The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1456: Rubicon by Carl Phillips
Guest Host: Samia Bashir (filling in for Maggie Smith)
Date: February 13, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, guest host Samia Bashir reflects on personal and cultural moments of crossing "Rubicons"—points of no return—and introduces Carl Phillips's poem "Rubicon." Through historical context and personal narrative, Bashir explores what it means to pass an irreversible threshold, both collectively and individually, and sets the stage for the poem's meditation on dark impulses, transformation, and the ambiguous comforts found in pain and pleasure.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Stage: Personal and Historic Rubicons

• Samia Bashir introduces herself [00:44], noting that she began the decade on Fellowship in Rome amidst hope and rising uncertainty as COVID-19 took hold:
  • Reflects on being in Italy at "the dawning Chinese year of the rat, the first animal in the eastern zodiac, representing new beginnings."
  • Observes, "A whole lot most certainly began that year. And here we are now, deep in the midst of it all." [01:15]
• Anticipates the coming "Chinese year of the Fire Horse," symbolizing strength, independence, passion, and transformation, expressing hope and readiness for shift and change.

Crossing the Rubicon: History and Metaphor [01:52]

• Bashir unpacks the origin of "crossing the Rubicon"—how Julius Caesar’s fateful crossing began the Roman Civil War and marked a historical point of no return, reshaping Rome’s future.
• She contextualizes the idiom as a metaphor for irreversible choices:
  • "It refers to having stepped over a line or passed a point of no return. We use it to say that one has taken the final step into dangerous waters from which there is no retreat."
• Bashir muses on the cyclical nature of pain:
  • "We crossed the point of no return to remind us that pain is not in fact an end, but can instead be the beginning of a terrible cycle."
  • Acknowledges the difficult, protracted process of repair: "We break something that can take ages, perhaps even millennia, to repair. But repair we must."
• She highlights the need not just for prevention, but preparation:
  • "Our work, in fact, might be bigger than holding up a sign that says 'do not cross,’ but to be prepared for the crossing. Sometimes history tells us that crossing is inevitable. Something in our nature refuses to prevent it." [03:10]
• Ends the reflection with a note of hope and agency:
  • "The light, however, lies in the fact that we can recognize it. We can stand tall against its headwinds and take back the wheels of power, no matter how far off the road we've been driven; we can, we will, we must steer the wheel back toward right." [03:30]

Introducing the Poem: Explaining the Poetic Theme [03:45]

• Bashir describes Carl Phillips’s "Rubicon" as a poem that delves into our darkest impulses, the appeal of pain, and the complexity of human desires:
  • "There is something titillating about playing in the dark with choosing to feel pain, to find pleasure in it, even when the alternative can feel like nothing at all."

Featured Poem: "Rubicon" by Carl Phillips [04:12]

Bashir reads the poem in full, inviting listeners to reflect on its nuanced portrayal of the blur between pleasure and pain, strength and martyrdom, cruelty, intimacy, and the human urge to cross boundaries.

Notable Quotes from the Poem:

• “Like that feeling inside the mouth as it makes of obscenity a new endearment, like a rumor monger without sign among the deaf, the speechless...” [04:22]
• “Having been able once not only to pick out the one crow in a cast of ravens, but to parse darker, even more difficult distinctions, weakness and martyrdom, waves and the receding fact of them as they again come back...” [04:39]
• “That moment in intimacy when sorrow, fear and anger cross in unison, the same face which at first can seem almost a form of pleasure, a mistake as easy, presumably, as it’s forgivable.” [05:09]
• “I suspect forgetting will be a very different thing, more rough, less blue, more lit, patternless.” [05:29]

Reflection and Takeaways

• Bashir doesn’t offer a closing commentary post-poem, instead allowing the richness of the poem and her earlier reflections on resilience, inevitability, and healing to linger.
• The episode as a whole encourages listeners to consider their own crossings—the Rubicons past and present—and to reflect on the transformative possibility within even the darkest experiences.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On preparation vs. prevention:
  • “Our work, in fact, might be bigger than holding up a sign that says 'do not cross,’ but to be prepared for the crossing. Sometimes history tells us that crossing is inevitable. Something in our nature refuses to prevent it.” — Samia Bashir [03:10]
• On personal and collective resilience:
  • “We can stand tall against its headwinds and take back the wheels of power, no matter how far off the road we've been driven; we can, we will, we must steer the wheel back toward right.” — Samia Bashir [03:30]
• On pain and new beginnings:
  • “Pain is not in fact an end, but can instead be the beginning of a terrible cycle. This is where we break something that can take ages...to repair. But repair we must.” — Samia Bashir [02:45]

Notable Segment Timestamps

• 00:44 — Samia Bashir’s personal introduction and reflections on beginnings
• 01:52 — Historical background on “crossing the Rubicon”
• 03:10 — Meditations on inevitability, agency, and hope
• 03:45 — Introduction to Carl Phillips’s “Rubicon”
• 04:12 - 05:38 — Reading of "Rubicon" by Carl Phillips

Tone:
Reflective, insightful, gently urgent—Bashir brings personal warmth and world-historical perspective, inviting listeners into communal introspection through compassionate, poetic language.

Summary prepared for listeners seeking the emotional and intellectual heart of the episode, skipping advertisements and production details.