Beetroot Podcast

Welcome back to the Beetroot podcast. Come on in, make yourself at home. On this weeks episode Marta and Lottie take the time to ruminate over what home means to them. Both in new spaces, they navigate what it means to move on, to build and be grateful for a place to call home. Lottie brought with her the work of John Clare, ‘The Flitting’ explores the feeling of leaving home, of gaining an indepe...

Happy New Year seedlings! Beetroot Podcast is heading into 2025 with a bobby dazzler of an episode. Spotify for podcasters is calling it a ‘triumph’ and we’re inclined to agree. This week Marta and Lottie are taking you all to the movies. Lottie brought along Frank O’Hara’s ‘Ave Maria’ a poetic intervention from a disciple of the big screen that encourages young souls everywhere to take themselves...

Can you pickle a poem? This week Marta and Lottie have reunited to discuss all things preservation. Museums, archives, cheeses and sauerkrauts. We're diving into what it means to keep something alive just a little longer whether thats in our minds, on our shelves or in our tummies. Marta brought along Museum by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a beautiful meditation on the history of political turmoil in Nort...

We've come a long way to this day. Lottie and Marta will be welcoming Dolly Parton with open arms to today's epsiode. A country queen and literary philanthropist, we decided to place her upon the beetroot pedestal as a songstress and poet whom we're inspired by. Marta kicks off with not one, but two poems. Bringing Dolly's 'Jolene' alongside Fiona Apple's 'Ladies&#3...

Today we’re going to talk about what’s on our lists and what’s in our poems. When we make lists, we export our universes onto the page – ticking off the tasks as we go, as we live. Lists for love, lists for art, and lists for getting through the day. Lottie brought along Wendy Cope’s ‘My Lover’ written in the style of Christopher Smart’s ‘For I Will Consider my Cat Geoffrey’ more than two hundred...

It’s our anniversary dinner – and you’re all invited! We’re 4 years old? My time flies when you’re just two friends chatting about poetry – whether it's face to face or computer screen to computer screen. We reminisced in our archive and giggled over the sounds of us at aged nineteen. However, to mark such an occasion, we thought it was fitting to bring poems that celebrate poetry, that celebr...

Reunited and rejuvenated! A summer spent apart and now they’re back, Lottie and Marta are in the same postcode at the same table. In this episode they go off the grid, deciding to abandon a themed episode in favour of – ‘You’ve got to see this!’.  Lottie brought along Natalia Shapero’s  Not Horses  prompting questions of time, interspecies connectivity and our patron saint, Donna Haraway. Marta br...

Till podcast do us part! Marta and Lottie are back, in this episode they'll be talking about heartbreak. Marta and Lottie (and their feelings) will dissect that funny sensation called heartache. Marta brought along Pablo Neruda's 'Tonight I Can Write'   a poem renowned for its ability to hit the nail on the head of a broken heart. Lottie reads from Victoria Chang's collection &...

Reunited at last! Marta and Lottie are in the same room, with the same zoom. In this episode it's all about the senses, Marta and Lottie dive head first into an ocean of taste, sound, sight, texture and smell. Lottie brought along 'My Body is a Forest' from Alycia Pirmohamed's collection Another Way to Split Water, a poem which holds the body in landscape allowing the speaker free movement through...

If anyone asks, we're a perfectly normal family. In this week's episode, Lottie and Marta ask; what does it mean to have difficult conversations with our loved ones, what lessons have we learnt so far from the people who've known us our entire lives. We don't get to choose our family, but what if we could? Lottie brought along 'Conversation with Fantasy Mother' by Mary Jean Chan, a poem that sets...

In this Episode, Marta and Lottie sit back and relax. Exploring the idea of rest the pair come to Ocean Vuong's 'Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong' a heartfelt appeal to the self when you're feeling a little low. Hannah Sullivan's 'When the Egg Meets the Whisk' portrays the new mother seeking familiarity and comfort in her newly aligned universe. World a little overwhelming right now? Take some time o...

In this Episode, Marta and Lottie look to the skies. Approaching the idea of Paradise the pair consult Roger Robinsons 'A Portable Paradise' an offering of pocket sized bliss and white sandy beaches amongst the hustle and bustle of London. John Donne's 'The Sun Rising' offers a portrait of lovers against a perfect landscape watching the sun awaken and sleep, but why would Derek Jarman embellish su...

Poetry made headlines. Yes, it happened - rarely have we seen a poet on the cover of Vogue, shared widely around Instagram and Facebook or popping up on international TV stations. We of course had to dedicate an episode to Amanda Gorman, the youth national poet laureate of the United States and the Inaugural poet. Her poem 'The Hill We Climb' has since made its way around media outlets everywhere,...

The public has become precarious. In a post-pandemic world, those foundational moments of collective expression, collective joy, must be reformulated, alchemized into something new and sustainable. Poetry is so often thought of as a solitary pursuit, one that highlights interiority, but in the face of our rapidly shifting culture, it is crucial to understand how poetry exists in the public sphere,...

The public has become precarious. In a post-pandemic world, those foundational moments of collective expression, collective joy, must be reformulated, alchemized into something new and sustainable. Poetry is so often thought of as a solitary pursuit, one that highlights interiority, but in the face of our rapidly shifting culture, it is crucial to understand how poetry exists in the public sphere,...

The public has become precarious. In a post-pandemic world, those foundational moments of collective expression, collective joy, must be reformulated, alchemized into something new and sustainable. Poetry is so often thought of as a solitary pursuit, one that highlights interiority, but in the face of our rapidly shifting culture, it is crucial to understand how poetry exists in the public sphere,...

Lets talk about sex baby! This week Marta and Lottie delve deep into all things sensual. Yes, poetry can be sexy. Lottie brought along a fragment from the Ancient greek poet Sappho, an exploration into Queer sexuality and a beautiful expression of desire. Marta brought along a segment from Jenny Hval’s Paradise Rot, an invesitgation into companion species and a rewriting of Genesis through sharp s...

Breathe. It’s been a tough week. Lottie and Marta are taking the time to heal, to bring each other poems that restore the soul and move the heart to reconsider. This week Marta brought along Stuart Hensons ‘The Price’ from William Siegharts Poetry Pharmacy. Balm for the soul on a double decker bus. Lottie offered us Anne Sextons ‘Yellow’, A hopeful proclamation as we head into the dark winter mont...

We hope you’re hungry. In this Episode Lottie and Marta prepare a poetic meal for you, with an appetiser of metaphors and side salad of groceries. Marta brought along Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California”, a supermarket trip which questions consumerism and philosophises the nuclear family. Lottie offered us Li-Young Lee’s “Persimmons”, an exploration of identity and cultural assimilation...

This week, Lottie and Marta brace the subject of Goodbyes. Bittersweet and agonising, until we meet again or the final farewell. We explored what saying goodbye means through the poems that were there when we said it. Lottie brought along Natalie Diaz’s ‘Grief Work’, a heart wrenching wrestle with grief – a slow hug. Marta brought along Paul Éluard’s ‘Négation de la poésie’, an elegy to his late w...

This week, two is loneliest number. It’s just Lottie and Marta in the studio this week, we took the time to celebrate our podcast homecoming and Beetroot’s new beginning. Marta brought along Baz Lurhmanns philosophical yet charming “Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen”, a manifesto for the graduating class of 1997 and for every graduate thereafter. Lottie brought William Carlos Williams’ “Spring an...