A Hopeless Endeavor: A Joanna Newsom Podcast

Our first episode of the incredibly heavy Jackrabbits! We talk about heavy things. Please let us know what you think, because I feel like we need some help with this song! Thank you all so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for the audio processing and for the music. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “I was tired of being drunk. My face cracked like a joke. So I swung through here like a brace of jackrabbits with their necks all broke.”

Okay. So I legit don’t get what happened with the last episode. From what I understand, there is new content, but only like 3/4 of the way through the episode. Technology, man. So! Here is an early release of the rest of our In California coverage. Thank you very much for being patient, and I’m so sorry! Hope you enjoy this last bit. Here is the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor. “If I lose my head, just where am I going to lay it?”

***I messed up the audio on this one, guys. Very sorry. There is new content like 3/4 ish of the way through, so please just skip ahead.*** The penultimate episode on In California. We talk about deer and their creepy walleyed eyes, koi fish, and wellness. Thank you so much for listening! We want to hear from you ([email protected]). Our Patreon is here (the final episode of In California is up there now): https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor. “I don’t belong to anyone, my heart is heavy as an oil drum. And I don’t want to be alone, my heart is yellow as an ear of corn. And I have torn my soul apart from pulling artlessly with fool commands.”

Here is the second part of our discussion on In California! We talk about scary deer, puns, and probably the Sopranos. Thank you all so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for the audio processing and for the music. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “Sometimes I am so in love with you (like a little clock that trembles on the edge of the hour, only ever calling out ‘Cuckoo, Cuckoo’).”

Bears! Bark-beetles! Beheadings! It’s all coming your way from our series on the majestic masterful masterpiece that is In California. Thank you all, so much, for listening. Thank you so much to David Pizarro for his beats and for making us sound good every single week. We want to hear your thoughts! Let us know what you think about In California or any other song at [email protected]. Our Patreon is https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor. There are five bonus episodes up there so far. You also get early releases! Check it out if you want. “My heart became a drunken runt on the day I sunk in this shunt to tap me clean of all the wonder and the sorrow I have seen since I left my home.”

The final part of our discussion of the gorgeous masterpiece that is You and Me, Bess. Possibly even the last reference to a horse on the album too, but who ever knows. We talk about the logistics of being caught, about whether this is all just a lonely hallucination, and about snow thumps. Thank you so much for listening! Thank you to David Pizarro for the music and for his incredible audio processing skills. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor. “Forever I’ll listen to your glad neighing.”

In this episode, we speculate more about our narrator being a horse, about highwaymen in the 1700s, alfalfa, and more! I hope you all enjoy. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beats and audio processing skills. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor. “Hope Mother Nature has not overheard! (Though, she doles out hurt like a puking bird.)”

In this last part of our On a Good Day episodes, we talk about how we talk a lot about this one minute and forty-something second song, ruined mills, wills, and water, because of course water. Thank you all for listening. Thanks to Simon for his Instagram insights! Thank you to David Pizarro, as always, for his gorgeous (new) beats. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “Will you leave me be so that we can stay true to the path that you have chosen?”

We have made it to the second record of HOOM! It’s a short song, but don’t let that fool you into thinking we don’t have much to say. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all so much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beats (there’s a new one this week!), and for processing our audio. Thank you to Sam for recording our Zoom conversations, which is the only reason we still have this recording. “I saw a life, and I called it mine. I saw it drawn so sweet and fine. And I had begun to fill in all the lines, right down to what we’d name her.”

The final part of Baby Birch. We will miss this song, but also, oh my god, what a relief. Since we are talking about the last verse this entire episode, it is obviously… heavy. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all, so much, for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the sick music, and for the audio processing of every single episode. “I saw a rabbit as slick as a knife and as pale as a candlestick, and I had thought it’d be harder to do, but I caught her and skinned her quick: held her there, kicking and mewling, upended, unspooling, unsung, and blue; told her, ‘wherever you go, little runaway bunny, I will find you.’ And then she ran, as they’re liable to do.”