May 7, 2025: The limit of poetry and trees

We are taking the good with the worstest and sometimes blending the two! Author Heidi Stemple’s latest work is a complete amalgam of poetry and narrative fiction. "The Poetry of Car Mechanics" measures family trauma against self-discovery and nature in a way that try really hard not to spoil when she visits the studio to talk with us. We find out about her process of weaving plot through this mixed format.We also head to Amherst Nurseries, where trees are the lay of their agricultural land and have been for decades going. Owner John Kinchla walks us and the new head of CISA, Jennifer Core, through the rain-soaked acres to see their innovative growing methods. Plus, he provides insight to the real extent of some of the federal cuts to agriculture from a landscaping perspective. Then word nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, drudges up some better words for us to use for things that are terrible, so that even at our lowest, we can still use fun language to describe our catastrophic and awful circumstances.