Last week, we had the honor of celebrating the life and work of our friend Lewis Warsh (1944-2020) as part of a day-long tribute co-organized with Ugly Ducking Presse that featured a combination of in-real-time readings of his work by friends and loved ones, and archival recordings of Lewis in his own voice from the past half-century of his life as a poet. 

If you could only tune in for part of the day or missed it all together, you can find the readings on our site ➚here and ➚here.

If you'd like to hear the conversation we had with Lewis last March, where we spoke about teaching, publishing, and community, you can find that ➚here. That segment begins and ends with additional readings by Lewis, who generously joined us on MPR and believed in the project right from the start. I imagine he made all of his students feel supported in this way—so it meant a lot to be able to participate in and help facilitate this broadcast. We were lucky to have known him.

➚gospel radio

Post-Reason Part 1 is the first in a series of found audio specials.
LISTEN HERE: ➚POST REASON PART 1

You'll hear: a deepfake of Obama reading from Genesis over Burzum, a moving David Koresh song from before he was a cult leader, and then Nixon recalls what he did the day the smoking gun tape came out and how Mrs. Nixon started packing before he even knew. Eventually, two hours of Hanne Darboven’s “Opus 17a” over Eric Dubay’s 200 hundred proofs for the flat earth. But first, all the times Adam Curtis brings up Vladislav Sirkov, the guy who did Putin’s intentionally confusing PR after studying avant-garde theatre. Cuts from Delia Derbyshires “Dreams”, more dungeon synth and part of a lecture from Alan Sokal, the scientist who successfully published an essay of complete nonsense in Social Text, an “academic journal of postmodern cultural studies”. Another good prank in a bit from The Yes Men on BBC pretending to be a spokesperson from Dow Chemicals (named Jude) apologizing for the Bhopal oil spill and promising financial remuneration for all the victims. Then in 2017 the artist Frank Heath calls unsuspecting nyc phone operators to share evidence of a phonebooth conspiracy. ASMR from a Youtuber who whispers from Roland Barthes texts and tells philosophy jokes about epistemology. The Summit Lighthouse’s mantra for healing personal and national economies, Elaine and Neil Mill’s “Seven Number Poems for Two”, Ytiet, the number singing Tiktok superstar, and lots of absurd gen-z glitch-hop and hyper-pop. A short story from Joan Jonas on Tellus issue 21 and then Lena reads an easy from Lee McIntyre on the post modern theory climate change deniers, intelligent design believers, and Kelly Anne Conway might have encountered. "Unfragment" Tom's fav song from Hatsune Miku, the holographic vocaloid popstar owned by Sony/Crypton Future Media. Donald Rumsfeld's "unknown unkowns" press conference, and finally one of Artaud’s last works, a violent and hallucinatory unaired radio-play “To Have Done With the Judgement of God”.

George Bush, Untitled (Self-Portrait), 2013

We started the radio in 2061 and since then we've had 6 million contributors and 20 million segments. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of it all so we're starting a blog to help add some context. We'll be posting highlights, supplementary material, editor's picks, track lists, and we're sure, in the spirit of MPR, lots of things we can't yet anticipate. Stay tuned.