The Brightly Human Podcast: Recent Episodes
July Westhale
This podcast is an offshoot of the Brightly Human empire created by author + teacher July Westhale. Covering everything under the umbrella of writing, teaching, creativity, craft, and much, much more.
Today we look at Ada Limon’s poem “Instructions on Not Giving Up” and discuss the strange idea of continuous living.
Today we look at Marwa Helal’s poem “generation of feeling” and talk isolation, connection, and verse.
In this episode, we discuss Dorothea Lasky’s “Is it a Burden”, perfection, and taking oneself too seriously.
In this episode, we discuss Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Famous” and talk about relationship to self, interiority, and the outside world
Today we look at “As a Child, You Worried You Would Be an Orphan” by Charlotte Pence and discuss mortality, origin story, and the grief of equinox.
Today we discuss Danes Smith’s “The 17-Year-Old & the Gay Bar”, + queerness, baptism, & the academic year.
In the last episode of our Hot Summer Nights Series, we explore Diane Seuss’s poem “I Have Lived My Whole Life in a Painting Called Paradise”.
This week, we take a look at Joy Harjo’s “Praise the Rain”, and talk about insatiably, Eros, and the daily.
We contribute the “Hot Summer Nights” series of poems of thirst and heat with two erotic and tender Jack Gilbert poems written for poet Linda Gregg.
In the July and August 2021 series “Poems of Thirst and Heat”, we discuss the embodied sense of the ecstatic, in a gamut of interpretations. We kick off the series with a poem by Mojha Kahf entitled “Lowering of the Gaze
On this episode, we explore Robin Coste Lewis’s “Summer”, and wrap up the two-month “Breaking Into” series.
In this episode, we discuss Yosa Buson’s haiku “Winter”, in one of the last installments of the “Breaking Into” series.
This week, in our “Breaking Into” series, we explore the uncared for, the singing secret lives of the daily world.
Exploring delight, joy, and the mundane/marvelous. Featuring “Opera Singer” by Ross Gay
This week, we look at urgency, pacing, direct addresses, and startling into knowing in order to understand how to incorporate them into our own writing about hard times.
Welcome to part two in the three-part series on imposter syndrome + writing!
Today’s topics involve taking up space, imposing, and being rude—as well as some actual logistics for how to navigate cold-emailing folks.