Upper Middlebrow

A podcast in which we discuss high-craft works of popular culture

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Project Hail Mary Part I (REPOST)

Posted March 12, 202601:14:08

We go all the way back to episode 17, in honor of the release of the major motion picture, starring Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace. Our part 1 was originally...

Episode 99: More Robot Friends!: Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ Part 1 with Justin Reich.

Posted December 1, 202500:54:13

Isaac Asimov doesn’t PERFECTLY predict today’s era of anxiety and excitement around AI. But he does pretty well for somebody writing eighty years...

Episode 98: ‘Minor League Stew,’ or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Part II

Posted November 17, 202500:51:49

The second half of Feinstein’s book of minor league baseball stories and characters feels very much like the first half. The reporting is extensive,...

Episode 97: “Baseball’s Ballast,” or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in The Minor Leagues of Baseball

Posted November 4, 202500:59:06

John Feinstein’s baseball writing is as sharp as ever, the anecdotes of Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball portraying...

Episode 96: “The Clustercus,” or David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, Part II

Posted October 23, 202501:22:25

In the second half of Halberstam's nonfiction account of the 1984 sculling Olympic trials, we go to the Olympics, to see how Biglow, Lewis, Wood, et...