Épisodes

  • Episode 49: Nathaniel Hawthorne

    Episode 49: Nathaniel Hawthorne
    Jan 17 2025
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s paternal ancestors were some of the first Puritans to arrive in America—one of his ancestors was even a judge who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials. He was educated at Bowdoin College where he became friends with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future president Franklin Pierce, among others. His first novel, Fanshawe, was published anonymously in 1828, followed by several collections of short stories, including Twice-Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse. His later novels include The Scarlet [...]
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    46 min
  • Episode 48: Rod Serling

    Episode 48: Rod Serling
    Dec 20 2024
    This episode lies between the pit of man’s fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call, The Twilight Zone… In this episode, we discuss the life and work of screenwriter Rod Serling. Quoting from the PBS American Masters episode about him, “Known primarily for his role as the creator and host of television’s The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling had one of the most exceptional and varied careers in television. As a writer, a producer, and for many years a teacher, Serling challenged the medium of television to reach [...]
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    55 min
  • Episode 47: James Welch

    Episode 47: James Welch
    Nov 22 2024
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of poet and novelist James Welch. Part Blackfeet and part Gros Ventre, Welch grew up on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations in Montana and graduated from the University of Montana, where he studied writing under poet Richard Hugo. Welch was the author of the novels Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney, Fools Crow (for which he received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an American Book Award, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award), The Indian Lawyer, and The Heartsong of Charging Elk. Welch also wrote a nonfiction [...]
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    44 min
  • Episode 46: Yay Panlilio

    Episode 46: Yay Panlilio
    Oct 4 2024
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Filipina-American journalist and guerilla leader Yay Panlilio. Born in 1913 to a Filipina mother and Irish-American father, she moved to the Philippines in the 1930s where she became a popular reporter, photographer, and radio broadcaster. When World War II broke out, Yay served as an informant for the U.S. Army by encoding secret messages in her radio broadcasts. Eventually this caught the attention of the Japanese Army that occupied the Philippines, and Yay had to flee Manila to the countryside, where she joined the famed Marking Guerillas, one of many [...]
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    46 min
  • Episode 45: Gloria E. Anzaldúa

    Episode 45: Gloria E. Anzaldúa
    Sep 24 2024
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of queer Chicana poet, essayist, and theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Quoting from The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader edited by AnaLouise Keating: “Born in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, Gloria Anzaldúa was an internationally acclaimed cultural theorist. As the author of Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Anzaldúa played a major role in shaping contemporary Chicano/a and lesbian/queer theories and identities. As an editor of three anthologies, including the groundbreaking This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, she played an equally vital role in developing an [...]
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    52 min
  • Episode 44: Mike Royko

    Episode 44: Mike Royko
    Aug 23 2024
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of journalist Mike Royko, a Chicago writing icon. Quoting from the Newberry Library’s current exhibit Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism, “Best known for his daily column, he wrote for the Chicago Daily News from 1959 until the paper’s closure in 1978; he joined the Chicago Sun-Times until it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch in 1984; he then wrote for the Chicago Tribune until his death in 1997.” The exhibit continues, “Royko thought of himself as a reporter first and foremost, and his distinctive perspective on local politics and [...]
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    1 h et 4 min
  • Episode 43: Thomas Wolfe

    Episode 43: Thomas Wolfe
    Jul 31 2024
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of Thomas Wolfe, one of the country’s leading novelists of the early twentieth century. A contemporary of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner, Wolfe is best known for his first novel Look Homeward, Angel. He would publish four books during his lifetime and is an important figure in American literature for his autobiographical fiction and other ways he experimented with form. Wolfe died at the age of 37, leaving behind a massive manuscript that would lead to more publications following his death. He is remembered as a key figure in the Southern Renaissance [...]
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    53 min
  • Episode 42: Rachel Pollack

    Episode 42: Rachel Pollack
    Jun 13 2024
    In this episode, we discuss the life and work of the multifaceted writer Rachel Pollack. She was the author of 41 books, including two award-winning novels, Unquenchable Fire, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Godmother Night, winner of the World Fantasy Award. Her comics work includes Doom Patrol, The New Gods, Tomahawk, The Geek, and Time Breakers. She also wrote a series of books about Tarot cards that have sold all over the world, and is the creator of The Shining Tribe Tarot, which she designed and drew herself. As a trans woman, Pollack advocated tirelessly for transgender [...]
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    57 min