Explore every episode of the podcast Other People's Words

“Phenomenal Woman” was written by Maya Angelou and originally published in an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in 1978, and then in And Still I Rise, her third volume of collected poetry, later that same year. Dr. Mica Mitchell tells of how this poem helped shape her as a girl moving into womanhood and continues to inspire her today. 

It seems we need reminders from time to time about what deserves our limited time and energy. Dr. Craig Bowrun reads “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” by Wendell Berry, to help remind us to whom or what we should devote ourselves.

How do you define love? How do you describe it to someone else? Mark Joesting reads an excerpt from Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love to do just that. Some of Mark’s work can be found here. It’s wicked good.

We are living a path blindly. Sarah Troedson Haynes relates how the advice from a revered figure gave her comfort and freedom at a time in her life, much like Franz Xaver Kappus did with Rainer Maria Rilke in the early 20th century. She reads an excerpt from Letters from a Young Poet.

Have you ever been un-dragoned? Jeremy Nilson reads an excerpt from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third book in The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, in which the character of Eustace recounts how he was changed back from a dragon into a boy. Jeremy uses the tale as a parallel for his own experiences […]

The Year of Magical Thinking is a memoir from Joan Didion, describing the time after her husband passed away. She gives clear and direct words to the tangle of emotions we experience during a period of mourning. The last year or so certainly hasn’t been magical, and for far too many people, it has involved the loss […]

“One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” Versions of this quote, sometimes attributed to Joseph Stalin in 1947 or a French diplomat or German satirist in 1925, depending on who you ask, succinctly explains the numbness that the world feels at the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic, which stands at […]

Art can be visual, auditory, tactile, or kinetic. Dr. Edward Mathis tells us how a simple bike ride can be an expression of art, and reads “A Wanderer,” by Indian poet Hashim ZK. Music in this episode by Andy Wicks.

Words can take you down the same path multiple times to different destinations. Words are a time machine. In this episode, we hear from two wonderful people: Alex Oana and Chris Collin. Alex and Chris were college classmates, and he recorded her reading Margaret Atwood’s poem “Variation on the Word ‘Sleep'” as a part of his major. […]

Janna Boomstra shares a Dutch poem called “Prayer for My Children” and how it has held power and comfort for her family, even when she didn’t understand the foreign words. Music in this episode by Kai Engel via the Free Music Archive. We heard “Blur” (at 1:16) and “Waltzing in the Rye” (at 4:10). Find […]

Change, good or bad, has some element of loss. Learning how to mourn the loss and incorporate it into our experience is tricky. Jeffrey Petersen, pastor at Third Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has much experience walking with people through change and loss. He uses the words of Wendell Berry’s poem “The Slip” to talk about […]

Sometimes prayers are rituals, said at specific times and in specific ways. Sometimes they are only a word or two said in a fleeting moment.  Becca Williams is a nurse who knows about the power of prayer in those brief times when life can balance on a knife’s edge. She reads “Praying,” by Mary Oliver. […]

Welcome to Other People’s Words, a project where some of my favorite people read their favorite poems or selections of literature. I hope that this podcast exposes you to pieces you hadn’t heard before, or in ways you hadn’t considered, and that it brings you a measure of peace. Our first episode features Emily Kent reading “Above […]