Season 2
8 episodes
25 min. per episode
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Elisa connects diverse voices through poetry, unraveling personal stories that reveal America’s heart and soul, one verse at a time.
Episodes
Marilyn Chin's "Urban Love Poem" is a love poem with depth and edge-but who, or what, is the object of the poem's affection? Joined by Chin herself, in this episode we consider how the poet interweaves her own coming of age with that of a beloved city, San Francisco, as she explores the city's history from the Gold Rush and early Chinese immigration to the rise of Silicon Valley. Adding their voices to the mix are acclaimed memoirist Maxine Hong Kingston, tech investor Randy Komisar, and four Bay Area residents who spoke with us on a rooftop in Chinatown.
"The art of losing isn't hard to master," Elizabeth Bishop wrote in this poem, universally considered one of her greatest. This memorable line seems at once familiar, capturing universal experience, and peculiar, leading readers to wonder just what makes losing an "art"? Join host Elisa New, journalist Katie Couric, media executives Sheryl Sandberg and Yang Lan, singer/songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, poet Gregory Orr, and psychiatrist Richard Summers as they discuss Bishop's masterpiece on losses great and small.
This environmental science-themed episode explores Marianne Moore's great poem of marine life. Vice President Al Gore, poet Jorie Graham, and scientists from Conservation International dive into Moore's portrayal of the always-changing ocean, and its future in a warming world.
Host Elisa New talks with poet Mark Doty, psychologist Steven Pinker, choreographer Bill T. Jones, writer and fashion commentator Simon Doonan, and designer Jonathan Adler about this poem in which a visit to the barber shop sparks a meditation on love, the AIDS crisis, masculinity, home, and getting older.
Stephen Sondheim is widely hailed as the greatest modern American musical theater composer. In this episode, Broadway stage actors Raúl Esparza, Melissa Errico, Donna Lynne Champlin, Kerry O'Malley, Andrew Arrow, and writer Adam Gopnik give voice-in speech and song-to Sondheim's singular ability to blend lyrics and music, using as their case study this song from his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park with George.
Scholar and host Elisa New travels the country, joining up with distinguished poets, celebrities, and everyday Americans to create a fully immersive experience in hearing, reading, and interpreting American poems.