On today’s art-infused program, Drew Barth speaks with comic book legend Peter Kuper about his wonderful new book, Insectopolis, a project created during Peter’s residency at the NY Public Library, plus I briefly speak with my friend, the artist Jeff Wilfong, about his upcoming residency at the Timucua Arts Foundation here in Orlando.

This episode is a recording of the inaugural meeting of the Kerouac Project of Orlando's Book Club. Matt Peters and I discuss William S. Burroughs's debut novel, Junky, and its place in the first quartet of his transformative works. The setting for this conversation is the place where Jack Kerouac lived when On the Road came out, where he lived when writing the first draft of The Dharma Bums.

Dan Reiter reads from his new book, On a Rising Swell: Surf Stories from the Space Coast, with the jazz piano accompaniment of Daniel Tenbusch, touching the bohemian spirit of Jack Kerouac, who wrote the first draft of The Darma Bums at that very venue. John and Dan share notes about the writing life, the freedom of constraints, the careers of Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac, and Hunter S. Thompson, and physical transcendence—with the occasional contribution from Dr. Truth.

On this show, John speaks with Dmetri Kakmi about holding onto the mysteries of storytelling, the setting of Australia, the wild problem of self, and his wonderful new novel, The Woman in the Well.

After taking a year off to recover, Jeff Shuster return again for a May the 4th episode of The Drunken Odyssey, in which we discuss the seldom-discussed Ewoks trilogy. As a result, we might never have another May the 4th conversation. But the conversation was lively.