Dead Rabbits Podcast

In this 53rd episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, we invite Marco Rafala, author of How Fires End, and Lee Matthew Goldberg, author of The Ancestor, The Desire Card, and more, to discuss their longstanding Manhattan reading series, Guerrilla Lit, and how they've adapted during the pandemic. We also dig into how coronavirus has affected the community, their writing, and even themselves. Best of all, we discuss what makes New York the epicenter of culture and literature, regardless of what's going on right now. 

Welcome to the 52nd Episode of the Animal Riot podcast, brought to you by Animal Riot Press. Today, we invite two of our OG crew, Jared Marcel Pollen and Seth Katz--along with David Holllander, the Author of our second title, Anthropica, due to hit the proverbial stands on September 1st. Listen in as we continue a conversation that's woven through several episodes, about the state of the publishing industry, and specifically, how David navigated its turn toward more commercial work. We also take this opportunity to discuss the differences between European and American literature. Best of all, as we speak of such things, you can envisage David wearing what we can only guess were darkly iridescent knock-off Ray-Bans, which we can assure you is in deep contradiction to his normal behavior. 

Welcome back Animals. It's been a while, but we've got the podcast back up and running, beginning with episode 51, featuring the old pack, Devin Kelly, Seth Katz, Jared Marcel Pollen, and George Sawaya. In today's episode, we reflect upon what drives us to write, not just during the ongoing pandemic, when it can seem as if everything that matters has been rearranged from all recognition but why we pick up a pen in the first place. We reflect on everything from Michael Jordan's relentless drive and artistry as reflected in the recent documentary, The Last Dance, to how we used to write before the ambition and vanity of wanting to publish our work began to influence our innocent passion for putting words on paper. We might even muse on how Top Gun was subsidized by the government because they want us to feel a certain way about our country.

Animals! It's our 50th episode! And this week our producer Katie and previous guest & producer Annie Krabbenschmidt have taken over the show... (who knows what they did with Brian!) and are thrilled to welcome Sarah Paolantonio to the show! Sarah is a 'recovering' music programmer who always keeps the radio on. She's a writer of nonfiction and you can read more from her in EntropyMagazine and on her website. Follow Sarah on Twitter via @sarahpaol because she wants to know what your favorite Bob Dylan record is. Join us today as we get down and talk nonfiction, rant & rave about Franzen & DFW, talk politics, and generally discuss whatever the fuck we're feeling. 

We're back, animals! Here with the 49th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by Animal Riot Press, a literary press for books that matter. We're here today with the wonderful Mathea Morais, Director of the Noepe Center for Literary Arts on Martha’s Vineyard. Her debut novel There You Are was recently released and we're thrilled to bring her on today to talk about writing communities, debut novels, and debate the timeless question "Who gets to write what?".

We're back animals! And this week we've got special guest poet & radical educator Abigail Kirby Conklin. Abby is the author of the debut chapbook, Triage, out now from Duck Lake Books. She's been published in Duck Lake Journal, Garfield Lake, K’in Literary Journal, Storyscape Journal, The Lampeter Review, The Northern Virginia Review, Sugar House Review, among numerous others. Abby also works in the New York City arts education scene, and today we'll be talking about debut books, poetry, radical pedagogy, and being a grown up poet! Get your paws warmed and let's go!  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Hey Animals! We're back this week with an episode on writing groups and more, featuring two of our favorite writing group pals: Jennifer Werbitsky and Melissa Shaw! Jen and Mel couldn't have more different backgrounds in their day jobs - Jen works in the corporate world, while Mel is a teacher at an arts education nonprofit - but in the writing world they click and we can't wait to hear what they'll read for us today. Join us for talks on writing groups, llamas, and the latest product to drop from Tim Cook...   

Hey Animals! We're back with Episode 46, featuring writer and teacher David Puretz. David is the Editorial Director at Global City, an independent press that publishes the literary and cultural journal Global City Review, and a growing list of other books and anthologies, including his own: The Escapist, which is his debut novel. Join David and host Katie Rainey as they talk about Global City's history, publishing, and finally getting the work out there! The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Hoppy New Year Animals! We hope your 2020 is kicking off to a good start. Here's our first episode of the year, featuring writer, editor, and reading series curator Andrew Lloyd-Jones. Andrew is an award-winning short story writer, and won the Fish International Short Story Prize with his story “Feathers and Cigarettes”, recently adapted for film. He is the  founder, producer, and host of the regular live fiction reading series and podcast Liars' League NYC in New York. Join us today as we talk about the reading series community, short story writing, rejections, and being really uncomfortable talking about ourselves...  The transcript of this episode can be found on our website.

We're back animals! And we've got a very special last episode of 2019 for you! Featuring the one and only David Hollander, author of L.I.E. and the forthcoming Anthropica from Animal Riot! Join David and host, Katie Rainey, as they talk about experimental fiction, publishing, the overwhelming nature of our world, and get a sneak peek at the forthcoming Anthropica, to be published in September 2020. The transcript of this episode is available on our website.

What’s good Animals? Glad you’re joining us for our 43rd episode. Today we’re discussing Zadie Smith’s semi-recent essay, "Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction". Joined by Animal Riot OGs Jared Marcel Pollen and Seth Katz, listen in for our take on whether we still live in an age where it’s permissible to write across demographics and identities. Meanwhile, your host will lament the lack of snow here in New York on the heels of a busted winter storm forecast. (Brian really likes snow: follow him on Facebook for winter weather forecasts.) The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Hoppy Thanksgiving, Animals! We'e thrilled to bring you this holiday special featuring writer, podcaster & literary magazine publisher, Bob Raymonda! Bob Raymonda is a writer based out of New Rochelle, NY. In early 2015 he founded Breadcrumbs Magazine, an online literary and arts journal that fosters creativity and collaboration through shared inspiration. The project has grown into a community of over 200 contributors across the world in a wide variety of mediums, with more submitting all of the time. In 2018 he helped co-found Rogue Dialogue, a production company focusing in podcasts with Christie Donato and Adam Raymonda. Join us as we talk Breadcrumbs, his podcast Windfall, and all things self-care in this Thanksgiving special!  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

We were off for a week because life got in the way, but we're back with a sparkly new episode for you, featuring the one and only Rax King alongside your faithful host Brian Birnbaum and our Priest Vallon, Devin Kelly. Rax King is a dog-loving, hedgehog-mothering, beer-swilling, gay and disabled sumbitch who occasionally writes and works as assistant editor for Sundress Publications. She is the author of the collection 'The People's Elbow: Thirty Recitatives on Rape and Wrestling' (Ursus Americanus, 2018). Her work can also be found in Catapult, Electric Literature, and Autostraddle, and she is most recently a columnist for Catapult with her ongoing series "Store Bought Is Fine". In this episode, we're talking all things Guy Fieri, Bruce Springsteen and authenticity in writing.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Whaddup Animal Riot fam. Welcome to the 40th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast—us bunnies are officially over the molehill. Today we’ve got the lovely ladies of the Ditmas Lit reading series, Rachel Lyon and Sarah Bridgins, here to discuss the origin story of their friendship and thenceforth series, and, most importantly, the intricacies of our favorite HBO show, which rhymes with smecksmeshion. Not to mention two of the best readings we’ve yet to have on our podcast, period. What could possibly be better? Smecksmesh! The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

We're so excited about this week's episode! We recorded this episode live at this year's Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, Virgina! Featuring YA Author Atia Abawi, we discussed how she and host Brian Birnbaum redefine the definitions of home and trauma. In Abawi’s book, A Land of Permanent Goodbyes, Syria is torn apart due to war, leaving each survivor with a new and dangerous label: refugee. And in Birnbaum’s Emerald City, a family company’s profits are being used to illegally fund a drug-crop in Guatemala. Guest Atia Abawi is a foreign news correspondent who was stationed for almost five years in Kabul, Afghanistan. She was born to Afghan parents in West Germany and was raised in the United States. Her first book for teens was the powerful The Secret Sky, about forbidden romance between different ethnic tribes in Afghanistan. And today's podcast was lovingly guest produced by the one and only Annie Krabbenschmidt. The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Welcome to the 38th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, brought to you by fill in future sponsor (we’re keeping it cool like Facebook did back when it was cool). Today we’ve got Ian Humphrey in the box, discussing his podcast noir-drama, Under the Shroud, which follows Corin—the half-demon junkie cab driver. Yes, it’s exactly as f***ing wild and wondrous as it sounds. But we also get an inside look at the experiences that inspired Ian to write the show. Oh, and while you’re listening, don’t forget to hit up Corin’s patreon—he’s got a raging habit to support. The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

We're back this week with this awesome episode featuring our special guest, Abbe Wright, Senior Editor of Read It Forward from Penguin Random House! RiF is where you go for reading lists, literary lifestyles, new books, and all things wordy. Abbe has a resume that's got us awestruck. Abbe has written for Glamour, The Cut, Metro, O, The Oprah Magazine, Modern Bride and Philadelphia Magazine about books, culture, career, food, beauty, weddings, fashion and everything in between. No. Big. Deal. On this episode she talks with us about all this, her memoir-in-progress, and shares from an essay she wrote for The Cut, "I Wanted to Break Up. Then He Got a Tattoo of My Name." The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

This week's episode of the Animal Riot Podcast invites Tobias "Toby" Carroll (author of the Transitory from Civil Coping Mechanisms, Reel from Rare Bird Books, and the forthcoming Political Sign, a work of nonfiction for the Object Lessons series of books). Tobias is a writer to be jealous of, having made his way with freelance work as the managing editor of Vol.1 Brooklyn and writer for the Watchlist column for Words Without Borders. Join us for a deep dive into translations and other work and Brian struggling to call Words Without Borders everything but that.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

This week's episode of the Animal Riot Podcast invites V.V. 'Sugi' Ganeshananthan (author of the 2008 novel, Love Marriage) and Whitney Terrell (author of three novels, The Huntsman, The King of Kings County, and The Good Lieutenant). Both Sugi and Whit studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop under the late James McPherson, who was the first black writer to win the Pulitzer for Fiction, a winner of the MacArthur grant (AKA the 'genius grant'), and a renowned activist and writer of issues surrounding race and culture. Having studied under McPherson at different times, Sugi and Whit didn't meet until the late and great writer's memorial service--yet as the Phoenix rises, so did the spirit of McPherson's values; after becoming fast friends, Sugi and Whit realized a shared vision for what has become the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, which espouses literature and politics, and more specifically, how the former predicts and/or digs deeper into the latter.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Welcome to the 34th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by your favorite rioting creatures. We're happy to welcome back our friend and wonderful writer, Meher Manda, to the podcast. We're talking all things debut books with Meher, as she released her first chapbook of poems on September 7th and host Brian Birnbaum's novel Emerald City was released this past Sunday! However, despite how exciting debuts can be, sometimes they can leave you feeling more empty than full. Join Brian & Meher as they discuss why that is and more.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Welcome to the 33rd episode of the Animal Riot Podcast. This is a very special episode of the podcast because our beloved host, Brian Birnbaum, is back, this time in the hot seat as the interviewee. He and podcast producer, Katie Rainey, sit down for an honest and open conversation about struggle, addiction, being vulnerable with each other, and Brian's forthcoming novel Emerald City that will be published this Sunday, September 15th. Join us to hear all this and a special reading from Brian's debut novel.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Welcome to the 32nd installment of the Animal Riot Podcast. Today we've got Joe Walters of Independent Book Review on the podcast. Joe traveled from Philly to be with us today & we're so excited to talk about IBR and all things book marketing, editing, and publishing. IBR wants to help you discover your next favorite book - and to help the authors who are writing them. They bring to light works by self-published authors and small presses, giving them the time of day that normal review outlets would not. Hear Joe talk about this endeavor and his very knowledgeable background in all things book marketing.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

We're back Animals! After a week off, we're back with our 31st episode. This episode is the second in our two-part series about our North Carolina trip we're calling "Fugitives & Animals: A Collaborative Literary Tour". In this episode, producer & stand-in host, Katie Rainey, sat down with the owners and workers of each bookstore we visited to talk about books, community work, and all things related to the North Carolina Literary Scene. We're so thrilled to feature these great community places, so tune in to hear from Scuppernong Books, Bookmarks, Sunrise Books, Firestorm Books & Coffee, Main Street Books & Wall of Books.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

We're back Animals! After a week off, we're back with our 30th episode coming to you from the back of a hostel in sunny Asheville, North Carolina. This past week, we've been traveling all across NC with our pals from Southern Fried Karma Press (SFK) on an endeavor we call "Fugitives & Animals: A Collaborative Literary Tour". In the first part of this series, we sat down with the one and only Steve McCondichie of SFK Press, along with two SFK authors, George Hovis and Matthew Duffus, to discuss the tour, their latest books, and all things related to the North Carolina Literary Scene.  The transcript of this episode can be found on our website.

Animal! We're so excited because our old pal, Aaron Poochigian, is our special guest on this 29th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast. We consider Aaron one of our O.A.s - original animals - because he's been a long time supporter of the Animal Riot Mafia. You may remember him from his cameo appearance in Episode 22 at the Paragraph: Writers Workspace, however, we've got him all to ourselves in the episode. Tune in to hear all about Aaron's rich career in the writing world, from his enviable day job with translations to the wild ride that is his latest work Mr. Either/Or: All The Rage, the sequel to his acclaimed Mr. Either/Or. The transcript of this episode can be found on our website.

We're back with the 28th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by Animal Riot Press. We're so excited to welcome Chelsea Fonden and Janelle Greco of Eclipsed Reading Series on the podcast today! This dynamic duo is all up in the literary community - from their dope reading series to editing to running writing workshops for the homeless. Join us as we get heady about the writing process and talk about the nature of vulnerability and writing. And of course, we'll get a mix of genres as we hear these lovely ladies read.  The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Welcome welcome welcome—welcome I say! To the 27th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by who tfe but us at Animal Riot Press. Today we’ve got Moses Utomi, fellow Sarah Lawrence Fiction MFA’er—-and proud of it. Today we’re going to talk all things genre, from its place (or lack thereof) in MFA programs—save for the rise of speculative fiction—the way Moses gets his proverbial ass in the proverbial chair, and his utterly peculiar and exciting experience living in China, not just as a writer, but an amateur kickboxer with actual paid victories to his name. And of course we’ll get a reading from a stunningly crystallized, mystically-inclined short piece of fiction Moses recently published. The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.

Welcome to the twenty-sixth installment of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by who else but us of the warren deceased. Too soon? Too bad. Because today we're talking all things autofiction--that modern neologism for autobiographical fiction. Is it good for the technology, or is it the literary equivalent of a selfie? Does it come from a desire to portray the universal, or is it merely a clever sublimation of modern egocentricism bred by social media and its inherent focus on the self? We're here to break such binaries and exhume the alluvial truth of the matter--or at least do our very bunny best. Join us as we talk about these things and others with a few of our O.A.s (Original Animals): Seth Katz, Jared Marcel Pollen, and George Sawaya.  The transcript of this episode is available on our website.

Welcome back, bunny-people, for the 25th episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by--who else?--Animal Riot Press. Today we sit down with Kwame Opoku-Duku, a poet and prose writer whose book, Unbnd Verses, out with Glass Poetry Press, is a collection of poems that confront the comportment of black bodies in today's America. Kwame and yours truly discuss his trajectory--from his struggle to channel the dark energy of his youth into the light of his sparkling poetry, to his work with Human Impacts, a environmental-focused advocacy group, and the attendant reading series he curates, Dear Ocean, which invites writers to read work surrounding issues of climate change.  The transcript for this episode is available on our website. 

Welcome to the twenty-fourth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by Animal Riot Press, a literary press for books that matter. Today we've got the one and only Steve McCondichie of Southern Fried Karma Press on the podcast. Steve is a writer & entrepreneur & subversive southerner & a rebel since kindergarten from the outskirts of Hotlanta. As a publisher, Steve's mission is to tell a million stories of "Y'all Means All" and SFK Press is this sister press of our dreams. Join in to hear us talk about this and to hear Steve read from his latest novel: The Parlor Girl’s Guide out from SFK Press.  The transcript for this episode is available on our website. 

Welcome to the twenty-third episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by Animal Riot, a literary press for books that matter. Today we're talking all things rejection with three diligent, talented, and thoughtful writers in our community: Meher Manda, Crystal Yeung, and Sharmaine Ong. You'll remember Meher of An Angry Reading Series from our 9th episode, and she's come back to talk about her rejection journey alongside Crystal and Sharmaine. Join us as we go beyond rejections with this in-depth conversation, and explore what it means to be a real writer, an Asian-American writer, and more, all while watching that hideous excuse of a final episode from Game of Thrones. The transcript of this episode is available on our website. 

What's good, animals? This is a special episode because it is actually a mulligan! That's right, it's a do over! Due to our name change & legal woes, we had to scrap the former episode and re-record with our pals over at Paragraph: Workspace for Writers. We're joined today by one of Paragraph's founders, Joy Parisi, and one of their members and a long time friend of AR, Aaron Poochigian. Founded in 2005, Paragraph is a membership organization dedicated to providing an affordable and tranquil working environment for writers of all genres. Paragraph was created by writers for writers, with an understanding that writers work best in a quiet, comfortable space away from the hurry and obligation of daily life. Join us as we dive into all things community and hear all about the highs, lows, and oddest moments in Paragraph's history. 

In this twenty-first episode of the Animal Riot Podcast we welcome Nina Boutsikaris, a writer of prose with ambitions to start an arts residency near her home in the Hudson Valley. Nina is the author of the recently released I'm Trying to Tell You I'm Sorry from Black Lawrence Press, from whose breathtaking pages she offers an excerpt--but not before we embark on discussions surrounding what it means to write candidly about conflicts involving family and friends, her experience as an MFA student at the DFW's begrudging alma mater, Arizona University, and her long-awaited, highly-anticipated foray into fiction--coming in 2021? Tune in to find out!  The transcript of this episode is available here. 

Welcome to the 20th episode of the Animal Riot podcast. We'd like to thank you for leasing twenty hours of your time over to the wisdom and fuckery of our burgeoning warren. Today we'd like to invite Elae [Lynne DeSilva-Johnson] who, as an agent of change across arts and progressivism and the founder of The Operating System, is most notably a creative practitioner, which affiliation they expound upon in the upcoming episode. We’re also happy to welcome back Caits Meissner, Director of the Prison Writing Program at PEN America and author of Let it Die Hungry, published with none other than The Operating System. Today we’ll talk about the intersections of art, what it means to name things, collective creative practice, and, of course, we’ll get a reading from our two lovely guests.  Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

On the cusp of our twentieth episode, we invite Devin Kelly, poet extraordinaire, who dragged along our good friend and peer Bud Smith, a fiction and nonfiction writer whose positive outlook and benefit-of-the-doubt disposition should be profiled and duly archived as a reliable manual to Save Us All. Anyway, today we'll talk about Bud's ability to balance long hours of heavy labor with writing, his new project, Teenager, coming out with the enviable Tyrant Books, and, of course, we'll get a reading from Bud--but only after we talk about a mobbed up individual named Frank Hague who was in Boardwalk Empire, which is a very good show.  Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Welcome to the eighteenth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, brought to you by persons eponymous (corporations are people too, people-bunnies), for which we've invited David Olimpio, Editor in Chief of Atticus Review and author of the stunning, memoiristic collection of linked nonfictions, THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION. Today we'll be talking about his hostile takeover of Atticus Review (kidding, he bought it fair and square -- but seriously, corporations are people too), the heartbreaking yet tragedy-defying experiences embedded within his book, and, of course, we'll get a reading from David, which is sure to remind you why we do this work.  Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Welcome to the seventeenth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast brought to you by -- you guessed it -- Animal Riot Press. We welcome arts and social activist virtuoso Jenn Baker, host of the podcast Minorities in Publishing, contributing editor at Electric Literature, and many more things that you'll hear during her highly decorated introduction. Today we'll be talking about Jenn's work as a podcast host and activist for POC writers, editors, and artists, the responsibility of presses small and large to give voice to minority writers, and, as has become custom, we'll get to hear Jenn read some of her incredible prose. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

The Animal Riot Podcast is bursting with ebullience over our latest episode featuring the co-creators and -hosts of Amazon Book Club, perhaps the funniest literary podcast out there right now. Tune in to hear an impromptu sample of the ABC podcast -- i.e. us picking a ripely self-published book on Amazon and providing unparalleled insight as we read its first page -- and a discussion of the podcast's risks, which include receiving cease and desist letters from disgruntled contestants.  Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

The Animal Riot podcast is turning fifteen episodes old. To celebrate, we've invited Britt Canty, co-founder of the Brooklyn-based reading series HIP Lit, board member for Epiphany Lit Mag, and a fine writer of prose. Today we talk all of these things and more, ending with a reading from 'One More Conversation,' an essay recently published in The Rumpus's Voices on Addictions column -- a stunning piece about how Britt navigated the relationship with her father and his alcoholism.  Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

For the fourteenth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast we invite Dave Wiswell, comedian extraordinaire and victim of the true artist's necessarily depraved upbringing (kidding but not kidding). After giving and overview of his spectacular new YouTube show, Pop-up Interviews, Dave delves into his trajectory as a comedian, taking us on a tragicomic tour of his rise as a comedian and, hilariously, the nearly implausible litany of foibles and contretemps that came with his first few years of trying to settle in New York City. So gather round and give a gander as we expand on our fuckery-filled quest for literary and artistic community. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Welcome to the thirteenth installment of the Animal Riot Podcast. We'd like to reintroduce Jared Pollen, whose first collection of stories is debuting with Crowsnest, an imprint of Political Animal, a journal dedicated to high-level political discourse. In the vein of writers such as Don DeLillo and Christopher Hitchens, Jared's writing strikes an uncannily subtle brand of literary satire that at opportune moments dips almost imperceptibly into incisive sociopolitical commentary. Along with fellow O.G. George Sawaya, we talk Jared's inspirations, approach to writing, and end with a reading from one of the collection's stories. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

For the twelfth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast we invite Annie Krabbenschmidt, a writer of creative nonfiction and comedy, whether performative or simply written. Annie read her essay, "Apple Cider Donuts," at a recent reading - we were blown away, so much that we invited her on to talk about her work, which is a particle collider of human complexity. She makes it look easy, using nothing but honesty, humor, and precision to tell how difficult it was to discover her sexuality and share it with those she needs most. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

For this eleventh episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, your fearless leader and arbitrarily-selected host, Brian Birnbaum, teams up with his producer(s), Katie Rainey, to welcome Christopher Gonzalez, a writer of fiction and nonfiction, editor at Barrelhouse Magazine, and digital production associate at Macmillan. After dedicating roughly half the episode to Chris's newly exalted status as an oat milk influencer, we move on to the writing community's love affair with Twitter, sexual realization in today's society, and take a moment to hear Chris read a flash fiction piece that will put you in the mood for seafood & sex & sadness.  Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website.   

In this tenth episode of the Animal Riot podcast we bring back the OG Animals, Devin Kelly, George Sawaya, and Jared Marcel Pollen, to discuss technological disruption's impact on the future of writing and art. Beginning with House of Cards' origins in big data, your faithful host, Brian Birnbaum, and his gang of perishing bunnies navigate such topics as robot art, big data's potential impact on art, and the creative market's fate in the face of algorithmic advancement -- including the movies such algorithms would personalize for each of us podcasters (#TotalRecall2 #TogetherWeCanDoThis). Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

Episode 9 of the Animal Riot Podcast features two of our favorite writers and reading series co-hosts: Meher Manda is a poet and journalist from Mumbai with an MFA from The College of New Rochelle; Chelsea Asher is a writer of fiction with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and the Editor-in-Chief of Lumina Journal. Both co-host the Angry Reading Series, which takes place at Grill on the Hill right here in NW Harlem. Together, the three of us talk writing, anger, and more, ending with a round of improvised poems addressed, "Dear baby..." Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

In this eighth episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, we invite Caits Meissner, Director of PEN America's Prison Writing Program, and Sergio De La Pava, author of three novels, including his latest, Lost Empress, for the second part of our two-part Prison Writing series. Today we'll discuss everything from the state of justice in America to empathy's crucial role in American justice, as well as what we everyday folks can do to help bridge the divide that keeps so many people trapped in the prison industrial complex. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

In the seventh episode of the Animal Riot Podcast, we welcome Caits Meissner, Director of the PEN America Prison Writing Program, and Devin Kelly, co-founder of the Animal Riot Reading Series (OR: Original Animal). While sipping on our earthy Kratom teas, we discuss all things prison writing, the ever-exigent topic of criminal justice and prison reform, and take a few minutes to visit wonderful poems from a couple of writers in Mrs. Meissner's cohort. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

In this fourth episode of our Animals Hit the Road series, the Animal Riot Podcast hosts Ian Anderson, co-founder of Mason Jar Press, a literary imprint headquartered in Baltimore. After discussing Mason Jar's origins, we dive headlong into pro wrestling as the modern iteration of Shakespeare and the hidden genius of the Insane Clown Posse. For our final act, we perform the Olympian mental gymnastics necessary to tie such material back into our literary aspirations. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

It’s our third installment of "Animals Hit the Road" and we’re still down here in Little Rock, Arkansas, talking to local artists about uplifting the arts community. In this episode, Brian hosts three conversations with: Myriah Harrison and Drew Wilkerson; Sam Cooper and Marcus Fisher; and the one and only, Gangie. Through a collage of these conversations, we discuss their experiences living in Arkansas, and how they’ve come to their respective artistic mediums and passions. All the while, Brian faces a neuronal crisis of sorts, brought on by that misnomer down here known as “southern hospitality”. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

With this second installment of Animals Hit the Road, we bring our animal-talents to the house of Sean and Lizzie Casteel, who live in one of Little Rock's sublation of suburbs. Through the hazy lens of Arkansas' own Rocktown Apple Pie Bourbon, the Casteel power couple takes us on a tour of Via, their startup graphic design company, whose early success includes designing the Animal Riot Logo and winning a contract with The Arkansas School for the Deaf Foundation. While taking shots every time a secret southern word is spoken, the conversation winds through the sprawling arts and literature scene in The Natural State's largest city, and we discuss plans to bring Animal Riot to Little Rock and uplifting the artistic culture therein. Ultimately, the conversation turns to the state of art as it relates to commerce and community within not just Little Rock, but Arkansas and the South as a whole. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website. 

This third episode of the Animal Riot Podcast is the first in a series of episodes we're calling Animals Hit the Road, during which we'll be touring DC, Little Rock, and Baltimore to talk to various artists and generally interesting people about their work and the cultures in which their work is immersed. Today, we're talking to Brian's parents, David Birnbaum and Joan Raciti, about their experience as Deaf people in a hearing world, which we view as an episode not only about Deaf culture but also a learning experience for our hearing listeners to learn more about same. Among many things, we discuss the nuances of sign language and culture among differing deaf groups, the challenges of competing in capitalism as a deaf business owner, and what it was like to grow up as a deaf kid in the mid-20th century, long before American legislation began servicing the Deaf as legitimately disenfranchised citizens. Transcripts for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Animals can be found on our website.