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Podcasts | Waywords Studio episodes
- Waypoint – “The Fortune Teller”
10 April 2026
Waypoint - “The Fortune Teller” by Joaquim Maria Machado de AssisJoaquim Maria Machado de Assis is perhaps the greatest writer of Brazil. In “The Fortune-Teller,” a secret affair driven by anonymous threats pushes a committed skeptic toward a dingy attic and a deck of cards. It is a study in how easily we trade our reason for a comfortable prophecy, and a reminder that the future rarely negotiates with the stories we tell ourselves. As a setting for our discussion on the role of chance, fate, and destiny against moral accountability, we might find few better examples.
Chapters
00:00 Waypoint Introduction
00:14 Title: “The Fortune Teller” by Machado de Assis00:33 Reading: “The Fortune Teller”26:01 OutroReflection Questions:
- How does the physical weight of a “secret” alter the way your mind perceives the “random” events of the day?
- In the moment Camillo enters the fortune-teller’s house, is he seeking a discovery of the future, or a sanctuary from the present?
- How does the “logic” of a skeptic become the primary tool for their own self-deception?
- If the fortune-teller “guessed” his secret, does that validate the magic, or does it simply expose the transparency of a guilty mind?
- When we outsource our moral outcomes to “Fate,” what part of our own agency and accountability do we leave behind?
https://waywordsstudio.com
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
TRANSCRIPT: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/waypoint-reading-of-the-fortune-teller
Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material frequently, with deep-dive examinations of literature surrounded by smaller episodes which explore related texts, topics, and strategies for thinking.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Social Media: @WaywordsStudio
YouTube: Waywords Studio
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “Reading of ‘The Fortune Teller’ by Machado de Assis,’” Waywords Studio, 10 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/waypoints/.
27 min - Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland
The “Hideous Bargain” is no longer just about one child’s pain . . .
We investigate the “Euclidean Mind” that seeks to flatten our messy humanity into a spreadsheet of “mathematically infallible happiness.” Unsettle the sterile peace of the OneState and the rigid hierarchy of Flatland to ask: Is your imagination a gift, or a disease the state is currently curing?.
An interrogation of the “Iron Cage” of rationality and the death of imagination in a social order of mathematical logic. We negotiate the intersection of Weberian sociology and Zamyatin’s thermodynamic dialectic—Energy vs. Entropy—to re-story the act of writing as an inherently subversive, antientropic resistance.
Episode 6.30 –Failures of Imagination: We and FlatlandReadings & Resources:- Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)
- Weber, Max. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1922)
- Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We (1924)
- Dostoevsky, Fyodor. “The Grand Inquisitor.” The Brothers Karamazov (1879) (pdf)
Some Key Terms from this episode:- The Iron Cage - Ideological and cognitive lockdown—the endpoint of extreme rationality—where a society or individual relies solely on the safe, structured pronouncements of authority rather than independent, critical reason. See Max Weber’s sociological writings on bureaucracy and rationality.
- Credulity vs. Credibility - An epistemological distinction about how we acquire knowledge: credulity demands blind faith in the dogma of ruling authorities (the “Circle Priests”), whereas credibility requires that beliefs and leaps of imagination be rigorously tested and anchored by reason. For the historical backdrop of this debate in Abbott’s time, see Jonathan Smith, Lawrence I. Berkove, and Gerald A. Baker’s “A Grammar of Dissent: Flatland, Newman, and the Theology of Probability.”
- Entropy / Antientropic - Borrowed from thermodynamics, entropy represents the State’s desire for blissful, dogmatic stasis and ideological closure. Antientropic is the vital, disruptive force of heretical, imaginative energy that true art and literature must inject into society to prevent its spiritual death. See Yevgeny Zamyatin’s essay “On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters.”
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When we prioritize “predictability” in our daily routines or digital feeds, what higher dimensions of experience or thought do we “flatten” out of importance?
- In what ways does our internal “Iron Cage” make us the principal figures in charge of our own subjugation?
- If “reason” is used to justify the “Great Operation” on our imaginations, does the bargain remain “rational,” or has the language of logic been colonized by power?
- How does the act of “writing back” disrupt the thermodynamic entropy of a sterile society?
- If we are “Numbers” in a system that values only efficiency, what “irrational” parts of our humanity are worth preserving as heretical?.
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/CHAPTERS00:00 Certainty and Less Than
08:27 Intro Theme09:03 The Monster “State”15:23 The Geometry of Bigotry: Geometry26:19 “We” and the Shattered Conduit32:37 Glass Cities41:08 The Treason of Writing52:02 Aporia and . . .55:30 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-30-failures-of-imagination-we-flatlandNew to Literary Nomads?Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag===
Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:Chisnell, Steve. “6.30: Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 3 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
57 min - Utopia’s Spare Parts: Star Trek & Ishiguro
The “Hideous Bargain” moves from metaphor to the operating table.
In this episode, we let loose the bonds of metaphor in Le Guin’s “Omelas” and meet the visceral reality of clinical labor. We examine how the “Sanitization of Language” allows societies—from the United Federation of Planets to modern biotechnology markets—to rebrand human suffering as a “sacred honor” or a “net gain”.
“We explore the “clinical labor” of Star Trek and Never Let Me Go. We re-story the “Redshirt” trope through the lens of necropolitics and the ethical extractions of the modern bioeconomy.
Episode 6.29 –Utopia’s Spare Parts: Star Trek & IshiguroReadings & Resources:- Ishiguro, Kazuo - Never Let Me Go (2005)
- “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach,” Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Season 1, Episode 6 (2022)
- Mbembe, Achille – Necropolitics (2019)
- Scarry, Elaine - The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (1985)
- Waldby, Catherine & Melinda Cooper - Clinical Labor: Tissue Inventory and the Embodied Economies of Regenerative Medicine (2014)
- Singer, Peter - Practical Ethics (2011)
- Haraway, Donna - “A Cyborg Manifesto” (found in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, 1991)
Some Key Terms from this episode:- Clinical Labor - The extraction of biological value (tissues, organs, experimental data) from the human body as an economic resource.
- Habitus - Our “social autopilot,” the internalized set of habits and worldviews, shaped by our upbringing, that makes certain paths feel “natural” while others remain literally unthinkable
- Homo Sacer - [Homo SAH-cher], An individual reduced to “bare life”; excluded from legal protection and able to be killed without it being a crime.
- Necropolitics - The use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die.
- Sanitization of Language – The use of euphemisms (e.g., “completion” instead of death) to make unethical systems palatable.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When we encounter a “sanitized label” like “economic downsizing,” what physical extractions are hidden by the syntax?
- In what ways does our own “habitus” make social sacrifices feel like inevitable “canon events” rather than choices?
- If a “docile body” accepts its own exploitation/extraction, does that change the nature of the bargain, or just the visibility of our choices?
- How does the concept of “clinical labor” reframe the human body as a “mathematical” utilitarian equation?
- If empathy has “limits” within a walled ideological system, what other strategies may help us overcome those walls?
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/CHAPTERS00:00 Crewman, We Hardly Knew You
07:43 Intro Theme08:19 Extractions of Labor14:49 Star Trek Meets Le Guin28:10 Ishiguro and the Quiet Bureaucracy37:16 Utilitarian Defense43:18 The Flesh and the Machine48:10 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-29-utopia-spare-partsNew to Literary Nomads?Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8===
Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:Chisnell, Steve. “6.29 Utopia’s Spare Parts: Star Trek & Ishiguro,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 20 March 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
50 min - The Architecture of the Dungeon: Toni Morrison and the 13th Amendment
The Omelas basement has a physical address in America: the prison-industrial complex.
This week, we use the lens of Toni Morrison’s literary criticism to interrogate the 13th Amendment and the ‘Hideous Bargain” of mass incarceration. If the basement is built into our laws, can we ever truly ‘walk away’?
We analyze Toni Morrison’s book Playing in the Dark and the prison-industrial complex through the documentary film 13th. We discuss the ‘Architecture of the Dungeon,’ and the ‘Hideous Bargain’ of American systemic racism. We discuss how ‘white silence’ sustains the Omelas basement and why dismantling the ‘Utopia Illusion’ requires an open and strenuous engagement with marginalized narratives and those of the Western white canon.
The Omelas framework is both the literal and literary architecture of the American dungeon: the prison-industrial complex. We identify the 13th Amendment’s ‘punishment clause’ as the legal anchor for the ‘Hideous Bargain,’ where the civil liberties of the majority are tethered to the systemic extraction of life from the imprisoned. Through Morrison’s lens, we recognize that ‘white silence’ acts as the mortar in these walls, sustaining a ‘Utopia Illusion’ that requires the intentional obliviousness of the privileged class.
Episode 6.28 –The Architecture of the Dungeon: Toni Morrison and the 13th AmendmentReadings & Resources:- DuVernay, Ava, 13th (documentary film, 2016)
- Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992)
- Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” (1983)
Some Key Terms from this episode:- Africanism (or Africanist Presence): Fabricated, denotative, and connotative blackness that African peoples have come to signify within Eurocentric thought; a backdrop against which white identity and freedom are constructed.
- Copaganda: Portmanteau of “cop” and “propaganda,” coined by Alec Karakatsanis, describing media that shows policing, state violence, and the criminal justice system as inherently fair, noble, and necessary.
- 13thism: A historical paradigm and narrative trope which argues that the Reconstruction era did not end slavery, but instead used the Thirteenth Amendment’s exception clause as the legal foundation for the mass re-enslavement of African Americans.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- How does the presence of a “legal exception” for slavery in the 13th Amendment shift our perception of the Constitution from a ‘Declaration of Freedom’ to a ‘Manual for Management’?
- If we consider ‘silence’ as a physical building material, what structures in your immediate community appear to be supported by what is not being said?
- In what ways does the ‘psychological manufacture’ of a criminal’s identity serve to protect the moral comfort of mainstream society?
- If the ‘Garden Walls’ of our reading choices seal us in with our own illusions, what specific ‘frictions’ are required to break them?
- How does the ‘Extraction of Labor’ from the marginalized physically manifest in the ‘Abundance’ of our modern digital and physical harvests?
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/CHAPTERS00:00 Advisory
01:51 Turning the Camera Around07:24 Intro Theme07:59 Personae19:20 Studies in Morrison26:18 Legal Loopholes: 13th38:39 Spare Parts41:01 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Bibliography (most accurate): https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-28-morrison-and-13thNew to Literary Nomads?Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8===
Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:Chisnell, Steve. “6.28 The Architecture of the Dungeon: Toni Morrison and the 13th Amendment,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 27 February 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
43 min - Wandering Stars: Tommy Orange and the Sovereign Center
What happens to the story when the ‘object’ of our sympathy looks back and refuses the role we’ve written for them?
The allegory of the ‘Suffering Child’ is a powerful challenge, but it creates its own blind spots: it can turn a living history into a static prop. This week, we use Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars to break that Omelas mirror. We explore the ‘Sovereign Center’—a reality where trauma is not a relic in a basement, but an active, intergenerational authorship that demands a more strenuous engagement than simply ‘walking away.’
We also consider the legacy of the Carlisle Indian Boarding School, the Sand Creek Massacre, and the concept of ‘Survivance’ as a rejection of static victimhood. And we wonder if Renya Ramirez’s ‘Native Hub’ theory explains how Louise Erdrich and Tommy Orange use narrative power to challenge the ‘Bureaucracy of Erasure’ and the Omelas dilemma.
Episode 6.27 –Wandering Stars: Tommy Orange and the Sovereign CenterReadings & Resources:- Erdrich, Louise: The Night Watchman, Love Medicine (expanded editions)
- Harjo, Joy. “I Give You Back.” from She Had Some Horses (1983)
- Momaday, N. Scott. “The Man Made of Words.” (1997)
- Ortiz, Simon: “Towards a National Indian Literature” (essay), from Sand Creek (poetry)
- Orange, Tommy: There There (2018) and Wandering Stars (2024)
- Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance.
Some Key Terms from this episode:- Native Hub: A concept by Renya Ramirez describing the urban center not as a place of cultural loss or assimilation, but as a dynamic network where Indigenous culture is collected, maintained, and reinvented through “intertribal” connection.
- Survivance: Gerald Vizenor’s term for an “active sense of presence” that renounces the static narratives of tragedy and victimhood, combining survival with resistance to create a continuous, evolving Indigenous identity.
- The Loop (vs. Linearity): A temporal structure used by Tommy Orange to describe both the repetitive cycle of addiction and the non-linear nature of Indigenous history, where past traumas and present realities occur simultaneously, even internally, contrasting with the “settler time” of linear progress.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- How does the transition from viewing an individual as a “subject of care” to an “agent of sovereignty” alter the ethical requirements of the observer?
- In the context of “intergenerational trauma,” what are the implications of treating time as a toroidal loop rather than a linear sequence of events?
- How might the “Native Hub” model challenge traditional Western definitions of “citizenship” or “territory”?
- Consider the linguistic friction in the term “Emancipation” when applied to “Termination”—how does the misuse of language facilitate ontological erasure?
- If we reject the binary choice of “Stay or Walk Away,” what is the intellectual cost of “Adding oneself back” to a fractured history?
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/CHAPTERS00:00 Breaking the Mirror of Omelas
04:18 Intro Theme04:51 Some Spatial Theory17:19 Monsters Within21:02 Survivance23:57 Theories of Time: Toruses and Loops26:56 Literature from Our Margins29:03 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Bibliography (most accurate): https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-27-wandering-stars-orangeNew to Literary Nomads?Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8===
Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:Chisnell, Steve. “6.27 Wandering Stars: Tommy Orange and the Sovereign Center,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 20 February 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
31 min - The Bureaucracy of Erasure: Erdrich’s The Night Watchman
Your Interpretation is Colonial.
When we turn Zen into a pop-culture vibe or a totem pole into a corporate metaphor, we aren’t learning; we’re committing interpretative violence.
Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman and Simon Ortiz’s “Towards a National Indian Literature” confront the “Bureaucracy of Erasure.” We ditch the linear “vanishing Indian” myth for the Torus—a non-linear, sovereign loop of survival where the ghosts of the past still speak in the official transcripts of the present. Along the way, we learn about MMIWR (see below) and the 1953 Termination Act (House Concurrent Resolution 108).
In this episode, we apply the Omelas Framework to that historical policy, identifying it as a state-sponsored “Hideous Bargain”. The US government used the euphemism of “Emancipation” to market the erasure of Indigenous tribes as a “deal” for full equality, effectively seeking to “prosper” by silencing the sovereignty of the victim. Rather than “walking away” from this systemic injustice, Erdrich’s protagonist, Thomas Wazhashk, uses the “Emperor’s tools”—the English language and parliamentary procedure—to “write back” against the bureaucracy, transforming the narrative from one of passive suffering into one of active, sovereign “survivance”.
Episode 6.26 –The Bureaucracy of Erasure: Erdrich’s The Night WatchmanReadings & Resources:- Erdrich, Louise: The Night Watchman, Love Medicine (expanded editions)
- Ortiz, Simon: “Towards a National Indian Literature” (essay), from Sand Creek (poetry)
- MMIWR
- Not Our Native Daughters: https://notournativedaughters.org
- National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center: https://www.niwrc.org
Some Key Terms from this episode:- Torus: A doughnut-shaped continuous surface used by Erdrich as a spatial metaphor for Indigenous time, a non-linear, cyclical reality where the “tribal private” core remains protected from the settler state’s linear mapping.
- Catachresis: The rhetorical abuse or misuse of a word (e.g., using “Emancipation” to name a bill that enacts “Termination”), which is the primary linguistic weapon of the “Hideous Bargain” in the 1950s. Here, “euphemism” is a kind of catachesis.
- Survivance: Gerald Vizenor’s term describing an “active sense of presence” that rejects the binary of “dominance/victimhood,” allowing indigenous peoples to use colonial tools (like English or bureaucracy) to ensure continuity rather than assimilation.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- In what ways do we unknowingly use “museum culture” logic to view marginalized communities as static relics of the past rather than evolving, modern identities?
- Can you identify a “Hideous Bargain” in your own local or national community where the prosperity of many relies on the “euphemized” erasure of another group
- How does the metaphor of the Torus—time and space as a looping, overlapping substance—change your perspective on historical traumas like boarding schools?
- If language is a tool for both “colonization” and “liberation,” how can we consciously “write back” against systems that profit from silence
- What “monsters” in our current systems are we failing to name because our language has been sanitized by bureaucratic euphemisms?
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/CHAPTERS00:00 My Own Monsters
06:17 Intro Theme06:50 The Bureaucracy of Erasure16:08 Erdrich and the Emancipation Trap23:01 Turning Back Upon Ourselves: MMIWR26:05 Donuts & Time41:03 Killing Metaphysics44:42 The “Suffering Child” Who Won’t Stay Dead50:25 Closing Credits===
New to Literary Nomads?Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8Transcript and Bibliography (most accurate): https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-26-erdrich-the-night-watchman===
Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:Chisnell, Steve. “6.26 The Bureaucracy of Erasure: Erdrich’s The Night Watchman,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 13 February 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
52 min - Words from Nigeria 3 – Emezi’s Pet & Hunters for Truth
Akwaeke Emezi demonstrates how Nigeria’s contemporary writers turn our conceptual realities around. They offer a YA novel that doesn’t condescend, but more, one which shows that we should not “walk away” from Omelas, but perhaps “Stay and Hunt.”
This is also the final of three episodes which offers a broader look at the history and newer trends in Nigerian literature along with recommendations for reading. Part 1 discussed Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Part 2 explored Wole Soyinka’s play, The Trials of Brother Jero.
Episode 6.25 –Words from Nigeria 3 - Emezi’s Pet & Hunters for TruthFull list of African writers with sample works I recommend:
- Abani, Chris (Nigeria): Graceland, The Secret History of Las Vegas
- Achebe, Chinua (Nigeria): Things Fall Apart, The Anthills of Savannah, Arrow of God, Hopes and Impediments
- Adeyemi, Tomi (Nigeria): Children of Blood and Bone
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (Nigeria): Dream Count, The Thing Around Your Neck, Americanah, Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, Dear Ijeawele
- Agualusa, José Eduardo (Angola): A General Theory of Oblivion
- Armah, Ayi Kwei (Ghana): The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
- Bâ, Mariama (Senegal): So Long a Letter
- Braithwaite, Oyinkan (Nigeria): My Sister the Serial Killer
- Cole, Teju (Nigeria): Open City, Tremor, Known and Strange Things, Every Day Is For a Thief
- Dangarembga, Tsitsi (Zimbabwe): Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not
- Djebar, Assia (Algeria): Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade
- El Saadawi. Nawal (Egypt): Woman at Point Zero
- Emezi, Akwaeke (Nigeria): Pet, The Death of Vivek Oji, Freshwater, Dear Senthuran, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
- Farah, Nuruddin (Somalia): Sweet and Sour Milk, Secrets
- Forna, Aminatta (Sierra Leone): The Memory of Love
- Gordimer, Nadine (South Africa): The Conservationist, July’s People
- Gurnah, Abdulrazak (Tanzania): Paradise, Desertion
- Gyasi, Yaa (Ghana): Transcendent Kingdom, Homegoing
- Head, Bessie (Botswana/South Africa): A Question of Power
- Iyay, Festus (Nigeria): Violence
- La Guma, Alex (South Africa): Time of the Butcherbird
- Mabanckou, Alain (Republic of the Congo): Black Moses, Broken Glass
- Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga (Uganda): Kintu; The First Woman; A Girl Is a Body of Water
- Marechera, Dambudzo (Zimbabwe): The House of Hunger
- Mbue, Imbolo (Cameroon): How Beautiful We Were
- Mujila, Fiston Mwanza (DR Congo): Tram 83
- Nwapa, Flora (Nigeria): Efuru, This is Lagos and Other Stories
- Okorafor, Nnedi (Nigeria): Noor, Death of the Author, Binti
- Okri, Ben (Nigeria): The Famished Road, Starbook
- Owuor, Yvonne Adhiambo (Kenya): Dust
- Salih, Tayeb (Sudan): Season of Migration to the North
- Saro-Wiwa, Ken (Nigeria): Sozaboy
- Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar (Senegal): The Most Secret Memory of Men.
- Sembène, Ousmane (Senegal): God’s Bits of Wood
- Serpell, Namwani (Zambia): The Old Drift
- Soyinka, Wole (Nigeria): A Shuttle in the Crypt, The Trials of Brother Jero, Kongi’s Harvest, The Lion and the Jewel, A Play of Giants
- Thiong’o, Ngũgĩ wa (Kenya): A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, and Wizard of the Crow
- African Instapoetry: Lebo Mashile (South Africa), Titilope Sonuga (Nigeria-Canada), Dike Chukwumerije (Nigeria), Yrsa Daley-Ward (Nigeria-UK), Upile Chisala (Malawi)
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/
CHAPTERS
00:00 Barbarians Block the Gate
06:06 Intro Theme06:42 Exploding Canons18:03 The Power of YA and Queer Ontology25:48 Evasion Modeling32:46 Reading Differently36:33 Closing Credits===
New to Literary Nomads?
Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8
Transcript and Bibliography (most accurate): https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-25-nigeria-3-emezi
===
Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “6.25 Words from Nigeria 3 - Emezi’s Pet & Hunters for Truth,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 30 January 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
38 min - Words from Nigeria Pt 2: Soyinka’s Tiger & Brother Jero
Why have so few read Soyinka? And can we find hope through his cynical dramas?
I admit I am a victim of the myth-making around me which has made Soyinka and other African writers largely invisible. Let’s see why.
Episode 6.24 –Words from Nigeria Pt 2: Soyinka’s Tiger & Brother JeroAfrican writers named in this episode and some of the most rewarding reads:
- Soyinka, Wole: The Trials of Brother Jero, Kongi’s Harvest, The Lion and the Jewel, A Play of Giants
- Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, The Anthills of Savannah
- Cole, Teju: Open City, Known and Strange Things
- Emezi, Akwaeke: Pet, Freshwater
- Nwapa, Flora: Efuru, This is Lagos and Other Stories
- Saro-Wiwa, Ken: Sozaboy
- Iyay, Festus: Violence
- Okorafor, Nnedi: Binti, Noor, Death of the Author
- Braithwaite, Oyinkan: My Sister the Serial Killer
- Okri, Ben: The Famished Road, Starbook
- Abani, Chris: Graceland, The Secret History of Las Vegas
Western writers from this episode:
- Kipling, Rudyard: Kim, The Jungle Book, “White Man’s Burden”
- Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon’s Mine
- Cary, Joyce: Mister Johnson
- Ballyntine, R. M.: Coral Island
- Collins, Wilkie: Moonstone
- Boulle, Pierre: Planet of the Apes
- Burroughs, Edgar Rice: A Princess of Mars
- Cameron, James: Avatar
- Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder
- Heinlein, Robert: Starship Troopers
- Longyear, Barry B.: Enemy Mine
- Verne, Jules: Master of the World, The End of Nana Sahib
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/
CHAPTERS
00:00 My White Mythology
08:35 Intro Theme09:08 Tigritude13:24 Frictions and Flux21:58 The Text: The Trials of Brother Jero29:53 The Trickster and False Omelas37:38 From Satire to Ontology38:50 Closing Credits===
New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8
Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-24-nigeria-2-soyinka
===
Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and LinkedIn: @WaywordsStudio
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “6.24 Words from Nigeria Pt 2: Soyinka’s Tiger & Brother Jero,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 23 January 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
41 min - Words from Nigeria Pt 1: Adichie and the Literary Manifesto
What sort of literature is this, anyway?
Today we introduce some approaches to Nigerian literature, offer a bevy of African writers, and explore how one of Nigeria’s most powerful authors can write her own modest letter to humanity. Also, we learn about hostile architecture from one of our listeners.
Episode 6.23 –Words from Nigeria Pt 1: Adichie and the Literary ManifestoAfrican writers from this episode and some of the most rewarding reads:
- Achebe, Chinua (Nigeria): Things Fall Apart, The Anthills of Savannah, Arrow of God, Hopes and Impediments
- Adeyemi, Tomi (Nigeria): Children of Blood and Bone
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (Nigeria): Dream Count, The Thing Around Your Neck, Americanah, Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, Dear Ijeawele
- Armah, Ayi Kwei (Ghana): The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
- Cole, Teju (Nigeria): Open City, Tremor
- Dangarembga, Tsitsi (Zimbabwe): Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not
- Emezi, Akwaeke (Nigeria): Pet, The Death of Vivek Oji
- Farah, Nuruddin (Somalia): Sweet and Sour Milk, Secrets
- Forna, Aminatta (Sierra Leone): The Memory of Love
- Gordimer, Nadine (South Africa): The Conservationist, July’s People
- Gurnah, Abdulrazak (Tanzania): Paradise, Desertion
- Gyasi, Yaa (Ghana): Transcendent Kingdom, Homegoing
- La Guma, Alex (South Africa): Time of the Butcherbird
- Mbue, Imbolo (Cameroon): How Beautiful We Were
- Nwapa, Flora (Nigeria): Efuru, This is Lagos and Other Stories
- Okorafor, Nnedi (Nigeria): Noor, Death of the Author
- Okri, Ben (Nigeria): The Famished Road, Starbook
- Salih, Tayeb (Sudan): Season of Migration to the North
- Soyinka, Wole (Nigeria): A Shuttle in the Crypt, The Trials of Brother Jero
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/
CHAPTERS
00:00 Where is African Literature?
07:09 Intro Theme07:45 Why Listen to White Boy Talk?10:50 Nigerian Frictions, Flux, and Future 118:06 Adichie: Intimacy and “Author”-ity26:56 The Banality of Sexism31:06 Writing Back: Our Turn37:05 Closing Credits===
New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8
Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-23-nigeria-1-adichie
===
Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and LinkedIn: @WaywordsStudio
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “6.23 Words from Nigeria Pt 1: Adichie and the Literary Manifesto,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 16 January 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
39 min - Cassandra: Uncertain Steps
And what if nobody listens?
Yes, entering our calls for justice into public space carries no small amount of anxiety. And the poster-child for being unheard, the Trojan princess and priestess Cassandra, may–if we read our mythology carefully–provide us some clues to our purpose and goals in writing as anti-epic heroes, wielding language as our weapons.
Episode 6.22 –Cassandra: Uncertain StepsTexts from this episode:
- Aeschylus: Agamemnon
- Euripides: Trojan Women
- Schwarz, Hans: Kassandra
- Smale, Holly: The Cassandra Complex
- Wolf, Christa: Cassandra
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/
CHAPTERS
00:00 The Morning After
04:36 Intro Theme05:11 Cassandra, You Shifty Rabble Rouser11:18 The Medial Woman15:47 Privilege and the Apollonian Collective20:31 The “Anti-Epic Hero”25:10 Still Anxious31:02 Methods of Repair: Neurath’s Boat35:32 Closing Credits===
New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8
Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-22-cassandra-uncertain-steps
===
Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and LinkedIn: @WaywordsStudio
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “6.22 Cassandra: Uncertain Steps,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 09 January 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
37 min
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Wanderings On Literature and Language