Episodes

Episode 65: Robert Reich, Killer Talkies, and Illegal Eats

Robert Reich/Perian Flaherty

This Week: Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich gets exposed… the death of silent movies… and Rico is presented with a menu of crimes. Plus Small Black… Guam’s rain of rodents… and a so-so So So Glo joke.

Icebreaker: The So So Glos
Matt Elkin of rising Brooklyn punksters So So Glos des(s)erts good taste to bring us a bad pun. (The band’s EP Low Back Chain Shift debuts Tuesday.)

Small Talk: Opus Moreschi
The staff at Marketplace share some stories you might have missed… like the fact that you are currently sharing the internet with an alarming number of unborn babies.

Listeners in MN and CA heard Opus Moreschi, a writer for The Colbert Report, explain why it’s raining dead mice in Guam.

A History Lesson With Booze: Killer Talkies and “The Corpse Reviver Royale
This week in 1927, on the eve of releasing the first “talkie” feature, a tooth infection rendered studio chief Sam Warner forever silent. But don’t let the story get you down: here’s a spin on a classic cocktail that raises the dead:

“The Corpse Reviver Royale,” as exhumed and reanimated by Maxwell Britten, bartender at Freeman’s Restaurant in NYC… where “The Jazz Singer” is set and where the movie debuted:

Then, in a chilled coupe glass, add:

  • 3/4 oz. gin
  • 3/4 oz. Cointreau
  • 3/4 oz. Lillet Blanc
  • 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • dash absinthe

Stir. Top off with champagne. Silently toast your companions. Drink and speak stirring words. Call your dentist and schedule a checkup.

Guest of Honor: Robert Reich
Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. He’s now a professor at Berkeley, and his new book is Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future. He talks to Brendan about the evils of income disparity… and why a woman approached him on the street and told him he should be ashamed of himself.

Main Course: Forbidden Foods
Liz Williams, President of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum and editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Food and the Law, takes Rico through a menu of banned foods: Fluffy, foie gras…and roadside hot dogs.

One For The Road: Small Black – “Search Party”
Brooklyn (where else?) pop outfit Small Black cranks out mystical, synth-soaked sounds in a neo-80s vein. Later this month, they release their debut full-length New Chain, featuring “Search Party” best listened to while finding your inner groove on a lonely night.
Music On This Week’s Show:

Sea & Cake – “The Argument”

Weddoes – “Signal”

Tipsy – “Liquordelic”

Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra – “I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise”

Al Jolson – “Toot Toot Tootsie”

The F**king Champs – “Esprit De Corpse”

Fitz and the Tantrums – “Rich Girls”

Andy Capp – “The Law”

Small Black – “Search Party”