The Spouter-Inn

By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma

Chris (a poet) and Suzanne (a professor) spent six years talking about “great books” (whatever that means), and are now talking about reading (and all the things that means).... more

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FAQs about The Spouter-Inn:

How many episodes does The Spouter-Inn have?

The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.

The Spouter-Inn episodes:

July 14, 2021 47b. Bonus: Daniel Heath Justice on Animals.
Raccoons inhabit a world between. They have features that are very human:
their little paws, their behaviour. But their eyes are the eyes of an
animal, and they’re inscrutable. They sit up and look human with these
animal faces. Their behaviour — they don’t run away in the same ways that
other animals do from us. They’re drawn to novelty, rather than repelled by
it. So in all of these different ways, they sit between categories of
comfort for us. That’s what fascinates me, but I think that’s partly what
puts in some danger with a lot of humans.
Daniel Heath Justice is a
Colorado-born citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He is Professor of Critical Indigenous
Studies and English at the University of British Columbia. His published work
is largely in the areas of Indigenous literary studies, Indigenous Studies,
and animal cultural history, including the recent Why Indigenous Literatures
Matter and Raccoon, and,
with co-editor Jean M. O’Brien (White Earth Ojibwe), the forthcoming
Allotment Stories: Indigenous Land Relations under Settler
Siege.
To round off their Animal
cluster, Suzanne and Chris
talk with Daniel about raccoons, badgers, and other animals, both in the real
world and in literature.
Show Notes.
Some of Daniel’s books: Raccoon;
Badger; Why Indigenous Literatures
Matter.
Reaktion Books’ Animal series.
Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows.
L. Frank Baum: The Wizard of Oz books.
Our episodes on Charlotte’s Web and
The Fellowship of the Ring.
Megaphonic’s Lord of the Rings podcast, By-The-Bywater, will be talking about eagles
in their next episode.
Bartholomeus Anglicus:
De proprietatibus
rerum.
(The section on the
badger.)
Rachel Poliquin: Beaver.
An article from The Star about Toronto’s raccoons and green
bins.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
...more
50min
July 06, 2021 47. Charlotte’s Web.
    “What are you doing up there, Charlotte?”
    “Oh, making something,” she said. “Making something, as usual.”
    “Is it something for me?” asked Wilbur.
    “No,” said Charlotte. “It’s something for me, for a change.”
    “Please tell me what it is,” begged Wilbur.
    “I’ll tell you in the morning,” she said. “When the first light comes into
the sky and the sparrows stir and the cows rattle their chains, when the
rooster crows and the stars fade, when early cars whisper along the highway,
you look up here and I’ll show you something. I will show you my
masterpiece.”
Charlotte’s Web is E.B. White’s beloved children’s book about a young and
humble pig named Wilbur, whose life is changed through the efforts of some
unlikely friends/mother figures—including Fern (a young girl), Templeton (a
selfish rat), and Charlotte (a wise and generous spider). Suzanne and Chris
read this book and think about the distinctions we make between people and
animals, and wonder whether there’s something about animal stories that make
them ideal for telling such poignant stories about death and time.
Content warning: Unsurprisingly, there is some discussion of animals dying in this
episode.
Show Notes.
E.B. White: Charlotte’s Web.
[Bookshop.]
Other books by E.B. White: Is Sex Necessary?: Or Why You Feel the Way You
Do (with James Thurber). Stuart
Little. The Trumpet of the
Swan. Elements of Style
(with William Strunk). Essays.
Letters.
Some essays by E.B. White.
Richard Adams: Watership Down.
Helen Macdonald: H is for Hawk.
T.H. White: The Once and Future King.
Graeme Base: The Eleventh Hour.
André Alexis: Fifteen Dogs.
Michael Field: Whym Chow: Flame of
Love.
Next: Virginia Woolf: Orlando.
[Bookshop.]
The Spouter-Inn is made possible by listeners like
you.
...more
56min
June 22, 2021 46b. Bonus: Anna Wilson on Bear.
I see Bear as a story about a woman who gets the chance to do to someone
else what has always been done to her.... She breaks out of her
experience of heterosexual relationships by having this exploitative
relationship with the bear.
Anna Wilson completed her PhD in
medieval studies in 2015 at the University of Toronto. She is now an assistant
professor of English at Harvard University . She works on medieval reading
communities, fanfiction, critical theory, historiography, and the history of
reading. Next year she’s heading to the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton, NJ, for a year to finish her first book, which is about fans,
reading, immaturity, and medieval literature.
Anna joins Suzanne and Chris to talk about
Bear and its relationship to other
texts—in particular, feminist young adult fantasy novels.
Show Notes.
Anna’s article “Full Body
Reading”, on the connections between fanfiction and medieval mystic
Margery Kempe, is well worth reading.
Anna is also one of the contributors (along with Chris and Suzanne) to the
open-access collection How We Read.
Robin McKinley:
Deerskin. Pegasus.
Mercedes Lackey.
Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Tamora Pierce.
Suzy McKee Charnas:
Motherlines.
Kathryn Bond Stockton: The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in Twentieth
Century.
Audre Lorde: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.
Grizzly Man.
Ursula K. LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness.
On shifter romances.
...more
52min
June 16, 2021 46. Bear.
Bear, take me to the bottom of the ocean with you, bear, swim with me, bear,
put your arms around me, enclose me, swim, down, down, down with me.
Bear, make me comfortable in the world at last. Give me your skin.
Bear, I want nothing but this from you. Oh, thank you, bear. I will keep you
safe from strangers and peering eyes forever.
Bear, give up your humility. You are not a humble beast. You think your own
thoughts. Tell them to me.
Bear, I cannot command you to love me, but I think you love me. What I want
is for you to continue to be, and to be something to me. No more. Bear.
Marian Engel’s novel Bear has a reputation—or perhaps two. Some people
speak about it in giggling tones as “that Canadian book where a woman has sex
with a bear”; but people who actually read the novel often find a complex and
nuanced story, full of unexpected resonance. Suzanne and Chris think about how
the novel’s relationship with 70s feminism plays out 45 years later, and look
at the binaries the novel sets up (man/woman, human/animal, civilized/natural,
subject/object) and what happens as they break down.
Show Notes.
Next: Marian Engel: Bear.
[Bookshop.]
CBC Radio on Bear.
Hugh MacLennan: Two Solitudes.
Marius Barbeau, problematic
ethnologist.
On Lord Byron.
Edward John Trelawny: Records of Shelley, Byron and the
Author.
Our episodes on Braiding Sweetgrass
and Monkey Beach.
E.T.A. Hoffmann: The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat
Murr.
Our episode on Little Women.
Marie de France: Lais, esp. Chevrefoil and Lanval.
Next: E.B. White: Charlotte’s Web.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn via Patreon!
...more
53min
June 04, 2021 45. The Conference of the Birds.
There are so many roads, and each is fit
For that one pilgrim who must follow it.
How could a spider or a tiny ant
Tread the same path as some huge elephant?
Each pilgrim’s progress is commensurate
With his specific qualities and state
(No matter how it strives, what gnat could fly
As swiftly as the winds that scour the sky?)
Our pathways differ—no bird ever knows
The secret route by which another goes.
Our insight comes to us by different signs;
One prays in mosques and one in idols’ shrines—
But when Truth’s sunlight clears the upper air,
Each pilgrim sees that he is welcomed there.
The Conference of the Birds, by the medieval Persian poet Farid ud-Din
Attar, tells the story of a group of birds seeking a king—or perhaps seeking
spiritual enlightenment. They elect a wise hoopoe to guide them to the
fabulous Simorgh. The hoopoe’s description of the difficult journey ahead
weaves in many parables, tales about Sufi mystics, figures from the Quran, and
historical people like Aristotle and Socrates. Suzanne and Chris discuss how
this book has been read—as spiritual guide, or as a collection of well told
stories—and about the possibilities opened up by the poem.
Show Notes.
Attar: The Conference of the Birds [Dick Davis and
Afkham Darbandi translation].
[Bookshop.] [Another
translation by Sholeh Wolpé.]
The Tomb of Attar.
Attar: Memories of the Saints [here translated as
Memories of Gods’ Friends].
Apophatic theology.
Hallaj.
The Simorgh.
Murmurations.
The masnawi poetic form.
Layla and Majnun.
Shebli.
Our episode on Persepolis.
Rozina Ali: “The Erasure of Islam from the poetry of
Rumi”.
Daniel Heath Justice: Raccoon (and
Badger).
Bernie Krause: The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in
the World's Wild Places.
Next: Marian Engel: Bear.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn and chat books with
us on a members-only Slack.
...more
57min
April 30, 2021 44b. Bonus: Oriana Schwindt on The Fellowship of the Ring.
A lot of the core texts that are referenced in The Lord of the Rings are
from an Elvish perspective, and it’s very easy to take that for granted as
the correct perspective of this world. But there are all these other people
in this world, and they have different concepts of the cosmology. Even
people who are supposed to be as closely connected as men and elves… It is
very interesting to go back and read and try and figure out who is coming
from what perspective.
Oriana Schwindt is one of those former
journalists-turned-screenwriters. She lives in Los Angeles now, but is pretty
sure it’s just a phase. She’s a co-host on Megaphonic’s own By-The-Bywater Tolkien podcast and is
considering reviving her old podcast about grift in America, called,
appropriately, American
Grift.
Show Notes.
Oriana on Twitter and
Medium.
She last joined us for our bonus episode on Reading During
Crisis at the start of the pandemic.
Her Tolkien podcast, By-The-Bywater, has
episodes about Tom Bombadil,
Ghân-buri-Ghân, and Orcs (and
racism), among other topics.
And she was recently featured on an episode of This Is Your
Mixtape.
Support The Spouter-Inn and all of Megaphonic on
Patreon.
...more
46min
April 20, 2021 44. The Fellowship of the Ring.
[Frodo said,] ‘I should like to save the Shire, if I could—though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.’
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s foundational high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, and it describes a group of various people—hobbits, humans, dwarves, and elves—gathering together and travelling throughout the varied landscapes of Middle-earth as they attempt a dangerous and seemingly impossible task. Chris and Suzanne ask how these varied lands and peoples interact with and reflect each other, and unpack a few exceptional moments along the way—including, as promised, the curious Tom Bombadil.
Show Notes.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring. [Bookshop.]
Other books by Tolkien: The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion. Beowulf [translation].
By-The-Bywater, a monthly podcast about Tolkien here at Megaphonic. Check them out!
A vast (and old-school) resource for Tolkien’s invented languages.
On J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy Whitelock.
On J.R.R. Tolkien and Stuart Hall.
If our Tom Bombadil discussion isn’t enough for you, By-The-Bywater devoted a whole episode to him.
Tolkien's map of Middle-earth, and the Google map version.
John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.
Next: Attar: The Conference of the Birds. [Bookshop.] [Alternate translation.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon (thanks!).
...more
55min
April 05, 2021 43. Braiding Sweetgrass.
[Nanabozho] walked the land, handing out names to all he met, an
Anishinaabe Linnaeus. I like to think of the two of them walking together.
Linnaeus the Swedish botanist and zoologist, in his loden jacket and woolen
trousers, with felt hat cocked back on his forehead and a vasculum under his
arm, and Nanabozho naked but for his breechcloth and a single feather, with
a buckskin bag under his arm. They stroll along discussing the names for
things. They’re both so enthusiastic, pointing out the beautiful leaf
shapes, the incomparable flowers. Linnaeus explains his Systema Naturae, a
scheme designed to show the ways in which all things are related. Nanabozho
nods enthusiastically, “Yes, that is also our way: we say, ‘We are all
related.’” He explains that there was a time when all beings spoke the same
language and could understand one another, so all of Creation knew each
other’s names. Linnaeus looks wistful about that. “I ended up having to
translate everything into Latin,” he says of binomial nomenclature. “We lost
any other common language long ago.” Linnaeus lends Nanabozho his magnifying
glass so he can see the tiny floral parts. Nanabozho gives Linnaeus a song
so he can see their spirits. And neither of them are lonely.
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of essays that
combine the scientific study of botany with Indigenous teachings on plants
(and humanity’s relationship to the natural world). Originally released in
2013, the book’s popularity has continued to grow. Chris and Suzanne explore
what makes this book so appealing, what the book is successful at, and also
what its limitations might be. In particular, Suzanne discusses some things
the book has inspired her to do in the year or so since she first read it.
Show Notes.
Robin Wall Kimmerer: Braiding Sweetgrass.
[Bookshop.]
Her other book, Gathering
Moss.
Our episodes on Memory Serves and
Monkey Beach.
Zoe Todd’s Twitter thread on Kimmerer’s
books.
Our episodes on Exile and Pride and
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.
Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton, eds.: Shapes of Native
Nonfiction.
Speaking of urban Indigenous thought, here’s an upcoming essay collection
called Indigenous Toronto.
[Book launch.]
Tom Porter: And Grandma Said...: Iroquois Teachings: as passed down through
the oral tradition.
Amanda Earl, ed.: Judith: Women Making Visual
Poetry.
Dionne Brand: A Map to the Door of No
Return.
Tove Jansson; Letters from Tove.
Next: J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon.
(Thanks!)
...more
1h
March 24, 202142b. Bonus: Nahir Otaño Gracia on Laxdæla Saga.
Pirates were the reason why Puerto Ricans survived and thrived under a harsh
colonial Spanish rule, because without pirates, people would have starved.
And so pirates were an important economic movement. They were necessary. And
I understand Vikings also the same way. Vikings were, in many ways,
necessary for the movement of the economy. They did so many so many
important things because of their movement and travel. And so the more I
understand them through that Caribbean lens, I feel like it gives me a
different access to them.
Nahir I. Otaño Gracia is an
Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. Thanks to a
Mellon Fellowship, she is currently a member at the Institute for Advanced
Study at Princeton, NJ. Her theoretical frameworks include translation theory
and practice, the global North Atlantic (Britain, Iberia, and Scandinavia),
and critical identity studies. Her current projects include a monograph
entitled The Other Faces of Arthur: Medieval Arthurian Texts from the Global
North Atlantic, and a co-edited volume entitled Women's Lives: Self-Representation, Reception, and Appropriation in the Middle Ages, which will be
coming out early next year.
Nahir joins Chris and Suzanne to talk about women’s agency in Laxdæla Saga,
about what reading the sagas in multiple languages and from a Puerto Rican
perspective reveals about them, and about some other Icelandic sagas that
translate the Arthurian legends.
Show Notes.
Nahir Otaño Gracia’s website.
Jorge Luis Borges: Literatures germánicas
medievales [Ancient Germanic
Literatures].
Gabriel García Márquez: Cien años de soledad [One
Hundred Years of Solitude].
Three volumes of English translations of the Arthurian sagas have been
published with Marianne Kalinke as editor: The Tristan
Legend; The Knights of the Round
Table; and Hærra Ivan.
Some essays by Nahir that are well worth your time:
On Hidden Scars and the Passive Voice
Movements of Exclusion: On Constructing Borders and Building Anxiety
Teaching Race: Preparing Students and Creating a Safe Environment
Support The Spouter-Inn and all of the
Megaphonic podcasts over on Patreon! (Thank you!)
...more
38min
March 15, 2021 42. Laxdæla Saga.
Olaf approached the cross-bench and took a seat beside her. Thorgerd greeted
him and asked who he was.
Olaf told her his own name and his father’s, and added, ‘You must think it
bold of a slave-girl’s son to dare to sit down beside you and strike up a
conversation with you.’
Thorgerd replied, ‘You must think you’ve done more dangerous things in your
life than talk to women.’
Laxdæla Saga — also known as The Saga of the People of Laxárdalr — is one
of the sagas of the Icelanders. These stories, based on historical events
around the early settlement of Iceland beginning in the ninth century, have an
intriguing mix of dry affect and deeply moving and mysterious material.
Laxdæla Saga is one of the most intriguing, telling the story of a love
triangle between Guðrún, Kjartan, and Bolli and of the violence that it
caused. But, like many of the sagas, it explores this topic with a wide lens,
looking at the events of generations prior that lead to this situation, and
how it affects the families and community for generations after the violence
finally ceases.
Show Notes.
The translation we use can be found in The Sagas of the
Icelanders.
[Bookshop.]
An older, out-of-copyright
translation.
Our episodes on the Mahabharata and on
Vanity Fair.
The Iceland Saga Map project.
Jane Smiley on the Laxdæala
Saga.
Tom Porter: And Grandma Said...: Iroquois Teachings: as passed down through
the oral tradition.
Susan Orlean: The Library Book.
Next: Robin Wall Kimmerer: Braiding Sweetgrass.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon, along
with all of Megaphonic's fine shows.
...more
52min

FAQs about The Spouter-Inn:

How many episodes does The Spouter-Inn have?

The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.