Podcast Summary: The Slowdown, Episode 1341: “Lake” by Noah Falck

Host: Maggie Smith
Date: August 29, 2025

Overview

In this episode of “The Slowdown,” host Maggie Smith reflects on the complexities of human coexistence with nature, using her recent family trip to a lake as an entry point. Through her storytelling and the featured poem “Lake” by Noah Falck, Smith considers how natural beauty is both enriched and diminished by human presence, and how poetry invites us to hold space for both appreciation and mourning of the landscapes around us.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Human Presence in Natural Spaces

• Maggie recalls a summer trip to Traverse City, Michigan, contrasting the atmosphere of a lake with that of the Atlantic coast.
• She draws out the similarities — recreational activities, children playing — but also key differences, focusing on the presence of duck families at the lake.
• Notable anecdote: Maggie’s daughter’s missing hair tie is found in a mother duck’s bill, an illustration of unintentional intersections between human and animal worlds.

“At times like that, it's hard not to feel like we humans are in the way.” (02:54)

2. Wonder and Complicity

• Smith expresses both her joy and guilt: enjoying the beauty of nature while also recognizing that humans often detract from it.
• She expands this realization beyond the vacation setting, reflecting that even in cities, nature persists, though sometimes obscured by human construction:

“The view of the water and trees and sky is better without jet skis and rafts and parasailers. The view of the lake is better when it's nothing but lake. I feel this even driving in my city, my view of the clouds and trees obscured by warehouses and high rises and radio towers.” (03:40)

3. Nature As Both Ubiquitous and Overlooked

• Emphasizes that nature isn’t confined to untouched landscapes; it's ever-present, even if we often fail to notice it because of societal distractions and developments.

“We don't have to go to the water or the forest or the mountains for nature. Nature is all around us all the time. We coexist, but sometimes the society we've built makes it hard to notice.” (04:06)

4. Introduction and Reflection on Today’s Poem

• Smith introduces “Lake” by Noah Falck as a poem that acknowledges and mourns how human interference mars natural beauty, yet still attempts to appreciate what remains.
• She frames the act of “holding space for both” loss and beauty as an act of empathy and imagination.

Featured Poem: “Lake” by Noah Falck (04:24)

Maggie Smith reads “Lake” in its entirety, allowing Falck’s imagery to speak for itself. The poem vividly paints a lake overrun by human activity:

“Sick with boats, sick with people in swimwear,
the water bright with tidal plastic at sunset
the lake is a city memorizing the sky
stuck on orange meets pink meets the last part of a never before blue.
It's a ruined work of art now clouded gray, gone shirtless.
Men point to every moving thing on the horizon.” (Read from 04:24)

Tone: The poem is both elegiac and visual, echoing Maggie’s earlier sentiments about presence and loss.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “These babies are the smallest yet. Come look.” — Maggie’s children, expressing wonder at the ducks right outside their door (02:11)
• “Once my daughter couldn't find her hair tie… I saw it held in the bill of a mother duck. It must have fallen into the grass. Eventually the mother duck dropped it and I picked it up so none of the ducks would mistake it for food again.” (02:28)
• “Holding space for both is a feat of empathy and imagination.” — Maggie Smith, on appreciating what natural beauty remains while mourning what is lost (04:18)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:20 — Maggie welcomes listeners and begins her story about the family trip to Michigan.
• 02:11 — Encounters with duck families at the lake.
• 02:54 — Reflection on feeling “in the way” of natural beauty.
• 03:40 — Broader reflections on nature in urban life.
• 04:18 — Introduction to the day’s poem, “Lake.”
• 04:24 — Maggie reads “Lake” by Noah Falck.

Conclusion

Maggie Smith uses gentle storytelling and the evocative power of poetry to inspire listeners to examine their relationship with the natural world, balancing awe and accountability. The episode encourages mindfulness, humility, and empathy as we move through landscapes altered by human hands.