Episode 20: Discussing David Foster Wallace with John Mango

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