Pablo Torre

I find that a big learning that people hopefully have had about the nerd as a creature in American life is that the nerd can be among the most competitive people that you've ever imagined.

Oh, yeah.

The guy who, and again, this is me fact-checking as a journalist, the guy who had a subscription to Laptop Magazine...

There was a magazine called Laptop Magazine?

I mean, this is just depth that I, I'm obviously somebody who is, this is a judgment-free zone, but I didn't know there was a Laptop f***ing magazine.

But the whole idea of like winning over a room.

which is embedded in the premise of culture, which is to say that it needs buy-in.

You need to convert people to the thing that you revere.

How hard was that for you in these locker rooms?

That's a good stat.

That's a good stat.

Oh, God.

It's the worst.

I've been fascinated by this ritual.

Okay, so explain.

For those not familiar with why this is a thing, please explain the thing.

Yeah, but this is a mythical concept of, like, how do you change culture?

The thing that every business...

is going to have to grapple with at some point if they meet what is more likely than not, which is failure.

Which is all to say that there are these inflection points in Shane Battier's life when he has had to decide whether it is time for him to take the microphone or not.