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

How Longfellow Woke the Dead

When first published 150 years ago, his famous poem about Paul Revere was read as a bold statement of his opposition to slavery

Interview with a Neandertal

What I always wanted to ask our distant cousins about love and death and sorrow and dinner

‘I Tried to Stop the Bloody Thing’

In World War I, nearly as many British men refused the draft—20,000—as were killed on the Somme’s first day. Why were those who fought for peace forgotten?

Street Scenes

Patience

The View from 90

Even when those in my generation have reached a state of serenity, wisdom, and relative comfort, what we face can hardly be called the golden years

Homage to a Bad Boy: John Ashbery

Baseball’s Loss of Innocence

When the 1919 Black Sox scandal shattered Ring Lardner’s reverence for the game, the great sportswriter took a permanent walk

The True Church

Seeing Red

Can we understand Rothko’s work without decoding his favorite color?

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