Tracy K. Smith's Poetry Podcast Invites Listeners to 'Slowdown'

The United States poet laureate calls her new podcast and radio show “a perfect medium for talking about the very real and natural ways that poems speak to the daily experience of being alive.”

By Sameer Rao Oct 3, 2018

Tracy K. Smith uses her position as the United States' poet laureate to promote poetry's civic and cultural value across the country. Her upcoming podcast and radio show, "The Slowdown," will advance that mission.

Coming Soon: U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will bring poetry to radio & podcast listeners with “The Slowdown,” launching Nov. 26 as a daily podcast & in January on public radio stations: https://t.co/L8yXx9vMxj pic.twitter.com/AMoh0ZiJ9A

— Library of Congress (@librarycongress) October 2, 2018


Per an announcement from the Library of Congress, the five-minute show will feature the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet reading works from American writers and discussing poetry's intersection with other aspects of the nation's culture.  

“I'm excited to continue the work I've done as poet laureate in celebrating poems and the conversations they foster," Smith says in the statement. “And thanks to technology’s ability to collapse the distance between people—to give you the feeling that there is one person out there speaking directly and only to you—geography is no longer a barrier to participation. I think this is a perfect medium for talking about the very real and natural ways that poems speak to the daily experience of being alive.”

"The Slowdown" launches in podcast form on November 26. It will air Monday through Friday on public radio stations starting January 14. Listen to a trailer at APMPodcasts.org.