This week, we discuss the nonhuman point of view in Brendan Wenzel’s picture book “They All Saw a Cat” and Mary Oliver’s poem “Driving Through the Wind River Reservation: A Poem of Black Bear”. Aparna discovers magical and meddlesome eucalyptus properties and Haley shares a story from her grandfather’s childhood.

 Mentions: 

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast. 

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

Welcome to season 2! It's a horrifyingly good start to the season. We discuss the poems "Windigo" by Louise Erdrich (1984) and "Cruel Strokes" by Steffi Tad-y (2022) and the picture book "The Wolves in the Walls" written Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean (2003).

Other mentions:

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast. 

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

Haley and Aparna are back for another season! It'll be nothing like the first season. We will have no fun, there will be no joking.

Just kidding! This season we're focusing each episode on a theme, genre, or category, reading and discussing one picture book and one(ish) poem within that topic. Does Aparna understand poetry? Can Haley learn to be lighthearted? You'll have to listen to find out!

It’s Christmas in March as we discuss our favourite Christmas albums in this episode! For the main discussion, we revisit the letters we wrote to our future selves when we were writing our dissertations. Haley discovers fusion; Aparna discovers patenting a living organism!

Aparna spotlights the newsletter Fifty Two (https://fiftytwo.in)

Haley spotlights Team Trans’ first draft tournament in WC (https://thehockeynews.com/news/growing-the-game-first-all-trans-hockey-tournament-a-success)

Mentions:

Kelly Link's short story “The Wrong Grave” (2009)

“fanfiction is art now? the fanfic to published book pipeline” by Carley Thorne (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFDE-BX3pzg)

The Nylon’s "A Wish For You" Christmas album (2006)

Celine Dion’s "These Are Special Times" Christmas album (1998)

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack (1965)

Denise Levertov’s “Some Notes on Organic Form” (1965)

Hank Green Fusion TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@hankgreen1/video/7176414313681292549)

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

In this episode, I interview Aparna about her creative ambitions. She talks about the merits of children’s literature being taken less seriously, pushing back against mediocrity in the industry, and the fear of running out of ideas. We discuss our biggest lessons learned from the week. We debate whether "Let It Go" is a Christmas song. We also talk about the feedback we got on our dissertations! Haley discovers a very gassy fact about seals (and tells the worst pun). Aparna discovers a flaky fact about croissants.

Aparna spotlights the podcast “Our Opinions are Correct” (https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/)

Haley spotlights Aparna Kapur on her award for Best MA Dissertation.

Mentions:

69 Love Songs, album by The Magnetic Fields (1999)

That’s Christmas to Me (Deluxe edition), album by Pentatonix (2015)

“Ruckus on the Road” by Sanjana Kapur and Aparna Kapur, Puffin India

“One More Croissant For the Road” By Felicity Cloake (2019)

“Pretty Monsters” Kelly Link (2003)

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

Seal Sneezing sounds are from @viralhog “Seal Sneezes Sound Like Farts”

Welcome to Survive It Well, the podcast that had a little bit of audio difficulties. We talk about the best books we’ve read since submitting our dissertations. Haley realizes she doesn’t know what first-person writing is. Aparna tells us why her post-submission reading was a complete slump. For the main discussion, Aparna interviews Haley about her creative ambitions. Aparna discovers the reality of yearly economic growth and Haley discovers the 2022 inductees to the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame.

Aparna spotlights Be My Eyes app (https://www.bemyeyes.com/).

Haley spotlights the film “Make the Yuletide Gay” directed by Rob Williams, 2009.

Mentions:

“Episode 2: Popcorn” from “Have You Heard George’s Podcast?” (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-popcorn/id1436036246?i=1000453801491)

Claudia Emmerson’s “Environmental Awareness: The Right Whale”

“At Last Count” by Claire Ross Dunn, 2022

“Shopgirl” by Steve Martin, 2000

The play mentioned by Aparna written by Claire Ross Dunn and her husband, Kirk, is called “Spy Craft” (https://www.littleliontheatrecompany.com/spycraft.html)

“In: A Graphic Novel” by Will McPhail, 2021

“The Sky in Essex is not like the Sky in Ontario” on the Wild Writers Blog (https://wildeasters.wordpress.com/2021/12/28/the-sky-in-essex-is-not-like-the-sky-in-ontario/)

3 of Haley’s poems in Blank Spaces Magazine December 2021: Volume 6, Issue 2 (https://www.blankspaces.ca/contributors-list/haley-down)

“Bud the Spud” by Stompin’ Tom Connors, 1969

The Day the World Stops Shopping, by J. B. MacKinnon, 2021

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

Welcome to Survive it Well, the podcast that had a four month time jump! Our dissertations have been submitted, Aparna is back in India, Haley’s back in Canada, and we have a ten and a half hour time difference between us. For the main discussion, we revisit the days leading up to submitting our dissertations and then explore the contradictory feelings of being done. Haley discovers that poetry and physics are the same. Aparna regales us with the stories of her boxing training.

The punchline regarding the After Eight went thusly:

Aparna: *hands Haley a chocolate*

Haley: Oh! An after eight!

Aparna: It's an After MA *smirk*

Aparna spotlights the publishing house Barrington Stoke (https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/)

Haley spotlights the podcast If Books Could Kill hosted by Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897)

Mentions:

Wisława Szymborska’s “The Ball” and “Possibilities”

marginalia.com (previously known as Brain Pickings)

Being the Ricardos, film 2021

“You’re Wrong About” podcast hosted by Sarah Marshall

“Maintenance Phase” podcast hosted by Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

For you, listener, it’s been a week, but for us recording, it’s been a month! We talk about our boring lives and exciting emails. Aparna’s starting a newsletter about looking after fountain pens. Haley sings a bird song. We discuss why technology is not, and cannot be, the antithesis to nature. We wonder whether it is better to be an expert or enthusiast. Aparna discovers that bird accents are remarkably consistent. Haley discovers beetles that scuttle upside down. For the main discussion we read from the texts that have most helped with our dissertations.

Aparna spotlights “28ish Days Later” BBC Radio 4 Podcast (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bvg9nm/episodes/player)

Haley spotlights Green New Deal UK (https://www.greennewdealuk.org/)

Mentions:

“The Arrival” by Shaun Tan, 2006

“Come From Away” the musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, 2013

“I’ve Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature” by Lucia Perillo, 2009

“H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald, 2014

Ursula K. Le Guin’s speech at the National Book Awards in 2014

“Shaping the Fractured Self: Poetry of Chronic Illness and Pain” edited by Heather Taylor Johnson, 2017

Zadie Smith essay “On Optimism and Despair, from “Feel Free”, 2018

“The Hatred of Poetry” by Ben Lerner, 2016

“When the Hero is the Problem” by Rebecca Solnit, 2019

“Exposure” by Olivia Sudjic, 2018

The Marginalian website (https://www.themarginalian.org/)

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

This week, Aparna mostly brags about her visit to Uxbridge. We talk about improbable endings and Haley gets upset about triple threats. Aparna emphasizes the need for stories written by people from everywhere. For the main discussion, we contextualize our dissertations within our broader fields and people who are currently informing our work. Discussions include the social power of poetry, diversity in publishing, empirical ecocriticism, youth participation in social change, intersectionality, globalism, and what to do with the lyrical voice. We decide you could be in a forest of blueberry bushes. Haley discovers the delightful origin of the word 'nickname'. By the end, we mostly devolve into a puddle of giggles.

Haley spotlights “A Good News Paper” (https://www.goodgoodgood.co/goodnewspaper)

Aparna spotlights Eastcote Station in London

Mentions:

“The Moth: Life on a Möbius Strip” by Janna Levin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzy3t4ijKkY)

“The Housekeeper and The Professor” by Yoko Ogawa

“Pomegranates” Tala Rameh (https://fpif.org/two_poems_on_gaza/)

“Ghost fishing: An Eco Justice Poetry Anthology” edited by Melissa Tuckey, 2018

“The Hatred of Poetry” Ben Lerner, 2016

“Diversity in poetry is on the rise”, The Guardian, 2020 (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/25/diversity-in-poetry-on-the-rise-but-resistance-to-inclusivity-remains)

The “We Need Diverse Books” Movement, 2014

The “OwnVoices” Movement, 2015

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.

Happy New Year! In this first episode of 2023, Aparna loves pedantry. Haley turns the tables and interviews Aparna about her dissertation. She gets honest about the desire to work with only joyful texts and why it’s a complicated desire. Honestly, Aparna is on fire in this episode. We discuss whether kids should be critical of the things they love and the implications of censoring what children read. We examine and consider the merits of differentiating between environmental and eco-poetry. We each describe the best day of food we’ve ever had. Aparna discovers the magnitude of pettiness that passionate physicists are capable of. Haley, still in her whale era, discovers that baleen whales can blow rainbow hearts.

Haley spotlights the “How to Save a Planet” podcast (https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet)

Aparna spotlights the “Normal Gossip” podcast (https://audioboom.com/channels/5062384)

Mentions:

“Radical Children’s Literature Now!” Philip Nel, 2011.

“Why Ecopoetry?: There’s no Planet B.” John Shoptaw (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/70299/why-ecopoetry)

“Touching This Leviathan” Peter Wayne Moe, 2021

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson “What if we get this right?”, OnBeing Podcast, 2022, (https://onbeing.org/programs/ayana-elizabeth-johnson-what-if-we-get-this-right/)

“The Order of Time” Carlo Rovelli (audiobook narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch), 2017

“The Lost Whale” by Hannah Gold, 2022

Thank you to Pádraig Ó Tuama whose poem “The Facts of Life” inspired the title of this podcast.

Cover image by Sanjana Kapur.