INTERVIEWER 1: Do you want me to go ahead and start or do you want me to throw it over to you early? INTERVIEWER 2: No. ahead and start. INTERVIEWER 1: OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] CREW: Previously on Lost in the Stacks. FRED RASCOE: So we talked a little bit about 2019, but you know let's look ahead to 2020. Optimism. INTERVIEWER 3: The year we're in. FRED RASCOE: The show needs to move towards optimism. [INTERPOSING VOICES] INTERVIEWER 3: Fred talking about optimism. This is great. FRED RASCOE: I'm trying to convince myself. It's part of my resolution. So what are we doing in 2020 professionally, personally? Marlee, you've got something new going on at the library in 2020? MARLEE GIVENS: I do. I do. And I just want to point out that I am an optimist. FRED RASCOE: Good. MARLEE GIVENS: It feels funny to be here. [MUSIC PLAYING] CHARLIE BENNETT: You are listening to WREK Atlanta. And this is Lost in the Stacks the research library of rock and roll radio show. I'm Charlie Bennett in the virtual studio with Ameet Doshi and Fred Rascoe. And someone might show up later. Each week on Lost in the Stacks, we pick a theme and then use it to create a mix of music and library talk. Whichever you're here for, we hope you dig it. AMEET DOSHI: That's right, Charlie. Today's show is called 2021. FRED RASCOE: That's it? Just 2021? No wordplay? No subtitle? AMEET DOSHI: Just the year 2021. Doesn't that sound good and crisp? CHARLIE BENNETT: It does have a nice ring to it. I'm glad to leave the last year behind and embrace this year. FRED RASCOE: But 2020's effects will resonate for a long time. AMEET DOSHI: And we'll need to take action to make 2021 into a better year than ugh 2020. FRED RASCOE: Ugh is right. In fact, 2021 might take even more patience and fortitude than 2020 just for very different reasons. CHARLIE BENNETT: And look at that. We just outlined today's show themes. AMEET DOSHI: Our songs today follow that same outline how last year affected us and what it means to us now and in the new year. I don't know about you, but I'm going to keep it optimistic. That's my resolution for 2021. So let's start with "New Year's Resolution" by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas right here on Lost in the Stacks. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC - OTIS REDDING AND CARLA THOMAS, "NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION] (SINGING) New Year's resolution. And we gon' call this our new year-- FRED RASCOE: That was "New Year's Resolution" by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. This is Lost in the Stacks. Today's show is all about 2021. And to talk about 2021, we have to talk about 2020 in a segment we're going to call what happened? What happened? 2020. That's what happened. Now obviously there is a lot going on at Georgia Tech. There was a lot going on in Atlanta. Nationally, politically, pandemically, but all of that was going on changed us personally. So how did it affect us? I'll say that my work habits changed. My work routine changed. I worked at home. I presented at a conference from home. A conference that took place in Canada or that was virtually hosted in Canada I suppose. I got up from my desk a lot during the workday to play fetch with my dog. Things changed around all of my work routine. And also on a personal level, my eating habits changed. I think I've gained about 10 pounds. CHARLIE BENNETT: You would not be alone in that, Fred. AMEET DOSHI: Yeah, you got to watch out for that COVID-19. FRED RASCOE: I avoided the freshman 15 all those many years ago, but COVID. Yeah. I'm not 18 years old anymore. The COVID-19 goes on a 46-year-old pretty easily. CHARLIE BENNETT: And I want to follow Fred's description of what happened by co-signing basically. I turned into a telecommutor. My family has a few people who are very immunocompromised. So we locked down so that we could have a extended family bubble. And it was very much just the five of us against the world kind of feel for a long time. My wife and my three kids and I. And we made our house into our home base headquarters complex whatever. We even had some work done to make the house bigger because that was necessary. And I have become the homebody that I have always tried not to be. This is in some ways fantastic to be stuck at home. It's the stuck part I think that sometimes makes me feel a little crazy. But when I'm not feeling stuck, it's magnificent to have no reason to leave the house. And then that feeling kind of made me have to look at myself a lot harder than I have in the past because a lot of other people were having a really bad time. A really, really bad time. And I was feeling snug and safe. And that has disoriented my moral sense I think in a good way. And has made me much more aware of the inequities and inequalities in a way that I had been aware theoretically before, but now I have a different kind of understanding to go with that. Also I started drinking again. FRED RASCOE: That was the year for it. CHARLIE BENNETT: It really was. Ameet? AMEET DOSHI: For me I guess I will begin with a downer or multiple downers and then perhaps something a little less negative. So it hit hard and it hit home. We actually have family members who contracted the virus and died from it in India. Multiple. So it was never theoretical for me. It was never a conspiracy for me. I was initially kind of shocked at these alternative narratives about COVID-19 and how virulent is it. Is it just like the cold, for example? And the slap in the face of having family members who are admittedly older, but not elderly contract the virus and then fall into this spiraling negative cycle of just not being able to breathe. And to ultimately perish. It made me incredibly grateful for how quickly the vaccine has been developed. And all of the underpinning elements to that the science technology infrastructure required to make that happen. But that's been a dark cloud that's been hanging over us. And there is no debate about how far can we expand our bubble? What are we comfortable doing? There's no debate. If there's a virtual alternative during this crisis that is 100% safe, we'll do that over the thing that is 95% safe every time. On the other hand within our bubble, my son and my daughter they've been just a delight to spend so much time with. It's been a magical time in some ways. So my son Kieran is crazy about baseball. And I at his age was also equally crazy about baseball until I became a jaded distant adult. And so I've rekindled that joy. And we actually watched a 1983 Cubs game the other day on DVD, which was just very comforting during a pretty dark time. So the best of times, the worst of times. But ultimately I'm really kind of grateful for family support that we're getting and just for family in general. So that's what's happening personally. Professionally, I'm also a little dismayed that we weren't able to celebrate the new building that all of us worked so hard on in a more profound way. On the other hand, I think we've got some new innovations with how we can work more effectively and with more freedom through multiple devices. And how we can teach online so maybe there's a new dimension that's kind of emerging to in-person education. And Fred, you mentioned presenting at a conference online. Now that's probably going to be a lot more accessible. You won't have to have the x $100 ready to attend a conference. There may be a way to do it on the cheap and still benefit from that knowledge. So yeah. That's been my 2020 undoubtedly 2020AF for me. CHARLIE BENNETT: We'll be back to talk more about the new year after a music set. FRED RASCOE: File this set under RC178.G7L7. [MUSIC - VIOLENT FEMMES, "HAPPY NEW YEAR NEXT YEAR"] (SINGING) I'll have a happy New Year next year. [MUSIC PLAYING] FRED RASCOE: You just heard "Too Old To Die Young" by Timber Timber. And we started that set with "Happy New Year Next Year" by the Violent Femmes. Songs about reflecting on a negative year. [MUSIC PLAYING] AMEET DOSHI: This is Lost in the Stacks and today's show is called 2021. So let's talk about this moment right now. This very moment and how we're doing in a segment called, what now? What's your life like right now? How have those 2020 events that we just talked about informed this present moment? Charlie, why don't you go first. CHARLIE BENNETT: Well, I was talking to my wife this morning, virtual school began again. We went back to work. We're both telecommuting. And I said about three hours into the day, it feels like the first day of a new job. And she said, oh at the library? I said, no, in life. It feels like now's the time be sure to make a good impression, figure out how processes work, pay attention instead of assuming you know everything. Learn how to live how to work in this new place. And I know that calendars are abstract and man made, human made. But the ritual of moving to the next year on the calendar does give you an opportunity to sort of reset or re-evaluate how you're approaching your life. And I recognize now that this is one of the most this is the first day of the rest of your life days I've ever experienced. And so I feel now like I have to pay attention to the new habits that I'm establishing despite the fact that I'm in the same house with the same four people doing the same stuff all again. I guess what I'm saying is I'm crazy right now. I'm absolutely bug [BEEP] crazy. FRED RASCOE: As we all are I think. CHARLIE BENNETT: Why don't you expand on your crazy, Fred? FRED RASCOE: Well, let's start with bug [BEEP]. I liked what you said about the new year even though it's a human construct. When that calendar turns over, there's a new digit there. It's 2021 instead of 2020. It is like a visual reminder, oh, we're not stuck in this. Time is passing. Things are moving along. There is progress. Maybe there is hope. There's always optimism. I guess the hope of optimism. I think how 2020 has informed me in this present moment maybe to balance out that optimism I was just talking about. I'm realizing that I've taken a lot of things for granted. And Charlie, you mentioned this a little bit in the first segment, but just to kind of expand on that. I think I've taken security for granted. And that's like security in government security and social Infrastructure. Security in education. I mean, I've got kids too in online school. And helping them with schoolwork is an entirely different animal when they're at home doing online classes. And it's just as frustrating for me as it is for them as it is for the teachers as well. I feel insecure even in my job. Not that I think I'm going to get fired or anything, but you just realize how easily it is for budgets that have been a stable factor for year after year, they can actually change quickly. Obviously we haven't had drastic things happen to us personally, but it is happening to people. And that security that I've always felt perhaps naive, it's being punctured a little bit. All these securities that I thought I have are being punctured a little bit as we're dealing with our current medical, political situation. CHARLIE BENNETT: Ameet, what's your situation? AMEET DOSHI: Yeah. I'd echo Fred's comment there. I do feel like I hear more sirens. I feel like we are right up at the edge of not something as like gauche as a total societal breakdown. That's unimaginable so I won't use that phrase. But it does feel like there is a lot of fraying around the edges that violence in my neighborhood has increased that there's more gunfire you can hear at night. The New York Times did a piece on Sunday where they said, it used to be that two people would have an argument and you'd hear the shouting. They were interviewing someone in a US city. And the guy said, during the pandemic you would hear the shouting and now you hear gunfire. And I think that's what it feels like. We're starting to fray around those edges of societal security and norms. That's rather frightening. On the other hand, I've also learned a lot more about my media consumption. And I guess you learn more about yourself when you're in this kind of state of almost boredom. And I am endeavoring to step away from the 24 hour news cycle even more. Re-embrace the print newspaper and then embrace ebooks on my phone. So not so much watching Netflix and so on, but starting to read more deeply but on my device. So a mix of things. But yeah, that security fraying is concerning to me. CHARLIE BENNETT: I'm delighted to report that Marlee Givens has entered a virtual studio. MARLEE GIVENS: Hello. CHARLIE BENNETT: And Marlee, we're talking about what it's like right now. So can you in less than a minute finish this segment by describing your current situation? MARLEE GIVENS: My current situation is I am continuing to work at home. It's dangerous for me to be in a space where I might be infected with the coronavirus to a health issue. And so I've been holed up at home. I was hearing the tail end of Ameet's story. And yes, there's been a lot of streaming media in our home. There's been a lot of ebooks. There's been a lot of audiobooks on my devices. I'm here with my whole family and we are just about to jump back into our routine where the two adults are at work and the child is doing virtual school. FRED RASCOE: Well, we're going to talk more about this moment and the future on the left side of the hour. [MUSIC PLAYING] CHARLIE BENNETT: This is WREK Atlanta. And you are listening to Lost in the Stacks, the research library rock and roll radio show. Today we are talking about 2021 and 2020 and ourselves. And I am at a loss. Normally in this moment of the show, I'd read a quote from an article or book that seemed complimentary to the topic of the day or ironic in its counterpoint or even whimsical in its eccentric relation to our themes. And it's easy for me to find those quotes. I have a teetering book pile of a memory shot through with free associative cobwebs and random quotes fire off all day long as I move through the world. But all that I can imagine for this moment is an absence of words. A gap in our rational understanding. Not a quote, but the sound of us floating in space. File this set under CE73.A97. [MUSIC - ROBERT FRIPP, "EXPOSURE"] It is impossible to achieve the aim without suffering. [MUSIC - SHIVAS, "YOU MAKE ME WANT TO DIE"] (SINGING) You make me want to die. FRED RASCOE: You just heard "You Make Me Want To Die" by the Shivas. And before that we heard "Exposure" by Robert Fripp. Songs about trying to adapt to unpleasant realities. [MUSIC PLAYING] FRED RASCOE: This is Lost in the Stacks and today's show is called 2021. So let's talk about the future in a segment called, What's Next? And we're going to talk about what you see coming this year personally, locally, globally, things that you might want to change. I'll go ahead and start it off by saying that when we did a show similar to this last year, which aired well before the COVID pandemic shut down everything, we all kind of made some predictions of what we thought the year would be like. And I remember my predictions were that I was going to do things like go camping with my family. That didn't happen. I also predicted I would buy new shoes. And that did happen. I haven't had occasion to wear them as much as I might have on a normal year, but I did buy shoes. But when I'm thinking about what's next, we all talked a little bit about security and how our security has just been punctured a little bit. The things that we thought were solid maybe are a little squishier than we thought. And I just I just think that in crises that I've lived through in my 46 years, things have always gotten back to normal. Whether it was something like an economic crash or a huge terrorist attack. Things changed a little bit, processes changed, different things were put into place, but things always went back to normal. And I don't know if I can predict a return to a normality. . Even though after say September 11 for example, airports all changed. The way we travel all changed. But we still traveled. We still went to airports. And I'm just not confident predicting what's next anymore with this. This seems like such a major shift in how we live our life even more than those kinds of changes were. CHARLIE BENNETT: I left something out of the first segment, which I think I should bring up now. The biggest thing that happened to me in 2020 is my father died. And he was sick partially because of COVID-19 and partially because he had gotten old. But it was still a bit of a surprise. And it does feel like everything is the same, but nothing is the same. Like I have crossed some border into another country, but I'm still in the spot where the landscape is all the same. All the trees look the same. The air smells the same. The stars are in the same position. But I am in a foreign country and headed towards some kind of new existence. And that's how I feel right now. As you said, Fred, the normal is not coming back. But what I'm guessing is that I'm just always going to have this feeling. And not much about the world is going to change. The metaphor is lovely. I'm headed towards a foreign country, but I don't think I am. I think just now I am forever changed. And I think that must be what the world is going to feel like post COVID pandemic. MARLEE GIVENS: You know, Charlie, I had a similar experience to you in losing my father. And it is over 15 years now. And my world it was completely different afterwards. And I think in a similar way, everyone's world is going to be completely different. There are people who have lost folks. People who've lost bits of themselves, their own life, their job, their favorite things to do. Hopefully we'll get some of that back, but as a society we're going to be living with a great loss for the foreseeable future. And I think any time anyone goes through a great loss it changes things within that person and their perspective on the world. And that's just how it. CHARLIE BENNETT: It is very intriguing that the whole world is going through essentially the same trauma. AMEET DOSHI: I think for me it's just this feeling of gratitude towards my in-laws because they have stepped up and are watching the kids while both Laurel and I work online. And they've done so much more than that. I mean, it's incredibly kind of them because it's not easy. A 3-year-old and a 7-year-old it's asking a lot of people in their 70s to do that. So I hope that I can pay that forward to both to our kids, but even others. And I am grateful that my kids are hearing stories of what it was like in a developing country in the 1940s and '50s in India in poverty. And so hopefully they'll have a better perspective hearing those kinds of stories firsthand from their grandparents. So I remain optimistic, but I think you're right. Forever changed by how this policy failure has affected us personally, but just the entire globe. FRED RASCOE: Here is the moment in the show when normally we would try to guess some kind of industry change. Say that this publisher or that vendor, this part of the building, this thing will happen. Or even say, well, I'm going to buy new shoes or go camping. And it does seem like the enormity in the truest sense, of this past year has wiped out the sense of, oh, I'm going to get in shape and start eating better and read a book every week. It's more like I'm going to exist in this new world. I'm going to exist in this new way. It reminds me of Leonard Cohen. You have to wake up a different person every day. And it turns out that we have to be a different person in 2021 to be able to be ourselves in 2021. CHARLIE BENNETT: Well, no one wants to follow that up. So we'll be back to wrap up our show after a music set. FRED RASCOE: File this set under BX7233.P445S7. [MUSIC PLAYING] FRED RASCOE: That was "Catch You On The Rebound" by Brenton Wood. Before that, "Wait Till Next Year" by Lee Hazelwood. Those were songs about saying good riddance to bad rubbish and looking ahead. CHARLIE BENNETT: Today's show is our traditional New Year's show without any of the traditional stuff, asking ourselves what happened, what now, and what's next? So to finish off, let's ask ourselves, do you have a new year ritual or superstition that you follow? Fred. FRED RASCOE: I have to say that I do not. Not any. I don't make resolutions. I don't eat black eyed peas. I don't do any particular activity. It's a day off from work though. So that's nice. CHARLIE BENNETT: Ameet. AMEET DOSHI: We usually have a big party. We weren't able to do that this year. But really looking forward to next New Year and just really throwing down a New Year's Eve party and a New Year's Day party. That's what we're going to do. I haven't talked to my wife about that yet. MARLEE GIVENS: We kind of do. We save our champagne for New Year's Day. That's about the only thing. We sometimes have caviar. We had caviar this year. Introduced our son to caviar this year. CHARLIE BENNETT: Wow. MARLEE GIVENS: And he enjoyed it. So I say we'll just keep doing that. Last year we actually had black eyed peas and collards and look what happened. So we decided not to this year. FRED RASCOE: You know, I've never had caviar, Marlee. Maybe that should be something that I try in 2021. CHARLIE BENNETT: For my New Year usually we drink a ton of coffee and we clean the whole house and we throw the kids in the backyard. And so luckily, this year we were able to do exactly what we normally do on New Year's. And with that, let's roll the credits. [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] CHARLIE BENNETT: Lost in the Stacks is a collaboration between WREK Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Library. Written and produced by Ameet Doshi, Amanda Pellerin, Charlie Bennett, Fred Rascoe, Marlee Givens, and Wendy Hagen Meyer. FRED RASCOE: Today's show was edited and assembled by Charlie. Thanks, Charlie. CHARLIE BENNETT: You're welcome. FRED RASCOE: Brought to you in part by the Library Collective and their social and professional network, League of Awesome Librarians. Find out more at thelibrarycollective.org. CHARLIE BENNETT: Legal counsel and a beautiful 18 month planner with all of 2020 tornout were provided by the Burrus Intellectual Property Law Group in Atlanta, Georgia. MARLEE GIVENS: Special thanks to 2020 for ending, 2021 for starting. And thanks, as always, to each and every one of you for listening. AMEET DOSHI: Find us online at lostinthestacks.org. And you can subscribe to our podcast pretty much anywhere you get your audio fix. CHARLIE BENNETT: Next week we continue our COVID restrictions schedule with a rerun. And there'll be a new show the week after that. AMEET DOSHI: It's time for our last song today. And I'm glad that we finally put 2020 behind us. It was hard. But as I said at the top of the show, I'm making a resolution of optimism. Let's close with "Smooth Sailing" by Queens of the Stone Age. CHARLIE BENNETT: Oh, Ameet. The lyrics of that song, they're not really about a pleasant future. AMEET DOSHI: Well, Charlie, the song is called "Smooth Sailing". It's right there in the title. CHARLIE BENNETT: Dude. AMEET DOSHI: We're embracing optimism. Charlie. CHARLIE BENNETT: Josh Hawley is like a super ironic. AMEET DOSHI: Optimism. Optimism. Here is "Smooth Sailing" by Queens of the Stone Age right here on Lost in the Stacks. Have a great year everyone. [MUSIC PLAYING]