The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1485: “Scheduling the Bone Scan” by Katie Farris
Host: Maggie Smith
Date: April 2, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Maggie Smith explores the intersection of poetry and science, centering on the ways our senses and bodily experiences are both mathematical and mysterious. She introduces and reflects on Katie Farris's poem “Scheduling the Bone Scan,” a meditative piece that illuminates the connections between anatomy, music, language, and the passage of time. The episode encourages listeners to pay close attention to their bodies, their senses, and the poetry woven into both.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Myth of Opposite Brain Halves (01:09)

• Maggie Smith challenges the dichotomy between "right brain/left brain," "math and science" vs. "poetry and art":
  • "It's funny how we talk about the right brain and the left brain and about math and science versus poetry and art, when actually there is a lot of math in poetry the way there is a lot of math in music. And on the other hand, there is a lot of poetry in science."
• She suggests art and science are intimately intertwined, each containing elements of the other.

Taking Our Senses for Granted (01:42)

• Smith reflects on how we often overlook our senses until they falter—sharing her own experience with nearsightedness:
  • "You hardly appreciate your vision until it starts to go... You hardly appreciate your sense of smell or taste or hearing until they're compromised by age or illness or injury."
• This sets the stage for the poem’s meditation on bodily experience and vulnerability.

The Poetry in the Science of Hearing (02:05)

• Smith gives a vivid, step-by-step explanation of how human hearing operates:
  • Describes the journey of sound waves, the eardrum, ossicles (three tiny bones), and the cochlea, down to the microscopic movement of stereocilia that create electrical signals interpretable as sound.
• She likens this intricate process to a Rube Goldberg machine or the childhood game Mousetrap (03:04):
  • "It's a complex process with lots of steps. It makes me think of Mousetrap, the game my sisters and I used to play... a marble runs down a track and falls into a bucket, which tips over and knocks something else down, and so on. A chain reaction."

Finding Poetry in Scientific Language (03:28)

• Maggie notices the inherent lyricism in anatomical terminology:
  • "But isn’t there also so much poetry in the language? Cochlea. Stereocilia. Ripples and waves and signals."
• This leads naturally into the episode's featured poem—a convergence of science, anatomy, and lyricism.

Introduction to the Poem: “Scheduling the Bone Scan” (03:37)

• Smith sets up the poem as a fusion of "science and art, anatomy and music. Bones and bells."
• She observes that the poem “refuses to take the body and the time we are given in our bodies for granted.”

Featured Poem & Reflection

“Scheduling the Bone Scan” by Katie Farris (04:02)

• Smith reads the poem in full, which meditates on the body’s fragility and the resonances within our anatomy:
  • “the word bone tolls in your ear. A bell. What tolls? The word? The bone."
  • "The drum in your ear moves the hammer like a lever. A bone moves the word bone through your ear."
  • "You repeat bone, your voice droning. Not silver, bronze. A duller thud. Nothing. Ringing instead. A buzz. The devouring sound. The insect. Time.”
• The poem draws sonic parallels (“bone tolls in your ear. A bell.”) and alludes to how time and mortality echo within us.

Notable Quote (from the poem, 04:11)

“The drum in your ear moves the hammer like a lever. A bone moves the word bone through your ear.”

Notable Quote (from the poem, 04:22)

“Ringing instead. A buzz. The devouring sound. The insect. Time.”

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the poetic nature of science (01:11):
  Maggie Smith: "You are enjoying the art of poetry thanks to the science of sound and hearing."

• On reverence for our bodies (03:37):
  Maggie Smith: “It's a poem that refuses to take the body and the time we are given in our bodies for granted.”

• Evocative use of language in the poem (04:13 onward):
  Katie Farris: “The word bone tolls in your ear. A bell. What tolls? The word? The bone.”

Conclusion / Invitation

The episode closes with the encouragement to notice and honor the complexities and mysteries within our own bodies, finding poetry in the ordinary processes that sustain life. This reminder—delivered through anecdote, reflection, and the power of a single poem—embodies the ethos of The Slowdown: to use daily poetry as a moment of perspective, self-reflection, and connection.

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