Games
A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at least for a little while, like your whole life hangs in the balance. This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert wonder why we get so invested in something so trivial. What is it about games that make them feel so pivotal?
- Duration
- 1h 17m
- Broadcast on
- 23 Aug 2011
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at least for a little while, like your whole life hangs in the balance. This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert wonder why we get so invested in something so trivial. What is it about games that make them feel so pivotal?
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
3D Lab is supported by AT&T. We all love to connect via video calls or texts. Right now, at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone trading. Any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and big leap in battery life so you can turn this deal into a long lasting connection. Learn how you can trade in your iPhone for the new iPhone 18 Pro requires trading of iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E, an eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply, subject to change, visit an AT&T store for details. This show we are about to do, it began with a conversation that we had with a friend of ours, Eric Simmons, and he told us about this moment that was kind of strange. This is the San Jose Sharks, actually. Is this a hockey team or a hockey team? I'm pretty strongly identified with hockey to begin with. I play hockey, my dad has played hockey his entire life, and the Sharks started in the Bay Area when I was 10 years old. Sharks are my favorite, favorite creature by a long way, and so I've rooted for them forever. For the last six years, they've been really good. Every year they're picked at the beginning of the year to go to the Stanley Cup, maybe to win the Stanley Cup, and every year they fall short. In 2007, they were in the playoffs, the Sharks to the top seed. They're playing the eighth seed, which also is Anaheim, which is probably their biggest rival, and they lose. And I remember driving home from the ice rink, that's probably about midnight, and it was a really pretty night out. Like the city lights, and they're shimmering on the water, and there's always these tankers out, like parked in the bay, there's like the silhouettes of the boats, and the Oakland coastline, and the San Francisco shoreline, and like this is everything that makes me happy in the world. Eric says usually when he sees that view, no matter how he's feeling, he's like, "Okay, everything's gonna be good. It's gonna be fine." Because that is one beautiful city, but that night... I was so angry that I remember noticing this like beautiful scene and thinking, "BURN!" I hate this. I hate everything about it, burn down in flames. Like that's embarrassing. The fact that these guys that I don't know lost a hockey game in Dallas, that has the power to override everything I think I like about myself, and just turn me into this like drooling, savage, angry beast, and I don't like that. Do you know what I love about that story? By the way, Eric is so taken with the subject that he's writing a book about it at the moment. Anyway, go ahead. But what I love about that story is it's so...typical, you know? Almost every sports fan has had a moment where you're like, "I cannot believe my own emotions right now." Are you a burner? I mean, do you want sports?
Transcription truncated.
A good game--whether it's a pro football playoff, or a family showdown on the kitchen table--can make you feel, at least for a little while, like your whole life hangs in the balance. This hour of Radiolab, Jad and Robert wonder why we get so invested in something so trivial. What is it about games that make them feel so pivotal?