1535 Episodes

  1. 1331: The Party is Downstairs by Didi Jackson

    Published: 4/11/2025

  2. 1330: Playback by Lauren Camp

    Published: 4/10/2025

  3. 1329: Mantle by Kevin Young

    Published: 4/9/2025

  4. 1328: Forge by Ethel Rackin

    Published: 4/8/2025

  5. 1327: Gertrude: In the Rooms by Kate Daniels

    Published: 4/7/2025

  6. 1326: The Slowdown Live

    Published: 4/4/2025

  7. 1325: Flame by C.D. Wright

    Published: 4/3/2025

  8. 1324: Why I Write Poetry by Major Jackson

    Published: 4/2/2025

  9. 1323: The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson

    Published: 4/1/2025

  10. 1322: [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings

    Published: 3/31/2025

  11. 1321: The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data by Heather Christle

    Published: 3/28/2025

  12. 1320: mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton

    Published: 3/27/2025

  13. encore [902]: Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo

    Published: 3/26/2025

  14. 1319: The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky

    Published: 3/25/2025

  15. 1318: Desert Sayings by Donovan McAbee

    Published: 3/24/2025

  16. 1317: Grinning in Sardinia by Tomás Q. Morín

    Published: 3/21/2025

  17. 1316: Portrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship Exam by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva

    Published: 3/20/2025

  18. encore [1224]: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel

    Published: 3/19/2025

  19. 1315: Milestone 2 (We Laugh About the Weather, Its Permanence) by Divya Victor

    Published: 3/18/2025

  20. 1314: If we had known, by Marissa Davis

    Published: 3/17/2025

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Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and the lives of others, to help us live creatively and compassionately, to use that attention to lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope — to keep hoping. The Slowdown community knows that reflecting on a poem, every weekday, can connect us to our inner world and the world around us. Listen as you make your morning coffee, as you go on a walk in your neighborhood, as you pull away from the to-do list, as you resist the dismal, endless scroll to share five minutes of perspective through the lens of poetry, from poets old and new, well-loved and emerging onto the scene. Brought to you by American Public Media, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.