It's the new year! It's also inauguration day (boooo)! We're serving up something different for 2025's beefy first episode. First, we take a look at the year ahead with some literary predictions from writers across the lit space: Steff Yue Duhem, Tao Lin, Jill McDonough, Rachelle Toarmino, catch breath, Lloyd Schwartz, Kit Rosewater, Chelsey Minnis, and more contribute their forecasts. Then we analyze and rank every past inaugural poet before musing on whom Trump's should be.

Songs:

"NFFC Theme"

"Bait the Hook (demo)" - Plum Wooer

"Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping" - Grouper

"Watching Star Wars (demo)" - Plum Wooer

Follow along and make your own inaugural poet tier list here: https://tiermaker.com/create/us-inaugural-poets-17814399

Buy August's book: https://apocalypse-confidential.myshopify.com/products/visitors-from-the-red-star-by-august-smith

Eleanor's Substack: https://substack.com/@fanghoneyy

Marcus's band: https://www.instagram.com/stillsubmarine/

I bet you thought this podcast was dead. I bet the celebs thought they were safe from our scathing critiques. WRONG! To close out the year, we resurface like the dragons in "Reign of Fire" with guest Stephanie Yue Duhem to discuss: sweaty psychics, online lit journals, end rhymes, mulled wine, and the viral poem "For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper" by Joseph Fasano. Then we dissect the wisdom poetry of Matthew McConaughey's hybrid-memoir "Greenlights."

Songs:

"NFFC Theme"

"Stay Away (demo)" - Plum Wooer

"buchla jam 2"

"My Song 2" - EVIL MTN

Follow Stephanie: https://x.com/moonandmouth

Buy August's book: https://apocalypse-confidential.myshopify.com/products/visitors-from-the-red-star-by-august-smith

Eleanor's Substack: https://substack.com/@fanghoneyy

Marcus's band: https://www.instagram.com/stillsubmarine/

Our first guest episode! We welcome dear friend and poet-colleague Bob Sykora to the podcast, where we talk about his upcoming book, Ivanka Trump's quatrain, grade school poems, the relevance of journals, and 90s folk-pop artist Jewel's book of poetry, "A Night Without Armor," published in 1998 by It Books. Jewel discussion starts at ~33:00 and boy did we have lots to say.

Songs:

"NFFC Theme"

"Ste. Helene (demo)" - Still Submarine

"Sun Goes Down (benjamin remix)" - Plum Wooer

"Intuition" - Jewel

"WITFIN" - EVIL MTN

"Rainbow Signs" - mewithoutYou

Preorder Bob's book: https://www.gameoverbooks.com/store/p/utopians-in-love

Eleanor's latest: https://issuu.com/bryantuniversity/docs/blr2024-layout-final/44

August's new songs: https://plumwooer.bandcamp.com/album/sun-goes-down-ithryn-luin

Marcus's band insta: https://www.instagram.com/stillsubmarine/