Because Cooley is busy getting the school year off to a good start and my daughter, Sydney, is heading to college, my going away gift became having my daughter as my co-host this week. Inspired by the piece "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, Syd and I discuss all kinds of parental advice and all the ways society tries to get girls to behave themselves! Since "Girl" is particularly short, we've included a reading of it right in the podcast (28:55). If you want to skip right to the discussion of "Girl", it begins at 32:00. Hope you enjoy this meandering and maternal Back to School Special!

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick

If you like your hosts a little EXTRA, you'll love this episode. Cooley and Herrick crack each other up while discussing gold chain-wearing mobster wasps sending bee body parts through the mail to threaten their little chubby neighbors. Several hit songs are sung and subsequently mangled. And we sort through a rather ambiguous ending that leaves us wondering if we should pursue anarchy or just follow along with the rest of the hive. Mix up a tasty Bee Sting Cocktail and join us for much silliness as we enter the tiny world of mapmaking wasps and really rebellious bees. 

"Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees" by E. Lily Yu

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick

This time it's Herrick's turn to surprise Cooley with a tale, and it is "Horror Story" by Carmen Maria Machado. This beautifully written piece uses horror tropes to express the fear of lost connection and passion. So if you've ever misplaced your saffron only to find the remnants in your bra or discovered that your bottle of One A Days was filled with nails, then boy are you going to relate!   Text of "Horror Story": https://granta.com/horror-story/

Intro & Outro music:"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixterLicensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution    http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Logo Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

It's our first surprise story episode, wherein only one of us has read the text ahead of time, and, in true Texas style, this story is all about building walls! This week, Cooley offers up the short story Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer, a modern fairytale about the self-destructive nature of cloaking fear in fantasy. Cooley and Herrick discuss the human compulsion to build beautiful facades around ugly truths, how a particular use of "they" can reveal more than your typical pronoun, and the dangers of mixing fluffy kittens, imaginative little boys, and razor-sharp barbed wire fencing.    

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

 

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick

Herrick and Cooley discuss the life and death stakes of crappy parenting, gender politics, and lion musk while unpacking the ghoulish tale of The Veldt, a story of kids gone bad. Really, really bad. Also, they chug Carlsberg beer because it gets hot on the African veldt and nothing refreshes quite like some colonialist brew.

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick

Cooley and Herrick dive right into sexual politics as they discuss this coded conversation between two lovers and wonder when exactly doctors started telling pregnant ladies to ease off the booze! In a nod to the Ebro setting, they drink Kalimotxos, a uniquely Basque cocktail that combines equal parts red wine and Coke-- weirdly wonderful, especially with a squeeze of lime. So pour yourself this simple concoction, listen along, and reflect on why this tortured story dialogue feels somehow familiar.

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick

The Lauras discuss why they decided to start a literary podcast. They tell you a little about them as well as explain the format for the show. Most importantly, they will list the short stories that will be discussed on upcoming full-length pods.

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick