Jason Dessen

I drink bourbon and cry.

But I really enjoyed him being like Jason Dessen, my man.

Like, I don't know.

It was it was a funny little bit.

across the pond.

And for our book recommendation section this week, we're highlighting books that feature neurodivergent characters.

We've got a popular mystery with A Maid, a historical fiction novel set in 1935 on Alcatraz Island, a children's novel with a grieving young genius surrounded by an odd community of friends, contemporary fiction about a young woman living in a garden shed, a crime novel with an autistic medical student solving a murder, and a young adult novel about a group of boys in Brooklyn, including one who has Tourette's.

But first, you need to tell us about why you were up so late last night.

But I picked this up in the little bookstore where I am in Maine and it looked really good and I started it and I think I read half of it that night in bed.

Wow.

Because she has so much compassion and empathy for her characters.

And they are so real and seemed, I don't know, I identified with this 56, 58-year-old man in this book in a way that I never would have thought that I did.

matt just muted himself and now it's not happening so yes matt okay

okay so now for the dark matter reference all right so this uh the show on apple tv it's called dark matter and i talked about this last week but i'm just gonna spoil the out of it tonight if you haven't seen the show hopefully this is going to make you want to see the show okay So there's this guy, Jason Dessen.

All right.

He is a physics professor at a community college in Chicago.

He's kind of an asshole.

But he's like, I'm not smart enough to take this to the next level.

I need you, Jason Dessen, doctor of physics.

and uh and so jason's like you know what i'll talk to daniella tonight and he was like great i'll move you guys out to california put you on salary immediately we'll be partners and we'll make this press conference at a big announcement so jason is kind of like on cloud nine he's like oh my god is it really gonna happen am i finally going to reach my full potential He's walking back to his house, like a block away from the bar, kind of wasted.

It's in its second series, which is Season, which has just dropped.

He plays Jason Dessen, who's this... physicist, and he and his wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, and their son are constantly on the run, basically, from various other Jasons.

Jason 2, Jason 3, Jason 4.

And these other Jasons all appear in their world thanks to a device called the Box that he helped invent that allows travel between different parallel universes, which exist apparently.

it.

Because you have Jason Dessen, this brilliant physics professor who abandoned his groundbreaking research because his girlfriend, Daniela, got pregnant.

He chose family over the lab.

He chose family.

This episode picks up months after many months after our lead characters have, you know, moved from their own world where they kind of had to go.

So this is the, this is, um, the Dessen family.

Of course, this is, uh, Joel Edgerton is Jason.

This is Skinner for Connelly is Daniela.

And, um, this is, um, uh, Oaks Fegley is Charlie Dessen, the, the son, um, Um, they are now in this new world.

They are trying to sort of settle a life there.

And, you know, we see that, that, that things aren't going that great.

Right.

It follows Jason Dessen, who is a physics professor in Chicago.

And he's violently pulled out of his own life by a version of himself who made different life choices.

It's just a classic high-concept multiverse hook.

Right.

The objective was singular and linear.

Jason Dessen is trying to navigate the multiverse purely to get back to his own specific life, his own specific universe.

It is a straight line drawn from point A to point B.