That’s right, book-burners, your favorite literary podcast was hijacked! Friend of show Steve W, host of the We Need Some Therapy, That’s All? YouTube channel (formerly The Idiot’s I Ching), seized control of Books Are Burning! in order to interview the host (yours truly). The focus of our wide-ranging conversation was my 2023 travelogue Pilgrimizing: A Record of a Pleasure Trip to “The Holy Land,” but if you press play above you can hear the two of us witter on about everything from the dual nature of Geminis to Woody Allen’s Bananas, the effrontery of “chuggers,” the search for the genius loci (of wherever one happens to be), the meaning of peregrinography, the characteristics of the Enneagram 5, and the cultural, mythological, and literary significance of Cadmus the Phoenician. And if you think I fumbled the answer to Steve’s first question, then please provide us with your own superior insight and wisdom. Go ahead and tell us: WHAT WOULD YOU DO if Satanyahu were suddenly deposed and you became the prime minister of Israel? (Personally I like Tomek’s suggestion that Norm Finkelstein be made emir of a new Gaddafi-inspired Isratine.)
And after listening to the pod, why not watch the livestream and/or the final video edit on my YouTube channel?
Show Notes
Since no post would be complete without a little shameless self-promotion and—as I never tire of telling you—“I’m much better on paper” anyway, here’s another reminder to order your copy of Pilgrimizing from Amazon.
The author of Rogue State (whose name I was struggling to remember) is of course William Blum:
Here’s “the Mearsheimer book” I mentioned:
And here’s “the D.H. Lawrence book by Geoff Dyer” which Steve reminded me has been so influential on my own conception of travel-writing:
Steve also recommends this deviant text (which looks great!):
Have a listen to the song by Loudon Wainwright III (“Rufus’ dad”) which inspired the name-change to Steve’s YouTube channel:
I hate to call attention to a competitor to my own audiobooks, but click this link if you’re interested in the AI reader Steve uses.
Share this post