What’s the craziest stuff that’s ever happened to you at work? Any weird interview stories?
Anne and I use Thomas Beller’s piece about working at H&H Bagels at 80th and Broadway in NYC to spark our own work-themed conversation. He also inspired us to go out an have local bagels: mine in Boone, NC at the Boone Bagelry and Anne’s at The Bagel Broker in Los Angeles.
Click above to listen to our Work Stories Podcast with Beller’s “Portrait of the Bagel as a Young Man”
🛒 My novel Love on the Big Screen tells the story of a college freshman whose understanding of love is shaped by late-80s romantic comedies.
🥯 Click here to read “Portrait of the Bagel as a Young Man” on Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood website.
Izzy, Bill, Megan, and Charlotte in Boone, NC
What makes “Portrait of the Bagel as a Young Man” worth reading? How does it work?
Organized from interview to last day on the job.
Main parts: who works there; what he does with the inventory, the ledger, and the counting; some harder days; being trusted with the money, a big mistake; getting out
Rewards:
It tells the story of an evolving artist (Beller) in a way that the title alludes to about James Joyce.
glimpse into a world I don’t know about
the visit to NYC which takes me back kind of like the people who order bagels from all over
insights on being alive like being loved on own terms
Thinking about my own jobs
Inspired me to go get a local bagel
Everything bagel sandwich, fresh OJ, and a hearty breakfast at Boone Bagelry
Podcast Episode Summary from Zoom software:
On this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast, Anne and Torg discussed work stories using Thomas Beller’s essay “Portrait of the Bagel as a Young Man” as their framework. Anne shared her experience visiting bagel shops in Los Angeles, including The Bagel Broker and Sam’s Bagels, while Torg discussed his visit to Boone Bagelry in North Carolina. They analyzed Beller’s narrative about working at H&H Bagels in New York City, discussing themes of job routine, physical labor, and the challenges of working in a factory environment. The conversation included personal work stories from both participants, with Torg sharing numerous past employment experiences ranging from lifeguarding to teaching, while Anne discussed her career path from factory work to tech writing to her current role in architectural design. They explored how work stories can provide insight into different cultures and work environments, and discussed the potential for Anne to share more work-related experiences in future episodes.
A List of Jobs I Remember Having
Lifeguard at Winamac Town Pool
Stockboy at Russell’s Old Trading Post
Indiana Beach ride operator
Summer Residence Hall Staff at Olivet Nazarene University
Numerous men’s and women’s basketball camps including Purdue, Butler, Indiana and the Bloomington YMCA
TIS Book Company in Bloomington
Tree Trimming Assistant in Bloomington
Substitute Teacher in Kankakee IL including parking lot security
Gap
North Miami HS in Denver, Indiana
Carroll HS in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Vance HS in Charlotte, NC
Weddington MS in NC
Queens Golf Course
St. John’s University
Greenwood HS in IN
Appalachian State University
Anne went to the Bagel Broker at Fairfax and Beverly in Los Angeles
What work stories do we have?
I have two (kind of three) published: Ye Olde Trading Post based on working at Russell’s, A Golf Course Story based on working in Queens (the cash register, the Twilight rate, and racial tensions) and the novel The Coach’s Wife
Indiana Beach lying to the insurance adjusters
Tank not going back to TIS book warehouse after lunch
Tree trimmer set his chest hair on fire in the tree in Bloomington
R-rated faculty meetings at SJU
Here’s a bit about the author and the piece:
Looks like Thomas Beller has a website called Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood: New York City Stories. Click here.
This story was first published on the Beller Neighborhood website on March 29, 2004.
I came across it in an anthology titled The Contemporary American Essay published in 2021. Click here to access that anthology on Amazon.
Seems like Beller is a big basketball fan. He wrote a book called Lost in the Game: A Book About Basketball. Click here to read more about the book. He has an MFA from Columbia. He teaches at Tulane.
We dive deep into Ryan Gosling’s performance in the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel, Project Hail Mary. The film stars Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace. He’s a molecular biologist who wakes up from a coma on a space ship.
Ryan Gosling in the movie Project Hail Mary Podcast Discussion
What grade do I give the film? Why?
I give the film a B+. I liked it! I recommend it!
It’s touching. The moments between Dr. Grace and Rocky are touching. It’s amazing that the story got me to care about a rock / crab / spider.
It’s inspiring. Dr. Grace authentically learns to be a hero.
It’s funny. With Dr. Grace, Rocky and Carl are very funny. Dr. Grace says he and Rocky are clock bros.
Excellent structure / use of time.
Some really suspenseful moments: the delivery of the original message from Rocky, the collecting of the living organism to save the planet, is Rocky going to wake up?
Beautiful shots of space with colors evocative of a sunset.
I didn’t know how the film would end.
Downsides: pacing of beginning. Think length is only critique? Maybe some of the music choices jarred me out of the moment.
My Expectations Leading Up seeing Project Hail Mary:
I remember a hard advertising push to launch. I’m a steady listener to the Bill Simmons podcast and they alluded to it during an episode. I remember Bill asking his son what he thought. So I wanted to see it and as is usually my way, I waited until I could see it at home.
Gosling hosted SNL with Harry Styles in the audience. Styles’ song “Sign of the Times” figures into the plot. I expected more of an Armageddon action film, more like Deep Impact.
I like that word “project” in a title. I considered The Family Basketball Project.
The Author, The Screenwriters, and The Directors
Author Andy Weir: Dad was a physicist and mom an engineer. He’s your age Anne. He wrote the Martian bit by bit on his website. Sold as a 99 cent kindle. Afraid of flying.
Screenwriter: Drew Goddard, adapted Martian and this.
Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Which Spiderman movies?
Actors who have most pull on me to want to see a new movie when it comes out:
Tom Cruise
Matt Damon
Ryan Gosling
Will Ferrell
Emily Blunt
Denzel Washington
Brad Pitt
Robert Downey Jr.
Ryan Reynolds
List your most interesting and/or best moments of the film:
The mystery of “what’s going on” when he wakes up on the ship and the other two members of the crew are dead.
On the second watch, to know he was involuntarily put in a coma and to know he had lost his memory hit me harder.
As Dr. Grace gets his memory back on the ship, we get flashbacks to what happened. The structure is really important to keeping the film interesting. What if it was in linear time?
The MORE ORIGINAL problem of the astrophage feeding off of the sun and CO2 on Jupiter.
The interactions between Dr. Grace (Gosling) and Carl, the security officer. Talking through what they are doing.
Writing and thinking floats on a sea of conversation. I see that with Grace and Carl just talking it out. Maybe CO2 is fresh air for the dots.
Dr. Grace doesn’t have any courage. The events force him to develop it.
I like that Dr. Grace shows personality. Some basketball players can do that and many don’t.
Does Eva (the Director of project Mary) have a super dry sense of humor? I think she does.
When the ship turns off automatically when it reaches its destination and gravity is gone.
The interactions between “Rocky” the alien and Gosling. “Rocky” picks the voice to be used for him.
Big: Grace and Rocky save stars. Rocky builds a ball and comes in. He says, “Why room so messy? Question.”
One of the funniest moments was Rocky’s super hearing.
AI Mary learns Rocky’s name and they are all talking as they head to get the sample.
Do you believe in God? It beats the alternative. I thought Dr. Grace and Eva were going to kiss.
When Sandra Huller who is Eva Stratt sings Styles’ “Sign of the Times.” Click here for the lyrics.
Welcome to the final show. They told me that the end is near.
Have the time of your life. Breaking through the atmosphere.
Grace: I got to meet you. I got to do all of this amazing stuff. I’m good. I’ve made peace with it. BIG: Rocky couldn’t help his crew. He can help grace. Grace go home. (crying)
The ship blew up. That’s why Grace had to go. We don’t learn that until less than an hour to go.
I put the “naut” in astronaut.
The Beatles song when he sends the probes home. The probes are named after the Beatles and the book is dedicated to them. It’s a “We’re going home” song.
Eva receives the predator and the videos.
What movies are keeping company with this one? This movie reminds you of what other movies?
Castaway – long stretches of no dialogue.
The Martian – Any Weir wrote that book and he wrote this one. Drew Goddard wrote both screenplays.
Arrival – Amy Adams is a linguist called on to try and communicate with aliens who have landed.
Deep Impact – Hail Mary does have that very suspenseful stretch where they are trying to capture the living organism that is feeding on the astrophage.
At the end (SPOILER), Gosling’s character Dr. Grace has to decide if we will make the long journey back to earth (10 years?) or stay on Rocky’s planet. What do you think he will decide? What would you advise him to do?
Reasons for earth: be with other humans, he saved the world. Is that a reason to go back? Do science.
Reasons to stay: real friend, enjoys teaching, don’t have to spend all that time going back. Who knows how long.
He should go back to earth for the primary reason that he could tell people about his experiences on another planet and share with them what he learned.
Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. On this episode, Anne and I discuss Richard Ford’s short story, “Rock Springs.” Anne, you went to Rock Springs, Wyoming with Earl, Edna, Cheryl, and Little Duke. What did you think?
Torg Stories Discussion Richard Ford’s story “Rock Springs”
Things could always be worse. You could go to the electric chair tomorrow. -Edna in “Rock Springs”
Plot points:
Earl tells Enda, Let’s go to Tampa. Where are they? Where are they going? Earl lives with Edna but they aren’t married and don’t have kids together. Earl’s daughter is Cheryl. Edna doesn’t have custody of her kids. Earl’s in trouble for writing bad checks. Cheryl’s ex is coming by her place trying to steal her stuff. Earl suggests they take off for Tampa. I looked it up and it would be a 39 hour drive from Kalispell, Montana to Tampa.
Steal a Cadillac and drive to Rock Springs. The oil pressure light comes on.
Hide the car and Earl goes to the trailers.
Check in to the Ramada Inn.
Edna decides to leave Earl.
Earl is checking out stealing another car.
I like the questions at the end that we can answer together.
Two Questions Before Golden Lines:
What do you think of this couple?
What do you make of Earl’s parenting?
Golden Lines from Richard Ford’s “Rock Springs”:
(observation about love) I don’t know what was between Edna and me, just beached by the same tides when you got down to it. Though love has been built on frailer ground than that, as I well know. P. 2
(sunset description and point of view) The sunset that day I remember as being the prettiest I’d ever seen. Just as it touched the rim of the horizon, it all at once fired the air into jewels and red sequins the precise likes of which I had never seen before and haven’t seen since. P. 5. (The POV is interesting; it’s a looking back story)
(Earl’s reaction to that terrible monkey story) Sometimes that’s all you can do, and you can’t worry about what somebody else thinks. P. 9
Edna about and to Earl: You don’t think right, did you know that, Earl? You think the world’s stupid and you’re smart.
Also Edna: Things could always be worse. You could go to the electric chair tomorrow.
It got to feeling very Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” with the driving, the car broke down by the road, and the unsavoriness. Earl tells us, “The truth is meant to serve you if you’ll let it, and I wanted it to serve me.”
Good writing about trailers: I’ve lived in trailers, but they were just snailbacks with one room and no toilet, and they always felt cramped and unhappy though I’ve thought maybe it might’ve been me that was unhappy in them.” p. 14
Writing taking you to realizations, got me thinking about how what space I’m in seems more important than it used to.
Earl is very negative about Rock Springs: She was good nature’s picture, and I was glad she could be, with her little brain-damaged boy, living in a place where no one in his right mind would want to live a minute.” p. 15
Tough one from the black lady in the trailer: Children bring you grief the same way they bring you joy. P. 16
A philosophy from the black woman in the trailer: Saving people is what we were all put on earth to do. P. 17
Edna on her leaving: I’m thirty-two and I’m going to have to give up on motes. I can’t keep the fantasy going anymore. … And I’ve learned I need to give up on motels before some bad thing happens to me.
What a terrible story about the death of the monkey.
Probably not fair, but because of what I think I remember about Ford collecting newspaper articles and using them in stories I tend to make a little less of it.
Other discussion questions:
Edna says they are a couple of fools. If Edna tells you she doesn’t know what to do with her life, what do you tell her? If Earl says he’d like to meet someone to help him take care of Cheryl, what do you tell him?
Holiday Inns and Travelodges are named as nice hotels the police won’t search. What’s a nice hotel to you? Marriott, Westin. OR, what are you looking for in a hotel? Location, self park…
What car trouble stories do you have? Going to Indiana game as kids, car breakdown on the way to Olivet, zero degrees on the Merritt Parkway driving to Queens at 5:30 in the morning, signed our loan documents in our along the side of 421
What are the rewards for reading this story?
The look at Earl and Edna and their relationship.
The bleakness of the terrain, the town, and the character’s lives.
The narrator’s observations and the lines of dialogue that say something that rings true and thought provoking about life.
Thought provoking in this way: we are a bad luck event or a few away from really having a much less joyful life. I do believe that there aren’t any guarantees that things work out fine. Edna and Earl aren’t currently increasing their odds in a good way.
What details make this Rock Springs and not LA, Winamac, or Boone?
Coal followed by a gold mine.
The prostitution coming in after the money from the gold mine.
We get a good look at that trailer. Can you think of a fav and/or least fav place you lived?
My current home for the following reasons: sweeping view of a valley and the mountains beyond. Good office space. Place to workout. Like two creeks running close.
What we called Ruth’s house in CT: stone walls surrounding the property with a big view of rolling hills and trees
New Cannan in town rental: walk to the library, walk to the park
Click here to read an entry about Rock Springs, Wyoming from a Wyoming history website.
Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!
Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. On this episode, Anne and I share the principles that guide us as we make playlists for our respective runs and walks. We also hope to try and bring to life for y’all where it is that we run and walk. Anne, what walk did you choose for this assignment?
Click above for The Art of the Playlist Podcast
Valle Crucis Community Park 45 Minute Run:
The park is 7.8 miles west of Boone, North Carolina where App State University is. This is the mountains of North Carolina.
The park is on the Watauga River. There are often people playing in the river and there are lots of people fishing for trout.
There are at least two streams feeding into the Watauga River that also run through the park.
It’s a rare flat valley surrounded by mountains.
The trail I run four times is over a mile long.
Also discuss: the trail, who is there, it costs $5 sometimes, paved and grass, playgrounds, basketball
Nearby: The Mast Farm Inn, Valle Tavern, Mast Store Annex, Original Mast Store (building constructed in 1882), Pearl’s Kitchen, Valle Crucis Farm, Taylor House Inn.
The park is 1.8 miles from my house.
Torg’s 45 Minute Run Playlist
What are some guiding principles of putting together this playlist?
I signed up for my first race in a long time on June 14th. I’m running the 4-mile version. There’s a 10 and 14 mile version too. It starts at The Rock, which is App State’s Football Stadium.
The move from podcasts where I might forget what I’m doing to music. I wanted music because I was trying to tap into the routine that would get my body read to run.
I’ve even added drive over to the park music: Weird Fishes by Radiohead and Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve. I pick these for the pace of the beat that I think could be my feet hitting the ground in rhythm. So for these, I’m getting ready to run. My body hears these songs and thinks, we’re going running.
“Theme from Hoosiers” by Jerry Goldsmith. I have a walk from the car to the starting line. I like having the start and finish line the same to help me remember lap times and see how I am doing.
More instrumentals to get started:
“Gonna Fly Now,” the Rocky theme song by Bill Conti, “Training Montage” also from Rocky by Bill Conti. Imagine the Russion running indoors in Rocky IV while Rocky is out chopping wood in the Russian winter.
My list is always evolving according to my pace and how the songs are hitting. I just moved “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence and the Machine out.
Just keep it going songs: Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People, It’s a Sin by Pet Shop Boys, Safe and Sound by Capital Cities, and “I Ran (So Far Away)” by A Flock of Seagulls.
Now we’re going to get more serious and try and turn it on. I bumped up Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” to kick off this section because it starts slow. If it was later in this section, there’s kind of a lull that breaks the flow. I also have Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” in here and it starts a little slow too and that’s a bit of a problem and I don’t feel like I want those two songs next to each other.
Cake’s “The Distance” works great in this section.
I like to finish, and my favorite song to run to, is the Beastie Boys “Sabotage.” I also like this song better on a run than at any other moment in my life.
If I happen to still be running after “Sabotage,” I have ACDC “Thunderstruck,” and Ozzy Osbourne “Crazy Train” ready to go.
Bill’s Mountain Run Playlist
Anne’s Los Angeles Walk Playlist
Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!
Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. On this episode, Anne and I are going to talk about the new Noah Kahan album. It’s titled The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs.
Noah Kahan The Great Divide Podcast
Noah Kahan’s album The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs was released during April of 2026.
Be sure to check out my favorite musical storytellers of all time at the bottom of the page.
Torg Family Updates:
Mom:
tries to call Dad on her phone, asks when she’s going home. She forgets anything I tell her, and I’d have to tell her again. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.
Septic:
it was the seal of the toilet flapper. $5 repair and the yard is showing improvement already! However, about $350 to try and repair the yard with dirt and sod.
The prom:
Our living room turned into Boone’s hottest restaurant serving 20 people Sat night.
Noah Kahan’s album The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs
A few details about Noah Kahan:
29 years old born in Strafford, Vermont.
Strafford is half the size of Winamac, population around 1000
I watched his documentary on Netflix. It’s called Noah Kahan: Out of Body. Click here to watch trailer. Quote from his mom: Noah makes our family’s dirty laundry just seem like being human.
His dad won Ironman contests when Noah was a kid and suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bike crash. His parents got divorced.
Two brothers and a sister who seem to figure largely into his songs.
Kahan family professions:
Mom has written how parenting guides and taught English
Dad worked in IT and played the guitar
Brother Richard is a firefighter. Documentary said the attention-deficit kids in their gym clothes is Richard.
Sasha is a pediatric surgeon in Park City
Simon works for a global consulting company based in New York
Wife Brenna: engaged 2023, married 2025. Known each other at least since 2014.
For April, 2026 article in Burlington Free Press, click here.
This is his fourth album and it’s coming after Stick Season. There’s 21 songs on this one, an hour and 36 mins long.
Favorite or Most Interesting Songs on Noah Kahan’s album The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs
There’s a thumping energetic beat to open and a line, “I’d hurt anyone who got too close and anyone who wouldn’t look.
Significant lyric:
I was born into a one-hundred-year storm
Foot of ice across Vermont
And in that dark, and in that frost, a heart was formed
Malcontented and unwarm
You were unsuspectin’, not unwarned
We get a metaphor of opening up doors here.
Seems like a challenge or even an instruction from Noah to someone else: you don’t want to get involved with me. You have been warned. I am a losing streak waiting to happen.
I’m left staring at the ceiling listing reasons you should pack all your shit up.
What do I make of it all?
Kahan touts the mental health issues. I see that in characters who take or don’t take their medication. I see it in lots of songs about drinking too much. People in the songs have wounds.
Exhausted, guilty consciences
An unwillingness of some of the characters to open up, talk about the past
The lyric, “I scream in my sleep.”
Feels like a lot of people feel what Kahan describes in the songs and his music is a balm for their suffering. I like this album as much as anything I have heard for the first time but I like studying it and I like to have it on working in the yard.
I heard Taylor Swift talk about this once: a song is just what I felt in that moment, and the song preserves that feeling. (Noah doesn’t have to feel this way all the time to put it in a song, and it’s something I think through and don’t put into the work because I’ve thought it through, and I think that can be a mistake).
Kahan’s use of the word “you” and all the people that might address.
Using you: Great Divide, Haircut, Willing and Able
He has this really emotionally tangled relationships with friends and family that I feel like I never had.
The rest of the songs:
End of August, the second part of the title comes from this one: Endin’ of August, the bugs are just starting to die.
It’s a matter of time until everything dies
Downfall: I hope it all goes terrible for you so you come back home.
Lighthouse
Paid Time Off: feels like the good choice of the simple life in Sheffield working for paid time off, getting high, playing a round of golf on your day off
Staying Still: think I’m going to like this one when I spend more time with it. I can’t keep starting over… Are you good at staying still?
Dashboard: it’s about running away from your problems (driving and the dashboard) only to find all the same problems, the person is still an asshole
Kind of a funny song that tells someone they are an asshole.
23: it’s about if he leaves someone at 23 then they will always be this good thing. If you leave someone then they can stay this perfect vision.
Porch Light: title comes from he tells whoever the song addresses he’ll leave the porch light on. Lyric: I choke on the Poison spreading to my lungs.
Headed North: wishing someone he knows was headed North, funny line about someone with a coexist sticker telling another to go to hell
We Go Way Back
Spoiled – so his children get spoiled
All them Horses
A Few of Your Own – I was high when I met you…
Orbiter –
Dan – let’s talk about him. Where do we go when we die? He wouldn’t mind that spot where he’s camping.
Favorite Musical Storytellers
Jim Croce: Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, Time in a Bottle, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, Roller Derby Queen, Operator, Workin at the Car Wash Blues
Everclear: Santa Monica, I Will Buy You a New Life, Everything to Everyone, Heroin Girl
Liz Phair: Divorce Song, Polyester Bride
Ben Folds: Brick, the couple’s trip to an abortion clinic, Annie Waits
Billy Joel: Piano Man, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Captain Jack, The Entertainer
Paul Simon: Address about 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, America, Kodachrome
Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!
