The Cultured Bumpkin

Ep 30 features a story from Sherwood Anderson's "…

Episode 29 features a poem by the father of moder…

Episode 28 features a short story about a guy who…

Episode 27 features the amazingly talented voice actress Barbara Malka. She lives in California and we recently met while recording at Lamplighter Theatre up in New York while working on some audio dramas. She's amazing!

Episode 26 was recorded in the Ulysses S Grant Presidential Library on the campus of Mississippi State University and features documentarian Louis Gallo telling us about Grant and reading from his memoirs.

(For instance, Grant was the first president to push for civil rights for African Americans and "carried" the State of Mississippi during the 1872 presidential election). This is some good stuff! Hope you enjoy.

Episode 25 features an interview with author R.H. Brown and readings from his book "Call Me Gullah: An American Heritage."

America is like a good mess of shrimp and grits. You need all kinds of ingredients to have an incredible dish. The Gullah heritage is a part of American history, and when you learn about them, you're learning about you (if you're an American), regardless of where you're from or what you look like. Join me as I sit down with Mr Brown to learn all kinds of stuff!

Mr Brown can be reached at "[email protected]"

I can be reached at "[email protected]," or "@jakephillips116" on Instagram.

Episode 24 features a funny Mark Twain story about male vanity. It's a first person narrative of how the "narrator" let a pretty girl talk him into buying something he didn't need and it's a position that most guys have been in at one point or another! Funny and relatable.

Episode 23 features a Mark Twain essay called Science vs Luck. In it, some boys accused of playing "games of chance" hire a lawyer to prove that the game they were playing was indeed scientific. Vintage Twain hilarity.

Episode 22 features a poem by Emily Dickinson called "I'm Nobody." (That's not the title, but that what we'll call it!) Emily Dickinson seemed to be as open and frank in her writing as she was introverted in person. Reading Dickinson seems a little like talking to a good friend.

Episode 21 features author Kathryn Pearson and I chatting about our favorite Dickens, Lewis, and Tolkien novels, Austen vs Bronte, American literature, and also features two poems; one by Carl Sandburg and one by Paul Laurence Dunbar, which Kathryn provides some interesting commentary for. Plus, a lot more!

(Recorded at Coffee House on 5th in Columbus, MS)