Podcasts about octavia butler

Milan Carter-Gilkey is a writer, a lover of books, and a bookseller. She writes personal essays, articles, creative nonfiction and occasionally, fiction. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, mater mea, Mutha Magazine, the anthology All the Women in My Family Sing, and elsewhere. In this episode, Meilan and Annmarie talk about favorite books of the past, present, and future, and how to reach for a title to transport you to a world you didn't know was possible. Episode Sponsors: Octavia's Bookshelf – An independent bookstore in Pasadena, California where readers of all walks of life can enjoy our store full of books written by BIPOC writers. Octavia's Bookshelf is a place to find your new BFF inside a book, a space to find community, enjoy a cup of coffee, read, relax, find unique and specially curated products from artisans from around the world and in our neighborhood. Stop by or shop online at octaviasbookshelf.com. Porter Square Books: Boston Edition – A welcoming space to gather with neighbors, linger over books, read with kids, chat with booksellers, and feel part of the community. Whether it's an author series, book club, or regular story hour, we'll work to make it happen. Shopping with us also supports GrubStreet, one of the nation's leading creative writing centers. Learn more or shop online at portersquarebooks.com. Titles Recommended in This Episode: Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume Then Again, Maybe I Won't, by Judy Blume A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler, by Lynell George Beloved, by Toni Morrison Sula, by Toni Morrison Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison Kin, by Tayari Jones Silver Sparrow, by Tayari Jones An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones The Untelling, by Tayari Jones Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead, by Angela Nissel Oreo, by Fran Ross The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw Long Division, by Kiese Laymon Heavy, by Kiese Laymon Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar O Sinners! by Nicole Cuffy There's Always This Year, by Hanif Abdurraqib The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros Wild Seed, by Octavia E. Butler Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, by R. F. Kuang The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, by Dawnie Walton Good Talk, by Mira Jacob Follow Meilan Carter-Gilkey: Instagram: @meilancg Substack: @meilancartergilkey **Writing Workshops: If you liked this conversation and are interested in writing together, please consider the opportunities below. For women interested in an online Saturday morning writing circle, you can sign up here. For anyone looking for support writing their memoir, Annmarie is teaching a class here. For anyone looking for a month of accountability writing hours and workshops, learn more here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In This Episode: Honoring the Pause: Opening with a moment of silence to ground ourselves in breath, ancestral wisdom, and intentionality before diving into today's conversation. Opening Prayer We pause to honor the breath that sustains us and the silence that clears the way. We step into this space rooted in ancient wisdom, shielded against distraction, and undisturbed in our purpose. As we open these pages and engage these ideas, grant us the clarity to discern signal from static. May the words we explore serve as tools for liberation, strengthening our minds, nourishing our bodies, and fortifying our community. We give thanks for the privilege of focus, the wealth of knowledge, and the sanctuary of this circle. Rooted. Shielded. Undisturbed. Amen.   Grief, Joy & Creation: A personal reflection on navigating deep loss—grieving the passing of Ethel and my mother—while wrestling with imposter syndrome, finding solace in music, and celebrating life's small wins. The whitewashing of The Handmaid's Tale: A critical breakdown of how Gilead's post-racial casting erases the historical, racialized nature of reproductive control. We explore how white feminist dystopian tropes flatten intersectionality by repackaging the real-world historical oppressions of Black and Indigenous women into a speculative warning for white women. Literary Sovereignty & Counter-Narratives: Shifting the focus to works that center true resilience—examining Octavia Butler's speculative genius and Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God as living records of Indigenous sovereignty and Black survival. Reclaiming the Archive: Why we must control our own narratives rather than relying on white savior tropes, highlighting institutions like the NMAAHC and NMAI that preserve real-world history over fictional panic. Perimeter Defense & Modern Vigilance: Drawing parallels between military readiness and civilian life—protecting our minds, digital spaces, and communities from scams, educational exploitation, and modern trickery through strict boundaries and active situational awareness. Pop Culture Round-Up: Quick takes on the latest season of Real Housewives of Orange County, the messy execution of Ladies of OC, why Carlos King's commentary remains elite, and a quick sports stat correction on William Jackson III's roster status with the Steelers. Resources & Mentions: Books: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich; speculative works by Octavia Butler. Cultural Institutions: National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). What are your thoughts on this week's discussion? Drop a comment or reach out—we'd love to hear how these themes resonate with you. Explore our Roast-to-Order Subscriptions: www.fbroasters.com Connect with us on Instagram: @tnfroisreading Follow our creator journey: https://linktr.ee/tnfroisreading   #CoffeeSubscription #RoastToOrder #SpecialtyCoffee #HomeBrewing #SmallBatchCoffee #CoffeeLover #CreatorAuthenticity #EthicalSourcing

There's an old story about a rich man who feasts every day while a man named Lazarus lies hungry right outside his gate. The rich man knows his name. He still does nothing. Trevor Went pairs that story with Octavia Butler's time-travel novel Kindred to ask a question that's harder to answer than it sounds: are you guarding the gate, or willing to break it open? This isn't about distant injustice — it's about the people already in your line of sight: the neighbor, the coworker, the relative whose comments you let slide. Drawing on Ibram X. Kendi's line between "not racist" and anti-racist, Trevor argues that staying neutral is still a choice, and usually the wrong one. If you've ever wondered what separates real inclusion from good intentions, start here — then ask yourself who you've been walking past.

Ever feel resentful when someone else gets a break you had to earn the hard way? This episode digs into why rest, time, and success can feel like a competition — and why that instinct might be lying to us. Pastor Heidi uses a 2,000-year-old story about day laborers getting paid unfairly (or so it seems) alongside Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower to unpack how scarcity gets wired into our brains — and our systems. She doesn't stop at "be more generous," either; she pushes into a sharper question: what happens when generosity lets unfair systems off the hook? Expect a genuinely surprising turn partway through. By the end, you'll walk away with one small, doable practice for noticing abundance in your own life — no prior Bible knowledge required, no guilt trip attached.

Ode (@thatsod.e / @thatsod_e) and Mo AKA Kid Licorish (@licorishislegit) open this episode of Black and Snerdy examining Tomi Adeyemi's public statement distancing herself from Paramount's film adaptation of Children of Blood and Bone. They walk through Adeyemi's account of the toll the production took on her, weigh comparisons to prior creator-versus-studio conflicts involving The Witcher and Mark Hamill's experience writing Luke Skywalker for The Last Jedi, and discuss concerns about the film's Nigerian setting being flattened into a broader continental aesthetic compared to Black Panther's Wakanda. They close the topic by noting Adeyemi's upcoming novel, Siren, and where each of them personally lands on watching the film once it releases.The conversation then turns to a report that Anthropic destroyed millions of physical books after scanning them to train its AI models, with a rundown of related legal cases including Authors Guild v. Google, Bartz v. Anthropic, and Kadrey v. Meta. Comparisons are drawn to Fahrenheit 451, the Superman villain Brainiac, and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower while questioning whether digitizing a book justifies destroying the only physical copy. From there they break down Tuskegee University's new dress code under president Dr. Mark A. Brown, weighing it against dress norms at Howard University and Georgetown, before covering a Howard University enrollment controversy involving roughly five hundred students and closing with updates on Law and Order's expanded run on Peacock and Netflix.Connect with the Snerdy CrewWatch, Listen, or Sponsor the show: ⁠https://beacons.ai/blackandsnerdy⁠

Today on the Invest In Her Podcast, host Catherine Gray talks with 6-time Emmy award-wining Actress Tyne Daly of Cagney and Lacey fame and award-winning director Eric Dyson, to talk about their upcoming fundraiser for his important and moving Alta Dena fires film.  On Sept 17, 2026 there will be an Extraordinary Evening of Legacy, Storytelling, and Purpose. Join us at an intimate private theater in West Hollywood for an exclusive Cagney & Lacey Reunion featuring Emmy Award-winning actresses Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, hosted by Golden Globe-nominated actress Susan Anton.   Limited to just 50 guests, this unforgettable evening includes a premiere short film, a live reunion conversation, audience Q&A, and an auction of rare Cagney & Lacey memorabilia—all in support of an important cause. The event benefits Parable of the Ashes, a feature documentary inspired by the prophetic work of acclaimed author Octavia Butler and the devastating aftermath of the Eaton Fire. This event is sponsored by the Sunset Marquis.   The film explores the profound disparity that left Altadena disproportionately impacted while many surrounding communities were spared—echoing the social inequities and climate realities Butler envisioned decades ago. More importantly, it will help preserve Altadena's history, document its recovery, educate future generations, and serve as a fundraising tool to support the community's rebuilding efforts. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Eric Dyson, whose acclaimed documentary short on the Eaton Fire won Best Documentary Short at the Pasadena International Film Festival and the Burbank Film Festival, will direct a feature will expand this powerful story through the voices of residents, historians, and community leaders.   Your tax-deductible contribution through 501(c)3 From The Heart Productions directly supports the production and distribution of this documentary, ensuring it reaches audiences, schools, and communities while generating awareness and resources for Altadena's continued recovery.   Together, we can preserve an important story, honor an extraordinary community, and transform film into a lasting instrument for education, remembrance, and renewal. A portion of the proceeds will also go to Civic Soul, a non profit stated by Actor John Stamos and his wife Caitlin- that is helping the fire survivors.   We hope you'll join us and become part of this important journey with your donation or investment. For tickets and/or producing opportunities, contact www.EricDyson.net Or reach out to Catherine Gray or Eric Dyson on LinkedIn! Websites Mentioned: Show Her The Money – https://showherthemoneymovie.com She Angel Investors – https://www.sheangelinvestors.com   Follow Us On Social Facebook @sheangelinvestors Twitter (X) @sheangelsinvest Instagram @sheangelinvestors & @catherinegray_investinher LinkedIn @catherinelgray & @sheangels  

What if trusting life doesn't mean trusting that everything will become stable, coherent, or reassuring? In this episode, Vanessa explores change as both a spiritual and psychological problem: why we confuse trust with continuity, why change can feel like abandonment, and what it means to stay in relationship with reality as it keeps moving. Through Octavia Butler's “God is Change,” Heraclitus, Buddhist impermanence, process theology, attachment theory, meaning-making research, and Jungian transformation, we look at the grief and freedom of releasing the fantasy that life's job is to preserve the forms we love. Trust is not certainty that everything will work out; it is the willingness to remain present with what is real as it changes form.For educational purposes only. This isn't therapy.Join the ICA Summit → https://www.vanessabennett.com/ica-summitReference Links:Octavia Butler — Parable of the Sower / EarthseedUse for: “God is Change,” Earthseed, and the idea that change is the central theological principle in Parable of the Sower.Link: https://www.octaviabutler.com/the-booksNote: Use this as the primary author/book reference for Octavia Butler and Parable of the Sower.Earthseed / “God Is Change”Use for: Earthseed's core principle that God is Change and the related idea that God can be shaped.Link: https://godischange.org/shape-god/Note: Useful accessible reference for the Earthseed language. If quoting directly, confirm wording against the text of Parable of the Sower.Heraclitus — Flux / River FragmentUse for: Heraclitus's idea that reality is in flux, often summarized through the river fragment.Link: https://iep.utm.edu/heraclit/Note: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a reliable philosophy reference for Heraclitus and the doctrine of flux.Attachment Theory OverviewUse for: Secure attachment as a reliable base for exploration, regulation, and return.Link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4085672/Note: Broad overview of attachment theory, including Bowlby and Ainsworth.Intolerance of UncertaintyUse for: Uncertainty as a transdiagnostic process associated with anxiety, worry, rigidity, avoidance, and distress.Link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4204511/Note: Useful research review on intolerance of uncertainty and its role across anxiety and related conditions.Crystal Park — Meaning-Making After Stressful EventsUse for: Stressful events disrupting global beliefs/goals and the process of meaning-making after rupture.Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20192563/Note: Crystal L. Park's 2010 review on meaning-making and adjustment to stressful life events.Buddhist Impermanence / AniccaUse for: Impermanence as one of the three marks of existence in Buddhist philosophy.Link: https://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh186_Nyanaponika-etal_Three-Basic-Facts-of-Existence--I-Anicca.htmlNote: Buddhist Publication Society resource on anicca / impermanence.Three Marks of ExistenceUse for: Impermanence, suffering/unsatisfactoriness, and non-self as core Buddhist teachings.Link: https://www.britannica.com/topic/aniccaNote: Accessible reference for anicca as impermanence in Buddhist thought.Alfred North Whitehead — Process Theology / “Fellow-Sufferer Who Understands”Use for: Process theology and God as relationally present within the becoming of the world.Link: https://processandfaith.org/becoming-christ-like-heathens/Note: This page quotes Whitehead's famous phrase from Process and Reality: “God is the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands.”Process Theology OverviewUse for: General overview of process theology and Whitehead's influence.Link: https://iep.utm.edu/processp/Note: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy overview of process philosophy/theology.C. G. Jung — Symbols of TransformationUse for: Jungian transformation, symbolic death, dissolution, renewal, and the psychological meaning of transformation symbols.Link: https://iaap.org/resources/academic-resources/collected-works-abstracts/volume-5-symbols-transformation/Note: IAAP summary of Jung's Collected Works, Volume 5: Symbols of Transformation.James Hollis — The Provisional Life / The Middle PassageUse for: The “provisional life,” the placeholder self, and midlife/disruptive transitions exposing lives built around adaptation rather than truth.Link: https://jameshollis.net/project/the-middle-passage/Note: Use as a general reference for Hollis's work on midlife passage and the provisional life. If using the exact phrase “provisional life,” confirm against the relevant Hollis text or audio.Spiritual Bypassing — John WelwoodUse for: Spiritual bypassing as using spiritual ideas/practices to avoid unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, or developmental tasks.Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-seekers-forum/202303/what-is-spiritual-bypassingNote: John Welwood coined the term spiritual bypassing; use this for accessible definition and background.Earthseed / “Shape God”Use for: Butler's idea that change can be consciously shaped rather than merely endured.Link: https://godischange.org/shape-god/Note: Include if show notes mention “Shape God” or conscious participation with change. Confirm any direct quote against Butler's novel.Octavia Butler / Parable of the Sower — Publisher PageUse for: Basic book reference for Parable of the Sower.Link: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/9781538732182/Note: Publisher page for the book; good clean link for listeners.If you want to go deeper, check out the written companion on Substack and explore community + training at https://www.vanessaBennett.com.Additional ResourcesExplore: VanessaBennett.comBook: The Motherhood MythCommunity: Inner Compass CollectiveTraining: Inner Compass AcademyConnect with Inner CompassFollow on InstagramConnect with Vanessa Bennett:Follow on InstagramFollow on TikTokLearn more on SubstackConnect with Vanessa Bennett on LinkedInSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Uma conversa sobre Afrofuturismo, viagem no tempo, o que significa Sankofa e o que isso tem a ver com os livros de Octavia Butler e Samuel R. Delany. Com a participação da pesquisadora Anne Quiangala, criadora do site Preta, Nerd & Burning Hell.Links complementaresAcompanhe o trabalho de Anne Quiangala: https://www.instagram.com/pretaenerdSite Preta Nerd & Burning Hell: https://pretaenerd.com.br/Assine a newsletter de Anne Quiangala: https://pretaenerd.substack.com/Livro “Kindred”, de Octavia Butler, com tradução de Carolina Caires Coelho: https://link.amazon/B05RPKhfTTese de doutorado “Mulheres que conjuram: o discurso do horror na literatura especulativa de autoria feminina negra", de Anne Quiangala: http://repositorio2.unb.br/bitstream/10482/53861/1/AnneCarolineDeSouzaQuiangalaJoao_TESE.pdfLivro “Nova", de Samuel R. Delany, tradução de Petê Risatti: https://amzn.to/44hEmyDDissertação “Afrofuturismo: o futuro ancestral na literatura brasileira contemporânea", de Waldson Souza https://repositorio.unb.br/bitstream/10482/35472/1/2019_WaldsonGomesdeSouza.pdfEnsaio “A Teoria da Bolsa de Ficção", de Ursula K. Le Guin, traduzido: https://sol2070.in/2025/09/ursula-k-le-guin-teoria-bolsa-ficcao/Livro “African Religions and Philosophy", de John S. Mbiti: https://archive.org/details/africanreligions00john/mode/2up✄┈┈┈┈┈┈Como fazer a podcaster feliz:Apoie este podcast: alinevalek.com.br/apoieAssine a newsletter: alinevalek.substack.comFale comigo: escreva@alinevalek.com.br✄┈┈┈┈┈┈Trilha sonora: "The Sax of Ancient Terror”, Jimena Contreras • “Lofi Whale Trap", Chique Ricc • “Nebula - The Grey Room", Density & Time • “Dreamland” • “Cummulus Nimbus”

Did science fiction predict AirPods? Neuralink? The death of God? For this final episode of Season One, John Helmer and Ezri Carlebach give you what hacks call a listicle: three transcendently significant things prefigured in science fiction that definitely came true — and three that didn't. Or haven't yet. Prediction, as Niels Bohr said, is very hard. Along the way: Thirteenth-century flying machines Victorians watching live war coverage on flat-screen TV elearning before there was elearning Verne, Wells, jetpacks, flying cars, prediction markets, transporter beams, universal nudism and Octavia Butler's uncannily detailed vision of the Age of Trump. That's a wrap on season one. Let us know what you've enjoyed — and what you'd like to hear in future episodes. All suggestions considered. Connect with The Learning Hack: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer X: @johnhelmer Threads: @jphelmer Substack: @learninghack Instagram: @tech.imaginarium Website: learninghackpodcast.com Listen and watch: https://linktr.ee/learninghack Music by Nick Dwyer recording as Flintet. The Tech Imaginarium is a Learning Hack podcast, produced and hosted by John Helmer and written by John Helmer and Ezri Carlebach.

We're living in what feels like a dystopian novel — and Octavia Butler saw it coming in 1993. Her Parable of the Sower imagined a world of climate collapse, privatized towns, and a politician promising to "make America great again." When the future feels foreclosed, who gets to imagine what comes next? This message pairs Butler's Afrofuturism with what may have been Jesus' first parable: a farmer scattering seed on different kinds of soil. Far from a feel-good farming story, it was told to poor tenant farmers crushed by debt — and its absurdly abundant harvest imagined the end of that entire system. Drawing on adrienne maree brown and Ruha Benjamin, this sermon asks: whose imagination are you living inside, and what would it take to change your soil? New to the parables series? Start here — this one holds the key to all the rest.

On 27 May 2026, Max Haiven sat down with Manuela Zechner at Housman's books in London to discuss the latter's newly published book The Plot is on Fire: Care Struggles after Progress, Plantation and Patriarchy. From the book's publicity: As myths of progress and modernisation collapse in the relentless polycrisis of our time, how do we strengthen other plots—in community, practice and struggle? How do we come together as movements for earthcare? This book weaves stories, proposals, and analyses around a key domain of living reproduction in crisis: agriculture. Looking at peasant, indigenous, and transecofeminist practices, it formulates another plot on how we want to sustain life collectively—beyond progress, plantation, and patriarchy. Recovering and repurposing old and new technologies, and breaking down the division between rural and urban, the ground is made fertile for growing other futures. Alongside writers like Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler, this work of radical political theory raises critical questions about technology and storytelling, as matters of care and community. For more information about the book, visit: https://www.plutobooks.com/product/the-plot-is-on-fire/ For more information about Common Ecologies and the Earthcare Fieldcast, visit: https://commonecologies.net/

Every storyteller has a tool: a notebook, a camera, a microphone. For legendary author Octavia Butler, it was a powder blue typewriter. That typewriter is now in the Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Community Museum, and acting curator Jennifer Sieck explains Butler's influence on the country's history. And, the megalodon was one of the biggest fish that ever lived, with seven-inch-long teeth and jaws with 40,000 pounds of bite force. Don't worry: The megalodon swam between 3.6 and 23 million years ago. But you can still see a model hanging from the ceiling in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Curator Nick Pyenson explains why Americans remain fascinated with megalodons.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Episode 1001 of The Professional Left kicks off the post-1000 era with a reading from Octavia Butler — written in 1993, about a fictional America that looks uncomfortably like the one outside your window right now — and uses it as the jumping-off point for a clear-eyed reckoning with why the country got here and who is responsible. The opening of the Obama Presidential Center was a wonderful occasion by almost any measure, but the sight of a certain former president celebrated as a beloved elder statesman on that stage is something Driftglass and Blue Gal simply cannot let pass without comment — because the problem with the Republican party was never Trump, and it didn't start in 2016, and pretending otherwise is just the next chapter of the same lie. The episode traces a straight, unbroken line from the failures and crimes of the Bush years through the racist primal scream of the Obama era to the inevitable arrival of Trump, making the case that every institution now preparing to rehabilitate the post-Trump Republican party is getting ready to run the exact same con all over again. Our job, as it has always been, is to remember — and to keep saying so out loud.Stay in Touch! Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.com Website: proleftpod.com Support via Patreon: patreon.com/proleftpod or Donate in the Venmo App @proleftpodMail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791Support the show

I met rapper, writer, visual artist, and technical octuple threat Rhys Langston when he opened for This Is Your Afterlife's 200th guest, Open Mike Eagle, at a show in Cleveland. As I say to him in this episode, there were telltale signs he was my type of guy. I think he'll be your type of guy too. We recorded near the end of the NBA playoffs, as my partner and I were deepening our Cavs and general basketball fandom, and it just so happens Rhys has an entire former life as a basketball player. And that's not even his coma! Enjoy our conversation, and do yourself the favor of checking out his music. It's especially good for summer.We talk about: working in multiple art forms, the tingle vs. the cold sweats, being too intense, amassing an archive of your own work, brain breaking after calling off an engagement, how many notebooks he uses at once, (Long) COVID & brain fog, wishing your art was more of a conversation, anhedonia, berries from the neighbor's yard, George Jackson, Octavia Butler, My Life as a Night Elf Priest.This Is Your Afterlife is made possible by listeners like you on Patreon. Support the show and get bonus episodes by subscribing to TIYA After Dark:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Rhys:https://rhyslangston.substack.com/https://rhyslangston.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/rhyslangston/Need a starting point with his massive music catalog? Try...Pale Black Negative:https://rhyslangston.bandcamp.com/album/pale-black-negativeand/orLanguage Arts Unit:https://rhyslangston.bandcamp.com/album/language-arts-unitEspecially be on the lookout for his Pacific Northwest tour dates June 29–July 4 (details on IG) + his album and debut book of poetry, both coming in October (on his birthday, of course).Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.comMusic by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

Samantha Tennant sits down with Andrea Hairston — novelist, playwright, Afrofuturist, and self-described "scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer" — to talk about her latest novel, THE REDEMPTION CENTER IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS, a genre-defying extra-dimensional murder mystery anchored by a Saint Bernardoodle dog detective named Una. Andrea draws on her decades in theater — as director, playwright, and professor — to explain how she weaves mystery, romance, and science fiction into a single story without losing the thread of any of them. She talks about using the dog as a pivot point: Una doesn't recognize genre, she just knows the people she loves, which turns out to be the perfect lens for a story that spans dimensions. The conversation moves into Andrea's background shift from mathematics and physics to theater (with a detour through lighting design and Ohm's Law), her long-standing research into animal cognition and dog behavior, and what Afrofuturism actually means in practice — not predicting the future, but understanding the present deeply enough to make real choices about what comes next. She uses Harriet Tubman and Einstein as parallel examples of people who imagined their way to something that didn't exist yet. The Fresh Fiction Facts segment reveals she owns a "ridiculous" number of DVDs (including every Star Trek series), that she'd rather visit the future than the past, and that her most dog-eared books are Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, anything by Ursula Le Guin, and Momo by Michael Ende — which she re-reads in German. Andrea closes with a peek at her work-in-progress: QUEEN FOR TODAY, a secondary world fantasy about a carnival queen of misrule whose single day of reign changes everything.

On this episode, Nicole from Off Color Book Club joins me to discuss the most recent Off Color Book Club book,  A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.    My Book Club Guide   If you're interested in joining the Off Color Book Club in the future, our next meeting will be on Tuesday, July 21st to discuss Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. All are welcome! 

Black horror can be informed by past trauma and that sometimes gives us glimpses of the future. In Octavia Butler's classic 1993 book “Parable of the Sower,” natural disasters are on the rise, people are vanishing, and America just became “Great Again.” Today, some people are looking to genres like Black horror and Afro-Futurism as a guide for the times. In this story from 2025, Reporter Kristal Raheem went to meet Isis Asare owner of Sistah Sci-Fi bookstore, who's helping people navigate our present day reality with speculative fiction. Note: Sistah SciFi has a LOT going on, including another event honoring Octavia Butler's legacy at the San Francisco Library's main branch this Sunday at 2pm. 

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.What happens when a beloved actress becomes a storyteller of forgotten Black history? Karyn Parsons — yes, the Hilary Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air — joins us to talk about her powerful historical fiction for young readers, her nonprofit Sweet Blackberry, and why books like hers matter more in 2026 than ever.In this episode, we dig into Blue Beach, a YA murder mystery set on a segregated Black beach in 1929 that is equal parts page-turning thriller and gut-punch history lesson. We also talk about Clouds Over California, Karyn's middle grade novel set in the 1970s that reframes the story of the Black Panthers. Whether you're a longtime reader of YA or someone who thinks "that's not for me" — this conversation will change your mind. Adults: these books are absolutely for you.Plus: Karyn shares what she's been reading lately, including a deeply unsettling thriller about smell, murder, and obsession, a darkly funny book that involves... cannibalism (?!), and why Kindred by Octavia Butler is a required read for every human.

What better way to end our celebration of mothers with this meditation on generational trauma—as well as the grit and grace it takes to survive. This is not Octavia Butler's novel with the most transparent commentary on the Current Troubles, it goes deeper than that: It raises questions about repair from trauma, what it is possible to heal, and when wounds have to be honored rather than salved. A perfect accompaniment to preparations for our country's 250th birthday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this lively conversation, The Reading Black Girls engage in a mix of light-hearted banter and serious discussions about health, wellness, and the cultural significance of black vampire literature. They explore the resurgence of vampire narratives, representation in media, and share their current reading lists, all while maintaining a humorous and relatable tone. In this lively conversation, the hosts delve into the themes of the spooky season, book recommendations, and the challenges of managing reading backlogs. They celebrate the legacy of Octavia Butler and discuss the graphic nature of the book 'Blood Slaves,' while also imagining new narratives for Black vampires in literature. The discussion highlights the excitement surrounding Black fiction and media adaptations, emphasizing the need for more diverse voices in the genre.

Progressive education is a world-building project rooted in the radical hope that schools can become something fit for human beings.This summer, HRP is reading Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It, by Ginie Servant-Miklos, and we're inviting you to join us. Visit humanrestorationproject.org/book-club to sign up for our summer book club, where we'll meet to discuss the ideas and implications of Pedagogies of Collapse and be joined by the author, for a Q&A on July 31. I'll include a link to the book in the show notes, which is available on Open Access through Bloomsbury. Hope to see you there!The HRP team has been on the road for 3 of the last 4 weeks. At the end of April, we were on the ground working with Third Coast Learning Collaborative schools in Michigan. Last week, we were in Boston for school visits, meeting with folks at the Boston Museum of Science about an upcoming grant partnership, and I went to prison with Jennifer Berkshire to sit in on her journalism class at MCI-Shirley. At the time of recording, I'm headed to Ohio to present student listening reports to school districts who held focus groups this year based around student agency. This is all to say I don't have an epic 90 minute conversation or hour-long topical deep dive for you this week, but what I will offer is an audio reading of the opening piece from our revised Progressive Education Primer, it's called We Are Worldbuilders. See you in two weeks!HRP Book ClubPedagogies of Collapse, Bloomsbury Open AccessWe Are Worldbuilders, Nick CovingtonAdditional music credits: Dandelion by | e s c p | https://www.escp.space | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com

The Hugo voting is open! The Guild is coming back! Is "best and most popular" actually fair? Is it right to defy a dead author's wishes? Tom risks Octavia Butler's ghost to explain. Plus, we share our opening thoughts on Slow Gods by Claire North. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mothers: Can't live with them, can't have existed without them. Science fiction is dominated my male voices, some of them have mommy issues. Here are some of our mommy issues. (Octavia Butler, author of one of encores, is the only creator to be exploring the issue from the inside.)First up is Aliens, the ultimate not-without-my-daughter text. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, JP Rindfleisch, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about Octavia Butler, Indie Bookstore Day 2026, and The Small Press View. Then, stick around for a chat with Dominique Raccah! Sourcebooks: "We're an entrepreneurial publisher built on the belief that books change lives. From our humble beginnings in a spare bedroom in 1987, with just one book and a single employee — our founder, Publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah — we've stayed true to our passion for stories and our dedication to helping authors reach readers. We're an innovative, mission-driven book publisher that champions diverse voices in publishing." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Margaret Ellen and Rayna reconnect, this time diving into Octavia Butler's prophetic masterpiece, Parable of the Sower. In this episode, they bring book club energy out of the coffee shops and into the digital space, inviting listeners to join the Contraband Reading Society, where banned ideas and bold conversations thrive. Together, they unpack Butler's vision through the lens of Black Millennial experience, exploring themes of faith deconstruction, community survival, and spiritual evolution in a world that feels eerily close to Butler's imagined future. Tune in for a conversation that blends literary analysis, Black futurism, and spiritual honesty, all while challenging the boundaries of what “polite society” says we should read, think, or feel.

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Aaron Starmer at www.aaronstarmer.com or on IG @aaron_starmer.   This week on the podcast we welcome middle grade and young adult novelist Aaron Starmer whose most recent book, You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This, is a quirky middle grade novel about a Toe Beast and a girl who travels with a pack of dogs and a boy named Roman who learns some family secrets.  That sounds like a lot so we are glad Aaron joins us to explain it all in a much more succinct way than we ever could. And his 2025 YA novel Night Swimming just came out in paperback this week. And our book recommendation segment of the show is about aliens because what pairs better with a quirky novel than some extraterrestrials? We have Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning titles, a book about alien garbage, a wacky buddy road trip adventure, literary fiction about a girl who doesn't feel human, and a philosophical first contact story starring the Catholic Church.   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- You Are Old Enough To Hear This by Aaron Starmer 2- Night Swimming by Aaron Starmer  3- The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly  4- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 5- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir  6- The Humans by Matt Haig  7- The Riverman by Aaron Starmer 8- The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler  9- Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy 10- The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager  11- A 5 Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Tess @books_andthebeach - Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers  12- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers  13- The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell  14- Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky  15- Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino  16- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card  17- The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis  Media Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Whitehall Book Club - https://www.historicwhitehall.org/whitehall-book-club 2- Resident Alien - (2021-2025, Netflix) 3- Project Hail Mary (2026)      

Fiction that imagines alternate futures is often associated with the left — with writers like Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin. But the tropes of science fiction are well-suited to the right and, as Jordan Carroll illustrates, far right authors and aficionados have populated the ranks of speculative fiction since its inception, like ardent science fiction fan and neo-Nazi party founder James Madole. Carroll discusses the right's ongoing fight to claim the future. Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right University of Minnesota Press, 2024 Photo by Robynne O on Unsplash The post Science Fiction and the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

Erin and Alyssa check in on the latest Bravo-level drama from Trump's wack job cabinet, two recent chilling tragedies in Virginia and Louisiana, Planned Parenthood's foray into cosmetic offerings, Reese Witherspoon's suspicious call for women to use more AI, and more. Then professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein drops by to talk about her new book, The Edge of Space-Time, what people are getting wrong about the Artemis II mission, and what Star Trek and Octavia Butler can tell us about our current political moment.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.The FBI Director Is MIA (The Atlantic 4/17)FBI director Kash Patel files $250M defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic (CNN 4/20)Labor Dept. Investigates Texts Among Secretary's Family and Staff (NYT 4/15)Feud between Mace and Mills flares as the Republicans trade barbs, expulsion threats (CNN 4/21)Ex-Virginia deputy governor kills wife and himself, police say (BBC 4/17)Haunted by ‘Dark Thoughts,' Louisiana Father Kills 8 Children (NYT 4/19)The Shreveport Mass Killing Isn't Just About ‘Mental Health' by Brittany Cooper (The Cut 4/20)A Planned Parenthood Clinic, in a Pinch, Turns to Botox (NYT 3/11)The Woman Who Knows Too Much: An Interview with Amanda Ungaro (Courier 4/18)Reese Witherspoon Declares “It's Time” For Women To Embrace AI: “Want To Learn With Me?” (Deadline 4/17)We Need Space w. Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Roxanna are discussing: Bookish Moments: Whiny men in books and reading to our kids Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: books we rated fairly low, but have stuck with us over time. Before We Go: our new segment featuring bookish friend posts and a sleeper hit from Roxanna Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). . . .   :10 - Bite Size Intro 1:50 - We encourage you to spend your dollars at indie bookstores this Saturday, April 25th for Independent Bookstore Day! 4:26 - Bookish Moments of the Week 4:49 - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 5:47 - The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett 7:35 - Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney 10:00 - Current Reads 10:08 - Good People by Patmeena Sabit (Roxanna) 12:21 - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 18:58 - Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (Kaytee) 24:01 - One Woman Show by Christine Coulson (Roxanna) 28:12 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live 28:34 - Meet the Neighbors by Brandon Keim (Kaytee)  31:56 - An Immense World by Ed Yong 32:11 - Fuzz by Mary Roach 33:34 - Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke (Roxanna) 37:01 - Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 38:15 - Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill (Kaytee) 40:23 - The Princess Saves Herself in this One by Amanda Lovelace 40:31 - Love in Color by Bolu Babalola 41:48 - Deep Dive: Lower Rated Books That Stuck With Us 42:57 - Wine Witch On Fire by Natalie MacLean 48:27 - Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain 50:08 - Save Me The Plums by Ruth Reichl 50:10 - Blood Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton 50:46 - Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 51:51 - To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers 55:29 - Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey 56:44 - How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson 57:10 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 57:13 - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 57:42 - Dawn by Octavia Butler 57:48 - Kindred by Octavia Butler 1:01:24 - You by Caroline Kepnes 1:04:56 - Before We Go Kaytee highlights a bookish friend post 1:05:12 - Currently Reading Patreon (gets you access to our Discord!) 1:05:31 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Roxanna brings a sleeper hit 1:06:25 - Food that Really Schmecks by Edna Stabler   Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April's IPL is brought to us from a new to us bookstore, Two Friends Books in Bentonville, Arkansas Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads | Substack | Youtube The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

Umkehr der Zeit: Wir beginnen mit neuer Science Fiction. Dann arbeiten wir uns immer weiter in die Vergangenheit vor und lesen neue rumänien- und russlanddeutsche Geschichten.

In „Verbunden“ schickt Octavia Butler die Afroamerikanerin Dana aus den 1970er Jahren auf eine Zeitreise in die Südstaaten des 19. Jahrhunderts.Dort erlebt sie die Sklaverei.

Robert meets Sir Isaac Julien at Victoria Miro gallery in London to explore 4 decades of making art. We also meet Julien's long term collaborator Mark Nash to explore his major five-screen film installation All That Changes You. Metamorphosis, 2025 and new photographic works. All That Changes You. Metamorphosis is a vivid, sweeping, visual poem about change, what it means to transform, to adapt and to survive. Commissioned to celebrate 500 years of Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy (where it is currently on view) and exhibited here for the first time as a five-screen installation, Julien's latest work moves between science fiction, philosophy, ecology and art, imagining new forms of life and identity beyond the human.All That Changes You. Metamorphosis draws inspiration from thinkers who explore how transformation shapes who we are and how we live, including writers Octavia Butler, Naomi Mitchison, Ursula K. Le Guin and philosopher Donna Haraway. Their ideas weave through the film's layered images and lyrical dialogue. Two protagonists are at the heart of the film, played by internationally acclaimed actors Sheila Atim and Gwendoline Christie.Isaac Julien is as acclaimed for his fluent, arresting films as for his vibrant and inventive gallery installations. One of the objectives of his work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to construct a powerfully visual narrative.Julien came to prominence in the film world with his 1989 drama-documentary Looking for Langston, gaining a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. During the past three decades he has made work largely, though not exclusively, for galleries and museums, using multi-screen installations to express fractured narratives exploring memory and desire.Julien's major film installations include Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die), 2022, commissioned by the Barnes Foundation in celebration of its centennial, an immersive five-screen installation exploring the relationship between Dr Albert C. Barnes, who was an early US collector and exhibitor of African material culture, and the famed philosopher and cultural critic Alain Locke, known as the ‘Father of the Harlem Renaissance'; Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass, 2019, a meditation on the life, words, and actions of Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the visionary African American abolitionist and freed slave, and on the issues of social justice that shaped his life's work; Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement, 2019, reflecting on the iconic work and on the legacy of the visionary modernist architect and designer (1914–1992); PLAYTIME, 2014, which explores the dramatic and nuanced subject of financial capital; Ten Thousand Waves, 2010, exploring China's ancient past and rapidly transforming present through a series of interlocking narratives. Follow @IsaacJulienIsaac Julien's major retrospective opens in Bergamo at gresart671 on 10th April 2026 and he will also showing a single screen version of All That Changes You. Metamorphosis at The Cosmic House in London from 22nd April, learn more here. Special thanks to Victoria Miro gallery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

***Please fill out my podcast questionnaire!! Thank You!!***Week 52 and, somehow, the end of Ted Gioia's Immersive Humanities project. We've got time to process all the emotions next week. For now, on to the readings!This final week brings together a really cool set of 20th and 21st century works—Octavia Butler, Joan Didion, Tim O'Brien, the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, and David Foster Wallace—all circling what Gioia calls “untenable situations.” How do you find your way through a problem that seems to have no exit?Butler's "Bloodchild" is visceral and unsettling, asking what we owe the people we love.Didion's "The White Album" treats memories as snapshots, raising questions about how we make sense of a life at all.O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" explores both physical and emotional burdens, especially the pull of home.The Big Book is strikingly direct: change begins with honest self-confrontation and surrender.And Wallace—unexpectedly one of my favorites of the whole year—follows a drifting young man who stumbles into meaning, not heroism, but something smaller and real.Together, they offer a glimpse into what it means to be a modern human. But here's a spoiler: I don't really think it's all that different than it ever was.Come back next week for the season finale and a wrap-up of the whole project!LINKTed Gioia/The Honest Broker's 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link)CONNECTThe complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2rTo read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com.Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/LISTENSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bdApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

Come listen to a WUU service! Rev. Jude Geiger, Minister Liz Wiley, Worship Chair Stephanie Letourneau, Worship Associate Chris Mooney, Music Director Heidi Sousa, piano Thank you for listening. For more information about the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalists, or to join us on Sunday mornings, visit www.wuu.org. Permission to reprint, podcast, and/or stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-735438. All rights reserved.

Northern Gaza Water Fundhttps://chuffed.org/project/143318-north-gaza-water-fundPodcast Episodes Mentioned: Half His Age by Jeanette McCurdy: https://youtu.be/Sm44TgOxowE?si=wHNesR_cFdS0SOV-Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman: https://youtu.be/nkwkxFkRvao?si=OyrBHAbfBi69aL7h Kindred by Octavia Butler: https://youtu.be/roen9hJW2c4?si=Ci0LCO9uJzm32Ev0 sign up for our fable book club to read along with us before future episodes:https://fable.co/club/lit-lib-pod-book-club-with-literary-liberation-264087449611Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitLibPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/literaryliberation/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@literaryliberation?lang=enKristenTwitter: https://twitter.com/krxxtxnInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/krxxtxn/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@krxxtxn?lang=enMariahTwitter: https://twitter.com/hungryryeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/hungryrye/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hungryrye?lang=en

This week, Diosa and Mala discuss Latino/Latinx futurism and its roots in Afrofuturism and Indigenous futures. They breakdown how Octavia Butler was a major inspiration for Herederxs in Space, a joint-project with Pizza Shark, a Latina-led production company. Herederxs in Space is an audio-phonic time capsule spanning 2016–2036, combining present-day oral histories, speculative podcasts, and an immersive installation. You can join the living time capsule here. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The security guard at the grocery store is a sign before they are a deterrent. This episode takes Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower as its anchor and reads scarcity not as a natural condition but as a managed one — enforced through bodies, symbols, and spatial logic. What does it mean when abundance collapses not into emptiness, but into enclosure? Season 2 finale.

Join the conversation by letting us know what you think about the episode!The next book in our Banned Books Series is Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Published in 1993, this near dystopian, post-apocalyptic allegory explores themes of adaptation and change, environmental and social breakdown, survival and resilience, and hyperempathy and interconnectedness. Tune in to hear our discussion about the book, its relevance, and why society needs to hear the message contained in its pages.Support the showBe part of the conversation by sharing your thoughts about this episode, what you may have learned, how the conversation affected you. You can reach Raquel and Jennifer on IG @madnesscafepodcast or by email at madnesscafepodcast@gmail.com.Share the episode with a friend and have your own conversation. And don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen!Thanks!

This week, I talk with Susana M. Morris about her Octavia E. Butler cultural biography Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler. Listen to hear about: Octavia Butler's journey from a shy, self-diagnosed dyslexic student to a groundbreaking sci-fi author, and how her relentless “positive obsession” with writing shaped her career.   How Butler's work reflects deep research, historical pattern recognition, and sharp social insight—explaining why her stories feel prophetic even though she chaffed at that comparison.   The personal costs and creative rewards of dedicating your life to meaningful work, and how Butler's example encourages artists and writers to pursue their own Positive Obsessions.   Check Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackGet Bookwild MerchFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrianMacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

Catherine Opie talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Over more than three decades, Opie, who was born in 1961 in Sandusky, Ohio, and lives today in Los Angeles, has created photographic portraits, cityscapes and landscapes that have borne witness to social and political conditions and tensions—particularly in her native United States—while also reflecting a deeply personal response to people and community. Fundamental to her work is an exploration, as a queer woman and as a documentarian photographer, of the nuanced, multifarious nature of identity, most prominently in LGBTQ+ communities, but also far beyond them. She has committed from her earliest mature images to the idea that, as she has phrased it, “Without representation, there is no visibility”—a belief that remains more vital than ever in the US and across the world in the 2020s. And that visibility is manifest not just in the portraiture for which she is best known, but also in the central place that architecture and interiors play in her work. She repeatedly calls our attention to the juxtaposition of the built environment and the construction of bodies and identities. So she documents her surroundings in the fullest sense: she depicts the people she loves, knows and meets; the spaces they occupy; and the broader physical and social environment around them. Ultimately, she hopes, through encountering her art, viewers will gain a better understanding of humanity in all its complexity. She reflects on her early discovery and desire to make pictures, aged nine, and the key figures that helped her choose to become an artist. She talks about the kinship between poetry and art and the fundamental importance, whatever her subject, of human connection. She reflects on artists as diverse as Holbein and Leonardo and Gerhard Richter and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, on the influence of writers including Joan Didion and Octavia Butler, and on her admiration for Chloe Zhao and Chris Marker. Plus, she gives insights into her life in the studio (and darkroom) and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, National Portrait Gallery, London, 5 March-31 May 2026; Catherine Opie: The Pause that Dreams Against Erasure, The Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, 19 July 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this clip from Herbalists After Hours, jim mcdonald shares one virtue he believes is essential for herbalists: kindness. Drawing on Octavia Butler's line, "Kindness eases change," jim reflects on how change — whether personal, cultural, or relational — is rarely easy. But kindness can soften the process. We talk about kindness toward others, kindness toward ourselves, and the deeper roots of the word "kind" — connected to kin and nature — reminding us that we are not separate from each other or the living world. In a culture where unkindness is often normalized, this is a gentle but powerful reminder: kindness matters. Rosalee and I are sharing clips from this conversation across our channels — but the full, in-person interview is where the whole story unfolds. FULL INTERVIEW | Watch on YouTube Folk Methodology is a collaboration between Mason Hutchison and Rosalee de la Forêt, dedicated to celebrating the living culture of herbalism. Get full episodes, behind-the-scenes updates, and future projects delivered straight to your inbox | FolkMethodology.com  

We're going to explore Octavia Butler's 1993 release of the dystopian classic “Parable Of The Sower” set in America of the 2020s. Spoiler alert: It's even uglier than our disappointing reality, which is quite a feat. If you like our work, you can donate at Mixtapestories.net or at Patreon/MixtapeStories. Thank you!

Charles Saunders’ sword and soul narratives, pulp-fantasy-inspired tales of Black and African heroes, helped blaze a trail for the genre—but, like Saunders himself, they have a complicated and still-developing story. Jon Tattrie, author of the newly-released Saunders biography, To Leave A Warrior Behind, joins us to talk about the foundational novel Imaro: its themes, its history, and its legacy. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Jon Tattrie Title: Imaro by Charles R. Saunders Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough References: To Leave A Warrior Behind Tricon Halifax Charles R. Saunders Prize Trident Bookstore Amal El-Mohtar Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Jude Mire’s Patchworld Nova Hal-Con Shag Harbour UFO Sword & Soul Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan Robert E. Howard's Conan Dark Fantasy magazine Gene Day Boris Vallejo & Franz Frazetta Neuland Inline font Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park The Halifax Daily News Africville Saunder's Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers from the Halifax Forum to Ceasar's Palace The Quest for Cush Dossuye Turkana wrist knives “thews” Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season & our episode on it "The City of Madness" Octavia Butler, Toni Adeyemi Dossoye Novels Dhambala Abangonee Charles de Lint Amazons (1986) & Stormquest (1987), both directed by Alejandro Sessa Mathieu Da Costa Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia The Spirit of Africville Audiobook of To Leave A Warrior Behind

Octavia Butler gave us a new kind of science fiction: not only as one of the first writers to use history to talk about the future, and not only as one of the first Black women to do it, but by sending, along with her warnings, a message of hope, survival, persistence, and repair.To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey lady! We know that the daily onslaught of the news of these times can be distressing and difficult to ignore. There are genuine reasons to feel alarm during the current administration but we are blessed to have a deep history of having visionaries, luminaries, and trailblazers offer a blueprint of how to imagine brighter tomorrows.Octavia Butler is one of the most prescient artists of our time but her life was lived somewhat in obscurity, only coming to prominence long after her death. Yet, her writing gave way to world-building where weird, strange, genius Black women could write themselves into the future by being present with their experience. Dr. Susana M. Morris, a waymaker in her own right as a founding member of the Crunk Feminist Collective and author of Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler, explores how Octavia's life circumstances, disciplined writing practice, and passion birthed works that offer a clear-eyed examination of society and culture while also giving full permission for Black women to indulge our imaginations for a beautiful future that includes us!Join Terri and Dr. Dom as they have a spirited discussion with Susana about Octavia Butler and her powerful artistry. While Octavia made it clear that she was not a prophet; she was so deeply connected to her dreams and words that she manifested a body of work that has inspired generations of future trailblazers and wayshowers. Quote of the Day:"Black women writers are necessary so that Black women can define and depict their own experiences rather than being objects in the stories of others." – Octavia Butler  Where to find Susana Morris:Website: Susanmorris.comBook: Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia ButlerInstagram: @susiemayeTwitter (X): @iamcrunkadelicThreads: @susiemaye    Goal Mapping Starter GuideCultivating H.E.R. Space Sanctuary  Resources:Dr. Dom's Therapy Practice Branding with TerriMelanin and Mental Health Therapy for Black Girls Psychology TodayTherapy for QPOC  Where to find us:Twitter: @HERspacepodcastInstagram: @herspacepodcastFacebook: @herspacepodcastWebsite: cultivatingherspace.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cultivating-h-e-r-space-uplifting-conversations-for-the-black-woman--5470036/support.

Always choose peace in the midst of Chaos.  Don't fear volatility or Change embrace it! The Earthseed Rosary The Earthseed Rosary is a meditative tool designed to guide practitioners through the core tenets of Earthseed, fostering mindfulness, collective purpose, and adaptation in the face of Change. Each bead or segment invites reflection on an essential concept within the faith. The Bead of Change: Contemplate the ever-present nature of Change. Recite: “God is Change. I accept the shifting flow of life.” The Bead of Paradox: Reflect on holding chaos and order together in your heart. Recite: “I embrace both uncertainty and the work of building security.” The Bead of Water: Consider water's adaptability and strength. Recite: “Like water, I will shape and be shaped, persistent and yielding.” The Bead of Knowledge: Honor the pursuit of truth. Recite: “Knowledge is sacred. I seek, I question, I learn, and I adapt.” The Bead of Community: Focus on radical interdependence. Recite: “My survival is bound to the collective. We thrive together.” The Bead of Hyperempathy: Feel the shared joy and pain of others. Recite: “I am open to the suffering and hope of the human collective.” The Bead of Destiny: Envision the future Earthseed strives to build. Recite: “We shape God and are shaped in return. Together, we forge our destiny.” This rosary can be repeated as a meditation or used in communal gatherings, each bead prompting group reflection on how the tenets are lived out in daily actions. The sequence embodies Earthseed's demand for active engagement and adaptability, reinforcing the moral and spiritual foundation of the community. A Trickster can take many forms, for good or not.  The seemingly random nature of "God as Change" highlights that change isn't always good or predictable. Sometimes, it takes on a destructive, trickster-like form—as seen in the societal collapse, environmental disasters, and the violent conflicts of Octavia Butler's post-apocalyptic Parable novels. The Trickster's lessons are about adaptability, outsmarting a rigid system, and using cleverness to survive. This is precisely what Larkin, Lauren's kidnapped daughter, Natasha's Collab community, Lauren Olamina, and her followers must do to survive. The trickster's chaotic nature reflects the world's collapse, and the trickster's cleverness is a core quality of the characters who manage to survive it. The key to getting to to getting to the stars is survival and strength here on Earth. Because in the words of a character in the book  "We can't continue to F@@K up here on Earth and expect to take this same s@@t out there.  We won't even get back out there until we figure it out down here. Ain't nobody trying to be on the stuggle bus in zero gravity and minimal atmosphere. Ain't nobody got time for that. "Phoenicia Baxter, former MIT mechanical engineer professor. Read more about AfroDruid Magic Elixir https://linktr.ee/tnfroisreading Racing to Buy Crypto!!! Yes, I can...Create my coin...Our rituals involve burning zeroes. Read about the financial evolution #AfroDruids $ROOTS Initial Sprouting https://tr.ee/8SIz1J4rNI Contact us on: Blue Sky: @tvfoodwinegirl.bsky.social Threads: www.threads.net/@tnfroisreading Instagram: @tnfroisreading   You know your girl is on her hustle, support the show by navigating to: Dale's Angel's Store...For Merch Promo Code: tnfro Writer's Block Coffee Ship A Bag of Dicks Promo Code: tnfrogotjokes Don't forget to drop me a line at tnfroisreading@gmail.com, comments on the show, or suggestions for Far From Beale St additions. #CryptoTrading #CryptoAirdrop #CryptoAlert @akrapheal  #AfroDruids #crypto #cryptocurrency #memecoin with a mission

Once upon a time, there was a shy, dreamy kid who wouldn't stop writing. Her name was Octavia -- a girl with social anxiety and dyslexia who wrote some of the most amazing science fiction novels about wild futures, space adventures, and superhuman people. She wrote more than a dozen books and is now known as the Grand Dame of Science Fiction. About the Narrator After earning a college degree in Human Biology from the University of Toronto, Amita Parikh moved to London where she completed the six month Curtis Brown Creative Writing Course, the Royal Court Theatre's Writer's Programme and was a runner-up in the 2019 Jericho Writer's Bursary Competition for under-represented writers. Her debut historical fiction novel, The Circus Train, will be published in multiple countries in 2022. When she's not writing, she works as a marketer and developer in the tech industry and produces and hosts a podcast about women and girls in sport.  Credits This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls and is based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. This episode was produced by Camille Stennis. Sound design and mixing by Bianca Salinas. This episode was written by Jestine Ware and fact checked by Joe Rhatigan. Executive Producer is Katie Sprenger. Haley Dapkus is our Production Manager. Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi. A big thanks to the whole Rebel Girls team who make this show possible! For more, visit rebelgirls.com. And if you like what you heard, don't forget to rate and review this episode, and share it with your friends! Until next time, stay REBEL!

Be where your enemies are not. Sun Tzu, Art of War.  Walk into your next chapter with abundance. Be at peace and strive drama-free, but I will get with you if you want to go there. (Felicia Baxter, All the Time I lay hands. ) I am not sure if Octavia Butler would agree with me using her idea, but I am at least going to write the story I wouldn't mind reading. For full podcast notes, navigate to dalesangelsinc.blog  to view the newest video releases, a preview of what I am reading, and the state of cryptocurrency. Real Housewives, where is the Real? None of ya'll are listed as producers so stop playing in our faces. What is the deal with this mean girl-ish behavior with Gina and Emily from OC? Tag team mean and nasty...get out of here. Don't ya'll have more meaningful stuff or goofy to not gang up on Katie G? Yes, massive liar liar pants on fire but still... Read more about AfroDruid Magic Elixir https://linktr.ee/tnfroisreading Racing to Buy Crypto!!!

Clear Channels, our newsletter course and creativity challenge begins on September 7th! Sign up here.What if your day job wasn't the thing that defined your creativity—but the fuel for it?In this solo episode, Sarah Faith Gottesdiener explores what it means to live as a creative when your 9–5, side hustle, or paycheck doesn't match your artistry. From reframing the shame of “non-creative” work to building daily practices that keep your imagination alive, Sarah shares hard-earned wisdom from her own path before her creative and spiritual life became her livelihood.You'll hear:Why all work is inherently creative, and how to start seeing your life through an artistic lensThe three most common mindset traps that keep people stuck and how to move past themWhy consistency and micro-movements matter more than waiting for the “perfect” momentHow nervous system safety and capacity play a crucial role in showing up creativelyStories of artists like Octavia Butler, William Carlos Williams, and Toni Morrison, who balanced day jobs with world-changing creative workThis is a motivating episode about reclaiming your identity as an artist or creative, no matter where your paycheck comes from, and finding joy in the small daily commitments that keep your creative life alive.Upcoming Events:September 6, 2025 + September 7, 2025: Clear Channels Online Workshop – https://moon-studio.co/products/clear-channels-fall-2025?variant=50100396327207Join Our Community:Join the Moon Studio Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themoonstudioBuy the 2025 Many Moons Lunar Planner: https://moon-studio.co/collections/all-products-excluding-route/products/many-moons-2025Subscribe to our newsletter: https://moon-studio.co/pages/newsletterFind Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gottesss/

Kate and Leah recap the week's legal news, including argument calendars for the next SCOTUS term and President Trump's attempted federal takeover of Washington, DC. Then, it's our third annual State of The Uterus episode. Melissa and Leah talk with Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Lisa Beattie Frelinghuysen, founder of ClutchKit, about the current status of reproductive freedom three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Finally, Leah talks about the authors of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe, But Not Abortion.Favorite Things:Leah: Unbearable: Five Women and the Perils of Pregnancies in America, by Irin Carmon; track list and cover art for Taylor Swift's forthcoming The Life of a Showgirl; Ben Platt's cover of Diet Pepsi; Melissa's appearance on Nicole Wallace's podcast, The Best People; "Redistricting Texas Now is Illegal and the U.S. Department of Justice is the Reason Why," by Ellen Katz; and Laura Loomer's weird deposition in a case against Bill MaherKate: Vera, or Faith, by Gary Shteyngart; Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler; Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab; The Retrievals; "The Chadha Presidency," by Josh Chafetz; and "Trump, John Roberts and the Unsettling of American Politics," by David Dailey Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 10/4 – ChicagoLearn more: http://crooked.com/eventsOrder your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad VibesGet tickets to CROOKED CON November 6-7 in Washington, D.C at http://crookedcon.comFollow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky