Episode 335 – David Shields

Virtual Memories Show 335:
David Shields returns!

“What the movie tries to do is shut up and listen to Marshawn Lynch’s silence.”

He’s just here so he won’t get fined: David Shields joined the show earlier this year to talk about his book-length essay, The Trouble With Men. Now he’s back to talk about his new documentary, Marshawn Lynch: A History (Amazon, iTunes and Vimeo). This time around, we get into the Awfulness of Greatness, whether human beings are capable of change, and the Deion Sanders interview with Marshawn that melted David’s brain and started him on this documentary project. We talk about the racial aspects of black athletes dealing with a white-dominated media, how Lynch made noise by keeping silent in press conferences, the one section of the documentary that led a Seattle audience to boo him, the challenges in structuring the documentary chronologically and thematically, what Pete Carroll was thinking on That Play, the split between “my truth” and “the truth”, the moment he got to meet Lynch after a screening of the movie in Oakland, and more! Give it a listen! And go watch Marshawn Lynch: A History, on Amazon, iTunes and Vimeo!

“I think Marshawn does have a lot to say, but he’s going to say it in his own idiom.”

“I think the awfulness of something and the greatness of something are famously married.”

“The way that I think and talk reflects, for better or worse, my consciousness. So I’m very distrustful of any too lucid explanations.”

“I’m very invested in the transgression of art, and sport.”

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!

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About our Guest

David Shields is the internationally best-selling author of twenty-two books, including Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (named one of the best books of 2010 by more than thirty publications), The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead (New York Times bestseller), Black Planet (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Other People: Takes & Mistakes (NYTBR Editors’ Choice selection). The film adaptation of I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel was released by First Pond Entertainment in 2017. A recipient of Guggenheim and NEA fellowships and a senior contributing editor of Conjunctions, Shields has published essays and stories in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Esquire, Yale Review, Salon, Slate, McSweeney’s, and Believer. His work has been translated into two dozen languages. His new book is The Trouble with Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power and his new movie is Marshawn Lynch: A History

Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at a LES hotel on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 Microphones feeding into a Zoom H5 digital recorder. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Cloudlifter CL-1 and a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photos of Mr. Shields by me. It’s on my instagram.

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