Jason Emde Podcasts

Writers Read Their Early Shit enjoys its first threesome as Jason welcomes national treasures John Lent and Jude Clarke for a wide-ranging confabulation about pirate adventures, clammy Edmonton bookmobiles, garage stations, gothic 14 point horror stories, escaping gravity's pull, murdering adjectives & adverbs, old age & treachery, & learning about…

Jason welcomes Chinese-Canadian poet, playwright, & essayist Dale Lee Kwong for a gas about lesbian tours of China, insulting punctuation, Tom Wayman, tech-nostalgia, being glad to have a dad, the goddess of reality, & how all of the best people have a Vernon, BC connection, whether they know it or not. Music, as always, by the dangerous DJ Max in …

Holy doodle! Jason welcomes one of his oldest & longest-suffering pals for a nostalgia-soaked ramble about high school airbands, role-playing games, pretty good nosebleeds, trying to be Leonard Cohen, & being robbed blind by John Cobra. Roger not only bravely shares some of his high school-era poetry, he turns the table & shares some of Jason's as …

"Our mistakes make the best stories, and that's why we should not think of them as failures." In the second of their already legendary chats, Jason & Susan discuss Egyptian typewriters & Italian ranch hands, evolutionary obsequies, reading with Gregory Corso in Amsterdam, vodka made from San Francisco fog, when 'vagina' is the right word, & the awf…

Jason welcomes legendary Canadian poet Susan Musgrave and the two get to gabbing—about Leonard Cohen, the House of Carnage, ghosts, grief, stones, Sharon Olds, pre-traumatic stress disorder, how to read poetry, and relearning that the table isn't there—until they run out of time, long before they ever get around to any of Susan's early work. "I've …

Jason welcomes under-qualified window-washer Dave Olson & his fantastic beard & beautiful hands for a natter about punching or hugging Dostoevsky, see-through loincloths, meeting REM, borrowing mustard from Allen Ginsberg, dodgy Greyhound stations, working out the writing life math, and how cheerleaders are people too. There's ropey Egyptian histor…

Jason welcomes scarily talented singer-songwriter Amanda Tiffin for a nostalgic chinwag about Amanda's musical origin story, Zimbabwean adventures, Edie Brickell phases, discovering the G augmented chord, Footloose in reverse, squeezing early shit out of annoying roommates, & watching the lights go on. Music by Amanda herself—including a gorgeous v…

Jason welcomes KISS ROOM legend Matt Porter for a bombastic, fire & thunder chinwag about Mr. Mutant, learning to do things by making a fool of yourself, escaping from the apes, Duran Duran videos, The Mask saving the president from an assassin's poison-slathered knife, & having hair like melting toothpaste & legs like a piano. It's all action all …

Jason welcomes UBC Creative Writing prof & author of the Hillary Gravendyk Prize-winning poetry collection 'The Silk the Moths Ignore' Bronwen Tate for a barely-rescued-from-oblivion confabulation about inefficiency spaces, poetry in the body, red with flesh in it, tender cringe, soggy memories left out in the rain, picking up Squeed on the highway…

Welcome to WRTES Season Two (& it’s a big one). Excitingly expanding the format, Jason welcomes master podcaster and philosopher-pirate Rob Kelly for a freewheeling, ninety-miles-an-hour-down-a-dead-end-street chinwag about the correct way to butter dinner rolls (according to Harlan Ellison), naming your kids after Dylan characters, the adventures …

Jason welcomes his long-time literary chum Stephen 'Tom' McKenna for a tender ramble about bludgeoning writers they don't like, ritual suicide in porno detail, movies about writers, Hamnet, stroking flanks, birthdays at Pizza Patio, the Dukes of Hazzard, & how (all evidence to the contrary) reading has made them better people. Jason also shares som…

Jason welcomes English songwriter & multi-instrumentalist Andrew Tyrone Rodgers for a jaw about accidentally wearing Lincoln Park t-shirts, DKPs (Duran-KISS Pleasures), fixing holes, revisiting childhood poems, cosmic hot pots, too much pop in the park on a Friday, internet cafés, & losing & finding family members. Music by both Andy & the bombasti…

Jason welcomes legendary Pods & Sods co-host, Debbie Gibson enthusiast, & pop/rock/rap fantasist Craig Smith for a river deep, mountain high ramble about keyboards made of dynamite, Beatles-obsessed drug-dealing uncle-cousins, discographies of imaginary bands, the best Milli Vanilli video, the constant disappointment of heartbreak, Duran Duran's 'T…

Jason welcomes Daria Salamon, author of 'The Prairie Bridesmaid' & co-author of 'Don't Try This At Home,' for a jaw about why Winnipeg is cool for artists, the blonde awfulness of 'Sweet Valley High,' being covered in eggs & tears, the glory of handwritten letters, how as long as the writing is honest the rest can be fixed, & being bullied by a chi…

Jason welcomes the refreshingly swear-y Hollay Ghadery, author of 'Fuse,' for a wide-ranging chinwag about multiple vasectomies, hangovers through the decades, feeling anxious about eternity, being a writer or being dead, getting better all the time, & semantic satiation. Hollay also shares some not-too-bad early sh*t. Music by the death-defying DJ…

Jason welcomes musician & poet Bill Hickey for a ramble-yak about sharing an elevator with a pissed-off David Foster Wallace, carpet farming, fighting off ALL the members of KISS, & the sick, lip-smacked goodness of gritty early sh*t. They also reminisce about the glories of Goontown, Penguin Dust, & that one time Bill was Jason's roadie. Check out…

Jason welcomes writer & artist Kimberley Orton for a chat about the 20 best Tom Waits songs, what Toronto sounds like, how four to four-thirty is just not long enough for proper sex, the crashing pleasure of hanging up on people, getting bonked by the backspin, & eyes & teeth. Kimberley also shares some exciting excerpts from her teenage journals. …

Jason welcomes urban Neapolitan & Scotland's best-kept secret, poet & singer-songwriter Roy Møller, for a gabfest about the Beatles, the best Bob Dylan desert island trilogy, how Eternal Thou bought a car, and Røy's unusual origin story. Will Jason pronounce Leith correctly, or will he prove himself to be a seedy little grapefruit of a man? There's…

Jason welcomes Lea Graham, poet & prof & author of 'Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You' & 'From the Hotel Vernon',' for a chat about Jack Kerouac's grave, Bob Dylan's library books, Michael Jackson in Borneo, adulterous Nazis, circumcision gods, & Lord Pork. Having slightly misunderstood the podcast's premise, Lea also reads some pretty g…

Jason welcomes teacher, writer, podcaster, & pal Shea Layton for a gabfest about Rocky Mountain oysters, Pimp cologne, the main problem with guys named Chet, & fist fighting in the food court at the mall. Then, in a thrilling first for WRTES, they deliver a dramatic reading of Shea's incomplete (but compellingly gritty) early screenplay, 'Dryer She…

Jason welcomes the scarily-talented Katie Zdybel for a jaw about punctuating your thinking, the perfect literary day, magic trolleys, mermaids, writing letters as writing practice, & the power of JD Salinger's prose. There's also some early sh*t, but not much, because Katie's so good at what she does. Also: thanks to popular demand, listen for anot…

Jason welcomes poet, memoirist, and glutton for joy Carla Funk to a chat about trying on literary costumes, Rock-a-Thons, Patrick Lane drunk in a snowbank in Vanderhoof, writing as an act of hospitality, cannibals, pianos as suicide weapons, and the secret history of Glass Tiger. Carla's latest book is 'Mennonite Valley Girl' & it's fab. Enjoy more…

Didn't like the first one? Well, here's another one! Jason & Curtis, launching another raid on another early sh*t base, revisit their first band—the mighty 5Fs—& subject their cruelest song (& its accompanying video) to rigorous (& abashed) analysis. Digressions include the first rock star in space, living in sin at the Lava Buffet, the Crab Tank L…

Podcast predicament (& it's a big one): what do you do when you conduct an interview so freewheeling, so important, so dangerous, so damned crazy, that it goes for over three hours? Break it up into two separate blasts of hell and hallelujah, that's what. Get ready for brief flashes of brief enjoyment & welcome to Writer's Read Their Early Sh*t's f…

Jason welcomes poet & non-KISS fan CM Preston for a freewheeling chinwag about the whys and wherefores of early sh*t, bad writing advice, questioning your sanity, whether art is a mirror or a hammer or something else entirely, the best things about Japan, and quoting Kafka at dinner parties. Check out CM's work at cmpreston.com & join the early sh*…

Jason welcomes his eleven-year-old son, Joe, for a confabulation about Joe's early work and some of Jason's earliest ideas for super heroes and super villains. Skunk guns, what fermented soybeans really taste like, and who would win in a fight between Jeff Kool and Captain Dagger...this unmissable episode has it all. So don't, er, miss it. Original…

It's a trap! Jason welcomes the mellifluous Tyler James Russell for a Boba Fett-infused chinfest featuring some of Tyler's early & action-packed Star Wars fan fiction. Bounty hunters, The Sound & The Fury, shitty first drafts, the detestable messiness of Dostoevsky, guilty lapses, & writing novels as screenplays first: it's all here. Enjoy more Tyl…

Jason welcomes Sarah Tsiang for a relatively spicy conversation about Popeye Candy Sticks, getting your ego out of your poems, being dead inside, & ghosts on the phone. Also discussed: does the chicken care? Check out Sarah's website at https://sarahtsiang.com/ and join the early sh*t chat at https://www.facebook.com/WRTESpodcast and on Instagram @…

Jason welcomes blogger and travel advisor John Davidson for a look at the world of online travel writing, the coolest places to visit in Japan, and some early, bloggy sh*t. Also discussed: Jason's affection for Australian space-rockers The Church, a smashing end to wedded bliss, macaroni & cheese meat pies, KISS, and flowing mullets. Check out John…

Jason welcomes writer pal Erin McGregor for some grade five equine poetry, macramé bathroom decorations, second-hand lipstick, English-speaking monkeys, and the unexpected aceness of Ovaltine. Music by DJ Max in Tokyo; check him out at http://soundcloud.com/djmaxintokyo. Join the conversation on the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WRTESpo…

Jason welcomes writer Adam Lewis Schroeder for a deeply grim (and grimly deep) confab about high school poetry, the Hardy Boys, ancient Okanagan Valley literary feuds, the carnal adventures of Schlump, and whether or not WRTES should be a podcast about kittens. Music by DJ Max in Tokyo (http://soundcloud.com/djmaxintokyo). Join the conversation on …

Jason welcomes Buddhist cartoonist Victoria Taylor for a charming discussion about the art of memoir, elephant traps, pounding the bones, and spending time with the beloved dead. There are also a few brief appearances from a frosted vagina. Check out Victoria's memoirs on Instagram (@victoria4971) and join the conversation on Facebook at https://ww…

Jason welcomes beat wizard DJ Max in Tokyo for a free-ranging chat about a tiny Bob Marley living in your fridge, thermal detonators, Koda Kumi, the Land of Fermented Soybeans, indie rock pricks, and the relative unsexiness of the bass clarinet. Check out DJ Max in Tokyo's Soundcloud page (http://soundcloud.com/djmaxintokyo) and the Beats and Beets…

Jason welcomes his sister Alison for a chilling & turbulent tour through some of her adolescent journals, poems, & short stories. Will it all disappear in a rhythmic, romantic haze, or does Alison know too much to die? Music by DJ Max in Tokyo (http://soundcloud.com/djmaxintokyo). Join the conversation at https://theconnectionproject.ca/ and on the…

Ace bassist for Tokyo-based super group Glow and the Forest David White details attic happenings & his aversion to meat, philosophical and actual, while Jason stands, poetically, on a windy ridge, with cohorts. Please contact the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WRTESpodcast) if you're interested in reading your own early sh*t on the show, &…

Welcome to the show! What is this, & why does it exist? Introductory info & details about Writers Read Their Early Sh*t. Plus: Jason's foundational early poem. Support the showBy Jason Emde