The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

A podcast by American Public Media

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1428 Episodes

  1. 1324: Why I Write Poetry by Major Jackson

    Published: 4/2/2025
  2. 1323: The Ways of Remembering Women by Lynne Thompson

    Published: 4/1/2025
  3. 1322: [as freedom is a breakfastfood] by E.E. Cummings

    Published: 3/31/2025
  4. 1321: The Running of Several Simulations at Once May Lead to Murky Data by Heather Christle

    Published: 3/28/2025
  5. 1320: mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton

    Published: 3/27/2025
  6. encore [902]: Morning in a City by J. Mae Barizo

    Published: 3/26/2025
  7. 1319: The Rain, Life, and Other Things by Leah Umansky

    Published: 3/25/2025
  8. 1318: Desert Sayings by Donovan McAbee

    Published: 3/24/2025
  9. 1317: Grinning in Sardinia by Tomás Q. Morín

    Published: 3/21/2025
  10. 1316: Portrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship Exam by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva

    Published: 3/20/2025
  11. encore [1224]: Here We Are by Lauren K. Watel

    Published: 3/19/2025
  12. 1315: Milestone 2 (We Laugh About the Weather, Its Permanence) by Divya Victor

    Published: 3/18/2025
  13. 1314: If we had known, by Marissa Davis

    Published: 3/17/2025
  14. 1313: A Little Slice of Heaven by Jaswinder Bolina

    Published: 3/14/2025
  15. 1312: small comment by Sonia Sanchez

    Published: 3/13/2025
  16. [encore] 1078: Ferment by Monica Rico

    Published: 3/12/2025
  17. 1311: Gratitude by Patrick Dundon

    Published: 3/11/2025
  18. 1310: Divinity School by Ariana Reines

    Published: 3/10/2025
  19. 1309: 5 A.M. by Michael Ondaatje

    Published: 3/7/2025
  20. 1308: Mother's Rules by Yalie Saweda Kamara

    Published: 3/6/2025

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Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Make us a part of your routine as you drink coffee in the morning, as you take a walk in nature, or as you wind down to go to sleep in the evening. With host Major Jackson, we collectively take a moment to calm, to inspire, to learn, and to engage with the best emerging poets and established writers of our time and generations past, from Emily Dickinson to Danez Smith, from Amanda Gorman to Mary Oliver. Listen to our back catalog for episodes by our previous hosts, Tracy K. Smith and Ada Limón, as well as guest hosts Jenny Xie, Brenda Shaughnessy, Tina Chang, Nate Marshall, Shira Erlichiman, and Jason Schneiderman. Our hosts and production team select poems that move them, and we hope they move you, too.