WAKE: Cold Reading Finnegans Wake

Long-promised, finally delivered! No, Toby and TJ didn't get their Finnegans Wake tattoos yet (it might happen one day), but we are finally back to talk about half of WAKE's epic visit to Ireland! Listen to the audio podcast but also hop on over to YouTube to enjoy the first-ever visual WAKE, complete with the kind of holiday slideshow you might remember from your childhood, complete with one-sided narration and images of somewhere you didn't go. Toby discusses his favourite stops in Ireland, through Dublin, Kildare, Cork, Dingle, Limerick, Clare, and Galway, and all the amazing people he met along the way. Before we get there, though, join us through a rollicking discussion of classic literature, Pulitzer Prize winners, Hamlet's 'to be' speech, and plenty more. We are so glad to be back!

Show Notes:

WAKE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod   

Obscure https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/obscure-with-michael-ian-black/id1388660385

We Burn So Bright by TJ Klune: https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=we+burn+so+bright&ref=nav_sb_noss_l_17

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211004089-wild-dark-shore

Angel Down: https://www.danielkraus.com/books/angel-down/ 

Fitzgerald’s of Sandycove: https://fitzgeraldsofsandycove.com/blog/ 

Anna Livia: https://www.olddublintown.com/anna-livia-sculpture.html 

The Hi-B Bar, Cork: https://www.instagram.com/hibbarcork/ 

Saoirse https://www.giaf.ie/festival/event/saoirse 

Padaicin https://www.giaf.ie/festival/event/padraicin 

Nora Barnacle’s House https://thisisgalway.ie/the-history-of-nora-barnacle-house/ 

Nora by Nuala O’Connor https://nualaoconnor.com/home/novels/nora/

Vince Gilligan called, and WAKE answered! Toby and TJ are back for this special episode of WAKE, in response to the casual name-dropping of Finnegans Wake in the new Apple+ series, Pluribus. We spend some spoiler-filled time (spoiling the ending of both Pluribus AND Finnegans Wake) discussing this definitely-too-deliberate-to-be-accidental reference to Joyce’s final masterpiece, and what it might mean for the show as a whole. We’re talking falls, and loops, and morals, and humanity: all the things you’ve come to love about WAKE.

SHOW NOTES:

WAKE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod   

GMWKS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gmwks/id1509334531 

Georgia Malone’s Here Goes Nothing: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/georgia-malones-here-goes-nothing/id1794562157 

Never Die Wondering: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/never-die-wondering-mick-malone-in-his-own-words/id1833715593 

Abraham’s Tetramorfeus:  https://www.facebook.com/abrahamhosebr/posts/tetramorfeus/658179911649980/

Abraham on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/uk/book/show/236604119-liber-t

Abraham's Joyce writings: https://abrahamhosebrlibrarium.wordpress.com/category/%d0%b4%d0%b6%d0%b5%d0%b9%d0%bc%d1%81-%d0%b4%d0%b6%d0%be%d0%b9%d1%81/

Pluribus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/

The Suspended Sentence: https://thesuspendedsentence.com/2026/01/25/its-plurbin-time-pluribus-and-finnegans-wake/ 

The Wake and Pluribus: https://www.soapcentral.com/shows/all-mankind-becomes-united-pluribus-fans-convinced-show-takes-inspiration-classic-novel-finnegans-wake

Reddit Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/pluribustv/comments/1oxo1dv/finnegans_wake/ 

Reddit Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/jamesjoyce/comments/1or08bk/anyone_watch_pluribus/ 

Katarzyna Bazarnik’s JOYCE, LIBERATURE AND WRITING OF THE BOOK (diagram toward the bottom): http://hjs.ff.cuni.cz/archives/v8_2/main/essays.php?essay=bazarnik 
Portergirl Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-portergirl-podcast/id1822951117

As we bask in the wake of completing the Wake, Toby and TJ welcome renowned author, librarian, academic, and bookfluencer George Koors to discuss how to get into the Wake, as well as what to do after it's done. We discuss the benefits and risks of BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTube, the egalitarian nature of Joyce ensuring that through complexity all readers are rendered the same, and consider the dangers of placing beloved texts on syllabi. We discuss Taylor Swift, Ben Jonson, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and George hits us with two monumental recommendations that will rattle your brain and strain at your wallet. To top it all, we get the world exclusive scoop on TJ's new play, learn the term "typoglycemia" and consider the weight we can place on art that survives time. We'd like to think WAKE is one of those survivors, as we enter our end-of-series hiatus...

This week's chatters: George Koors, Toby Malone, TJ Young

References

George's website: https://www.georgekoors.com/

George on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbk7288/ 

Always the Wanderer: https://www.amazon.com/Always-Wanderer-George-Bernard-Koors/dp/1936135159 

George Koors - YouTube

Let's Talk About James Joyce's Finnegans Wake 

James Joyce's Finnegans Wake In Less Than 2 Minutes 

Arno Schmidt Zettels Traum (Bottom’s Dream) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6088384 

https://www.georgekoors.com/

George’s petition to make Zettels Traum accessible! https://www.georgekoors.com/post/help-me-fight-literary-gatekeeping-let-s-make-arno-schmidt-s-zettels-traum-more-accessible 

Carlos Fuentes Terra Nostra https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59415.Terra_Nostra?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=cbUx0TDs2A&rank=1

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

We can't believe it. Can you believe it? We actually finished reading Finnegans Wake. What started out as a podcast to read an "unreadable book" has turned into a journey that has endeared us to a magical community, connected with our family and friends, and reawakened our sense of what art can be. While sometimes it felt like climbing a sheer cliff-face, the toeholds we gained along the way made this a delightfully fulfilling project. For this final episode, Toby and TJ look back on WAKE and consider how you know when a project is over, embracing confusion, and how much we appreciate the spectators at the end of a marathon. We talk Joyce on film, Pinter, the Beatles, Lord of the Rings, and hypertexts, and pinpoint the exact moment the Harry Potter franchise lost TJ. We take on translation, and gimmicks, and mountaineering, and the question of how-fast-is-too-fast-to-read-the-Wake. Then, as we consider the stadium-sized Rubik's Cube that is the Wake, we are visited by the Patron Saint of WAKE for words of congratulations. It's an unmissable end to what has indeed proven to be a surprisingly listenable podcast.

This week's chatters: Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 628 pages complete, 0 pages to go; 100% read.

Contextual Notes

The Patron Saint of WAKE

Michael Ian Black congratulates WAKE!

Michael Ian Black Substack

Referenced Texts

Fadiman, Clifton. “Don’t Shoot the Book-Reviewer; He’s Doing the Best He Can.” The New Yorker. April 28, 1939.

Norris, David, and Carl Flint.  Introducing Joyce: A Graphic Guide. London: Icon Books, 2013.

McCreedy, Jonathan. (2022). Joyceradamus: Foretelling the Age of Trump in Finnegans Wake. Joyce Studies in Italy: Joyspace: James Joyce and Space, 23 (2021): 159-74.

Rose, David. Cryptogrammic Cryptograms: Fungi in Finnegans Wake.

Collard, David. Multiple Joyce. London: Sagging Meniscus P, 2022.

Glasheen, Adaline. Third census of Finnegans wake : an index of the characters and their roles.

Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1977.

Benstock, Bernard. Joyce-Again’s Wake.

Turnbull, Caldwell. No Gods, No Monsters.

Wake in the World

Finnegan Wake!

Mirko Buffini’s HCE Collection

Hoyne Brewing: Finnegans Irish Stout

Translating the Wake

Reading James Joyce's Finnegans Wake in Korean by Sang Hyun Lee 187

Dai, Congrong. "A Chinese Translation of Finnegans Wake: The Work in Progress." James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 47 no. 4, 2010, p. 579-588. Project MUSE

Nothing’s Impossible: Finnegans Wake Translated into Chinese.

Eishiro, Ito. Two Japanese Translations of Finnegans Wake Compared: Yanase (1991-1993) and Miyata (2004)

Kenji Hayakawa.

Francois-Victor Hugo’s Shakespeare:

Joyce on Film

Roger Ebert on Bute’s Wake film

Bute’s Film

Strick’s Ulysses

The Film

Resources

FinWake.com

FWEET

Peter Quadrino’s Blog

Chicken’s Guide

Buffalo James Joyce Collection

Richard Harte

Peter O’Brien

Reading Groups:

https://finneganswake.org/ReadingGroups.shtml 

Podcasts

Frank Delaney’s Re-Joyce:

Joseph Strick’s Ulysses on Three Castles Burning

1954: The Birth of Bloomsday on Three Castles Burning: https://threecastlesburning.libsyn.com/1954-the-birth-of-bloomsday

Exploring Lucia Joyce (with Joe Chester) on Three Castles Burning: https://threecastlesburning.libsyn.com/exploring-lucia-joyce-with-joe-chester

WAKE

To find TJ: https://www.tj-young.com/ 

To find Toby: https://linktr.ee/turglife 

WAKE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wake.pod/ 

WAKE on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/WAKEPOD 

WAKE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod 

WAKE on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/wakepod.bsky.social 

WAKE on X: lol, fuck you Elon

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

There's nothing quite like ticking off a bucket list item, and today is the day, where Toby and TJ come to the end of the long reading road to finally finish Finnegans Wake. Before we get there, though, we have superstar guest Neil Wechsler to guide us through his favourite section of the book, along with passionate opinions on Hollywood hypocrisy, problematic shortcuts, and how the unique structure of the Wake is not a joke, nor a gimmick, but in fact proof that the human race is not entirely doomed. Joyce gives us an ending that's worth the wait, and feels well earned, as the pain of the cycle ends in a note of hope. We may have finished with the Wake, but we have a feeling it's not quite finished with us yet.

This week's readers: Neil Wechsler, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 628 pages complete, 0 pages to go; 100% read.

Contextual Notes

James Joyce Collection at the University at Buffalo: https://library.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/

The Wake at the UB collection: https://library.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/catalog/vi-finnegans-wake/

A proposed JJ museum through the Buffalo collection: https://library.buffalo.edu/jamesjoyce/pdf/james-joyce-museum.pdf 

Joyce-again's wake: An analysis of Finnegans wake, Bernard Benstock: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331509.Joyce_again_s_wake 

A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake, William York Tindall: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59480.A_Reader_s_Guide_to_Finnegans_Wake 

Jeffrey Jarome Cohen: Monster Culture: Seven Theses: https://ptfaculty.gordonstate.edu/rscoggins/Cohen,%20Monster%20Culture%20(Seven%20Theses),%203-20.pdf 

Sorry Finn https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/finn-fordham 

Benstock, Bernard. Joyce Again’s Wake. https://www.loc.gov/item/65023908/

Neil Wechsler’s website: https://wechslerprojects.com/

Neil on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wechslerprojects/

Our favourite play, Grenadine: https://www.amazon.ca/Grenadine-Neil-Wechsler/dp/0300149921

Neil on New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/37010/neil-wechsler

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

In the grand tradition of Finnegans Wake, WAKE has looped back around on itself to become a self-generating machine, as we welcome back musical innovator and the most reckless of stramashers, Tommy Mackay, to talk about WAKE: the Album! Yes, this very podcast is honoured to be the inspiration for at least half the tracks on Tommy's new (stra)mash-up album of music, smashing WAKE readings into the music of Taylor Swift, Wham!, Devo, and more, with more groan-worthy dad-joke pun titles than you could possibly handle.

There's a sailor on a horse! There's an invitation to suck a sugarstick! There's Gráinne O'Malley's girl power!

Join us for a track-by-track odyssey through WAKE: the Album, in the hope that no takedown notices emerge to ruin anyone's fun.

This week's chatters: Tommy Mackay, Toby Malone, TJ Young

References

WAKE: the Album on Bandcamp

WAKE: the Album on the Daily Reckless

Album details:

A collection of stramash-ups by Tommy Mackay drawn from readings of James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake'

Main sources:

• WAKE podcast - www.youtube.com/@WAKEpod 
• One Little Goat Theatre Company - www.onelittlegoat.org/finneganswake 

Released April 4, 2025

Clips used by permission from the WAKE podcast by Toby Malone and TJ Young and also the audio-visual book by One Little Goat Theatre Company read by Richard Harte, directed by Adam Seelig.

Individual credits in song info.

all rights reserved

1. Finnegan's Wake 03:38. trad. Played and sung by Kevin Kennedy from the One Little Goat theatre company production, directed by Adam Seelig. www.onelittlegoat.org/finneganswake
2. Wake Me Up Before You Goan 03:13. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production. Music - Maucoli the pianoman's version of Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.''
3. The Ballad Of Persse O'Reilly 06:31. performed by Meg Logue from the Wake podcast.
4. Thunderwords 01:58. read by Adam Harvey, Joyce Geek - joycegeek.com/thundervideos/ Music - Thunderbirds theme tune
5. Tip It! 04:37. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production. Backing track - 'Whip It!' by Devo.
6. Denti Alligator 02:43. From the Wake podcast, read by Toby Malone, TJ Young, Tommy Mackay.  Music - 'See You Later Alligator' Bill Haley and The Comets
7. Thunderslog 04:06. from the Wake podcast -Toby Malone, TJ Young. Music Steve 'n' Seagulls live cover of AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck.' Lady Macbeth - Kate Fleetwood from the 2010 Rupert Goold production.
8. Cunstuntonoplies 02:48. read by Patrick Horgan, 1985.  Music - 'Istanbul Not Constantinople' by They Might Be Giants.
9. Wake It Off 03:45. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production.  Backing track 'Shake It Off ' by Taylor Swift.
10. Respectable 03:20. Seth Austin from the Wake podcast.  Music - 'Respectable' by Mel and Kim.
11. Suck It Yourself, Sugarstick! 03:48. Toby Malone, Sarah Kane from the Wake podcast. Music - 'Suck It And See' by Arctic Monkeys.
12. Wake That 06:20. performed by Richard Harte from the One Little Goat theatre company production. Music - 'Never Forget instrumental' by Take That.

Bonus Tracks:

• Hi Ho Silver Sailor https://www.dailyreckless.com/2025/04/06/hi-ho-silver-sailor/
• Fanfare for ALP
• Olwen Fouéré’s riverrun: ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/14/riverrun-joyce-finnegans-wake-olwen-fouere-national-theatre⁠

Other references:

Allaster Mckallester: https://www.instagram.com/mckallaster/ 

ReWiggled: https://open.spotify.com/album/7pMmcRjBt41hvqnFQHqYb2 

Finnegans Dreams: https://www.dailyreckless.com/2024/08/15/finnegans-dreams/ 

McCourt, John. ‘Denti Alligator' or ‘Airtight Alligator': Reading Dante with Joyce and Beckett.

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

Book Four is upon us, and it is with mixed feelings, both excited and sad, that we launch into the final segments of Finnegans Wake. Helping us along the way is fan-favourite WAKE veteran, internationally-acclaimed author, Lucy "old rubberskin" Brazier, who helps us get into a typically ribald discussion of Simlish, Instagram thots, tortoise dreams, terrible superhero names, fan fiction, and a plan for a Biddy the Hen statue in Phoenix Park. Come for the reading, stay for our brutal takedown of the Oxford World's Classic: it's more fun than a sailor on a horse!

This week's readers: Lucy Brazier, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Progress: 613 pages complete, 15 pages to go; 97.61% read.

Contextual Notes

Brancusi’s Whirligig https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/ulysses/brancusis-symbol-joyce 

AO3 James Joyce Fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Finnegans%20Wake%20-%20James%20Joyce/works 

Finnegans Wake and Spongebob Fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9436142 

Mutt and Jeff https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/comic-art/about-this-exhibition/early-years-1890s-to-1920s/mutt-and-jeff-an-unlikely-pair/

Three Castles Burning on early houses: https://threecastlesburning.libsyn.com/the-dawning-of-the-day-last-orders-at-the-early-house 

Lucy Brazier’s website https://portergirl.com/

Finnegans What?: Finnegans Wake - A guide by an idiot https://www.amazon.ca/Finnegans-What-Wake-guide-idiot/dp/1092156100/

Lucy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brazierlucy/

Lucy on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/@lucybrazierauthor/

Lucy on Twitter https://twitter.com/@portergirl100/

If Movies Ended When Someone Said the Title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DMndH8QiI4

If Movies Ended When Someone Said the Title Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzMsbdAQRg4&t=0s 

If Movies Ended When Someone Said the Title 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT41rqh-Udk 

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

If sleep is the panacea of all ills, WAKE has found the very experts who can tell you exactly why that’s the case! On this week’s special bonus episode, Toby and TJ welcome internationally renowned neuroscientists, Professors Adrian Peyrache and Arjun Krishnaswamy, to talk about what’s going on inside our brains while we sleep. In an episode that’s part TED Talk and part HCE Talk, we break down insights into the sleeping brain, including how memory relies on good sleep hygiene, sleep paralysis, brain compasses, real-time dreaming, and how mice dream of mazes. We hear Adrien’s critique of the science of ‘Inception,’ position the Wake as the first-ever Large Language Model, and finally gain definitive proof of who the dreamer is. Oh, and with a whole section on erotic dream-infused cave paintings, this is a discussion that will definitely not put you to sleep. 

This week's chatters: Adrien Peyrache, Arjun Krishnaswamy, Toby Malone, TJ Young

References

Adrien’s bio: https://www.mcgill.ca/neurology-neurosurgery/adrien-peyrache-phd 

Adrien’s lab: https://www.peyrachelab.com/research

Arjun’s bio: https://www.mcgill.ca/physiology/directory/core-faculty/arjun-krishnaswamy 

Arjun’s lab: https://www.swamylab.com/ 

Sleep’s Hidden Superpower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbpidNKc5cw

What a Sleep Specialist Has to Say About the Dreaminess of Finnegans Wake https://lithub.com/what-a-sleep-specialist-has-to-say-about-the-dreaminess-of-finnegans-wake/

Joyce’s Book of the Dark, John Bishop: https://archive.org/details/joycesbookofdark00bish 

The Nighttime madness of “Finnegans Wake” https://argumentativeoldgit.wordpress.com/2021/10/13/the-nighttime-madness-of-finnegans-wake/ 

The Bluesky account recreating the Wake on LLMs

https://bsky.app/profile/funferall.bsky.social 

The Lascaux cave painting of a dream (including the erection)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Naturewasmetal/comments/fct360/lascaux_cave_painting_depicts_a_hunter_getting/#lightbox 

Stan Carey’s Putting language to sleep in Finnegans Wake

https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/putting-language-to-sleep-in-finnegans-wake/

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

Flushed with their firestuffostered friendship, WAKE celebrates St. Patrick’s Day by exploring all of the many ways that Finnegans Wake refers to whiskey: Ireland’s beloved, potent créatúr. Joined by world whiskey historian and former Sweny’s volunteer Fionnán O’Connor, we explode some myths regarding monks, St Patrick, and potatoes, brush off our pub stool wisdom, prepare the worm on our darling little stills, and consider the role trust plays in what is simultaneously the oldest and youngest whiskey industry in the world. So, tuck yourself into a snug in your local shebeen with a ball of malt, and don’t forget to get in on a round: we bet you can’t stay for just one. Happy St. Paddy’s!

Today's chatters: Fionnán O'Connor, Toby Malone, TJ Young

References:

The Amber Isle Teaser https://vimeo.com/1029613764 

James Joyce’s whiskey connections https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/culture/25971/james-joyce-s-whiskey-connections/

Ulysses Whiskey https://www.ulysseswhiskey.com/our-story

Dave Broom https://thewhiskymanual.uk/James Joyce’s whiskey connections | Scotch Whiskyhello-everyone/ 

Finnegan’s Wake and Joyce

https://steemit.com/finneganswake/@harlotscurse/finnegan-s-wake-and-joyce

The Fall and Rise of Irish Whiskey: https://liquorstore.com/blog/the-fall-and-rise-of-irish-whiskey/ 

A Sense of Place: a journey around Scotland’s whisky https://the-right-spirit.com/2023/10/06/book-a-sense-of-place-by-dave-broom/ 

Fionnán’s forthcoming Créatúr: https://creatur.ie/

Fundraising for Créatúr: https://whiskymag.com/articles/irish-whiskey-historian-launches-fundraiser-for-new-book-creatur/ 

Fionnán gets emotional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVbkxCU6BV4 

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!

With stubbornness and defiance, WAKE welcomes the wonderful Igor Belokrinitsky, representative of the Ukrainian Wake in Progress Finnegans Wake reading group! Igor joins Toby and TJ for a wide-ranging conversation about the true meaning of indomitability, where Joyce stands in to tell prescient lessons about colonialism, independence, identity, language and exile, which speak directly to the plight of the brave, besieged Ukrainians. We talk about Thomas Pynchon, Nestor Makhno, Monty Python, Joseph Cornell's boxes, and the brilliant mind maps created by Linda Lotiel for each Ukrainian reading session. In war, schadenfreude is necessary, so take your shots at the Russian General if you're a true Wake Otaku, and gird your wedgewords for an episode that is just as generative as it is consumptive. WAKE stands with Ukraine!

This week's chatters: Igor Belokrinitsky, Toby Malone, TJ Young

Contextual Notes

A note from Igor:

...And as you graciously offered to support our mission, please point your listeners to uafirstaid.com/en specializing in first aid kits and tourniquets.

We have no rare earth minerals to offer in return, but would happily unearth a limerick!

A man who was orange in hue

Held a rather peculiar view

That his fire department

Could rob our apartment

Which was "merely getting his due"

Monty Python’s Summarise Proust Competition: https://montypython.fandom.com/wiki/Summarize_Proust_Competition

• Find us on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/wake-in-progress.bsky.social⁠

• To participate in a future reading, directly contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Linda's mind maps can be seen at maybeday.net/night/mind_maps.html

The Mind Map Linda made for the reading that Toby joined! https://bsky.app/profile/wake-in-progress.bsky.social/post/3limtxbb65k2y

The puzzles from Toby’s episode: https://bsky.app/profile/wake-in-progress.bsky.social/post/3liabhj3jzk2x

Episode 22 with Bobby Campbell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSNs9hcLTl4 

For early drops, community and show notes, join us at our free Patreon, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/wakepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or check out our Linktree, at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/wake.pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We welcome comments from everyone: even, nay, especially, the dreaded purists. Come and "um actually" us!