Nicholson Baker sits down with Jordan to discuss writing about the unsung pleasures and details of the world-- things like the way your mother cuts up a banana, or the advertisements in your favorite magazine. Things that "live in this between area of noticing, they're part of the background of life." Mentioned in the episode:<ul><li>Nicholson's book about WWII, Human Smoke</li><li>"Sock (Object Lessons)" by Kim Adrian</li><li>"The Lab Leak Hypothesis," New York Magazine</li></ul> Nicholson Baker&nbsp;has written seventeen books, including&nbsp;The Mezzanine, Vox, Human Smoke, The Anthologist,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Baseless—also an art book,&nbsp;The World on Sunday,&nbsp;in collaboration with his wife Margaret Brentano.&nbsp;Several of his books have been&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;bestsellers, and he has won a National Book Critics Circle Award,&nbsp;a James Madison Freedom of Information Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the Herman Hesse Prize.<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.