PODCAST · arts
Mr. Bear's Violet Hour
by Mr. Bear
Welcome to Mr. Bear’s Violet Hour, where time is a place, where the sky is evening-gorgeous, where the moon waxes and wanes, and poetry is the stuffing in our veins. Join Mr. Bear on the new moon and full moon each month for story, music, interviews, puppetry, herbalism, and more. Making the lonely a little more bearable.
Episodes
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S5E1 - Beyond the page
Mr. Bear reads excerpts from The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature, edited by Kelcey Ervick and Tom Hart. Discover delightful and informative essays on creating graphic narratives, poetry comics, and literary collage, along with exercises to jump-start your own creative practice!...
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S4E12 - Paper covers rock
Mr. Bear reads from Exodus Oktavia Brownlow’s stunning book of essays, I’M AFRAID THAT I KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT MYSELF NOW, TO GO BACK TO WHO I KNEW BEFORE, AND OH LORD, WHO WILL I BE AFTER I’VE KNOWN ALL THAT I CAN? Also featuring the music of Awna Teixeira (plus a mini-interview with the artist!)...
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S4E11 - From quiet skies
Mr. Bear reads from A.A. Milne's WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG, short poems and long pauses for your summer enjoyment. Also featuring a sweet song by the talented Dan Nielsen and a quick trip to Miss Mousie's Apothekarium!
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S4E10 - Come willingly
Mr. Bear reads from Jan Stinchcomb’s thrilling and haunting VERUSHKA. A mysterious lady, a hut in the woods, stuffed animals, a family curse…what’s not to love? Featuring the music of Charming Disaster and a mini-interview with the delightful duo, plus a trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for…
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S4E9 - We pounce as one
Mr. Bear reads selections from an issue of Janus Literary, marvelously dark and unsettling work by Lyndsey Croal, Fiona McKay, Mathew Gostelow, DW McKinney, Ani Banerjee, and Jude Higgins. Also featuring Partycar’s gloomily upbeat new album and a mini-interview with the one-man band, plus a trip…
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S4E8 - I know I am Real
Mr. Bear reads the children’s classic THE VELVETEEN RABBIT by Margery Williams. Also featuring a lagomorphic song by Sugar Whiskey, and Miss Mousie offers some tips on a sensitive subject.
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S4E7 - Other people’s curses
Mr. Bear reads the dark and gorgeous story "Ribbons" by the award-winning queer writer and game designer Natalia Theodoridou. Featuring lush music by Katie Castagno (and a mini-interview!), plus Miss Mousie shares some passionate thoughts about yards this time of year.
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S4E6 - You’ll never want to leave
Mr. Bear reads from Karina Lickorish Quinn’s deliciously bizarre and creepy THE HOUSE OF SKIN, published by Stanchion Books. Also featuring a trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for some nettle love!
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S4E5 - We’ve never been happier
Mr. Bear reads from Chelsea Stickle’s eerily unsettling chapbook EVERYTHING’S CHANGING, available from Thirty West Publishing House. Featuring music by Miwa Gemini to feed your dreams (plus a mini-interview!), a trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for some mushroom magic, and more!
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S4E4 - My tears for a seed
Mr. Bear reads from THE ANCHORED WORLD, a dark and dazzling book of flash fairy tales and folklore by Jasmine Sawers. Featuring dreamy music by Turtle Grenade (plus a mini-interview!) and a trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for a lunar infusion.
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S4E3 - Girls born in winter
Mr. Bear reads from SKIN OVER MILK by Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar, a poignant glimpse into the lives of three young sisters growing up in India in the 1990s. Heartbreaking and heart-lifting, these stories will weave their spell around you, immersing you in sensory detail, family dynamics, and that...
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S4E2 - Midwinter meanders
Mr. Bear shares magical musings from Rebecca Altman of Wonder Botanica and Kristin Stark of Poppy Petal Press to help you gently ramble along toward spring. Featuring the dreamy music of Gabrielle Griffis, along with a mini-interview. And Mr. Bear finally makes it back to Miss Mousie’s...
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S4E1 - Dear Diary
In which Mr. Bear and Miss Mousie address their respective diaries. Warning: you may find this content rambling, boring, and/or meaningless.
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S3E11 - Amongst the brambles
Mr. Bear reads from Rebecca Hurst’s THE FOX’S WEDDING, a gorgeous, dreamy book of poems from The Emma Press. Spellbinding and slightly sinister, each piece is a tiny potion distilling the essence of fairy tale magic and liminality. Featuring the passionate folk music (and mini-interview!) of…
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S3E10 - No return address
Mr. Bear reads from Jill Talbot’s intoxicating A DISTANT TOWN, hot, thirsty stories with road trips, jukeboxes, barstools, gas stations, pay phones, and the unrelenting hold of the past. Featuring the music of Dan Nielsen, songs rich in story and feeling. Plus, cool off with a trip to Miss…
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S3E9 - Beweep my outcast state
Mr. Bear reads from THE FACT OF MEMORY, Aaron Angello’s lyrical book with Rose Metal Press. A daily meditation on each individual word in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 yielded 114 “ruminations and fabrications” exploring the creative act of remembering. Plus, Miss Mousie mermaids it up with some ideas...
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S3E8 - Grasshoppers into coins
Mr. Bear reads stories from Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s dazzling MATH FOR THE SELF-CRIPPLING, a dreamy equation of a self plus family multiplied by memory and divided over time and relationships. Featuring the dark ruminations of chamber-folk band Teething Veils (plus a mini-interview!), and Miss...
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S3E7 - Postapocalyptically yours
Mr. Bear reads the brilliant work of Gabrielle Griffis and Corey Farrenkopf, who both explore the intertwined lives of plants, animals, and humans in a strange and vivid light. Also featuring the lush music of Gabrielle Griffis, a trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for a plant to remember, and a...
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S3E6 - When speaks the heart
Mr. Bear reads from Mona Arshi’s iridescent novel SOMEBODY LOVES YOU, a poetic and piercing look at the beauty and violence of childhood. Featuring music by (and a mini-interview with!) Tristan Allen, who harnesses the “storytelling power of sound and puppetry,” plus a trip to Miss Mousie’s...
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S3E5 - Black Moon
Mr. Bear celebrates the double new moon and May Day by reading from THE VIOLET FAIRY BOOK. Also featuring a live mini-interview with Mrs. B, a special song by Marika, and a speedy trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium.
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S3E4 - Like blossoms after a hard winter
Mr. Bear reads the dazzling poetry of courtney marie: ghosts and dancing and gardens and revolution and despair and hope. Their book SONGS WE USED TO DANCE TO will haunt your heart. Featuring music by Sugar Whiskey, plus a trip to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for some full pink moon tea and spring...
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S3E3 - Talking story
Mr. Bear reads luminous work by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, stories rich in Hawaiian language and life with characters who will make your heart ache. Featuring music by the writer herself on ukulele (and a mini-interview)! Plus, a visit to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium yields a not-quite-coffee recipe...
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S3E2 - Depending on the light
Mr. Bear celebrates the spring equinox by reading from Poetry Forge founder Holly Wren Spaulding’s gorgeous FAMILIARS and BETWEEN US, whose poems will bloom inside you, stirring your blood and taking root in your heart. Also featuring a sneak preview of AS WE ARE, the powerful new EP by Amy...
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S3E1 - Shadows, teeth, and cages
Mr. Bear reads from AND IF THAT MOCKINGBIRD DON'T SING: PARENTING STORIES GONE SPECULATIVE, a riveting collection of flash edited by Hannah Grieco that lifts up the rocks of parenthood to expose the frightening, fascinating, and vulnerable mess squirming underneath. Featuring the croons and tunes...
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S2E12 - The value of hunger
Mr. Bear reads the deeply moving, visceral work of Star Su, stories of family and blood, of loss and memory and longing, stories that will burrow into the smallest, softest parts of you and take up residence. Featuring music by the Toronto-based band Lowfills with their “songs for weirdos and...
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S2E11 - Land beavers, ahoy!
Join Mr. Bear for a hibernation trance meditation and learn some facts about groundhogs. Plus, Miss Mousie shares her Dreaming of Springtime Tea recipe. Celebrate the moon, marmots, mugwort, and more!
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S2E10 - We hold each other
Mr. Bear reads from Cassie Thornton’s radically compassionate THE HOLOGRAM, which draws inspiration from Greek solidarity clinics to imagine a plan for building a new model of care and support for a post-pandemic future. Art, activism, science fiction, healing, and more, The Hologram illuminates...
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S2E9 - The forest, darker
Mr. Bear cordially invites you to feast on stories from THE PREDATORY ANIMAL BALL by Jennifer Fliss against a background symphony by Sugar Whiskey. Catering provided by Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium; plus, take home an oracle to ring in the new year! RSVP not required.
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S2E8 - Thither you’ll come, late or never
Mr. Bear welcomes the winter solstice and closes out the year with a Nordic fairy tale, music by Sugar Whiskey, and a visit to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium, where your favorite hand-drawn, two-dimensional rodent studying herbalism shares her "recipe" for cranberry sauce and more!
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S2E7 - Of music and monsters
Mr. Bear reads from Clio Velentza’s dark and shimmering debut novel THE PIANO ROOM and other beautifully unsettling work. Featuring the bewitching music of Cookie Tongue (and a mini-interview!) to hypnotize your ears. Plus a visit to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium for some bitter truths and a new...
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S2E6 - Partial eclipse of the heart
Mr. Bear reads about the winter ways of animals from the 1922 account WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS by Enos A. Mills. Featuring the activities of chipmunks, beavers, deer, wolves, mountain lions, mice, and more, social commentary, and a musical exhortation to look at the moon. Plus, Miss Mousie’s go-to...
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S2E5 - Let the earth melt under the tongue
Mr. Bear reads from Beth Gilstrap’s achingly beautiful DEADHEADING & OTHER STORIES. Also featuring (once again!) the enchanting music of Gabrielle Griffis and introducing a new Sweet Valley Oracle, plus a visit to Miss Mousie’s Apothekarium complete with hawthorn berries.
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S2E4 - The witch you’ve made me
Mr. Bear reads from Leah Angstman’s thrilling historical novel OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, an epic tale of a woman accused of witchcraft and her brutal fight for survival. Featuring music by the Wisconsin duo Spare Animals, complete with werewolves and vampires, oh my! Plus, Miss Mousie goes…
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S2E3 - Finding your story
Mr. Bear reads the inspiring work of Micaela Arenas, a 15-year-old writer and activist. Whether a poem on borders, a speech on building bridges, or a book about the power of story and imagination, her writing conveys the infinite potential of words. Also featuring a trip to Miss Mousie’s...
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S2E2 - When we were clouds
Mr. Bear reads the psychologically penetrating work of Mileva Anastasiadou, stories aching and redolent in their probe of the human condition. From a child struggling to be seen to a grown woman losing her words to a family playing games in an uncertain world, these pieces blend soma and psyche,...
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S2E1 - Setting the plot in motion
Mr. Bear reads the riveting work of Cathy Ulrich—dark, poetic gems featuring murdered mermaids, girl detectives, astronauts, and more. Each tiny story is part of a glittering, infinite, kaleidoscopic whole that will make your heart spin. (You can buy her book GHOSTS OF YOU from Okay Donkey!) In…
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S1E12 - Reach out and touch someone
Mr. Bear reads from Sudha Balagopal’s poignant novella-in-flash from Ad Hoc Fiction, THINGS I CAN’T TELL AMMA. Interconnected pieces illustrate the challenges of navigating a new culture, managing relationships and expectations, finding love, and remaining true to one’s self. Featuring found…
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S1E11 - Acid and honey
Mr. Bear reads the piercing, sensuous work of Monique Quintana, rich prose exploring identity, memory, the body, and more. Featuring the sultry music of and a mini-interview with Ksenia Mack of the Porch Party Mamas, as well as Dan Nielsen with Five Minutes, a podcast of philosophical pleasure…
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S1E10 - You don't have to close your eyes
Mr. Bear offers a guided meditation for the new moon set to theremin and steel tongue drum. Miss Mousie talks about agrimony, apricots, a sleep charm, and pounded frogs?!? Plus, a call for music submissions.
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S1E4 - Expanding with quiet
Mr. Bear reads from DEATH, DESIRE, AND OTHER DESTINATIONS, Tara Isabel Zambrano’s luminous collection of flash published by Okay Donkey Press. Strange, lyrical, and piercing, these stories hover at thresholds of life, death, lust, grief, love, and sorrow. Featuring groovy music by People in Cars…
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S1E3 - Thinking inside the box
Mr. Bear interviews Cass and Fagner Gastaldon of PuppetSoup, a Wales-based theatre company that creates puppetry for everyone and offers fantastic courses. What is (or isn't) a puppet? Can puppets die? What do they smell like? Learn how to animate a piece of paper, discover the world of teatro...
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S1E2 - Like petals in a breeze
Mr. Bear reads Megan Pillow’s disquieting story “Water in the Blood,” a fresh take on horror where postpartum realities, gender roles, and relationship inequalities grow even more sinister with hints of the supernatural. Featuring otherworldly music by and a mini-interview with Flutter and an...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to Mr. Bear’s Violet Hour, where time is a place, where the sky is evening-gorgeous, where the moon waxes and wanes, and poetry is the stuffing in our veins. Join Mr. Bear on the new moon and full moon each month for story, music, interviews, puppetry, herbalism, and more. Making the lonely a little more bearable.
HOSTED BY
Mr. Bear
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Mr. Bear's Violet Hour have?
Mr. Bear's Violet Hour currently has 42 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Mr. Bear's Violet Hour about?
Welcome to Mr. Bear’s Violet Hour, where time is a place, where the sky is evening-gorgeous, where the moon waxes and wanes, and poetry is the stuffing in our veins. Join Mr. Bear on the new moon and full moon each month for story, music, interviews, puppetry, herbalism, and more. Making the lonely...
How often does Mr. Bear's Violet Hour release new episodes?
Mr. Bear's Violet Hour has 42 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Mr. Bear's Violet Hour?
You can listen to Mr. Bear's Violet Hour 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 Mr. Bear's Violet Hour?
Mr. Bear's Violet Hour is created and hosted by Mr. Bear.
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