It's the 4th of July! Which explains the exceptionally bad audio quality in this ep. Don't worry though, our RIVETING discussion of the imperial self, Sick Franzen Burns, new poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, what to expect when you're expecting an MFA, and an irony-free send up to dearly departed Denis Johnson will make you forget about the buzzing of ACs and occasional fireworks. ED NOTE: we had a senior moment and mistakenly attributed a Wu-Tang song to Jay-Z, but everything else is 100% correct