Quntos KunQuest has been incarcerated at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, since 1997. His new novel This Life (Bookshop|Amazon), which draws on his experiences there, has earned acclaim in The New Yorker. KunQuest’s characters are vividly...
Our conversation about the jargon of elevator design and maintenance inspired listener La Donna Ourada to write a moving poem called “Terminal Landing,” about how riding a metaphor can be a metaphor for life. This is part of a complete episode. The...
A Fort Worth, Texas, woman remembers her grandfather used to say, “You live and learn, then you die and forget it all.” She wonders if he made it up. Turns out, the phrase goes back to the 1840s and may allude to the brevity of life or to putting...
An observation about life and language from author Michael Sims: Every encounter with another human being is like being able to read half a page from the middle of a novel, isn’t it? And then someone grabs the book away. This is part of a complete...
A New York City man who grew up speaking both English and Tagalog reports an experience common to bilinguals: his behavior and emotions tend to shift when he’s speaking one language as opposed to the other. Two good books on the topic: Life with Two...
The “Think and Grin” section of Boy’s Life magazine has some pretty corny jokes, including one about a parking space. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Think and Grin” How about this little exchange? The officer says, you can’t park...
