Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "I've Got a Great Book to Recommend..."

Date: March 30, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode centers on a fascinating literary discovery: "The Inman Diary," an unusually extensive and candid journal by Arthur Inman. The hosts dig into the diary's bizarre backstory, its author’s obsession with immortality through writing, and sample its raw, unfiltered testimonies. Alongside lively banter and classic Armstrong & Getty humor, the conversation explores broader themes of confession, history, voyeurism, and the boundaries of readable documentation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Book Recommendations and Bizarre Literary Endeavors

• The episode kicks off with the host teasing an unusually lengthy book recommendation — running joke about how long it would take to finish it.
• They compare the daunting length to famously dense books like James Joyce’s "Ulysses":

  "I've been working on that for nine months and I haven't finished it yet." (Co-host, 01:16)
  "But Ulysses is a pamphlet you get at your doctor's office compared to this book." (Host, 01:20)

2. Automation in Dairy Farming (Brief Side Topic)

• Co-host mentions Wisconsin dairy farms turning to robots after a crackdown on undocumented workers, boosting efficiency:

  "One farm now ... produces three times more milk per worker now because of the robots." (Co-host, 01:28)

• Short discussion on economics, minimum wage impacts, and technology adoption.

3. The Inman Diary — A True Oddity in Literature

• Host introduces "The Inman Diary" — highlighted by Ted Gioia’s article, "The Strangest Book in Harvard Library."
• Arthur Inman: A reclusive, semi-invalid man who spent most of his life in a dark room, but wrote a 17-million-word diary (25 times the Bible’s length) across 155 volumes from 1919-1960.

  "What could Arthur Inman do in the 20th century that hadn't already been done before? Adding to the challenge, Inman had practically nothing to write, or so it seemed." (Host, 05:42)
  "Even recluses like Proust and Pynchon are gadabouts by comparison." (Host quoting Gioia, 06:52)

• The hosts joke about the tedium of such a diary and how it contrasts with the author’s quest for literary immortality.

4. The ‘Talkers’: Crowdsourced Confessions

• Twist: Inman placed classified ads offering to pay strangers a dollar an hour to come and tell him their life stories.

  "He took ads in the newspaper offering to hire talkers who would tell him the wildest and most intimate details of their lives ..." (Host, 08:03)
  "A diary with more than 1,000 characters ... each striving with one another to provide the most compelling, uncensored, perfectly honest narratives of their lives." (Host, 08:15)

• This unique approach makes the diary a compendium of shocking, uncensored, and varied testimonies from across society.

5. Creepy Aspects and Editorial Warnings

• Inman’s behavior is described as often inappropriate and exploitative; he’d sometimes have sexual encounters with his 'talkers.'

  "By any definition, he was a creepy guy whose behavior violated all reasonable norms." (Host, 09:38)
  "His massive journal quote is the autobiography of a warped and deeply troubled man whose aberrations call for psychiatric probing." (Host quoting Inman’s editor, 09:54)

• Hosts speculate that AI might be the only way to feasibly abridge the monumental text for a modern audience.

6. The Diary’s Unfiltered Content and Modern Accessibility

• Hosts discuss the diary’s potential to offend modern sensibilities, with the host offering a tongue-in-cheek content warning:

  "If you're the kind of person who needs a trigger warning, proceed no further." (Host, 12:19)

• They note volumes are available in highly abridged editions (about 592 pages) and locate them on Amazon.

  "There are volumes you can buy. The Inman Diary, a Public and private confession." (Co-host, 12:32)
  "I see one here from 96. It's a bridge down to ... 592 pages." (Guest, 13:59)

7. Sample Excerpts: A Window into the Past

• Host shares eye-opening selections from the diary, including a story from a piano player living a “fast life,” describing experiences with prostitutes, drug use, scrapes with police, and a stint in Bellevue Hospital:

  "'I was making 17 a week. ... I knew where the red light district was, so I went there…'" (Host reading Inman Diary, 14:19)
  "I saw a streetcar running off the tracks and heading straight for me, I guess I screamed, a cop grabbed me, I socked him, he socked me, Then he takes me to the psychopathic ward at Bellevue Hospital. What a place. ..." (Host reading Inman Diary, 15:00)

• The tone is a mix of astonishment and dark amusement at the unvarnished, confessional storytelling.

8. Reflection and Closing Remarks

• Both hosts are intrigued and surprised that they hadn’t heard of the diary before, expressing genuine curiosity about reading more.

  "That's pretty good, that's pretty good. Wow." (Co-host, 16:11)
  "The Inman Diaries. I'll check it out." (Co-host, 16:17)

• The episode ends with a short joke about another family story left tantalizingly unfinished:

  "To tell the story of my dad squatting over a campfire and there were some high pitched yells ... Anyway, it's a good story, well, short but compelling. No, no, I, I'm not gonna tell the whole thing. Well, I guess that's it." (Host, 16:23)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the diary’s scale:

  "Inman wrote some 17 million words and filled 155 volumes, now housed in Harvard's Houghton Library. That's roughly 25 times as long as the Bible." (Host, 07:04)

• On Inman’s method:

  "He took ads in the newspaper offering to hire talkers who would tell him the wildest and most intimate details of their lives." (Host, 08:03)

• On the diary’s explicitness:

  "If you aren't offended by Inman's dealings with his talkers, you will invariably find his opinions on politics, society, religion, race and a host of other matters reprehensible in whole or in part." (Host, 12:11)

• On abridgement:

  "They gotta have AI abridged because it would take too long for any human, obviously." (Co-host, 09:59)
  "It's split into two pieces, it looks like, from a darkened room." (Guest, 12:47)

Timestamps by Topic

• 01:04 – Book recommendation joke, lead-in to main subject
• 01:28 – Automation on Wisconsin dairy farms (brief aside)
• 05:07 – Introduction to Arthur Inman and the Inman Diary
• 08:03 – Inman's crowdsourced ‘talkers’ and diary methodology
• 09:38 – Creepy and controversial aspects of Inman's life and work
• 12:17 – Modern relevance, trigger warning, and how to find the diary
• 13:00-16:11 – Excerpts from the Inman Diary
• 16:23 – Closing banter and cliffhanger family anecdote

Conclusion

This episode showcases Armstrong & Getty’s blend of irreverent humor and genuine curiosity as they dissect "the strangest book in any library." Their discussion of Arthur Inman's monumental confession raises intriguing questions about history, voyeurism, and the limits of written self-revelation — while keeping listeners laughing and wondering what other bizarre literary gems might be out there. If you’re interested in the eccentric, disturbing, and deeply human corners of history, "The Inman Diary" just might be for you.