A Hopeless Endeavor: A Joanna Newsom Podcast

In this last part of our On a Good Day episodes, we talk about how we talk a lot about this one minute and forty-something second song, ruined mills, wills, and water, because of course water. Thank you all for listening. Thanks to Simon for his Instagram insights! Thank you to David Pizarro, as always, for his gorgeous (new) beats. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fa...

We have made it to the second record of HOOM! It’s a short song, but don’t let that fool you into thinking we don’t have much to say. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all so much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beats (there’s a new one this week!), and for processing our audio. Thank you to Sam for recording our Zoom...

The final part of Baby Birch. We will miss this song, but also, oh my god, what a relief. Since we are talking about the last verse this entire episode, it is obviously… heavy. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all, so much, for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the sick music, and for the audio processing of every single episode. “I...

This is a very heavy episode because… Baby Birch. Part 4, the final part, of our discussion of this song is up now on Patreon. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all for listening. Thank you so much to David Pizarro for the sick Joanna beats, and for all the time he spends getting the audio just right for every single episode. “You poor littl...

We talk some more about this masterpiece of a song. The topics we cover include stars, cars, engines, brakes, breaks, and probably more because the episode is somehow an hour and a half. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “We heard the rushing slow intake of the dark, dark waters and engine breaks (sic? Maybe not. But maybe).”

Well, guys. We’re here. We have somehow made it. Thank you all so much for listening. Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music, and for processing the audio for us week after week. “This is a song for Baby Birch, though I will never know you.”

Our final part of this criminally underrated song. Please let us know what you think! Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “And you, with your ‘arrangement’ with Fate, nodded sadly at her lame assault on that steady old gate, her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face; the muzzle of a ghost.”

We talk some more about waking up, about finding yourself, about change arising from nothing… Ya know. Thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music and audio processing. Here is our Patreon where you can find all three of the No Provenance episodes, along with two bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true “I’m afraid of the Big Retu...

Listen. If you are a person who is not sold on this song, please give us the chance in the next three episodes to convince you of its absolute greatness. In this episode, we talk a lot about myths, barns, and betrayal! Thank you to you for listening; thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beats and audio processing skills. Here is our Patreon where all three of our No Provenance episodes are alre...

More hell talk! More fog talk! More gender roles talk! Also, happy happy happy birthday to Sam, who is obviously completely incredible. Thank you all so much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the lovely music and his audio processing skills. Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “And I know you meant to show the extent to which you gave...

We mess up some idioms, and talk about fist-fighting with fog, ignoring signposts on the way to hell, rebirth, nightmare vibes, fatalism, and obviously gender. We published our first bonus episode to Patreon this week wherein we discuss some real cool listener submissions. Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all so much for listening, a...

In this episode, Sam and Nikki set out to prove their ability to find tangents and to make loose connections. We talk about kindness, dragons, empathy, etc. Here is a link to our Patreon, where we offer early access to episodes (as well as some sporadic bonus content): https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all so very much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro f...

We talk about The Garden of Eden, get confused about “A.D.”, speculate about more narrator-mysteries, and revel in general about this song. We have a Patreon that you can find here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you so much to you all for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the beats and for the audio stuff he does every week. “It was dirt, and dirt is all...

We say goodbye to Lola, and have a hard time with that. Syphilis comes up more than you would think. Goodbye, Lola. We love you forever. Thank you all so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for the beautiful music and mysterious audio techniques. “Meanwhile, I will raise my own glass to how you made me fast and expendable, and I will drink to your excellent health, and your cruelty....

Here’s Sam and Nikki, ta-da, to do a lot of talking about Lola! We talk a lot about how we’re heart-broken/devastated/deflated/saddened at nearly every part of the song. We also discover and react to Louis’ age. And who tf is narrating?! We will explore it all. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music, and thank you to every listener for listening. https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_lan...

In this first episode on the titular track, we talk a lot about the one and only Lola Montez. We talk so much about her that we only cover the first verse, but IT’S IMPORTANT, OKAY? Thank you all so so much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the sick beats. Also, I should have been thanking David this whole time for cleaning up our audio because he does that every single week. Thank you...

CW that we didn’t mention at the beginning: we have a brief discussion about ABA. Okay, this episode is, once again, off the rails. Brace yourselves. We talk about Canadianisms, love languages, acid... and then, against vehement protests from Sam, Nikki tempts Bloody Mary, and she makes herself known. Thank you all for listening (especially if you somehow make it through this episode), and thank y...

Fogs! Ports! Bays! We have it all in this episode. Thank you all so much for listening, and, as always, thank you to David Pizarro for the sick beats. “Come on, you little life-giver: give your life.”

Our first part of the first song of the masterpiece that is Have One On Me. We talk about rivers, beds, syllables, etc. Thank you to everyone for listening, and a special thank you to David Pizarro for the brand spanking new beat that he made for the new endeavor that is HOOM. He made three beats for HOOM - one for each of the three records. THANK YOU, DAVID. “No one knows what is coming, or who w...

The final episode on Colleen! We talk more about names, narwhals, the patriarchy, and other usual topics. Thank you so much, again, to Melissa Marturano from Blessing All the Birds. Check out her incredible post from a few weeks ago here: https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/647478743591436288/divers-colleen-and-monkey-bear-and-a. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music. And thank you to everyone...

We continue our discussion on this utterly captivating song. Thank you so much again to Melissa of Blessing All the Birds. The blog post that she wrote up in conjunction with last week’s episode can be found here: https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/647478743591436288/divers-colleen-and-monkey-bear-and-a. Thank you, too, to everyone who listens. And as always, thank you to David Pizarro for the go...

In this super special collaborative episode with the brilliant Melissa Marturano from Blessing All the Birds, we start our dive into the endlessly fascinating Colleen. Melissa has a post on Blessing All the Birds in which she discusses what she brought up in this episode (which you can find here: https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/647478743591436288/divers-colleen-and-monkey-bear-and-a ). Thank y...

Part 2 of the gong show that is this discussion. We talk about syphilis finger, harpsicles (harp-sickles?), more flowers, monkey chair-arms... who even knows. Thank you so much to all of you who have been with us throughout our whole Ys adventure. Thank you too, to David Pizarro, for his magical Cosmia beat.

Okay, listen. This episode is a bit off the rails. We don’t know how to analyze fine art, but we gave it a go, and here is what we came up with. We dive into (and possibly drown in) Benjamin Vierling’s gorgeous, intricate masterpiece that is the Ys album art. I am pretty sure we mispronounce something several times a minute. WE TRIED. Please let us know if you have any thoughts or theories. We nee...

The last part of the last episode of the last song on Ys. (Except we’re doing an episode on the album art next week so as to cling to this album as long as possible.) We hope you all enjoy! Special thanks to Av for his ridiculously helpful and informative video on Ys and music. Thank you, as always, to David Pizarro for the beautiful beat. Send us your thoughts on literally any Joanna song (ahopel...