The Membership: A Wendell Berry Podcast

In this episode, we introduce new co-host Matt Wheeler, a singer-songwriter from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. John and Matt talk about Matt's experience turning Wendell Berry's short stories into an album, how Matt answers the question: "What Wendell Berry book should I read first?", and how he started corresponding with the Berrys.

Then John and Matt preview Season 4 and reveal the book they will be discussing first: Berry's forthcoming essay collection, Dispatches from Rural America (out October 27).

Next episode: We will be discussing the essay "Against Killing Children," the first essay in Berry's new collection Dispatches from Rural America.

• Matt Wheeler's website

• Our August 2023 interview with Matt

• The Rabbit Room

• "How to Be a Poet" (Rabbit Room Poetry Substack)

• The Berry Center

• Bookshop.org

• Amazon

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • YouTube

  • The Membership Substack

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Website

• The Berry Center

• Who should we interview on the podcast? Let us know at [email protected]

In this episode, John announces the relaunch of the podcast with a new cohost, singer-songwriter Matt Wheeler. The first episode with Matt comes out on Tuesday, October 13. John also reads an article that he wrote for Substack in the days after Wendell Berry’s death on August 31.

• John’s Substack article: “How to Be a Poem (thanks for the reminder, Wendell)”

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • YouTube

  • The Membership Substack

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Website

• The Berry Center

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• Who should we interview on the podcast? Let us know at [email protected]

In this episode of The Membership, David and John discuss a book that is an unusual in the Port William series -- it's about a mouse, and is sometimes classified as a children's book -- but still feels right at home. That book? Whitefoot: A Story from the Center from the World, by Wendell Berry. We talk about the experience of compressing the imagination to the size of a mouse, where this book sits among Berry's other works, and why the realization that one lives at the center of the world is "the world's profoundest thought." And much more.

• "Whitefoot" in Orion Magazine

• Website of illustrator Davis Te Selle

• "Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel," by Carl Safina

• "Black Elk Speaks," by John G. Neihardt

• "Another Day: Sabbath Poems, 2013-2023," by Wendell Berry

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • YouTube

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Website

• The Berry Center

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• Who should we interview on the podcast? Let us know at [email protected]

In his poem “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” Wendell Berry calls the reader to “Practice resurrection.” In today’s episode, we discuss one of Berry’s Sabbath poems. It has a Christmas theme that could be summarized this way: “Practice incarnation.”

• Sabbath Poem 1987, No. VI - “Remembering that it happened once…”

• The Berry Center (our recommendation for year-end giving)

• Who should we interview on the podcast? Let us know at [email protected]

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Website

In this episode, we interview singer-songwriter Matt Wheeler about his new album, A Hard History of Love. That album is inspired by five short stories in Berry’s story collection, That Distant Land. We talk about the process of writing songs inspired by great literature, about some of our favorite Port William characters, and what “membership” looks like in Matt’s life.

UPDATE: The Kickstarter for Matt’s album release is now fully funded. All backers will now receive a print of Ned Bustard’s cover art for the album. The Kickstarter ends on August 25 at 7:15 a.m. Eastern.

Kickstarter for A Hard History of Love: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hardhistory/a-hard-history-of-love-by-matt-wheeler

• Kickstarter for Matt Wheeler’s Port William-inspired album A Hard History of Love

• Ned Bustard (Instagram), the Lancaster artist who did the album cover art

• “Invited into a Rich Community: An Interview with Matt Wheeler,” by Matt Conner

• Matt Wheeler Online

  • Website

  • Facebook

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

• Who else should we interview on the podcast? Let us know at [email protected]

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Website

The Membership Podcast returns! We catch you up on the last three years, introduce a new co-host, and preview some of the books we’ll be reading in Season 3. Our next episode is coming in just a couple days, so be on the lookout!

• Kickstarter for Matt Wheeler’s Port William-inspired album A Hard History of Love

• “Returning,” by Wendell Berry (Bookshop.org | Amazon | The Berry Center Bookstore)

• “Eternal Beings Living in Time: On Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow” (John’s essay from Besides the Bible)

• Who should we interview on the podcast? Let us know at [email protected]

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • Website

In this episode, John and Tim discuss Nathan Coulter, Wendell Berry’s debut novel.

• #themembershipreadalong (Instagram)

  • @kirireads

  • @aliciaandherbooks

• “Burley Coulter at the Bank” (John McCutcheon)

• New Wendell Berry Audiobooks read by Nick Offerman

  • Libro.fm (Sign up here to support the podcast)

  • Audible - World-Ending Fire

  • Audible - The Unsettling of America

• Nathan Coulter: A Novel, by Wendell Berry (IndieBound | Amazon)

• Sugar Calling podcast (feat. George Saunders)

• Step into the Circle: Writers in Modern Appalachia, by (IndieBound | Amazon)

• Telling the Stories Right: Wendell Berry’s Imagination of Port William, edited by Jack R. Baker and Jeffrey Bilbro (IndieBound | Amazon)

• The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings, by Wendell Berry (IndieBound | Amazon)

• “Song of Myself,” by Walt Whitman

• “The Peace of Wild Things,” by Wendell Berry

• “A Vision,” by Wendell Berry

• New Collected Poems by Wendell Berry (IndieBound | Amazon | Counterpoint)

• The Berry Center Bookstore

• Wendell Berry Catalogue from Counterpoint Press (PDF)

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

Jason Hardy
Facebook

John Pattison
Twitter

Tim Wasem
Twitter

If you enjoy the show and would like to support us, head over to Patreon to pledge a small monthly donation. Donations will go toward the costs of making this podcast. Thank you.

Top image via Unsplash.

In this episode, Jason, John and Tim discuss Farming: A Hand Book, Wendell Berry’s 1970 poetry collection.

• Farming: A Hand Book, by Wendell Berry (IndieBound | Amazon)

• New Collected Poems by Wendell Berry (IndieBound | Amazon | Counterpoint)

• A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet (IndieBound | Amazon)

• The Hundred-Year Barn, by Patricia MacLachlan and Kenard Pak (IndieBound | Amazon)

• The Berry Center Bookstore

• Wendell Berry Catalogue from Counterpoint Press (PDF)

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

Jason Hardy
Facebook

John Pattison
Twitter

Tim Wasem
Twitter

If you enjoy the show and would like to support us, head over to Patreon to pledge a small monthly donation. Donations will go toward the costs of making this podcast. Thank you.

Top image via Unsplash.

John Pattison interviews David Kline, the Amish farmer, writer, and editor of Farming Magazine. Kline is also a close, longtime friend of Wendell Berry. They are joined by Mike Kline, David’s son. Mike is the co-host of one our favorite podcasts, Back to the Roots, about organic farming.

• The Round of a Country Year: A Farmer’s Day Book, by David Kline (IndieBound | Amazon | Counterpoint)

• The Farm Home Cookbook: Wholesome and Delicious Recipes from the Land, by Elsie Kline (IndieBound | Amazon | Farming Magazine)

• Farming Magazine

• “Amish Economy” (Poem), by Wendell Berry

• Back to the Roots Podcast

• Back to the Roots Podcast, Episode 1 (Interview with David Kline)

• Organic Valley Cooperative

• The Berry Center Bookstore (new site)

• Wendell Berry Catalogue from Counterpoint Press (PDF)

• The Rabbit Room Podcast Network

• The Membership Podcast Online

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

Jason Hardy
Facebook

John Pattison
Twitter

Tim Wasem
Twitter

If you enjoy the show and would like to support us, head over to Patreon to pledge a small monthly donation. Donations will go toward the costs of making this podcast. Thank you.

Cover image via Counterpoint Press.