Soapbox Where I Can Shout It Podcast

Some William Carlos Williams from the gorgeous, and bizarre!, little book of poems Spring and All as spring (and all its allergens) takes ahold of us here in Central Ohio. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

During some spring cleaning I found Belt Publishing’s Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology and thought I’d share a few pieces. Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Perusing the City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology and recalling a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti I borrowed for a writing prompt ( that I wrote about last month I hope you’ll read here ). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Welcome back everybody. We begin, as I did, with Billy Collins. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

This semester I am teaching Introduction to Creative Writing, and as the semester winds down into Spring Break, I wanted to get all the writers together to record a piece each student has written so far. What follows is a generous and beautiful exploration of creative writing from creative writers doing what they do best: explore, imagine, and interpret the world through their unique vantage point...

This week I am attending the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Cleveland, Ohio. I was honored to be included on a sponsored panel by the Creative Writing Standing Group called Making Creative Writing Visible Through Our Work, Artist Statements, and Our Conversations, which, according to our abstract: celebrates the dynamic life of creative writing within our field. Speakers wi...

After a short ad parodying the Budweiser Clydesdales (the horses are Tauntauns!) during the Super Bowl, Star Wars fans wondered when a new story trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu would materialize. After all, May 22 is closer than ever! Well, that trailer materialized mid-morning on a weekday - instead of during the most viewed media event of the year, every year, since the beginning of the st...

Sigh. They got me class. Some ragebait infiltrated my facebook news feed and it got me. Listen along while I live-react to what I’m sure will make me furious, its L ouder Sound’s “Nine Jack White albums you should listen to and one to avoid.” A non-Jack White newsletter coming soon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,...

To commemorate The White Stripes’ retirement on this day in 2011, please enjoy the sounds of a blog post I wrote for a now-defunct blog in 2023 with an addendum for this year. Read that post here , and remember: The White Stripes Forever. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

I wrote a monster essay about spending the year with Bruce Springsteen, you can (and should!) read that here . If you don’t want to feast your eyes upon what the Substack app calls a 23 minute read, no worries, I turned it into a nearly hour-long podcast. Full text of the essay, plus audio! Top tracks playlist: https://tidal.com/playlist/a0d71a95-81bb-4008-9fb0-cb43e6cc4757 I spent two thirds of t...

It would be inaccurate to call today’s snow “the first snow” of the year - we had a small dusting early in November (the 10th, to be exact, which I know because my ongoing compulsion to post album art of what I’m listening to on my Instagram story reports that I last played Give Up on November 10th). This was more of a “first snow” in the all too familiar Midwesterner sense of the phrase: snow eme...

At this point, lists on The Rolling Stone are cliches. They’re engagement fodder, rage-bait. I’m compulsive and love any excuse to talk about the music I love, the music I love to hate, so I get list culture in media coverage. But I also get why list making is weird and off-putting. I’m sure the latest Rolling Stone list, The 250 Greatest Songs of the Century So Far , will have some lightening rod...

In my newsletter recap of the excellent and sublime Shining Other , by Ellicott Hooligan , I promised I’d recite the Robert Frost poem, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” soundtracked by the e.c.’s “Shining Other.” It’s been steady raining all day and the leaves are starting to turn (if you’re in the Midwest) so the mood was right, join me in a quick break from your evening labors to enjoy...

Back in 2020, I was lucky enough to have a pitch selected for Hanif Abdurraqib’s 68to05 Playlist Project. The pitch was a reflection on Billy Joel’s excellent album The Stranger , which is right up there at the top of my bizarre - but important - top albums of all time by not-favorite artists , a category that includes pivotal and important albums like Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The Flaming Lips’ Y...

Nothing but the warmest thanks to As It Ought to Be Magazine for including my poem, “Flight Path,” in their September issue’s poetry selections . I hadn’t published a poem in a little while, I think my most recent piece was featured in Barstow & Grand ( which I talked about during National Poetry Month here on the pod ) a poem I wrote before Ben was born. I won’t do the math, it is discouraging, b...

If you’re search for adventure, “This is the way.” Well, May is a bit of a ways off, but join my brother, the second ever Steve DeGenaro to be featured on the Soapbox Podcast, in a live reaction to the debut trailer for the upcoming Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu . In this episode you’ll hear my brother, Steve, the new trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu , R2-D2 wailing from Revenge o...

The audio essay version of “Something Softer,” the recent newsletter on Jack White’s album Entering Heaven Alive , which turned 3 a month and a half ago. Read that here . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Today, Animal Collective released the b side of their recently announced one-off single, “Love On the Big Screen / Buddies On the Blackboard.” Not going to overthink this one, the songs are very, very fun, in part because the band also didn’t overthink these songs. Who am I kidding, some overthinking is in order… After listening to these songs, be sure to listen to this episode, which unlike the u...

Included in this episode is the new and complete newsletter on Get Behind Me Satan ’s 20th anniversary ( which you can read here ) as well as the scrapped post about objects and nostalgia, that is also about The White Stripes’ fifth album ( which you can read here ). (0:00 - 3:28): “How Old Are You Now, Anyway” pt. 1 (3:39 - 21:39): “[scrapped post] I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)” (21:41...

Another Fourth of July is upon us, another viewing of the Roland Emmerich blockbuster Independence Day (for folks keeping score, this was 1996’s second best disaster picture), yet another (and another, and another) spin of The Boss’s Born in the U.S.A. Rachel just went up to bed after watching the tv broadcast of the Columbus “Red White and Boom” fireworks display (something she’s been doing her w...

The expanded podcast edition of my review of Alton Brown’s Food For Thought and an interview with Steve DeGenaro where my dad shares some thoughts of his own on food, cooking, and meals with friends. Steve DeGenaro is a co-owner of Sigaro Cigar Lounge in Hubbard, Ohio. Follow Sigaro on Facebook at this link , and check them out online here . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss t...

A track-by-track rereview of The Dead Weather’s second album Sea of Cowards for its 15 birthday, plus a little reflection on collecting, compulsion, and kick-ass music. Read the essay version here . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

National Poetry Month 2025 comes to a conclusion with a predicable Billy Collins double-shot (“ The Trouble with Poetry ” and “ Introduction to Poetry ”), Lawrence Ferlinghetti ( “A Coney Island of the Mind, 6” ), and an original with a name so ridiculous in the context of this episode I can’t bear to add it to the show notes. Thank you listeners for following along and celebrating poetry with me...

Three poems by my first poetry teacher: Terry Hermsen . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyisapoet.substack.com

Okay, there’s a lot to this one. Think back to April 8th’s episode, the loosely tied trio , this is one of those days. Last week, I was thinking about The Hold Steady, specifically because of their album Separation Sunday because it was Easter ( I wrote about that one, too ). Anyway, those guys rock, and they have a different album that name checks John Berryman a number of times, John Berryman is...