A Hopeless Endeavor: A Joanna Newsom Podcast

This is a very heavy episode because… Baby Birch. Part 4, the final part, of our discussion of this song is up now on Patreon. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all for listening. Thank you so much to David Pizarro for the sick Joanna beats, and for all the time he spends getting the audio just right for every single episode. “You poor little cousin. I don’t want your dregs (a little baby fussing over my legs).”

We talk some more about this masterpiece of a song. The topics we cover include stars, cars, engines, brakes, breaks, and probably more because the episode is somehow an hour and a half. Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “We heard the rushing slow intake of the dark, dark waters and engine breaks (sic? Maybe not. But maybe).”

Well, guys. We’re here. We have somehow made it. Thank you all so much for listening. Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music, and for processing the audio for us week after week. “This is a song for Baby Birch, though I will never know you.”

Our final part of this criminally underrated song. Please let us know what you think! Here is our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “And you, with your ‘arrangement’ with Fate, nodded sadly at her lame assault on that steady old gate, her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face; the muzzle of a ghost.”

We talk some more about waking up, about finding yourself, about change arising from nothing… Ya know. Thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music and audio processing. Here is our Patreon where you can find all three of the No Provenance episodes, along with two bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true “I’m afraid of the Big Return. There’s a certain conversation lost, and that loss incurred with nobody remaining to register who had passed this way, in the night, in the middle of the night (negating their grace and their sight), till only I remember, or mark, how we had our talk…”

Listen. If you are a person who is not sold on this song, please give us the chance in the next three episodes to convince you of its absolute greatness. In this episode, we talk a lot about myths, barns, and betrayal! Thank you to you for listening; thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beats and audio processing skills. Here is our Patreon where all three of our No Provenance episodes are already up (along with a bonus episode!): https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “I have died happy, and lived to tell the tale to you. I have slept for forty years, and woke to find me gone.”

More hell talk! More fog talk! More gender roles talk! Also, happy happy happy birthday to Sam, who is obviously completely incredible. Thank you all so much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the lovely music and his audio processing skills. Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “And I know you meant to show the extent to which you gave a goddang- you ranged real hot and real cold, but I’m sold, I am at home on that range.”

We mess up some idioms, and talk about fist-fighting with fog, ignoring signposts on the way to hell, rebirth, nightmare vibes, fatalism, and obviously gender. We published our first bonus episode to Patreon this week wherein we discuss some real cool listener submissions. Check out our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beats and his audio processing skills. “And I regret, I regret how I said to you, ‘honey, just open your heart’ when I’ve got trouble even opening a honey jar. And that, right there, is where we are.”

In this episode, Sam and Nikki set out to prove their ability to find tangents and to make loose connections. We talk about kindness, dragons, empathy, etc. Here is a link to our Patreon, where we offer early access to episodes (as well as some sporadic bonus content): https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you all so very much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music and audio. “The unending amends you made are enough for one life. Be done.”

We talk about The Garden of Eden, get confused about “A.D.”, speculate about more narrator-mysteries, and revel in general about this song. We have a Patreon that you can find here: https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. Thank you so much to you all for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the beats and for the audio stuff he does every week. “It was dirt, and dirt is all the same.”