Best StoryWeb Podcasts (2024)

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174: Chad Everett: "Medical Center" 15:17

6y ago15:17

15:17

This week on StoryWeb: Chad Everett’s TV show, Medical Center. If only I could start with the theme song to Medical Center! If I were telling you this story in person, I’d risk humming a few bars, complete with an ambulance-like scream of notes. But alas, I’m left with mere words to conjure up for you the magic that was Medical Center, an hour-long…

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173: Cynthia Morris: "Chasing Sylvia Beach" 12:24

6y ago12:24

12:24

This week on StoryWeb: Cynthia Morris’s novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach. What do you get when you combine time travel, intriguing literary history, Paris, and romance? Why, Cynthia Morris’s novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach, of course! I know Cynthia from participating regularly in what she previously called Free Write Flings, month-long excursions that have…

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172: James H. Cone: "Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare" 7:50

6y ago7:50

7:50

This week on StoryWeb: James H. Cone’s book Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare. It has been more than 25 years since I read Rev. James H. Cone’s book Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare. I was teaching an English 101 course focused on the writing of the Civil Rights Movement, and I wanted to learn more about Dr. Marti…

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171: Malcolm X and Alex Haley: "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" 8:06

6y ago8:06

8:06

This week on StoryWeb: Malcolm X and Alex Haley’s book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm X wrote his famed autobiography in collaboration with African American journalist Alex Haley (most famous for his epic book Roots: The Saga of an American Family). If you are one of the many Americans who believe Malcolm X espoused violence, even hate, I…

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170: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Letter from Birmingham Jail" 12:45

6y ago12:45

12:45

This week on StoryWeb: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was in Birmingham, Alabama, protesting racism and racial segregation in the city. He was arrested on Good Friday for demonstrating, which a circuit court judge had prohibited. While he was in solitary confinement, Dr…

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169: Susan Glaspell: "Trifles" 1:05:31

6y ago1:05:31

1:05:31

This week on StoryWeb, Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles. Born in 1876, Susan Glaspell was a prominent novelist, short story writer, journalist, biographer, actress, and, most notably, playwright, winning the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Alison’s House. She and her husband, George Cram Cook, founded the ground-breaking Provincetown Player…

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168: Elizabeth Strout: "Olive Kitteridge" 7:00

6+ y ago7:00

7:00

This week on StoryWeb: Elizabeth Strout’s book Olive Kitteridge. Has there ever been a grimmer, more taciturn main character in a book than Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge? We’ve all known someone like Olive, someone who looks like she’s just bitten into a lemon, someone for whom a kind of self-righteous grumpiness rules the day. What’s so unli…

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167: Emily Dickinson: Poem 372, "After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes" 7:47

6+ y ago7:47

7:47

This week on StoryWeb: Emily Dickinson’s Poem 372, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes –” For Patricia and our students Emily Dickinson’s Poem 372 is not – technically speaking – a story. And Dickinson is not a storyteller per se. But her nearly 1,800 poems speak deeply and powerfully to the human condition. They give a still unparalleled acc…

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166: James Joyce: "The Dead" 23:04

6+ y ago23:04

23:04

This week on StoryWeb: James Joyce’s short story “The Dead.” James Joyce’s “The Dead” is widely considered to be his best short story, called by the New York Times “just about the finest short story in the English language" and by T.S. Eliot as one of the greatest short stories ever written. The storyline is simple enough: a long-married Irish coup…

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165: Richard Thompson: "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" 9:06

6+ y ago9:06

9:06

This week on StoryWeb: Richard Thompson’s song “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” For Jim, in honor of his birthday My husband, Jim, and I love this song by Richard Thompson and its signature line, “red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme.” In fact, the first concert we saw together was Thompson playing at the Boulder Theater, and of cour…

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164: Robert Frost: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" 9:18

6+ y ago9:18

9:18

This week on StoryWeb: Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In honor of the winter solstice Without a doubt, the most famous poem about winter is Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In fact, Garrison Keillor says that this is perhaps the single most famous poem of any kind in the twentieth century. Frost hi…

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163: Rick Nelson: "Garden Party" 6:55

6+ y ago6:55

6:55

This week on StoryWeb: Rick Nelson’s song “Garden Party.” For Julia, in honor of her birthday In 1972, my two-year-old sister could sing all the words to this Rick Nelson hit. Why she latched on to this particular song when it came on the car radio none of us will ever know – not even Julia. She would sit in her car seat – not one of the safety-con…

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162: The Coen Brothers: "Fargo" 7:49

6+ y ago7:49

7:49

This week on Story Web: the Coen Brothers’ film Fargo. I suppose I must have a dark sense of humor indeed to think of the Coen Brothers’ film Fargo as a comedy – even if I do realize that it is a dark comedy. I mean, what can you say about someone who shrieks, then laughs uproariously, at the woodchipper scene? Yes, Fargo is a weird and dark tale –…

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161: Theodore Roethke: "My Papa's Waltz" 7:26

6+ y ago7:26

7:26

This week on StoryWeb: Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” A story contained in sixteen short lines of poetry – that is Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz.” This autobiographical poem tells of a little boy dancing with his drunk father as his frowning mother looks on. How to read this poem? Is the speaker a man looking back at his drunken f…

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160: Lydia Maria Child: "Over the River and Through the Web" 8:09

6+ y ago8:09

8:09

Lydia Maria Child: “Over the River and Through the Wood” In the 19th century, Lydia Maria Child’s name was nearly a household word. An outspoken abolitionist, women’s rights supporter, and crusader for Native American rights, Child was also a prolific author. A journalist and editor, she wrote novels and short stories (often using fiction to expres…

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159: Lee Smith: "Dimestore" 6:35

6+ y ago6:35

6:35

This week on StoryWeb: Lee Smith’s memoir, Dimestore: A Writer’s Life. I first fell in love with Lee Smith’s fiction nearly thirty years ago when I was a cook at Le Conte Lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On my afternoons off, I’d sit on my cabin porch, reading first Lee’s novel Oral History, later her novel Fair and Tender Ladies. …

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158: Jill Ker Conway: "The Road from Coorain" 5:33

6+ y ago5:33

5:33

This week on StoryWeb: Jill Ker Conway’s memoir The Road from Coorain. The Road from Coorain traces the unlikely story of young Jill Ker’s journey from a sheep station in the western grasslands of New South Wales, Australia, to the position of president of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Journeys of such epic proportions are rare even …

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157: Edgar Allan Poe: "The Raven" 15:25

6+ y ago15:25

15:25

This week on StoryWeb: Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.” For this spooky Halloween edition of StoryWeb, I’m featuring Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” Everyone knows this haunting poem – but less well known is Poe’s essay “The Philosophy of Composition,” in which he explains how he quite methodically wrote the poem. Now “The Raven,” you have to und…

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156: Frida Kahlo: "The Two Fridas" 11:36

6+ y ago11:36

11:36

This week on StoryWeb: Frida Kahlo’s painting The Two Fridas. Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is known for her stunning self-portraits. You might not think of her immediately as a painter who tells stories through her art. Indeed, you could be forgiven if you think of her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, as the more narrative painter of the two. After a…

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155: The Partridge Family: "I Think I Love You" 6:41

6+ y ago6:41

6:41

This week on StoryWeb: The Partridge Family’s song “I Think I Love You.” Fifth grade – and the song I can’t get out of my head is “I Think I Love You.” Every girl at Griffith Elementary School – make it every girl at schools around the United States – feels the same way. How we swooned over David Cassidy, the teen idol who played a made-for-TV band…

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154: Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Canterbury Tales" 7:11

6+ y ago7:11

7:11

This week on StoryWeb: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Whan that aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour. . . . Oh, how I loved learning how to recite these opening lines to “The Prologue” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury T…

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153: Dolly Parton: "Coat of Many Colors" 11:09

6+ y ago11:09

11:09

This week on StoryWeb: Dolly Parton’s song “Coat of Many Colors.” Call it maudlin or sentimental, but Dolly Parton’s song “Coat of Many Colors” is undeniably an American classic, so much so that it was adapted to a made-for-television movie in 2015 and to a sequel, “Christmas of Many Colors,” in 2016. The song is not particularly innovative artisti…

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152: Alex Haley: "Roots" 10:07

6+ y ago10:07

10:07

This week on StoryWeb: Alex Haley’s book Roots. In January 1977 when I was sixteen, I joined 130 million Americans to watch the television miniseries based on Alex Haley’s book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. It was broadcast eight consecutive nights, and like countless other viewers, I was glued to the TV set every night. I was there, front…

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151: Elizabeth Bishop: "In the Waiting Room" 8:36

6+ y ago8:36

8:36

This week on StoryWeb: Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “In the Waiting Room.” I’ve featured Elizabeth Bishop previously on StoryWeb. “The Moose” – set in Bishop’s home province of Nova Scotia – is one of my favorite poems, as it tells so powerfully the ordinary – but extraordinary – experience we all have from time to time: an encounter with wild life, wit…

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150: Oscar Wilde: "The Importance of Being Earnest" 7:30

6+ y ago7:30

7:30

This week on StoryWeb: Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. Really, has there ever been a play funnier than Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest? No matter how you experience it – by reading the play, seeing it performed live, or watching one of the film adaptations – you’re sure to be splitting your sides with laughter in n…

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149: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: "Americanah" 7:05

6+ y ago7:05

7:05

This week on StoryWeb: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah. Nigerian Chinua Achebe was the first African writer to publish a major novel in English – a novel in the colonial master’s language. Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart tells the story of Okonkwo and his traditional Igbo village and the devastating transformation it undergoes with…

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148: Langston Hughes: "Theme for English B" 6:20

6+ y ago6:20

6:20

This week on StoryWeb: Langston Hughes’s poem “Theme for English B.” Oh, how I love this poem! It packs so much into a short space. Published on its own in 1949, it was included in Langston Hughes’s 1951 collection, Montage of a Dream Deferred. Though it gains more resonance when taken with the entire collection of Hughes’s bebop poetry, it also st…

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147: Langston Hughes: "Montage of a Dream Deferred" 11:02

6+ y ago11:02

11:02

This week on StoryWeb: Langston Hughes’s book of poems Montage of a Dream Deferred. I play it cool And dig all jive That’s the reason I stay alive. My motto As I live and learn Is dig and be dug in return. So goes the poem “Motto” in Langston Hughes’s 1951 jazz collection, Montage of a Dream Deferred. The list of my favorite Langston Hughes poems w…

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146: Herman Melville: "Billy Budd, Sailor" 23:58

6+ y ago23:58

23:58

This week on StoryWeb: Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd, Sailor. While “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and Moby-Dick get a lot of attention (and are taught frequently in high school and college classes), fans of Herman Melville’s work think a lot about a piece he was writing at the end of his life. Though Melville had been working on the novella Bill…

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145: Allen Ginsberg: "A Supermarket in California" 6:47

6+ y ago6:47

6:47

This week on StoryWeb: Allen Ginsberg’s poem “A Supermarket in California.” In so many ways – both in his poetry and in his interviews – Allen Ginsberg made clear that he owed a great debt to Walt Whitman. Indeed, Ginsberg’s most famous poem, “Howl,” stands as a nearly direct response to Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” published in 1855, a century…

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144: Gloria Anzaldúa: "I Had To Go Down" 12:10

6+ y ago12:10

12:10

This week on StoryWeb: Gloria Anzaldúa’s poem “I Had To Go Down.” Gloria Anzaldúa was a groundbreaking, perhaps even groundclaiming theorist and poet. She is by far best known for her 1987 book, Borderlands/La Frontera. It is much easier to identify it as her most influential and enduring work than it is to place it into a genre. Is it theory? Hist…

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143: E.M. Forster: "A Passage to India" 9:43

7y ago9:43

9:43

This week on StoryWeb: E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India. When I was a senior in high school, my favorite English teacher, Mr. Alwood, agreed to do an independent study with me. He selected four challenging novels he thought I was up to understanding and studying. I think back to those novels now and can’t imagine how a 17-year-old could real…

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142: Derek Bowman: "Tam: The Life and Death of a Dog" 14:42

7y ago14:42

14:42

This week on StoryWeb: Derek Bowman’s book Tam: The Life and Death of a Dog. For Mom, in honor of her birthday Chanonry Point. The very name of this tiny peninsula in northern Scotland evokes fond memories and takes me back – almost physically, it seems – to the little cottage I shared with my mother and sister for one week in Summer 2006. I can re…

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141: Lin-Manuel Miranda: "Hamilton" 8:11

7y ago8:11

8:11

This week on StoryWeb: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical Hamilton. Like many, many Americans, I am entirely and utterly swept up in the cultural phenomenon of our time – meaning I can’t get enough of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical Hamilton. Wow. That is really all there is to say. Introducing the cast for a performance at the White House…

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140: John Hiatt: "Feels Like Rain" and "Drive South" 7:41

7y ago7:41

7:41

This week on StoryWeb: John Hiatt’s songs “Feels Like Rain” and “Drive South.” For Jim, in celebration of our years together Later this week, Jim and I will celebrate twelve years together, ten years married. American singer-songwriter John Hiatt was a part of our early courtship, and two of his songs became our particular favorites – “Feels Like R…

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139: Edith Wharton: "The House of Mirth" 41:19

7y ago41:19

41:19

This week on StoryWeb: Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth. I want to close out my multi-week focus on the Gilded Age with a consideration of Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth. Where Jacob Riis, Alfred Stieglitz, Stephen Crane, and Theodore Dreiser look at the grimier side of this famed period in New York City history, at the underbelly…

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138: Theodore Dreiser: "Sister Carrie" 43:35

7y ago43:35

43:35

This week on StoryWeb: Theodore Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie. In 1899, as the soon-to-be-novelist Theodore Dreiser was starting work on Sister Carrie, he was also working on two articles about America’s up-and-coming photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Impressed by Stieglitz’s realistic photography, Dreiser used similar techniques in Sister Carrie, cre…

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137: Stephen Crane: "An Experiment in Misery" 38:45

7y ago38:45

38:45

This week on StoryWeb: Stephen Crane’s article “An Experiment in Misery.” Many Americans know Stephen Crane as the author of the Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, which made Crane famous at the age of 23 when it was serialized in 1894. It was published as a full-length book in 1895. Some know his first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,…

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136: Alfred Stieglitz: "The Terminal" and "Winter, Fifth Avenue" 11:16

7y ago11:16

11:16

This week on StoryWeb: Alfred Stieglitz’s photographs The Terminal and Winter, Fifth Avenue. In the 1890s, as Alfred Stieglitz was beginning his career, photographers were fighting for artistic recognition. Photographers who wanted to go beyond “mere” journalism or documentary photography had to show their critics the value of their “mechanistic” a…

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135: Jacob Riis: "How the Other Half Lives" 44:46

7y ago44:46

44:46

This week on StoryWeb: Jacob Riis’s book How the Other Half Lives. Photojournalism can be an extraordinarily powerful way to raise the public’s concern about extreme situations. An early pioneer in this realm was Jacob Riis, whose 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives, exposed the underbelly of life in New York City during the Gilded Age, with a part…

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134: Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins: "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" 6:11

7y ago6:11

6:11

This week on StoryWeb: Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins’s song “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.” Every year as Easter approaches, I think of the perennial holiday classic, the beloved song “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.” Written in 1949 by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins (who also wrote “Frosty, the Snowman”), the song was recorded by Gene Autry in 1950. It…

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133: Martin Sexton: "Happy" 6:13

7y ago6:13

6:13

This week on StoryWeb: Martin Sexton’s song “Happy.” For Jim, celebrating twenty-four years of new life Several years ago, my friend Virginia called to invite me to a concert. Martin Sexton, one of her favorite singer-songwriters, was playing that night at the Boulder Theater, and Virginia had an extra ticket. Would I like to go? I asked Jim what h…

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132: Kent Haruf: "Plainsong" 6:05

7y ago6:05

6:05

This week on StoryWeb: Kent Haruf’s novel Plainsong. One of the pure delights in moving to Colorado eleven years ago was discovering a whole new crop of regional writers – in this case, Western writers. If you’ve followed StoryWeb for a while, you know I love American regional literature – especially Southern and Appalachian literature (but throw i…

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131: Hod Pharis: "I Heard the Bluebirds Sing" 6:51

7y ago6:51

6:51

This week on StoryWeb: Hod Pharis’s song “I Heard the Bluebirds Sing.” In honor of the first day of spring I first encountered Canadian songwriter Hod Pharis’s song “I Heard the Bluebirds Sing” on Pathway to West Virginia, the first album recorded by Ginny Hawker and Kay Justice. It was 1989, and my good friend Rolf had just returned from a road tr…

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130: Colin Higgins and Hal Ashby: "Harold and Maude" 6:24

7y ago6:24

6:24

This week on StoryWeb: Colin Higgins and Hal Ashby’s film, Harold and Maude. The 1971 film Harold and Maude is a cult classic, a romantic dark comedy preserved in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry and ranked number 45 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Funniest Movies of All Time. Written by Colin Higgins and directed by Ha…

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129: Helen Matthews Lewis: "Living Social Justice in Appalachia" 12:36

7y ago12:36

12:36

This week on StoryWeb: Helen Matthews Lewis’s book Living Social Justice in Appalachia. In honor of International Women’s Day, coming up this Wednesday, I want to pay tribute to one of the great teachers of my life, Helen Matthews Lewis. Known fondly as the mother or grandmother of Appalachian studies by the many people whose personal and professio…

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128: James Baldwin and Raoul Peck: "I Am Not Your Negro" 8:08

7y ago8:08

8:08

This week on StoryWeb: James Baldwin and Raoul Peck’s film, I Am Not Your Negro. I want to close out African American History Month with a look at a new documentary directed by Raoul Peck. I Am Not Your Negro features a range of James Baldwin’s writings as well as rare television appearances and footage of Baldwin speaking at a variety of events. I…

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127: Beyonce: "Lemonade" 9:25

7y ago9:25

9:25

This week on StoryWeb: Beyoncé’s album Lemonade. Beyoncé slays. That’s the only word to describe her achievement on her most recent album, Lemonade. Now I am not a big fan of hip hop or pop music or what the Grammys call urban contemporary music, but ever since Beyoncé’s performance of “Formation” at last year’s Super Bowl, I have been mightily int…

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126: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: "Colored People" 8:51

7y ago8:51

8:51

This week on StoryWeb: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s memoir Colored People. Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is well known in the United States as a leading professor of African American Studies, director of Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and host of several PBS series, including Finding Your Roots. Many Americans also k…

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125: Solomon Northup: "Twelve Years a Slave" 32:27

7y ago32:27

32:27

This week on StoryWeb: Solomon Northup’s book Twelve Years a Slave. Though slave narratives were widely read in the antebellum United States (and in fact were one of the most popular genres at that time), they are mostly read now primarily in American history and literature classes. My mother-in-law, Eileen Rebman, taught a variety of slave narrati…

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