Willpower

In Search of an Argument

Will Gentile, previous podcast guest and son of Jim, returns, ostensibly to discuss what it is like to work in New York City during the pandemic. It soon becomes clear that Will’s main agenda is to flirt shamelessly with Shelly while John, Jim, and Peggy listen in haplessly. Think of this episode as an update to the online dating special.

After a brief reference to Beverly Hills 90210 (which John didn’t get) there is some discussion of Peggy and Will’s (separate) hard partying the night before recording this episode. Will snidely defends his behavior with a reference to President Trump’s recent dismissal of the pandemic (which John didn’t get). Will does take some time in between flirting to discuss being laid off at the very beginning of the pandemic and subsequent work as a production assistant for commercials. Here’s a link to one of Will’s commercials. Will also refers to Shelly’s home city as Naptown (which John and Peggy didn’t get). Some of John’s lack of comprehension may have resulted from overindulgence in the product of the new espresso machine his sister recently purchased. Shelly’s behavior may be a side effect from using an inversion table. And Peggy is Peggy. But Will is an authentic millennial who likes to talk about his overindulgences of all kinds, making references that he apparently believes will not be in the final version of the episode due to the editing of Justin Mullins. Boy will he be surprised when he hears it.

Guest

Will Gentile is a filmmaker. He lives in New York. (And yes, he truly is Jim’s son).

Recommendations

Will: Watch Wild Goose Lake. Neo-noir film from China

John: Watch The Good Place. Season 4

Shelly: Invest in an Inversion Table.

Peggy. Eat Zestar apples

Jim: Read The Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes.