In this episode we talk with John Mango. John is a teacher and a scholar but in this episode we talk a lot about recovery, AA membership, depression, and alcoholism--perennial DFW subjects all around.
01:07 - Twenty episodes in a year
02:02 - Introducing John Mango
04:01 - John Grisham paperbacks
05:05 - Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy
06:30 - A comforting loss and depression
08:30 - Terry Eagleton & the role of literature
11:22 - Discovering Wallace after death
13:15 - We feel like we know him
14:14 - Can you even talk about AA?
15:25 - Hiding stuff all the time
16:29 - Humility
17:30 - Separating the biography from the writing?
18:20 - Alcohol & Poetry, John Berryman
19:48 - Sharing and honesty and irony
21:11 - The Big Book is IJ
22:14 - William James, Religious Experience
25:39 - AA and agnosticism
26:02 - G.O.D. = Group of Drunks
26:25 - It all comes down to pragmatism
27:15 - Gately saving Randy Lenz, a program of action
29:04 - The gift of desperation
31:30 - St. Anselm
33:00 - Gately enjoys riding with the crocodiles
37:31 - Big Craig
38:10 - Interview with Deb Larson-Venable, the real Pat Montesian
39:43 - How John came in
41:09 - Gratitude? Seriously?
44:58 - A giant love letter to AA
48:44 - It sounds like a cliche
51:20 - A favorite part of Infinite Jest
54:05 - Fleeting mention of Trump, sorry
54:44 - Fake cliche motto
57:40 - Burlington, Vermont & Hebron, Connecticut
59:01 - Norwalk virus
1:00:11 - The Joke in Infinite Jest
1:02:13 - Vocabulary of emotional literacy
1:03:56 - The problem of solipsism
1:07:07 - @callmejohnmango, Facebook, The Blog - https://hazardsofthecourse.wordpress.com/
1:10:23 - Destigmatizing the disease
1:11:13 - Android Netrunner