The Midwest was still a very new thing for me. I got a voice in my head. It was the funniest thing. I mean, [I’d] been reading history and theology and all these things for a long time. And then I was in Massachusetts, actually, just [waiting to spend] Christmas with my son[s]. They were late coming to wherever we were going to meet, and I was in this hotel with a pen and blank paper, and I started writing from this voice. The first sentence in that book is the first sentence that came to my mind. I have no idea how that happens. I was surprised that I was writing from a male point of view. But there he was.—_ Marilynne Robinson, from an interview conducted by President Obama_Our heroes discuss their first modern (as in, the author is still alive) novel: Mailynne Robinson's _Gilead. _Also they discuss the nature of best friendship, the first PG-13 movie they ever saw, and why Denny Elfman's _Batman _score was far superior to the music for the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. Complications ensue when they are accosted by the dreaded Mysterious Phantom.Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Coming in December, a yuletide spectacular to close out the year, as our heroes discuss _A Christmas Carol _by Charles Dickens

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