Plain Reading

We're joined by owner of Chapter House Books Annie Clymer, who tells us all about running a bookstore, giving old titles another chance, and the weird workings of memory. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Trapani, libreria del Corso [cropped].  CC BY 4.0 image courtesy HaguardDuNord and Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about th...

Writer Lara Levitan joins us to talk about sticking to your craft, other authors' influence, and keeping the mystery alive. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Theda Bara, still from Madame Mystery [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this epi...

Classicist and reader extraordinaire JC Boyle tells us about the Greeks, Ezra Pound, Thomas Bernhard, lending out your books, and so much more! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy [cropped]. Wm. S. Kimball & Co., 1889. CC0 1.0 image courtesy Wikimedia Commons and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Want to learn more...

Tim Mather tells us about bringing Aristotle into contemporary life, and about keeping a famous family tree alive. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Jabril ibn Bukhtishu. Aristotle instructing Alexander the Great [cropped]. CC BY-SA 4.0 image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked a...

Biologist Caroline Turner joins us to talk about the challenges and rewards of reading outside your own culture. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: World map produced in Amsterdam, 1689 [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this episode? Check...

Nature writer and podcaster Matt Stansberry tells us about the challenges of conservation and management—and the supernatural goings-on that come with it. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: The Squonk, illustrated by Coert Du Bois and William T. Cox [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about t...

Chaplain, podcaster, and religion scholar George Schmidt joins us to talk William Blake, the support found in reading, and Star Wars galore! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Manny Warman, Columbia University Bicentennial panel exhibition on banned books [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Columbia University Archives and Wikimed...

Vahid Friedrich, advisor to financial advisors, is talking to us about storytelling—in sci-fi, video games, religion, and more! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Cover of Science Fiction Quarterly , Nov. 1952 [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked abou...

Art historian and writer Donato Loia joins us today to talk about the interplay of language, music, art and more! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Three Girls in Yellow Straw Hats [cropped], August Macke. Public domain image courtesy  Wikimedia Commons . Ryan Adams Gold Aphex Twin Dore Ashton A Joseph Cornell Album Ingmar Bergman Th...

We're talking to fundraising and development maven Wendy Hustwit about the books that changed your life, where to find recommendations, and reading versus application. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Poster for the 1918 film Tengerparti álom [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Arts & Letters Daily Margaret A...

We're joined by author and publisher Deborah Shapiro for conversation about working within limitations, publishing on your own terms, and even Columbo! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Book Manufacturing—Typesetting [cropped], Rand McNally and Company. Public domain image courtesy Newberry Library and Wikimedia Commons . Want to lea...

We're talking to environmental studies professor and author Liam Heneghan , who joins us to talk about sustained reading, the politics of biography, Samuel Beckett, and more! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Samuel Beckett [cropped]. Public domain image by Roger Pic courtesy Bibliothèque national de France and  Wikimedia Commons . W...

We're talking to management professor and executive director of the Clifton Strengths Institute  Tim Hodges , who joins us to talk about writing (or not!) in books, notes from your past self, third spaces, and more! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: A page from A Midsummer Night's Dream with margin notes (cropped). Public domain imag...

We're talking to literature scholar Niloofar Ghaemi about Hart Crane, the call of poetry, and memory and destruction. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Edward John Poynter, Erato, Muse of Poetry (cropped). Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and other media!—we talked about on this epis...

We're talking to poet Lewis Freedman about small presses, translations and talismans, and the interplay of sound and sense. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Illustration, Encyclopedic Dictionary, Calleja Rodriguez-Navas, 1909 [cropped]. CC BY-SA 4.0 image courtesy Correogsk and Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—...

Professor of theology and religious studies Jacqueline Hidalgo tells us about extractive reading, myths of innocence, and recovering the enjoyment of books. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Newspaper ad for 1921 film I Am Guilty (cropped). Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and other...

  Children's librarian Louise Tripp talks with us about graphic novels, reading in groups, and even horror films! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Eighth page from the story "lupa sin" in the zine kijetesantakalu monsuta [cropped], jan pana pi lipu monsuta. CC BY-SA 4.0 image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the...

Engineer and runner Muna Mitchell joins us to discuss the pleasures of process, thinking in stories, and even book art. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Screenshot,  Anatomy of a Murder  [cropped]. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and shows!—we talked about on this episode? Check ou...

We're talking today to linguist and grant writer Kenzie Grubitz Simpson about folklore, the power of embodiment and language—and even the weather!   Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Virginia Frances Sterret (cropped). Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books—and shows!—we talked about on th...

We're talking in this episode to poet and editor Rachel Mennies , who tells us about writing into and through uncertainty, what keeps us writing, and what it's like to be part of a journal's editorial staff. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Filipp Malyavin, A Secret (cropped). Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to...

Hiker, podcaster, and professor of philosophy and religious studies Zach Simpson tells us about autobiography, the way we're shaped by reading, and the skilled misdirections of detective fiction. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Saint Augustin e by Philippe de Champaigne (cropped). Public domain image courtesy Los Angeles County Mus...

Nick Rossi, cofounder and editor of Sobotka Literary Magazine and Ursus Americanus Press , joins us to talk about why we write, the way art shapes community, and even those words we're never sure how to pronounce. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Berenice Abbott, Two children at the Harlem Community Arts Center in 1939 (cropped). Pu...

Join in on our conversation wtih religion and philosophy professor J. R. Hustwit —on sci-fi and wiki writing projects, horology, portals, and tons more. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay Episode artwork: "Coming thru the portal" (cropped). CC BY 2.0 image courtesy ˆMissi ˆ and Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books, films, and movies w...

Our wide-ranging conversation with poet and library fan Ollie Shane covers European history, contemporary poetry, Somerset Maugham, and more! Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay. Episode artwork: Student at the Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1981 (cropped). Image with no known copyright restrictions courtesy Wikimedia C...

Poet, publicist, and reading series host Carrie Olivia Adams joins us to talk about rereading,  problematic literature, and bringing people together. Intro and outro music: " Your Love Hip Hop " courtesy Music_Unlimited on Pixabay Episode artwork: Marcel Proust, by Otto Wegener, 1895 (cropped). Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons . Want to learn more about the books we talked about on t...