All language subtitles for Home.Town.Bens.Workshop.S02E06.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

Y'all know I love
a really good story.

And today we are working
with a piece of wood

that if it could talk
would tell a world of stories.

I have a slab of cedar from
the property of Rowan Oak

located in
Oxford, Mississippi,

which is the home
of Nobel Prize winner,

Pulitzer Prize winner,

poet laureate,
William Faulkner.

I have been saving
this piece,

waiting for a project
that was worthy

of the provenance of this
piece of wood carries.

And today I have that project.

I have another writer
coming to town,

another Mississippi son,

my good friend,
Wright Thompson.

His name is Wright.

I mean, you can't get
any more right than that.

Wright Thompson
is a senior writer for ESPN.

You read his stories
on Michael Jordan,

Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi.

He's written
for ESPN's 30 for 30 series

and his books,
The Cost of These Dreams

and Pappyland became
New York Times bestsellers.

And I cry in almost
all of his stories.

It's really good writing.

We are building
a writing desk

from Faulkner's cedar.

And then
we're gonna donate it

to the creative
writing department

up at Ole Miss,
my alma mater.

Just think of the stories

this piece of furniture
could tell.

Think of the stories
that it will tell,

think of the stories
that will be written

at this desk
for years to come.

- Brother.
- What's up man?

WWT.

- This is my workout, CrossFit.
- Yeah.

Come on, man.
So good to see you.

- How are you?
- Man, I'm doing very good.

- How are the girls?
- The girls are great.

When I was leaving today
and I'm like,

"Daddy's gonna try
not to cut his hand off."

There you go.
So, have you never done

any kind of woodworking?

I've never built
a single thing in my life.

But you're... I mean,

you're from
a Delta farming family.

That doesn't mean
I know anything about tools.

I'm very excited
to do this because,

one, to hang out
with an old friend but,

two, like I wanna
learn some stuff.

We're going to. I'm gonna
teach you some stuff.

- It's gonna be cool.
- All right,
what are we doing?

We are going to build
a writing desk.

- Okay.
- So, here's what I'm thinking.

If you were looking down
at the top of this desk,

you'd have four squares.

So for our legs,
we're gonna use

pencil post table legs

because this is what I use
to write with.

We will have skirts
on four sides of the table.

But then around the bottom,
we will have stretchers

that are only on three sides,

so that you can sit
at the desk

without hitting
your feet on anything.

And then for the top
we will have a tenon

that will go into our cedar.

We will take a wedge
that we will drive in

from the top and it causes
that split to open up,

which then tightens
onto the cedar top.

Are you excited
about the cedar?

I'm so pumped.
I can't believe this is real.

You and I have been talking
about this piece of wood

- for a long time.
- Yes. Let's go look at it.

All right.
I gotta see this.

Wow.

Do you hear
the heavenly choir?

This piece of wood
had some very high stakes.

A friend of mine
called me he was contracted

by the university
to take down all the trees

that have to come down
on campus.

He said I've gotten
a slab of cedar

and I said, yeah bring 'em.

Just the fact that it came
from William Faulkner's yard,

I was like stunned.

I'm a big believer that wood

carries the life force in it.

You know, I have knives
made from the barn on the farm

where my dad grew up.

What is it about Southerners

and our sentimentality
to, I mean, everything?

I mean, it's the thing
that I think Faulkner wrote

about most, which is the idea
that there is this past

that is slipping through
your hands very quickly.

If you drive around here,

the nostalgia is thick.

So much of the ideas
behind his work

lives in the fact that
we are taking something old

and dead and making it
new and alive.

Where do you write?

I have a table
made out of wood

from an old house
that collapsed in Clarksdale,

where I'm from.

And it's beautiful
and it's cypress.

You know, I think
that even when we leave

where we're from, you wanna
carry pieces of it with you.

We're gonna donate
this back to the university

and so there is like
this sense of a circle there

where hopefully this will
introduce someone else

- to Faulkner.
- One of the things I remember

from being in college
and trying to learn

how to write is how hard it is
to believe in yourself.

And so any sort of knowledge

that it has been done
from here,

therefore I can do it,
I find to be really powerful.

So, the biggest problem
with this piece of wood...

- Yeah.
- ...is that it is
the only piece that I have.

- So, don't mess it up.
- So, what's they say,

you know,
measure once cut twice?

We say measure once,
cuss twice.

Well, I got the cussing down.

If we mess this up,
then we're gonna be doing

a lot more than cussing twice.

We also... Oh, for the base,

we're gonna use
oak from campus.

All right,
I love an Ole Miss oak.

So, you need these.

Baa, da-daa, da-da.

I feel very good.

So our first step

to actually
building our desk

- is to make the legs.
- Got it.

So this is our jointer.

And so when we run
this oak across here,

it'll do two things.
One, it will take

all the roughness
out of this board.

- Yeah.
- And two, it'll give us

- a perfect square edge.
- Okay.

So, I'mma do the first pass.

- Feel that.
- Oh, yeah.

You still have
some rough.

There you go.

You're doing great.

- I'm building!
- You're doing it!

This is great.

Let's square it up.

Now, we're going
to actually cut

the octagon shape
on our table saw.

If you take a square
and you cut

the four corners
at 45 degrees,

you have an octagon,
sort of like a pencil.

And so we need
45-degree angles?

- That's right.
- All right.

- Look at you.
- I'm paying attention.

So we're at zero,
and we're going to adjust

- our blade to 45 degrees.
- Okay.

Come on.

- Yes.
- There it is.

That's so good.
That's so pleasing.

If it's 44.9
I don't think psychologically

I could've ever recovered.

So to go
from the Columbia Missourian,

and then you are
writing for ESPN.

I mean, it's really absurd.

I have the best job
in the world.

Like, I've gotten to do
some really cool stuff,

because, the
Cricket World Cup
in India comes to mind.

When I think about being a kid
in Clarksdale, Mississippi,

if you would have asked me
to draw up the dream scenario

of here are the places
you're gonna go

and here are the people
you're gonna meet

and here are the ways

in which those influences

can come home with you

and sort of shape your life.

I couldn't have made it up.

I feel deeply,
sincerely grateful.

So, how did you know
you wanted to be a writer?

I didn't even know
it was a job

where you could fly around
the country and talk

to people and write down
what they said

and then go write about it.

And so like the fact
that that was a job,

totally blew my mind.

It was very clear.

This was what I wanted to do.

But then why sports?

Well, I was randomly
assigned to sports

- at the college newspaper.
- Ah.

We got sent to go cover
the Super Bowl.

And I guess the NFL didn't
know we were a student paper.

But they just sent us
these credentials.

And we're like, you know,
we're going to the Super Bowl,

we got invited
to all these fancy parties.

We had to go buy sport coats.

You know, most people were,
like, geeking out

about the athletes,
but we were all geeking out

about the sports writers.

I mean, I love writing
about athletes,

because the psychological cost

of doing this very important
personal thing

in public is tremendous.

I mean, you sort of shouldn't
be able to watch it.

- Yeah.
- You know, like those athletes

who are just laying it
all out there.

This is our bandsaw.

The beautiful thing
about this saw

is that you can do
awkward cuts.

You can move things around

while you're cutting
on that blade.

So, this is the final piece
to our pencil post legs.

Got it.

What we will start
with is a 3x3 post.

And we'll take that
from a grip

so that it cuts
a perfect corner off of it.

We'll do that on all
four corners so in the end,

we will have an octagon
and it'll mimic the shape

of a pencil.

I think sports
are one of those rare things

that allow us to teach
our children

who we are
and where we're from.

It is a common language

that people can speak
to each other

across generational divides.

I mean, I love
looking around our tent

at The Grove and seeing
my dad's brothers,

and then my mom,
and a friend from out-of-town.

Is that you create
this community.

It is the family
that isn't technically family.

I love walking by somebody
way out of context.

I just did it out
in San Francisco.

You're just walking
past somebody

if they have
an Ole Miss thing on.

I'll get even with them
and just go, "Hotty Toddy."

- Yeah. And...
- And by the time
they turn around,

- you're gone.
- Yes. But it's
that connection.

Something about connecting you

to the people who are gone.

And connecting you
to the people

who will live on
after you is, like,

really at the beating heart

of why any
of this stuff matters.

I wanted the legs
to be symbolic.

And so, making
pencil post legs,

it's gonna be really cool.

We're building
a giant pencil.

It's like a magic trick
to me that you turned

that piece of wood into that.

You turned it
into that.

Uh, you know what?
Let's generously say we.

We're gonna finish these

and then we're gonna work
on our desktop.

Awesome.
Let's do it.

All right.

Hey,
do you get nervous?

Do I get nervous?

Uh, on this piece, yes.

If I'm writing a story,
I can just delete it

and start over.
This feels permanent.

This is permanent.
This is social media.

Like, you put it out there
if you mess up...

Rarely do I have something
where I have one shot at it.

There's a lot of pressure
with this build.

We're working with a piece
of wood from Faulkner's yard.

And cedar is my least favorite
piece of wood to work with.

Think about that.

It is so soft

that you have
to be very precise

with your cuts
because it is unforgiving.

If you mess up,
you have ruined the board.

So, this is
a mortising machine.

- Okay.
- And it cuts a square hole.

- Okay.
- And it's drilling out

all of the excess, but then,
this is a square chisel.

- So its shaving...
- Got it.

...a whole square.

So, we're gonna do
four square holes.

- Yeah.
- And the top of our leg

- is square.
- Oh, that's...

So, that's gonna go up
through the... Okay.

Oh, so you really have
to get this right.

All right, here we go.

This slab of cedar,
it's not every day

you come across
something like this.

This is a very important
piece of wood for me

and for our shop.
And so we're gonna be

very careful with it.

I don't want
to damage the cedar.

Man, I gotta tell you,
this is no joke.

We're gonna make
very few cuts to the wood.

We are going to make
four mortises.

And that's it.

Are you okay
with me doing all of this?

I wouldn't touch this thing
for a million dollars.

Okay.

There's not going
to be any hand tooling

going on with this piece.

By doing it on a machine
and locking it into place,

it allows very little room
for error.

I don't wanna risk
damaging this piece of wood.

Look at that.

- Okay. So Lionel Messi.
- Yeah.

The story about you
going to his hometown.

- Yeah.
- In South America?

Rosario, Argentina,
which I love.

And he's not
celebrated there.

No. And it's very much
because people from Barcelona,

where he moved when he was 13,

view him as being
from Argentina.

People from Argentina view him
as being from Barcelona,

but he's in the middle
of those two worlds,

and doesn't really have
a home anywhere

and is very much
searching for one.

- And that's...
- That became the story.

- Home is a...
- It's most of what
I write about.

- Most of what you write.
- I mean, I'm interested

in those things.
People writing about the place

where they're from
and trying to sort it out.

I mean, it's the thing
I like to read most.

Yeah, it's fascinating.

- We got our legs.
- Yup.

All right. We've got our
mortises done.

Now we're gonna cut
our through tenons,

that's the piece
that is gonna come up

through those square holes
that we've got.

That would drop
the other thing? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay?
We're just gonna cut in

to the line
all the way around.

And then we're gonna
take it and cut in.

Basically we are
just going to make

- a smaller square.
- Got it.

So these are
split through tenons,

meaning they will go
through the wood

that we are joining it to,

and they are split
so that we can drive

a wedge in there
that will shim it

and make it tighter.

That's very pleasing.

All right, you're up.

I'm honestly never
done this in my shop,

it's one of my favorite techniques,

but I've just never had
the opportunity to do it.

So now once this comes up
through our desktop,

we'll drive a wedge in there,

- and cause that to spread.
- All right, cool.

- Three more of those.
Let's go make a table.
- Okay.

So, these slabs
are from Ole Miss,

and that's what
we're gonna use

- to make our skirts.
- What is a skirt?

This is what
goes between the legs

- from the top.
- Got it.

I have a little bit
of a design feature.

And that is a bead.

Is that like
beadboard walls?

- Yes, that is exactly...
- Okay.

- See?
- See, I know what that is.

That's pleasing.

All right, so now,
this piece will then go.

Oh, that's gonna be
really good-looking.

All right, let's go finish
making our skirts.

And I'll cut
the tenons and then
we'll assemble the base.

- Okay, cool.
- All right?

Yup, let's do it.

All right. We got all
the pieces for our base.

We're going to take
our skirts and our stretchers.

We're gonna assemble
this bad boy.

So you have spent time
with Jordan.

- Yeah.
- What is that like?

He's Michael Jordan.

But the fact
that he's Michael Jordan

wears off pretty quickly
and he's just a guy.

We're sitting around
telling jokes,
smoking cigars.

He has... As you can imagine,
really good cigars.

- I'm sure.
- And we watch basketball.

And it was interesting,
because he had

a really sophisticated
scouting report

about LeBron James,
uh, he'd be watching

and be like,
"He's going left."

And then he, you know.
So, it became immediately

clear to me that this dude
is sitting at home,

mentally preparing for games
that he won't ever play.

- Gosh.
- You know, and he talked

really eloquently about,
I spent my whole life

turning myself
into this weapon.

And now all of those traits

that I worked
so hard to nurture,

and develop, and protect,

not only are they
useless to me now,

but they are
actually the things

that are keeping me
from enjoying any of this.

You know, he was Mike Jordan
in high school.

He didn't become
Michael Jordan

until he got famous.

He is very aware
that Mike Jordan

from Wilmington,
North Carolina is dead

and that Michael Jordan
killed him.

Now let's talk
about Tiger Woods,

greatest ever to play
the game, maybe?

I don't know, golf.

I think he is,
especially coming back.

He won that last Masters

for an audience of two,
because his kids

had never seen him
be Tiger Woods.

Gosh.

So that scene
on that green,

I thought
was really emotional.

To be
the greatest of all time.

But, like,
he has nurtured that

at the expense
of many other things.

Like I thought that was
really interesting about him.

So how long
had you worked at ESPN

before you put together
The Cost of These Dreams?

Probably 12 years.

And what was
the inspiration behind,

you know what, I'm gonna put
all this together

- into a book.
- Oh, I mean,

some of it
is just sheer hubris.

As a writer, the idea
that somebody might collect

your stories in a book,

that's in the Library
of Congress

that feels more permanent
than a magazine,

which people can put
in bird cages.

It sounds crazy,
but it made it feel

like all of it
had been for something.

The first time I held it
was surprisingly emotional.

Do you feel like
you've had to sacrifice?

You know,
For The Cost of These Dreams?

Well, I mean, look, time.

But, you know,
I go to work every day

and do something
super interesting

that I'm very happy about.

This looks like a table
for the first time.

- It's super pleasing.
- So for... Yeah,

this is the first time
that it actually

- looks like...
- Because I was like

we're just sort
of doing stuff to wood.

- We're building stuff.
- Totally building stuff.

Totally building stuff.

All right,
watch the sawhorses.

Yup.

Here we go.
Moment of truth.

This is six
or seven years

dreaming of this moment.

I have no business even
being anywhere near this.

I'm nervous about anyone
even being, like,

this dude thinks
he should be even associated

with William Faulkner.

So I'm already
imagining the ways

in which I look like an idiot.

Through tenon
is a type of joinery

that actually comes
through the piece of wood

that it is joined to,

you see it
on the other side.

It is a beautiful way
to join furniture together.

Do you think the next
great American novel

- will be written on this?
- God, I hope not.

I'd be super angry
if my contribution

to American literature
was I built a desk

for somebody who wrote
something great, maybe.

Okay.

It totally worked.

So this is the last step.
This is the piece

that as we drive it in there,

it's going to spread
that joint,

and get it tight.
And that's what we want.

And then we've made a table.

We've made a writing desk.

- A writing desk.
- A writing desk,

made by a writer,
named Wright from wood,

from a writer's yard,

for the creative
writing department.

- Correct.
- All right,

let's drive this thing.

Do you wanna glue
or do you wanna hammer?

I definitely wanna hammer.

- Pappyland.
- Oh, yeah,

the fact that you liked it

and don't drink
is the first time

I really thought,
"We might actually have
something here."

This is a bourbon book
that's barely about bourbon.

My wife makes fun
of me and says

its "Eat, Pray,
Love for dads."

So there are other things
you wanna write about?

I wanna be able
to follow the things

that I'm interested in.

I think that's how
you stay fresh,

you know, you have
to refill the tank,

like, this, this day
is actually been really great,

because, you know,
I learn a new vocabulary,

I meet a bunch of people.
I mean, you can't

just keep working and spending

all of that creative capital.

You have to be out there
trying to do things

that replenish it.

When you look down
at the desktop,

you get to the functionality
of having this desk

that is assembled,
that is sturdy,

that you can pick up
and carry.

But you also get the form,

the beauty of all the wood

working together to make
something beautiful
for your eyes.

- This is
a really great day.
- Isn't this awesome?

You know, I really
appreciate it.

This is really fun.

That's not going anywhere.

The last step will be
we will spray the base

and the top
with a lacquer finish.

It's gonna be a
beautiful piece of furniture.

Let's carry it over here,
and we'll sand a little bit,

put the final cut on, okay?

I'm honestly really sad
that this was no longer

gonna be in the shop.

But this is a writing desk

made from William
Faulkner's tree.

Kind of only has
one place it could go,

and that's the University
of Mississippi.

Right here.
This is the final step.

- Do you wanna spray?
- You spray first

- and I'll watch you.
- Okay.

The last step is gonna be
a sprayed on lacquer finish,

which will be picture perfect.

- You wanna try it?
- Yeah.

So you're gonna start and
kind of overlap every time.

Just like
you're mowing the yard.

Come all the way off,
and then come back.

That is
really pretty.

And we're gonna let
this dry a little bit.

We'll load it up.

I hope the university
is gonna be proud of it.

- God, this is exciting.
- I know. It's pretty good.

Faulkner grew up
in Oxford,

just a few blocks from the
University of Mississippi.

He never moved away.
He lived there.

That was his home
his whole life.

When he became successful,
he bought Rowan Oak,

that is where he wrote
his masterpieces.

He... I mean, literally
where he wrote them.

He wrote it on the walls
of his home, okay?

The property
that Rowan Oak sits on,

there are
cedar trees everywhere.

The driveway
is lined with cedars.

This place carries
something with it.

That obviously
inspired Faulkner

and has inspired writers
for decades,

since he passed.

So this is like a legit
creative writing program.

No, it's one of the best
in the country.

Ole Miss, that just so happens
to be my alma mater.

- Hotty Toddy.
- Hotty Toddy!

This is homecoming.

I love Ole Miss.
I love Oxford.

I loved my time there.

I took so many classes
in this building.

Did you pass any of them?

Erin and I got married
at the building next door.

Our wedding pictures
were taken

right outside this building.

Not just that,
the memories that I have,

I mean, this is where
I met my buddy Josh.

This is where I met Mallorie.

This is where
we started our adult lives,

so to be able to go back,

and to be able to donate
something that I built,

and then also
for this slab of wood

to return to Oxford.

That's...

I mean, you can't write that.

- Hey, guys.
- Hey.

Here it is. Oh, my gosh.

We totally built you a table.

- Hi, I'm Wright.
Nice to see you.
- I'm Matt, what's going on?

- Aimee Nance!
- So good to see you.

All right. Oh,
it's so good to see you.

What do you all teach?

I teach poetry
and nature writing.

Yeah. And I do fiction
and literature.

Okay. Okay.
I took a poetry class.

- Okay. Just one.
- Only one.

Well, we're excited
to see it and we've got

the perfect place
for it, I think.

- The Hannaford Room.
- Okay. Let's do it.

All right. Here we go.

Hey, guys.

Shh, I think
it's like a Library.

Don't mind us,

just your friendly neighborhood

furniture delivery guys.

So are you all
English students or...

- MFA.
- MFA.

- MFA students?
- Yeah.
We only take four poets,

and four fiction writers
from the planet.

So when I say
they're the cream of the crop,

they're the cream of the crop.

I couldn't have
gotten into it.

I mean, I write about dudes
who play football,

like, this is
a very difficult thing to do.

Are we ready
to see this thing?

- Yeah. Let's see this thing.
- Yes. I can't wait.

- I've been dying for this.
- Hmm?

Here we go. One, two, three.

Wow.

Oh, my God. Beautiful.

This is cedar
from William Faulkner's

house Rowan Oak.

And the skirt is white oak

- from Ole Miss, correct?
- Yeah.

This is called
a split tenon.

- So there are no nails...
- Wow.

- ...metal of any kind.
- From the moment

this piece of wood
came into my shop,

I said it either needs
to be some sort of desk.

So to be able
to do it and do it

with one of my
all-time favorite writers,

and then to be able to give it
back to the university,

it's very full circle.
I really like that.

We have built
some fascinating things

in our shop. But this piece,

it's kind of a masterpiece.

I'm really proud of it.

I think this is gonna be
a fantastic addition

to the room.
It seems really in keeping

with the spirit
of the program.

We certainly,
you know, really value

our literary history here.

That's a big part
of the draw.

And it just looks
like a nice place to sit

and, you know,
get something down on paper.

When I was in Nigeria,
I used to read Faulkner,

and now we have
a piece of him to write on.

Yeah. It's very inspiring
for me.

You hope that
we're creating something

with the lineage
and hopefully

that there will be
a long line of writers

who have written
on this desk.

Gone on to great things.

I could just stand
around writers all day

and listen to you
all talk about my furniture.

I hope that this desk
inspires them

to actually sit down
and take that first step.

Do the work.
Write that story.

This is a powerful piece
of furniture.

Ooh, maybe a little bit intimidating.