Take Note

Latest Episodes:

Episode 230: Enid, Frances, Georgia, Harriett Jun 27, 2025

Show notes

A bunny-based gambling game to spice up your marriage, scenes from Las Vegas, balloon stories, a discussion of justice, and how we notebook, or want to notebook,while we travel. Plus the latest Summer Beverage Series.

Bryan Cox McDonald’s

Kunisawa

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Episode 229: Gotcha Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

- Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell

- Bill Murray NYT Interview

- Scion xB 2004

- Any Person Is the Only Self by Elisa Gabbert

- Normal Distance by Elisa Gabbert

Episode 228: 18 Couches May 28, 2025

Show notes

Ted and Adam each traveled, on their own, to New York. They talk filmgoing in the city, note-taking in the city, clock-watching in the city, etc. Program note: I couldn’t get the Uniball One Gel P pen refill to work and said as much. Soon after recording, I got it to work. It’s awesome.

Wilco

Sturgill Simpson

Pete Doherty on Tommy Tiernan’s show

The Clock at MoMA

Field Notes movie night

AS Hamrah

Episode 227: Lady Vikings May 15, 2025

Show notes

John McPhee

Nat Geo '94 on Walt Whitman

Sara Levine's Substack

Episode 226: Thumping Nonetheless Apr 13, 2025

Show notes

Adam beams in from a room near the lobby of a Grand Cayman hotel room to discuss what we’ve been jotting in our notebooks, app boredom, school dropoff chaos, and book recommendations. And in a new feature, Radio Take Note, we offer up two songs that are worth sharing.

Book recommendations

A Gentleman in Moscow

All the Light We Cannot See

Angie McMahon

Sprints

Episode 225: Signs Apr 03, 2025

Show notes

Field Notes "The Chicago Look" Edition

Colt Bowden Sign Painting Books

Penchetta Pen and Knife Store

Profolio Oasis Notebook

Episode 224: Donny Profitt Mar 23, 2025

Show notes

Ted steps in it when comparing a local celebration to Mardi Gras, plus some impromptu haiku, real rodeo cowboy names, and notes from the baseball tournament. And a leading question: what pen is most like a pencil?

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Uni Jetstream Edge

Pentel sign pen

Project 3.18’s Spring Training Story

Episode 223: Tip Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

Adam's Notebooks

Just Tell Me Who It Was by John Cheever

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

Jamelle Bouie favorite film genres

Annhiliation by Jeff VanderMeer

The Acid House by Irvine Welsh

Pablo Delcan

The Imperfectionist (Oliver Burkeman)

The Secret Pentagon War Game…

Sidenote: Finding Oh Mar 13, 2025

Show notes

It’s baseball season! To commemorate this happy time of year, Ted made an audio recording of an essay that he wrote in 2014 for a collection called “The Who, the What, and the When” put together by Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt LaMothe on the theme of historical sidekicks. Adam also contributed, as did Dan Kugler (underground legend for his work co-hosing the Slackers episode) and lots of other cool folks.

In Ted’s essay, he shares a vignette about Hiroshi Arakawa, the hitting coach of Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh. Every short essay is accompanied by a staggeringly beautiful illustration. The mind-blowing illustration accompanying his essay is by the awesome Paul Windle.

Episode 222: Alternative Takes Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

Notes from between 1606 and 1607, the beauty of alternate takes, using notebooks to refine ideas, and why the pencil is a Zen object.

Caravaggio essay, NYRB

Wilco, A Ghost is Born box set

Kafka’s Diaries

zen