People who like baseball call it "the thinking person’s game," but for the first 100 years, baseball was governed by a surprisingly limited range of critical thinking. Decisions were made by insiders, the current and former players who spent a lifetime around the diamond, and did things mostly one way: the way they've always been done. But in the last 3 or 4 years, that storehouse of common knowledge—much of which was kept guarded in a true "old boy's club"—has been cracked wide open. Now the game isn't driven by intuition, it's driven by data. And the math nerds who rode the bench in Little League—if they played at all—are now telling pro ballplayers what to do. Journalist Travis Sawchik tells Steve Paulson the story.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Sara Nelson tells Anne Strainchamps what publishers can do to make a book a best-seller and why the actual number of copies sold is a state secret.
Wally Williams is Chief Executive Officer of Tequila Mockingbird and Sound Design in Austin, Texas, a successful commercial production facility.
Teddy Atlas is famous in boxing circles as a coach. Atlas tells Steve Paulson about his journey from a violent and criminal youth to self-respect and maturity.
Novelist Tim O’Brien talks with Jim Fleming about the life-long consequences of the decisions the Viet Nam generation made in their twenties, and says it’s harder to effectively protest today.
William La Fleur is the author of “Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan.” He tells Anne Strainchamps about the Japanese mizuko rituals which are a form of public apology addressed to aborted fetuses.
Mississippian Charlotte Hays is co-author of a cookbook called, “Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral.”
Susan Mello, the 2003 Build A Better Burger Grand Prize winner, tells Anne about “My Big Fat Greco-Inspired Burger,” and why it deserved to win.
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