Jo and Adam are joined by returning guest, poet/novelist/journalist/satirist Leigh Stein for a discussion of her new collection of satire-inflected pandemic poetry, What To Miss When (Penguin, 2021). In a wide-range discussion, Adam and Jo also talk about: the power and purpose of poetry and its potential as an effective medium for satire; the challenges that confront anyone hoping to represent the first year of Covid-19; and what kind of satirical poem they themselves would write if ever they were required to do so. Tune in again tomorrow for part two of this interview with Leigh, in which everyone talks about cancellation, Karens and Bo Burnham.
“‘What To Miss When’ is a strikingly effective melee of the literary and the very relatable, which is a really difficult balance to nail in trying to represent the pandemic in literary form. Remarkable, skilful, and wonderful.”
– Dr. Jo Waugh, Senior Lecturer, English Literature, York St John University
Buy What to Miss When in the UK
Buy What to Miss When in the US
In this episode, Jo and Adam and Leigh talk about:
Alfred Tennyson
Alison Roman
Allen Ginsberg
Amazon Prime
A Modest Proposal (by Jonathan Swift)
Andrew Doyle/Titania McGrath
Anne Sexton
Argos
Boris Johnson
Brontë sisters
Cancellation/Cancel Culture
Chrissy Teigen
Confessional/Post-confessional poetry
COVID-19 pandemic
David Bowles
Don Juan (Gordon George Byron)
Emily Dickinson
Feminism
Gate-keeping
Girlbosses
Gwyneth Paltrow
James Montgomery
Joan Didion
Joe Rogan
John B McLemore
Jo Jo Rabbit (dir. by Taika Waititi, 2019)
Lockdown
Marie Kondo
Matthew Arnold
“Merch”
New York Magazine
Pandemic drinking
Parasite (dir. by Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
R.E.M
Richard Herring
Self-Care (by Leigh Stein)
S-Town podcast
Sylvia Plath
The Second Coming (by W B Yeats)
The Decameron (by Giovanni Boccaccio)
Tiger King
Together (dir. by Stephen Daldry, 2021)
Tote bags
YA Fiction
Yoga