Three Percent Podcast

From their respective hotel rooms, Chad and Brian talk about science fiction, 2/3/33 (and 2/6/66??), conspiracy vs. coincidence, Ohtani and Lee, the ASS black satchel, the assassinations we don't learn much about in high school, Hegemon, more KPG connections, and the (not great) alt-newspaper of the week. This week's music is "Something Soon" by Car Seat Headrest. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please subcribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in next week for "Wildwording," which will cover up to page 206. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. The large image associated with this post is from the Druthers newspaper discussed on the show, and which we won't be linking to.

Season 21 of the Two Month Review kicks off with a discussion of Taylor Swift and the demise of alt-weeklies, then segues into a long discussion about the opening party scene in Same Bed Different Dreams. Chad and Brian talk about what's real and not in both the party scene and the "Dream One" section about the Korean Provisional Government, and start picking out various echos or motifs in the text—some of which won't come to fruition for several episodes .  . .  This week's music is "Debra" by Jockstrap. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "2333," which will cover up to page 155. Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Brian and Chad break down the ending of Mulligan Stew, discuss how this is one of maybe 2-3 endings by books featured on TMR that truly works, banter about possible titles for next season, get a little strange, and analyze what works and doesn't work about the AI generated jacket copy. (Oh, metaphors.) This week's music is "Web in Front" by Archers of Loaf. ("And there's a chance that things could get weird" is basically the thesis statement for this podcat.) You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in . . . sometime soon for Season 21! We don't have a book locked in yet, so if you have suggestions, send them along!  Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Brian sings! Pynchon is made fun of! Lamont totally goes off the rails but really really really wants that corset! Rich art collectors are absurd!  This week's music is Car Seat Headrest cover of "We Looked Like Giants." You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "Making It Up As We Goes Along" in which the entirety of the book will be discussed! (Along with some possibilities for Season 21.) Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Chad had a night before this recording, so ignore him, but pay attention to the worst possible smut you will ever hear read aloud (the Franzen bits are worse than Lamont's) and enjoy the laughs, the literary contortions, and the next chapter of Lamont's ongoing mental breakdown.  This week's music is "U&ME" by alt-j. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "Ambidextriprestigigit!" which will cover up to page 455 (new edition; 336 in the older ones). Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Wacky Aphorisms vs. Cowboy Clichés. A title change that indicates a change in attitude. A bizarre publisher's catalog. The Red Swan. More letters! This section of Mulligan Stew is jam packed with fun riffs, more evidence of the intricate construction underlying this book, paranoia, puzzle pieces, and anger. This week's music is "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "Nameless Shamelessness," which will cover up to page 395 (new edition; 336 in the older ones). Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

"I SUCK!" Kicking off with an "erotic" "poem," this week's episode is nuts from the very start. There is a very serious explanation for the "Flawless Play Restored: The Masque of Fungo" (thanks to Tyrus Miller's piece in the Review of Contemporary Fiction), but this is surrounded by Nobel Prize talk, a breakdown of Lamont's incredibly cringey letter to Lorna Flambeaux, her terrible poetry, and many, many laughs—all with special guest Tom Flynn (Lost in Redonda). This week's music is "Crisis" by Elizabeth Drummond. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "Bubble in My Fizziness," which will cover up to page 327 (new edition; 277 in the older ones). Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upc

This section of Mulligan Stew is particularly wild, featuring a western populated by Irishmen speaking in bad accents (and worse accents in The Club Zap), a long rambling set of hypotheticals about why the police haven't arrived to find Ned's body (spoiler: Halpin hasn't called them), a drunken baseball game featuring famous authors and famous brands of booze, and the mathematical answer to the question "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"(A: 0, 1/2, or 1 cord). This week's music is "Box Scores" by The Baseball Project. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "The Sweat of Love," which will cover up to page 261 (new edition; 221 in the older ones). Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for rand

To celebrate the first-ever English-language publication of Raymond Queneau's Sally Mara's Intimate Journal, and the reissue of Pierrot Mon Ami as a Dalkey Essential, Chris Clarke (whose retranslation of Queneau's The Skin of Dreams is forthcoming from NYRB) and Daniel Levin Becker (infamous member of Mujeres Encinta, member of the Oulipo, and author of Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature) joined Chad to talk all things Queneau. They discuss the books, the two major divisions of Oulipian writing, the process of retranslation, the joy of reading these books, and much more. The music on this episode is "À la pêche des cœurs (inédit)" by Queneau's good friend, Boris Vian. If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Spotify, and other places. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Twitter/X for more info about upcoming episodes and guests.

Loveletters galore! Lists without context! Repurposing life for fiction! More puzzles! Terrible book reviews! An insufferable, pretentious elementary school essay! This episode has it all—and more! (As Lamont would say.) This week's music is "All Your Fails" by Kevin Drew. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week for "Drunken Condition of Both Teams," which will cover up to page 196 (new edition; 164 in the older ones). Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. The large image associated with this post ("sky puzzle blue") is copyrighted by Jared Tarbell.

In honor of two recent John Barth reissues—The Sot-Weed Factor and Chimera, both Dalkey Archive Essentials—John Domini (The Archeology of a Good Ràgu, The Color Inside a Melon, and this appreciation of Barth, among other works) and Max Besora (author of the intro to Sot-Weed Factor along with the very much Barth inspired The Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia) joined Chad W. Post to talk about these two titles and Barth's overall impact on the literary scene. It's a long, interesting conversation with a Spanish superfan and a former student of Barths. Well worth the listen! The music on this episode is "Say It Isn't So" by The Sot Weed Factor. (Who knew this existed??) If you don’t already subscribe to the Three Percent Podcast you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and other places. And follow Open Letter and Chad W. Post on Twitter/X for more info about upcoming episodes and guests.  

Chad and Brian kick off the new season in near hysterics over the first little chunk of Gilbert Sorrentino's Mulligan Stew. From talking about the rejection letters—and near batshit reader's report—prefacing the book, to all the bad writing about the "flawless blue" sky, to the ever-changing dialog tags in Anthony Lamont's detective novel, to the New York Yankees, this episode is a hodgepodge of jokes and observations, and instant love for this wondrous, wooly masterpiece. This week's music is "American" by FM Belfast. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Tune in next week as Chad and Brian cover up to page 148 (new edition; 124 in the older ones). Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. The "

Brian returns to help breakdown the ending to Rodrigo Fresán's "Part Triptych." Is it earned? Is it sincere?? Is this all a Jacob's Ladder scenario??? Chad and Brian debate that along with concepts of time in fiction, the Karmas, the wetness of Latvian meat, Melvill and Mulligan Stew. Fun is had as this long, amazing Fresán journey comes to a close . . . This week's music is "Big Sky" by The Kinks—a throwback to TMR season one. Stay tuned for the Mulligan Stew schedule, which will drop this weekend. And get the book now! You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts!

For the first time in the history of the Two Month Review, Chad had to go it alone. He stuck in there, didn't get too crazy, and covered the last chunk of Part II of The Remembered Part. Illness, heartbreak, mental anguish, suicide, Ella, and a mission. It's all in this episode. This week's music is "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" by Concrete Blonde Next week we'll be covering pages 644-700 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, C

Veeeeekingdor!!!!! This week's episode is pretty wild, with stories of Riga FC, stoic faces, Fresán's visit to the University of Rochester, Kurt Vonnegut, Andrei The Untranslated (follow his blog!, support his Patreon!), the purpose of book readings and the most uncomfortable ones, time and fiction, and much more! And visit Three Percent on Tuesday to find out what book we'll be reading in season twenty!! This week's music is "Malachi" by Grouplove. Next week we'll be covering pages 563-643 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the ho

Well, we did it: One whole episode just about baseball and books about baseball and baseball memories and anything else baseball. Caitlin Luce Baker of Island Books, James Crossley of Madison Books, and Dan Wells of Biblioasis join Chad W. Post from Open Letter to pick their "all-time favorite" books about baseball.  This week's music is "The Yips" and "Eraseable Man" by The Baseball Project. Caitlin's Picks: The Cultural History of Baseball by Jonathan Fraser Light The Brothers K by David James Duncan Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues  by Jim Bouton The Physics of Baseball by Robert K. Adair Alan Nathan's blog, The Physics of Baseball The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham by Ron Shelton Away Games: The Life and Times of a Latin Ballplayer by Marcos Bretón and José Luis Villegas Lords of the Realm by John Helyar   Dan's Picks: Keystone Kids by John R. Tunis Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters by Mark Kingwell 1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars’

Former TMR guest Patrick Smith returns to discuss his reread of the first two volumes of the trilogy, how Fresán's writing inspires him, hanging on to flights of prose, all of the wind in this book, what it means to fall, dogs, and much much more. It's a comprehensive, deep look into what it takes to be a good reader, Ricardo Piglia's "The Last Reader" and the paradoxes at the center of this novel. This week's music is "These Things Will Come to Be" by DJ Seinfeld, all for the outro bit of telephones and missing missed connections.. Next week we'll be covering pages 422-490 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before any

Chad and Kaija break down the final bit of the first part of the third volume in Fresán's trilogy (phew), revisit the "is this difficult to read?" discussion, and talk about the articles about Fresán in the new issue of Latin American Literature Today. And at the very, very end, Chad makes a startling admission. This week's music is "Life Worth Missing" by Car Seat Headrest. Next week we'll be covering pages 355-421 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Follow Open Let

Separated by 10 hours—like podcasting jet lag?—Chad and Brian work through some observations and rants (specifically about a shitty NY Times list of the best American books between 1981 and 2006, which consists almost entirely of Philip Roth and John Updike and only two books by women), about this section of The Remembered Part. Chad argues for being willing to be confused while reading and they discuss whether or not Fresán's works are confusing. There's also the usual amount of banter and bullshit, and zero words wasted on the Cardinals. This week's music is "Right Thing" by Bayonne. Next week we'll be covering pages 281-354 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can

From Nobel Prize favorites to Proust to competitive cliques on the mountain, this week's episodes is almost as sprawling as the ex-writer's airplane thoughts. Bit more plot dropped into this section of Fresán/Vanderhyden's book, but there's also a lot about IKEA, his death and rebirth, his insincerity, and his loathsome success. This week's music is "Adore Adore Adore" by Sprints. Next week we'll be covering pages 204-281 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each of the books in the trilogy separately (Invented, Dreamed, Remembered, OR, if you don't have them and are ready for the reading event of 2023, then get The Part Trilogy for $40—approximately 30% off. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. And please rate us—wherever you get your podcasts! Follow Op