PHILADELPHIA — Charlotte, 24, grew up outside of Philadelphia and in 2017 has lived or will live in Philadelphia, Austin, and California. She is a potential future doula, part-time farmer, and caretaker of small creatures. She read The Argonauts this past winter and How Should A Person Be? this past spring.

PHILADELPHIA — Zac, 26, lives in Philadelphia and works at an art gallery. He read The Possibility of an Island (tr. Gavin Bowd) in a week, finishing it hours before this conversation. I read it a couple months back, also fairly quickly. Michel Houellebecq (b. 1956), 61, is a novelist, filmmaker, and poet. He was born on the French island of Reunion, and lives in France. Houellebecq (Michel's grandmother's maiden name) had a child in 1980, shortly after graduating and marrying, before quickly "growing depressed," taking up poetry, and divorcing. His work has been described by NYT critic Michiko Kakutani as "deeply repugnant."

PHILADELPHIA — Beth, 24, was born and raised in rural Kentucky, lives in Philadelphia, and works in nonprofit food distribution. Also makes a mean jalapeño margarita. She read How Should a Person Be? over the past couple months, primarily while at jury duty and while on a train. I first read it in late 2014. Sheila Heti, 40, conducts and edits interviews for the Believer. She was born, and still lives, in Toronto.

Intro/outro music from FILADELPHIA YAMZ: https://soundcloud.com/yams_npotatoes/sets/filadelphia-yamz

BUSHWICK, N.Y. — Chelsea, 25, was born in Hawaii, grew up in California, and lives, paints, and works in New York City. She first read The Wallcreeper "one or two" years ago; I finished it a week ago. In this episode we consider the present-day relevance (or lack thereof) of traditional marital monogamy, Zink's significance as a female novelist, and how considerations of "female novelists" might detract from their significance as "novelists." Nell Zink was born in 1964 in California. She has been married twice.

AXOLOTL, a ty6e 6eat ta6e in three parts, charts the evolution of the young male axolotl, from the larval to full grown – though sexually immature – adult, fully aquatic, amphibian stage.

POV (Official Music Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOKb9m0I8fc

ITSCana1s and YaMZ seek no money or clout for the release of AXOLOTL, only to evolve the creative lives of these beats, producers of which are as follows:

1. POV – greafer

2. chipsnthebeans (feat. STAR El) – Kid Ocean

3. Ooh gahdamn – CorMill

4. Ohhkay – Joseph L'Etranger

5. SKiNthatiSHED – 6-6-6

6. Moves – DJ KHALED'S SON x Caceci's Beats

7. PANINI O'CLOCK – Caceci's Beats

8. Ooh gahdamn reprise – instupendo

9. Lil Help – drip-133

10. lite on mah toes – sadface :(

PHILADELPHIA — Viva, 25, raps as Yamz, works at a compost company, and makes a mean brown rice bowl (with kraut and stir fry, generally). He first read On Truth and Untruth this morning.

Friedrich Nietzsche (d. 1900), the son of Lutheran pastor, was born near Leipzig, Prussia (now Germany). He wrote the titular essays in On Truth and Untruth in 1872–1873, at the age of 28–29, while still a professor at the University of Basel

INTRO song: https://soundcloud.com/yams_npotatoes/compostco-6417-146-pm-1

PHILADELPHIA — Leah, 25, is a writer and installation artist interested in, amongst other things, aqueducts. She’s been familiar with Walter Benjamin’s work for some time, but read On Hashish over the past ten days. She works at a bookstore in Philadelphia. I began slowly ingesting On Hashish this past winter, after working for a season in medical marijuana production. I finished it ten days ago.

Walter Benjamin (d. 1940) was born in 1882, in Berlin.

Leah's aqueduct work: http://cargocollective.com/leahgallant

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA — Zac, 26, born in Denver, Colo., grew up in Houston, Texas, Sydney, Australia, and Hickory, N.C., and now fundraises at an art museum in Philadelphia. He first encountered the My Struggle series a few years back, upon finding Book One on the floor of his then-girlfriend’s apartment.

I first encountered My Struggle on the recent-release shelf in a bookstore, drawn by how out of place Knausgaard’s self-portrait looked on the cover. I initially scoffed at it. It wasn’t until I heard a podcast with Knausgaard (with novelist Jeffery Eugenides, by the New York Public Library) that I was compelled to start reading.

Karl Ove Knausgaard, 48, was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1968. He began writing the series, which is 3,600 pages long, in 2008, six years after the death of his father.

PHILADELPHIA — Aaron, 26, grew up in Redding, Mass., writes free-verse poetry, and organizes labor unions. He first read Steppenwolf ten years ago, as a sophomore in high school, when recommended it by a mentor.

Hermann Hesse (d. 1962) was born in Calw, a Black Forest town in the German Empire, in 1877. He began writing Steppenwolf in 1924, shortly after marrying the singer Ruth Wenger, whom he left weeks after marrying and, upon returning almost a year later, lived in a separate apartment from. He finished the novel in 1927, in Zurich, at age 50.

Aaron's poetry blog: http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com

PHILADELPHIA — Viva, 25, grew up in a treehouse in Santa Cruz, Calif., writes raps (as Yamz), travelogues, and aspires to revolutionize urban composting when not bike-(or skateboard-)couriering. He first read Food of the Gods circa 2014, while living full-time out of a Vanagon.

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) first encountered psilocybin mushrooms – & fields of them – at 25, in the Colombian Amazon, on a trip initially in search of DMT. He died of a rare form of brain cancer.

Viva's travelogue archive: polarsteps.com/viva