Episodes

Your Interpretation is Colonial. When we turn Zen into a pop-culture vibe or a totem pole into a corporate metaphor, we aren’t learning; we’re committing interpretative violence. Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman and Simon Ortiz’s “Towards a National Indian Literature” confront the “Bureaucracy of Erasure.” We ditch the linear “vanishing Indian” myth for the Torus—a non-linear, sovereign loop of survival where the ghosts of the past still speak in the official transcripts of the present. Along...

Akwaeke Emezi demonstrates how Nigeria’s contemporary writers turn our conceptual realities around. They offer a YA novel that doesn’t condescend, but more, one which shows that we should not “walk away” from Omelas, but perhaps “Stay and Hunt.” This is also the final of three episodes which offers a broader look at the history and newer trends in Nigerian literature along with recommendations for reading. Part 1 discussed Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Part 2 explored Wole Soyi...

Why have so few read Soyinka? And can we find hope through his cynical dramas? I admit I am a victim of the myth-making around me which has made Soyinka and other African writers largely invisible. Let’s see why. Episode 6.24 – Words from Nigeria Pt 2: Soyinka’s Tiger & Brother Jero African writers named in this episode and some of the most rewarding reads: Soyinka, Wole: The Trials of Brother Jero, Kongi’s Harvest, The Lion and the Jewel, A Play of Giants Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart, ...

What sort of literature is this, anyway? Today we introduce some approaches to Nigerian literature, offer a bevy of African writers, and explore how one of Nigeria’s most powerful authors can write her own modest letter to humanity. Also, we learn about hostile architecture from one of our listeners. Episode 6.23 – Words from […]

And what if nobody listens? Yes, entering our calls for justice into public space carries no small amount of anxiety. And the poster-child for being unheard, the Trojan princess and priestess Cassandra, may–if we read our mythology carefully–provide us some clues to our purpose and goals in writing as anti-epic heroes, wielding language as […]

26 Dec 2025 Episode 6.21 – Writing Back: Letters to Humanity A different sort of New Year Resolution, moving us from personal improvement to public advocacy! Let’s write an essay of address, framing our passions into a perspective that would make Le Guin proud! Texts from this episode: Nazim Hikmet: Letters to Taranta-Babu, 1935 […]

19 Dec 2025 Episode 6.20 – The Great Societies: Lowry’s The Giver Another thorny utopia, Lowry’s Community practices a different kind of strategy to the Hideous Bargain: ethical evasion, a too tempting strategy for all of us. Political? Yes. But also a YA fantasy vision of what some of the latest writers and thinkers […]

12 Dec 2025 Episode 6.19 – The Great Societies, Pt 2: Metropolis & The Ways of Meaning We finish our discussion of the silent film Metropolis and answer our question of art and politics by examining the text, context, and reader meaning-making. Discussed in the episode: A definition of Context: with / accompanying / […]

It seems everything is politics these days. But at least can't we keep art pure? You know, art for art's sake? I offer my thoughts on the topic while we examine the classic silent film, Metropolis (1927).

We finish our side trail on the implications of Poe's horror by stepping more deeply into our own capacity to violence, reaching finally to Le Guin's own direction: look to our modern political scene and the impulse to annihilation.

21 Nov 2025 Episode 6.16 – Poe: Horror, Pathology, and the Necessity for Care *NOTE: While nothing explicit or graphic is named in this episode, it does touch upon difficult and challenging psychological topics, so it is not recommended for those sensitive to violence and war. We say Poe has influence the genre of horror, but have we really considered what that influence has revealed to us across the generations? What happens when we tell stories of a culture that has abandoned its moral foun...

There really isn't that much to say about Poe, is there? He's just creepy. But wait. What if we could explain the supposed madness in all these stories?

Another Halloween treat from Poe, a reading of this lesser-known tale. And follow the podcast for some ways to think about it and "The Tell-Tale Heart"!

This story, a quintessential Poe classic, is perfect not only for its conception of the psychology of horror, but for our larger discussion in Le Guin's Journey 6.

10 Oct 2025 Episode 0.3 - Literary Nomads for Teachers What is this podcast? I recommend you start here, with this introduction to Literary Nomads and get a taste of what the larger series offers! And, to be sure I’ve sold you, we’ll offer some fresh approaches to the most-taught poem in the US, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Listen and find out how we’re doing a different kind of reading and learning from everybody else. And you know why? “That’s just the way it is.” Bruce Hornsby’s “...

3 Oct 2025 Episode 0.2 - Literary Nomads for Students What is this podcast? I recommend you start here, with this introduction to Literary Nomads and get a taste of what the larger series offers! And, to be sure I’ve sold you, we’re looking at one of the lamest choices for literary discussion, the much-overtaught “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. And even though you just winced at the choice, I know that this moment is a node in the universe which cannot be altered. Now listen. And while...

26 Sept 2025 Episode 0.1 - Literary Nomads for Readers What is this podcast? I recommend you start here, with this introduction to Literary Nomads and get a taste of what the larger series offers! And, to be sure I’ve sold you, we’re looking at one of the lamest choices for literary discussion, the much-overtaught “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. And if that’s not a reason for you to move on quickly . . . but wait! Here’s something you may not have considered . . . CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro...

Now that we've wrestled in and with Omelas for a bit, what questions remain for us to take forward on our journey? We're walking away from Omelas, but let's have an idea where we're going.

Listeners offer their questions from narrator trust to activism to teaching controversy. I rant--or respond--back.

5 Sept 2025 Episode 6.12 - Le Guin Part 4: The Ones Who Stay - N. K. Jemisin Can we pull this utopia dilemma together? Or will we add even more levels of complication? When we wrestle with Le Guin, take solace knowing that others have, too, and so we enter into the dialogue of building utopia, together with its responsibilities! As we explore today, we add Mikhail Bakhtin and George Bataille into the mix together with writers Sadoeuphemist and N. K. Jemisin! Our Main Texts: Ursula K. Le Gui...

29 Aug 2025 Episode 6.11 - Le Guin Part 3: The Reader’s Labyrinth Sure, the Omelas dilemma is tough, but at least we have our narrator as ally, right? Right? Perhaps the real horror in Omelas has less to do with the child at its center. We also discuss how the relationship between culture and the individual, narrator rhetoric, broader allegories, reader psychology, and the alienation effect. Our Main Text: Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”: https://archive.org/download...

22 Aug 2025 Episode 6.10 - Le Guin 2: Architectures of Happiness Is this story really about that suffering child? Or is it more about how we wall its suffering out, then invite it back in? We also discuss how social complicity, blissful ignorance, binary breakdowns, and the pee privileges at Waywords Studio. Our Main Text: Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”: https://archive.org/download/the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas-ursula-k-leguin/The%20Ones%20Who%20Walk%20Away%20...

At last we settle in to think about Le Guin's Omelas story and set aside some common approaches to it. The first of several parts.

Let's niche down into a small sub-genre of fantasy and explore our desire for it, the classic utopia!