Licensed Poetics

LP returns to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie starring Chase Infiniti, Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Benicio del Toro. Both hosts really liked it.

I SPELLED HER NAME WRONG! It’s Can Xue. Sorry! This week, FL and Derek discuss what a hot person would do in any given situation. They also mention a video game, a few books, and One Battle After Another.

Recovering from their respective crash outs, the hosts of LP returns with an unexpected printer story, two reading updates, and a film update.

This week, the hosts discuss with some very French topics. FL begins her Annie Ernaux phase again. Derek watches a film and gets fascinated by its lesbian author. Finally, FL reveals she had a dream about Derek that made her sob.

LP's favourite guest Eva returns!! She tells us about acting, screenwriting, fundraising, producing, everything she learned from making her short film We're not here to Fuck Turtles. Derek and Fung-Ling have different opinions on Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men. Derek is reading a F Scot Fitzgerald book.

TOW Derek and Fung-Ling are joined by Tom the amazing author and they discuss Borne by Jeff VanderMeer together.

FL and Derek go through the books they read in 2025, some are all time favourites, some are huge disappointments, others are film and poems and TV shows.

Derek talks us through The Exorcist, a perfect Halloween novel, while FL goes over her writing year of 2025.

In this succinct episode of LP, Fung-Ling and Derek try out a new format, the Teaser Section. FL gives an old-fashioned reading update on a fantastic non-fiction book, From the Ruins of Empire: the Revolt against the West and the Remaking of Asia, by Pankaj Mishra. Derek talks about his favourite movie to watch on airplanes.

Writers react to Taylor Swift's most recent album, The Life of a Showgirl, and discuss why it's not great.

This day is finally upon us... Licensed Poetics react to the biggest instagram poet of them all, Rupi Kaur. Rupi, if you are listening, we're sorry.

This week, FL comes back with a good old-fashioned reading update, talking about Junji Ito’s adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s classic novel No Longer Human. Then the hosts pivot to reading lyrics/poetry. Derek reads John Cooper Clark’s Full-time Loser. P.S. if you noticed the lack of outro, leave a comment! :D

No intro music this week! The reason will become apparent as you listen :) LP film club continues!! One host watched this film during high school, the other host wishes she did. One host is still impressed by Fincher's cinematography after all these years, but less impressed by the message of the film. The other host was surprised by how literary (and wanky) this film is.

BFL emerges from her reading slump with some fantastic reading updates. Derek picked the film Office Space, which inspires an interesting discussion on their philosophy of work.

Unfortunately the LP team didn’t like the second half of the book as much as the first half - maybe it went downhill right after the main character and the love interest started having sex? Sigh. Jokes aside, reading this book has taught us important lessons, and for that, author Emily Henry, we’re grateful. 00:00 Intro 11:17 Sexual tension 41:05 The fantasy of safe love 54:53 Contrived endings

Take a shot every time we say porn in this episode… Derek asserts that people who think they’re better than this book should read this book. LP’s first venture into the romance genre generated such a productive discussion that we’ve had to split it into 2 episodes!

The title of this episode is to be taken literally. Shoutout to Story Games at https://perchance.org/storygames for providing us with prompts. Chapters 00:00 Intro 11:29 Improv begins! 01:04:06 Outro

Long time LP collaborator Sofi dials in from Melbourne and discusses American Fiction, a satire-drama film about a Black author ironically using familiar, reductive tropes about the African American experience and end up producing a bestselling novel. 00:00 Intro 10:19 Synopsis 01:06:00 Horny metaphor :) 01:08:00 Outro

This is a special episode of LP where famous poetry hater Derek reads a poem by American writer Charles Bukowski for the first time, and what do you know, he loves it. Support LP on Buy me a coffee!

LP’s hosts reveal more about themselves than they ever have before. Fung-Ling was nearly laid off, Derek is in enormous pain, but both have decided to show up despite it all. FL dropped the most ludicrous phrase on LP yet, ‘intellectual interior’, which she is prepared to give up in order to have real friends. Who would have thought living your life would be actually fulfilling? Chapters 00:00 Int...

It’s time! LP’s first ever anime club pick is, of course, the industry-defining, culture-shifting, legendary Eva. We began with the 26 episodes available on Netflix, and discussed its themes of abandonment, self-loathing, and daddy issues. Fun! Oh and Derek used to be a member of his university’s anime club. Chapters 00:00 Intro 08:43 Synopsis 40:46 Spoilers 01:08:12 Outro

Author SR Stuart appears on LP to discuss his debut novel, Mr Muerte, a mystery/thriller written during a two-year journey backpacking through the Americas. He shares the inspiration behind his novel, a controversial recent read, and inspires Derek and Fung-Ling to be better writers and to, like, actually start writing?! Buy Sean’s book Mr Muerte Chapter 00:00 Music 01:49 Sean’s bio 04:59 Reading...

Why does the main character look like? In this very writerly discussion, Derek dissects tropes and wishes he could use them. BFL laments her past resistance to the Great Man History way of writing, because making a main character an idolise-able hero freaking works. Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:42 Reading update 13:00 the lone genius 16:04 main character must be extraordinary 42:09 Nolan & great ma...

This week, BFL and Derek get real personal and delve into their love lives. What if your partner doesn’t like reading? What books would you performatively read in public to pull your type? What books are red flags? Green flags? How fast should you run when you meet a guy who likes Murakami? or High Fidelity? Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:47 Derek’s recent dates 11:26 High Fidelity 27:07 Red and green fl...

This week, BFL and Derek read a musician’s memoir, Just Kids by Patti Smith, which is famously referenced in The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift. They start off the episode by discussing BFL’s relationship struggles (?!?!), then they open up about the conceit of being an artist, before reacting to some scornful Goodreads reviews of their new favourite book. It’s a special episode. Chapte...