The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily — Arts
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and the lives of others, to help us live creatively and compassionately, to use that attention to lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope — to keep hoping. The Slowdown community knows that reflecting on a poem, every weekday, can connect us to our inner world and the world around us. Listen as you make your morning coffee, as you go on a walk in your neighborhood, as you pull away from the to-do list, as you resist the dismal, endless scroll to share five minutes of perspective through the lens of poetry, from poets old and new, well-loved and emerging onto the scene. Brought to you by American Public Media, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.

Copyright: © Copyright 2026 Minnesota Public Radio

Latest Episodes:

[encore] 860: Learning Money in Reverse by Stephanie Niu May 06, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Learning Money in Reverse by Stephanie Niu.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re revisiting some favorites from Major Jackson’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on April 20, 2023.

In this episode, Major writes… “Today’s ingenious poem calls attention to the lived realities of financial literacy, how it’s touch and go, and how it’s thrust upon us if we are not fortunate to receive those lessons in our home.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 1132: Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod Avant May 05, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Felonious States of Adjectival Excess Featuring Comparative and Superlative Forms by A. H. Jerriod Avant.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re revisiting some favorites from Major Jackson’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on June 4, 2024. In this episode, Major writes… “I am drawn to poets who, like the author of today’s poem, bring imagination and attention to sonic idioms of a poem. They make reading aloud fun.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 789: hoop snake by Rebecca Wee May 02, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is hoop snake by Rebecca Wee.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on October 21, 2022.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “A few days ago, a friend told me that Spanish Moss, a moss I love, the way it droops down over the water oaks like mint-colored lace draping the world in a gauzy dappled light, was actually killing the trees. But this myth is gratefully not true. We investigated further, and it turns out Spanish moss gets no nutrients from the trees, but rather takes the moisture and sunlight out of the air. It’s also not a moss. It’s a bromeliad. It’s also not Spanish, but native to the U.S. and Mexico and South America. I like that I can still love Spanish moss and can still think of those beautiful fabric-like threads floating through the canopy as benevolent. I want all the good myths to be true. Because I want to believe in wonder.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 547: Travel by Edna St. Vincent Millay May 01, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Travel by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on November 17, 2021.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “In today’s poem by the iconic Edna St. Vincent Millay, we look at the wanderlust that so many of us have been experiencing during this strange time. How, even if we love where we are right now, love the friends, the landscape, the company, how sometimes escaping even only for a little while, is the thing we desire the most.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 661: The Field by Rick Barot Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is The Field by Rick Barot.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on April 26, 2022.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “I am prone to making up stories about strangers I see from a distance. Even as a kid, I’d delight in giving someone I didn't know a whole invented backstory. It was a way of imagining that I could be them in another life, that somehow if I could allow them a complex narrative, we might not be strangers after all.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 765: a fishing story. by Mia S. Willis Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is a fishing story. by Mia S. Willis.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on September 19, 2022.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Today’s poem is about imagining oneself as the wild and untamed thing, and how someone else might hold you up to the light.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 723: Divorce by José A. Alcántara Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Divorce by José A. Alcantara.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on July 21, 2022.

In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Today’s poem takes the metaphor of a bird visitation and transforms it into a symbol of resilience.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 476: Minneapolipstick by Rachel McKibbens Apr 25, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Minneapolipstick by Rachel McKibbens. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on September 21, 2020.

In this episode, former host Tracy K. Smith writes… “Sometimes a dance party is the only means of conflict resolution in my house.]”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 499: Leaving Tulsa by Jennifer Elise Foerster Apr 24, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Leaving Tulsa by Jennifer Elise Foerster. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on October 22, 2020.

In this episode, former host Tracy K. Smith writes… “History is a worn path. Deep ruts eaten into Earth make up a road. But there are additional routes, footprints, and wheel grooves and grassy straits few have traveled. The Myth of a central history of America is damaging to those whose stories have been left untended, overgrown, and it is damaging for those who believe the one heavily trafficked road is the only road. It has become clear to me that the work of survival for this fraught nation is the work of stopping to listen to the many divergent narratives of America.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

[encore] 143: Untitled by Sesshu Foster Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

Today’s poem is Untitled by Sesshu Foster. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on June 12, 2019.

In this episode, former host Tracy K. Smith writes… “Sometimes, I return to memories of my past and feel as though I'm peering in upon strangers. And yet, I know something fundamental to the person I now am, resides there.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today.

Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Related Podcasts