The writer and distinguished public intellectual Mark Kingwell discusses his new collection of essays, Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters (Biblioasis, 2017), with Joseph Planta.

Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters by Mark Kingwell (Biblioasis, 2017). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Fail Better

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Mark Kingwell joins me again. He’s just published his latest book, a marvellous collection of essays about baseball. These are essays that reflect on the sport, attaching sketches of the sport and the action that draws fans in, as well as memories that Mark has about a sport he watches, he’s played, and one that has filled his life season after season. I’ll get Mr. Kingwell to tell us about some of the essays in this book, as well as the lessons he derives from the game about failure, community, love, people, and life itself. Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, and a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine. He has authored or co-authored eighteen books of political, cultural, and aesthetic theory, including the bestsellers Better Living, The World We Want, Concrete Reveries, and Glenn Gould. His most recent essay collections were 2015’s Measure Yourself Against the Earth, and Unruly Voices, which he was on this program with last in 2012. The book is called Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters. It is published by Biblioasis. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Mark Kingwell; Professor Kingwell, good morning.

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