2013 Live from Brooklyn (Spotify Session) performance of "Suite" on Spotify
- VIdeo essays on "Dreams" and "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac
- "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls
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Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
When Mio first saw The History Boys in high school, he might've been too young to unpack what was going on. But fifteen years after the film adaptation's release, he and Mandy are ready to revisit it in the second episode of The Req Room's Summer Semester. How does one make sense of its problematic depictions of teachers and students? Is The History Boys the antithesis to inspirational teacher movies like Dead Poets Society? And how do the differences between the Alan Bennett stageplay and the Nicholas Hytner adaptation affect the script's tones and themes? Find out in this episode! Also, Mio asks Mandy a question about Georges St-Pierre.
cw: spoilers; plot heavily involves power abuse and inappropriate relations between students and teachers
DISCLAIMER: We encountered some technical issues in recovering the audio track from our usual recording platform, so some of our early episodes this summer may feature less-than-average sound quality. We apologize for the issue and hope to fix it soon!
Show notes:
- The History Boys (2006, dir. Nicholas Hytner)
- National Theatre Live 50th Anniversary, which featured the French scene from The History Boys
- Dead Poets Society (1989, dir. Peter Weir)
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates! You can also support us on Ko-fi by leaving us a tip on https://ko-fi.com/thereqroompod.
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Our real summer has just begun! Mandy and Mio kick the new semester off with a review of the 2017 film Lady Bird, starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf. Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut is set in Sacramento, where Gerwig grew up, but how did she distance herself from the film's subject (aka the TITULAR role)? Mandy and Mio also talk about why this film sometimes feels like a stage play, how Lady Bird fits into the canon of the coming-of-age genre, and how this film speaks to young people from small places. Also, Mio asks Mandy a question about the Brooklyn Nets.
See you next week for our episode on Alan Bennett's play The History Boys!
cw: spoilers for Lady Bird, Edge of Seventeen (2016), and The First Time (2012)
tw: discussion of sexual assault in other teen/coming-of-age movies: 54:56 - 56:42
DISCLAIMER: We encountered some technical issues in recovering the audio track from our usual recording platform, so some of our early episodes this summer may feature less-than-average sound quality. We apologize for the issue and hope to fix it soon!
Show notes:
- On Story 801: A Conversation with Greta Gerwig at the Austin Film Festival (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl8n4kP37DE)
- Edge of Seventeen (dir. Kelly Fremon Craig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fW8SqSiP7U)
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Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Welcome to the New Adventures of the Old Req Room! In this bonus episode, Mandy and Mio begin to break the format, moving away from prose fiction to discuss the latest offerings from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, arguably the most popular narrative phenomenon of the day. What can a series do that the Marvel films can't? Who tells the story behind the series, and what can they bring to the table with the serial format? Most importantly, what would it be like if Marvel used that Disney connection to replace Daniel Brühl with Werner Herzog?
Find out in this episode, and stay tuned to the end (or skip to 50:30) for announcements about our upcoming Summer Semester, which begins on MAY 8!
cw: SPOILERS for WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (up to Episode 5)
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates! You can also support us on Ko-fi by leaving us a tip on https://ko-fi.com/thereqroompod.
Our theme music: "64 Sundays" by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Additional music: "Argonne" by Zachariah Hickman (no copyright music)
In the miniseries finale, Mandy and Mio enlist the help of special guest MAGS OCAMPO (Homeroom Co-op) to pick three stories from Grand Union, Zadie Smith's first collection of short stories. Through the chosen stories, they find themselves meeting Zadie Smith in different ways, whether it's laying out her philosophy of storytelling, recounting events that may or may not have happened to her, or learning history. Stay tuned to the end to hear our plans for the show this summer! Oh and also Mio announces his decision to learn how to like sports in 2021.
cw: 'Kelso Deconstructed' recounts the murder of Kelso Cochrane in a racially-motivated attack on May 17, 1959.
Show notes:
About our guest—MAGS OCAMPO is the Creative Director at Homeroom Co-op (@homeroomcoop on IG), a Manila-based creative cooperative that does everything from branding, to content creation, to writing scripts for Anne Curtis' dog. She also does freelance design, illustration, and collage work. Most importantly, she is the Mother of Tembo, the light of her life, the cause of all her sugat. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @magsocampo (and also her cat Tembo on Instagram @tembochingching)!
- 'Zadie Smith's New Book Grand Union Is Intensely Personal' in Marie Claire
- Glenn Diaz's tweet featuring a clip from a talk with Zadie Smith ('Things could be otherwise...')
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates! You can also support us on Ko-fi by leaving us a tip on https://ko-fi.com/thereqroompod.
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
In today's episode, Mandy and Mio (re)visit Swing Time, a book they both read in the past and didn't like all that much, only to find out that they like it now! After all these years! What made reading Zadie Smith's most recent novel different this time? How do they navigate the book's sudden shifts from discussing problematic friendships to toxic work dynamics? Find out, as Mio not only tries to sing the title of the book in as many different ways as he can think of, but also tries to make a basketball metaphor that is—mm, to quote ESPN—dead on the launchpad, Stan.
cw: this novel includes discussions of slavery, adoption fraud, allegations of sexual abuse, allegations that one of the characters fetishizes black women
Show notes:
- Interview with NBCC Fiction Finalist Zadie Smith in The New School
- Novelist Zadie Smith on Historical Nostalgia and the Nature of Talent in NPR Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates! You can also support us on Ko-fi by leaving us a tip at https://ko-fi.com/thereqroompod.
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
TFW you're not sure if you like a book and so you talk about it with your best friend and then after about an hour of faffing around, you both realize that the book is actually pretty good. This episode—in which Mandy and Mio talk about Zadie Smith's 2012 novel, NW—is that episode.
cw: this novel includes discussions of institutionalized sexism and racism in the British legal sector, infidelity
tw: discussion of one character's suicide attempt (1:20:18-1:22:00)
Show notes:
- Islands (2013) dir. Whammy Alcazaren on YouTube
- Interview with Zadie Smith in Interview Magazine
- Interview with Zadie Smith in Granta
- Trailer for NW (2016) dir. Saul Dibb on Vimeo
- "25 Essential Notes on Craft" by Matthew Salesees on Lit Hub.
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates! You can also support us on Ko-fi by leaving us a tip on https://ko-fi.com/thereqroompod.
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
We're b-b-b-b-b-b-ack, baybee!!!! Our first episode of 2021 explores Zadie Smith's third novel, On Beauty, which tells the story of two diametrically-opposed (foes) families at a small liberal arts college that is totally not based on Harvard. Mandy and Mio invite Jam Pascual from The Gig is Up to diagnose the problems that characterize the liberal, mixed-race Belsey family, while reflecting on their own post-college experiences and seeing what they could suggest about a show that requires readings (meta).
cw: this episode begins with a poetry reading; spoilers, plot involves marital infidelity, power abuse, inappropriate relations between students and teachers
Show notes:
About our guest—JAM PASCUAL is one of the hosts of The Gig is Up and Top of the Flops. He is a writer, with essays on new music appearing regularly on The Rest is Noise PH. He is currently working on a new book of poems. Find The Gig is Up on Anchor and @an.average.law on Instagram!
- "Does Marge Have Friends" by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
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Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Christmas break is now in session! On the last episode of the year, Mandy and Mio check in on each other, promising not to ask questions that are "too heady" or "reflective." (Listener, they get super reflective.) Mio recites a traditional Christmas lyric, Mandy talks about different guitar tunings and the American actor Chrys-Efans (sp?), and together they each go through their favorite pop culture discoveries in the Year of Our Lord 2020.
Show notes:
- Guitar tutorials on Laura Marling's IGTV
- End-of-year questionnaire sourced from Jay Adams on Twitter
- Jam Pascual's music review IG (@an.average.law)
- Kate Clanchy's Twitter account (@KateClanchy1)
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates!
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
The Autograph Man (2002) is the second novel by Zadie Smith, following a British-Chinese-Jewish man who deals in famous memorabilia to an almost religious degree. Although this novel has had the least cultural impact among Smith's works, it lays the foundations for questions on stan culture, social media, and the form that our unending quest for real human connection has taken today. Mandy and Mio talk about their near-stan experiences, the different schools of British-people-doing-American-accents, and why this book is so weirdly transfixed with East Asians and Little People.
cw: spoilers
tw: references to yellowface (16:40-18:00), slight ignorance on the hosts' part re: Judaism
Show notes:
- "Internet friendships transcend continents and fandoms" by Mandy Cruz on Underdog.ph
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates!
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
When White Teeth was published in 2000, Zadie Smith was quickly lauded as the newest sensation of Western letters. However, the book did have its fair share of critics - including James Wood, who lumped Smith into an emerging trend of writers he dubbed 'hysterical realism.' This week, Mandy and Mio give a broad overview of this trend, go a little crazy while trying to connect the novel's many side characters, and talk a bit about the time Nick Joaquin crashed a university stageplay.
cw: spoilers, plot involves mentions of Nazis, religious extremism, arranged marriage, age difference, young pregnancy, marital infidelity, and mentions of spousal physical abuse
tw: Mentions of a rape scene - 1:00:55-1:01:05 and 1:09:30-1:09:40
Show notes:
- "Human, All Too Inhuman" by James Wood in The New Republic
- "This is how it feels to me" by Zadie Smith in The Guardian
- White Teeth limited series on Channel 4: Episode 1 "The Peculiar Second Marriage of Archie Jones"
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thereqroompod for more updates!
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Hello, we are the shining contemporary podcast, Req Room with Mandy and Mio! This week, we decided to take a... erm, break from reading, and throw some questions to our listeners on Instagram. During the episode, Mio explores why his failure to know what cakes and trees are is his greatest weakness as a writer. We also talk about our favorite spoken word poets and short stories, and which of Mandy's celebrity impressions Mio is most jealous of.
cw: explicit language
Show notes:
- Tweet about Alvin and the Crispmunks
- "Poet, Breathe Now" by Adam Gottlieb
- "Fly", a short story by Olivia Gunning on Short Fiction
- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube
- Extensive thread of all the people Amanda wants to STAY AWAY from our podcast
Special thanks to all our followers who contributed answers for this episode! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @thereqroompod for more updates on future episodes.
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Circe (2018) is the second novel by Madeline Miller, shifting the lens to focus on one of The Odyssey's most compelling and overlooked characters. But where did all the other stories surrounding Circe's early life and post-Odyssey life come from? How do you tell a gripping story about the growth of a person who spends thousands of years in isolation? (Not that we can relate.) Also, what exactly is Mio's special connection to Madeline Miller? Find out as we close the book on this miniseries and reveal the next writer we're reading on The Req Room!
cw: spoilers
tw: Discussion of an assault and implied rape scene - 1:17:25-1:19:13
Show notes:
Madeline Miller at the UEA Literary Festival, Spring 2018
"Madeline Miller: Circe" at the Chicago Humanities Festival
The Odyssey (1997), a limited series that first aired on NBC (Circe appears beginning 1:05:48)
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
It's the start of a new miniseries at The Req Room! Madeline Miller jumped onto the scene with the breakout of her first novel The Song of Achilles (2011), which gained a massive following through fandom communities on Tumblr. Mandy and Mio take a trip down memory lane to revisit their college classrooms, and make sense of what Miller's retelling of Homer's Iliad set out to do—all while mispronouncing just about every Greek name they find. [Knock knock knock!] Hey, sounds like someone's at the door...
cw: spoilers for both The Iliad and The Song of Achilles
tws: mention of rape - 1:06:04; mention of assault - 1:15:37; ensuing discussion of post-trauma - 1:16:16-1:17:06
Show notes:
Twitter thread on interpretations of Achilles and Patroclus' relationship by @agameganon
Special thanks to Leon Peckson for a special segment on the Homeric epics.
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Or as John Legend calls them—ordinary people. In this week's episode, Mandy and Mio explore how Sally Rooney's sophomore novel became the sleeper hit limited series starring Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Along the way, they discuss young adult anxieties, parent goals, Unwashed Hair Energy™, and the single best character (they think) of Rooney's entire oeuvre. Stay tuned till the end of the episode for the announcement of The Req Room's next miniseries!
cw: spoilers
tws: Minor implications of physical and verbal abuse - 21:00-23:00, Descriptions of “consensual” physical abuse and sexual harassment - 1:09:20-1:12:10 & 1:20:40-1:23:42, Descriptions of physical and verbal abuse - 1:12:47-1:13:40, Descriptions of depression and therapy - 1:18:55-1:20:43, Mention of suicide - 1:16:28
Show notes:
Sally Rooney talks to Kishani Widyaratna about 'Normal People' (London Review Bookshop)
"At the Clinic" by Sally Rooney (The White Review)
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Welcome to The Req Room! In our first ever episode, we dive deep into Conversations with Friends (2017), the debut novel from Irish literary wunderkind Sally Rooney. Is Rooney really the "First Great Millennial Author"? While trying to answer the question, we call for more PCOS representation, wonder why some people send memes in emails, bawl over the difficulties of getting started as a writer, and discuss how Rooney's writing revamps some of the most timeless themes in English language literature.
tw: descriptions of self-harm (from 1:09:43 to 1:11:56); cw: spoilers
Show notes: Emily Temple's Let’s All Stop Pigeonholing Sally Rooney as a “Millennial Writer” on LitHub
Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
We announce our first ever miniseries in this short trailer, which is a great sneak peek of how Mandy and Mio actually talk to each other. Really! The Req Room premieres on October 3rd with episodes out every other week.
Our theme music:
64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/