NB: In the opening segment, I refer to six poems, but then I only cite five. This is because what I originally took to be a soaring free-verse get-out-the-vote poem turned out to be just a transcription of a Bruce Springsteen Sirius XM ramble. Though, on second thought, maybe that still counts.

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery”

– James Wright’s poems “Northern Pike,” “The Blessing,” and “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota”

– Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantined”

– Ada Limón’s poem “The End of Poetry”

– Ross Gay’s poem “Sorrow Is Not My Name”

– Kitty’ O’Meara’s poem “In the Time of Pandemic”

– Derek Mahon’s poem “Everything Is Going to Be All Right”

– Alex Manley’s article “Twitter Doesn’t Want to Let the Poets Find Out About Science”

– Freud’s book “Totem and Taboo”

– Freud’s essay “The Uncanny”

– 30 Rock’s uncanny valley episode

– Alex Manley’s poem “Aeroelastic Flutter”

– 32 Poems 19.1 Summer 2021

– Anne-Marie Thompson’s poem “Okay is”

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Music by ETRNL

Art by Daniel Alexander Smith