This Book Made Me

• Inciting Joy: More Capacity, More Access, More Poetry

  What is joy, and how do we access it in a moment that feels so overwhelming? For two years, my guest and I have been studying the practices of a complex-but-easeful joy, using Ross Gay's book of essays "Inciting Joy" as an inspiration and a template. In this episode, we talk about what continues to shape our practice of experiencing joy in this moment.  We invite you to join us, and practice joy in community! We have two opportunities:  ✨ A joy-centered book club where we’ll read Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy together - building community, sharing reflections, and nourishing what uplifts us. Register and learn more about the book club here: https://shorturl.at/ENKPk ✨ A 5-week community of practice that will cultivate and steward joy, especially in uncertain times. Register and learn more about the community of practice here: https://shorturl.at/Ip5oD  And you can always download our free resource, the Joy Design Practices and Principles, as a starting place for your own work. Here's more about my guest, colleague, and co-facilitator: Lee Wilmoth (they/them) is a human-centered learning designer, strategist, and facilitator with over 10 years of experience. They hold an MA Ed. in Adult Learning and Development from Portland State University and are a LUMA Institute certified Human-Centered Design Practitioner and Instructor. Through their consultancy, Learn & Work, Lee partners with organizations experiencing change to create useful, usable, and desirable solutions. Whether it's a discovery and strategy project or a leadership development program, Lee always embeds equity and inclusion approaches and leverages their expertise in human-centered design, adult learning and development, and facilitation. Lee also has over 30 years of body-based training, dance technique, and performance experience, and has dedicated themself to ongoing studies related to joy, nervous system awareness, and the art and science of scent. They currently live in Portland, Oregon.  DJ Diego Dela Rosa is on vacation this week, but Lee and I did our best to make a playlist for joy, based in Ross Gay's work. You can find it on Spotify, as This Mixtape Made Me: Incite Joy. 

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• Written on the Body: Words as Art Object

  It was a thrill to talk with Jen Capra, whose hilarious, GenX social media content gives us a backstage look at the wonders of Sesame Street. She's written for the program for years! In this episode, we celebrate Pride Month by talking about our shared love of Jeanette Winterson and her beautiful 1992 novel Written on the Body. It's a love letter from an ungendered narrator to the beloved, as well as a love letter to language.  Jen Capra is an Emmy nominated Sesame Street writer, aspiring author, and content creator-slash-professional starving artist. You can find her at Jencapra.com, as well as @genxistentialcrisis on TikTok.  Funding for Public Television and Radio is on the chopping block If you'd like to support the phenomenal work Sesame Street does for learners of all generations, you can find their fundraiser here.  Don't forget this month's Mixtape from in-house DJ Diego Dela Rosa! Curated to celebrate Pride Month, you can find This Mixtape Made Me: Riot on Spotify.  Finally, we dedicate this episode to Jen's faithful life and writing companion, Rosie, who passed away in January. You can find a picture of the best of all doggos at our Instagram page. We welcome feedback and suggestions at [email protected]

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• Why I Hate Saturn: Anything Goes

  If you need a reminder that you can write anything you can conceive of, this interview is for you. My guest, Bryan Thao Worra, explains how his experience as a first generation Asian American, reading his way through high and low American culture, made him the writer he is. Along the way we talk about poetry, democracy, and Kyle Baker's under-examined graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn.   Bryan Thao Worra is an award-winning Lao American poet based in Minneapolis and one of the first to come to the United States after the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago. The author of 10 collections, including his later, American Laodyssey from Sahtu Press, his work has been published across the globe, including the 2012 London Summer Games. He was the first Asian American president of the international Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. His literary journey incorporates history, science fiction, fantasy, horror and poetry to explore how people make a transition to democracy in diaspora. You can follow his blog at https://thaoworra.wordpress.com or online at https://www.youtube.com/thaoworra    Catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's AAPI focused playlist at This Playlist Made Me: Celebrate.  And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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• Voltaire's Candide: Coping in Impossible Times

  If you think that classic novels are irrelevant, my guest is here to change your mind. In this conversation, Diego Dela Rosa explains how the French novel, from the 18th century, provides hope against impossible circumstances, and makes the case for irreverent humor and community.  Diego Dela Rosa is your classic Los Angeles based multi-hyphenate: arts programmer, writer, archivist, playlist maker, line dancer, gamer, Real Housewives aficionado, and tinned fish enthusiast. He holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere from the USC Roski School of Art and Design, and currently works as the Coordinator of Learning at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.  Born in 2000, Diego’s experience growing up in a post-Y2K world has been formative in building their perspective, and thus their practice. Being queer, trans non-binary, and a Chicano Chula Vista native, much of their work taps into a  resonant feeling of liminality they’ve always found comfort in. She always aims to show the meaning and value of things often labelled as frivolous, and to spread the power of irreverence in very heavy times. Catch Diego's very special playlist This Mixtape Made Me: Cope for the full experience.  And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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• The English Understand Wool: We Can All Do a Little Bit Better

  If you're looking for a short book that packs a wallop, we have just the one for you! In this episode, my guest Matt Davis happens upon a book at his local bookstore, and it grounds our conversation about the state of reading in our current attention economy, the perils of the publishing industry, and how we can push ourselves to break out of our reading ruts. If you're not familiar with Helen DeWitt--a real writer's writer--you're in for a treat. We're talking about her tiny but powerful novel The English Understand Wool, and its savvy and subversive protagonist.  Matt Davis is a writer and PR consultant in Manhattan where he lives with his wife Logan and four-year-old son, Freddy. He writes a daily newsletter called Matt Davis Reads the Newspaper So You Don't Have To if you'd like to hear more from him. (Protip: check out Matt's daily LinkedIn series, where he reads the news via video, too!) At the end of the episode, you can catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's playlist, curated especially for this episode: volume 6 of This Mixtape Made Me: Subvert And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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