The labour theory of value says the value of a product should be determined by the amount of labour expended on it. If that was true, music would be very, very expensive to buy. But it's almost free these days.

So how do we reconcile the countless hours of behind-the-scenes work that goes into every little 3-minute song on an album? In this episode, I interview musicians Nick MacLean and Jordi Comstock about the the invisible labour of music making.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

In the first episode of a new Hyacinth Podcast sub-series "The Music," I interview two of my best friends and longtime collaborators - Kim Wempe and Norma MacDonald are both songwriters and emergency room nurses (in the middle of a global pandemic).

We talk about music, work, and the fine art of balancing real life and artistic practice.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

In this episode, I wrap up Season 1 with the most beautiful words I could find to leave you with: a story from the prodigy poet, Ocean Vuong, and a gorgeous meditation from the iconic Mary Oliver.

And while the world aches and calls out for justice, I also leave you with one small story of my own.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

Instead of "getting back to normal," why don't we use this extraordinary time in the world to reimagine how we make things and who we make them for?

What if we integrate accessibility into everything we do going forward? And what if accessibility was more than just a utilitarian exercise, but an artistic practice as well?

This episode includes interviews with arts-based disability scholar Dr. Carla Rice and adaptive circus artists Erin Ball and Vanessa Furlong.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

Explore the way small and private intimacies of human life persist and even thrive in times of major upheaval. Meet me in the one place we can still travel to: into the words of others who have lived through life’s great cruelties.

I compile excerpts from some of the things I've been reading during this crisis and share a love letter that I discover, by happy accident, in the front cover of one of my books. Are these small things enough to get us through these difficult times? 

This episode is a gentle way of being together when we must be apart. It is a love letter for difficult times.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

There’s a box under my basement stairs that I haven’t opened for ten years. I thought I knew what was inside. But when I finally get the courage to open it, I encounter a mystery that goes beyond my own family archive and leads me to ask: What does “the archive” mean and who gets to decide “what remains” there?

To find out, I follow archivist Heather Home into a vault at the Queen's University Archives and speak with Dr. Kristin Moriah and Dr. Mark Campbell, whose research confronts important issues around what is missing in institutional archives and why. Plus, we learn how black studies and the culture and artistic practice of hiphop could reshape traditional archival processes.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

Democracy is under threat across the globe. Humanities studies are in decline in universities around the world. Is there a connection?

This episode is not about politics. It's about democracy as an idea. It's about the skills needed to be democratic citizens, including deliberative discussion and community-building, and how the humanities are central to teaching us how to think and act democratically.

Guests: Dave Meslin - Democracy activist and author of Tear Down: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up

Dr. Amanda Anderson - Professor of English, Director of the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University, and author of Psyche & Ethos: Moral Life After Psychology

Dr. Cecil Foster - Professor at University of Buffalo and author of They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada

I also explore important ideas from Pulitzer prize-winning American author Marilynne Robinson and Kandice Chuh of the CUNY Graduate Centre in New York.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

Bonus episode: Hear my extended interview with architect and planner Dhiru Thadani. We discuss the history of urbanism as a design theory and the enduring value of beauty in our public and civic spaces.

We first met Dhiru in Episode 5: Looking for Beauty. This is our full conversation. If you enjoy this interview, be sure to subscribe and check out my regular, curated episodes on your favourite app or at www.hyacinthpodcast.com. Connect with @hyacinpodcast on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

What is beauty? Where can we find it? In this crazy world that is burning up (quite literally) and seems to be falling apart, does beauty even matter?

I discuss the enduring imperative of beauty far beyond physical appearance or aesthetic with Dr. Alice Brittan, a professor of contemporary literature, and architect Dhiru Thadani. Fascinating parallels and paradoxes emerge that take us on a journey from a vacant lot in Hamilton, Ontario, to the Piazza Navona in Rome. Along the way, we consider the meaning of beauty through the lens of Elaine Scarry’s seminal book On Beauty and Being Just, Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, and the philosophy of American writer Marilynne Robinson.

www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

Do you hide memories away in boxes under beds, at the top corners of closets? Or do you keep them all around you, cluttered up on your mantel and stuck to the front of your fridge? From our personal stories to our public histories, memory affects the way we view and move through our world. I talk with journalist Pauline Dakin, writer Emma Donoghue, memoirist Jennifer Browdy, and poet Canisia Lubrin about the power of memory and how to harness its mystery and meaning.

Find details and links to all the books discussed in this episode at www.carmelmikol.com/hyacinth-podcast

Topics: memory, memoir, writing, poetry, public memory, history, monument, archive, poets, purposeful memoir