Literary Nomads

Join me, Steve Chisnell, as we find and lose meaning across modern and classic tales, through ancient and distant verse, atop everything in our many cultures which might be read. For teachers, students, and lovers of reading, we will discover new paths to understanding!

Episodes

Waypoint – “The Imp of Perversity”

October 31, 2025 • 21 mins

Another Halloween treat from Poe, a reading of this lesser-known tale. And follow the podcast for some ways to think about it and "The Tell-Tale Heart"!

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Waypoint – “The Tell-Tale Heart”

October 28, 2025 • 19 mins

This story, a quintessential Poe classic, is perfect not only for its conception of the psychology of horror, but for our larger discussion in Le Guin's Journey 6.

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Literary Nomads for Teachers

October 11, 2025 • 56 mins

What is this podcast? I recommend you start here, with this introduction to Literary Nomads and get a taste of what the larger series offers!

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Literary Nomads for Students

October 3, 2025 • 45 mins

What is this podcast? I recommend you start here, with this introduction to Literary Nomads and get a taste of what the larger series offers!

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Literary Nomads for Readers

September 26, 2025 • 47 mins

What is this podcast? I recommend you start here, with this introduction to Literary Nomads and get a taste of what the larger series offers!

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Le Guin – What I Carry With Me

September 19, 2025 • 39 mins

Now that we've wrestled in and with Omelas for a bit, what questions remain for us to take forward on our journey? We're walking away from Omelas, but let's have an idea where we're going.

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Le Guin Part 5: Q&A

September 12, 2025 • 55 mins

Listeners offer their questions from narrator trust to activism to teaching controversy. I rant--or respond--back.

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Le Guin Part 4: The Ones Who Stay – N. K. Jemisin

September 5, 2025 • 70 mins

Can we pull this utopia dilemma together? Or will we add even more levels of complication?

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Le Guin Part 3: The Reader’s Labyrinth

August 30, 2025 • 41 mins

Sure, the Omelas dilemma is tough, but at least we have our narrator as ally, right? Right? Perhaps the real horror in Omelas has less to do with the child at its center.

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Le Guin 2: Architectures of Happiness

August 23, 2025 • 45 mins

Is this story really about that suffering child? Or is it more about how we wall its suffering out, then invite it back in?

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Le Guin 1: The Hideous Bargain

August 15, 2025 • 50 mins

At last we settle in to think about Le Guin's Omelas story and set aside some common approaches to it. The first of several parts.

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Gardens of Imagination – Narrative Utopias

August 8, 2025 • 35 mins

Let's niche down into a small sub-genre of fantasy and explore our desire for it, the classic utopia!

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In Defense of Fantasy

August 1, 2025 • 47 mins

Riddle: What do Beowulf, Palmolive dish liquid, and Sarah Maas have in common? Hint: Ursula K. Le Guin knows!

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Stephen King Meets Shel Silverstein: Formalism and Trope in Story

July 25, 2025 • 54 mins

What do a children's story and horror film have in common? Maybe our Suffering Child question, with very different approaches to it.

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Negotiating for Space: Compromise and Flag-Planting

July 18, 2025 • 36 mins

This is getting challenging. What are we to do with the Suffering Child question? And on which form of suffering do I plant my flag of resistance? Dostoevsky and Langston Hughes both offer clues.

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Reading: “Rebellion” from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’

July 11, 2025 • 38 mins

Still another famous writer has posed the Le Guin question, and he did it in one of Russia's most famous novels, The Brothers Karamazov. Here it is.

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Otium and The Moral Philosopher – William James

July 4, 2025 • 33 mins

Le Guin leans on an essay by William James, but what does that have to do with all our garden talk? It's about our blind spots and our privilege.

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Marvell’s Garden and Ours – Otium

June 27, 2025 • 38 mins

Speaking of links back to Andrew Marvell's poetry--weren't we?--we expose some of our misapprehensions about nature, leisure, and work. And we read Marvell's poem "The Garden" while we think green thoughts about it.

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Vaster Than Empires – Le Guin

June 20, 2025 • 48 mins

What does it mean to embrace "Other"? And how might we understand carpe diem if we truly had "world enough and time?" Le Guin shows us in her famous science fiction short story.

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Signpost – Pretty Gardens in Paint

June 13, 2025 • 52 mins

Where we've been and where we're going, and we take a pause in a museum gallery, too!

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Literary Nomads

Episodes

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.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Waypoint – “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Literary Nomads for Teachers

Literary Nomads for Students

Literary Nomads for Readers

Le Guin – What I Carry With Me

Le Guin Part 5: Q&A

Le Guin Part 4: The Ones Who Stay – N. K. Jemisin

Le Guin Part 3: The Reader’s Labyrinth

Le Guin 2: Architectures of Happiness

Le Guin 1: The Hideous Bargain

Gardens of Imagination – Narrative Utopias

In Defense of Fantasy

Stephen King Meets Shel Silverstein: Formalism and Trope in Story

Negotiating for Space: Compromise and Flag-Planting

Reading: “Rebellion” from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’

Otium and The Moral Philosopher – William James

Marvell’s Garden and Ours – Otium

Vaster Than Empires – Le Guin

Signpost – Pretty Gardens in Paint

Popular Podcasts

Waypoint – “The Imp of Perversity”

Waypoint – “The Tell-Tale Heart”