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In this week’s show, Jeff Shuster (our glorious Curator of Schlock) kick off summer by discussing two vintage summer camp films released in a two year span, Ivan Reitman's Meatballs (1979) and Tony Maylam's The Burning (1981).

In this week’s show, literary scholar Anahid Nersessian & I discuss John Keats, the potential for personal observations in academic work, the sexual politics of art, theme parks, and academic institutions, the dialectic of the indeterminacy & the permanence of art, & the scope of Keats’s personae.

In this week’s show, I talk to the novelist Kathleen Rooney about finding the spark to begin stories, the shape for long-form narratives, and the whimsy to make discoveries along the way.

In this week’s show, I talk to Nat Segaloff and Thomas Warming about writing for and about Hollywood.

In this week’s show, I bring music blogger Stephen McClurg aboard as we talk about one of the most transformative, dramatic, atmospheric, strange, American pastoral phantasmagorical musical albums of all time, Tom Waits's Swordfishtrombones (1983).

In this week’s show, I talk to the spring 2021 resident of The Kerouac Project of Orlando, playwright Spencer Huffman.  

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Kurt Vonnegut' and Suzanne McConnell's compendious Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style.

NOTES This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile. TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount. Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

In this week’s show, I speak with the actor Geoffrey Kent about Shakespeare in performance, how actors make the texts come alive, the modern English translation of Shakespeare plays, the agony of having to cut Shakespeare’s texts down, the scenes that are rehearsal-eaters, -linging steel, how action sequences by themselves tell stories, and other important matters.

In this week’s show, I speak with the poet and translator Alfred Corn about Rainer Maria Rilke's sublime Duino Elegies.

In this week’s show, I speak with Ciara Shuttleworth about poetry, telling factions, limerence, running with the Muses, being open to delight, and the importance of daydreaming.

In this week’s show, I speak with Maxim Loskutoff about Montana and the messy importance of setting, the fecund symbolism of reality, and attending NYU's creative writing program.

In this week’s show, I speak with Samantha Hart about her wonderful debut memoir, Blind Pony, Plus I speak with Scott Cunningham about the monthlong poetry festival, O, Miami. Photo by Alexander Ruiz.[/caption]

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Halfand Solutions and Other Problems.

In this week’s episode, theater scholar Raphael Cormack and I discuss the allure of Arabian music, the revolutionary times in Egypt between the world wars, and the women who dominated Cairo’s entertainment scene in the 1920s and 30s.

In this week’s episode, I speak with the poet Denise Duhamel about her latest book, Second Story, how to approach the long poem, the empathy gap in American life, and the Jungian concept of the necessity of play.

In this week’s episode, I speak with Isaac Fitzgerald and Brigette Barrager and Leigh Hobbs about children's books.

In this week’s episode, fiction writer Gwen Mullins and I discuss many, many things from the front of the Kerouac Project of Orlando's porch.

Nicklaus Rupert and I discuss the PhD in Creative Writing, the creative and professional benefits of working for a literary magazine, how working in a cinema house can turn one into a storytelling curmudgeon, and the responsibilities of using the trope of Floridian tackiness.  

In this week’s show, Leslie Salas and I discuss Lynda Barry's composition book-inspired musings on art, Syllabus, and how not just craft, but creativity itself is a skill. TEXT DISCUSSED