The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life

On today’s show, John talks poet Brian Turner about learning to write the thing we need to write rather than the thing we want to write, the long conversations we have with those we love, and the processes of nature, including grief. His trio of new poetry volumes is out now from Alice James Books.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_607.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:18pm EDT

On today’s show, John talks to author, actor, and producer Felicia Day about her new audiobook masterpiece, Third Eye, which is a hysterically funny fantasy epic that deep down has heart. Nerd culture, self-discovery, and creative writing are discussed at length.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_606.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

On today's show, John talks to the novelist Elle Nash about her breathtaking new novel, Deliver Me. The chief topic is how to write a strange, nearly impossible story about American poverty without wallowing or romanticizing one’s characters and finding beauty in their ability to strive to understand a maddening world.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_605.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

Rachael and I return to the subject of William Gibson to discuss his 1984 classic science fiction novel, Neuromancer, which is wonderful in its fusion of noir style and cyberpunk vision.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_604.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

On today’s show, John talks to Mistie Watkins about her new book of flash essays, Hireath, which might be the most Florida book he's ever read.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_603.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 1:24pm EDT

On today’s show, John talks to best-selling author Walter Mosley about his process, especially when exploring unsettling, psychological science fiction in his new novel, Touched.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_602.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

On this episode, John talks to best-selling author Stephanie Land about her newest book, Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_601.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 11:54am EDT

On today’s show, John talks to Tom Lucas about his brand new Lovecraftian YA-ish novel, Research Randy & the The Mystery of Grandma's Half-Eaten Pie of Despair, told by an unreliable narrator about a doomed town.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_600.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 6:22pm EDT

Jeff Shuster and I discuss the surreal techno-horror allegorical masterpiece that is Shin'ya Tsukamot's Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_599.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 1:52pm EDT

On this week’s show, Jeff Shuster and I discuss Dario Argento’s strange, mid-eighties masterpiece, Phenomena.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_598.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 1:52pm EDT

Jeff Shuster and I get rather turned around discussion the invo-convolutions of David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983).

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_597.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

Jeff Shuster and I discuss Michael Caine's brilliant acting and deranged hair as they appeared in Oliver Stone's directorial debut, The Hand (1981).

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_596.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 8:35am EDT

Chelsea Alice and Rebecca Makkai talk about diversity in novels, breaking genre conventions, student-teacher relationships, and how motherhood is represented in literature.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_595.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:21pm EDT

On this week's show, I talk to novelist Jack Houghteling about Modernism, football, and the literary value of gangster movies, among other important topics.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_594.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:37pm EDT

On #593, I speak with the poet Ryler Dustin about creating new forms of sanctification and representing rural landscapes with familiarity without fetishizing or satirizing the setting. We probably digressed into a discussion of David Lynch's Twin Peaks.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_593.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:07pm EDT

On today’s show, I speak with Dan Lauer about memoirs, Spalding Gray, depression, the glorious bygone culture of video stores, the less glorious culture of Hollywood, and other matters of dark interest.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_592.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 3:13pm EDT

On today’s show, I speak with comedian Greg Proops about his new comedy album, French Drug Deal, the way time passes when sober and writing scripts and novels, the perfection of Charlotte Rampling, and other keen matters of interest to think-o-philes.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_591.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 10:06am EDT

On today’s show, I speak with creative non-fiction writer Melanie Farmer about memoir, Brazilian jiu jitsu, the relationship between one's family and one's public, the Hurtson-Wright prize, and other matters to interest.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_590.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 3:24pm EDT

On today’s show, Chelsea Alice interviews Ian Patterson, who translated Finding Lost Time, the final volume of Penguin’s new edition of Proust’s novel cycle, In Search of Lost Time.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_589.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

This week, I speak with Samantha Nickerson and I discuss the themes of friendship, relationships, depression, and death, and the craft of Kathleen Alcott in creating stories that are difficult to put down in the new short story collection, Emergency.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_588.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:37pm EDT

This week, I speak with game designer Michael Merriam about the mysterious, recent addition to the world of Doomology that is the Myhouse.wad, a retro-fitted narrative freak out to one of the earliest first person shooters in video game history.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_587.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 1:38pm EDT

This week, I speak with Sarah Viren about memoir, the social structures of academic work, philosophy, and asking serious questions.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_586.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

On this week’s episode, I speak with Brian Salmons about Leonard Nathan's 1976 book of poems, The Teachings of Grandfather Fox.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_585.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 9:39am EDT

This week, New York Times bestselling author David Lipsky discusses journalism, history, inventors, science, and the importance of storytelling to combine all of those ingredients.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_584.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

On this week's episode, I speak with novelist Blair Hurley about her thrilling new literary novel, Minor Prophets.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_583.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

David James Poissant interviews fiction writer Andrew Porter about peripheral characters, quiet stories, writerly influences, the theme of disappearance, the importance of music, the teaching of writing, Barry Hannah, and many other matters.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_582.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 3:01pm EDT

Speculative fiction writer Joy Baglio talks with me about labels, the surprises needed for compelling stories, outgrowing being an MFA student despite the fabulousness of being an MFA student, being a Kerouac Project resident, and other important matters.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_581.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:34pm EDT

Direct download: TDO.6.16.23.update.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 1:50pm EDT

Rachael and I discuss horror screenplays and horror story podcasts on an episode in which the podcast turns 11 years old.

 

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_580.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:05pm EDT

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_579.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

This week journalist and cultural historian Bob Kealing returns to The Drunken Odyssey to discuss the Beatles's two momentous visits to Florida in 1964.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_578.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

This week Samantha Nickerson returns to guest-hosting duties with a fabulous conversation with novelist writer Sarai Walker.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_577.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 11:46am EDT

Rachael and I return to the subject of William Gibson in a non-fiction collection that proved charming fun.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_576.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 3:54pm EDT

Jeff Shuster and John King celebrate May the 4th by discussing three films trying to capitalize on the science fiction success of Star Wars.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_575.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

On this episode, I speak with the Nick Georgoudiou about owning a used bookstore, maintaining a murder of typewriters, literary citizenship, and many other matters of interest and whatnot.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_574.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 9:11pm EDT

On this episode, I speak with the poet David van den Berg on the glories of tromping through swamps as a child, the knifeblade dialectic of cynicism and wonder, and discovering a sense of authentic voice.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_573.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

Back in November 2022, Chelsea Alice conducted three on-site interviews at Miami Book Fair. She discussed Self-Portrait with Ghost with Meng Jin, Pathetic Literature by Eileen Myles, and All the Flowers Kneeling with Paul Tran. At long last, the interviews are now here.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_572.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:45pm EDT

On this episode, I speak with the scholar and poet Mark Scroggins about poetry that simultaneously compels and eludes the reader with its strange music, those depths of unknowing, the literary analogues to punk, reverse engineering a sense of cultural history, the problematic nature of the poetic voice, and whatnot.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_571.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 9:11pm EDT

 

I talk to Kathleen Rooney about finding the fun despite the end of The Great Enlightenment, the joys of mixing wit and earnestness in verse, the fun of exploring the landscapes of AWP locations despite mentally frying beneath fluorescent lights, the tactile pleasures of typewriters, and other important matters.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_570.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

Lydia Millet and David James Poissant discuss geography, birds, earnestness, the characterization of children, the structure of plot and novels, and other matters of interest.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_569.mp3
Category:Writing -- posted at: 1:07pm EDT

Chelsea Alice gave me homework, to read "The Guest" by Albert Camus, the result of which is this existentialist episode, or something like that.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_568.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 2:41pm EDT

This week, Brook Ziporyn and I discuss the complexities of interpreting the Daodejing, the humor of the book, and its applications to life philosophies, politics, literature, and many other things along the way.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_567.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

This week, I speak with Ciera Horton McElroy about following through with long form fiction and her extraordinary debut, Atomic Family.


This week, Rachael Tillman and I discuss William Gibson's not especially science fictiony, but post-modern systems thriller, Pattern Recognition

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_565.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:00am EDT

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_564.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 5:29pm EDT

This week, Chelsea Alice talks to Stephanie McCarter about Ovid’s self-reflection, making Ovid's humor visible to a contemporary audience, and feminism as it relates to translation.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_563.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

This week, I speak with fiction writer Mike Nagel about comic existentialism, alcoholic literature, and the class complexities of real estate.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_562.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 8:58pm EDT

This week, Samantha Nickerson talks to Felicia Berliner about her new novel, Shmutz, and the challenges of existing within multiple identities,

plus Samantha Nickerson talks to Deb Rogers about her new novel, Florida Woman, group-think, cults, and lots of monkeys.

Today's Guest Host

TEXTS DISCUSSED

NOTES

Scribophile, the online writing group for serious writers


TDO listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

If you are an amazon customer, one way to support this show is to begin shopping with this affiliate link, so that the podcast is granted a small commission on anything you purchase at no additional cost to yourself.

 

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_561.mp3
Category:Arts/Culture/Writing -- posted at: 6:34pm EDT

On #560, Rachael Tillman and I discuss the art of persona writing through the lens of Philip Schultz's recent book, Comforts of the Abyss.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_560.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:40am EDT

This week I have a long overdue convo with the extraordinary poet Laurie Rachkus Uttich.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_559.mp3
Category:Literature -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

This week I speak with the prose writer Jennifer Worley, the fall 2022 resident of The Kerouac Project of Orlando.

Direct download: The_Drunken_Odyssey_Episode_558.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:13pm EDT

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