Human Voices Wake Us
Episodes
#228 - What Ted Bundy did on July 14, 1974
04 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
#227 - The Great Fire of London and the destruction of Jerusalem
27 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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, destroy...
#226: The Vitality and terror of cities
20 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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...
#225 - The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling
13 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 st...
#224: Let's talk about William Blake
06 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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...
#223 - How to write two novels at the same time, with Charles Dickens
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 Tomal...
#222: Seamus Heaney - 10 Essential Poems
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 (193...
#221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 (...
#220: The working poor and a so-so murder show
09 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 abo...
#219: When a paragraph changes your life
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
#218: Poetry to Live By
22 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 ta...
#217: Voices from 1900-1914
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 sl...
#216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from Time & the River
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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, w...
#215: 8 Favorite Poems from "Time and the River"
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
#214: Two of the Best Poems You've Never Heard of (by William Cullen Bryant)
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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....
#213: Van Gogh's Early Years
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 ent...
#212: The Most Popular Story in Ancient India
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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...
#211: Who Was William Cullen Bryant?
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
#210: Memories & Legends of William Shakespeare
29 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
#209 - Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 The...
#208: Bach & God
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 hav...
#208 - Bach & God
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 12/1/25: Tonight, I read from John Eliot’s Gardiner’s Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. Gardiner talks about Bach’s Christian...
#207 - Death, the Gods, and Endless Life in Ancient Egypt
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Egyp...
#206 - The Discovery of Indo-European Languages - 1876
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 accoun...
#205: Learning to Read, c. 2000 BCE
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
#204: Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," 1856
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
#203: Bruce Springsteen Talks About "Nebraska" - 1984
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
#202 - A Death at Sea, 1834
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
#201 - Gillian Anderson, & What Women Want, 2024
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 coll...
#200: The Last Days of Walter Benjamin, 1940
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Benj...
#199: The Protestant Reformation Gets Going, c. 1517
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
#198: Georgia O'Keeffe Finds Herself in the Fall of 1915
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Portra...
#197: A Honeymoon in the House of the Dead in Ancient Mesopotamia, c. 2300 BCE
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. A...
#196: Morning at the London Docks, c. 1850
23 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
First Person: Oppenheimer & the Bomb (from the archive)
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 de...
"The One Who Sang So Well" (new story)
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Notes from the Grid: Rediscovering the Hidden Life
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 4/26/22: Tonight, I begin a five-part series called Notes from the Grid. (A print version of NFTG has since been published.) In this f...
Shakespeare: The Life & Times (from the archive)
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 10/16/23: Tonight, I read my long poem about William Shakespeare, and offer a commentary along the way. It is being published simultan...
Anthology: Poems for Spring (from the archive)
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 3/12/23: Tonight, I return to new episodes with a handful of poems about the spring. As I mention, living as I do in a city usually in...
The Great Myths #24: Sigurd & the Dragon (from the archive)
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/20/24: Tonight, after a long hiatus, we return to Norse myth with the story of Sigurd’s killing of the dragon, Fafnir. Couched in ...
Patti Smith / Mazzy Star & Living Colour / Philip Glass (from the archive)
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 11/13/23: Tonight, I talk about our attachment to music as teenagers and adults, and the lessons that loving music—and finding meani...
Great Poems: Shakespeare's "To Be or Not to Be" (from the archive)
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/12/22: Everybody knows the most famous soliloquy in all of drama, or at least the first line of it: "To be or not to be, that is ...
Anthology: Visionary Poems from Yeats, Whitman, Blake & Myth (from the archive)
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 3/3/24: Tonight, I read from a handful of what I call “visionary” poems. After an introductory section of familiar nineteenth- and...
First Person: Voices from 1900-1914 (from the archive)
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 sl...
Van Gogh's Early Years (from the archive)
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 12/7/22: Tonight, we enter into the early years of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), from his birth in the village of Zundert in the Nethe...
William Blake (new episode)
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
John Keats: "The poet has no identity" (from the archive)
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/5/21: Tonight, I read part of John Keats's famous letter of October 27, 1818, where he talks about the poet and the poet...
The Great Myths #2: Gilgamesh, Enkidu, & the Underworld (from the archive)
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 12/30/20: In this second episode on Mesopotamian myth, we return to the story of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh and Enkidu's destructive adventu...
The Sound of Beethoven (from the archive)
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 1/1/24: Tonight, a cold has forced me to hand over the episode almost entirely to some of the greatest music ever written. Here are ex...
Bruce Springsteen / Simon Schama / The Iliad (from the archive)
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 7/28/23: Tonight's episode looks in on history, creativity, and mourning from three different angles: In the first part, we hear scatt...
Notes from the Grid: All Things Can Console (from the archive)
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/9/22: Tonight, I continue my five-part series called Notes from the Grid. (A print version of NFTG has since been published.) I su...
Advice from Walt Whitman & W. B. Yeats (from the archive)
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 10/20/21: Tonight, we hear anecdotes from the lives of two very different poets, Walt Whitman and W. B. Yeats. The remarks from Whitma...
The Great Myths #1: Gilgamesh Begins (from the archive)
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 12/19/20: Tonight, I begin perhaps the most important series of episodes on this podcast, a deep-dive into my favorite stories from my...
A Farewell to the Podcast with Theodore Roethke's "The Rose"
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 10/8/24: Tonight, four years to the day after starting this podcast, I end it with a reading of Theodore Roethke’s (1908-1963) long...
7 Poems by H. D. (new episode)
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 9/23/24: Tonight, I read seven poems by the American poet, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961). Over the course of fifty years her wor...
6 Poems by R. S. Thomas (new episode)
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 9/11/24: Tonight, I read six poems by the Welsh poet, R. S. Thomas (1913-2000). A priest in the Anglican church from 1936 until 1978,...
4 Poems by Kenneth Rexroth (new episode)
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/30/24: Tonight, I read four poems by the American poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982). A few years ago, when I began digging through a...
Advice from Robert Pinsky (new episode)
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/14/24: Tonight, I read excerpts from the poet Robert Pinsky’s 1995 interview with The Paris Review. It is fascinating to see how...
Seamus Heaney: 7 Poems from "North"
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/1/24: Tonight, I read seven poems from Seamus Heaney’s 1974 collection, North. Few poets from the last century took on the realit...
Little Biographies
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 7/19/24: Tonight, I read the small biographies of nearly two dozen poets, the kind of colorful summaries usually found in poetry antho...
Nostalgia (new episode)
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 7/5/24: Tonight, I devote an hour to wondering how we talk about childhood and memory, how we live with memory and meaning, how we per...
Walt Whitman's Life #7: His Notebooks & the Publication of "Leaves of Grass" (new episode)
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 6/18/24: This is the seventh in a series of readings from biographies of Walt Whitman. I continue with Paul Zweig's Walt Whitman:...
The Most Brutal Scenes (new episode)
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 06/06/2024: Tonight, I share two stories from the Shoah, or Holocaust. The first is about the Sonderkommando, those prisoners forced t...
Ted Hughes: 14 Poems from "Crow" (new episode)
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/8/24: Tonight, I read fourteen poems from Ted Hughes's 1970 collection, Crow. His books Crow, Moortown Diary, Remains of Elmet, ...
Robinson Jeffers: Selected Poems
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 4/30/21: Here is a collection of all of the recordings I've made of the poetry of Robinson Jeffers from November of 2020 until this mo...
Anthology: Poems on Modern Life (new episode)
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 4/17/24: Tonight, I read a handful of poems on modern life—whatever “modern” might mean in words spanning the seventeenth to the...
An Interview with Amit Majmudar (new episode)
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 4/3/24: Tonight, I interview the poet, novelist, and translator, Amit Majmudar. You can find a full list of his books here, but ...
Ted Hughes: 11 Poems from "Remains of Elmet" (new episode)
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 3/15/24: Tonight, I read eleven poems from Ted Hughes's 1979 collection, Remains of Elmet. His books Crow, Moortown Diary, Remains...
Wallace Stevens: 11 Essential Poems
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 2/19/24: Tonight, I read eleven essential poems by the American poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955). All of them can be found in his Coll...
Ted Hughes: 6 Poems from "River"
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 2/7/24: Tonight, I read six poems from Ted Hughes's 1983 collection, River. His books Crow, Moortown Diary, Remains of Elmet, and ...
Anthology: Poems on Being a Parent
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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: “Morni...
Anthology: Poems About Childhood & Youth
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 1/19/24: Tonight, I read a handful of poems about childhood. How does poetry capture our earliest memories, and how can it express the...
Ted Hughes: 7 Poems from "Moortown Diary"
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 1/10/24: Tonight, I read seven poems from Ted Hughes's collection of farming poems, Moortown Diary, first published in 1978. His b...
Britain: September 3, 1939
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 12/21/23: What is it like for your country to declare war, and then wait for it, and then live through it? Tonight, I read only a smal...
The new movie "Maestro," & what happens to our earliest dreams
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 12/13/23: There’s a certain lesson I’ve learned from sports figures, poets, and critics, and I was reminded of it while watching B...
Us Weird Geeks
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 11/15/2023: Only a short episode tonight, where I wonder about the future of this podcast. Using an essay by a fairly prominent author...
Anthology: Poems for Autumn
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 10/30/23: Tonight, I read a handful of poems about autumn: Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), from “The Burning of the Leaves” Walter...
Seamus Heaney: Selected Poems
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/20/21: A collection of all the poems by Seamus Heaney I have read here over the past few months, spanning his entire career. Each of...
Anthology: Poetry Friday with The Great Year, Shakespeare, Eliot, Blake, Poems on Work & Poems on Mythology
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 9/15/23: Earlier this year, I thought it was possible to supplement this podcast with one weekly (and shorter) additional reading over...
Caravaggio's Severed Heads / Herodotus Among the Scythians / Ian McKellen on Macbeth
08 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 9/8/23: In the first part of tonight's episode, I read from Peter Robb's M, a biography of the painter Caravaggio (1571-1610)....
Raising a Musical Prodigy / God's Response to Job
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 9/1/23: In the first part of tonight’s episode, I read from Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, & the Searc...
Seamus Heaney: 10 Essential Poems
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 (193...
Psalm 23 / Mary, Queen of Scots is Executed / 3 Poems by Mary Oliver
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/18/23: What makes a story or prayer or poem last? What circumstances can lead one monarch to order the execution of another? And why...
Shakespeare's Library / Ancient Egypt's Temple Libraries / Seamus Heaney Goes to School
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/11/23: Tonight, we look into libraries and learning: In the first part, I read from Jonathan Bate’s biography of Shakespeare, So...
Notes from the Grid: The Perpetual Adolescent
06 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/16/22: Tonight, I continue my five-part series called Notes from the Grid. (A print version of NFTG has since been published.) In th...
Cities Under Siege: The Gauls Sack Rome / Occupied Paris / William Blake's London
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 8/4/23: Tonight, we hear from cities under siege: In the first part, I read from the Roman historian Livy’s account of the sack o...
Rachel Carson on the Deep History of the Sea
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 7/14/23: Tonight, I read from two great writers on the history of the sea. The first is an excerpt from Rachel Carson's (1907-1964...
American Shaman
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 7/7/23: Tonight, I talk about writing my long poem, To the House of the Sun, published in 2015. The poem follows an Irish immigrant ma...
The Spiritual Significance of Everyday Work
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 6/30/23: Tonight, I read from three books that have been important lately in the writing of my long poem, The Great Year. First is the...
The Midsummer Fire Festivals of Old Europe
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 6/12/23: Tonight, I read from James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough, and the accounts he collected on the midsummer fire festivals ...
Van Gogh: Starry Nights & Sunflowers
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 7/27/22: Tonight, I read from Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith’s Van Gogh: The Life, sharing the sections covering Van Go...
Pythagoras: The Life & Times
28 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tonight, I'm thrilled to read a poem that I began working on three years ago on the life, teachings, and mysticism of the Greek philosopher, Pytha...
The Great Myths #23: Odin
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/15/23: What can the Poetic and Prose Eddas, the Icelandic sagas, and skaldic poetry tell us about the most important god in the Nors...
Is There Anybody Out There?
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 5/3/23: Tonight’s episode is a response to those wonderful lines from William Carlos Williams: “It is ridiculous what airs we put ...
Advice from the Beatles
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 4/26/23: What can the stories of the early lives of famous people teach us about our own upbringing, all the details nobody would know...
On Seamus Heaney
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 4/19/23: In 2020, the Irish historian and biographer R. F. Foster published a wonderful and brief book, On Seamus Heaney. It is a grea...
Advice from William Wordsworth
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 3/29/23: Why should we continue to read the poetry of William Wordsworth? Tonight’s episode is devoted to Jonathan Bate’s biograph...
Da Vinci & His Bodies
19 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 3/19/23: Around the year 1509, Leonardo da Vinci began his great anatomical work, dissecting upwards of thirty human bodies and making...
Anthology: Poems on How to Live
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 1/26/23: Tonight I read a handful of poems on the theme of How to live, what to do? How to get by in the world as a devotee of culture...
Advice from Charles Dickens & Alice Munro
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An episode from 1/10/23: Tonight we hear from two great writers of fiction, Charles Dickens and Alice Munro. Through a handful of readings from Claire...