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668. We begin women's history month by talking to Marcelle Bienvenu about the history of Creole cooking. In a city known worldwide for its food, the women of New Orleans have led the way. Marcelle Bienvenu's highly anticipated new release of her timeless classic, Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux? is a treasure trove of over two hundred recipes, revised with a Foreword by Emeril Lagasse and sumptuous color photography capturing the essence of every season. Marcelle is a cookbook author and food writer who has been preparing Cajun and Creole dishes since the 1960s. She has written on Creole/Cajun Cooking for The Times Picayune, Time-Life Books, and has been featured in Garden & Gun, Food & Wine, Saveur, Southern Living, Redbook, The New York Times, Louisiana Life, and Acadiana Profile. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Grace King. "Pupasse." EVERY day, every day, it was the same overture in Madame Joubert's room in the Institut St. Denis; the strident: 'Mesdemoiselles; ' vos places! Notre P're qui est dans le ciel ' Qui a fait ce bruit?' 'It's Pupasse, madame! It's Pupasse!' The answer invariably was unanimous. 'But, Madame Joubert, ' I assure you, Madame Joubert, ' I could not help it! They know I could not help it!' By this time the fresh new fool's cap made from yesterday's 'Bee' would have been pinned on her head. 'Quelle injustice! Quelle injustice!' This last apostrophe in a high, whining nasal voice, always procured Pupasse's elevation on the tall three-legged stool in the corner. This week in Louisiana history. March 6, 1867. General Philip Sheridan arrives in New Orleans to command the Fifth Military District (Louisiana and Texas) during Reconstruction. This week in New Orleans history. Norman Treigle, born in New Orleans on March 6, 1927, made his operatic debut in 1947 with the New Orleans Opera Association, as the Duke of Verona in Rom'o et Juliette. A graduate of Loyola's College of Music, Treigle went on to receive international acclaim. He died in New Orleans on February 16, 1975. This week in Louisiana. St. Pius X Catholic Church Lenten Fish Fry 201 E. Bayou Parkway Lafayette, LA 70508 March 6, 2026 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM Website: stpiusxchurch.org Email: office@stpiusxchurch.org Phone: (337) 232‑4656 Plates typically range from $10'$15, with combo options available. St. Pius X hosts one of Lafayette's most popular Lenten Fish Fries, offering quick service, generous portions, and a strong community turnout each year: Seafood Plates: Fried fish or shrimp plates with sides, plus a limited number of combo plates. Drive‑Thru Convenience: A fast, well‑organized line ideal for families on busy Friday evenings. Parish Support: Proceeds benefit school programs, youth ministries, and local outreach Postcards from Louisiana. Florida Street Blowhards at LSU. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook.
Have you ever watched, in awe, as a skilled gymnast or skater lifts off and completes a dizzying number of revolutions in less than a second before landing safely back down? That's how you may feel upon reading the great Leonard Cohen's urgent, dreamlike poem “I, 8” from Book of Mercy. In his telling of a man's fall “from his high place” into “disgrace”, Cohen sends us on a short, 206-word journey that seamlessly weaves together narration, fiction, meditation, devotion, and prayer. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns, or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes. Leonard Cohen had an artistic career that began in 1956 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies. He published two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, and 10 books of poetry, most recently Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs and Book of Longing. During a recording career that spanned almost 50 years, he released 14 studio albums, the last of which, You Want It Darker, was released in 2016. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and was awarded the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011. He died on November 7, 2016. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Ellen Carter premiers her debut book THE MEANING OF LIFE and talks about the writing craft.
Mark and Josh return triumphantly to sit down and discuss, poetry, yes really. The boys share some of their favorites, and talk about that universal magic that everyone seems to have tried their hand at, at least once.
We're going deep today, Slushies. Kathy and Tobi school us on the origin of the word “podcast” with its roots in both early Apple technology and agricultural lingo (think broadcast of seeds). In this episode we're broadcasting our appreciation for poems by Erin Evans. We admire Evans' sound work and her ability to craft powerful lines with plain language. In the first poem, the poet's confrontation of medical jargon reminds Marion of Whitman's poem When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer. An encounter between patient and doctor in Evans' poem underscores the difference between learning and knowing that recalls Leslie Jamison's book of essays, The Empathy Exams. The second poem's Japanese title evokes the film Rashomon for Jason, who takes issue with the notion that our writerly imaginations are limited only to the words available in our own language. Schadenfreude, anyone? We're digging the close focus on language in these poems. Marion appreciates that the poem elevates a term she initially passed off as one from pop culture wellness. Meanwhile we conflate our Wabi-sabi with our kintsugi and poet Ross Gay with the poet Ross White (who is the actual originator of the gas station sushi theory). But don't let our mistakes keep you from experiencing Evans' powerful endings. Slushies, if you're attending AWP in March, please stop by and see us at the book fair. We'll be at table 1272. We'd love to see you in person. Thanks, as always, for listening! At the table: Tobi Kassim, Jason Schneiderman, Kathleen Volk Miller, Marion Wrenn, Lisa Zerkle, and Lillie Volpe (sound engineer) Author Photo: Author Bio: Erin Evans was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was one year old. Her work is greatly influenced by her experience living with chronic illness. She has had poems published in Defunct, Revel, A Mouthful of Salt, and Nimrod-International Journal, which awarded her its Francine Ringold Award for New Writers. Her work was chosen by Kwame Dawes for his American Life in Poetry column. She lives in Vermont with her beautiful and brilliant kids. Exacerbation She says the word quickly looking down at my file then back at the x-ray clipped against the glowing box. My scarred and patchy lungs, and all their flaws on display, almost make me blush. Embarrassed that I couldn't do any better, have been better. I focus instead on the soft ribbons of my ribcage that fan like ghost hands lit up for Halloween. Again, she says it, looking at me now as she sits on the round rolling chair and reaches for her stethoscope. Exacerbation, which I finally looked up after years and years of hearing it, simply means a worsening. But she was taught not to state the obvious, to disguise the truth in the language of textbooks, and lectures, years of learning how best to look right through someone. And I was taught to breathe in when I was told, to push past that pain in my chest that has no name, nor chapter in any book. Komorebi Scott nudges my kayak away from the shore. The yellow plastic scrapes the sand and seashell bottom until it glides to the open water, over deep-green seaweed that waves its version of goodbye. A soft pushing away a departing of one world, only to enter another, so vast there are no names for things: When I die let it be like this. Some languages have words for words we never even thought to speak. In Japanese, for instance, there is a word for the sunlight filtering through the leaves of a tree. Tell me, why isn't there a name for this: The ocean's soft pull, the gentle begging it does, like a child tugging at the tail of your shirt, reminding you it's time to go. Riches As I cradle my morning tea I watch her from the window. Crouched down in the yard, with her hand outstretched. Even from here I see the arthritis knot and bend her fingers from years of knitting intricate sweaters and working late-night shifts at the hospital. The chickens come to her hesitantly, to peck the scratch from her warm hand. She told me once that even when she has nothing to give them they still peck softly at her wedding band. They surround her now, their bobbing and dipping beaks and as they take the seeds she offers, she smooths the long yellow feathers that in the right light turn golden. If I could inherit a single thing from her it would be this patience, this trust that life will come to you even when your body is leaving this world slowly, one cell at a time.
Putting your poems out into the world can feel scary, cathartic, and everything in between. Kallie, the founder of TellTell Poetry and I explore all things writing and publishing poetry in this episode of Written in the Wild.Meet Kallie FalandaysToday I'm joined by Kallie Falandays, a writer and the founder of Tell Tell Poetry and Tell Tell Copywriting. In her own words, “she believes in magic.”Kallie also received her MFA from Wichita State University. She is the author of Dovetail Down the House (Burnside Review), The Cricket and the Very Old Very Little Lady (Tell Tell Poetry), and All the Water All the Waves (Dancing Girl Press). You can find her published works on her website here.About This EpisodeWe Talk About:* The process of writing poetry and blending it with learning craft and skill* The cathartic and therapeutic process of poetry* Being a poet and a business owner in the world of poetry* Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing* Practical ways to get started if you have a collection of poems you'd like to publishOne Thing to Take with You:Publishing and writing poetry is a very personal process. There's no single route or right way to share the words you choose to write. This episode is here to help you feel empowered to discover and walk your own unique path.Connect with Kallie Falandays:* Websites: www.telltellpoetry.com / www.telltellcopywriting.com / https://kalliefalandays.com/* Where to submit: https://www.telltellpoetry.com/42-university-lit-mags-journals-why-to-submit/https://www.telltellpoetry.com/tell-tell-poetrys-where-to-submit-poetry-december-2025-january-2026-and-february-2026/* Courses: https://www.telltellpoetry.com/resource-index/* Free publishing guide: https://www.telltellpoetry.com/resources/self-publishing-guide/If This Episode Resonated with YouThank you for reading this article or listening to the podcast/poem. I greatly appreciate all of you who engage with and listen to what I share. If you'd like to support the work I do, you can leave a 5-star review on either Apple or Spotify, or head to the Uncomfortably, Beautifully Human Substack using the link below, where you'll find more poetry, meditations, and much more.what theme would you like me to share a poem or conversation about next week? Let me know in the comments or reaching out to me my email emma@emmaevelyncampbell.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uncomfortablybeautifullyhuman.substack.com
仲春遘时雨，始雷发东隅。众蛰各潜骇，草木纵横舒。（陶渊明《拟古》） 微雨众卉新，一雷惊蛰始。田家几日闲，耕种从此起。（韦应物《观田家》） 阳气初惊蛰，韶光大地周。桃花开蜀锦，鹰老化春鸠。（元稹《咏二十四气歌·惊蛰二月节》）
Rodney Williams is a tanka poet from Gippsland. Tanka is a five line form of Japanese poetry that predates the haiku. Rodney talks about what makes a tanka and looks at old and new poems, including some of his own. He is a contributing editor of the poetry journal Catchment, Poetry of Place, which is published within the website of the Baw Baw Arts Alliance. https://www.bawbawartsalliance.org.au/bcms/catchment-editions/
In dieser Sonderfolge spreche ich mit Michael Witt, Mitorganisator des Recruiter Slams, über ein Format, das es so kein zweites Mal gibt: Ein Poetry Slam, bei dem es nicht um Liebeskummer oder Alltägliches geht, sondern um das Wesen, die Haltung und die Herausforderungen im Recruiting. Am 9. April 2026 findet im Wizemann in Stuttgart bereits die sechste Ausgabe statt. Was als Experiment begann, hat sich zu einer festen Größe in der HR-Szene entwickelt. Michael erklärt im Detail, wie der Abend abläuft, warum die Qualität der Beiträge von Jahr zu Jahr steigt und warum dieses Event die perfekte Gelegenheit für einen Team-Ausflug ist – kombiniert mit gutem Essen und einer einzigartigen Atmosphäre. Das erwartet Dich in dieser Folge: Das Format: Warum der Recruiter Slam ein „Einladungslam“ ist und wie sich die Texte von technischen Methoden hin zur meta-reflektierenden Haltung entwickelt haben. Der Ablauf: Von der Vorrunde bis zum Finale, das neue Punktesystem und die Rolle des Vorjahresgewinners als „Opener“ (diesmal ich selbst). Die Atmosphäre: Warum es keine klassische Konferenz ist, sondern ein Abend „von der Szene für die Szene“ zum Loslassen und Inspirieren. Praktische Infos: Ticketpreise, Verpflegung im Wizemann und warum sich die Anreise auch für Teams aus Hamburg oder Köln lohnt. Wichtige Eckdaten zum Event: Wann: 9. April 2026 Wo: Wizemann, Stuttgart Einlass: 18:00 Uhr (Beginn: 18:30 Uhr) Tickets: knapp 25 € (gefördert durch Sponsoren) Es gibt vergünstigte Teamkontingente! Besonderheit: Limitierte Plätze (ca. 300), oft ausverkauft – rechtzeitige Buchung empfohlen. Ein herzlicher Dank an Michael Witt für die Einblicke hinter die Kulissen und das Engagement, diese besondere Bühne für unsere Branche zu schaffen. Ich freue mich schon darauf, am 9. April wieder im Wizemann zu stehen und den Abend mit einem Text zu eröffnen. Links & Ressourcen: Hier geht es direkt zu den Tickets Das Wizemann Habt ihr schon einmal einen Poetry Slam besucht oder sogar selbst auf der Bühne gestanden? Schreibt mir gerne eure Erfahrungen in die Kommentare! Und noch viel wichtiger: Kommt und genießt einen wunderbaren Abend, am besten mit Eurem ganzen Team! Und wenn Du Dir immer noch unsicher bist, ob sich der Abend lohnt, schau gerne auf meinem YouTube Kanal vorbei und schau Dir meine Slams von 2023 an :-) Hier ist der Vorrunden Slam. Und hier der Final Slam.
What can ancient stories teach us about creativity, courage, and our own place in the modern world? In this episode, Stephen Roach welcomes poet and priest Malcolm Guite back to Makers & Mystics to explore his poetic retelling of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. Malcolm reflects on how these stories shaped him from childhood and why myth still carries moral and spiritual weight in a disenchanted age.Together, they discuss the role of storytelling in recovering a sacramental vision of the world. This conversation is an invitation to re-enchantment—to slow down, commit to your craft, and take your place in the great unfolding story.IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL HEAR ABOUTWhy Arthurian legend endures: its moral and spiritual resonanceTaking up the tale: how myth becomes personal meaningRe-enchantment: seeing the world with wonder in an age of distractionThe value of slow, faithful creative practiceSend a textJoin Malcolm Guite, Jonathan Pageau, Stephen Roach, and so many others!http://www.thebreathandtheclay.comUse the code "mystic26" for a special podcast listener rate!Support the show Get Tickets to The Breath and The Clay 2026 featuring Malcolm Guite, Jon Guerra, and Jonathan Pageau! March 20-22 in Winston-Salem, NC. Sign Up for Our Newsletter! http://eepurl.com/g49Ks1
I loved these poems by Jessica Urlichs so much that I ended up reading some to my son. Somehow, they take the unwieldy, much-discussed experience of motherhood and reframe it, distill it, and make it relatable in a new way. Isn't it wild how effective great poetry can be? We discussed all of it and made each other cry. Check out her collection We Bloom Because of You.Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens!** Check out the Z.I.P. membership program—Zibby's Important People! As a Z.I.P., you'll get exclusive essays, special author access, discounts at Zibby's Bookshop, and more. Head to zibbyowens.com to subscribe or upgrade and become a Z.I.P. today!** Follow @totallybookedwithzibby on Instagram for more about today's episode. (Music by Morning Moon Music. Sound editing by TexturesSound. To inquire about advertising, please contact allie.gallo@acast.com.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
https://daredaniel.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/CANON-FODDER_S01_E56.mp3 Orlando (1992; Dir.: Sally Potter) Canon Fodder Episode 56 Daniel and Corky cut their central Florida vacation short to review Sally Potter’s Orlando (1992). An adaptation of a Virginia Woolf novel long thought unfilmable, Orlando provided the supernatural Tilda Swinton with her breakout role. But did your hosts find Orlando to be a magic kingdom, or a tragic kingdom? ORLANDO (1992) FACTS & FIGURES Sight & Sound 2022 Critics Poll Ranking: #157 [tied] World premiere: Sep. 1, 1992 (Venice Film Festival) IMDB synopsis: “After Queen Elizabeth I commands him not to grow old, a young nobleman struggles with love and his place in the world.” CLIPS & CLIPPINGS Original theatrical trailer for Orlando (1992) Ah, Poetry! The maze runner Tilda eye contact montage NEXT EPISODE’S MOVIE Brief Encounter (1945; Dir.: David Lean) IMDB synopsis: “Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.” Our review of Brief Encounter comes out Tuesday, March 17! Follow Dare Daniel & Canon Fodder on Facebook and Instagram. Be sure to listen, rate, review and subscribe to the show on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Listen Notes, Castbox and more. New episodes every other Tuesday! Please help support the show by clicking the Donate button on the homepage or find “Support the Show” in the main menu. Read more of Daniel’s movie reviews at Dare Daniel and Rotten Tomatoes. The post Canon Fodder – Orlando (1992) appeared first on Dare Daniel Family of Podcasts.
Text the Bookcast and say "hi"!Welcome to Chapter 81! This is a fun one!My guests are Jes McCutchen and Josh Wann - two Tulsa poets / writers who have created a new book called Side Quests and Shenanigans. The book is part poetry collection, part creative instigation designed to encourage people to create and to do so in community. Jes is an author, poet, editor, publisher, and all-around creative from Tulsa, OK who has written several novels and contributed to and / or edited poetry and horror anthologies. Connect with Jes: website | IG | FBJosh Wann is a writer and educator in Tulsa, OK. His plays have been produced by Blackjack Rewrite Company, among others, at Living Arts, The Nightingale Theater, and Studio 308. His essays have been published in The Black Wall Street Times, Calliope Crashes, and others. Lastly, his poetry and comedy have been performed at various venues and events throughout Tulsa. He gravitates towards laughter, nature, picking the guitar, and big plates of breakfast foods.Connect with Josh: IGWe talk a lot about creativity and the challenge of finding whimsy and joy in the midst of difficult times. And we laugh. A lot.Mentioned on the Show:Quraysh Ali LansanaMeadow Market BooksThe Perfect Bastard: Poems - Quinn Carver JohnsonLuvBytes - Hank ByrdSistah Samurai - Tatiana ObeyLone Woman - Victor LaValleA Master of Djinn - P Djèlí ClarkThe Sun Also Rises - Ernest HemmingwayThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas AdamsThese Are Not My Final Words - Samantha RyanConnect with J: website | TikTok | Twitter | Instagram | FacebookShop the Bookcast on Bookshop.orgMusic by JuliusH
Jack Gilbert (1925-2012) sat tangential to The Beats but was singularly distinct from them. As a self-described "serious romantic, “ Gilbert roared onto the scene with his book Views of Jeopardy, earning him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a loyal following. We look at books from The Great Fires as well as earlier work. An outsider poet, In 2013 he was posthumously selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
jason b. crawford (He/They) born in Washington DC and raised in Lansing, Michigan, is the author of Year of the Unicorn Kidz. Their second collection, YEET! is the winner of the Omnidawn 1st/2nd Book Prize and was published Fall 2025. They have been published in Poetry Magazine, Academy of American Poets, Cincinnati Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO Poetry, among others. They are a 2023 Emerging Writers Fellow for Lambda Literary and hold their MFA in Poetry from The New School. Find more info here: https://www.jasonbcrawford.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem that begins precisely where you currently are in life, but lands somewhere else entirely. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem which confesses something that's secretly seasonal to you, but not so much to others. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Send a textDescription: An immersive reading of Offerings From My Patients and Their Families by Hanna M. Saltzman with reflection on offerings, gifts, complaints, and boundary crossings.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2839104 References:Saltzman HM. Offerings From My Patients and Their Families. JAMA. 2025;334(15):1399. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.12143https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2839104 Hanna Saltzman: www.hannasaltzman.com Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. 25th anniversary ed., Vintage Books, 2007.Campo R. Making Lists in Medicine and Poetry. JAMA. 2025;334(15):1399. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.12103https://www.etymonline.com/word/offering
Will you leave this episode feeling uplifted, envious, curious, or something else entirely? Yes. Billy-Ray Belcourt's poem “Subarctica” transports you to a vividly specific time — “the coldest December / on record, I haven't left my mother's / house in over a week” — where the primary view is of poplars in “a tiny schoolyard”. Amid the simplicity and snow, the speaker shifts their perspective, seeing beyond their past and towards the wonder in their present and in what is to come. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns, or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes. Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is the author of six books, including the Griffin Poetry Prize-winning debut This Wound Is a World. Belcourt serves as the Canada Research Chair in Queer Indigenous Cultural Production at the University of British Columbia and also edits poetry for Hazlitt. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
How do you build a creative life that spans music, writing, film, and spiritual practice? Alicia Jo Rabins talks about weaving multiple creative strands into a sustainable career and why the best advice for any creator might simply be: just make the thing. In the intro, backlist promotion strategy [Written Word Media]; Successful author business [Novel Marketing Podcast]; Alliance of Independent Authors Indie Author Bookstore; Bones of the Deep – J.F. Penn This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Alicia Jo Rabins is an award-winning writer, musician, performer, as well as a Torah teacher and ritualist. She's the creator of Girls In Trouble, a feminist indie-folk song cycle about biblical women, and the award-winning film, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff. Her latest book is a memoir, When We Are Born We Forget Everything. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights, and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Building a sustainable multi-disciplinary creative career through teaching, performance, grants, and donations Trusting instinct in the early generative stages of creativity and separating generation from editing Adapting and reimagining religious and cultural source material through music, writing, and performance The challenges of transitioning from poetry to long-form prose memoir, including choosing a lens for your story Making an independent film on a shoestring budget without waiting for Hollywood's permission Finding your creative voice and building confidence by leaning into vulnerability and returning to the practice of making You can find Alicia at AliciaJo.com. Transcript of the interview with Alicia Jo Rabins Joanna: Alicia Jo Rabins is an award-winning writer, musician, performer, as well as a Torah teacher and ritualist. She's the creator of Girls In Trouble, a feminist indie-folk song cycle about biblical women, and the award-winning film, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff. Her latest book is a memoir, When We Are Born We Forget Everything. So welcome to the show, Alicia. Alicia: Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be here. Joanna: There is so much we could talk about. But first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you've woven so many strands of creativity into your life and career. Alicia: Yes, well, I am a maximalist. What happened in terms of my early life is that I started writing on my own, just extremely young. I'm one of those people who always loved writing, always processed the world and managed my emotions and came to understand myself through writing. So from a very young age, I felt really committed to writing. Then I had the good fortune that my mother saw a talk show about the Suzuki method of learning violin—when you start really young and learn by ear, which is modelled after language learning. It's so much less intellectual and much more instinctual, learning by copying. She was like, that looks like a cool thing. I was three years old at the time and she found out that there was a little local branch of our music conservatory that had a Suzuki violin programme. So when I was three and a half, getting close to four, she took me down and I started playing an extremely tiny violin. Joanna: Oh, cute! Alicia: Yes, and because it was part of this conservatory that was downtown, and we were just starting at the suburban branch where we lived, there was this path that I was able to follow. As I got more and more interested in violin, I could continue basically up through the conservatory level during high school. So I had a really fantastic music education without any pressure, without any expectations or professional goals. I just kept taking these classes and one thing led to another. I grew up being very immersed in both creative writing and music, and I think just having the gift of those two parts of my brain trained and stimulated and delighted so young really changed my brain in some ways. I'll always see the world through this creative lens, which I think I'm also just set up to do personally. Then the last step of my multi-practice career is that in college I got very interested in Jewish spirituality. I'm Jewish, but I didn't grow up very religious. I didn't grow up in a Jewish community really. So I knew some basics, but not a ton. In college I started to study it and also informally learned from other people I met. I ended up going on a pretty intense spiritual quest, going to Jerusalem and immersing myself after college for two years in traditional Jewish study and practice. So that became the third strand of the braid that had already been started with music and writing. Torah study, spiritual study, and teaching became the third, and they all interweave. The last thing I'll say is that because I work in both words and music, and naturally performance because of music, it began to branch a little bit into plays, theatre, and film, just because that's where the intersection of words, performance, and music is. So that's really what brought me into that, as opposed to any specific desire to work in film. It all happened very organically. Joanna: I love this. This is so cool. We are going to circle back to a lot of this, but I have to ask you— What about work for money at any point? How did this turn into more than just hobbies and lifestyle? Alicia: Yes, absolutely. Well, I'm very fortunate that I did not graduate college with loans because my parents were able to pay for college. That was a big privilege that I just want to name, because in the States that's often not the case. So that allowed me to need to support myself, but not also pay loans, which was a real gift. What happened was I went straight from college to that school in Jerusalem, and there I was on loans and scholarship, so I didn't have to worry yet about supporting myself. Then when I came back to the States, I actually found on Craigslist a job teaching remedial Hebrew. It was essentially teaching kids at a Jewish elementary school who either had learning differences or had just entered the school late and needed to be in a different Hebrew class than the other kids in their grade. That was my first experience of really teaching, and I just absolutely fell in love with it. Although in the end, my passion is much more for teaching the text and rituals and the wrestling with the concepts, as opposed to teaching language. So all these years, while doing performance and writing and all these things, I have been teaching Jewish studies. That has essentially supported me, I would say, between 50 and 70 per cent. Then the rest has been paid gigs as a musician, whether as a front person leading a project or as what we call a sideman, playing in someone else's band. Sometimes doing theatre performances, sometimes teaching workshops. That's how I've cobbled it together. I have not had a full-time job all these years and I have supported myself through both earned income and also grants and donations. I've really tried to cultivate a little bit of a donor base, and I took some workshops early on about how to welcome donations. So I definitely try to always welcome that as well. Joanna: That is so interesting that you took a workshop on how to welcome donations. Way back in, I think 2013, I said on this show, I just don't know if I can accept people giving to support the show. Then someone on the podcast challenged me and said, but people want to support creatives. That's when I started Patreon in 2014. It was when The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer came out and— It was this realisation that people do want to support people. So I love that you said that. Alicia: It's not easy. It's still not easy for me, and I have to grit my teeth every time I even put in my end-of-year newsletter. I just say, just a reminder that part of what makes this possible is your generous donations, and I'm so grateful to you. It's not easy. I think some people enjoy fundraising. I certainly don't instinctively enjoy it, but I have learned to think of it exactly the way that you're saying. I mean, I love donating to support other people's projects. Sometimes it's the highlight of my day. If I'm having a bad day and someone asks for help, either to feed a family or to complete a creative project, I just feel like, okay, at least I can give $36 or $25 and feel like I did something positive in the last hour, even if my project is going terribly and I'm in a fight with my kid or something. So I have to keep in mind that it is actually a privilege to give as well as a privilege to receive. Joanna: Absolutely. So let's get back into your various creative projects. The first thing I wanted to ask you, because you do have so many different formats and forms of your creativity—how do you know when an idea that comes to you should be a song, or something you want to do as a performance, or written, or a film? Tell us a bit about your creative process. Because a lot of your projects are also longer-term. Alicia: Yes. It's funny, I love planning and in some ways I'm an extreme planner. I really drive people in my family bonkers with planning, like family vacations a year in advance. In terms of my creativity, I'm very planful towards goals, but in that early generative state, I am actually pure instinct. I don't think I ever sit down and say, “I have this idea, which genre would it match with?” It's more like I sit on my bed and pick up my guitar, which is where I love to do songwriting, just sitting on my bed cross-legged, and I pick up my guitar and something starts coming out. Then I just work with that kernel. So it's very nebulous at first, very innate, and I just follow that creative spirit. Often I don't even know what a project is, sometimes if it's a larger project, until a year or two in. Once things emerge and take shape, then my planning brain and my strategy brain can jump on it and say, “Okay, we need three more songs to fill out the album, and we need to plan the fundraising and the scheduling.” Then I might take more of an outside-in approach. At the beginning it's just all instinct. Joanna: So if you pick up your guitar, does that mean it always starts in music and then goes into writing? Or is that you only pick up a guitar if it's going to be musical? Alicia: I think I'm responding to what's inside me. It's almost like a need, as opposed to, “I'm going to sit down and work.” I mean, obviously I sit down and work a lot, but I think in that early stage of anything, it's more like my fingers are itching to play something, and so I sit down and pick up my guitar. Sometimes nothing comes out and sometimes the kernel of a song comes out. Or I'm at a café, and I often like to write when I'm feeling a little bit discombobulated, just to go into the complexity of things or use challenging emotions as fuel. I really do use it as a—I don't know if therapeutic is the word, but I think it maybe is. I write often, as I always have, as I said before, to understand what I'm thinking. Like Joan Didion said—to process difficult emotions, to let go of stuck places. So I think I create almost more out of a sense of just what I need in the moment. Sometimes it's just for fun. Sometimes picking up a guitar, I just have a moment so I sit down and mess around. Sometimes it's to help me struggle with something. It doesn't always start in music. That was a random example. I might sit down to write because I have an hour and I think, I haven't written in a while. Or I do have an informal daily writing thing where I'll try to generate one loose draft of something a day, even if it's only ten pages. I mean, sorry, ten words. Joanna: I was going to say! Alicia: No, no. Ten words. I'm sorry. It's often poetry, so it feels like a lot when it's ten words. I'll just sit down with no pressure, no goal, no intention to make anything specific. Just open the floodgates and see what comes out. That's where every single project of mine has started. Joanna: Yes, I do love that. Obviously, I'm a discovery writer and intuitive, same as you. I think very much this idea of, especially when you said you feel discombobulated, that's when you write. I almost feel like I need that. I'm not someone who writes every day. I don't do ten lines or whatever. It's that I'll feel that sense of pressure building up into “this is going to be something.” I will really only write or journal when that spills over into— “I now need to write and figure out what this is.” Alicia: Yes. It's almost a form of hunger. It feels to me similar to when you eat a great meal and then you're good for a while. You're not really thinking of it, and then it builds up, like you said, and then there's a need—at least the first half of creativity. I really separate my generation and my editing. So my generative practice is all openness, no critique, just this maybe therapeutic, maybe curious, wandering and seeing what happens. Then once I have a draft, my incisive editing mind is welcome back in, which has been shut out from that early process. So that's a really different experience. Those early stages of creativity are almost out of need more than obligation. Joanna: Well, just staying with that generative practice. Obviously you've mentioned your study of and practice of Jewish tradition and Jewish spirituality. Steven Pressfield in his books has talked about his prayer to the muse, and I've got on my wall here—I don't talk about this very often, actually — I have a muse picture, a painting of what I think of as a muse spirit in some form. So do you have any spiritual practices around your generative practice and that phase of coming up with ideas? Alicia: I love that question, and I wish I had a beautiful, intentional answer. My answer is no. I think I experience creativity as its own spiritual practice itself. I do love individual prayer and meditation and things like that, but for me those are more to address my specifically spiritual health and happiness and connectedness. I'm just a dive-in kind of person. As a musician, I have friends who have elaborate backstage rituals. I have to do certain things to take care of my voice, but even that, it's mostly vocal rest as opposed to actively doing things. There's a bit of an on/off switch for me. Joanna: That's interesting. Well, I do want to ask you about one of your projects, this collaboration with a high school on a musical performance, I Was a Desert: Songs of the Matriarchs, and also your Girls in Trouble songs about women in the Torah. On your website, I had a look at the school, the high school, and the musical performance. It was extraordinary. I was watching you in the school there and it's just such extraordinary work. It very much inspired me—not to do it myself, but it was just so wonderful. I do urge people to go to your website and just watch a few minutes of it. I'm inspired by elements of religion, Christian and Jewish, but I wondered if you've come up against any issues with adaptation—respecting your heritage but also reinventing it. How has this gone for you. Any advice for people who want to incorporate aspects of religion they love but are worried about responses? Alicia: Well, I have to say, coming from the Jewish tradition, that is a core practice of Judaism—reinterpreting our texts and traditions, wrestling with them, arguing with them, reimagining them. I don't know if you're familiar with Midrash, but just in case some of your listeners aren't sure I'll explain it. There's essentially an ancient form of fanfic called Midrash, which was the ancient rabbis, and we still do it today, taking a biblical story that seems to have some kind of gap or inconsistency or question in it and writing a story to fill that gap or recast the story in an interestingly different light. So we have this whole body of literature over thousands of years that are these alternate or added-on adventures, side quests of the biblical characters. What I'm doing from a Jewish perspective is very much in line with a traditional way of interacting with text. I've certainly never gotten any pushback, especially as I work in progressive Jewish communities. I think if I were in an extremely fundamentalist community, there would be a lot of different issues around gender and things like that. The interpretive process, even in those communities, is part of how we show respect for the text. When I was working with the high school—and I just want to call out the choir director, Ethan Chen, who has an incredible project where he brings in a different artist every two years to work with the choir, and they tend to have a different cultural focus each time. He invited me specifically to integrate my songwriting about biblical women with his amazing high school choir. I was really worried at first because most of them are not Jewish—very few of them, if any. I wanted to respect their spiritual paths and their religious heritages and not impose mine on them. So I spent a lot of time at the beginning saying, this project has religious source material, but essentially it is a creative reinterpretive project. I am not coming to you to bring the religious material to you. I'm coming to take the shared Hebrew Bible myths and then reinterpret those myths through a lens of how they might reflect our own personal struggles, because that's always my approach to these ancient stories. I wanted to really make that clear to the students. It was such a joy to work with them. Joanna: It's such an interesting project. Also, I find with musicians in general this idea of performance. You've written this thing—or this thing specifically with the school—and it doesn't exist again, right? You're not selling CDs of that, I presume. Whereas compared to a book, when we write a book, we can sell it forever. It doesn't exist as a performance generally for an author of a memoir or a novel. It carries on existing. So how does that feel, the performance idea versus the longer-lasting thing? I mean, I guess the video's there, but the performance itself happened. Alicia: I do know what you mean. Absolutely. We did, for that reason, record it professionally. We had the sound person record it and mix it, so it is available to stream. I'm not selling CDs, but it's out there on all the streaming services, if people want to listen. I do also have the scores, so if a choir wanted to sing it. The main point that you're making is so true. I think there's actually something very sacred about live performance—that we're all in the moment together and then the moment is over. I love the artefacts of the writing life. I love writing books. I love buying and reading books and having them around, and there's piles of them everywhere in this room I'm standing in. I feel like being on stage, or even teaching, is a very spiritual practice for me, because it's in some ways the most in-the-moment I ever am. The only thing that matters is what's happening right then in that room. It's fleeting as it goes. I'm working with the energy in the room while we're there. It's different every time because I'm different, the atmosphere is different, the people are different. There's no way to plan it. The kind of micro precision that we all try to bring to our editing—you can't do that. You can practice all you want and you should, but in the moment, who knows? A string breaks or there's loud sound coming from the other room. It is just one of those things. I love being reminded over and over again of the truth that we really don't control what happens. The best that we can do is ride it, surf it, be in it, appreciate it, and then let it go. Joanna: I think maybe I get a glimpse of that when I speak professionally, but I'm far more in control in that situation than I guess you were with—I don't know how many—was it a hundred kids in that choir? It looked pretty big. Alicia: It was amazing. It was 130 kids. Yes. Joanna: 130 kids! I mean, it was magic listening to it. And yes, of course, showing my age there with buying a CD, aren't I? Alicia: Well, I do still sell some CDs of Girls in Trouble on tour, because I have a bunch of them and people still buy them. I'm always so grateful because it was an easier life for touring musicians when we could just bring CDs. Now we have to be very creative about our merch. Joanna: Yes, that's a good point because people are like, “Oh yes, I'll scan your QR code and stream it,” but you might not get the money for that for ages, and it might just be five cents or whatever. Alicia: Streaming is terrible for live musicians. I mean, I don't know if you know the site Bandcamp, but it's essentially self-publishing for musicians. Bandcamp is a great way around that, and a lot of independent musicians use it because that's a place you can upload your music and people can pay $8 for an album. They can stream it on there if they want, or they can download it and have it. But, yes, it's hard out there for touring musicians. Joanna: Yes, for sure. Well, let's come to the book then. Your memoir, When We Are Born We Forget Everything. Tell us about some of the challenges of a book as opposed to these other types of performances. Alicia: Well, I come out of poetry, so that was my first love. That's what I majored in in college. That's what my MFA is in. Poetry is famously short, and I'm not one of those long-form poets. I have been trained for many years to think in terms of a one-page arc, if at all. Arc isn't even really a word that we use in poetry. So to write a full-length prose book was really an incredible education. Writing it basically took ten years from writing to publication, so probably seven years of writing and editing. I felt like there was an MFA-equivalent process in the number of classes I took, books I read, and work that went into it. So that was one of my main joys and challenges, really learning on the job to write long-form prose coming out of poetry. How to keep the engine going, how to think about ending one chapter in a way that leaves you with some torque or momentum so that you want to go into the next chapter. How many characters is too many? Who gets names and who doesn't? Some of these things that are probably pretty basic for fiction writers were all very new to me. That was a big part of my process. Then, of course, poets don't usually have agents. So once it was done, I began to query agents. It was the normal sort of 39 rejections and then one agent who really understood what I was trying to do. She's incredible, and she was able to sell the book. The longevity of just working on something for that long—I have a lot of joy in that longevity—but it does sometimes feel like, is this ever going to happen, or am I on a fool's errand? Joanna: I guess, again, the difference with performance is you have a date for the performance and it's done then. I suppose once you get a contract, then for sure it has to be done. But memoir in particular, you do have to set boundaries, because of course your life continues, doesn't it? So what were the challenges in curating what went into the book? Because many people listening know memoir is very challenging in terms of how personal it can be. Alicia: Yes, and one thing I think is so fascinating about memoir is choosing which lens to put on your story, on your own story. I heard early on that the difference between autobiography and memoir is that autobiography tries to give a really comprehensive view of a life, and memoir is choosing one lens and telling the story of a life through that lens, which is such a beautiful creative concept. I knew early on that I wanted this to be primarily a spiritual memoir, and also somewhat of an artistic memoir, because my creativity and my spirituality are so intertwined. It started off being spiritual, and also about my musical life, and also about my writing life. In the end, I edited out the part about my writing life, because writing about writing was just too navel-gazing. So there's nothing in there about me coming of age as a writer, which used to be in there, but that whole thing got taken out. Now it's spiritual and musical. For me, it really helped to start with those focuses, because I knew there may be things that were hugely important in my life, absolutely foundational, that were not really going to be either mentioned or gone deeply into in the book. For example, my husband teases me a lot about how few pages and words he gets. He's very important in my life, but I actually met him when I was 29, and this book really mainly takes place in the years leading up to that. There's a little bit of winding down in the first few years of my thirties, but this is not a book about my life with him. He is mentioned in it. That story is in there. Having those kinds of limitations around the canvas—there's a quote, I forget if it was Miranda July, but somebody said something like, basically when you put a limitation on your project, that's when it starts to be a work of art. Whatever it is, if you say, “I'm taking this canvas and I'm using these colours,” that's when it really begins, that initial limitation. That was very helpful. Joanna: It's also the beauty of memoir, because of course you can write different memoirs at different times. You can write something about your writing life. You can write something else about your marriage and your family later on. That doesn't all have to be in one book. I think that's actually something I found interesting. And I would also say in my memoir, Pilgrimage, my husband is barely mentioned either. Alicia: Does he tease you too? Joanna: No, I think he's grateful. He is grateful for the privacy. Alicia: That's why I keep saying, you should be grateful! Joanna: Yes. You really should. Like, maybe stop talking now. Alicia: Yes, exactly. I know. Marriage, memoir—those words should strike fear into his heart. Joanna: They definitely should. But let's just come back. When I look at your career— You just seem such an independent creative, and so I wondered why you decided to work with a traditional publisher instead of being an independent. How are you finding it as someone who's not in charge of everything? Alicia: It's a great question. The origin story for this memoir is that I was actually reading poetry at a writing conference called Bread Loaf in the States. This was 16 years ago or something. I was giving a poetry reading and afterwards an agent, not my agent, came up to me and said, you know, you have a voice. You should try writing nonfiction because you could probably sell it. Back to your question about how I support myself, I am always really hustling to make a living. It's not like I have some separate well-paying job and the writing has no pressure on it. So my ears kind of perked up. I thought, wait, getting paid for writing? Because poetry is literally not in the world. It's just not a concept for poets. That's not why we write and it's not a possibility. So a little light turned on in my brain. I thought, wow, that could be a really interesting element to add to my income stream, and it would be flexible and it would be meaningful. For a few years I thought, what nonfiction could I write? And I came up with the idea of writing a book about biblical women from a more scholarly perspective, because I teach that material and I've studied it. I went to speak to another agent and she said, well, you could do that, but if you actually want to sell a book, it's going to have to be more of a trade book. So if you don't want an academic press, which wouldn't pay very much, you would have to have some kind of memoir-like stories in there to just sweeten it so it doesn't feel academic. So then I began writing a little bit of spiritual memoir. I thought, okay, well, I'll write about a few moments. Then once I started writing, I couldn't stop. The floodgates really opened. That's how it ended up being a spiritual memoir with interwoven stories of biblical women. It became a hybrid in that sense. I knew from the beginning that this project—for all my saying earlier that I never plan anything and only work on instinct, I was thinking as I said that, that cannot be true. This time, I actually thought, what if, instead of coming from this pure, heart-focused place of poetry, I began writing with the intention of potentially selling a book? The way my fiction writer friends talked about selling their books. So that was always in my mind. I knew I would continue writing poetry, continue publishing with small presses, continue putting my own music out there independently, but this was a bit of an experiment. What if I try to interface with the publishing world, in part for financial sustainability? And because I had a full draft before I queried, I never felt like anyone was telling me what to write. I can't imagine personally selling a book on proposal, because I do need that full capacity to just swerve, change directions, be responsive to what the project is teaching me. I can't imagine promising that I'll write something, because I never know what I'll write. But writing at least a very solid draft first, I'm always delighted to get notes and make polish and rewrite and make things better. I took care of that freedom in the first seven years of writing and then I interfaced with the agent and publisher. Joanna: I was going to say, given that it's taken you seven to ten years to do this and I can't imagine that you're suddenly a multimillionaire from this book. It probably hasn't fulfilled the hourly rate that perhaps you were thinking of in terms of being paid for your work. I think some people think that everyone's going to end up with the massive book deal that pays for the rest of their life. I guess this book does just fit into the rest of your portfolio career. Alicia: Yes. One of the benefits of these long arcs that I like to work on is, one of them—and probably the primary one—is that the project gets to unfold on its own time. I don't think I could have rushed it if I wanted. The other is that it never really stopped me from doing any of my other work. Joanna: Mm-hmm. Alicia: So it's not like, oh, I gave up months of my life and all I got was this advance or something. It's like, I was living my life and then when I had a little bit of writing time—and I will say, it impacted my poetry. I haven't written as much poetry because I was working on this. So it wasn't like I just added it on top of everything I was already doing, but it was a pleasure to just switch to prose for a while. It was just woven into my life. I appreciated having this side project where no one was waiting for it. There were no deadlines, there was no stress around it, because I always have performances to promote and due dates for all kinds of work. It was just this really lovely arena of slow growth and play. When I wanted a reader, I could do a swap with a writer friend, but no one was ever waiting for it on deadline. So there's actually a lot of pleasure in that. Then I will say, I think I've made more from selling this than my poetry. Probably close to ten times more than I've ever made from any of my poetry. So on a poetry scale, it's certainly not going to pay for my life, but it actually does make a true financial difference in a way that much of my other work is a little more bit by bit by bit. It's actually a different scale. Joanna: Well, that's really good. I'm glad to hear that. I also want to ask you, because you've done so many things, and— I'm fascinated by your independent film, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff. I have only watched the trailer. You are in it, you wrote it, directed it, and it's also obviously got other people in, and it's fascinating. It's about this particular point in history. I've written quite a lot of screenplay adaptations of my novels, and I've had some various amounts of interest, but the whole film industry to me is just a complete nightmare, far bigger nightmare than the book industry. So I wonder if you could maybe talk about this, because it just seems like you made a film, which is so cool. Alicia: Oh yes, thank you. Joanna: And it won awards, yes, we should say. Alicia: Did we win awards? Yes. It really, for an extremely low-budget indie film, went far further than my team and I could ever have imagined. I will say I never intended to make a film. Like most of the best things in my life, it really happened by accident. When I was living in New York— I lived there for many years—the 2008 financial collapse happened and I happened to have an arts grant that gave a bunch of artists workspace, studio space, in essentially an abandoned building in the financial district. It was an empty floor of a building. The floor had been left by the previous tenant, and there's a nonprofit that takes unused real estate in the financial district and lets artists work in it for a while. So I was on Wall Street, which was very rare for me, but for this year I was working on Wall Street. Even though I was working on poems, the financial collapse happened around me, and I did get inspired by that to create a one-woman show, which was more of a theatre show. That was already a huge leap for me because I had no real theatre experience, but it was experimental and growing out of my poetry practice and my music. It was a musical one-woman show about the financial collapse from a spiritual perspective, apparently. So I performed that. I documented it, and then a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon, where I now live, said, “I'm a theatre producer, I'd like to produce it here.” So then I rewrote it and did a run here in Portland of that show. Essentially, I started to tour it a little bit, but I got tired of it. It was too much work and it never really paid very much, and I thought, this is impacting my life negatively. I just want to do a really good documentation of the show. So I wanted to hire a theatre documentarian to just document the show so that it didn't disappear, like you were saying before about live performance. But one of the people I talked to actually ended up being an artistic filmmaker, as opposed to a documentarian. She watched the archival footage, just a single camera of the show, and said, “I don't think you should do this again and film it with three cameras. I think you should make it into a feature film. And in fact, I think maybe I should direct it, because there's all this music in it and I also direct music videos.” We had this kind of mind meld. Joanna: Mm. Alicia: I never intended to make a film, but she is a visionary director and I had this piece of IP essentially, and all the music and the writing. We adapted it together. We did it here in Portland. We did all the fundraising ourselves. We did not interface with Hollywood really. I think that would be, I just can't imagine. I love Hollywood, but I'm not really connected, and I can't imagine waiting for someone to give us permission or a green light to make this. It was experimental and indie, so we just really did it on the cheap. We had an amazing producer who helped us figure out how to do it with the budget that we had. We worked really hard fundraising, crowdfunding, asking for donations, having parties to raise money, and then we just did it and put it out there. I think my main advice—and I hear this a lot on screenwriting podcasts—is just make the thing. Make something, as opposed to trying to get permission to make something. Because unless you're already in that system, it's going to be really hard to get permission to make it. Once you make something, that leads to something else, which leads to something else. So even if it's a very short thing, or even if it's filmed on your phone, just actually make the thing. That turned out to be the right thing for us. Joanna: Yes, I mean, I feel like that is what underpins us as independent creatives in general. As an independent author, I feel the same way. I'm never asking permission to put a book in the world. No, thank you. Alicia: Exactly. We have a vision and we do it. It's harder in some ways, but that liberation of being able to really fully create our vision without having to compromise it or wait for permission, I think it's such a beautiful thing. Joanna: Well, we're almost out of time, but I do want to ask you about creative confidence. Alicia: Hmm. Joanna: I feel I'm getting a lot of sense about this at the moment, with all the AI stuff that's happening. When you've been creating a long time, like you and I have, we know our voice and we can lean into our voice. We are creatively confident. We'll fail a lot, but we'll just push on and try things and see what happens. Newer creators are struggling with this kind of confidence. How do I know what is my voice? How do I know what I like? How do I lean into this? So give us some thoughts about how to find your voice and how to find that creative confidence if you don't feel you have it. Alicia: I love that. One thing I will say is that I always think whatever is arising is powerful material to create from. So if a lack of confidence is arising, that's a really powerful feeling to directly explore and not just try to ignore. Although sometimes one has to just ignore those feelings. But to actually explore that feeling, because AI can't have that, right? AI can't really feel a crisis of confidence, and humans can. So that's a gift that we have, those kinds of sensitivities. I think to go really deep into whatever is arising, including the sense that we don't have the right to be creating, or we're not good enough, or whatever it is. Then I always do come back to a quote. I think it might have been John Berryman, but I'm forgetting which poet said it. A younger poet said, “How will I ever know if I'm any good?” And this famous poet said something like—I'm paraphrasing—”You'll never know if you're any good. If you have to know, don't write.” That has been really liberating to me, actually. It sounds a little harsh, but it's been really liberating to just let go of a sense of “good enough.” There is no good enough. The great writers never know if they're good enough. Coming back to this idea of just making without permission—the practice of doing the thing is being a writer. Caring and trying to improve our craft, that's the best that we can have. There's never going to be a moment where we're like, yes, I've nailed this. I am truly a hundred per cent a writer and I have found my voice. Everything's always changing anyway. I would say, either go into those feelings or let those feelings be there. Give them a little tea. Tell them, okay, you're welcome to be here, but you don't get to drive the boat. And then return to the practice of making. Joanna: Absolutely. Great. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Alicia: Everything is on my website, which is AliciaJo.com, and also on Instagram at @ohaliciajo. I'd love to say hello to anyone who's interested in similar topics. Joanna: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Alicia. That was great. Alicia: Thank you. I love your podcast. I'm so grateful for all that you've given the writing world, Jo.The post Creative Confidence, Portfolio Careers, And Making Without Permission with Alicia Jo Rabins first appeared on The Creative Penn.
What nanty narking our Reginas have with some slang from the Victorian era. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Marilyn Nelson's poem in The New Yorker that Aaron was thinking of is "Pigeon and Hawk."Poets we mention include (with a poem by each):Marie HoweCleopatra MathisLinda GreggLucie Brock-BroidoAdrienne RichYvor WintersFrank O'HaraAnna AkhmatovaLynn MelnickMary Jo BangJean Valentines, "Ghost Elephants"Larry Levis and Aaron's poem "Elegy" which references Levis's "The Smell of the Sea"James MerrillBrenda HillmanRichard HowardShaon OldsHenry David ThoreauLaura KasischkeLucille CliftonAracelis GirmayKenneth KochRupi KaurJacques J. RancourtTerrance Hayes
Every year, the Multnomah County Library chooses one book they hope the whole city will read. Between January and April, the Library, and their partner organizations, host events based around the themes of the book, and they distribute thousands of free copies—thanks to the Library Foundation—to readers of all ages from across the county. At Literary Arts, our role is to bring the author to town for a talk in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The 2025 Everybody Reads book was the memoir Solito by Javier Zamora. Written from the perspective of his nine-year-old self, Solito is a gripping and beautiful account of Zamora's three-thousand-mile journey from a small village in El Salvador to his new home in United States. Epic in scope and intimate in detail, it's a book about the family one comes from, the family one longs for, and the family one makes. Zamora conjures all the wonder, fear and imaginative capacity of his young self; clear-eyed in his depictions of cruelty and danger, insistent on recognizing kindness. He also renders his journey with vivid detail with breathtaking lyricism, paying close attention to the power of language – this comes as no surprise, given that Zamora is also an award-winning poet. The writer Sandra Cisneros said, “I have waited decades for a memoir like Solito.” But, Solito isn't simply a story of a migrant's harrowing journey, it's the story of a writer becoming a writer. It is also one of the most important American stories of our time. “Poetry and history were the first tools I had to begin to explain my life so far away from the land that watched me be born and grow up for the first nine years of my life.” Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990. When he was a year old, his father fled El Salvador due to the US-funded Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992). His mother followed her husband's footsteps in 1995 when Javier was about to turn five. Zamora was left at the care of his grandparents who helped raise him until he migrated to the US when he was nine. His first poetry collection, Unaccompanied, explores some of these themes. In his debut New York Times bestselling memoir, SOLITO, Javier retells his nine-week odyssey across Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. He travelled unaccompanied by boat, bus, and foot. After a coyote abandoned his group in Oaxaca, Javier managed to make it to Arizona with the aid of other migrants. Zamora is the winner of a 2024 Whiting Fellowship and the 2022 LA Times-Christopher Isherwood Prize. He holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University (Olive B. O’Connor), MacDowell, Macondo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation (Ruth Lilly), Stanford University (Stegner), and Yaddo. He is the recipient of a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University, a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize, the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign.
In this episode of Thinking Out Loud, Nathan Rittenhouse and Cameron McAllister engage one of the most pressing theological questions of our time: what makes humanity truly unique in the age of artificial intelligence? Prompted by a striking exchange between Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams over AI-generated poetry, Nathan and Cameron explore whether creativity, rationality, and emotional depth are enough to define human value. Drawing on Psalm 8, the doctrine of the Imago Dei, and historic Christian theology, they challenge the modern assumption that human worth is grounded in intellectual capability alone—an assumption increasingly tested by the rapid rise of AI. This deep theological discussion connects current events, technology, human identity, embodiment, worship, and community, offering Christians a robust biblical worldview for navigating the AI revolution. For believers seeking serious Christian analysis of culture, theology of technology, and thoughtful engagement with today's headlines, Nathan and Cameron provide rich insight rooted in Scripture and Christian hope.DONATE LINK: https://toltogether.com/donate BOOK A SPEAKER: https://toltogether.com/book-a-speakerJOIN TOL CONNECT: https://toltogether.com/tol-connect TOL Connect is an online forum where TOL listeners can continue the conversation begun on the podcast.
Nikita Gill writes the story of rarely talked about Greek goddess Hekate in this coming of age story. And you know the Busy Girls love a Greek retelling. But what about if it's in a poem format?
Since Jasmine was out of town for last week's episde, we return to Volume 3 of Tolkien's collected poetry and talk about a few more of our first favorites. Tragedy written in bouncy couplets. A slow and terrifying dragon. And a purposely unfinished work by...Arwen?
WKNC's slacker interviews Dr. Diamond Forde, poet and professor of Creative Writing at NC State University, about performance, her creative process and the inspiration behind her newest collection, "The Book of Alice." ★ Support this podcast ★
Send a textIn this episode of The Magick Kitchen Podcast, we're joined by Katie Ness, a witch and priestess whose practice weaves goddess devotion, ancestral connection, and folk magic through the living art of poetry. We talk about “word witchery” as a spiritual path, how listening and silence shape devotional language, and why poetry belongs to everyone, not only trained writers. Katie shares how her earliest experiences with spirit and grief became a lifelong practice of writing to the liminal, and we explore practical ways to begin, even if you think you are not creative. We also touch on sacred land, voice, and the healing of expression.Find Katie Ness at instagram.com/katie_wild_witchLoose-leaf Tea and Sacred Apothecary A Five-Day Audio Program to Clear the Noise and Transform Your Practice. This is where serious Witches belong. The Witch's Reset exists for witches who are done dabbling,who are ready to stop circling the work and step into competence, coherence, and embodied trust. https://leandrawitchwood.com/witchs_reset The Healing Our Feminine Wounding Immersive is a sacred retreat devoted to untangling inherited shame, silence, and survival patterns carried in the feminine body. Through ritual, reflection, and land based temple arts, we work gently and honestly with what has been passed down so that a truer, steadier way of being can emerge. Sacred Wild Wednesdays is a live weekly gathering with Elyse Welles featuring tarot readings for participants, magickal musings, and grounded spiritual teaching. Held in real time, this space offers guidance, perspective, and connection for those walking the Path of the Sacred Wild.Support the Podcast!
667. Part 2 of our conversation with Kathleen Kass Byrd about her book on the history of Natchitoches. "Kathleen M. Byrd's Natchitoches, Louisiana, 1803–1840 is an examination of one French Creole community as it transitioned from a fur-trading and agricultural settlement under the control of Spain to a critical American outpost on the Spanish/American frontier and finally to a commercial hub and jumping-off point for those heading west. Byrd focuses on historic events in the area and the long-term French Creole residents as they adapted to the American presence. She also examines the effect of the arrival of the Americans, with their Indian trading house and Indian agency, on Native groups and considers how members of the enslaved population took advantage of opportunities for escape presented by a new international border. Byrd shows how the arrival of Americans forever changed Natchitoches, transforming it from a sleepy frontier settlement into a regional commercial center and staging point for pioneers heading into Texas" (LSU Pr.). Kathleen M. Byrd (nicknamed Kass) is a distinguished anthropologist, archaeologist, and historian specializing in the history and prehistory of Louisiana, particularly the Natchitoches region. A native of Connecticut, she earned her B.A. from Marquette University, an M.A. from LSU (focusing on coastal subsistence patterns), and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. She served as Louisiana's state archaeologist for 15 years before joining Northwestern State University (NSU) in Natchitoches in 1994, where she later became director of the School of Social Sciences for 12 years until her retirement. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Jim Kjelgaard. Swamp Cat. Frosty's heritage, in great measure, came from his renegade father. Incapable of fearing anything, he was sufficient unto himself and he'd known that from the first day he'd opened his eyes and looked around the shed. There was not and never would be a situation with which he could not cope or a foe from whom he would run in panic. His self-confidence was almost as vast as his curiosity. He would stand alone, or with kindred spirits. Never would he place himself at the mercy of, or pay homage to, one who was not kindred. He liked the woman. She was unfailingly kind and gentle. She knew exactly how to pet him and she ' a small point ' brought his food. But he would not, as the gray kittens did, unbend so far as to met her at the door. She was not his superior. This week in Louisiana history. February 27, 1827. New Orleans kicks off its first Mardi Gras. This week in New Orleans history. Mardi Gras Day was cancelled on February 27, 1979 due to the New Orleans Police strike. Some Orleans Parish parades were rescheduled in Jefferson Parish. This week in Louisiana. Kisatchie National Forest ' Valentine Lake Recreation Area Valentine Lake Road Forest Hill, LA 71430 Open year‑round; February is ideal for cool‑weather hiking and quiet lakeside visits Website: fs.usda.gov/kisatchie Email: KNFinfo@usda.gov Phone: (318) 473‑7160 Valentine Lake is one of Kisatchie's most peaceful recreation areas, offering scenic trails, birdwatching, and lakeside relaxation during the mild late‑winter season: Valentine Lake Trail: A 3.4‑mile loop through longleaf pine forest with excellent wildlife viewing. Picnic & Day‑Use Areas: Shaded spots along the shoreline, perfect for quiet afternoons. Fishing Access: The 46‑acre lake is stocked with bass, bream, and catfish. No fee for entry. There is a small fee for camping. Postcards from Louisiana. Sporty's Brass Band. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook.
TheWanderingPaddy Poetry - The Book of Truths. Out Now on Amazon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Emily interviews Brian Robinson, a Silicon Valley teacher, lawyer, swim coach, and poet, about what matters most to him right now: showing up for his children as a father. Brian shares the story of his sudden cardiac arrest during swim practice in May 2021, how teens at the pool got him help and an AED shock saved his life, and how his kids' voices on a Zoom call helped wake him from an induced coma. They talk about his recovery, how his kids have processed the experience over time, and the unanswered questions about why it happened. In the speed round, they touch on fatherhood, global athletic competition, resilience, classic poetry (including Rumi's “The Guest House”), physical and cardiac health, functional beverages, and superstitions. Brian also mentions his children's picture book about the experience, "You Called Daddy".More Info: www.BrianRobinsonAuthor.com00:24 What Matters Most Now01:07 Collapse at Swim Practice02:35 CPR and Hospital Coma03:32 Kids Wake Him Up05:06 New Perspective on Fatherhood10:06 No Warning Signs11:15 Matters Speed Round Begins13:52 Poetry and Mindfulness15:09 Health Habits and Hype Drinks17:37 Where to Find BrianThis podcast is brought to you by Matters.com. A new social media and collaboration platform - launching soon. Join thousands getting the Matters.com newsletter — world news, fresh perspectives, and early beta access.
You feeling this episode? Send us a text!We're closing out the love month. In this episode, we dive into the understanding of love. Do you really love the person you're with? How do you know? Are your answers more about service or character? It seems when asked "Why?" most people revert to service and not character? Let's tune in now. Support the show
Ruth Irupé Sanabria's delicious and dexterous “Carne” begins with these lines: “I've eaten pork from / pernil to chuletas to chitterlings.” And just in case you were wondering — and even if you're not — the speaker goes on to list much more of the seafood, poultry, and animal parts that have been consumed and how they were cooked. Lest you think this poem is simply a meat-eater's manifesto, savor its final turn towards what else the speaker is really hungry for. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns, or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes. Ruth Irupé Sanabria's first collection of poetry, The Strange House Testifies, was published by Bilingual Review Press. Her second collection, Beasts Behave in Foreign Land, received the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Press Prize. She is a Dodge Poet, a CantoMundo Fellow, and holds an MFA in poetry from NYU. She works as a high school English teacher in New Jersey. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Hi everyone!In this segment, we explore the upcoming Lunar Eclipse in Leo in Pūrva Phalgunī — an asterism associated with love, romance, creativity, pleasure, and the sacred creative force that flows through us when we are still, present, and at rest.We discuss practical strategies to consciously connect with and utilize this energy:Prioritizing rest as a creative actSoftening into receptivity rather than controlHealing wounds or authority, visibility, and recognitionReclaiming sensuality as ours to experience Meanwhile, Venus shifts into its sign of exaltation in Pisces, heightening emotion and awakening a longing for “higher love.” Romance may feel fated, spiritual, transcendent. But with heightened sensitivity comes potential illusion.There may be:Idealization in loveRose-colored glassesConfusion or mixed signalsKarmic themes surfacing in intimacy and partnershipWith both Saturn and Neptune influencing the field, we explore the tension between devotion and delusion, fantasy and maturity. The invitation is not to reject romance — but to balance it. To enjoy beauty and mysticism while remaining grounded and discerning.With the Leo–Aquarius axis activated, this eclipse also speaks to:Inner authority vs. collective influenceAncestral patterns around visibility and leadershipInvesting in causes we genuinely care aboutImpact doesn't have to be grandiose. It can look like:Small acts of generosityShowing up authenticallyChoosing integrity over applauseTune in to explore how this eclipse may manifest — and how to consciously work with its creative, romantic, and transformative potential.YOUTUBE:D9 exploration:https://youtu.be/HTgYcjltyasCharacteristics of Your Spouse:https://youtu.be/i_cOvdSbjy0Soulmate Astrologyhttps://youtu.be/ExnDysvjzUwChristine:website: innerknowing.yogainstagram: astrologynow_podcastpatreon: patreon.com/astrologynowpodcast keywords: astrology, jyotish, Vedic astrology, sidereal astrology, nakshatras, spirituality, Christine Rodriguez, aries, libra, scorpio, libra, capricorn, Nakshatra, new moon, taurus, Venus, Jupiter, Pisces, Spirituality, horoscope, retrograde, eclipse, solar eclipse, new moon, lunar eclipse
Is reality fundamentally inert, or is it structured by divine desire? In this episode, John Vervaeke and Zevi Slavin explore the metaphysical vision of Ibn Gabirol and the integration of Jewish thought with Neoplatonism. They examine the claim that all of existence arises through the coupling of matter and form, unified by divine will. The conversation traces the Philosophical Silk Road and reflects on how Ibn Gabirol shaped Christian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy. At its center is a contemporary challenge: can we recover a shared philosophical language that orients us toward unity without erasing difference? Zevi Slavin is the founder of Seekers of Unity and a teacher of Jewish mysticism and integrative metaphysics. His work engages classical Jewish sources and cultivates cross traditional dialogue grounded in participatory metaphysics. Seekers of Unity YouTube Channel https://youtube.com/c/SeekersofUnity Zevi Slavin on LinkedIn https://linkedin.com/in/zevislavin Support the work on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/johnvervaeke Join The Lectern for full length courses and structured learning pathways https://lectern.teachable.com/p/lectern-lounge 00:00 Welcome to The Lectern 02:30 Ibn Gabirol's core metaphysical claims 04:46 Matter and form bound by divine desire 07:30 Zevi Slavin and Seekers of Unity 15:00 Jewish philosophy and identity 24:00 Religious orientation and personal engagement 38:30 Neoplatonism and existential tension 39:30 Existentialism and Jewish identity 42:00 Sacred relationships and divine agency 44:00 Philosophical Silk Road and religious homes 46:30 Jewish Neoplatonism and divine desire 49:30 Divine agency and Jewish mysticism 57:00 The paradox of universal and particular 01:12:00 Toward a shared philosophical language John Vervaeke https://johnvervaeke.com https://www.youtube.com/@johnvervaeke https://www.patreon.com/johnvervaeke https://x.com/drjohnvervaeke
What happens when a poet and a theologian decide to write letters to each other about faith? In this episode, I sit down with Christian Wiman and Miroslav Volf to discuss their book Glimmerings and talk about the language we use for God and why it so often falls short, the tension between God's presence and absence, what the Book of Job has to say about suffering, and whether faith can survive, even deepen, without easy answers. It's a conversation about holding paradox, paying attention, and what it looks like to keep believing in the middle of real life.Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. His Gifford Lectures (2025) are titled Amor Mundi: God and the Character of Our Relation to the World.Christian Wiman is the Clement-Muehl Professor of the Arts at Yale Divinity School. He is the author, editor, or translator of fifteen books, including Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair and Hammer Is the Prayer: Selected Poems. His work appears regularly in Harper's, The New Yorker, and Commonweal.Miroslav & Chris' Book:Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a TheologianChris' Recommendations:The Banquet YearsMiroslav's Recommendation:The Cost of DiscipleshipConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link belowGet Your Sidekick Support the show
In this episode, I'm joined by Rik Emmett, legendary guitarist, vocalist, and founding member of Triumph.Rik celebrates the band's 50th anniversary as we look back at Triumph's legacy, the music that defined arena rock, and the lasting connection fans still feel decades later. He also discusses his brand-new poetry book, revealing a more personal and reflective creative side beyond the guitar.From “Lay It On the Line” and “Magic Power” to the present day, this is a thoughtful conversation about artistry, creativity, and what it means to keep evolving after a lifetime in music.Listen now and join the celebration of Triumph at 50.Purchase a copy of Leaning Into It: PoemsVisit TriumphMusic.com----------
These days I sometimes have to remind myself to keep breathing. I think this is true of human beings across all of our differences and divides. But in a room in New York City just before the turn of this year, I was regrounded by this fierce and joyous conversation with Joy Harjo and Tracy K. Smith. I invite you to settle into your soft breathing body with these two wise women as companions and with a sense of poetry as a technology, as Tracy describes in her new book: a technology for rising to our truest, highest selves, even amidst grief and mystery and danger, and bearing witness to each other as we do so. I think all of us in the room left a little more lighthearted and alive as this conversation unfolded. I hope that will be your experience too. Tracy K. Smith and Joy Harjo are former U.S. poet laureates, beloved On Being guests, and friends. They are each wildly and deservedly awarded and not just as poets — Tracy also as a teacher and professor at Harvard, Joy as a saxophonist and painter. We were brought together at Symphony Space in Manhattan to celebrate their newest books: Fear Less by Tracy and Girl Warrior by Joy. Find an excellent transcript of this show, edited by humans, on our show page. Sign yourself and others up for The Pause to be on our mailing list for all things On Being and to receive Krista's monthly Saturday newsletter, including a heads up on new episodes, special offerings, recommendations, and event invitations. Joy Harjo was the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. Among many honors, she has received the Poetry Society of America's Frost Medal and a National Humanities Medal. She is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She lives on the Muscogee Nation Reservation in Oklahoma. Her new book of essays is Girl Warrior. Forthcoming in 2026 is her 12th book of poetry and a new album co-produced with esperanza spalding. Tracy K. Smith was the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Harvard University, where she is Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Among her many honors, she has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and is a Chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her new memoir is Fear Less. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
January Gill O'Neil reads and discusses Lucille Clifton's "Won't You Celebrate with Me" and also poems from January's newest book, Glitter Road.January Gill O'Neil is a poet whose work explores the afterlives of history in American landscapes and intimate lives. Her poems trace how place, memory, and moral inheritance shape identity across generations, joining lyric precision with documentary attention and restraint.She is the author of four poetry collections published by CavanKerry Press: Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009). Glitter Road received the 2024 Poetry by the Sea Best Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize and was a finalist for several honors, including the Massachusetts Book Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poetry, The Nation, American Poetry Review, and the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series.A Cave Canem fellow, O'Neil is a professor at Salem State University and teaches graduate poetry writing in the summer program at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. She served as executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival from 2012 to 2018 and was the 2019–2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. She is a former chair of the AWP Board of Directors and its longest-serving current board member. She earned her B.A. at Old Dominion University and her MFA. at New York University.
TheWanderingPaddy Poetry - The Book of Truths. Out Now on Amazon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Adrian Matejka joins Kevin Young to read “Against the Encroaching Grays,” by C. D. Wright, and his own poem “Almost Home.” Matejka is the author of several poetry collections and the graphic novel “Last on His Feet.” He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, served as the poet laureate of the state of Indiana from 2018 to 2019, and is editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine. His new collection, “Be Easy: New & Selected Poems,” will be published in March. He lives in Chicago. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Thinklings Podcast — Episode 285 Is Theology Poetry? Welcome to Episode 285 of The Thinklings Podcast! In this episode, the Thinklings explore a provocative and beautiful question: Is theology poetry? Together, they consider how language, metaphor, imagination, and doctrine relate—asking whether theological truth is merely propositional or whether it also carries poetic weight and beauty. Thanks for tuning in to this week's conversation!
Something is shifting again, and this time it feels subtle enough to miss. We are using AI to negotiate our bills. To draft our emails. To guide our conversations. Scripts are talking to scripts while we sit in the middle, repeating words we did not fully form ourselves.Most of us have not stopped to ask what that does to us.In the second part of this AI conversation, Amy and guest, Bill Kirst, go deeper into the grief of living in a world that no longer feels fully real. What happens when our conversations are optimized instead of lived? When conflict is copy pasted instead of worked through? When music moves us, only to discover no human voice ever stood behind it? When art is polished into perfection without the trembling hands that once created it?What is the cost of editing out the pause, the breath, the crack in the voice? What happens when debate is replaced with algorithmic agreement? When we slowly outsource the friction that once shaped our character, our creativity, our leadership?This conversation is not anti technology. It is a call to discernment. A call back to vinyl scratches and imperfect storytelling. A reminder that inspiration does not live in speed or scale. It lives in depth. In effort. In presence.If we hand over too much of ourselves, we may wake up one day asking a harder question.Who am I, if I no longer sound like me?Listen closely. Notice what rises in your body. Then decide what parts of your humanity you are willing to protect.Threads We Pulled On:The Collapse Of Trust In A Deepfake Era – Confront the grief that surfaces when you can no longer distinguish what is real and begin questioning what you once trusted.Creativity Without Imperfection – Consider what happens to art, music, and storytelling when machines remove the friction that gives creative work its meaning.The Habit Of Disconnection – Notice how repeated reliance on AI tools slowly conditions you to outsource tension, conflict, and authentic expression.Nostalgia As Resistance – Reclaim tangible artifacts and embodied experiences as a way to anchor yourself in what feels undeniably human.The Reverse Renaissance – Envision a future where you deepen discernment, return to richer wells of inspiration, and choose to create with intention. You can listen to Bill's episode - AI & The Poetry of Our Existence with Bill Kirst here - https://create-magic-at-work-r.captivate.fm/episode/ai-the-poetry-of-our-existence-with-bill-kirst/ About the Guest:Bill Kirst is an author, technology leader, podcast host, military veteran, mentor, educator and mindfulness practitioner. He has been writing stories, poems and lyrics for as long as he can remember. He hails from a long line of storytellers and educators who are deeply inspired, moved and healed by the power of the written word. Mixing in melody, chords and a chorus generate a powerful response toward healing. This is why he sees the world through a songwriter's eyes, and why his first published work was a collection of poetry. And his second book is focuses on how we hold on to our humanity in this era of AI....
Loving in the face of violence, danger, and distress is an act of defiance, as demonstrated in Lena Khalaf Tuffaha's achingly beautiful poem “Dukka”. The Palestinian American writer spotlights seven aspects of love in action — between father and newborn, for example, a journalist and her audience, a pair of intimates dining out. She shows us the “million ways to love” flowing through her community and cascading through generations, centuries, millennia, as inexorable and constant as the ocean and as bright and surprising as a rare meteor shower. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns, or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes. Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. She is author of three books of poetry: Something About Living (The University of Akron Press, 2024), winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry and the 2022 Akron Poetry Prize; Kaan & Her Sisters (Trio House Press), finalist for the 2024 CLMP Firecracker Award and honorable mention for the 2024 Arab American Book Award; and Water & Salt (Red Hen Press), winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award and honorable mention of the 2018 Arab American Book Award. She is also the author of two chapbooks: Arab in Newsland, winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize, and Letters from the Interior, finalist for the 2020 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Birds have always been a source of inspiration for writers. Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, and William Shakespeare, to name a few, have all written about birds. But what is it about them that so captures our literary imagination? Words in Flight is an hour-long celebration of contemporary poetry about birds, and what they teach us about ourselves and our world.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Dadley Boyz chat about what happened on this week's episode of Friday Night SmackDown, including...HUGE Elimination Chamber developments!Randy Orton vs. Aleister Black!Uncle Howdy challenges Solo Sikoa!The crate comes to SmackDown!Oba Femi HATES toxic poetry?!ENJOY!Follow us on Twitter:@AdamWilbourn@MichaelHamflett@WhatCultureWWEFor more awesome content, check out: whatculture.com/wwe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
To get live links to the music we play and resources we offer, visit www.WOSPodcast.comThis show includes the following songs:Sara Diana - Is That Blood FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYJulia Dawson - Guilty FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYamm - tell me the truth (softer) FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYI Want Poetry - Apology FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYBad Penny - Love Bomb (feat. Cherie Currie) FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYDevah - To Depression FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYSharon Silverstein & The Peace Project - Let More Lovin' FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYCoyote Reverie - Side Show (Phatwave Chillmix) FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYKatya Redpath - Wake Up FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYMelanie Georgiou - In The Next Life FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYSarah Bugar - Hard to kill FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYFANFAIRE - Lost City FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYViolet - Set Me Free FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYAlexayndra - Death of a Dream FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYShery M - Goin Gone FOLLOW ON SPOTIFYFor Music Biz Resources Visit www.FEMusician.com and www.ProfitableMusician.comVisit our Sponsor Sophia AvaVisit our SponsorVisit our SponsorVisit our SponsorVisit www.wosradio.com for more details and to submit music to our review board for consideration.Visit our resources for Indie Artists: https://www.wosradio.com/resourcesBecome more Profitable in just 3 minutes per day. http://profitablemusician.com/join
The queens read for filth another toxic masculinist article before we play a saucy game based on a gay novel. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Heather Christle's post sparked this episode's discussion and can be found here. Christle's most recent book of poetry is Paper Crown (Wesleyan UP, August 2025)While there isn't an out gay character in Dead Poets Society, there is some gay-coded stuff going on. Read Kaeya Merchant's fabulous essay on the topic: "Dead Poets Society is Queer; Here's Why" The Garth Greenwell essay on Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance which Aaron references was also published in the Yale Review. Check out Garth's website at https://www.garthgreenwell.comAt the end of the show, we quote the line "What did you think, that joy was some slight thing?" which is from Mark Doty's "Visitation"Other poems or poets we reference are:Garret Hongo's "What For"e.e. cummings, "somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond"David Bottoms, "Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt"A.E. Stallings, "Sea Girls"Jorie Graham, "At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Body"Emily Dickinson, Poem 591
Cliff Maloney rejoins the Thoughtcrime crew for a dive into many exciting and spicy topics, including: -Does 'white culture' exist, and if so, what is it? -Is Thomas Massie literally just a Democrat now? -Has AI rendered all of Hollywood obsolete? -What does Eric Swalwell's college erotic poetry reveal about the potential next governor of California? Tune into Thoughtcrime and interact with the cast live each Thursday night on Rumble at 6 pm Eastern. Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com! Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Cliff Maloney rejoins the Thoughtcrime crew for a dive into many exciting and spicy topics, including:-Does 'white culture' exist, and if so, what is it?-Is Thomas Massie literally just a Democrat now?-Has AI rendered all of Hollywood obsolete?Support the show
Rachel Mann's “#TDOR” manages to turn a depiction of one side of a conversation about marking Trans Day of Remembrance into a poem that is both empathic and uncompromising. Mann captures the verbal stammers and stumbles of the well-meaning but leaves us to reckon whether the words land as mirror, mockery, or cry for action. We invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack, read the Poetry Unbound books and his newest work, Kitchen Hymns, or listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes. Rachel Mann is a priest, writer, and broadcaster. She is the author of 13 books, including her debut poetry collection, A Kingdom of Love, and the acclaimed nonfiction, Fierce Imaginings: The Great War, Ritual, Memory, and God. She is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at Manchester Writing School and broadcasts regularly, including as a contributor to Thought For The Day. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
This week, Scott sat down with his foreign-policy-minded colleagues Daniel Byman, Michael Feinberg, and Ari Tabatabai to talk through some recent big news stories around the world, including:“Beer Hall Push-back.” Over the weekend, a raft of bipartisan U.S. and European officials headed to Bavaria for the annual Munich Security Conference. Last year, Vice President J.D. Vance gave a barnburner of a speech, accusing European allies of restraining free speech and giving succor to the European far right. This year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a more conciliatory set of remarks that nonetheless signaled that there were some fundamental changes happening in the relationship. For their part, European leaders mostly seemed to be on board with that as they increasingly leaned into the public stance that it was time for the continent to stand on its own, independent of the United States, although how feasible that will be and on what timeline remain the big questions. What should we make of the different remarks we heard from the conference and the broader messages the two sides are sending to each other? And is this a sign of an impending divorce or a different sort of shift in the U.S.-European transatlantic relationship? “Rial Talk.” American and Iranian officials met again this week in Geneva to negotiate an end to the Islamic Republic's nuclear weapons program in exchange for an easing or elimination of U.S. sanctions on Iran. The negotiations took place amidst continued saber rattling by both President Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who threatened in a speech ahead of the talks to sink U.S. warships in the region if Iran came under attack. Nonetheless, some participants in the negotiations—particularly the mediators from Oman—seemed optimistic that the two sides were getting closer to some sort of common understanding about how they might move forward. But U.S. military assets are continuing to accumulate in the region, leading some to conclude that a military operation may yet be on the horizon. Is there space for a deal? Or iare we going to see another war in Iran?“Xi Who Must Not Be Named.” A year in, the second Trump administration has not proven to be the China hawk that many expected. Far from drawing a hard line on all things China as the first Trump administration often seemed to do, U.S. officials have instead been surprisingly quiet and conciliatory in regard to China, at least outside the trade context. This has remained true even as reports have emerged of Xi Jinping purging his military of non-loyalists, modernizing China's nuclear arsenal, and building more submarines—all steps with the potential to significantly upset the balance of power in Asia and beyond. What is the real logic underlying the Trump administration's seemingly quixotic approach to China, and where might it lead the broader relationship between the two major powers? In object lessons, Dan is delighting in John Company, a social-climbing, backroom-dealing, hostile-bargaining board game to, you know, escape the harsh realities of the real world. Ari enthusiastically recommends the Broadway adaptation of Death Becomes Her, which somehow manages to be even quirkier than the original film. Scott has been sucked into the social media abyss by Jess and Quinn's corny, absurdist, and pun-oriented humor. And Mike offers an anti-object-lesson warning: the “Poetry for Kids” series is not, in fact, reliably for kids.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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