The Whimsy Farm Podcast

Send us Fan Mail We learn more about fighting fascism as we protect our children from falling victim to it. Our first guest is Craig A Johnson, author of How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism . Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Maryam Barrie shares "Fern Hill", written by the iconic poet Dylan Thomas. We learn relevant biographical details that led to the writing of one of  Thomas's most widely known poems. This is how we honor the transition from spring to summer here at Whimsy Farm. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail I speak with Andrea Hightower, who directs the Cuba Reality Tour for Global Exchange. Drea and I discuss the conditions Cubans now face under the current blockade. She also gives us an idea of what to expect on a Cuba Reality Tour. Learn more at: https://globalexchange.org/travel-to-cuba/ Support the show

Send us Fan Mail I celebrate May 15, Utah Phillips' birthday. For the last two years I've been researching and writing about Utah. This year marks the 91st anniversary of his birth.  My first guest is his old and dear friend Mark Ross. Utah met Mark in Greenwich Village in 1969, and they remained friends until Utah's death in 2008. Mark shares trivia and remembrances about Utah with...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome everyone, to Episode Twenty-Five of the podcast.  The month of May is Utah Phillips month here on the pod, since he was born on the 15th and left us on the 23rd of May. On this episode, I’m honored to speak with author and labor historian Patrick Murfin, an old and dear friend of Utah Phillips. Patrick wrote the final chapter of the book The IWW: Its First Seventy Years ....

Send us Fan Mail Coming up May 1:  The month of May is Utah Phillips month here on the pod, since he was born on the 15th and left us on the 23rd of May. On this episode, I’m honored to speak with author and labor historian Patrick Murfin, an old and dear friend of Utah Phillips. Patrick wrote the final chapter of the book The IWW: Its First Seventy Years . He once worked as a labor writer for the...

Send us Fan Mail Celebrating National Poetry Month and Earth Day: Poetry Sustains with Maryam Barrie Show Notes for Poetry Sustains 4/15/26    Maryam and I read and discuss the following poems:  “A Short Story of Falling” by Alice Oswald “Ichthysaur Speaks: Notes from the Benthos” by Kyle E Miller/An excerpt from his novel The Idiot’s Garden  “Trying Hard Not to Become a Nature Poet” by W. Joe Hop...

Send us Fan Mail Celebrating National Poetry Month and Earth Day: Poetry Sustains with Maryam Barrie Show Notes for Poetry Sustains 4/15/26    Maryam and I read and discuss the following poems:  “A Short Story of Falling” by Alice Oswald “Ichthysaur Speaks: Notes from the Benthos” by Kyle E Miller/An excerpt from his novel The Idiot’s Garden  “Trying Hard Not to Become a Nature Poet” by W. Joe Hop...

Send us Fan Mail I speak with author Nell Bernstein about her latest book, In Our Future We Are Free,  "an astonishing story of resistance and change" about the "dismantling of the youth prison" system.  Bernstein is the Directing Advocate at the Youth Law Center in Sacramento, California. The details below are taken from the back page of her new book.  "Nell Bernstein is...

Send us Fan Mail On April 1,  I speak with author Nell Bernstein about her latest book, In Our Future We Are Free,  "an astonishing story of resistance and change" about the "dismantling of the youth prison" system.  Bernstein is the Directing Advocate at the Youth Law Center in Sacramento, California. The details below are taken from the back page of her new book.  "Nell...

Send us Fan Mail I speak with author Jim Robbins about his latest book "The Wonder of Birds" and other recent and upcoming writing projects.  The material below is quoted from the back page of "The Wonder of Birds." "Jim Robbins was born and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, but has lived in Montana since 1977. He has written for The New York Times for more than thirty-fi...

Send us Fan Mail Coming March 15, I speak with author Jim Robbins about his latest book "The Wonder of Birds" and other recent and upcoming writing projects.  The material below is quoted from the back page of "The Wonder of Birds." "Jim Robbins was born and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, but has lived in Montana since 1977. He has written for The New York Times for mo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we celebrate love: big beautiful love. This time of year, we’re programmed to focus on couple love. Cupid and his arrow, etc., among other cliches. But there is a much more expansive love available to us, Neptunian rather than Venusian. It’s terraphilia, as author Susan Tweit calls it. Love of the earth and all its inhabitants. Love for those with us and those who...

Send us Fan Mail I  speak with author Carol Menaker and discuss her memoir "The Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done, One Juror’s Reckoning with Racial Injustice." Her book explores the trial and unjust incarceration of Freddy Muhammed Burton, imprisoned for over fifty years now in Pennsylvania for crimes he did not commit.  Update: On January 8, Menaker reported that "Muhammed was transferr...

Send us Fan Mail I  speak with author Carol Menaker and discuss her memoir "The Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done, One Juror’s Reckoning with Racial Injustice." Her book explores the trial and unjust incarceration of Freddy Muhammed Burton, imprisoned for over fifty years now in Pennsylvania for crimes he did not commit.  Carol Menaker’s website: www.carolmenaker.com   Abolitionist Law Center...

Send us Fan Mail I speak with Keith Runyan, activist, speaker, and new father. With a background as an educator, Keith began his Quaker activist career with a 12-day hunger strike to increase awareness of the importance of climate action to the Friends Community and the general public. In 2024, along with his partner and child, he began a traveling ministry inspiring action on the planetary crisis...

Send us Fan Mail I speak with Keith Runyan, activist, speaker, and new father. With a background as an educator, Keith began his Quaker activist career with a 12-day hunger strike to increase awareness of the importance of climate action to the Friends Community and the general public. In 2024, along with his partner and child, he began a traveling ministry inspiring action on the planetary crisis...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome everyone, to Season Two of the podcast, and Episode Eighteen.  Late last fall, in anticipation of being out of the studio for my shoulder replacement, I spoke at length with Laura Pritchett, author and educator and, as we soon found out, kindred spirit.  Enjoy our free-flowing conversation about honoring the wild with us, personal authenticity, and journeying inward during...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome everyone, to Season Two of the podcast, and Episode Eighteen.  Late last fall, in anticipation of being out of the studio for my shoulder replacement, I spoke at length with Laura Pritchett, author and educator and, as we soon found out, kindred spirit.  Enjoy our free-flowing conversation about honoring the wild with us, personal authenticity, and journeying inward during...

Send us Fan Mail December 21 marks the Capricorn Solstice--the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere. Poet Maryam Barrie joins me on this extended edition of Poetry Sustains to share Brigit Pegeen Kelly's "Song".  Song tells the story of a young girl, her beloved pet goat, and the cruelty that darkness brings. What happens when darkness meets light? When foolishness meets wisd...

Send us Fan Mail My guest on Episode Seventeen is author Susan J. Tweit. Her most recent memoir is "Bless The Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying."  In this book, Tweit chronicles the journey she and her husband Richard Cabe take shortly before his death. Cabe and Tweit collaborated on the term and definition of "terraphilia", a concept that guides Tweit's work toda...

Send us Fan Mail My guest on Episode Seventeen is author Susan J. Tweit. Her most recent memoir is "Bless The Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying."  In this book, Tweit chronicles the journey she and her husband Richard Cabe take shortly before his death. Cabe and Tweit collaborated on the term and definition of "terraphilia", a concept that guides Tweit's work toda...

Send us Fan Mail I speak with Chuck Collins, author of Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Our Planet . Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits Inequality.org. He is the author of several books including Born on Third Base, The Wealth Hoarders , and, with Bill Gates, Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth.  He als...

Send us Fan Mail I speak with Chuck Collins, author of Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Our Planet . Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits Inequality.org. He is the author of several books including Born on Third Base, The Wealth Hoarders , and, with Bill Gates, Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth.  He als...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Dyken and his brother Bear Dyken have been visiting the Navajo Reservation in Arizona for decades now, offering boots-on-the-ground support for families that refused forced relocation in the 1990s. Founders and members of the band Clan Dyken, they tour northern California and southern Oregon each fall to raise funds and awareness of the Dineh people and The Beauty Way. For mo...