Finding Good Bones

In this episode, Dear Listeners, Calandra Lindstadt takes us to Prince Edward Island and lost centuries with L.M. Montogmery's Magic for Marigold. It's a conversation with musings on the beauty and challenge of generations of family living close to one another, the joy of a sassy, judgey grandmother, the gift of independence, the power that can be found in surrendering to a good death. But please, don't mention any Anne of Green Gables adaptations other than the 1985 CBC and PBS version, and don't call us late for dinner.

Dear Listeners, the day after the 2024 Presidential Election many people were (are) feeling a WAY. So we decided to make a very special episode of Finding Good Bones, in case you need help sitting with the dark and looking towards the light. Kate and Amy bring some of the pieces speaking to them right now: “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers” by Emily Dickinson, “Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It's a Sewer Rat” by Caitlin Seida, Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett. There's no political analysis, but there IS a free roaming three year old and at least one musical break. The discussion includes morality, mothering, niceness vs. kindness, an inevitable reckoning, and different ways hope can show up - a bird, a sewer rat, sometimes even a toddler.

It's bangarang, Dear Listeners, as we leave Neverland with Patty Griffin's “Peter Pan,” brought by whole human woman and this episode's guest Kim Caldwell. A wistful but firm examination of lovingly leaving what we've outgrown, the discussion covers the art that gives us clear directions in life, the hard truth that believing isn't enough to make something real, and the feeling of deeply comforting melancholy. Also, we all agree that Peter Pan does not have an email address but Captain Hook does have an Only Fans.

Buckle up, Dear Listeners, we're headed to Sunnydale for our first (but certainly not last) official episode on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The conversation explores what the show means to Kate and Amy, living through big moments of change, working to offer others the grace we've received, and managing the oppositional truths that arise when something you love was written by a real asshole.

Join us, Dear Listeners, as we fall under the thrall of The Overstory by Richard Power and teacher, writer, publisher and editor Melanie Haupt. It's a lengthy selection befitting a lengthy novel and the conversation covers man vs. nature, the devastation of loss, the nostalgia of Christmas, the longevity and patience of trees, and the writing that changes our lives.

Welcome back, Dear Listeners, as we revel in the gritty nostalgia of Paul Westerberg's “We May Be the Ones” with musician and 6th grade social studies teacher D.L. Nailing. You can practically feel the death trap playgrounds of the 1980s as we discuss the specificity and yet universality of the people in the lyrics, the power of a pocketknife, the intense calm of dissociating, and just a touch of David Lee Roth.

Well, Dear Listeners, it feels like a great time to join our wildernesses and sorrows together with Ross Gay's Book of Delights, brought by burgeoning gardener, Gatherer of memes, and Tea Geek Sumina Bhatti. The conversation covers the immediate understanding of “March of 2020”, chaotic joy, sitting with pain, sharing burdens, and how rough we all are on our books!

Join us, Dear Listeners, as we delve into Terry Pratchett's Discworld through the novel Carpe Jugulum with podcast co-host and episode guest Amy Winters. The conversation covers the responsibility of choice, standing in between the light and the dark, the hilarious awkwardness of Death, and the subtle empathy of stern people who take on the weight of hard decisions. There's also just a touch of Bridgerton and the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries!

Join Finding Good Bones for a rewilding as storyteller and leadership coach Jeff Mount challenges us all to look deep within and around, and speak of what we find there. It's a ruminative discussion filled with ancient myths, challenging truths, sacred journeys, and secret names. Pour yourself a dram and start listening already!

It's a Wonderful Life here on the Finding Good Bones podcast with our guest Nancy Guzman - fiber artist, witch, tarot reader, horror film fanatic, sci-fi enthusiast, and a Gemini with too many hobbies - as we take a look at this holiday classic from Frank Capra. We discuss the underplayed darkness in the film, the blinders depression can put on a person, and the joy we can all create without even knowing it. Did you hear that? A capitalist angel just got its wings!

Come get starstruck by this week's Finding Good Bones guest - New York Times bestselling author, writing coach, and podcast superstar Lani Diane Rich - and her selection, Anthem by Leonard Cohen. It's a vulnerable yet frolicking discussion on finding the beauty in destruction, honoring scars, and rebuilding foundations. Lani Diane Rich is totally our best friend now, and soon we'll have the T-shirts to prove it.

Dear Listeners, this week's episode takes in the mindkiller with The Litany Against Fear by Frank Herbert (from Dune) with guest (and host) Kate Caldwell. Secrets are revealed - it turns out Amy somehow hasn't read Dune (?!?) - and the conversation covers matriarchal orders in a patriarchal world, taking in fear, and letting it take what you don't need. And remember folx - no one is as scary as Mama.

Join us for an examination of hierarchies on this episode of Finding Good Bones, when artist, improviser, award winning storyteller, and animal lover Ladislao Loera brings Lulu Miller's book “Why Fish Don't Exist”. It's a joyful discussion on The Dandelion Principle, killing your darlings, understanding the ”should”, and finding grace for the people around us.

This week's Finding Good Bones is an exploration of Sonnet 65 by William Shakespeare with Liz Larson - actor, writer, and occasional a-hole for hire (a/k/a trial attorney). The conversation covers the immutability of time, the enormity of grief, the immortality within stories, and the gleeful bawdiness of the Bard. With a few sad trombones scattered throughout.

This week on Finding Good Bones, actor, improviser, and musician Kareem Badr brings a hypnotic and vibrant neo-noir - Hell's Half Acre by author Will Christopher Baer. The discussion includes the wonder in terrible things expressed beautifully, the works we find that help us rebuild ourselves, and the fatalistic hope at the heart of noir. Come for the conversation, stay for Kareem's Actor Voice.

In this week's episode of the Finding Good Bones podcast, guest and host Amy Winters takes us back to “Spring Break 1899” by the band Murder By Death. The conversation covers waking up to empty whiskey bottles, second chances and clean slates, and doing all the good we can. With a side of buttery Johnny Cash.

This week, Amy and Kate take on "The Risk of Birth", a poem by Madeleine L'Engle, with guest  Genevieve Saenz. This includes physical human birth, metaphysical creative birth, the birth of this podcast, and dinosaurs. Don't worry, Dear Listeners - nature finds a way. So do poems.

This one is for the procrastinators and cowards in all of our hearts as guest Wendell Kimper, Amy, and Kate discuss "The Kookaburras", a poem by Mary Oliver. The episode covers the multitudes of potential, the desire (if not always the ability) to unlock the cages of suffering, and figuring just exactly what (or who?) is a god of flowers. Annnnnd we're taking it back to Buffy. Of course.

This week on the Finding Good Bones podcast, our guest Morgan Anderson takes Amy and Kate to "The Middle Place", a poem by Rupi Kaur. It's a dreamy discussion on turning people into gods, building ivory towers, taking off the mask, and figuring out how to be mortals together. Oh, and Morgan's murders of crows!

Join Amy and Kate for the very first official episode of the Finding Good Bones podcast - a discussion of the namesake of the podcast, the poem Good Bones by Maggie Smith (the poet, not the Dame).  This episode covers the power of sparseness and repetition, the importance of breaking and reforming, and the glory of fake footnotes - in between lots of cackling.

Welcome to the longest teaser ever! Can you still call it a teaser when it's basically the length of the episode? Well we can and we did. Hear all about Finding Good Bones, a podcast digging into the writing that lifts us up, from hosts Amy and Kate. Get ready for raucous laughter, heavy sighs, lengthy descriptions, and a lot of fun.