The Baddest Man in Town

On the trail of a historical figure immortalized in African-American folklore

The Annotated “Stacka Lee”

Comments on the famous murder ballad’s oldest known lyrics

Women at War

The fight for a spot on the frontlines (and in the history books)

Words in Confinement

Lessons on literature and life from inside a notorious Mississippi prison

Herd Mentality

Favorite Things

“Palindrome” by Lisel Mueller

Amelia Midori Miller

Hands: Other windows to the soul

Blonde Venus

The mystique of Marlene Dietrich

How to Be a Grown-Up

Redefining the traditional markers of adulthood

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

Above the River of Your Longing

Two new prompts

Casa Gorín

“The Purse-Seine” by Robinson Jeffers

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Birthday Boy

“The Horses” by Ted Hughes

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Amy Wetsch

Life, magnified

New Year, Old Year

“The Horses” by Edwin Muir

Poems read aloud, beautifully

The Snow Maiden

Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice

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