In this episode of eMerge Unchained, host Aubrey Green talks with Charles Templeton about a year of ups and downs, the unexpected joys of good conversation, and why cursive writing still matters. Along the way, they touch on why poets tend to be such thoughtful conversationalists and what it means to slow down and really pay attention to words.

Charles also shares his love of research and some of the discoveries he made while working on his latest book. He reflects on the resilience of the people who helped shape the country we know today and offers a gentle challenge to keep writing through the holiday season.

Along the way the conversation includes a look ahead to what’s coming in 2026, including conferences, festivals, contests, and upcoming issues of eMerge, both online and in print. So grab a warm beverage, settle in, and enjoy another episode of the eMerge Unchained podcast.

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In this episode of eMerge Unchained, host Aubrey Green sits down with writer and professor Paul Juhasz for a candid and often darkly funny conversation about storytelling, teaching, and survival.

Paul talks about his upcoming poetry collection Catabasis, a descent through despair toward unexpected light, and how decades of living with bipolar depression uniquely prepared him to guide others through modern disillusionment. He also shares glimpses into his sprawling new novel-in-progress, where a hitman’s moral reckoning mirrors the violence and sacrifice embedded in parenthood.

From the classroom to the page, Paul reflects on the power of humor in healing, the courage of memoir, and the strange grace that comes from giving words to trauma. The conversation ranges from the ethics of AI in education to the importance of trusting an idea to take its own form.

Raw, reflective, and often unexpectedly hilarious, this episode captures the heart of a writer who believes in art’s ability to confront darkness, find connection, and keep going — one story at a time.

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In this episode of eMerge Unchained, guest host Aubrey Green sits down with poet, writer, and eco-poetic thinker Simóne J. Banks, whose work listens deeply to land, to lineage, and to the living world.

Banks discusses her lifelong relationship with poetry. Inspired by Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni and expanded through her current explorations into Black ecologies, water, land loss, and ancestral landscapes, Banks offers an intimate glimpse into her creative process, from treating the blank page as a collaborator to honoring the emotional architecture of grief, change, and the color blue.

Banks also reflects on the tension between emotional depth and technical precision, the influence of environmental justice on her work, and the quiet haunting of truth that threads through both her poetry and fiction. Whether she’s writing about hurricanes, disappearing coastlines, or what it means to “be care-full” in a broken world, Simone writes as if every word, like every seed, is an offering.

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