PODCAST · arts
Human Voices Wake Us
by Human Voices Wake Us
The poem says, "Human voices wake us, and we drown." But I’ve made this podcast with the belief that human voices are what we need. And so, whether from a year or three thousand years ago, whether poetry or prose, whether fiction or diary or biography, here are the best things we have ever thought, written, or said.
Episodes
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#243 - Looking out the window with Van Gogh
An episode from 10/12/26: Tonight, I read a letter than Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother in the spring of 1883, when Van Gogh was in his early thirties. It can stand in for many of his letters in how it documents what he saw that day, the joy that it gave him, and his plans to transform the...
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#242 - Anthology: poems on being a parent
An episode from 1/31/24: Tonight, as a companion to last episode of poems on being a child, I read a handful of poems about being a parent: “Morning Song,” by Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) “Child Crying Out,” by Louise Glück (1943-2023) “First Snow” read by Louise Glück (audio from here)…
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#241 - London, Cleveland, Poland: Some new poems
An episode from 9/22/26: Tonight, I read three new poems that were just published over at The Brazen Head: “London, 1943,” “Shtetl, 1803,” and “Cleveland, 1988.” You can read the poems here. Since I’ve spent so much time writing longer narrative poems, earlier this year I suddenly wanted to see...
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#240 - Reading Kafka's Diaries
An episode from 9/14/26: Tonight, I read my favorite passages from the Diaries of Franz Kafka. (The edition of his diaries that I read has since been replaced by this one). When you approach these passages, as I do here, with almost no comment or connecting links to his life or his work, let…
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#239 - What I found in Amsterdam
An episode from 9/7/26: Tonight, I talk about a recent trip to Amsterdam. At the great art museums there I suddenly found myself wondering if the overcrowding in them didn’t suggest what I’ve been saying for a long time on this podcast: that great meaning and intensity is usually found in private...
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#238 - Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico
An episode from 8/17/26: Tonight, we look at the years of intense simplicity that the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) spent in New Mexico. Attached to the area from her first visit to Taos in 1929, over the next fifteen years she continued to travel and paint there. In 1949 she moved...
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#237 - Al Pacino remembers his childhood, and Eleanor Roosevelt finds herself
An episode from 8/10/26: Tonight, I read about the childhood and adolescence of the actor Al Pacino (born in 1940), as told in his wonderful memoir Sonny Boy. (I also recommend the audio version, read by Pacino himself). We also hear about Pacino now, and what looking back at his upbringing in…
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#236 - At home with Bach
An episode from 8/3/26: Tonight, we return to the life of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and look into two very different aspects of his creative life. The first is to ask the question how, and under what circumstances, did he write his great music? As it turns out, for the last...
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#235 - London in 2011, London in the 1660s
An episode from 7/27/26: Tonight, we visit London at two different times in history. First, I read passages from Craig Taylor’s 2011 book Londoners: The days and nights of London now—as told by those who love it, hate it, live it, left it, and long for it. Then we go back a few centuries in Liza...
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#234: The Intensity of Private Moments
An episode from 7/20/26: I’ve realized that, even though I’ve become more social than ever before since becoming a father, the deepest meaning and intensity still come from more private experiences. By “private” I mean those experiences shared with one or two people, or our families and friends,...
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#233: Talking Baseball with Tom Hart
An episode from 7/6/26: For the past year or so, I’ve been putting out another podcast with the artist and educator Tom Hart over at his Substack, Men, an Explanation. You can find all the episodes we’ve done at Apple or Spotify where we talk about all kinds of things, but mostly creativity and…
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#232: Ted Hughes in Alaska
An episode from 6/22/26: Tonight, we hear about the British poet Ted Hughes (1930-1998), and the poem he said he spent the most time on, “The Gulkana.” The poem is named after a river in Alaska, and in this episode, I preface a reading of the poem with excerpts from his letters and biography…
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#231: The mythology of the moon
An episode from 6/1/26: Tonight, we delve into the significance of the moon in mythology, religion, and folklore. I read from the Taschen Book of Symbols, the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, and Mircea Eliade’s Patterns in Comparative Religion. Finally, and most personally, I read about the…
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#230 - The mythology of the bear, and Byron gets apocalyptic
An episode from 5/18/26: Tonight I read about the bear in folklore and mythology from two books everybody should have on their shelves: the Taschen Book of Symbols and the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. Browsing through either puts you in contact with our best stories and, with the Taschen book,...
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#229 : Mother Earth and myths of mining and agriculture
An episode from 5/11/26: Tonight, I read passages on what the discoveries of agriculture and metallurgy meant for human beings, as reflected in the mythologies and rituals and stories that grew up around them. These passages are taken from sections 12 and 15 of Mircea Eliade’s History of…
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#228 - What Ted Bundy did on July 14, 1974
An episode from 5/4/26: Tonight, I read the story of the French journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann and his capture and three year captivity at the hands of Hezbollah. While held prisoner, he was given many books to read to pass the time, and what I share comes from the spy novelist John le Carré’s...
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#227 - The Great Fire of London and the destruction of Jerusalem
An episode from 4/27/26: Tonight, I read about the destruction of two great houses of worship. The first is the cathedral of Old St. Paul’s, destroyed in 1666 in the Great Fire of London. My reading comes from Neil Hanson’s The Dreadful Judgement: The True Story of the Great Fire of London, and…
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#226: The Vitality and terror of cities
An episode from 4/20/26: Tonight, we delve into the world of cities. First, in a passage from Sam Quinones’s Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, the town of Portsmouth, Ohio, is lovingly described in the decades before the epidemic. Next, a passage from Ben Wilson’s Metropolis…
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#225 - The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling
An episode from 4/13/26: Tonight, I read about the invention of the wheel and what it meant for the earliest communities of Europe and the Eurasian steppes, from David Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. After this, a few passages from Norman Longmate’s How We Lived Then: A History of...
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#224: Let's talk about William Blake
An episode from 12/9/24: Tonight's episode gathers together all of the readings I've done on this podcast from the poet William Blake (1757-1827). All of these poems can be found online at The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake: Blake & His Animals: One passage from Visions of the...
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#223 - How to write two novels at the same time, with Charles Dickens
An episode from 1/10/23: Tonight we take a peek into the creative life of Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Through a handful of readings from Claire Tomalin’s biography of Dickens, we see how he was able to juggle, for almost a year, the writing of two novels for simultaneous serial publication.…
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#222: Seamus Heaney - 10 Essential Poems
An episode from 8/25/23: Tonight, I read ten essential poems from one of the great and most public poets of the last seventy years, Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). It isn’t hard to come by details of Heaney’s life, but Stepping Stones (where Heaney is interviewed at length in what amounts to an...
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#221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist
An episode from 3/16/26: Tonight, I read about the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in the year 535 CE, and the outbreak of plague in Constantinople (and elsewhere) only a few years later. It all comes from Susan Wise Bauer’s The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine…
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#220: The working poor and a so-so murder show
An episode from 3/9/26: Tonight, I read from Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2001 book Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. After that, I talk about the recent TV show The Killing, as a way in to talking about our obsession and desire for criticism, objectivity, and certainty. Isn’t privacy and...
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#219: When a paragraph changes your life
An episode from 3/2/26: Tonight, I read a single paragraph from two books that each had a profound effect on my understanding of religion, creativity, and a great deal else. The first comes from page one of Mircea Eliade’s History of Religious Ideas, and the second from John Eliot Gardiner’s…
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#218: Poetry to Live By
An episode from 2/23/2026: My new book of poetry, Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, is finally out. I spend this episode talking briefly about how always having the writing or reading of poetry close at hand and close in mind, has saved my life many times. I also read a...
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#217: Voices from 1900-1914
An episode from 1/2/23: Tonight, I read a handful of voices from those living in Europe and the United States between 1900 and 1914. Rephrased only slightly, nearly all of their concerns (over technology, gender, nationalism, war, eugenics) feel like they could appear in the news or on the street...
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#216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from Time & the River
An episode from 2/9/2026: This is the second episode where I read from my upcoming book Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, which comes out on February 23. This time, I read seven of my favorite poems from the point of view of women. They are: Mr Cassian’s Good Friend,...
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#215: 8 Favorite Poems from "Time and the River"
An episode from 2/2/2026: For the next few episodes I’ll be reading poems from my book Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, which comes out on February 23. As the title says, it begins with the Columbine high school shooting in 1999 and travels back to the invention of…
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#214: Two of the Best Poems You've Never Heard of (by William Cullen Bryant)
An episode from 1/26/2026: Tonight, I read two poems from the American poet William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), “Earth” and “The River, by Night.” Just as with the episode on Bryant’s life from earlier this month, I hope this episode brings his writing and poetry to the attention of more readers....
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#213: Van Gogh's Early Years
An episode from 12/7/22: This week, I am reposting what is perhaps my favorite episode of Human Voices Wake Us, first posted back in late 2022. We enter into the early years of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), from his birth in the village of Zundert in the Netherlands, to his time in the Borinage...
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#212: The Most Popular Story in Ancient India
An episode from 1/12/2026: Tonight, I read from the oldest religious poetry from India, the collection of 1,028 ritual hymns known as the The Rig Veda. Specifically, I read from the most popular story found there, the defeat of the serpent Vrtra by the god Indra and the freeing of the waters of…
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#211: Who Was William Cullen Bryant?
An episode from 1/5/2026: Tonight, I read a handful of passages from Gilbert Muller’s William Cullen Bryant: Author of America. During his lifetime, Bryant (1794-1878) was the most popular poet in America as well as one of the country’s most trusted and influential editors and journalists.…
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#210: Memories & Legends of William Shakespeare
An episode from 12/28/25: What was it like to know Shakespeare, to stand in the theater and watch one of his plays, to be a neighbor who knew him as a teenager? What was it like to pass through London as a student or visitor or diplomat, and note in passing that you saw Shakespeare’s plays, or…
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#209 - Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now
An episode from 12/15/25: Tonight, I read from Irving Howe’s World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. In light of the events in Australia yesterday, I take the time not just to talk about what it meant to be a Jewish immigrant to...
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#208: Bach & God
An episode from 12/8/25: Note: A version of this episode was posted last week and quickly taken down when I realized the audio quality was poor. I have rerecorded it here; apologies to those listeners who heard the subpar version. Tonight, I read from John Eliot’s Gardiner’s Bach: Music in the...
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#207 - Death, the Gods, and Endless Life in Ancient Egypt
An episode from 11/24/25: Tonight, I read from one of the best books on religion in ancient Egypt, Erik Hornung’s Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. Few have written so lucidly on the subject: Egyptians were actually obsessed with life and its renewal, not in wallowing...
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#206 - The Discovery of Indo-European Languages - 1876
An episode from 11/17/25: Tonight, I read a section from David Anthony’s book The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. It is a wonderfully written account of the archeological and linguistic attempts to discover the origins of the Indo-European language families. The part I read from retells the…
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#205: Learning to Read, c. 2000 BCE
An episode from 11/10/25: Tonight, I talk about literacy and education in the ancient world, both the fascinating aspects of memorization and of what “reading” meant back (it was much closer to reading shorthand today), and the precarious reality that anyone who underwent scribal training in...
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#204: Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," 1856
An episode from 11/3/25: Tonight, I read what is perhaps Walt Whitman’s greatest poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” I also set it in the context of Whitman’s life as a poet: he wrote and published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855 and was certain that the book would have an immediate...
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#203: Bruce Springsteen Talks About "Nebraska" - 1984
An episode from 10/24/25: I’ve been waiting in vain for a cold to pass so I can record a new episode. As that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, the new movie about Bruce Springsteen reminded me that a few years ago I recorded an episode about his 1982 album Nebraska. While the original...
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#202 - A Death at Sea, 1834
An episode from 10/6/25: Tonight, I read from Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast, first published in 1840. It tells of the death of one sailor, George Ballmer. The text of this passage can be found here. I also read a quote from the poet Derek Walcott, and part of the poem “The...
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#201 - Gillian Anderson, & What Women Want, 2024
An episode from 9/25/25: Tonight, I read a few entries from the book Gillian Anderson edited, called Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous. It is a collection of sexual fantasies from women all over the world, but as I point out, behind the acrobatics and explicitness of what we assume fantasy to…
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#200: The Last Days of Walter Benjamin, 1940
An episode from 9/15/25: Tonight, I read a long section on the last days of the philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) from the biography Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life, by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings. (For those who are interested, the BBC’s In Our Time devotes an entire hour to...
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#199: The Protestant Reformation Gets Going, c. 1517
An episode from 9/9/25: Tonight, I read from three books: A small passage from The Golden Age Shtetl: A New History of Jewish Life in East Europe, by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, on how pocket calendars were essential references for popular knowledge. A longer passage, on the Protestant Reformation...
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#198: Georgia O'Keeffe Finds Herself in the Fall of 1915
An episode from 9/1/25: Tonight, I read a small passage from Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf, and then a much longer passage from Laurie Lisle’s Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. In it, Lisle describes the weeks and months in late 1915 during which O’Keeffe found herself as an...
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#197: A Honeymoon in the House of the Dead in Ancient Mesopotamia, c. 2300 BCE
An episode from 8/27/25: Tonight, I read from Amanda Podany’s wonderful book, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East. After a royal wedding took place in the ancient Syrian city of Ebla around 2300 BCE, the new king and queen spent no less than three weeks among the...
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#196: Morning at the London Docks, c. 1850
An episode from 8/23/25: Returning to the podcast after a long hiatus, I read from Henry Mayhew and John Binny’s London Labour and the London Poor, their exhaustive and essential description of life in London for the working poor in the mid-nineteenth century. Far from being a dry and distant...
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First Person: Oppenheimer & the Bomb (from the archive)
An episode from 7/21/23: Tonight, I read a few dozen quotations from the scientists, politicians, and military figures who were instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb, and in the final decision to drop it on Japan in August of 1945. The most prominent voices here are those of Robert...
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"The One Who Sang So Well" (new story)
An episode from 6/15/25: Tonight, the podcast returns briefly for a reading of my new short story, "The One Who Sang So Well." The episode coincides with the story's publication in The Basilisk Tree—you can read it here. Many thanks to editor Bryan Helton for taking the story. You can support…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The poem says, "Human voices wake us, and we drown." But I’ve made this podcast with the belief that human voices are what we need. And so, whether from a year or three thousand years ago, whether poetry or prose, whether fiction or diary or biography, here are the best things we have ever thought, written, or said.
HOSTED BY
Human Voices Wake Us
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Human Voices Wake Us have?
Human Voices Wake Us currently has 235 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Human Voices Wake Us about?
The poem says, "Human voices wake us, and we drown." But I’ve made this podcast with the belief that human voices are what we need. And so, whether from a year or three thousand years ago, whether poetry or prose, whether fiction or diary or biography, here are the best things we have ever thought,...
How often does Human Voices Wake Us release new episodes?
Human Voices Wake Us publishes regularly with 235 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Human Voices Wake Us?
You can listen to Human Voices Wake Us on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Human Voices Wake Us?
Human Voices Wake Us is created and hosted by Human Voices Wake Us.
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