So I’ve been listening to Car Talk on NPR off-and-on for a while now.
I finally decided to go to their website, www.cartalk.com, and find out about these Blue-Collar Wunderkinds.
Turns out they aren’t as blue-collar as I once thought.
They’re actually a couple of MBAs, doctors, professors, etc.
Maybe they’ve mentioned their academia backgrounds on the air before, but I never heard it. I always thought NPR actually found some diamonds in the rough, some true Champaign amongst all the grease, to host a show.
I should’ve known it was too good to be true.
Click and Clack: You’ve busted my lousy heart.
From what I could find from a quick Googling, Tom has a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from MIT. Ray has some sort of general science degree from MIT. Tom also taught at MIT at some point.
Does the fact that they are educated somehow remove their blue collar origins or continued work as actual mechanics? Are you being an inverse snob?
I’ve only heard their show very seldom (less than ten times?) but I’m sure I’ve heard one or both of them mention repeatedly that they went to MIT…not so?
I don’t think they mention it constantly, but they certainly don’t hide it. It’s something I’d expect most fans to know, but not necessarily an occasional listener.
I’ve always thought that was part of their charm. They’re a couple of really smart, educated guys, who could be living in an ivory tower or making big bucks working for Dow Chemical, but instead they decided that what they really want to do is work on cars all day. (And, later, be on the radio–less charming, but I don’t complain!)
Well, you could’ve saved yourself some Googling since that info is in the site I referred to in the OP-- the site I actually said kicked me in the nuts.
And am I being an inverse snob? Yes.
Will I still listen to them? Yes.
Do I still like NPR? Yes.
Am I a bit disillusioned that they’re a couple of academics, and not just really charming trade-school joes who just happened to get a job on a nationally syndicated network that caters to their own demographic (a highly-educated, highly-paid white-collared listening audience)? Yes.
One of the things I like about Car Talk is that the brothers truly enjoy doing it, and it shines through. Yes, they’re very well-educated, but they don’t take themselves seriously in the least. I certainly wouldn’t call them academics; I’d call them mechanics, because that is what they do. They work on cars. And they produce a entertaining one-hour show weekly. I listen, but I could care less about the actual car talk.
Also, as a frequent listener, I’ll also add that they don’t hide Tom’s MIT doctorate; instead, Ray pokes fun at it every chance he gets.
Lastly, I doubt I’d consider a syndicated, weekly one-hour slot on NPR hitting it “bigtime”.
Here it says that Tom’s doctorate is in marketing, and elsewhere I found that the doctorate was earned at Boston U. later, after they already had the garage and the radio show. A doctorate in marketing from BU is a whole different ball game from a doctorate in Chem E from MIT.
Hasn’t there been discussion on this before, and the people call in, record their question, the boys have days or weeks to look up the answer, and then they play it on the radio? No? Really… I thought there had been.
As I understand it, the call-ins aren’t live - people call in, leave a message, and get called back when the show is actually recording. Given the number of questions they seem befuddled by, I would think that’s more of a technical issue than a “let’s go and research this so we look smart” ploy.
I never took those MIT references seriously–I thought the one brother was making fun of the other (cannot keep them straight)–like as if this numbskull could get into even night school community college…
I (if I thought about it at all) figured it was some type of cultural reactoin to being surrounded by MIT, Harvard etc. Like some kind of working class BeanTown joke.
Also, IMO, one almost needs a college ed to work on cars these days, no? They sure seem more complex than when I was a wee thing.
Love the show–and I have learned alot. I get very irritated with the one brother’s laugh–shut up and answer the questions. He’s not as funny as he thinks…that is my only complaint.
