Episodes

  • Episode 41: Audre Lorde

    Episode 41: Audre Lorde
    May 22 2024
    In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of poet and author Audre Lorde. Born in New York City in 1934, Lorde was the daughter of immigrants and had a love for poetry from an early age. She would go on to publish many collections of poetry, essays, and speeches that continue to have relevance today. Quoting from the Poetry Foundation, “A self-described ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,’ Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.” And quoting from the Audre Lorde Project, “Both her activism [...]
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    45 mins
  • Episode 40: W. S. Merwin

    Episode 40: W. S. Merwin
    Apr 10 2024
    In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of poet W. S. Merwin. Appointed U.S. Poet Laureate in 2010, William Stanley Merwin had a career that spanned seven decades. A poet, translator, gardener and environmental activist, Merwin has become one of the most widely read and honored poets in America, the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes. Over the years, his poetic voice moved from the more formal to a more distinctly American voice. As the Atlantic Monthly said, “The intentions of Merwin’s poetry are as broad as the biosphere yet as intimate as a whisper. He conveys in the [...]
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    44 mins
  • Episode 38: Norman Lear

    Episode 38: Norman Lear
    Feb 20 2024
    In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of television pioneer Norman Lear. We are joined by pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, whose bestselling books detail the stories and cultural impacts of television and film. Her latest book, So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We’re Still So Obsessed with It) was released in January and Jennifer will visit the American Writers Museum on March 6 to chat about her book and the legacy of Mean Girls. It will also be livestreamed and you can register to attend in person or online on the AWM’s website. [...]
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    56 mins
  • Episode 37: W. C. Heinz

    Episode 37: W. C. Heinz
    Jan 11 2024
    *Episode note: In the introduction, we incorrectly called the book co-written with Vince Lombardi Running into Daylight. The correct title is Run to Daylight. In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of journalist and author W. C. Heinz. Most well known for his sports reporting, Heinz was one of the nation’s preeminent sports journalists during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s with a daily column in the New York Sun. Prior to that, he was the Sun’s war correspondent during World War II, sending dispatches from the frontlines. In 1958, he published his first novel, The Professional, which garnered [...]
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    1 hr
  • Episode 36: Joan Didion

    Episode 36: Joan Didion
    Dec 5 2023
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of writing icon Joan Didion, a writer’s writer. Not only a groundbreaking journalist, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter, Didion was also a keen observer of life in all its humor, disappointment and grace. Perhaps best known for essay writing and collections such as The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking, and more, Didion was an eclectic writer across genres and mediums. Other published works include novels such as Run River and Play It as It Lays; films like 1972’s A Star Is Born starring Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson; and other [...]
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    52 mins
  • Episode 35: William Apess

    Episode 35: William Apess
    Nov 17 2023
    In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of indigenous author and orator William Apess. In 1829 Apess published his memoir A Son of the Forest, which describes his journey to reclaim his Pequot identity after being taken away from his family and forced to work as a servant for white families. The memoir also details Apess’s decision to become an ordained Methodist minister. In Christianity, Apess found an argument for social justice that fueled his fight for Native American rights. In 1836, he courted controversy in a speech that hailed both George Washington and Wampanoag chief King Philip [...]
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    58 mins
  • Episode 34: Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Episode 34: Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Oct 30 2023
    In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The wildly popular Jazz Age poet ventured fearlessly beyond traditional poetic subjects to tackle political injustice, social discrimination, and female sexuality in her bestselling books, beginning with Renascence and Other Poems in 1917. The first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, she was a spokesperson for personal freedom in 1920s America, particularly for women, with lines that illuminate the social history of the period and the Bohemian lifestyle she and her friends enjoyed. Today the story of Millay’s passionate life—together with her poems, plays, [...]
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    1 hr
  • Episode 33: Betty Friedan

    Episode 33: Betty Friedan
    Sep 15 2023
    In this episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of Betty Friedan. The feminist writer and activist acclaimed as the mother of second-wave feminism, and pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing. As a journalist she covered racism, sexism, labor, class inequality, and anti-Semitism. As a wife and mother, she struggled to balance her work and homemaking. Her malaise as a housewife and her research into the feelings of other women resulted in The Feminine Mystique, which made her a celebrity. Using her influence, Friedan cofounded the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and [...]
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    1 hr and 9 mins