1storypod

Full ep: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Part Two in Sean and Harold's Dante series. Harold's novel Tropicalia out in paperback Tuesday: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8SjgFVO1M5/?hl=en&img_index=1

Full 2 hours: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Gabriel Smith wrote Brat, out now from Penguin. Sean Thor Conroe wrote the novel Fuccboi.

Harold rants about Sally Rooney, courage, and La Batarde by Violette Leduc (1964, Dalkey): https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Tropicalia out in paperback 6/25: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tropicalia/Harold-Rogers/9781668013885 Sean Thor Conroe wrote Fuccboi.

Stephanie LaCava wrote Superrationals (Semiotexte, 2020), I Fear My Pain Interests You (Verso, 2022), and is the founder of Small Press. Full ep: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Stephanie: https://www.instagram.com/stephanielacava/ Sean Thor Conroe wrote the novel Fuccboi: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/?hl=en Intro song by Thomas Thatcher: https://soundcloud.com/thomas55350/tryna-get-right-for-minute-prod-atm

Part one of 2.5 hour podcast with Sotce on The Jataka Tales: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Sotce is a spiritual influencer and writer and artist: https://www.instagram.com/sotce/ Sean Thor Conroe is an American writer: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/

Why is Odysseus in Hell? From Patreon Ascension Sunday ep on Dante's Inferno, Vita Nuova by Dante, Dante: Poet of the Secular World (1929) by Erich Auerbach, and The Obscene Bird of the Night (1973) by Jose Donoso. https://www.patreon.com/posts/im-like-dante-fr-104208398?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Solar eclipse eve (April 7) centennial ep with Harold on The Sound and the Fury, Madame Bovary, the Book of Samuel and the Gospels. Intro correction: Faulkner was born 1897, not 1899. Read Tropicalia, which Rivka Galchen called "Intense, tender, and wise": https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tropicalia/Harold-Rogers/9781668013878 Fuccboi: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sean-thor-conroe/fuccboi/9780316394918/ Intro song by Thomas Thatcher: https://soundcloud.com/thomas55350/tryna-get-right-for-minute-prod-atm

Full 1 hr 44 min phone pod w/ Little Tank, formerly known as Savage Chkild (cf. pp 103-107 of Fuccboi): https://www.patreon.com/posts/99-greedy-love-w-102304701?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link | Little Tank is the author, most recently, of Russian Summer. "Misanthropy comes of an all too greedy love."

Andrew Martin (Early Work, Cool For America) and Sean Thor Conroe on Mary McCarthy's 1942 novel The Company She Keeps. Video: https://youtu.be/0ZSj8HaaoK8 | Bonus hour: https://www.patreon.com/posts/company-we-keep-101792415?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link | Mary McCarthy essay: https://www.triangle.house/blog/revisit-kyra-baldwin-on-the-company-she-keeps

Zac Smith and Sean Thor Conroe discuss Zac's book Everything Is Totally Fine (Muumuu House, 2022). Video: https://youtu.be/T3fq2DNPLiM Part 2 (audio & video): https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Everything is Totally Fine: https://muumuuhouse.com/zacsmith.html Intro song: '7 years' by Thomas Thatcher: https://soundcloud.com/thomas55350/7-years?in=thomas55350/sets/my-heart-swims-in-blood&si=32b1b41b157e4dcdafc9142db452be98&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Harold Rogers and Sean Thor Conroe on Mathias Enard's novels: Zone (2008), Compass (2015), and The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers' Guild (2021). Video: https://youtu.be/cED8XUaQ_lw Part 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/gravediggers-w-100391153?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Author and Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly and Sean Thor Conroe discuss addiction, Geoff’s book Someone Who Isn’t Me (2023), recovery, and whether or not they are Hitler/the devil. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwH9454ajsg | Part 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/harsh-w-geoff-pt-99940174?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link | Someone Who Isn’t Me: https://asterismbooks.com/product/someone-who-isnt-me-geoff-rickly | Fuccboi: https://www.amazon.com/Fuccboi-Novel-Sean-Thor-Conroe/dp/0316394912 |

With art and culture writer Dean Kissick on The Map and the Territory (2010). From the evening of February 26, 2024, Houellebecq's 68th birthday (unintentionally), happy birthday Houellebecq. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US62aRuKD3E | patreon.com/1storypod

Solo walking pod to and around the pond in central park on the Gospels, Alphabetical Diaries, and The Annual Banquet of the Gravedigger's Guild. https://www.patreon.com/posts/alphabetical-2-98982729?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Ep. 91 - This Podcast is a Gun. With Liver Mush (2021) and I Have A Gun (3/2024) author Graham Irvin. FULL 2 HRS: https://www.patreon.com/posts/this-podcast-is-97758663?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Liver Mush: https://backpatiopress.bigcartel.com/product/liver-mush-by-graham-irvin-pre-order I Have A Gun (preorder): https://rejectionletters.bigcartel.com/product/i-have-a-gun-by-graham-irvin Fuccboi: https://www.amazon.com/Fuccboi-Novel-Sean-Thor-Conroe/dp/0316394912 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd0PZrscNZo Intro song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0rQ9J3JU4&list=PPSV Referenced Fosse essay: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/01/25/the-darkest-week-of-the-year-fosses-septology/

Solo walking pod along the east river on 1.21.24 at 4:44 pm. FULL HOUR: https://www.patreon.com/posts/pluto-in-solo-96947744 Pluto in Aquarius (0:00); X-R-A-Y Magazine (10:00); “Smoking a cig and day drinking in the park” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6uv7Fpo727U&t=925s (15:55); the Podcast isn’t dead / blurbs (27:22); galleys (29:00).

Literature discussion with Harold Rogers (author of Tropicalia) and Sean Thor Conroe (Fuccboi) on The Third Reich (1989) by Bolaño (00:14), St. Thomas Aquinas (7 min), Father Antonio Vieira (12 min), Katt Williams (17 min), Septology by Jon Fosse (27 min), Agora Agora (89 chapters - 31 min), The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer (33 min), and Franzen (48 min). youtube: https://youtu.be/NOCRpjBlMIo Tropicalia: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tropicalia/Harold-Rogers/9781668013878 Fuccboi: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sean-thor-conroe/fuccboi/9780316394918/

Full hour: https://www.patreon.com/posts/88-nye-bonus-day-95604677?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Possibly my favorite podcast ep ever. With Harold Rogers. Read his novel Tropicalia. Works/writers mentioned: Grimmish by Michael Winkler, Simone Weil, The Possibility of an Island, Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino, Witness to the Fire by Linda Leonard, Montaigne, Dante, Wittgenstein, Joyce, Marguerite Young, The Walk Book, Alphabetical Diaries, Paul Wall, Annie Erneaux. Happy NYE everyone.

Intro on grief and truth and the origins of Gian's piece (~16 min). The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8bgo115Iik Vice piece Gian mentions: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5gqymd/how-psychedelics-helped-me-deal-with-excruciating-cluster-headaches Gian's writing on Vice (2009-2016): https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/giancarlo-ditrapano Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi.

At the Giancarlo DiTrapano Foundation for Literature and the Arts reading in New York City on 14 November 2023. 0:44 - “Antirelationship Period” 2:25 - “Meditation” 4:09 - “Mending” 5:00 - “Meditation 2” 6:07 - “Wild Animals” Intro by Jordan Castro, recorded by Sean Thor Conroe.

October 2023 full moon eclipse pod with Harold Rogers on the library, monasticism, King Lear, Miss Macintosh My Darling, Mary Gaitskill, Alexander Theroux, McClanahan, Zbigniew Herbert, Mathias Enard, epigraphs, cynicism, and what Literature is. With Tropicalia author Harold Rogers. YouTube: https://youtu.be/leNmw2kTlEs Full 2-hour ep: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod TROPICALIA: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tropicalia/Harold-Rogers/9781668013878 Sean Thor Conroe is the author of the novel FUCCBOI.

From paywalled Oct 2023 new moon eclipse video ep "Confessions" w/ Harold Rogers: https://www.patreon.com/posts/confessions-w-92292166?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link First Love by Gwendoline Riley: https://www.amazon.com/First-Love-Gwendoline-Riley/dp/1612196268 Harold Rogers wrote Tropicalia: https://www.amazon.com/Tropic%C3%A1lia-Novel-Harold-Rogers/dp/1668013878 Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi.

Full hourlong video ep "Confessions" with Harold Rogers: https://www.patreon.com/posts/confessions-w-92292166 On our own books, literary confession, diary writing, Gilbert Sorrentino, Gwendoline Riley, Jack Houghteling, Drake, Borges, Alphabetical Diaries, and Andrew Martin. Tropicalia by Harold Rogers: https://www.amazon.com/Tropic%C3%A1lia-Novel-Harold-Rogers/dp/1668013878/ref=monarch_sidesheet Alphabetical Diaries (FSG, 2/6/24): https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374610784/alphabeticaldiaries Early Work (2018) by Andrew Martin: https://www.amazon.com/Early-Work-Novel-Andrew-Martin/dp/1250215013/ref=monarch_sidesheet video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZsC5v8Tan4&t=54s

"ODB, the Mud Puppy, and Me," from Scott McClanahan's first book Stories (2008): https://www.amazon.com/Stories-scott-mcclanahan/dp/0981009123?ref_=ast_author_dp From 10.27.23 eclipse pod w Harold: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod

Babak Lakghomi, author of Floating Notes (Tyrant, 2018) and South (Dundern, 2023), on working with the late great Giancarlo DiTrapano, David Markson, fragments, friction, literature as a revolutionary act, Proust, and autofiction. 1 min - on working with Gian / Tyrant 6 min - on South (Dundern Press) 7 min - on David Markson 8 min - fragments 9 min - archetypes / Edith Grossman 9.5 - Alvaro Mutis, Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll (1995) 10 min - Nada (1945) by Carmen Laforet 14 min - writing as a revolutionary act (vs books as commodities) 17 min - what Literature is / Kafka 23 min - Solenoid by Mircia Cartarescu 26 min - the Courageous act of Literature 27 min - Proust / To the Lighthouse 29 min - Mary McCarthy 30 min - on autofiction

Spoke on some shit. With New Millennium Boyz (2023) author Alex Kazemi. Full moon in Aries. -STC www.alexkazemi.com https://1storyhaus.com/1stories.html

Ep. 80: With philosopher, author, and Auerbach scholar Matthias Bormuth (b.1963), a professor of Comparative Intellectual History at University of Oldenburg. On Erich Auerbach's MIMESIS: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946), and how it was influenced by the great Neapolitan thinker Giambattista Vico's NEW SCIENCE (1744). I first met Matthias at this Phillip Roth festival in Newark I wrote about back in March for the Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/04/19/reading-myself-and-others-roth-festival-dispatch/ Giambattista Vico was born in Naples in 1668 and was a relatively unknown Professor of Rhetoric at the city's university. He'd work on and revise his ambitious work NEW SCIENCE throughout his life, publishing preliminary versions in 1725 and 1730, though it wasn't till his death in 1744 that the third and final version appeared. Vico's text, most of all his literal and historical view of Homer, would go on to hugely influence James Joyce's writing of Ulysses (a literal retelling of the Odyssey), along with other modernists. Erich Auerbach's 1946 work of literary criticism MIMESIS treats canonical texts from the Bible to Homer to Dante to Don Quixote to Zola up to Virginia Woolf as literal-historical writers trying to understand their time, only speaking from their provisional perspective, rather than as deific texts to unpack as divine providence. A German-Jew who fought for Germany in the first World War, Auerbach worked at a library from 1922-1929, during which time he translated Vico's NEW SCIENCE into German for the first time. Matthias and I try to unpack the connection between these two texts, and to find the relevance between them and our current age. Some notes: Overview of Giambattista Vico (4:22); Auerbach’s early years following World War One translating Vico (9:24); Auerbach on Zola’s Germinal (40:22); Matthias’s critique of Heidegger (50:22); writing as Letter Writing / Auerbach’s letters (1:07:33); Matthias on Knausgaard (1:11:55).

On Franny and Zooey, Crime and Punishment, Nine Stories, Brothers Karamazov, Absalom, Absalom and the Gospels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFv_OUiwdM4 Notes: Sean on Salinger, Crime & Punishment (0:55); referenced Salinger essay https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/06/christ-like-holden-caulfield (4:55); Mary & Martha (11:55); Harold on CBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsdlLK7grNg (17:17); Harold on Karamazov (20:22); Harold ran back Absalom (39:39)

From 11/22. On reactionary Literature in a sort of timeless way, so figured I'd leak it. Full ep: https://www.patreon.com/posts/nazi-literature-88342741?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

NYC — My dad, 66, is an English teacher at a Waldorf school in Japan. This pod happened during our first in-person meeting in four years. On expatriation, self awareness, Dasein, existentialism, Rudolf Steiner, and the mission of America. Sean Thor Conroe is the author of the novel Fuccboi (2022).

NYC - Harold Rogers, 26, is a standup, boxing coach, and novelist. He is the author of Tropicalia (2023), out now from Atria: https://www.amazon.com/Tropic%C3%A1lia-Novel-Harold-Rogers/dp/1668013878/ref=monarch_sidesheet Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi (2022): https://www.amazon.com/Fuccboi-Novel-Sean-Thor-Conroe/dp/0316394912/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

NYC — Sam Lipsyte is the author of Venus Drive (2000), The Subject Steve (2001), Homeland (2004), The Ask (2010), The Fun Parts (2013), Hark (2019), Friend of the Pod (2022) and No One Left to Come Looking For You (2022).

NYC — Interviewed by Stephen Adubato for his podcast Cracks in Postmodernity. We talk about this review he wrote on Fuccboi in City Journal: https://www.city-journal.org/article/reality-check . Good dude. Last Fuccboi centric pod, just talking to other writers about their writing from now on. Artwork: Fuccboi, Oil on canvas, 20” x 20” by Phoebe Clemens https://phoebeclemens.com

MARTHA’S VINEYARD — Drove up the coast to talk to Philip Weinstein (b. 1940), former head of the American Faulkner society, author of Unknowing (2005), Becoming Faulkner (2010), What Else But Love? (1996), Soul Error (2021), and editor of the Cambridge Companion to William Faulkner (1995).

Full ep: https://www.patreon.com/1storypod Megan Nolan and Sean Thor Conroe on their respective novels Acts of Desperation (2021) and Fuccboi (2022).

NYC — Paul Dalla Rosa is a 30-year-old writer from Melbourne, Australia. His first book, a short story collection, An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life (2022), is out now. The title story, "The Hard Thing," that we reference in the convo, was initially published on New York Tyrant. Paul is a graduate of Mors Tua Vita Mea, the writing workshop Chelsea Hodson ran with my former editor, the late Giancarlo DiTrapano. Alternate/written version of this convo: https://pauldallarosa.substack.com/ An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life (2022): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781800810129?gC=ad0234829&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrdaF3YXt-QIVmwsrCh11mgqmEAQYASABEgLKK_D_BwE "The Hard Thing": https://magazine.nytyrant.com/the-hard-thing-paul-dalla-rosa/ intro song: playboi carti - "close to you" (prod. adrian) Sean Thor Conroe is the author of the novel Fuccboi (2022): https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/sean-thor-conroe/fuccboi/9780316394819/ Website: https://1storyhaus.com/pod/71-paul-dalla-rosa

NYC / HAWAII — Tao Lin is the author of Leave Society (2021), Trip (2018), Taipei (2013), and other books. For this episode, I read The Chalice and the Blade (1987), a nonfiction book by Riane Eisler that Tao references in Leave Society. We talk about autism, leaky gut, organ meats, liver king, lashing out on friends, and whether partnership societies had MMA. Leave Society dropped 1 year ago today: https://www.amazon.com/Leave-Society-Vintage-Contemporaries-Tao/dp/1101974478 Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi: A Novel (2022).

Full ep: https://www.patreon.com/posts/liver-kings-w-69859428?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator NYC/HAWAII — Leave Society (2021), Trip (2018), and Taipei (2013) author Tao Lin on The Chalice and the Blade (1987), liver king, partnership vs. dominator societies, Jesus, awe, wonder, and whether partnership societies had mma. Ep. 70 w/ Tao Lin 6 min - Tao on Organ meats / liver king 9 min - our diets 12 min - on Awe 22 min - on Jesus 24 min - on God 38 - partnership ways to express power 39 - did partnership societies have mma 49 - on lashing out on friends 55 - nature worship 58 - writing as Play 1 hr 8 min - writing about Parents 1 hr 13 min - our histories with religion Leave Society out now: https://www.amazon.com/Leave-Society-Vintage-Contemporaries-Tao/dp/1101974478/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=leave+society+tao+lin&qid=1659308112&s=books&sprefix=leave+societ%2Cstripbooks%2C81&sr=1-1 Sean Thor Conroe is the author of the novel Fuccboi: https://www.amazon.com/Fuccboi-Novel-Sean-Thor-Conroe/dp/0316394815/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1659325362&sr=1-1

A BENCH IN EAST RIVER PARK — Solstice-eve sitdown with legendary poet and novelist Eileen Myles (b. 1949), author of Chelsea Girls (1994), Cool For You (2000), Inferno (2010), Afterglow (2017), Evolution (2018), For Now (2020), and other books. Pod contents: 4 min - Marija Gimbutas. 9 min - Egyptian book of the dead / Afterglow (2017) / reincarnation. 11 min - Nonverbal communication. 15 min - Zola / writing about work. 19 min - “pathetic literature" / loser narrators. 24 min - readings. 30 min - the proletariat v. bourgeoisie now 34 min - east river park. 39 min - mistrust of “fiction.” 40 min - male v. Female lust. 46 min - orality / the beats / Kerouac. 49 min - Henry Miller. 54 min - rocks / grounding. 58 min - Transparent. 1 hr 7 min - the quiet place. 1 hr 9 min - the Northman. 1 hr 10 min - “the show about the show.” 1 hr 12 min- Valleyesque Fernando Flores. 1 hr 15 min - writing about the dead. 1 hr 18 min - Gerard de Nerval / ghosts. http://1storyhaus.com/pod/69-eileen-myles

INWOOD — Miles Lagoze is a writer, director, and U.S. Marine veteran. He served as combat camera from 2008–2013. He is the director of Combat Obscura (2019), a documentary about his time out in Afghanistan, and the author of a forthcoming book, out next year. Combat Obscura trailer: https://youtu.be/pkaTGGwwvSI Book excerpt: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/11/18/dreams-in-first-person-shooter/ Pod contents: 0 min - Die4Guy playboi carti 3 min - His time in Okinawa / K2. 7 min - Almost Transparent Blue (1976) by Ryū Murakami. 10 min - Why Miles enlisted. 14 min - War movies. 19 min - Why we were in the middle east. 22 min - Incest (1999) Christine Angot. 24 min - Romping along the highway (primate mode). 28 min - Studs Lonigan (1960) by James T. Farrell (the OG Fuccboi). 34 min - Fiction vs nonfiction. 41 min - Doing college after going to war. 44 min - Who is the enemy. 50 min - The ability to laugh at yourself. 57 min - Bringing light to the darkness. Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi: a novel (2022): https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/sean-thor-conroe/fuccboi/9780316394819/

BERLIN / NYC — Rob Doyle, author of Threshold (2020), Autobibliography (2021), Here Are The Young Men (2014) and This Is the Ritual (2016) on travel, life in Berlin, Bolaño, Kerouac, publishing, Nietzsche, and quitting drinking. Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi (2022).

EAST MIDLANDS / NYC — Jake Hanrahan is a conflict reporter and journalist from East Midlands, England. He hosts the war podcast Popular Front. He is the author of Gargoyle (2021), a collection of his essays. He’s a fucking real one. GARGOYLE: Reporting from frontlines, jail cells, and trap houses: https://www.amazon.com/Gargoyle-Reporting-frontlines-cells-houses/dp/B092PG6K13 POPULAR FRONT: https://www.patreon.com/popularfront/posts 3 min - on Ukraine / Hoods Hoods Clan. 8 min - on Fuccboi. 14 min - on the Kazinskiite pine tree community from Gargoyle (2021). ​19 min - on Combat Obscura. 23 min - shitty labor jobs. 29 min - anti-snobbery media. 32 min - on working w Andrew Callaghan. 38 min - the state of things in Ukraine. 42 min - when things are beyond theory. 56 min - Hanrahan’s come up. 58 min - on reading and writing. 1 hr 3 min - on Scrapping. 1 hr 7 min - on Sincerity. 1 hr 13 min - on bouncing back. 1 hr 23 min - Survivor (2010) Chuck Palahniuk. 1 hr 26 min - Seek (2002) by Denis Johnson, Rainbow Stories (1992) by William T Vollmann, Hella Nation (2010) by Evan Wright. Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi: A novel: https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/sean-thor-conroe/fuccboi/9780316394819/

JERSEY CITY / NYC — Bud Smith is the author of Teenager, out now from Vintage. He is also the author of Double Bird (2018), Work (2017), Calm Face (2016), F250 (2014), and Tollbooth (2013), among other books. He is also a good friend. This convo is from 9 May 2022, 2 nights ago, the night before his novel Teenager dropped. Bless. TEENAGER: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/679124/teenager-by-bud-smith/ 1 min - pod start 5 min - “the New Jersey devil” 9 min - Don Quixote / picaresque 24 min - should novels be educational 28 min - “reading as prayer/meditation” 30 min - on working on Teenager w Gian 57 min - on how Teenager ended up where it did 1 hr 1 min - on Bud’s day job 1hr 15 min - on Salinger 1 hr 33 min - on Gordon Lish / carver / ford Sean Thor Conroe is the author of Fuccboi: A Novel: https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/sean-thor-conroe/fuccboi/9780316394819/

COLLEGE PARK MD — Jordan Castro is the editor of New York Tyrant Magazine and the author of The Novelist, forthcoming from Soft Skull in 2022. We spoke this past Sunday, 13 June 2021, at his spot in Maryland after I drove down from NYC to hang with him a couple days. Jordan and I got especially close over the past couple months after losing our friend, the editor and publisher Gian DiTrapano. Jordan also helped me a lot in the aftermath of the passing my girlfriend, the writer Kyra Baldwin, not long before the passing of Gian this past March.

OXFORD, MS / NYC — Nico Walker is the author of the novel Cherry (Knopf, 2018). He was born in Georgia and grew up in Las Vegas and Cleveland. He served as a medic in the Iraq war. And worked with the late Gian DiTrapano on Cherry while in prison in the mid 2010s. Here is a recent piece he wrote on Gian: https://www.bookforum.com/culture/giancarlo-ditrapano-1974-2021-24463 Recent collection on Gian in Muumuu House I contributed to: http://muumuuhouse.com/gian.11may2021.html Lit hub article I mentioned on Cherry’s covers: https://lithub.com/the-trouble-with-designing-a-book-when-its-author-is-in-jail/ POD CONTENTS 7 min - pod start 10 min - Gian’s biggest grievance w the game 17 min - expert talk / literary pedantry 21 min - stuff people read in prison to entertain themselves 24 min - the elitism of Literature and linguistic classism 27 min - books were initially about the democratization of thought 29 min - Lazarillo de Tormez 30 min - Canterbury tales 33 min - Don Quixote / Battle of Lepanto (1571) 38 min - parallel between Cervantes and Nico 41 min - McClanahan / we just do what we see on TV 41.5 min - the solution to the big house / indie divide 42 min - Nico’s experience w Gian v. Knopf 50 min - are you gonna put the work in 51 min - no one does anything alone 54 min - Marie Calloway 59 min - if no backlash is an artwork doing anything 1 hr 1 min - what is to be done 1 hr 3 min - the difficulty / importance of dialogue 1 hr 7 min - we say who we are through our speech 1 hr 10 min - flannery O’Connor / *James Joyce quote correction - "I am a creature driven and derided by vanity" 1 hr 13 min - Hill William 1 hr 20 min - infallible narrators 1 hr 23 min - how to keep going when shit gets more fucked than you ever coulda imagined 1 hr 24 min - tear the bandaid off .. just say it 1 hr 28 min - on war 1 hr 35 min - the contradictions of war 1 hr 40 min - Nico’s day to day now / Rachael Rabbit White http://1storyhaus.com/index.html

TORONTO / NYC — Brad Phillips is a writer and artist from Toronto. He is the author of Essays and Fictions (Tyrant, 2018). I enjoyed this book a lot. I felt it was courageous, funny, intimate, deceptively sweet, and formally inventive. Here is a link to the book: https://www.nytyrant.com/products/essays-and-fictions-by-brad-phillips . Here is a link to the recent story he published on Muumuu House that we reference: http://muumuuhouse.com/bp.03feb2021.html . Here is a link to a NYT thing shouting out his instagram (https://www.instagram.com/brad___phillips/?hl=en ): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/arts/design/artists-instagram-coronavirus.html POD CONTENTS: 2 min - pod start / how Brad prepped for this pod 7 min - how Brad started painting / doing the art 10 min - how Brad feels about Essays and Fictions now 13 min - “Death is the sanction of everything that the storyteller can tell.” - Benjamin 15 min - “Write from the end of the world” 16 min - desperation vs self sabotage 19 min - whether or not “doing better” having written the book 21 min - things Brad does to “do better” (physically) 24 min - dealing w trauma thru the body 27 min - do it for the ones who need it 31 min - “boundaries” in autofiction 35 min - why writing presented by a narrator who share’s author’s name interesting 39 min - deja vu / “intuition is god” 42 min - writing is less about writing a lot than it is about intuiting when it’s Time to write 45 min - is human connection possible 47 min - everything is performance and that’s ok 52 min - the self is a story so I don’t feel weird writing stories about a self I am now 56 min - making yourself a dumb animal to be ok 59 min - “write for pleasure publish for money” pushkin 1 hr - to share or not to share 1 hr 3 min - is writing helpful 1 hr 4 min - Danny from “The Barista the Rooster & Me” 1 hr 6 min - drugs # Sean Thor Conroe lives in Harlem. http://1storyhaus.com/index.html

NYC — Shy Watson is a poet and novel-writer. Her new book Horror Vacui (2021) dropped last month from House of Vlad. She is also the author of Cheap Yellow (CCM, 2018). She lives in NYC. Her book: https://houseofvlad.bigcartel.com/product/horror-vacui-poems-and-other-writings-by-shy-watson # CONTENTS CONTENTS 3 min - pelvic health issues 7 min - Philly connections 10 min - where shy grew up 13 min - why shy moved so much in 20s 16 min - how / when HV written / pubbed 19 min - Eileen Myles 21 min - the novel shy workin on 23 min - Convenience store woman by sayaka murata / work by Bud smith 24 min - Sam pink book cover 26 min - ‘autofiction ethicality’ rant / justification 27 min - on writing intimately about Life 30:30 - on religion 34 min - reading god into shy’s books 37 min - on spirituality 39 min - diy sigil 45 min - writing as seduction 47 min - sometimes you gotta turn on the reader 51 min - important for writing and life to get out about 54 min - becoming your own boy 58 min - sillyboys 59 min - crypto 1 hr 2 min - mors tua vita mea 1 hr 4 min - new moon

TORONTO / NYC — Sheila Heti is the author of the short story collection the Middle Stories (2001), the short novel Ticknor (2005), the philosophy book the Chairs Are Where The People Go (2011), co-written by Misha Glouberman, How Should A Person Be? (2012), and Motherhood (2018). She also co-edited the collection Women in Clothes (2014). And wrote the intro to the new release of this Virginia Woolf essay, How Should One Read A Book? (2020). Her next book, Pure Colour, is coming out in January 2022. I first encountered Sheila’s writing in late 2014, when I tore through How Should A Person Be? in a night. I’ve since done a handful of pods on her books, so this is really exciting for me, it’s been a long time coming. We recorded this late last week. Sheila Heti lives in Toronto. Here is a link to her website, with links to all her books: http://www.sheilaheti.com Sheila's podcast "Podcast With Raisins": https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-with-raisins/id1193833547 CONTENTS 8 min - pod start 12 min - Sheila’s current project 15 min - the book isn’t finished till it’s separate from you 16 min - me tryna turn real life into an Art Idea 20 min - How Ticknor different but also similar to her other books 24 min - friendship/angels 25 min - how I first encountered Sheila's writing 36 min - on walking / Richard Serra 40 min - “art should be taken off the pedestal” 42 min - Middle Stories reactions / why she wrote Ticknor 45 min - publishing right after 9/11 50 min - Sheila outing me for being in school lolol 55 min - Malcolm gladwell story 1 hr 4 min - coin stuff / mysticism 1 hr 7 min - on God 1 hr 11 min - on Nietzsche 1 hr 12 min - “the great writers rearrange your brain” 1 hr 13 min - Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Martin Buber 1 hr 16 - “who decides that something is good is the Culture / having supporters” / Wittgenstein 1 hr 21 min - “the person who loves a book is the one who’s right about it” / criticism 1 hr 28 min - on cigs / tobacco Intro song: https://soundcloud.com/yeums/thank-you-master Related episode - solo rant on Motherhood (1.3.2018): https://soundcloud.com/1storypod/29-family-failure-and-procreation-in-motherhood-2018-by-sheila-heti-1storypod-with-st-conroe Sean Thor Conroe lives in Harlem.

NAPLES — Giancarlo DiTrapano is the founder, editor, and publisher of New York Tyrant. The magazine initially, starting in 2005. And then of Tyrant Books, starting in 2010. I spoke with him in his apartment in Naples two days ago, before flying back to the states yesterday. After flying out there 11 days ago. He wrote for Vice for a minute during the early tens and has ran the workshop Mors Tua Vita Mea, with the writer Chelsea Hodson, in Sezze, Italy since 2015. He grew up in Charleston, West Virginia and spent many years in New York City before moving out to Italy five years ago. We talk about how he came into the game with the magazine and the imprint, what he’s psyched about writing-wise now, a whole bunch of stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed ripping this convo and running it back. NY Tyrant: https://nytyrant.com # POD CONTENTS 6 min - pod start: G dissing and me tryna defend Ferrante lmaoo 8 min - Of Love and Other Demons by Garcia Marquez 9 min - Autoportrait by Edouard Leve / story versus bars/syntax 11 min - translated versus untranslated 11.5 min - G: “We should be recording this.” Me: “Bro it’s recording.” 12 min - coffee ready 13 min - move from kitchen to living room 13 min - McClanahan , bars v. Voice 14 min - on Liveblog (2018) by Megan Boyle 19 min - ‘prep’ = Preparation for the Next Life (2014) by Atticus Lish and ‘shapiro’ = Supremacist (2016) by Dave Shapiro 22 min - story on linking w Atticus Lish 26 min - How to Live is bigger than How to Write 27 min - Louise Gluck 32 min - Babak Lakghomi 38 min - "everything important in literature is about Death" 41 min - on mimicry / imitation 46 min - on exclamation points / nietzsche ecce homo 48 min - Lutz 49 min - Tyrant Vol 3 No 2 / young Diane Lane "the Outsiders" 55 min - story of G pulling up to nyc / FSG 59 min - putting out the first Tyrant mag / Sheila Heti 1 hr 2 min - DFW 1 hr 3 min - “all these lit mags started bc the Internet” 1 hr 6 min - Supremacist by David Shapiro 1 hr 12 min - drugs according to music era 1 hr 18 min - first linking w Castro 1 hr 21 min - what/who G hype on rn / Honor Levy 1 hr 22 min - Christopher Kennedy 1 hr 29 min - mors tua vita mea 1 hr 37 min - on how relevant or not relevant being out here for writing 1 hr 40 min - How the infrastructure of Literature upheld Intro song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1YnDZXJ7Dj0Uk9Pqu4tdAX?si=evQ3qjohRo2VxpXVIQwtig Sean Thor Conroe https://mobile.twitter.com/stconroe lives in Harlem.

HARLEM — I met the homie Vern a minute ago. I see him around all the time. I seem to see him once every couple weeks, like clockwork. Usually when the weather gets nicer suddenly, or nice enough to sit courtside or hoop at this lil park I be hooping at. Whenever we link we always torch one and really go in. Like every time it’s like a pod-length powwow. Today (12.11.20) we were goin in, mildly spleed, when he just started going off and I felt moved to set it down. But what we talking about is, all this past week, I seen a wake going on across the street, mad people out, like 50-60 people gathered, lighting candles, pouring up, playing music for a homie who passed. I hadn’t know what had happened, but then in this convo it came up. 5 min - real life consequences of rappers talking crazy on the track / RIP Fluff 7 min - on staying ready / long johns riff 10 min - walking to the store / on beats / how he tryna go in on the track 12 min - “fuck getting inside your head w the bars I’m tryna get inside you BODY” 12:30-14 min - inside the store 14 min - walking back to the park 14:30 - “no one wants to be a nothing” 15 min - how he was raised vs how youngins today raised 17 min - back at the park / on the homie Fluff , RIP 20 min - my lighter died https://twitter.com/stconroe lives in Harlem http://1storyhaus.com

DMV / NYC — Nicolette Polek is a writer from Cleveland, Ohio. Imaginary Museums (Soft Skull, 2020) is her first book. I saw Nicolette read from this collection a couple times early this year, and reread it a couple times this past fortnight. Buy Imaginary Museums: https://softskull.com/dd-product/imaginary-museums/ POD CONTENTS 3 min - pod start 4 min - small rooms big rooms card rooms basements 11 min - on “Winners” - https://magazine.nytyrant.com/winners/ 14 min - on how life in Slovakia vs. US 19 min - “Field Notes” / Man in the Holocene by Max Frisch 21 min - Krasznahorkai 24 min - on the traditions Nicolette partaking in 25 min - The Middle Stories by Sheila Heti 27 min - Intimate Lighting, dir. Ivan Passer 28 min - on making art in communism 31 min - experience working with Soft Skull 33 min - on how these stories written 36 min - me repeatedly belaboring “the Nature” 37 min - Thomas Tallis / Abba 39 min - on what Nicolette working on now / Marta Becket 41 min - solitude vs. sharing. Kierkegaard definition of a saint: “to will the one thing” 42 min - subsequent books as answers to questions posed in previous ones 44 min - female eels 47 min - on Waldorf 55 min - Rings of Saturn by Sebald 57 min - mycology – Sean Thor Conroe, http://1storyhaus.com

SILVER LAKE / HARLEM — Allie Rowbottom is the author of Jell-O Girls (Little Brown, 2018). She recently wrote this story in Hobart: https://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/auralift She teaches writing classes for Catapult and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the writer Jon Lindsey. Buy her book: http://www.allierowbottom.com POD CONTENTS: 3 min - pod start 6 min - how jell-o girls written thru reading her mom’s writing 10 min - on the blend of her / her mom’s pov .. influences 11 min - Jane (2005) by Maggie Nelson 15 min - speaking oneself into selfhood / marketing of the book 20 min - on sharing / generosity , exhibitionism 22 min - the survival instinct as energizing 25 min - on myopia/linearity vs empathy/panopticality 29 min - on radical superficiality / Botox 30 min - taking theory outta the classroom 32 min - articulating the unsayable 34 min - whether one can objectify oneself for power or nah 35 min - Marguerite Duras 41 min - botched Lil B the BasedGod riff 42 min - hysteria = ‘wandering womb’ (hyster-ectomy) 45 min - me admitting im a toxic male 47 min - privilege vs pain 49 min - how able to manage health issues explored in the book, now 52 min - person you wrote about as character vs real person 54 min - edging on the pull. Till it’s time 58 min - real life ramifications of book 1 hr - dating another writer = double suicide pact Intro song: "Thank You" by Yamz https://soundcloud.com/yeums/thank-you-master Sean Thor Conroe lives in NYC and tweets @stconroe and grams @seanthorconroe

NYC / MONTREAL — Steve Anwyll is the author of Welfare (2018). He lives in Montreal, where he works at a screen printing shop. Welfare is his first novel. What a guy. Hell yeah. Cop that shit here if ya haven’t: https://www.nytyrant.com/products/welfare-by-steve-anwyll Anwyll on Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneloveasshole CONTENTS 1SP053: Steve Anwyll 2 min - pod start 11 min - family / work 22 min - 9-to-5s 24 min - kindness vs. cruelty 28 min - syntax / Celine 32 min - writing for mfs who don’t be reading a lot 36 min - misanthropic French writers 44 min - self-worth / work 49 min - political implications 53 min - publishing vulnerability / handling praise 59 hr - city vs. rural 1 hr 3 min - women as motivation 1 hr 6 min - caseworkers / nurses as angels when you fucked up 1 hr 12 min - real life ramifications of the book 1 hr 15 min - who we write for

NYC — Chelsea Hodson is the author of the essay collection Tonight I'm Someone Else (2018) and the chapbook Pity the Animal (2014). She teaches at the Bennington MFA program and at the Mors Tua Vita Mea workshop in Italy and also does private writing consultations. We met at a reading back in December in Bushwick. I read her book a couple times over the past couple months. Her book: https://www.amazon.com/Tonight-Im-Someone-Else-Essays/dp/1250170192 Pod Contents: 3 min - pod start 5 min - Work 7 min - never defining oneself as a single thing / multiplicity 10 min - presentation / performance / moon stuff 14 min - rewriting over years 15 min - the moon looks different depending on how the light hits it 17 min - Jo Ann Beard “sometimes you gotta just live longer” 20 min - “writing is gross” 22 min - narcissism / self-concern / autonomy 29 min - Longing / By Grand Central Station I Laid Down And Wept (1945) by Elizabeth Smart 33 min - planetary / animal stuff 35 min - on embarrassment 36 min - when Pity the Animal (2014) dropped 40 min - on workshopping 41 min - taking what you need out of “negative” experiences 44 min - on clarity 47 min - write to change fate’s course 52 min - on doubling down 58 min - what Chelsea workin on now 1 hr - McClanahan Intro song: "Thank You" by Yamz - https://soundcloud.com/yeums/thank-you-master Sean Thor Conroe lives in NYC and tweets @stconroe twitter.com/stconroe http://1storyhaus.com/index.html

NYC / WV — Scott McClanahan (b. 1978) is the author of eight book: Stories (2008), Stories II (2009), Stories V! (2011), The Collected Works of Scott McClanahan Vol. 1 (2012), Crapalachia (2013, Two Dollar Radio), Hill William (2013, Tyrant Books), The Incantations of Daniel Johnston (2016, Two Dollar Radio), and The Sarah Book (2017, Tyrant Books), which NPR called "brave, triumphant and beautiful." It is. They also said "it reads like a fever dream, and it feels like a miracle." It fkn does. https://store.nytyrant.com/products/pre-order-the-sarah-book-by-scott-mcclanahan Sarah Book excerpt (2017): http://magazine.nytyrant.com/excerpt-sarah-book/ Scott also co-founded the press Holler Presents. Very grateful to Scott for a taking a sec to riff one time. Intro song 'broders' by yamz from Filadelphia Yamz. http://1storyhaus.com/index.html - STC

UPSTATE NY/HARLEM — Nicola Maye Goldberg is the author of the novella Other Women (Sad Spell, 2016), the chapbook The Doll Factory (Dancing Girl Press, 2017), and, most recently, the novel Nothing Can Hurt You (Bloomsbury, 2020). Cop here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/nothing-can-hurt-you-9781635574890/ Or here: https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Hurt-Nicola-Maye-Goldberg/dp/1635574889 Nicola: https://www.nicolamaye.com/ # POD CONTENTS: 3 min - pod start 6 min - Nicola mighta started the rona 9 min - ‘all novelists are failed poets’ 13 min - NCHY’s structure 18 min - on how related to 2666 21 min - on Tracy 25 min - on the Girl Boss trope / the commodification of Me Too 33 min - on Fatherhood 38 min - on courage 42 min - Nicola’s initial connection to the crime 46 min - why men kill women 51 min - the solution to sexual violence is all straight dudes buy Nicola’s book 57 min - on mens rea 1 hr 2 min - on Nicola’s new stuff / Santa Cruz # Sean Thor Conroe lives in Harlem. https://1storyhaus.com

COLLEGE PARK–HARLEM — Summer solstice sit down with Jordan Castro, editor of New York Tyrant Magazine and Pets: An Anthology, recently out from Tyrant Books. He is the author of Young Americans (CCM 2013) and if I really wanted to feel happy I’d feel happy already (CCM 2014). Recorded today, reflecting on our convo recorded one week ago on Pets (2020) and The Present [Reflective] Age (1843, Tr. Walter Kaufmann) by Kierkegaard. Last week's stab was solid but had to run it back one time, really rip it. Do yourself a solid a cop PETS, it's a banger. https://store.nytyrant.com/products/pets Really enjoyed listening to this one back. Posting the original ep also, since we reference it, but I recommend listening to this one first. PETS !! – https://store.nytyrant.com/products/pets Read 'Seven Stories' by Jordan Castro: http://muumuuhouse.com/jc.06jan2020.html Read referenced dad poem (~1 hr 50 min) from from Young Americans: http://muumuuhouse.com/jc.poetry3.html Read the opening 1K-word hitter from my novel FUCCBOI, 'Postmate,' that Castro edited and published this past January: http://magazine.nytyrant.com/postmate-sean-thor-conroe/

COLLEGE PARK–HARLEM — Jordan Castro is the editor of New York Tyrant Magazine and PETS: An Anthology, recently out from Tyrant Books https://store.nytyrant.com/products/pets . I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Writers included are Patty Yumi Cottrell, Tao Lin, Ann Beattie, Sarah Manguso, Scott McClanahan, Kathryn Scanlan, Nicolette Polek, Chelsea Hodson, Blake Butler, Precious Okoyomon, Mark Leidner, Sam Pink, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, David Nutt, Reagan Bird, Michael W. Clune, Christine Schutt and Mallory Whitten. I recommend it for anyone who has or had or wants pets. Cop PETS now !! – https://store.nytyrant.com/products/pets http://1storyhaus.com

NYC — Andrew Weatherhead was born in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of $50,000 (2020), Todd (2018) and Cats & Dogs (2014). He began writing $50,000 in 2015. I read $50,000 probably four times, each time in a single sitting, over the past fortnight since its release. Purchase $50,000 from Publishing Genius: https://www.publishinggenius.com/product/50000/ # POD CONTENTS 3 min - pod start 6 min - comin in hot w wittgenstein tractatus bars/the inadequacy/importance/absurdity of language 11 min - on Facts/‘fake news’ 17 min - on the title, $50,000 21 min - on working a 9-to-5 24 min - “wait until you see me dance” by Deb Olin Unferth and writing about office life 27 min - things only mean in context / a setting 30 min - “the things that no one knows about you are how you know yourself” but also “you can only know yourself thru ppl” 31 min - money only works when we agree on its value 35 min - mfa gripes 38 min - redacted mfa quote htmlgiant story 44 min - on humor/laughter 45 min - “Winners” by Nicolette Polek from Imaginary Museums (2020) 49 min - on literary readings 51 min - on concision/editing/first drafts 56 min - on Time/cycles 59 min - on neuroscience 1 hr 2 min - writing vs. medicine 1 hr 5 min - on Satantango (1985) by Laszlo Krasznahorkai 1 hr 9 min - line breaks vs block text 1 hr 15 min - on Names 1 hr 18 min - “Joe Loser Jr.” 1 hr 23 min - writing about writing 1 hr 25 min - art-making in 2020 # Referenced pieces: "Origin of the World" (collage of book blurbs): http://thefanzine.com/the-origin-of-the-world/ Selected tweets: http://muumuuhouse.com/ajw.twitter.2009-2014.html Creative independent interview: https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/poet-andrew-weatherhead-on-hijacking-language/ $50,000 excerpt: http://magazine.nytyrant.com/from-50000-andrew-weatherhead/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/weeatherhead?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor # Sean Thor Conroe lives in New York City. https://twitter.com/stconroe https://instagram.com/seanthorconroe https://1storyhaus.com

NYC — Al Jacobs, 30, is an NYC-based writer from Toledo, Ohio. He read the copy of Jesus' Son (1992) I lent him over the past few months. I reread the Picador Modern Classics pocket version i copped after lending him my old version over the same period. Jesus' Son (1992) is a series of interconnected short stories narrated by a guy, "Fuckhead," and follows several recurring characters, all addicts, who engage in drug use, petty crime, and murder. Denis Johnson (1949–2017) published Jesus' Son at the age of 43. CONTENTS 5m pod start 8m the infantilized artist boi dream / baby stuff 10m my sus “The Other Man” take 13m you gotta be OUT HERE 15m when they do that lowkey B & E 16m on “autofiction” 21m writing about work/survival/out-here-ness 24m Edmund Wilson v. Nabokov beef as Meek v. Drake beef I’m on Wilson-Meek’s side bro On male isolation/coal miners 26m having empathy for mfkrs more important than everything 31m mommy stuff 33m Jesus God’s son who Jesus’s son tho?? 34m idc abt ur art unless self-snitch in it 36m Sam Pink bizarro absurdism 40m writing abt the outcasts the fuckups the deformed 42m should characters be redeemed 43m dwell in the ambiguity bro 1h 7m Japanese love poems 1h 20m pod end Most recent hitter "Another Way To Stay Calm": https://backpatio.press/2019/11/06/another-way-to-stay-calm-by-sean-thor-conroe/ http://twitter.com/stconroe http://instagram.com/seanthorconroe http://1storyhaus.com

MANHATTAN — Harold, 22, is a writer, standup, and boxer. He grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Steubenville, Ohio. He read Absalom, Absalom! in the fortnight following the death of his paternal grandfather, about a month ago. I read it around the same time, six months after the death of my paternal grandfather. A lotta dad stuff in this ep. Apologies for this extended Faulky bender I'm on. This the last one for now. If you haven't read the book, the 20 min intro could be a good overview to maybe coax you into cracking it. If you have, I mean, shit, fuckwittit. Outro song: "untitled 02 | 06.23.2014." by kendrick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GghFQ8ryEU Sean Thor Conroe is a writer and carpenter living in Harlem. Bars in X-R-A-Y, Soft Cartel, Back Patio, Expat Lit; forthcoming in Philosophical Idiot, BULL Lit. http://twitter.com/stconroe http://instagram.com/seanthorconroe http://1storyhaus.com

JERSEY CITY — In the second part of 2666 (2004) by Bolaño, Amalfitano, a philosophy professor losing his mind, tries to understand the secrets of the universe through an esoteric geometry book. But instead of reading it, he hangs it on a clothesline, outside, and watches it get rained on—blasted by the elements. Bud Smith’s writing embodies this idea: he out here, in the world, working at his oil refinery job, making art around his life rather than the other way around. I linked with him at his spot last weekend in Jersey City to talk about Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930), which I happened to be reading when I saw, via Twitter, that he too was reading it. Faulkner also worked manual labor for a time—as an operator as a chemical plant, while writing this book. Bud Smith is the author of Teenager (Tyrant Books, 2019), Double Bird (Maudlin House, 2018), WORK (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2017), Dust Bunny City (Disorder Press, 2017), Calm Face (House of Vlad, 2016), among others. He works heavy construction building and destroying chemical plants, refineries, and generating stations. He’s on Twitter @bud_smith https://twitter.com/Bud_Smith. Here is a list of his stories online: https://neutralspaces.co/bud_smith/. He is currently writing a serialized weekly series called Good Luck, from The Nervous Breakdown. Intro song: "when i die" by yamz https://soundcloud.com/yeums/when-i-die Sean Thor Conroe is a writer and carpenter living in Harlem. Bars in X-R-A-Y, Soft Cartel, Expat Lit; forthcoming in Philosophical Idiot, BULL Lit, Back Patio. https://twitter.com/stconroe https://instagram.com/seanthorconroe https://1storyhaus.com

N 41ST ST — Convo w my neighbor Glenda, 52. On my last day on the block (07/31/2019), after living there 2 plus yrs.

WEST PHILLY — Nicholas Baptiste is a Philly-based writer, reader, musician, and MFKN LIBRARIAN YO. So sick. We post up on a blasted summer day on Baltimore Ave and powwow off the cuff about a whole gang of shit, returning throughout to our most recent reads: Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) and Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son (1992), respectively. We talk writing processes and what we consider constitutes the best art. Where this leads might be summed up as: that which investigates the difficult, touchy, taboo ideas, without either valorizing or condemning any one version of them. Sean Thor Conroe was born Sho Kamura in Tokyo in 1991. Latest story: https://expatpress.com/that-fire-sean-thor-conroe/ Contact: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/stconroe IG: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1storypod/id1238415112?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/1storypod Website: http://1storyhaus.com

BKLYN-PHILLY — Eric Conroe, 33, is a writer and builder living in Brooklyn. He is the author of the poetry chapbook TOP BLOCKER (2017), available here: https://bit.ly/2M7ZvVV. He is my cousin. He read Thrown (2014) by Kerry Howley in a sitting two weeks ago. I read it in multiple sittings a year ago. Kerry Howley, 38, teaches nonfiction at University of Iowa. Thrown is her first book.

SOUTH PHILLY/SOUTH JERSEY — Still asking the same questions about monogamy, marriage, loyalty, child rearing, father/motherhood, the nuclear family, and work v. “love.” How these questions play out in Jenny Offill’s Dept of Speculation (2014), which charts a relationship from its inception to marriage to childbirth to infidelity, complicates things. Read in sips over the past three weeks and recorded during my CSA delivery route in South Philly (till I ran outta gas), during my route in South Jersey (after getting more gas), and on the way to the dentist, on foot, the following morning. Sound quality turned out surprisingly decent. New 500-word story 'That Fire' I dropped last week: https://expatpress.com/that-fire-sean-thor-conroe/ Website: http://1storyhaus.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/stconroe IG: http://instagram.com/seanthorconroe

PHILLY VIA BOSTON — In this special Lent pod, I catch up with the homie Aaron, 28 (1SP episodes 003 and 015), about the below topics during his weekend visit to Philly from Boston. Read is blog (http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com/). He's got some recent poems up about a hitchhiking trip he took around Scotland late last year. 0:00 - intro (03.11.2019) 2:44 - start of convo (03.09.2019) 6:00 - on criticism 9:00 - on keeping silent 13:00 - on editing 16:00 - on the accordion method 19:00 - on Bon Iver lol 23:00 - relocation from back to front of house 25:00 - on Lent 28:00 - on rules 38:00 - on writing about the body 39:00 - on social integration 42:00 - on community 45:00 - on marriage/family 47:00 - on cults 48:00 - how should a person be? 50:00 - on civic unity 54:00 - on the gay science 56:00 - final thoughts Contact: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/stconroe IG: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1storypod/id1238415112?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/1storypod Website: http://1storyhaus.com

PHILLY — New Bolaño novel dropped 11 days ago, written when he was 31. New story I mention: https://softcartel.com/2019/02/18/a-seat-in-the-circle-by-sean-thor-conroe/

PHILLY — Really hit close to home, this one, especially with how dang nippy out it's getting; feeling of late like hibernation is just about all I'm up for. Otessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018), her fourth book and second novel, is about a mid-twenties Manhattanite intent on blocking out the world by ingesting an increasingly harrowing cocktail of sedatives. Read it last week, mostly lying on my side, on my couch, on Benadryl, but also walking places, in the daytime, in the cold. In this episode, which I recorded at 7 a.m. while walking to the dentist, I get into why this character wants to block out the world and whether she's able to find her way back into the world. Also: my shifting affinities towards character-driven rather than auto-fictional writing. And: how being an alt bro doesn't change the fact that you're still, physiologically and temperamentally, a bro. Sean Thor Conroe has written stories for X-R-A-Y (http://x-r-a-y.com/author/sean-thor-conroe/) and has another coming soon from Soft Cartel. He lives on twitter at http://twitter.com/stconroe and in Philadelphia, where he works on his health.

LOS ANGELES — Sergio González Rodríguez (1950–2017) was a Mexican journalist and writer. A friend and colleague of Roberto Bolaño's, he was the primary source of information on the femicides—the countless unsolved rape-murders of women, primarily factory workers—in Ciudad Juárez, for the late Chilean novelist's novel, 2666. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y and is forthcoming from Soft Cartel. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — Been a trip and a half reading Motherhood while posted with the mother this past month of holiday fam time / convalescence out here in LA. Has really propelled me into the nitty-grit of thangs. In this ep, I go in with more gripes about Sheila's stance on procreation than I come out with. I consider her view on the importance or lack thereof of Art. I hash out her ideas on family extending beyond the nuclear. And I give her props on the deepest idea of all: that Failure can never be communicated, must always be private, and yet is the only way to Freedom. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y, on sidewalks and in fields. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — I started reading The Elementary Particles (2000) this past summer. I railed through the first couple hundred pages fairly quickly, before stalling out on the last sixty-or-so. I finished it this past Thanksgiving. In this episode, I explore Houellebecq's takes on the death of the nuclear family, extreme individualism in the West, and the value of declaratives. Michel Houellebecq was born Michel Thomas in Réunion, France in 1956. Houellebecq is his paternal grandmother's maiden name. The Elementary Particles (2000), Houellebecq's second novel (orig. published Les Particules Élémentaires in 1998), was simultaneously hailed as a "nihilist classic" and criticized for its brutality. Michiko Kakutani, for example, called it "a deeply repugnant read." Sean Thor Conroe was born Kamura Sho in Tokyo in 1991. He lives in the United States, @stconroe (http://twitter.com/stconroe) on twitter, and at http://1storyhaus.com.

PHILADELPHIA — Gina Myers is poet living in Philadelphia. She is the author of the poetry books HOLD IT DOWN (2013), A MODEL YEAR (2009), and six chapbooks including PHILADELPHIA (2017), from Barrelhouse, which she wrote, mostly on her phone, during the first few months of moving to Philadelphia (August–October 2014). I encountered her work after hearing her read from PHILADELPHIA in early 2017, months after moving back to Philadelphia. Gina Myers co-edits the biannual online poetry journal, the tiny: https://www.thetinymag.com/ Some poems from PHILADELPHIA (2017): https://brooklynrail.org/2015/06/poetry/from-philadelphia-freedom-song HOLD IT DOWN (2013): Read: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58134/hold-it-down Buy: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781938055072/hold-it-down.aspx Gina Myers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ginamyers?lang=en 1storypod website: http://1storyhaus.com

WEST PHILLY — Nicholas lives, and has for “about six years,” in West Philly. He is originally from Seattle. He read Don Quixote (1615) recently, finishing it within the past fortnight. I read the first half in the summer of 2016 and the second half in the fall of 2017. We both read the edition translated by Edith Grossman and published by Ecco Books in 2003. Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) published the "First Part of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha" in 1605, and the second in 1615, which he dedicated to his patron, Don Pedro Fernández Ruiz de Castro (1576–1622), the count of Lemos and viceroy of Naples from 1610–1616.

MANHATTAN — Daoud, 26, is an Oakland-based producer. His work lives on the Internet @daoudmakesmusic (Soundcloud). He began working on Saba's second album Care For Me (2018) with @sabapivot and co-producer @daedaepivot last fall. I listened to Care For Me about once daily since its April 5 release. This conversation was recorded before and after Saba's April 13 tour stop at Highline Ballroom in New York City.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Whether extolling the virtues of a legume-centric diet or exuding disarming gratitude in matters fraternal to cosmic, a quick TSA search finds YaMZ effortlessly emotive, lucid, and playful. Recorded entirely in transit, TSA Approved YaMZ, at just under eight minutes, could well be his most cohesive work yet. Full EP: https://goo.gl/QKQwWD. Blog: http://bumsum.net – @itscanals

BED-STUY — Eric, 31, is a poet, modern dancer, and carpenter living in Brooklyn. His chapbook, TOP BLOCKER, is now available from GAUSS PDF. I've read TOP BLOCKER a number of times over the past months, since its release. Order/read TOP BLOCKER here: https://goo.gl/VMpi1x. Eric tweets @ejconroe. - @sho_thor, http://1storyhaus.com

PHILLY — Aaron, 26, is a reader and writer of poetry living in Philadelphia. He discovered Hera Lindsay Bird while visiting New Zealand last month. I read Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press) twice over the past week. Hera Lindsay Bird (b. 1987) was born and raised in Thames, New Zealand. This, her first book, won the Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award. @sho_thor http://1storyhaus.com Buy Hera's book! ~ http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/hera-lindsay-bird/ Read Aaron's poetry! ~ http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com/

PHILADELPHIA — Nick, 26, grew up primarily in North Carolina and lives in Los Angeles, where he writes and teaches. He first read My Brilliant Friend "a few months ago." I read it over the past fortnight, finishing it literally moments before this conversation. The first story published under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante appeared in 1992. There is considerable debate about her real identity, about which little has been confirmed. It has nonetheless been inferred, based on information from her interviews and correspondences with her publisher, that she "grew up in Naples, is a mother, and is not now married" (James Wood/Wiki). – 1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — Takako was born in Tokyo in 1955, teaches at a Waldorf school in California, and is also, turns out, my mother. She first read Almost Transparent Blue (1976) while still a student at Tokyo Daigaku, so at twentyish. I first read Almost Transparent Blue (tr. Nancy Andrew, 1976) maybe a month ago, and have reread it since. Ryu Murakami (b. Feb, 1952) was born and raised in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. He wrote Almost Transparent Blue while studying sculpture at Musashino Art University in Tokyo.

PHILADELPHIA — Charlotte, 24, grew up outside of Philadelphia and in 2017 has lived or will live in Philadelphia, Austin, and California. She is a potential future doula, part-time farmer, and caretaker of small creatures. She read The Argonauts this past winter and How Should A Person Be? this past spring.

PHILADELPHIA — Zac, 26, lives in Philadelphia and works at an art gallery. He read The Possibility of an Island (tr. Gavin Bowd) in a week, finishing it hours before this conversation. I read it a couple months back, also fairly quickly. Michel Houellebecq (b. 1956), 61, is a novelist, filmmaker, and poet. He was born on the French island of Reunion, and lives in France. Houellebecq (Michel's grandmother's maiden name) had a child in 1980, shortly after graduating and marrying, before quickly "growing depressed," taking up poetry, and divorcing. His work has been described by NYT critic Michiko Kakutani as "deeply repugnant."

BUSHWICK, N.Y. — Chelsea, 25, was born in Hawaii, grew up in California, and lives, paints, and works in New York City. She first read The Wallcreeper "one or two" years ago; I finished it a week ago. In this episode we consider the present-day relevance (or lack thereof) of traditional marital monogamy, Zink's significance as a female novelist, and how considerations of "female novelists" might detract from their significance as "novelists." Nell Zink was born in 1964 in California. She has been married twice.

AXOLOTL, a ty6e 6eat ta6e in three parts, charts the evolution of the young male axolotl, from the larval to full grown – though sexually immature – adult, fully aquatic, amphibian stage. POV (Official Music Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOKb9m0I8fc ITSCana1s and YaMZ seek no money or clout for the release of AXOLOTL, only to evolve the creative lives of these beats, producers of which are as follows: 1. POV – greafer 2. chipsnthebeans (feat. STAR El) – Kid Ocean 3. Ooh gahdamn – CorMill 4. Ohhkay – Joseph L'Etranger 5. SKiNthatiSHED – 6-6-6 6. Moves – DJ KHALED'S SON x Caceci's Beats 7. PANINI O'CLOCK – Caceci's Beats 8. Ooh gahdamn reprise – instupendo 9. Lil Help – drip-133 10. lite on mah toes – sadface :(

PHILADELPHIA — Viva, 25, raps as Yamz, works at a compost company, and makes a mean brown rice bowl (with kraut and stir fry, generally). He first read On Truth and Untruth this morning. Friedrich Nietzsche (d. 1900), the son of Lutheran pastor, was born near Leipzig, Prussia (now Germany). He wrote the titular essays in On Truth and Untruth in 1872–1873, at the age of 28–29, while still a professor at the University of Basel INTRO song: https://soundcloud.com/yams_npotatoes/compostco-6417-146-pm-1

PHILADELPHIA — Aaron, 26, grew up in Redding, Mass., writes free-verse poetry, and organizes labor unions. He first read Steppenwolf ten years ago, as a sophomore in high school, when recommended it by a mentor. Hermann Hesse (d. 1962) was born in Calw, a Black Forest town in the German Empire, in 1877. He began writing Steppenwolf in 1924, shortly after marrying the singer Ruth Wenger, whom he left weeks after marrying and, upon returning almost a year later, lived in a separate apartment from. He finished the novel in 1927, in Zurich, at age 50. Aaron's poetry blog: http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com

PHILADELPHIA — Viva, 25, grew up in a treehouse in Santa Cruz, Calif., writes raps (as Yamz), travelogues, and aspires to revolutionize urban composting when not bike-(or skateboard-)couriering. He first read Food of the Gods circa 2014, while living full-time out of a Vanagon. Terence McKenna (1946–2000) first encountered psilocybin mushrooms – & fields of them – at 25, in the Colombian Amazon, on a trip initially in search of DMT. He died of a rare form of brain cancer. Viva's travelogue archive: polarsteps.com/viva

WEST PHILADELPHIA — Paul, 27, of Cambridge, Mass., writes literary science fiction, and, until recently, worked as a caretaker in a psychiatric ward. He first encountered The Castle of Crossed Destinies eight years ago. Italo Calvino (1923–1985), was raised in Siena, Italy. He wrote The Castle of Crossed Destinies between 1940 and 1969. Paul writes periodically at: https://ouroborosjormungandr.wordpress.com/