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Waywords Studio Full Slate

Steve Chisnell

This is the full slate of programs offered by Waywords Studio, specializing in literary podcasts whether audio fiction or criticism. Go to WaywordsStudio.com to Follow or Subscribe to individual programs.

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  • 21 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 33 min
  • English

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  • September 22 · 34 min

    Ghost in the Garden – Dark Montgomery Pt. 1

    What if Anne of Green Gables wasn’t just an escapist daydream, but a calculated strategy that saved its author’s life? Today we find the divide between L.M. Montgomery’s sunlit public fiction and her claustrophobic domestic reality. From hidden kitchen-table writing under an autocratic grandfather to a decade-long legal battle against a predatory Boston publisher, we explore how her idyllic landscapes served as a fortress of psychological survival and an engine for economic sovereignty. Resources: Heilbrun, Carolyn G. Writing a Woman’s Life, 1988. Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. L. C. Page & Co., 1908. Montgomery, L. M. “Min.” Short Stories 1902 to 1903, 1903. Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, 1917. Montgomery, L. M. The Blue Castle, 1926. Montgomery, L. M. “The Closed Door.” Faded Page, 1934. Rubio, Mary Henley. Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, 2008. Episode 7.09 – Ghost in the Garden – Dark Montgomery Pt. 1 Glossary Double Escape – A dual strategy where a female author uses pseudonymity to protect her private identity while creating characters who openly defy social constraints. Curated Narrative – A simplified, sanitized representation of an author’s life or landscape that edits out historical friction, trauma, and economic conflict for public consumption. Economic Sovereignty – The intentional use of creative output and legal assertion to secure financial independence from restrictive domestic or corporate manipulations. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions What mental blind spots do we create when we choose to focus on an author’s characters rather than their personal struggles? How does the physical layout of a room—its doors, locks, or visual boundaries—influence our psychological perception of safety and freedom? In what ways does the act of assigning a new name to a person, place, or experience alter our sense of control over it? How do cultural restrictions and business practices shape the kinds of stories marginalized authors are permitted to tell? What happens to our appreciation of a literary work when we recognize its broader history of creation and publication? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Author Footprints – PDF Mapping Dreams – PDF Building Fantasies – PDF Dark Montgomery – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Closed Chamber 06:01 Intro Theme 06:38 Cages 12:30 Shields 17:12 Closed Doors 30:00 Exercising Our Skepticism 32:48 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-09-dark-montgomery-1 New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “Ghost in the Garden – Dark Montgomery Pt. 1.” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 18 Sept. 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • September 4 · 53 sec

    Temporary Delay Announcement

    Hey, everyone! Thanks for your patience during this unexpected episode delay! A few tech challenges while I upgraded my studio this summer put me a few weeks behind. But this little announcement proves that I’m back up and running, so we’ll continue our Literary Tourism journey very soon, and I’ll likely drop a few episodes closer together to make up for our lost late summer. Next we dig into author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s own life to see how our little Anne of Green Gables may have mirrored it! Spoiler: We’re calling these next two episodes “Dark Montgomery.” Thanks again for your support and patience. I’ll be back soon! === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

  • August 8 · 31 min

    Building Fantasies

    How does the map overwrite the physical territory it claims to represent? Today we look at literary simulations, from the bedroom of Victor Hugo to the Orlando welter of parks and rides. Guided by the semiotics of Umberto Eco, the simulation theory of Jean Baudrillard, and the urban critiques of Sam Jacob, we investigate the social construction of experience environments and what creates our preference for them over the raw experience. Resources: Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation, 1994. Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project, 1999. Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality: Essays, 1986. Jacob, Sam. “Vriesendorp Syndrome.” Perspecta 41: Grand Tour, 2008. MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2021. Melton, Jeffrey Alan. “Keeping the Faith: Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad.” South Atlantic Review, 1996. Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, 1917. Montgomery, L. M. The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery, 1985-2004. Twain, Mark. Roughing It. American Publishing Company, 1872. Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. Columbia University Press, 1990 Episode 7.08 – Building Fantasies Glossary The Absolute Fake: An engineered, hyperreal reproduction or simulation that seeks to completely replace reality, offering a polish that works to eliminate the traveler’s desire for the messy or difficult original. Touristic Faith: The psychological suspension of disbelief where travelers willingly dismiss their own skepticism and actively collude with the tourist industry to pretend they are gaining an “authentic” experience. Vriesendorp Syndrome: The construction of spaces where the sheer number and juxtaposition of cheap, mass-produced replicas separates our idea of place from its physical reality, turning place into a frictionless, standardized “flavor.” Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When we look at a clean replica or model, what do our minds do to judge it more informative than a weathered original? How does the metaphor of a map “generating” a territory change how we think about our expectations for a space? When we observe a reflection or a photo of a landscape, how does that visual frame change our view of the physical environment behind it? In what ways do curated soundscapes, scents, and climate controls shape our willingness to accept an artificial room as a valid space? How does remembering a past journey alter what we experienced in the physical moment? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Author Footprints – PDF Mapping Dreams – PDF Building Fantasies – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Leaving the Road Behind 06:49 Intro Theme 07:25 All the Flavors 17:49 Lake Tahoe on Fire 22:46 Pilgrim Exercises Pt 5 24:31 Montgomery’s Lost Island 30:17 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-08-building-fantasies New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.08 Building Fantasies. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 07 August 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • August 2 · 38 min

    Mapping Dreams

    How do we navigate the space between the curated tourism experience and the raw concrete of the world beneath it? We investigate the “imaginative geographies” we project onto other lands, examining how Italo Calvino’s semiotic cities, Arthur Conan Doyle’s romanticized London, and Mathieu Kassovitz’s brutalist Paris reveal the ethical tensions of the traveler’s gaze. We look into our habit of cropping out infrastructure and ask whether reading the raw city makes us better travelers or something worse. Bloomsday in Dublin and Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital are also considered. Resources: Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities, 1974. Doyle, Arthur Conan. “A Study in Scarlet,” 1930. Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, 1989. Joyce, James. Ulysses, 1922. Kassovitz, Mathieu, director. La Haine, 1995. Said, Edward W. Orientalism, 1978. Sinclair, Iain, and Chris Petit, directors. London Orbital, 2002. Sinclair, Iain. London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25, 2002. Episode 7.07 – Mapping Dreams Glossary Imaginative Geography: The thought process, according to Edward Said, where we build a mental conception of a foreign landscape through literature, art, and personal or cultural desire long before we physically arrive, pre-determining and replacing the actual physical geography with a commodified myth. See Edward Said’s Orientalism, 1978. Staged Authenticity: The socio-spatial phenomenon where tourism operators construct aesthetically controlled “front stages” (such as curated landmarks or replica villages) to satisfy the consumer/tourist’s desire for an authentic encounter, even while actively concealing the “back-stage” realities of local labor, economic extraction, and physical infrastructure. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you crop a travel photograph to remove a power line, parking lot, or trash can, what reality are you trying to erase? How does Sherlock Holmes’s cocaine addiction or Leopold Bloom’s alienation ruin the versions of London and Dublin sold by tourism? How has Edward Said’s “imaginative geography” worked on your travel expectations in the past? Do you watch fictional films or read books about urban decay or poverty? For what reasons? Which of the two Calvino cities featured most resonate with you, Tamara or Zaira? Why? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Author Footprints – PDF Mapping Dreams – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 PEI and Tamara 04:26 Intro Theme 05:03 My PEI Failures 13:49 The Unhandy Embrace 20:51 Some Skeptical Exercises (Pt 4) 23:37 Zaira and Hard Spaces 36:45 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-07-mapping-dreams New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.07 Mapping Dreams. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 31 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • July 25 · 33 min

    Author Footprints Pt. 2 – The Aracataca Paradox

    What happens to a real, working community when a fictional landscape is physically constructed on top of it? We discover the socio-economic friction behind literary travel, contrasting the magical ideals of Gabriel García Márquez’s Macondo with the unpaved streets of Aracataca, Colombia. Behind the “front stage” of tourist attractions are bulldozers, evictions, and even a violent army. We learn about the history of PEI National Park expropriations, the 1928 Banana Massacre, and how to critically read tourist destinations beyond the gift shop facade. Resources: García Márquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967. Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space, 1991. Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Avonlea, 1909. Montgomery, L. M. The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery, Volume V: 1935–1942, 2004. Steele, Fiona, host. “Painting the Gables ‘Green’.” The Hidden Island, Season 3, Episode 5, 12 Sept 2022. Episode 7.06 – Author Footprints Pt. 2 – The Aracataca Paradox Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you encounter a perfectly preserved historical landmark, what omissions or missing community details must you ignore to maintain your feeling of nostalgia? How does the presence of a corporate licensing agreement or trademark boundary alter an author’s legacy? When local residents invent fictional anecdotes or point to fake historical spots for visiting pilgrims, who is truly controlling the performance of the tourist site? In what ways does buying a mass-produced souvenir act as a buffer against the uncomfortable economic disparities of the places we visit? If every tourist destination is a manufactured “front stage,” what active choices can a wayfarer make to step off the guided path and read the real location? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Author Footprints – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 A Quick Review 00:38 A Broader Context 00:03 Intro Theme 03:52 The Magic and the Austerity 09:19 Plenty of Masks to Go Around 21:51 The Earth Paved Over 32:09 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-06-author-footprints-pt-2 New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.06 Author Footprints Pt. 2 – The Aracataca Paradox. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 24 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • July 17 · 31 min

    Author Footprints Pt. 1 – Aura & Reliquary

    Why do we drive thousands of miles just to touch the wooden beams of an author’s birthplace? From Poe’s Baltimore to PEI and Waywords’s own Waterford, MI, we consider what it takes to build a literary destination and how this works to undermine the very real need for we travelers to cross the threshold from the literary into the physical. Is there a way to thwart the hucksters of simulations? Perhaps! Resources: Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space, 1969. Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 1969. MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2024. Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, 1917. Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values, 1990 Episode 7.05 – Author Footprints Pt. 1 – Aura & Reliquary Glossary: Topophilia: The real and physical human desire to meet authentic space and map our emotions onto the physical earth. Heterotopia: A specially-created “other space” or place of difference that exists wholly outside of ordinary daily life. In the context of literary tourism, an arranged, static attraction designed that offers the idea of a flawless, isolated world in contrast to our own. Aura: The unique, irreplaceable physical presence and authority of an original work/art that is weakened by mass reproduction. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you feel a sudden wave of awe while standing inside a historical building, are you emotionally connecting to the long-dead occupant, or are you reacting to the architectural cues—the lighting, the placards, the quiet—designed to trigger a posture of reverence? Consider the threshold of a museum’s velvet rope: how does the act of cordoning off a mundane everyday item (like an author’s writing desk or an antique bookcase) alter your perception of its value compared to an identical item sitting in a thrift store? If our internal imagination requires us to ground ourselves in physical landmarks to feel a text’s “authenticity,” what does that suggest about the limitations of our minds to hold abstract ideas without a concrete, material anchor? Reflect on the psychological role of the gift shop at the end of an historic tour: how does buying a plastic replica or a themed postcard serve as a physical mechanism for our emotions? Think about your own home or neighborhood using the metaphor of a flawless diorama: what details, chores, or structural flaws would you have to entirely censor or rope off to make your daily space look like an arranged attraction for an outside visitor? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Author Footprints – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Genuine Impulse 07:29 Intro Theme 08:06 Blueprint of a Shrine 18:19 Simulating Simulations 23:05 The Decay of Aura 30:00 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-05-author-footprints-pt-1 New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.05 Author Footprints Pt 1 – Aura & Reliquary. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 17 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • July 10 · 31 min

    Packing Lists Pt. 2 – Stalwart Women

    Who carries the weight of our leisure? Some readings from the past by thoughtful and resilient women! Take in some early writing of place and circumstance, journals and reflections which reflect the jarring collisions between our travel expectations and the realities we meet. More, we learn that an adaptable attitude and skeptical eye are essential tools. Readings from: Dorothy Wordsworth – “The Highland Hut” from Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, A.D. 1803 Mary Seacole – Chapter III from Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, 1857 Sei Shōnagon – “182. The House Had a Spacious Courtyard,” from The Pillow Book, c. 1002 Episode 7.04 – Packing Lists Pt. 2 – Stalwart Women Other Resources: MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2024. Glossary: Compartmentalized World: A theoretical concept from Frantz Fanon which describes how the colonial world is divided into two distinct species: the wealthy, secure sector of the colonizer and the impoverished, exploited sector of the colonized. In the context of travel, we ask who is permitted to move safely through a space, and who is forced to serve as manual labor, landscape, or a prop for the comfort of others. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you examine your expectations which you pack for a highly anticipated trip, what do they suggest about the kind of difficulties or travel challenges you most dislike? Consider the physical metaphor of a curtain: if your travel planning and packing keep the “raw” destination apart from you, what boundaries have you created between your leisure and local survival? From Dorothy Wordsworth’s smoky chimney-corner to a modern climate-controlled resort lounge, how has our idea of safety changed and why? Consider when a text presents you with an offensive historical slur or an ugly, uncomfortable truth: does that sudden friction cause you to see the history more clearly or does your mind want to censor and buffer that discomfort away? If “roughing it” or traveling “close to the ground” is also a stylized, performative lifestyle choice, what signals do we project to those who observe us? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Where We’ve Been 01:20 Stalwart Women 03:02 Intro Theme 03:38 Dorothy Wordsworth: “The Highland Hut” 08:07 Mary Seacole: The Chaos of Cruces 22:02 Sei Shonagon: “The Exorcism” 28:39 Sovereign but Skeptical 29:45 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-04-packing-lists-pt-2/ New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.04: Packing Lists Pt. 2 – Stalwart Women,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 10 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • July 3 · 29 min

    Packing Lists Pt. 1: Dreams and Dirt

    Did your horse throw ya, buddy? We investigate what we hope to achieve by literary travel . . . and why our packing cannot prepare us for it! While the global tourism industry spends billions to shape our eager expectations, what is it that we’re actually so anxious to see? And whatever it is, how likely are we to find it? In this first of two parts, we ask if what we pack in anticipation is to better guarantee our success or to ward us from disappointment. As an example, we read an excerpt from Isabella Bird’s 1879 travelogue, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. And we hear from philosopher/critics Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger along the way. Will we find an answer? Maybe not, but we will be better prepared to understand the questions. Episode 7.03 – Packing Lists Pt. 1: Dreams and Dirt Readings & Resources: Bird, Isabella L. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. 1879. Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career. 1917. Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. 1999. MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2024. Glossary: The Broken Tool (Zuhandenheit): Martin Heidegger’s term explaining how we remain unconscious of our protective equipment and infrastructure—our constructed “World”—until the moment it fails us, forcing a sudden encounter with raw nature, or the “Earth.” The Comfort Trap: A psychological defense mechanism in which a reader or traveler seeks “comfort,” “tidiness,” or “closure” to avoid intellectual or moral discomfort. We passively accept a safe, frictionless experience—or a text’s status quo—specifically to avoid confronting nuance or complication in a situation and one’s own possible complicity in it. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you look at the very bottom of your daily commuter bag or travel pack, what do you discover that you find most intolerable? Consider the physical metaphor of a “portable fortress.” How accurate is this to describe your approach to travel? In tracking the transition from a 19th-century carpetbag to a modern multi-compartment backpack, what has changed in our definition of what an adventure is supposed to feel like? Think about when some gear or device failed you. How did you respond: the “stripped gear in the brain?” Or did you see the physical earth more clearly? Why? In our travel behavior and packing lists, who are we performing for? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges: The Grand Tour – PDF Packing Lists – PDF Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Infrastructure of Dreams 05:22 Intro Theme 05:58 Industrialized Travel 13:57 Isabella Bird & the “Ill-Found” Expedition 22:50 Skeptical Pilgrim Exercises: Counter-weights 28:11 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-03-Packing-Lists-1 New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.03: Packing Lists Pt. 1 – Dreams and Dirt,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 3 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • June 26 · 29 min

    Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road

    What’s the difference between being a passive tourist and a wayfarer? Follow the 17th-century footsteps of Matsuo Basho to interrogate the gap between curated tourist destinations and the open-ended, ego-stripping realities of true travel. By contrasting the lush, internal landscapes of L.M. Montgomery with the skeletal prose of classical Japanese travel sketches, we ask: Can we ever truly encounter a sovereign landscape, or do our books merely wrap the earth in a comforting postcard illusion? Along the way, we look at the haiku in its haibun form and use Martin Heidegger’s classic distinction between ‘Earth’ and ‘World.’ Can Basho’s haiku lessons rescue us from our egos. Maybe, but 400 years later, other writers have their own responses to him! Episode 7.02 – Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road Readings & Resources: Bashō, Matsuo. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa. Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career. 1917. Montgomery, L. M. The Blue Castle. 1926. Downer, Lesley. On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan, 1989 Flanagan, Richard. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Knopf, 2014. Goldberg, Natalie. Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, 2020. Merton, Thomas. The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, 1973. Glossary: Wayfaring: A mode of travel in which the journey itself becomes the destination and concept of home, characterized by a constant, open-ended wandering rather than arriving at a fixed point. Haibun: A traditional Japanese literary form that intricately blends prose and haiku poetry so that the two distinct modes of writing interact and illuminate each other. Noncompletion: An ongoing, unresolved state of existing “between” spaces or ideas, embraced by the wayfarer as the permanent, true condition of a journey that has no final destination. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you observe a natural setting, how have books influenced your conception of it? Consider the difference between a destination that promises modern amenities and an open-ended un-curated route with no final stop: how does the presence or absence of structural comforts affect your attitude? In tracking your own neighborhood’s daily life, how might an ordinary object to become a site of specific poetic meaning rather than clutter? How does treading a travel guide affect your ability to sit with the silent, un-responding aspects of a foreign town? If you strip your travel history of its status landmarks and souvenirs, what remains? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges 1: The Grand Tour – PDF Download Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Where We’ve Been 01:12 Field Notes and the East 07:20 Intro Theme 07:55 Wayfaring and The Bat 15:26 Earth vs World in the Haibun 23:41 Reversing the Narrow Road 28:11 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-02-Grand-Tours-2 New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.02: Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 26 June 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

  • June 20 · 34 min

    Grand Tours Pt 1: The Postcard Illusion

    Are we consuming an authentic place, or are we willingly participating in a beautifully staged performance designed around our own expectations? In this opening episode of Journey 7, we begin our exploration of literary tourism. When we travel to the places that inspired our favorite books, whose landscape are we actually stepping into? Today. we cross the eight-mile concrete expanse onto Prince Edward Island to investigate the massive, multi-million dollar infrastructure designed to capitalize on Anne of Green Gables. Along the way, we unpack our collective urge to buy raspberry cordials and straw hats. Along the way, we discover the strange history of the historical Grand Tour, and we investigate the “tourist gaze” and how the global tourism industry packages our favorite books into easily consumed souvenirs. If you love travelogues, literary history, or exploring the real-world histories behind famous books like Anne of Green Gables, this episode will challenge the way we view our next vacation destination. Episode 7.01 – Grand Tours Pt 1: The Postcard Illusion Readings & Resources: Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. 1908 Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of the Island. 1915 Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne’s House of Dreams. 1917 Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery. Edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Story Girl. 1911 MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel. Routledge, 2024 Glossary: Grand Tour: A traditional, multi-year journey across continental Europe that served as a mandatory educational rite of passage for upper-class, wealthy young men from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries. Officially intended to complete a gentleman’s classical education by exposing him to the art, architecture, and polite society of the Old World, it also provided a socially acceptable escape from parental control to pursue worldly pleasures and construct an elite “martial masculinity.” Tourist Gaze: How travelers view and consume a destination, shaped by what guidebooks and the tourism industry have conditioned them to expect to see. Skeptical Pilgrim: A traveler who deeply loves a literary work or historical destination but adopts a critical, questioning posture, refusing to passively accept the fictionalized, manufactured reality that a tourist destination attempts to sell them. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you select a specific souvenir from a location, how does that physical object alter or secure the memory of the real space you left behind? Consider the texts you choose to read versus the places you choose to visit; what makes a comforting historical fiction preferable to a reality of contemporary labor? In analyzing your own home, what is the process of selection behind the display pieces on your shelves, and how do they perform an identity for visitors? How does the presence of a guidebook or a digital travel route affect your ability to notice the un-curated, raw elements of a new place? If you map your immediate neighborhood purely through your senses rather than visual landmarks, how does that shift your understanding of who owns and occupies that space? Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges 1: The Grand Tour – PDF Download Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Field Notes & Trailhead 0:00:0.000000 05:35 Intro Theme 06:11 Montgomery and Two Worlds 10:53 The Grand Tour and the Invention of the Gaze 17:57 Tourist Gazing 25:40 Skeptic Pilgrim Challenges 28:28 Screens and Modern Escapes 32:54 Closing Credits === Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-01-Grand-Tours-1 New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.01: Grand Tours Pt 1: The Postcard Illusion,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 19 June 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • June 5 · 4 min

    Literary Tourism Trailer

    Welcome to the summer trailhead! Join Journey 7 of Literary Nomads as we explore the secrets of literary tourism and travel writing. Discover how authors like L.M. Montgomery constructed the identity of Prince Edward Island, unpack the cultural legacy of Anne of Green Gables, and learn how to look past the postcard illusions of modern historic landmarks. Episode 7.00 – Literary Tourism Trailer : Anne of Green Gables Reading Highlights Ahead: Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Anne of Green Gables Series, personal Journals, The Haunted Wood, The Alpine Path, Among the Shadows Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (“The Highland Hut”) by Dorothy Wordsworth Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (“The Chaos of Cruces”) by Mary Seacole A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (“The ‘Ill-Found’ Expedition,” by Isabella Bird “The Exorcism” by Sei Shōnagon To the River by Olivia Laing Gabriel García Márquez’s Aracataca / Macondo texts “The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia Woolf Indigenous Australian Songlines (e.g., the Seven Sisters myth) Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges English Eccentrics by Edith Sitwell Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Trailer === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-00-literary-tourism New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “7.00: Literary Tourism Trailer” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 5 June 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • May 29 · 39 min

    Nomadic Departures

    We are left on the precipice of a severe, unavoidable aporia: when the Empire can absorb and commercialize our very language of protest, the only true ethical act of agency is to stop performing the script, reject the easy answer, and step directly out into the unimaginable dark . We challenge the profound hypocrisy of our own reading habits, and confront the uncomfortable idea that our graduate seminars, book clubs, and elite cultural critiques often function as a highly managed form of otium—a beautifully curated performative space that we purchase with company-backed grants to feel virtuous while leaving our agency for change behind. Consider the collision between Le Guin’s unmapped wilderness, Mark Fisher's capitalist realism, Roger Waters' scathing critique of economic indifference in "Us and Them," and Ivan Karamazov's terrifying refusal to accept a universe founded on unavenged tears: we wrestle with the limits of systemic tolerance and our only steps forward. Episode 6.37 - Nomadic Departures Readings & Resources: Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov, 1879. Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? 2009. Gainsborough, Thomas. Mr and Mrs Andrews. c. 1750, oil on canvas. James, William. "The Will to Believe." The New World, 1896. Le Guin, Ursula K. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Harper & Row, 1975, pp. 275-284. Pink Floyd. The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973. Popper, Karl. The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945. Glossary: Aporia: A state of being deadlocked in an unresolvable contradiction or paradox where we can go no further in our knowing. It is often a productive, discomfiting space of uncertainty that forces an individual to make a choice, interpret, and step forward without the comfort of easy answers or absolute truths. Capitalist Realism - The stifling, pervasive illusion that the current capitalist economic system is the only practical, applicable order in the world and is therefore entirely inescapable . It acts as a neutralizing force that absorbs attempts at resistance by convincing people that imagining viable alternatives is impossible, romantic, or overly dramatic. Follow-up Reading: Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Transactional Morality - An ethical framework rooted in the logic of economics, where moral choices are based entirely on the utility of exchange and trade-offs. Critiqued heavily by thinkers like Georges Bataille, this mindset operates on the assumption that every action, suffering, or sacrifice must be made in exchange for some advantage, effectively commodifying human relationships . The Willing Victim - A profound moral paradox wherein a scapegoat voluntarily consents to their own suffering in order for the larger society or "edifice" to prosper. Such consent shatters straightforward moral outrage, complicating the ethics of resistance by forcing onlookers to question whether rejecting such a system is a genuine act of rebellion or an act of moral cowardice that ignores the victim's agency. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you engage in a passionate debate about political or literary theory, are you genuinely trying to cause a local disruption, or are you just running a competitive performance to elevate your own cultural status? Look at the daily economic suffering, homelessness, or systemic extraction happening at your neighborhood borders . Do you quickly sanitize that reality by telling yourself "there's only so much one ordinary person can do?" How has your regular leisure time (otium) or your personal reading routine been subtly gamified or turned into a data point by online platforms to ensure you stay productive 24/7? Think about the local first responders, teachers, or high-risk laborers who routinely absorb physical, mental, and economic precarity to keep your community stable . Does their "voluntary sacrifice" clear your conscience, or does it heighten your structural accountability? What is the precise moral principle or systemic threshold that would finally force you to drop your unearned luxuries, reject your lifestyle, and walk completely away from a toxic compromise? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 A Little Drama 02:05 Intro Theme 02:42 Victims, Objects, Predators 08:23 The Global Basement 16:47 The Baggage We Carry: Maya 22:33 The Ultimate Aporia 30:22 Manipulations: Finn 38:02 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-37-nomadic-departures New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.37: Nomadic Departures,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 29 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • May 22 · 38 min

    What I Get Wrong: Intimidation & Interpretation

    Is our intellectual exercise just an expensive lifestyle brand that keeps our hands clean? In this raw, self-interrogating mailbag episode, we turn the lens inward for a vulnerability audit of our own political battles and pedagogical failures. Let's try and bridge the gap between literary theory and civic praxis, how public school teachers, students, and lifelong readers can navigate the intimidation of administrative bureaucracy, fight censorship, and reclaim accountability. Let's get past passive book consumption and embrace "Writing Back" to structurally alter our local communities. Episode 6.36 - What I Get Wrong: Intimidation & Interpretation Readings & Resources: Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970. Giroux, Henry A. Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition, 1983. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When we use academic language or literary analysis to describe a social injustice, does that lead to eventual action or as insulation or safety from responsibility to act? Why are we so obsessed with making every book or public issue "relatable" to our own personal lives? How might relatability cause us to miss the writer's message? Think about a time you noticed a business or organization involved in sketchy or unlawful behavior. Did the sheer size of the bureaucracy intimidate you into staying silent? Why does it feel so terrifying to admit an intellectual error or show people a real-world project where you failed? Why do we think hiding our mistakes makes us look more qualified? If you had to stop just talking about this season's ideas and actually go disrupt a local system this week, which specific "space of authority" would you have to walk into? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Praxis of Complicity 09:24 Intro Theme 09:59 Messy Dialogues: Our Mailbag 11:12 -Ben: Escapist Privilege 14:10 -Aakash: Measuring Otium 18:13 -Jim: Just Mirrors 21:45 -Sarah: Empathy Trouble 24:46 -Kendall & NLH: Fear of Disruption 30:04 What I Get Wrong 37:27 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-36-what-i-get-wrong New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.36: What I Get Wrong: Intimidation & Interpretation,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 22 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • May 16 · 35 min

    Writing Back: Guerilla Texts, BTS, and Gaye

    Is that blank page paralyzing your activism? Is your irony a mask for your complicity? We’re using William James and David Foster Wallace to interrogate the "sneer trap" of modern irony. From Marvin Gaye’s soulful protests to BTS’s radical solidarity after the Sewol Ferry tragedy, we consider how "New Sincerity" and "Guerilla Texts" can unsettle the status quo and physically alter the world. Episode 6.35 - Writing Back: Guerilla Texts, BTS, and Gaye Readings & Resources: Gaye, Marvin. "What's Going On." What's Going On, 1971. BTS. "Spring Day." You Never Walk Alone, 2017. YouTube, https://youtu.be/xEeFrLSkMm8. James, William. "Is Life Worth Living?" The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, 1897. Wallace, David Foster. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction." Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993. Hesse, Hermann. Demian, 1919. Some Key Terms from this episode: Precursive Faith: The pragmatic belief that the very act of speaking out helps create the reality of that change New Sincerity: A subversive posture of absolute, vulnerable earnestness that rejects the irony weaponized by our modern media economy. Guerilla Text: An improvisational, unsanctioned piece of public writing that operates outside the status quo Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Nature of the Blank Page: When you think about speaking out against injustice, does the desire for a "guarantee of success" act as a barrier to your first step or as a tool for planning? The Armor of Irony: Thinking about your most recent social media posts or public opinions, how often have you used irony as a kind of armor? The Process of Sincerity: How does the chance of being labeled "cringe" for an honest belief influence the way you choose to share your thoughts in public spaces? The Texture of Solidarity: If Le Guin’s "walking away" is re-storied as a group action rather than a lonely departure, how does that shift the perceived cost of leaving? The Logic of Occupation: When you use the "Emperor’s tools"—like social media platforms—to voice a protest, are you participating in the system or engaging in a "tactical occupation" of the space? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Blank Page and Precursive Faith 07:27 Intro Theme 08:05 World Alterations 10:45 Anti-Rebels and New Sincerity 15:54 Earnest Pleas from Marvin Gaye 20:55 The Sewol Ferry Tragedy: BTS 29:06 Guerilla Texts 34:34 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-35-guerilla-texts-bts New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.35: Writing Back: Guerilla Texts & BTS,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 15 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • May 11 · 38 min

    The Ethics of Reading: Frictional Thoughts

    Is your reading just an "escape"?? Your favorite "escape" read might be a gated community for your conscience. Today, we interrogate the "Catharsis Commodity" and ask if our reading habits are just another layer of the Hideous Bargain. Explore the ethics of reading and the "Empathy Trap" in this look at the arguments of Suzanne Keen and Louise Rosenblatt. We expand the "Hideous Bargain" to include the very act of consuming this podcast and the literature it discusses. We ask if we are truly "walking away" from the bargain, or if we are merely co-authoring the child’s abuse through passive, frictionless consumption. Episode 6.34 - The Ethics of Reading: Frictional Thoughts Readings & Resources: Felski, Rita. The Limits of Critique, 2015. Keen, Suzanne. Empathy and the Novel, 2007. Nussbaum, Martha C. Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature, 1992. Rosenblatt, Louise M. The Reader, The Text, The Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work, 1978. Achebe, Chinua. Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1989. Kutz, Eleanor, and Hephzibah Roskelly. An Unquiet Pedagogy: Transforming Practice in the English Classroom, 1991. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. Writers in Politics: Essays, 1981. Suvin, Darko. "Estrangement and Cognition." Strange Horizons, 2014. https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/estrangement-and-cognition/ Some Key Terms from this episode: Cognitive Estrangement: Intellectualizing emotional experience using new or unfamiliar concepts to force readers to critically examine and make connections to their lived reality. Unquiet Pedagogy: An educational philosophy and practice that deliberately disrupts reader comfort by compelling learners to engage difference and to recognize the non-neutral nature of their learning. Transaction (Aesthetic Transaction): For Rosenblatt, the messy, active dialogue between the reader and the text where meaning is not passively received, but frictionally constructed by the reader. Frictional Reading: From Steve Chisnell, the act of slowing our reading to examine difference, to consider significance, and to carry that meaning-making to the larger world. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Nature of the Escape: When you reach for a book to "hide from the world," what specific "outside" noise or responsibility are you most afraid will follow you into the garden? The Transaction of Tears: If you could no longer use a character’s suffering as a "pressure-release valve" for your own emotions, how would your choice of what to read change? The Cognitive Friction: Why does the prospect of "not thinking"—even for a moment during a leisure activity—feel like a luxury rather than a surrender of your humanity? The Path to Praxis: If the energy from your next "frictional" read had to be used to "Write Back" to the world, what is the first letter, essay, or conversation you would be compelled to start? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Walled Garden of Consumption 08:28 Intro Theme 09:05 The Empathy Trap 19:14 Empathy Traps Undone 22:44 Social Action? 27:04 Educators and Narrative Complicity 32:18 Civic Acts 37:15 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-34-ethics-of-reading New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.34: The Ethics of Reading: Frictional Thoughts,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 8 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • May 1 · 43 min

    Roman Plow, Sovereign Tree: Seneca and Zhuangzi

    Can Stoicism answer our dilemma? Is the suffering child a product of a world that demands every second and every soul be "useful" to the state? By comparing the "Roman Plow" of duty to the "Sovereign Tree" of uselessness, we ask if our participation in the "Achievement Society" is actually what pays for global injustice and inequity. Compare Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life with the Zhuangzi in this reflection on Stoicism vs. Daoism. Learn why "uselessness" is a survival strategy against the "Extraction Economy" and how Cincinnatus’s Roman Plow creates a utilitarian trap. Oh, and how The Expendables does, too. Episode 6.33 - Roman Plow, Sovereign Tree: Seneca and Zhuangzi Readings & Resources: Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. "On the Shortness of Life." Gareth Williams, trans., 2003. Zhuangzi. The Zhuangzi. Martin Palmer et. al., trans. 2020. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Officiis (On Duties). Walter Miller, trans., 1913. Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society. Stanford University Press, 2015. Levinas, Emmanuel. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. Translated by Alphonso Lingis, Duquesne University Press, 1969. Some Key Terms from this episode: Otium honestum: "Honest Leisure." Tactical rest that must still serve the state—for Cicero, a productive leisure Wuwei: (woo-way) - "Actionless action" that uses radical uselessness as a survival strategy against the empire. Budeyi: (boo-day-yee) - Acting only when compelled by necessity, without ego or the desire to "fix" the world. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Price of Being Useful: If you were only valued for what you could do for your community, what parts of your "inner calm" would you have to sacrifice? The Survival of the Gnarled: Zhuangzi’s tree survives because it is too twisted to be turned into a boat or a coffin. What "useless" traits have protected you from being used by others? The Chisel of Kindness: The emperors killed Hundun by trying to give him a "normal" face. Where have we tried to "fix" someone else’s life using our own standards, only to realize we were ignoring who they actually were? The Stolen Leisure: Seneca says we don’t have a short life, we just waste a lot of it. In a world where even our relaxation is "bought and sold," how do you find time that truly belongs to you?. The Fluid Response: If you stopped acting out of "duty" and started acting out of "fluid response," would you still work to end injustice? How differently? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Beach, The Ships, The Trap of Time 08:42 Intro Theme 09:18 Seneca: "On the Shortness of Life" 15:14 Negotium and Utilitarian Traps 23:30 The Garden Wrecker: Zhuangzi 31:44 The Emperor's Chisel 37:47 I'll Exploit Myself, Thank You 41:45 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-33-seneca-and-zhuangzi New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.33: Roman Plow, Sovereign Tree: Seneca and Zhuangzi,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 1 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • April 21 · 46 min

    The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man

    And when the child cannot speak for itself? Humanity's first global lawsuit! In this 10th-century Islamic fable, animals put mankind on trial for the crimes of the extraction economy. We unsettle the habitus of human exceptionalism to ask: would we change the story's ending because we couldn't handle our own complicity? Discover the original Omelas in "The Case of the Animals versus Man." It's early Iraq and modern ethics, Peter Singer’s speciesism, Haraway’s companion species, and the colonizing "thingification" of nature. Was Le Guin's story about animal rights? Or, are animal rights linked to our ideological privileging and moral shame? Episode 6.32 - The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man Readings & Resources: Ikhwān al-Safā' - "The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn" (Classical Astrologer pdf) (10th century) Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Word for World Is Forest (1972) Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) Le Guin, Ursula K. - "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow," The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) Achebe, Chinua - Hopes and Impediments (1989) Aristotle - Politics, Book 1 (~330 BCE) Bacon, Francis - The New Organon (1620) Cavarero, Adriana - Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence (2009) Césaire, Aimé - Discourse on Colonialism (1950) Derrida, Jacques - The Animal That Therefore I Am (2008) Fanon, Frantz - The Wretched of the Earth (1961) Haraway, Donna - The Companion Species Manifesto (2003) Singer, Peter - Practical Ethics (1979) Some Key Terms from this episode: Speciesism: Systematic discrimination against an "other" based solely on the generic characteristic of their species. Follow-up Reading: Peter Singer, Practical Ethics. Thingification: The psychological and economic process of conditioning an oppressor to see a living, feeling being as a mere inanimate object that exists solely for utility. Follow-up Reading: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. L'inerme (The Defenseless): The completely unarmed, helpless being attacked with deliberate violence. Follow-up Reading: Adriana Cavarero, Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Evidence of Excellence: The humans in the trial list their architecture, sciences, and religions as proof that they "own" the world. If you were the judge, would you see these accomplishments as evidence of human greatness, or simply as a list of things we’ve built using stolen materials? The Purpose of Pain: We often tell ourselves that animals (or even other people) don't really "feel" their suffering because they aren't smart enough to understand it. When we tell ourselves that someone is "too ignorant to know real joy," are we describing their reality, or are we just making ourselves feel better about the bargain we've made? The Master’s Logic: In the episode, we look at Aristotle's idea that "the lower is for the sake of the higher." If you truly believed that your comfort was the highest purpose of the natural world, what part of your own empathy would you have to switch off to keep living that way? The Power of the Silence: The original story ends not with a victory for humans, but with a saint who recognizes the value of all worthy thought. Why is it so much harder for us to accept an ending where no one is "the boss" than one where we are clearly the winners? The Hidden Price: If you found out that the "mathematically infallible happiness" of your city required you to ignore the cries of the things that feed and clothe you, would you try to change the system, or would you try to erase those cries from your mind so you could keep enjoying the peace? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Trials and Tribulations 02:52 Intro Theme 03:28 10th Century Courtrooms 17:04 Bacon, Extraction Economies, and the Voices of L'inerme 26:49 Speciesism, Le Guin, and Peter Singer 33:57 19th Century Crimes 41:48 Synthesis & Superiority 45:13 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/original-omelas-case-animals-vs-man New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.32: The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 18 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • April 14 · 37 min

    The Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain

    We've turned the basement into a casino! A man who turns to fortune-telling to assuage his conscience. A society that chooses its victims through a lottery. Does "mathematical fairness" absolve the citizens of Omelas, or does it simply creates a more sophisticated illusion of justice? Today it's the dark philosophy of Jorge Luis Borges’s "The Lottery in Babylon" and Machado de Assis’s "The Fortune-Teller." How do we use fate, destiny, and algorithms to justify systemic inequality and sacrifice, unsettling our modern reliance on "chance" to explain the suffering of others? Episode 6.31 - Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain Readings & Resources: Assis, Machado de. "The Fortune-Teller" ("A Cartomante"). Gazeta de Notícias, (1884). [Waywords PDF] Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Lottery in Babylon" ("La lotería en Babilonia"), (1941). [Internet Archive PDF] Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963). Bataille, Georges. On Nietzsche, (1944). Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice, (1971). Some Key Terms from this episode: Capitalist Realism - The internalization of an exploitative system—such as Babylon's lethal lottery or modern economic structures—so completely that citizens cannot even imagine a viable alternative reality. Democratic Scapegoat - Definition: The process of sanitizing our guilt by mathematically equalizing the probability of suffering across everyone, masking deliberate, systemic violence as a fair game of chance. Will to Chance - Radical embrace of the absolute unknown that rejects utilitarian exchange, according to Bataille. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you encounter a story of someone else's "luck," does your mind look for a pattern of justice, or does it shrug at a meaningless universe? How does the process of "outsourcing" a decision to an algorithm or a coin toss change the physical sensation of responsibility in your body? In what ways does the concept of "equal opportunity" prevent us from seeing any actual human extraction suffered? If the suffering of a victim is determined by a "bad draw," does that change the moral outrage to demand a change in the system? What parts of your own daily "certainties" are actually just "bullseyes" you’ve painted around the random bullet holes of your experience? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Games of Chance 03:01 Intro Theme 03:36 Borges, Assis, Le Guin 07:45 The Failure of Reason: "The Fortune Teller" 14:20 Borges, Rawls, and the Democratic Scapegoat 25:20 Accountability 201 28:18 Institutionalized Chaos 33:08 Narrative Hypnosis 36:12 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-31-tyranny-chance-assis-borges/ New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.31: The Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 13 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

  • April 10 · 26 min

    Waypoint – “The Fortune Teller”

    10 April 2026 Waypoint - "The Fortune Teller" by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis is perhaps the greatest writer of Brazil. In “The Fortune-Teller,” a secret affair driven by anonymous threats pushes a committed skeptic toward a dingy attic and a deck of cards. It is a study in how easily we trade our reason for a comfortable prophecy, and a reminder that the future rarely negotiates with the stories we tell ourselves. As a setting for our discussion on the role of chance, fate, and destiny against moral accountability, we might find few better examples. Chapters 00:00 Waypoint Introduction 00:14 Title: "The Fortune Teller" by Machado de Assis 00:33 Reading: "The Fortune Teller" 26:01 Outro Reflection Questions: How does the physical weight of a "secret" alter the way your mind perceives the "random" events of the day? In the moment Camillo enters the fortune-teller's house, is he seeking a discovery of the future, or a sanctuary from the present? How does the "logic" of a skeptic become the primary tool for their own self-deception? If the fortune-teller "guessed" his secret, does that validate the magic, or does it simply expose the transparency of a guilty mind? When we outsource our moral outcomes to "Fate," what part of our own agency and accountability do we leave behind? https://waywordsstudio.com Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ TRANSCRIPT: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/waypoint-reading-of-the-fortune-teller Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material frequently, with deep-dive examinations of literature surrounded by smaller episodes which explore related texts, topics, and strategies for thinking. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Social Media: @WaywordsStudio YouTube: Waywords Studio CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “Reading of ‘The Fortune Teller' by Machado de Assis,’” Waywords Studio, 10 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/waypoints/.

  • April 3 · 56 min

    Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland

    The "Hideous Bargain" is no longer just about one child’s pain . . . We investigate the "Euclidean Mind" that seeks to flatten our messy humanity into a spreadsheet of "mathematically infallible happiness." Unsettle the sterile peace of the OneState and the rigid hierarchy of Flatland to ask: Is your imagination a gift, or a disease the state is currently curing?. An interrogation of the "Iron Cage" of rationality and the death of imagination in a social order of mathematical logic. We negotiate the intersection of Weberian sociology and Zamyatin’s thermodynamic dialectic—Energy vs. Entropy—to re-story the act of writing as an inherently subversive, antientropic resistance. Episode 6.30 - Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland Readings & Resources: Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884) Weber, Max. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1922) Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We (1924) Dostoevsky, Fyodor. "The Grand Inquisitor." The Brothers Karamazov (1879) (pdf) Some Key Terms from this episode: The Iron Cage - Ideological and cognitive lockdown—the endpoint of extreme rationality—where a society or individual relies solely on the safe, structured pronouncements of authority rather than independent, critical reason. See Max Weber's sociological writings on bureaucracy and rationality. Credulity vs. Credibility - An epistemological distinction about how we acquire knowledge: credulity demands blind faith in the dogma of ruling authorities (the "Circle Priests"), whereas credibility requires that beliefs and leaps of imagination be rigorously tested and anchored by reason. For the historical backdrop of this debate in Abbott's time, see Jonathan Smith, Lawrence I. Berkove, and Gerald A. Baker's "A Grammar of Dissent: Flatland, Newman, and the Theology of Probability." Entropy / Antientropic - Borrowed from thermodynamics, entropy represents the State's desire for blissful, dogmatic stasis and ideological closure. Antientropic is the vital, disruptive force of heretical, imaginative energy that true art and literature must inject into society to prevent its spiritual death. See Yevgeny Zamyatin's essay "On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters." Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When we prioritize "predictability" in our daily routines or digital feeds, what higher dimensions of experience or thought do we "flatten" out of importance? In what ways does our internal "Iron Cage" make us the principal figures in charge of our own subjugation? If "reason" is used to justify the "Great Operation" on our imaginations, does the bargain remain "rational," or has the language of logic been colonized by power? How does the act of "writing back" disrupt the thermodynamic entropy of a sterile society? If we are "Numbers" in a system that values only efficiency, what "irrational" parts of our humanity are worth preserving as heretical?. Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Certainty and Less Than 08:27 Intro Theme 09:03 The Monster "State" 15:23 The Geometry of Bigotry: Geometry 26:19 "We" and the Shattered Conduit 32:37 Glass Cities 41:08 The Treason of Writing 52:02 Aporia and . . . 55:30 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-30-failures-of-imagination-we-flatland New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what's going on here! I've got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.30: Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 3 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.

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