A small book can pack a big punch, and Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, is a terrific example of this phenomenon. It just might make you see the world as a kinder, more magical place. My guest, Liz Andres, lays it all out for us in this episode. 

Liz Andres is a museum professional and scholar based in Los Angeles. She holds degrees in Art History, Classical Archaeology, and Museum Studies from U.C. Berkeley and the University of Leicester and is currently pursuing a PhD in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her research focuses on hybrid and liminal creatures in ancient Greek art and mythology, museum taxidermy, and representations of death, myth, and nature in the visual arts. She is a resident mythologist with Morbid Anatomy, and frequent Death Cafe host. Follow her on Instagram or at Lilibet Sugarbones.

 

As always, you can find more about the podcast and host at our Instagram page , or contact us directly at [email protected]

Does conventional reality feel much smaller than the size of your dreams? My guest this month is here to convince you that the prize-winning and international bestseller The Alchemist, by Portuguese writer Paulo Coelho, has what you're looking for. And he's VERY convincing! 

Marq Mervin (he/him) is The Renaissance Man: award-winning creator, educator, TEDx speaker, coach for creative polymaths, and lover of cartoons and video games. Marq’s career journey is committed to accessible Art & Design education for under-resourced youth. Additionally, he is the host of the Keep Sailing podcast and author of One Day, I Hope That...: a collection of prose and poetry. When he's not traveling for game tournaments or speaking engagements, he's catching up on his favorite anime, taking on voice acting challenges, and performing at open mic nights. Catch Marq at any of the following spots online: 

23Thirty Coaching & Consulting | Marq Mervin Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

  Don't forget this month's Mixtape from in-house DJ Diego Dela Rosa! You can find This Mixtape Made Me: Dream on Spotify.    As always, you can find more about the podcast and host at our Instagram, or contact us directly at [email protected]

What is joy, and how do we access it in a moment that feels so overwhelming? For two years, my guest and I have been studying the practices of a complex-but-easeful joy, using Ross Gay's book of essays "Inciting Joy" as an inspiration and a template. In this episode, we talk about what continues to shape our practice of experiencing joy in this moment. 

We invite you to join us, and practice joy in community! We have two opportunities: 

• ✨ A joy-centered book club where we’ll read Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy together - building community, sharing reflections, and nourishing what uplifts us. Register and learn more about the book club here: https://shorturl.at/ENKPk
• ✨ A 5-week community of practice that will cultivate and steward joy, especially in uncertain times. Register and learn more about the community of practice here: https://shorturl.at/Ip5oD 
• And you can always download our free resource, the Joy Design Practices and Principles, as a starting place for your own work.

Here's more about my guest, colleague, and co-facilitator:

Lee Wilmoth (they/them) is a human-centered learning designer, strategist, and facilitator with over 10 years of experience. They hold an MA Ed. in Adult Learning and Development from Portland State University and are a LUMA Institute certified Human-Centered Design Practitioner and Instructor. Through their consultancy, Learn & Work, Lee partners with organizations experiencing change to create useful, usable, and desirable solutions. Whether it's a discovery and strategy project or a leadership development program, Lee always embeds equity and inclusion approaches and leverages their expertise in human-centered design, adult learning and development, and facilitation. Lee also has over 30 years of body-based training, dance technique, and performance experience, and has dedicated themself to ongoing studies related to joy, nervous system awareness, and the art and science of scent. They currently live in Portland, Oregon. 

DJ Diego Dela Rosa is on vacation this week, but Lee and I did our best to make a playlist for joy, based in Ross Gay's work. You can find it on Spotify, as This Mixtape Made Me: Incite Joy. 

It was a thrill to talk with Jen Capra, whose hilarious, GenX social media content gives us a backstage look at the wonders of Sesame Street. She's written for the program for years! In this episode, we celebrate Pride Month by talking about our shared love of Jeanette Winterson and her beautiful 1992 novel Written on the Body. It's a love letter from an ungendered narrator to the beloved, as well as a love letter to language. 

Jen Capra is an Emmy nominated Sesame Street writer, aspiring author, and content creator-slash-professional starving artist. You can find her at Jencapra.com, as well as @genxistentialcrisis on TikTok. 

Funding for Public Television and Radio is on the chopping block If you'd like to support the phenomenal work Sesame Street does for learners of all generations, you can find their fundraiser here. 

Don't forget this month's Mixtape from in-house DJ Diego Dela Rosa! Curated to celebrate Pride Month, you can find This Mixtape Made Me: Riot on Spotify. 

Finally, we dedicate this episode to Jen's faithful life and writing companion, Rosie, who passed away in January. You can find a picture of the best of all doggos at our Instagram page. We welcome feedback and suggestions at [email protected]

If you need a reminder that you can write anything you can conceive of, this interview is for you. My guest, Bryan Thao Worra, explains how his experience as a first generation Asian American, reading his way through high and low American culture, made him the writer he is. Along the way we talk about poetry, democracy, and Kyle Baker's under-examined graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn.  

Bryan Thao Worra is an award-winning Lao American poet based in Minneapolis and one of the first to come to the United States after the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago. The author of 10 collections, including his later, American Laodyssey from Sahtu Press, his work has been published across the globe, including the 2012 London Summer Games. He was the first Asian American president of the international Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. His literary journey incorporates history, science fiction, fantasy, horror and poetry to explore how people make a transition to democracy in diaspora. You can follow his blog at https://thaoworra.wordpress.com or online at https://www.youtube.com/thaoworra 

 

Catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's AAPI focused playlist at This Playlist Made Me: Celebrate. 

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

If you think that classic novels are irrelevant, my guest is here to change your mind. In this conversation, Diego Dela Rosa explains how the French novel, from the 18th century, provides hope against impossible circumstances, and makes the case for irreverent humor and community. 

Diego Dela Rosa is your classic Los Angeles based multi-hyphenate: arts programmer, writer, archivist, playlist maker, line dancer, gamer, Real Housewives aficionado, and tinned fish enthusiast. He holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere from the USC Roski School of Art and Design, and currently works as the Coordinator of Learning at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.  Born in 2000, Diego’s experience growing up in a post-Y2K world has been formative in building their perspective, and thus their practice. Being queer, trans non-binary, and a Chicano Chula Vista native, much of their work taps into a  resonant feeling of liminality they’ve always found comfort in. She always aims to show the meaning and value of things often labelled as frivolous, and to spread the power of irreverence in very heavy times.

Catch Diego's very special playlist This Mixtape Made Me: Cope for the full experience. 

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

If you're looking for a short book that packs a wallop, we have just the one for you! In this episode, my guest Matt Davis happens upon a book at his local bookstore, and it grounds our conversation about the state of reading in our current attention economy, the perils of the publishing industry, and how we can push ourselves to break out of our reading ruts. If you're not familiar with Helen DeWitt--a real writer's writer--you're in for a treat. We're talking about her tiny but powerful novel The English Understand Wool, and its savvy and subversive protagonist. 

Matt Davis is a writer and PR consultant in Manhattan where he lives with his wife Logan and four-year-old son, Freddy. He writes a daily newsletter called Matt Davis Reads the Newspaper So You Don't Have To if you'd like to hear more from him. (Protip: check out Matt's daily LinkedIn series, where he reads the news via video, too!)

At the end of the episode, you can catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's playlist, curated especially for this episode: volume 6 of This Mixtape Made Me: Subvert

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

It's Black History Month and we are celebrating!! My guest, Kat Calvin, does a deep, personal dive in to The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and we wrestle with this question: How do we learn to survive in a hostile world, and with a generational history of violence? We talk about the world of 1960s America, who is protected and who is not, and Morrison's authorial gift, which encourages us to wrestle with how we participate in unjust systems. 

Kat Calvin is the Founder and Executive Director of Spread the Vote + Project ID and the Co-Founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund. A lawyer, activist, and social entrepreneur, Kat is a Practitioner Fellow in Democracy at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute for Democracy and writes weekly insights and pop culture recommendations at Hot Takes and Applesauce and hosts the Choose the Bear podcast. And, don’t forget her 2023 book: American Identity in Crisis: Notes from an Accidental Activist. You can keep up with ALL of her work at katcalvin.com. 

At the end of the episode, you can catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's playlist, curated especially for this episode: volume 5 of This Mixtape Made Me: Amplify. 

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

Can you be yourself when everyone around you wants you to be something else? My guest, author Marjetta Geerling, AKA Mara Wells, walks me through the deep wisdom of the classic children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. We talk about how children's books use language and art to teach us how to be ourselves, and let others be without judging or trying to change them. In doing so, Marjetta argues, it makes us better human beings. 

While this conversation was recorded in December, it's being released as the devastating Los Angeles fires are still ongoing. If you feel moved to support the people who lost their homes and jobs, here are a few of my favorite organizations that are organizing to support people, and to look towards the future of Los Angeles. 

World Central Kitchen was on the ground within hours, providing hot meals to evacuees and first responders, and they continue to reach deeply into affected communities. 

The Los Angeles Mutual Aid Network is maintaining a real-time list of groups and their needs as they respond to their communities. 

The Altadena Seed Library is gathering native plant seeds to repopulate Eaton Canyon with the fire-resistant, California foliage. 

Finally, don't forget the playlist curated for this episode by DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa: volume 4 of This Mixtape Made Me: Tender. 

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

What did we read in 2024, and what are we reading next? In this end-of-year episode, I invite 5 former TBMM guests to reflect on their reading past and future. We've got book recommendations, a list of our best reading experiences, and what we're doing to read more and better in the new year. Join me, Sadie Forkner, Dice Moreno, Pat Harrigan, Mary Trunk, and Lisa Metzgar to reflect and to look ahead. 

Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has a special super-sized vol 3 of This Mixtape Made Me, featuring their favorite projects and artists of 2024. It's called Reflect, and you can find it on Spotify. 

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]