Endless Thread - Snacktime: A Trade Of Their Own

Episode Date: July 27, 2018

In this "Snacktime" episode, we chow down on two stories that were sent to us by listeners. The first, a look at how baseball fans on Reddit mark Major League Baseball's annual July trade deadline -- with a trade of their own. Then, a story involving a husband and wife, dinner at the boss' house, and a steak getting thrown out the window... almost.

Support for Endless Thread comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink Software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com. Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like, why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? of course, is business broken. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. Ben. Josh. Amory. Snacks. Snacks. Snacks. Snacks. It's snack time. You guys gave away on our chat that you were eating popcorn. So clearly your snack is popcorn. Correct. My snack is always popcorn when I have say in the matter. You're also very generous with it. Thank you. Thank you.

You always deliver popcorn to everyone who wants the popcorn. Yeah. Some might call her a popcorn pusher, but... You'll never know what my real intentions are. All right, so I'm talking to you from Out West, so you, in Western Mass, my little home studio. So you don't know what I've got. Don't be fooled by the snacks that I got. Let's hear a crunch like we usually do.

All right. Oh, that's terrible. Just tell us. It kind of sounds like popcorn. No. No, that thing has legs. Okay. It's that kind of like all-natural gummy snack,

even though I'm sure it's not all-natural. I was just about to tease you about that. Yes. You must be eating some like Western Mass, hippie-dippy gummy fruit that crunches in your mouth. I don't know how hippie-dippy-dippy it is, but it is great fruit flavored. So it's like kind of sour, kind of sweet.

It's like little pie shapes. Okay. All right. I'm jealous. Team endless thread is on our break from making our usual in-depth deep dive episodes about stories on this vast ecosystem of online communities called Reddit. But because we at WBUR have no vacation time ourselves, we figure why not? We got time, you got time, let's put some snacks in your feet.

You know, have a snack. Just don't ruin your dinner. Today's snacks come straight from the mouths of Redditors who've been in touch with us. That sounds really gross, actually. It sounds like they're like mama bird feeding them into our mouths. Yeah, baby bird stuff. Yeah, so this one has to do with sports, which I have to say like that. Sports.

Ben, did you know that Josh is one of the rising stars of the WBUR intramural softball team? Yeah, Ben, did you know that? I mean, I know that Josh is good at like every single game known to man, but admittedly, I did not know that. Yeah, of course, you didn't know that because you still have yet to show up to a single one of our games. I'm there in spirit. I'm pouring some light beer out for you guys while I'm taking care of my twins at home. Oh, sure. Throw the twins in it to make us feel guilty. Yeah, that's right. Well, Josh, I got to say, if our team was in the MLB, I'd be worried right about now.

about you getting traded to another team? Well, yeah, because the trade deadline is fast approaching, and the days leading up to the trade deadline are crazy in baseball because all the good teams try to get good players from bad teams so they can win the World Series. And all the bad teams, it's like a fire sale of all their good players, and they just try to trade them away to stockpile players who will be good in the future. Yeah, so a Redditor wrote to us and made us aware that

Reddit actually acknowledges the trade deadline in their own kind of quirky way. So they have their own trade that takes place in the R-slash baseball community on Reddit, except the players getting traded in this case are Redditors themselves. So we learned about it from one of the commissioners of the Reddit baseball trade, Dan Matthews. The first thing that you do basically is you sign up, you go to this Google form, enter your username, enter the team that you're a fan of at the moment, and then enter one team that you absolutely hate that you refuse to get traded to, because we don't want anybody to have a bad time. So be a Red Sox fan, we promise you won't be traded to the Yankees. That is what I put in when I

submitted us. So obviously, as you hear, I submitted us, you slash endless underscore thread into the trade. It started last Monday and ran through Friday. Okay, so all of this is a little bit, you you know, new and strange to me because I'm not a huge sports guy, but how is it decided who gets traded where? Okay, so just like in the real baseball trade where you have general managers for each team, every team's subreddit on Reddit has a general manager during this trade. So those are, yes. And all of these general managers, I think there are between 30 and 40 of them, they have a Slack

channel that they're all contributing to all throughout the week. trading all of the people who sign up for the trade, and they're trying to figure out which users they want on their team and which they can let go of. And here's Dan again explaining a little bit about how they figure that out. They'll look at a user and say, like, hey, I really like this user. He's a great contributor. He posts images from the ballpark and maybe gifts every once in a while. So he's a valuable user. I will trade you him in exchange for two or three of your younger users that don't have as much of a history. Last year, we actually had someone who is a professional data scientist go through and run a bunch of statistical analyses on all of our users and actually create his own version of advanced baseball statistics for Reddit users.

Man, these people are committed. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about this advanced statistics stuff. You got to get to know the players. Yeah, you got to see their swing. you got to say, this kid's got it, I can feel it. Well, a swing in this case, it could be anything. It could be, you know, like Dan said, it could be the gifts that you post or the GIFs or whatever you call them.

And Dan says there's no restrictions on how these trades are determined. So like last year, for example, someone was traded in exchange for a free pizza. Oh, man, pizza is valuable to me, but still I feel somehow like that's insulting, being traded for a pizza. Ben, Emory and I have been talking, and we've decided to trade you for a pizza. Well, as long as it's delicious, that's fine with me. Okay, so as I mentioned, this year's trade started last Monday. It ended on Friday. And here's a little audio postcard, if you will, from a couple of the commissioners on how things went.

It is 559 Mountain. I'm about to post the threads on both subs. This is somehow very exciting. and a little nerve-wracking. My name is Alex Payot. I am from Detroit, Michigan. This is it. I am posting them right now.

And now we wait. The game has begun. My name is Niam Siddiqui, and I am the commissioner of our baseball trade deadline game. We do a YouTube stream every night, just recapping the events of the day, and those can run two, three, four hours.

We're not even three hours into the game, and we've already got pizza being traded between Motor City Kitties and Colorado Rockies. A lot of users registered like 1,500 plus. We just found out that the Washington Post might have signed up. Everyone's getting traded already. It's insane. You know, this is a big deal. The endless thread trade was actually funny because I think the Red Sox GM didn't realize quite what he had on his hands. So it's really cool to see when the Reddit celebrities show up and participate in our game.

And now the game is done. Everybody got traded. That's one of our number one goals every year is to make sure that everybody gets traded to any sub. I guess this is a wrap on the 2018 our baseball trade deadline game. Oh, my goodness. Thank you. It's over. So, Ben, you checked in with Dan Matthews after the trade.

My first question to Dan was about us as a player and how we got traded. So endless thread started out on the red side. obviously, since we are based in Boston. We got traded to the San Diego Padres, who are currently the worst team in the National League. How did that happen, Dan? Listen, I was very honest with the general manager of the Red Sox.

I was like, you guys, you have a VIP on your team, treat him well. And he was like, San Diego Padres, got it. So now that, at the United States, endless thread has been traded to the Padres. What do we have to do again? So now that you're traded to the Padres, you can basically play this however you want. But what most people will do is spend about one series in the new subreddit,

getting to know the players, getting to know the other fans, and participating in the game day threads. It's a lot of fun because you can just be really enthusiastic and not really know what's going on, and everyone else is the exact same. I think there's something really special about being involved in an event where you don't really get to kind of do whatever you want. Whenever you want to you, you have to kind of seed control and you get to participate in something larger than just you surfing around the internet and commenting on whatever you want. Sure.

And I think the trade deadline game is a lot like that because instead of you being the, the driver, you kind of get to be highlighted in a different way, where you're the one that people want and you're being moved from one place to another. And I don't know, there's something really exciting about being able to say, like, I was traded from this to this, or like, I have my little spot of the Reddit sheet. I think, given that everything's kind of on demand now, like, you can watch whatever show whenever you want to, having the opportunity to participate in an open-close event that will start at one time and end at another, and that's it, is really attractive to people. I know it's attractive to me. I love this week.

Dan Matthews, thank you very much for talking with us. Thank you very much. All right, that was cool. I enjoyed that snack. Are you guys ready for another snack? Yes. You clearly are from the wrestling. You ready? Yeah. This also has to do with sugar. I'm going Swedish fish. Your mouth sounds like really not sticky, but like you're chewing on... Is it maple candy? Glue or something. You know, Josh, you've got the Northeast Regional.

You've got the idea right with the Northeast Regional kind of vibe. This is Atkins Farms Country Market, half dozen cider donuts. That was my next guess. Western Massachusetts, where they serve cider donuts year round. More snacks, and weirdly, throwing things like a baseball in a minute. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories, stories about policing, or politics, country music, hockey, sex, of bugs.

Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully, make you see the world anew. Radio Lab, Adventures on the Edge of what we think we know. Wherever you get your podcast. There is something powerful about the sound of the human voice. Beautifully produced audio has the unique power to connect and inspire. Tell your organization's story with a custom podcast from City Space Productions, the creative studio from WBUR's Business Partnerships Team.

Become a thought leader. Recruit new talent. Reach new audiences. Whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org slash creative studio. Okay, so Ben, you've got another snack for us, and it comes from yet another Redditor who heard Snack Time and submitted a story for consideration. Yes, we posted to the casual conversations community on Reddit with our SnackTime episode, and actually we heard from Random Guy 4870, and he was reacting to last. last week's episode, which we called steak and potatoes, because of the snack time stories that

were in that episode. And he was like, hey, have you heard this story, this other story about steak? And I said, no. I'll just read the titles of these two posts. So the first title, it's from the Today I Fed Up community, and it's today I effed up by allowing my husband to come to dinner at my boss's house. And here's the post, the husband wrote, Today I effed up by throwing my steak out a window.

Oh, my God. Did they know that they had each posted about this? Apparently, yes. But I still love it because it's basically like, this is kind of rare, right? You get two people's perspective on the same story. I thought that was a steak pun. Yeah, yeah.

This is rare. It's rare. It's a rare story. It's medium rare. So, and actually that's a perfect transition to this story because this is what happens. So this husband and wife that go to dinner at the wife's boss's house, it's the first, it's like kind of a big deal. It's the first time that they're getting together socially with the boss. The subordinate brings her husband with her.

And she's like, please don't screw this. this up for me. And he's like, why would I do that? I'm amazing. I'm great at parties. Of course, I'm going to kill it. So... Sounds like you. Yeah, it does sound like me. I mean, this is in my, you know, I'm telling

it to you like I would tell it. But like basically, so they go to dinner, you know, everything's great. They have cocktails, whatever. The husband's like telling jokes. He's being witty. He's like, he's like, I'm doing a great job. So they sit down for dinner. And the main

horse's steak. The husband is like not a big fan of rare steak. But of course, the boss serves three steaks, a steak to each of them. And the husband's steak is like, I think he's, I think he says in his post, like, I could resuscitate the cow. That's how rare this steak is. Oh, no. And he's just thoroughly disgusted. He's, and he's at a complete loss of what to do. He doesn't want to be rude. And so he has, you know, this moment happens where the hostess gets up and goes into the kitchen to like take care of something or something. And the husband and the wife are sitting there together. And the husband has this like almost like a fighter flight reflex where he sees an open window. And this is what he writes. I knew I had to be decisive, realizing that she could

return at any moment. I committed. I grabbed the state. with my hand, gently shook off the juice, and executed a perfect throw right through the center of the open window. Oh, my God. Okay. There's a thing about the window. It's closed. It's not open.

It's just incredibly clean. It's the cleanest window of all time. I'm not clean anymore. So this is what the wife writes. I look over at my husband and see him holding his steak in his hand, hovering at just an inch or two above his plate. Before I had a chance to fully comprehend what I was seeing and verbalized something, he threw his steak baseball style, which I'm not sure what that means, but I'm guessing aggressively. As opposed to frisbee style. Yeah, like overhand, I guess, right?

Across the room, straight into the dining room window. It hit the window making a loud noise and slowly slid down. That would be a great sound effect. So this moment, of course, at this very moment, the hostess walks back in and sees essentially what has happened. The husband says, I just don't know what to say. It felt like a minute of silence. It was probably three or four seconds. Finally, the best I could manage, I basically say, I'm so sorry, I'm such a klutz.

I was just cutting it. and it slipped. And he says, just ask my wife, I'm really a klutz, right, honey? Oh, God. And it says in parentheses, no help coming from that direction.

And this is now from the wife's post. He finally manages to mutter some incoherent garbage about being a clutz and even tries to get me to back him up. I leave his ass out to dry in the deafening silence. Oh. So, you know, it's a terrible, You know, it's basically like a terrible thing.

Like the wife, that literally the only, according to the husband, the only words the wife utters for the rest of the night at one point are like, I'm fine to him. Like, she won't talk to him. They, you know, they get out of the house. Like the hostess is like sort of perplexed and like confused. The husband, by the way, like soaps up the bloody steak juice from the window with like a napkin. It's just super awkward.

The whole thing is super awkward. So they basically like flee the dinner. They go home. The wife is like, you're an idiot. What is wrong with you? The husband is like, I'm sorry, like the whole thing. But the good thing is that the wife goes to work the next day and she and her boss, it's basically like a bonding moment for them, like talking about how this woman's husband

is such a weirdo. And she says that like the next at the holiday party, her plus one is her best friend, Jeannie. Smart move right there. All right, so this was my favorite comment. Are you guys ready? Mm-hmm. What you do here is cut both you and your wife's steaks in half.

Oh, I failed to mention this. The wife's steak was more thoroughly done than the husbands. Oh. So this person says, what you do here is cut both you and your wife's steaks in half and each swap a half before the boss returns. Then you both eat the well-prepared half and describe how delicious it is. but you're full by the time you get to the rare half. Come on, O.P.

And that was posted by a username Easy Genius. Because that is kind of a genius. That is genius. Maybe we'll call upon Easy Genius for future conundrums that we have on this show. Advice column from Easy Genius. Yeah. It also begs the question how many other possibilities the husband jumped right over

before getting to throwing the steak out the window. Great question. Like that is a lot of, that is several jumps, it seems like. There has to be another, isn't there a trash can in the room? Is there a jacket? Yeah, or just like do it like you did when you were a little kid and hide it in your napkin or something. The window did not need to be involved. Pretend you got sick or something.

Fair enough. Well, you guys, I think this closes another episode of snack time. Nice to hear from some Reditors on ideas of what to talk about during our snack time break. Yeah. You write to us, we listen. So true. All right, snack time is over, but your listening adventures can totally continue. Speaking of which, there's a new podcast we think you'll like about brands you know and stories you don't.

The show is called Household Name. It's from Business Insider, and we know the folks making the show. It's stories like, for example, how TGI Fridays started as a singles, bar during the sexual revolution, which is a thing I didn't know about. The sexual revolution? No, no, no. I knew about that. I mean, just like the, you know, that it was happening at TGI Fridays.

I was about to be like, okay, Ben, when someone loves another person very much. When someone sort of loves another person very briefly. Or when someone is under the influence. From the TGI Friday's Happy Hour. That's right. So we suggest you check it out. We're actually working with this podcast on a future episode about wait for it mattress selling companies. That's coming in the fall.

The show launches this week. So check out household name. You can hit subscribe. You know the drill. Also, a reminder that we've got some deep cuts of endless thread, though they're all number one hits in our hearts. So while we're snacking, feel free to spin back through our feed and access that all-killer, no-filler playlist we build for you bit by bit every. week. Endless Thread is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR station, in partnership with Reddit.

Our show is a dream realized by Jessica Alpert, who when we ask if she likes the episode we've put together, she sometimes says, WTF. Iris Adler is our executive producer, and she makes sure our stories meet the bar of mildly interesting. Mix and sound design this week by Matt Reed, who whenever we ask him what his mix and sound design style is, he says, Brutalism. Our web producer is Megan Kelly, who looks at our attempts at writing web copy and goes,

Aww. Michael Pope is our advisor at Reddit, and whenever we try to have a serious conversation with him, he's all... I'm a toddler. Our interns are James Lindberg and Josh Luckins. Our theme music is by Squelcher. This week's episode art is called Baseball Nights. It is from Reddit user GeyserPJ. You can find them at geyserart.com and on Instagram at Geyser Art.

On Reddit, we are endless underscore thread. If you want to contribute art for an upcoming episode or give us a juicy story tip so we can tell it like we did today, you can hit us up there. The show is produced by Josh Swartz, also my co-host and producer, Amory Siebertson. I'm senior producer and host Ben Brock Johnson. I'll let myself out.