{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/4ca34052-7209-4d0b-ba7f-8380dea2dc89/1e0ceda5-7c36-4e83-99ae-8b9b80840c79?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"#64: Weirdo Capital of the West","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/61004fe4a4d9fae972ef6d30/6100502fd9f77c001213582d.png?height=200","description":"<p>How much do you know about Oklahoma City? Probably you know about the bombing, the Dust Bowl, and the Trail of Tears. Maybe, if you’re a basketball fan, you know about the drama of their basketball team, the Thunder. A feeble history, then, of a flyover city in the public imagination. Sam Anderson wants to change all that. As a staff writer for <em>The New York Times Magazine</em>, he was sent off to O.K.C. a few years ago to write about a stolen basketball team, and fell so hard for what he calls “one of the great weirdo cities of the world” that he wrote a whole book about it.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Go beyond the episode:</strong></p><ul><li>Sam Anderson’s <a href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228335/boom-town-by-sam-anderson/9780804137317/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Boom Town</em></a></li><li>Read his original reporting on the Oklahoma City Thunder, “<a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/magazine/the-oklahoma-city-thunders-fairy-tale-rise.html?ref=magazine\" target=\"_blank\">A Basketball Fairy Tale in Middle America</a>”</li><li>And his Summer 2004 essay for us, “<a href=\"https://theamericanscholar.org/re-re-re-re-re-joyce/\" target=\"_blank\">Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Joyce</a>,” as strange a travelogue of Dublin as you’ll ever read</li><li>Peruse the Oklahoma Historical Society’s materials on the <a href=\"http://www.okhistory.org/kids/landrun\" target=\"_blank\">Land Run of 1889</a></li><li>Read the <a href=\"https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000020243326;view=1up;seq=345\" target=\"_blank\">original coverage of the Land Run</a> in the May 18, 1889 edition of <em>Harper’s Weekly</em> (click <a href=\"http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/landrush.htm\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> for a more legible text-only version) or in <a href=\"https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0422.html#article\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The New York Times</em></a></li></ul><p><br></p><p>Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Subscribe</strong>:&nbsp;<a href=\"http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c\" target=\"_blank\">iTunes</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href=\"http://feeds.feedburner.com/smarty_pants\" target=\"_blank\">Feedburner&nbsp;</a>•&nbsp;<a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=92290&amp;refid=stpr\" target=\"_blank\">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href=\"https://play.google.com/music/m/Iyowbdfmirqgn33nmdrhywqqeim?t=Smarty_Pants_from_The_American_Scholar\" target=\"_blank\">Google Play</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.acast.com/smartypants\" target=\"_blank\">Acast</a></p><p><br></p><p>Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.</p>","author_name":"The American Scholar"}