Interview: Ryan Rickrode

Cody interviews writer Ryan Rickrode about poetry, stories, faith, and education.  The end of the episode includes a scored excerpt from the beginning of Rickrode's newest book, The Mountains May Depart, a novel about grief, prayer, and forgiveness set in Missoula, Montana. Rickrode calls this a "scored" story because he's paired the passage with original music he wrote to accompany the text. At the start of The Mountains May Depart a year has passed since Dan and Sarah lost their young son in a car accident caused by Sarah. Sarah is thinking about leaving Dan, Dan is struggling to figure how he and Sarah can begin to reconnect. In this excerpt Sarah pretends to be asleep while Dan gets dressed to go jogging, then she gets out of bed and opens her prayer book. God feels distant but she prays anyway.