368 | Elizabeth Alexander on Why Democracy Needs Imagination

Hello everyone and welcome to the Mindscape Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Carroll. I'm not sure whether I've ever told this particular story on the podcast before, but a few years ago I was playing poker in Las Vegas, and one of the things about playing poker is it can be a social game. You know, it's fine if everyone at the table is just playing quietly, that's okay. Sometimes there are drunk slash obnoxious people, that makes it less fun.

But the best is when you get a gregarious bunch or of at least some people who want to sort of laugh and joke and have a good time while they're trying to win each other's money. In this particular case, there was a guy sitting across from me with a thick British accent, and he was a very working class looking guy. You know, he was like middle-aged, heavy set, bald head, and and very voluble. You know, he was uh cracking jokes, uh, making everyone laugh and it was a good time.

He was a good person to have at the table. At one point, someone asked him what he did for a living and he said that he was a writer. And I immediately, I don't know why, but immediately I wanted to joke What kind of writing do you do? Poetry?

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