Podcast
Literary Nomads
Hosted by Steve Chisnell · EN
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!
15episodes
Episodes
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Nomadic Departures
1w ago00:39:18Tap to summarizeWe are left on the precipice of a severe, unavoidable aporia: when the Empire can absorb and commercialize our very language of protest, the only true ethical act of agency is to stop performing the script, reject the easy answer, and step directly out into the unimaginable dark . We challenge the profound hypocrisy of our own reading habits, and confront the uncomfortable idea that our graduate seminars, book clubs, and elite cultural critiques often function as a highly managed form of otium—a beautifully curated performative space that we purchase with company-backed grants to feel virtuous while leaving our agency for change behind. Consider the collision between Le Guin’s unmapped wilderness, Mark Fisher’s capitalist realism, Roger Waters’ scathing critique of economic indifference in “Us and Them,” and Ivan Karamazov’s terrifying refusal to accept a universe founded on unavenged tears: we wrestle with the limits of systemic tolerance and our only steps forward. Episode 6.37 – Nomadic Departures Readings & Resources: Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov, 1879. Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? 2009. Gainsborough, Thomas. Mr and Mrs Andrews. c. 1750, oil on canvas. James, William. “The Will to Believe.” The New World, 1896. Le Guin, Ursula K. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Harper & Row, 1975, pp. 275-284. Pink Floyd. The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973. Popper, Karl. The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945. Glossary: Aporia: A state of being deadlocked in an unresolvable contradiction or paradox where we can go no further in our knowing. It is often a productive, discomfiting space of uncertainty that forces an individual to make a choice, interpret, and step forward without the comfort of easy answers or absolute truths. Capitalist Realism - The stifling, pervasive illusion that the current capitalist economic system is the only practical, applicable order in the world and is therefore entirely inescapable . It acts as a neutralizing force that absorbs attempts at resistance by convincing people that imagining viable alternatives is impossible, romantic, or overly dramatic. Follow-up Reading: Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Transactional Morality - An ethical framework rooted in the logic of economics, where moral choices are based entirely on the utility of exchange and trade-offs. Critiqued heavily by thinkers like Georges Bataille, this mindset operates on the assumption that every action, suffering, or sacrifice must be made in exchange for some advantage, effectively commodifying human relationships . The Willing Victim - A profound moral paradox wherein a scapegoat voluntarily consents to their own suffering in order for the larger society or “edifice” to prosper. Such consent shatters straightforward moral outrage, complicating the ethics of resistance by forcing onlookers to question whether rejecting such a system is a genuine act of rebellion or an act of moral cowardice that ignores the victim’s agency. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you engage in a passionate debate about political or literary theory, are you genuinely trying to cause a local disruption, or are you just running a competitive performance to elevate your own cultural status? Look at the daily economic suffering, homelessness, or systemic extraction happening at your neighborhood borders . Do you quickly sanitize that reality by telling yourself “there’s only so much one ordinary person can do?” How has your regular leisure time (otium) or your personal reading routine been subtly gamified or turned into a data point by online platforms to ensure you stay productive 24/7? Think about the local first responders, teachers, or high-risk laborers who routinely absorb physical, mental, and economic precarity to keep your community stable . Does their “voluntary sacrifice” clear your conscience, or does it heighten your structural accountability? What is the precise moral principle or systemic threshold that would finally force you to drop your unearned luxuries, reject your lifestyle, and walk completely away from a toxic compromise? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 A Little Drama 02:05 Intro Theme 02:42 Victims, Objects, Predators 08:23 The Global Basement 16:47 The Baggage We Carry: Maya 22:33 The Ultimate Aporia 30:22 Manipulations: Finn 38:02 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-37-nomadic-departures New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.37: Nomadic Departures,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 29 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →What I Get Wrong: Intimidation & Interpretation
2w ago00:38:43Tap to summarizeIs our intellectual exercise just an expensive lifestyle brand that keeps our hands clean? In this raw, self-interrogating mailbag episode, we turn the lens inward for a vulnerability audit of our own political battles and pedagogical failures. Let’s try and bridge the gap between literary theory and civic praxis, how public school teachers, students, and lifelong readers can navigate the intimidation of administrative bureaucracy, fight censorship, and reclaim accountability. Let’s get past passive book consumption and embrace “Writing Back” to structurally alter our local communities. Episode 6.36 – What I Get Wrong: Intimidation & Interpretation Readings & Resources: Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970. Giroux, Henry A. Theory and Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition, 1983. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When we use academic language or literary analysis to describe a social injustice, does that lead to eventual action or as insulation or safety from responsibility to act? Why are we so obsessed with making every book or public issue “relatable” to our own personal lives? How might relatability cause us to miss the writer’s message? Think about a time you noticed a business or organization involved in sketchy or unlawful behavior. Did the sheer size of the bureaucracy intimidate you into staying silent? Why does it feel so terrifying to admit an intellectual error or show people a real-world project where you failed? Why do we think hiding our mistakes makes us look more qualified? If you had to stop just talking about this season’s ideas and actually go disrupt a local system this week, which specific “space of authority” would you have to walk into? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Praxis of Complicity 09:24 Intro Theme 09:59 Messy Dialogues: Our Mailbag 11:12 -Ben: Escapist Privilege 14:10 -Aakash: Measuring Otium 18:13 -Jim: Just Mirrors 21:45 -Sarah: Empathy Trouble 24:46 -Kendall & NLH: Fear of Disruption 30:04 What I Get Wrong 37:27 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-36-what-i-get-wrong New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.36: What I Get Wrong: Intimidation & Interpretation,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 22 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →Writing Back: Guerilla Texts, BTS, and Gaye
3w ago00:35:51Tap to summarizeIs that blank page paralyzing your activism? Is your irony a mask for your complicity? We’re using William James and David Foster Wallace to interrogate the “sneer trap” of modern irony. From Marvin Gaye’s soulful protests to BTS’s radical solidarity after the Sewol Ferry tragedy, we consider how “New Sincerity” and “Guerilla Texts” can unsettle the status quo and physically alter the world. Episode 6.35 – Writing Back: Guerilla Texts, BTS, and Gaye Readings & Resources: Gaye, Marvin. “What’s Going On.” What’s Going On, 1971. BTS. “Spring Day.” You Never Walk Alone, 2017. YouTube, https://youtu.be/xEeFrLSkMm8. James, William. “Is Life Worth Living?” The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, 1897. Wallace, David Foster. “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction.” Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993. Hesse, Hermann. Demian, 1919. Some Key Terms from this episode: Precursive Faith: The pragmatic belief that the very act of speaking out helps create the reality of that change New Sincerity: A subversive posture of absolute, vulnerable earnestness that rejects the irony weaponized by our modern media economy. Guerilla Text: An improvisational, unsanctioned piece of public writing that operates outside the status quo Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Nature of the Blank Page: When you think about speaking out against injustice, does the desire for a “guarantee of success” act as a barrier to your first step or as a tool for planning? The Armor of Irony: Thinking about your most recent social media posts or public opinions, how often have you used irony as a kind of armor? The Process of Sincerity: How does the chance of being labeled “cringe” for an honest belief influence the way you choose to share your thoughts in public spaces? The Texture of Solidarity: If Le Guin’s “walking away” is re-storied as a group action rather than a lonely departure, how does that shift the perceived cost of leaving? The Logic of Occupation: When you use the “Emperor’s tools”—like social media platforms—to voice a protest, are you participating in the system or engaging in a “tactical occupation” of the space? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Blank Page and Precursive Faith 07:27 Intro Theme 08:05 World Alterations 10:45 Anti-Rebels and New Sincerity 15:54 Earnest Pleas from Marvin Gaye 20:55 The Sewol Ferry Tragedy: BTS 29:06 Guerilla Texts 34:34 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-35-guerilla-texts-bts New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.35: Writing Back: Guerilla Texts & BTS,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 15 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →The Ethics of Reading: Frictional Thoughts
4w ago00:38:38Tap to summarizeIs your reading just an “escape”?? Your favorite “escape” read might be a gated community for your conscience. Today, we interrogate the “Catharsis Commodity” and ask if our reading habits are just another layer of the Hideous Bargain. Explore the ethics of reading and the “Empathy Trap” in this look at the arguments of Suzanne Keen and Louise Rosenblatt. We expand the “Hideous Bargain” to include the very act of consuming this podcast and the literature it discusses. We ask if we are truly “walking away” from the bargain, or if we are merely co-authoring the child’s abuse through passive, frictionless consumption. Episode 6.34 – The Ethics of Reading: Frictional Thoughts Readings & Resources: Felski, Rita. The Limits of Critique, 2015. Keen, Suzanne. Empathy and the Novel, 2007. Nussbaum, Martha C. Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature, 1992. Rosenblatt, Louise M. The Reader, The Text, The Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work, 1978. Achebe, Chinua. Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1989. Kutz, Eleanor, and Hephzibah Roskelly. An Unquiet Pedagogy: Transforming Practice in the English Classroom, 1991. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Writers in Politics: Essays, 1981. Suvin, Darko. “Estrangement and Cognition.” Strange Horizons, 2014. https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/estrangement-and-cognition/ Some Key Terms from this episode: Cognitive Estrangement: Intellectualizing emotional experience using new or unfamiliar concepts to force readers to critically examine and make connections to their lived reality. Unquiet Pedagogy: An educational philosophy and practice that deliberately disrupts reader comfort by compelling learners to engage difference and to recognize the non-neutral nature of their learning. Transaction (Aesthetic Transaction): For Rosenblatt, the messy, active dialogue between the reader and the text where meaning is not passively received, but frictionally constructed by the reader. Frictional Reading: From Steve Chisnell, the act of slowing our reading to examine difference, to consider significance, and to carry that meaning-making to the larger world. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Nature of the Escape: When you reach for a book to “hide from the world,” what specific “outside” noise or responsibility are you most afraid will follow you into the garden? The Transaction of Tears: If you could no longer use a character’s suffering as a “pressure-release valve” for your own emotions, how would your choice of what to read change? The Cognitive Friction: Why does the prospect of “not thinking”—even for a moment during a leisure activity—feel like a luxury rather than a surrender of your humanity? The Path to Praxis: If the energy from your next “frictional” read had to be used to “Write Back” to the world, what is the first letter, essay, or conversation you would be compelled to start? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Walled Garden of Consumption 08:28 Intro Theme 09:05 The Empathy Trap 19:14 Empathy Traps Undone 22:44 Social Action? 27:04 Educators and Narrative Complicity 32:18 Civic Acts 37:15 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-34-ethics-of-reading New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.34: The Ethics of Reading: Frictional Thoughts,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 8 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →Roman Plow, Sovereign Tree: Seneca and Zhuangzi
May 100:43:01Tap to summarizeCan Stoicism answer our dilemma? Is the suffering child a product of a world that demands every second and every soul be “useful” to the state? By comparing the “Roman Plow” of duty to the “Sovereign Tree” of uselessness, we ask if our participation in the “Achievement Society” is actually what pays for global injustice and inequity. Compare Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life with the Zhuangzi in this reflection on Stoicism vs. Daoism. Learn why “uselessness” is a survival strategy against the “Extraction Economy” and how Cincinnatus’s Roman Plow creates a utilitarian trap. Oh, and how The Expendables does, too. Episode 6.33 – Roman Plow, Sovereign Tree: Seneca and Zhuangzi Readings & Resources: Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. “On the Shortness of Life.” Gareth Williams, trans., 2003. Zhuangzi. The Zhuangzi. Martin Palmer et. al., trans. 2020. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Officiis (On Duties). Walter Miller, trans., 1913. Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society. Stanford University Press, 2015. Levinas, Emmanuel. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. Translated by Alphonso Lingis, Duquesne University Press, 1969. Some Key Terms from this episode: Otium honestum: “Honest Leisure.” Tactical rest that must still serve the state—for Cicero, a productive leisure Wuwei: (woo-way) - “Actionless action” that uses radical uselessness as a survival strategy against the empire. Budeyi: (boo-day-yee) - Acting only when compelled by necessity, without ego or the desire to “fix” the world. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Price of Being Useful: If you were only valued for what you could do for your community, what parts of your “inner calm” would you have to sacrifice? The Survival of the Gnarled: Zhuangzi’s tree survives because it is too twisted to be turned into a boat or a coffin. What “useless” traits have protected you from being used by others? The Chisel of Kindness: The emperors killed Hundun by trying to give him a “normal” face. Where have we tried to “fix” someone else’s life using our own standards, only to realize we were ignoring who they actually were? The Stolen Leisure: Seneca says we don’t have a short life, we just waste a lot of it. In a world where even our relaxation is “bought and sold,” how do you find time that truly belongs to you?. The Fluid Response: If you stopped acting out of “duty” and started acting out of “fluid response,” would you still work to end injustice? How differently? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Beach, The Ships, The Trap of Time 08:42 Intro Theme 09:18 Seneca: “On the Shortness of Life” 15:14 Negotium and Utilitarian Traps 23:30 The Garden Wrecker: Zhuangzi 31:44 The Emperor’s Chisel 37:47 I’ll Exploit Myself, Thank You 41:45 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-33-seneca-and-zhuangzi New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.33: Roman Plow, Sovereign Tree: Seneca and Zhuangzi,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 1 May 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man
Apr 2100:46:29Tap to summarizeAnd when the child cannot speak for itself? Humanity’s first global lawsuit! In this 10th-century Islamic fable, animals put mankind on trial for the crimes of the extraction economy. We unsettle the habitus of human exceptionalism to ask: would we change the story’s ending because we couldn’t handle our own complicity? Discover the original Omelas in “The Case of the Animals versus Man.” It’s early Iraq and modern ethics, Peter Singer’s speciesism, Haraway’s companion species, and the colonizing “thingification” of nature. Was Le Guin’s story about animal rights? Or, are animal rights linked to our ideological privileging and moral shame? Episode 6.32 – The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man Readings & Resources: Ikhwān al-Safā’ - “The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn” (Classical Astrologer pdf) (10th century) Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Word for World Is Forest (1972) Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975) Le Guin, Ursula K. - “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow,” The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975) Achebe, Chinua - Hopes and Impediments (1989) Aristotle - Politics, Book 1 (~330 BCE) Bacon, Francis - The New Organon (1620) Cavarero, Adriana - Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence (2009) Césaire, Aimé - Discourse on Colonialism (1950) Derrida, Jacques - The Animal That Therefore I Am (2008) Fanon, Frantz - The Wretched of the Earth (1961) Haraway, Donna - The Companion Species Manifesto (2003) Singer, Peter - Practical Ethics (1979) Some Key Terms from this episode: Speciesism: Systematic discrimination against an “other” based solely on the generic characteristic of their species. Follow-up Reading: Peter Singer, Practical Ethics. Thingification: The psychological and economic process of conditioning an oppressor to see a living, feeling being as a mere inanimate object that exists solely for utility. Follow-up Reading: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. L’inerme (The Defenseless): The completely unarmed, helpless being attacked with deliberate violence. Follow-up Reading: Adriana Cavarero, Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Evidence of Excellence: The humans in the trial list their architecture, sciences, and religions as proof that they “own” the world. If you were the judge, would you see these accomplishments as evidence of human greatness, or simply as a list of things we’ve built using stolen materials? The Purpose of Pain: We often tell ourselves that animals (or even other people) don’t really “feel” their suffering because they aren’t smart enough to understand it. When we tell ourselves that someone is “too ignorant to know real joy,” are we describing their reality, or are we just making ourselves feel better about the bargain we’ve made? The Master’s Logic: In the episode, we look at Aristotle’s idea that “the lower is for the sake of the higher.” If you truly believed that your comfort was the highest purpose of the natural world, what part of your own empathy would you have to switch off to keep living that way? The Power of the Silence: The original story ends not with a victory for humans, but with a saint who recognizes the value of all worthy thought. Why is it so much harder for us to accept an ending where no one is “the boss” than one where we are clearly the winners? The Hidden Price: If you found out that the “mathematically infallible happiness” of your city required you to ignore the cries of the things that feed and clothe you, would you try to change the system, or would you try to erase those cries from your mind so you could keep enjoying the peace? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Trials and Tribulations 02:52 Intro Theme 03:28 10th Century Courtrooms 17:04 Bacon, Extraction Economies, and the Voices of L’inerme 26:49 Speciesism, Le Guin, and Peter Singer 33:57 19th Century Crimes 41:48 Synthesis & Superiority 45:13 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/original-omelas-case-animals-vs-man New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.32: The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 18 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →The Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain
Apr 1400:37:28Tap to summarizeWe’ve turned the basement into a casino! A man who turns to fortune-telling to assuage his conscience. A society that chooses its victims through a lottery. Does “mathematical fairness” absolve the citizens of Omelas, or does it simply creates a more sophisticated illusion of justice? Today it’s the dark philosophy of Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Lottery in Babylon” and Machado de Assis’s “The Fortune-Teller.” How do we use fate, destiny, and algorithms to justify systemic inequality and sacrifice, unsettling our modern reliance on “chance” to explain the suffering of others? Episode 6.31 – Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain Readings & Resources: Assis, Machado de. “The Fortune-Teller” (“A Cartomante”). Gazeta de Notícias, (1884). [Waywords PDF] Borges, Jorge Luis. “The Lottery in Babylon” (“La lotería en Babilonia”), (1941). [Internet Archive PDF] Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963). Bataille, Georges. On Nietzsche, (1944). Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice, (1971). Some Key Terms from this episode: Capitalist Realism - The internalization of an exploitative system—such as Babylon’s lethal lottery or modern economic structures—so completely that citizens cannot even imagine a viable alternative reality. Democratic Scapegoat - Definition: The process of sanitizing our guilt by mathematically equalizing the probability of suffering across everyone, masking deliberate, systemic violence as a fair game of chance. Will to Chance - Radical embrace of the absolute unknown that rejects utilitarian exchange, according to Bataille. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When you encounter a story of someone else’s “luck,” does your mind look for a pattern of justice, or does it shrug at a meaningless universe? How does the process of “outsourcing” a decision to an algorithm or a coin toss change the physical sensation of responsibility in your body? In what ways does the concept of “equal opportunity” prevent us from seeing any actual human extraction suffered? If the suffering of a victim is determined by a “bad draw,” does that change the moral outrage to demand a change in the system? What parts of your own daily “certainties” are actually just “bullseyes” you’ve painted around the random bullet holes of your experience? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Games of Chance 03:01 Intro Theme 03:36 Borges, Assis, Le Guin 07:45 The Failure of Reason: “The Fortune Teller” 14:20 Borges, Rawls, and the Democratic Scapegoat 25:20 Accountability 201 28:18 Institutionalized Chaos 33:08 Narrative Hypnosis 36:12 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-31-tyranny-chance-assis-borges/ New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.31: The Tyranny of Chance: Assis, Borges, and the Randomized Bargain,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 13 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →Waypoint – “The Fortune Teller”
Apr 1000:26:26Tap to summarize 10 April 2026 Waypoint - “The Fortune Teller” by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis is perhaps the greatest writer of Brazil. In “The Fortune-Teller,” a secret affair driven by anonymous threats pushes a committed skeptic toward a dingy attic and a deck of cards. It is a study in how easily we trade our reason for a comfortable prophecy, and a reminder that the future rarely negotiates with the stories we tell ourselves. As a setting for our discussion on the role of chance, fate, and destiny against moral accountability, we might find few better examples. Chapters 00:00 Waypoint Introduction 00:14 Title: “The Fortune Teller” by Machado de Assis 00:33 Reading: “The Fortune Teller” 26:01 Outro Reflection Questions: How does the physical weight of a “secret” alter the way your mind perceives the “random” events of the day? In the moment Camillo enters the fortune-teller’s house, is he seeking a discovery of the future, or a sanctuary from the present? How does the “logic” of a skeptic become the primary tool for their own self-deception? If the fortune-teller “guessed” his secret, does that validate the magic, or does it simply expose the transparency of a guilty mind? When we outsource our moral outcomes to “Fate,” what part of our own agency and accountability do we leave behind? https://waywordsstudio.com Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ TRANSCRIPT: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/waypoint-reading-of-the-fortune-teller Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material frequently, with deep-dive examinations of literature surrounded by smaller episodes which explore related texts, topics, and strategies for thinking. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Social Media: @WaywordsStudio YouTube: Waywords Studio CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “Reading of ‘The Fortune Teller’ by Machado de Assis,’” Waywords Studio, 10 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/waypoints/.
Transcribe →Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland
Apr 300:56:46Tap to summarizeThe “Hideous Bargain” is no longer just about one child’s pain . . . We investigate the “Euclidean Mind” that seeks to flatten our messy humanity into a spreadsheet of “mathematically infallible happiness.” Unsettle the sterile peace of the OneState and the rigid hierarchy of Flatland to ask: Is your imagination a gift, or a disease the state is currently curing?. An interrogation of the “Iron Cage” of rationality and the death of imagination in a social order of mathematical logic. We negotiate the intersection of Weberian sociology and Zamyatin’s thermodynamic dialectic—Energy vs. Entropy—to re-story the act of writing as an inherently subversive, antientropic resistance. Episode 6.30 – Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland Readings & Resources: Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884) Weber, Max. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1922) Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We (1924) Dostoevsky, Fyodor. “The Grand Inquisitor.” The Brothers Karamazov (1879) (pdf) Some Key Terms from this episode: The Iron Cage - Ideological and cognitive lockdown—the endpoint of extreme rationality—where a society or individual relies solely on the safe, structured pronouncements of authority rather than independent, critical reason. See Max Weber’s sociological writings on bureaucracy and rationality. Credulity vs. Credibility - An epistemological distinction about how we acquire knowledge: credulity demands blind faith in the dogma of ruling authorities (the “Circle Priests”), whereas credibility requires that beliefs and leaps of imagination be rigorously tested and anchored by reason. For the historical backdrop of this debate in Abbott’s time, see Jonathan Smith, Lawrence I. Berkove, and Gerald A. Baker’s “A Grammar of Dissent: Flatland, Newman, and the Theology of Probability.” Entropy / Antientropic - Borrowed from thermodynamics, entropy represents the State’s desire for blissful, dogmatic stasis and ideological closure. Antientropic is the vital, disruptive force of heretical, imaginative energy that true art and literature must inject into society to prevent its spiritual death. See Yevgeny Zamyatin’s essay “On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters.” Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When we prioritize “predictability” in our daily routines or digital feeds, what higher dimensions of experience or thought do we “flatten” out of importance? In what ways does our internal “Iron Cage” make us the principal figures in charge of our own subjugation? If “reason” is used to justify the “Great Operation” on our imaginations, does the bargain remain “rational,” or has the language of logic been colonized by power? How does the act of “writing back” disrupt the thermodynamic entropy of a sterile society? If we are “Numbers” in a system that values only efficiency, what “irrational” parts of our humanity are worth preserving as heretical?. Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Certainty and Less Than 08:27 Intro Theme 09:03 The Monster “State” 15:23 The Geometry of Bigotry: Geometry 26:19 “We” and the Shattered Conduit 32:37 Glass Cities 41:08 The Treason of Writing 52:02 Aporia and . . . 55:30 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-30-failures-of-imagination-we-flatland New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.30: Failures of Imagination: We and Flatland,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 3 April 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →Utopia’s Spare Parts: Star Trek & Ishiguro
Mar 2100:49:26Tap to summarizeThe “Hideous Bargain” moves from metaphor to the operating table. In this episode, we let loose the bonds of metaphor in Le Guin’s “Omelas” and meet the visceral reality of clinical labor. We examine how the “Sanitization of Language” allows societies—from the United Federation of Planets to modern biotechnology markets—to rebrand human suffering as a “sacred honor” or a “net gain”. “We explore the “clinical labor” of Star Trek and Never Let Me Go. We re-story the “Redshirt” trope through the lens of necropolitics and the ethical extractions of the modern bioeconomy. Episode 6.29 – Utopia’s Spare Parts: Star Trek & Ishiguro Readings & Resources: Ishiguro, Kazuo - Never Let Me Go (2005) “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach,” Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Season 1, Episode 6 (2022) Mbembe, Achille – Necropolitics (2019) Scarry, Elaine - The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (1985) Waldby, Catherine & Melinda Cooper - Clinical Labor: Tissue Inventory and the Embodied Economies of Regenerative Medicine (2014) Singer, Peter - Practical Ethics (2011) Haraway, Donna - “A Cyborg Manifesto” (found in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, 1991) Some Key Terms from this episode: Clinical Labor - The extraction of biological value (tissues, organs, experimental data) from the human body as an economic resource. Habitus - Our “social autopilot,” the internalized set of habits and worldviews, shaped by our upbringing, that makes certain paths feel “natural” while others remain literally unthinkable Homo Sacer - [Homo SAH-cher], An individual reduced to “bare life”; excluded from legal protection and able to be killed without it being a crime. Necropolitics - The use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die. Sanitization of Language – The use of euphemisms (e.g., “completion” instead of death) to make unethical systems palatable. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions When we encounter a “sanitized label” like “economic downsizing,” what physical extractions are hidden by the syntax? In what ways does our own “habitus” make social sacrifices feel like inevitable “canon events” rather than choices? If a “docile body” accepts its own exploitation/extraction, does that change the nature of the bargain, or just the visibility of our choices? How does the concept of “clinical labor” reframe the human body as a “mathematical” utilitarian equation? If empathy has “limits” within a walled ideological system, what other strategies may help us overcome those walls? Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Crewman, We Hardly Knew You 07:43 Intro Theme 08:19 Extractions of Labor 14:49 Star Trek Meets Le Guin 28:10 Ishiguro and the Quiet Bureaucracy 37:16 Utilitarian Defense 43:18 The Flesh and the Machine 48:10 Closing Credits === Transcript and Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-29-utopia-spare-parts New to Literary Nomads? Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/ Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8 === Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas. Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses. Website: https://waywordsstudio.com Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/ Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio === CREDITS: Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/) Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski USING THIS WORK: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution. MLA CITATION: Chisnell, Steve. “6.29 Utopia’s Spare Parts: Star Trek & Ishiguro,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 20 March 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
Transcribe →