Dave Eggers (writer and publisher)
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Who is Dave Eggers and what gifts kick off the conversation?
Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert. I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman.
Hi.
We have one of my favorite authors on today, Dave Eggers. Dave Eggers is a bestselling author and founder of McSweeney's. His books are The Circle, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Every, and of course, my favorite book, What is the What? He has a new novel out now, Contra Posto. Please enjoy Dave Eggers.
We have not, so Monica, nice to meet you.
Amanda made me want to give you guys these. This is a new McSweeney's in the form of a Trapper Keeper.
Oh, my God, a Trapper Keeper. Monica, did they have Trapper Keepers?
Yes, of course. I've been testing people, and you're the first, like, are you more millennial? 1987.
I'm a millennial, yes, 87.
Nobody's had any idea what a Trapper Keeper is yet. What?
No, I loved Trapper Keepers.
Yeah. Which one did you have? You know what's funny is that I did not have it because I didn't like the artwork. I was such a snob. I thought it was too gaudy. You were already bratty about it.
You were already pretentious.
I was.
I had to have like a leathery one. In Detroit, you grew up in Illinois. Yeah. In Detroit, you aged out if you were a boy of a trapper keeper very early. Third grade and beyond, you were a target if you had a trapper keeper.
Yeah, for sure. Anything Velcro on your shoes?
Yeah.
You're dead. Velcro. Kangaroos with Velcro. Or with us, you wore a watch or calculator watch or anything like Casio. If it was cheating.
You're done.
It was really a statement. No, it's just anything, I'm going to guess it has to be the same. Anything could flag you as being girly or gay.
Or nerdy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why like when the rise of tech, it freaked me out because I was like, well, these were all the kids that always got beat up. If you had like, boop, boop, boop. On your wrist or whatever. And now those... Yeah, why aren't they more benevolent? I know. You were born in Boston, but moved pretty soon? I never lived in Boston. My grandfather was an OBGYN in Boston General. So we were all born there under his...
Now, that's an interesting dynamic. Did your grandfather deliver your mother's children? No. Oh, okay.
But his colleagues, so he's nearby. But he was fascinating. Like, he was the gyno to all the nuns in Boston. And also all the unwed mothers. He ran a hospital for unwed mothers. I mean, fascinating stuff that we have been uncovering more and more lately. Is that your mom's dad? Yeah, McSweeney. Daniel J. McSweeney. So he's... Delivered half of Boston at some point. Probably 10,000 babies, you know?
It's a cool job in that way that if you've been in practice for many decades, you really have effectively delivered or brought a significant percentage of the population into the world in your area.
That's wild.
And you're part of everyone's best day of their life.
Well, that's where the McSweeney came from. Like, there was a guy that was adopted in this home for unwed mothers, and he was adopted by a different McSweeney family. But he saw my grandfather's name on the birth certificate, and later in life he went, he thought that was his real father. So he would seek us out and write crazy letters to us all my childhood.
Whoa.
saying he was coming any minute on this train. He's going to come and reunite with his long lost sister, my mom. So that was Timothy McSweeney. And that's why we named this whole thing after him. Sort of this lunatic screaming from the woods, which we thought we were at the time, like as a magazine. But I just found a bunch of more of his stuff. Like it got a little scary here.
Yeah, that sounds it.
That's an intense feeling. If you're like, oh, my father's there waiting for me. That's a very motivating feeling.
Right, I'm coming home, prodigal son. You've been looking for me. Yeah, some of these relationships are just too intense, or they make them intense.
So what kind of attorney was your father? What kind of law did he practice? Commodities law.
Commodities, because of the exchanges there? Yeah. So at the time, there was only...
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who is Dave Eggers and what gifts kick off the conversation?
0:00–12:39
2
How did Dave’s childhood crafts and early comics shape his creative path?
12:39–1:07:28
3
How does the episode explain art market manipulation and personal value of art?
1:07:28–1:10:22
4
What lessons about ambition, making a living as an artist, and humility are discussed?
1:10:22–1:17:07
5
How was 826 Valencia founded and what impact does it have on kids?
1:17:07–1:23:52
6
What happens during the improvised 'fart fact-check' with the kids and why does it matter?
1:23:52–2:03:20