Episode 127: Prediction Machines, Bigfoot & a Hip Campus discusses the brain, the mind, memory and perception and a bunch of things that have to do with our noggins. Oh, and some Emily Dickinson in there, of course. Bill and Shaun are joined by Bill's great-nephew Evan, who is very good at cutting through the nonsense. Brain jokes and sketchy knowl…

Episode 126: Down the Dirt Roads is a different WPL episode, as Bill is out of town, and Shaun welcomes Faith Phillips, author of a book that will be the first one in the poetry museum's fall CRIME, SHE SAID book club. We discuss growing up and walking down the dirt roads in Oklahoma and a true crime case here that she wrote the book Now I Lay Me D…

Episode 125: Swept Away in a Sweeping Sweep takes you on a journey through three poems recently left in the museum. Discussions about the muses, the sport of curling, line graphs, and more ensure.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 124: The Cryptids are Coming! Rot-ro! It’s true, Scooby Doo, the 2025 exhibit at the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry will be about cryptids, the hidden creatures of our imagination, folklore . . . and occasionally, real life! Shaun and Bill discuss Bigfoot, Chuck Norris (not a cryptid . . . or . . . hmm) and more in this episode.…

Episode 123: On Not Vegetating in an Earth Corner takes Mark Twain's advice about travel and applies it to . . . traveling! and poetry! and pigs on the beach! and . . . well, just give it a listen!Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 122: Closets I Have Known is certainly about closets. Would we steer you wrong? Sweep you away? Lock you in? It's also about brooms and witches. And brooms. Sweep. Sweep. Sweep. Poetry and bad jokes, of course, abound.Von Shaun Perkins

Shaun & Bill are joined by Gallery America's Robert Reid on a journey through couplets, spells, curses, advice, empty truck beds, limericks, and lots of stuff about barns. Also, we offer you tips on how to handle advice from 3-year-old Kate and her tent sign.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 120: Magical Petri Dish steers you headlong into a discussion of community message boards and the poetry and tragedy therein. Get ready to laugh or suffer or both.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 199: The Mystery of the Second Person explores the case of the floating, ambiguous, ethereal, significant, impactful, and multifarious "YOU." If you don't know what we mean, YOU are who we mean. Yeah, something like that.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 118: Cardi B Poetry isn’t about her, but it’s a shameless attempt to get people to this website to listen to 30-frickin’ minutes of high-class entertainment about cards, not WAP. Yep, you read that right: CARDS. GREETING CARDS. It’s something people used to do. And verse ensued and some poetry, too . . . sometimes, not too often . . . but h…

Episode 117: What the Nose Knows explores the olfactory element of our lives, as it is found in poetry and in the wild and perhaps in wild poetry. We have a variety of smell tests, some bad couplets, and a few wonderful poems by Crystal Wilkinson, William Carlos Williams, and Emily Dickinson. Follow your nose and let your ears enjoy this 1/2 hour o…

Episode 116: Bony Sodden Hulk features your favorite February furry creature, the groundhog, just in time for Groundhog Day. No, he's not a bony sodden hulk . . . well, not yet anyway. We'll all be there someday. Please to enjoy this entry with groundhog poems and lore and a wonderful impromptu limerick from Bill!…

Episode 115: Bring on the Belly Laughs celebrates Global Belly Laugh Day with poems by Billy Collins and a special hairdresser/jill of all trades guest Sandy.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 114: Poetry Out Loud & Zesty takes you into the world of poetry memorization and recitation, but wait, don’t run away . . . It’s an entertaining episode, too, wherein Shaun cracks Bill up and vice versa and the sublime and the ridiculous interact, as is the way that life is supposed to work after all.…

Episode 113: Boldly Fruity is a potpourri episode where hosts Bill and Shaun walk in not knowing what the other is going to discuss. A paper bag full of gum, a writer's toolkit, various poems and barbarism ensue.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 112: Here you shall learn all you would want to know about messages in a bottle, or at least, a lot of cool stuff about them. Throw one in the Crutchfield Relief beside the poetry museum, and we'll be happy! Sign up with NASA and send your name in a bottle to Jupiter with a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon!…

Episode 111: Purrrfectly Familiar delves into the concept of the witch's familiar and the various animals that have served this purpose, or at least, served it in someone's eyes enough to make the woman A WITCH! Crocodiles, ferrets and hedgehogs are all welcome, along with the traditional cats.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 110: Make Art--Eat Cereal takes you on a journey to a child's yard sale art stand to the origins of creativity, into cereal and foxes with tails on fire and creative play as a necessary component of everyone's lives. All in 30 frickin' minutes. Be in awe.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 109: Feeding Two Birds with One Scone answers the age-old question of why we ever considered killing them instead. Tune in to hear how the poetry of language shall be ignored to our utter destruction as a civilization. Or just listen to the bad jokes.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 108: Potpourri for $200, Alex is our first potpourri episode, wherein neither host knows what the other is going to discuss before recording starts. Thus, you will hear about A.E. Houseman, Edwin Way Teale and nature poetry and the case for the poet/Jack the Ripper suspect. A potpourri for the senses!…

Episode 107: The Voluptuous Texture of Spells takes us into Wendy the Good Witch's Chant Closet at the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry, where we explore 3 chants left by visitors and also discuss wart spells and brooms and Hecate. All in 30-frickin' minutes. It's incredible, really.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 106: Barbie Boxed In delves into the shadow box art tradition, particularly those created by artist and podcast co-host Bill Guthrie for the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry's current exhibit Her Kind: The Witch in History, Popular Culture & Poetry. We chant about ekphrastic poetry and Barbie dolls, sailors and avatars and so much more. Plea…

Episode 105: Queen of Mystery & Magic allows us to escape to New Orleans for a time to explore the poetry surrounding Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen, who lived a life unlike many popular stories about her have led us to believe.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 104: A Woman Ferocious and Untameable delves into the folklore of Baba Yaga, the Slavic witch of folktale, literature and popular culture. We have frequent mentions of cannibalism also, without actually using the word “cannibalism.” We do not have the courage that Baba Yaga has! But you do so LISTEN!…

Episode 103: An Improper Witch is a fun little ride through the pop culture favorite "Bewitched," starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens. We start with a poem about her and go into some trivia and key moments from the show that are bewitchingly poetic.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 102: She’s a Witch! is the first episode in our series about witches that will accompany the opening of the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry’s exhibit on witches. In this episode we discuss Mother Shipton, and Bill also gives you his Top Ten Witchy Songs!Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 101: A Little Comma-Raderie is a celebration of National Punctuation Day, which we turned into National Punctuation Week. Shaun, Bill and special guest Kathleen discuss punctuation in poetry, sing a punctuation song, and debate the Oxford comma. It’s scandalous stuff, but don’t take our word for it. Listen! The song at the beginning and end…

Episode 100: Excess Fowl Who Came to Earth involves a hullabaloo for our podcast’s 100th episode, including special guests Verla Fletcher and Les Kern, a discussion of the town’s Goose Grab and a review of the county police blotter, with poetic emphasis on Rocklahoma and a new version of our state song. It’s exhaustive . . . and highly entertaining…

Episode 99: Haiku Hit-Me Stance takes you on a journey into the world of tai chai, taekwondo, haiku, poetic truths and truths of everyday life. That’s right, dear listeners, this is some heady stuff, short on the wacky this time, but long on the enlightening bliss! Special guest: Master Paul Flaherty.…

Episode 98: The Dude Inside of You is about a dude hand poem left in the museum and much dudeness and macaroni, Yankee Doodles, bad singing, and the eternal ponderings of the universal human encased in skin with meat and skeleton.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 97: Fruit of the Unenclosed Land is a collage of broken things, with some fruit and goblins thrown in there, plus some anaphora and assonance and other a-words, such as acorns, along with a defense of pockets. Really, does it matter what we say in this description? Thank you to our fans Nora and Verla for the poem suggestion!…

Episode 96: To Ramble About Plundering includes discussion of one of the best poems we have received at the museum in quite some time. Check out Holly Van Auken’s “In Its Time” and then tolerate Bill and Shaun getting into aesthetics, strip malls, Barbie jokes and more.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 95: Barbie's Accumulating Emergencies borrows a phrase from Adrienne Rich, invites a Barbie Manifesto, discusses creativity in the young and rhapsodizes on the importance of creativity and nurturing the fragile growing mind. Yes, we did all that in 30 minutes. Listen and find out.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 94: Picnicking with the Dead is about cemeteries and poems about cemeteries and fears of being buried alive. Bad jokes from both Shaun and Bill., the Master of Metaphor who gets his appropriate birthday present. Enjoy!Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 93: Tunnels I Have Known begins with a perfectly lovely poem written in cursive on blue paper and left on the NATURE wall in the museum and then becomes something about tunnels of love because Shaun can't get over Bruce Springsteen. Bill poses questions he knows the answers to, and more subtle wacky ensues. Enjoy.…

Episode 92: WWBD delves into the quandary of What Would Burt Do, meaning, in terms of swimming. What would Burt Lancaster of the 1968 film "The Swimmer," based on the sublime story by John Cheever, do in a situation. Or, in other words, what would a group of folks who gathered to celebrate Yevgeny Yevtushenko's birthday in the hamlet of 1,400 peopl…

Episode 91: Flirting with Self-Actualization is about travel and maps, floorplans, blueprints and the poetry within all of that mess. It sounds hifalutin’ but it’s just our usual nonsense, profound, but nonsense nonetheless. Enjoy!Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 90: One Cylinder Guitar Picker is about Woody Guthrie, the Poet of the People, from Okemah, Oklahoma, whose birthday is July 14. We discuss songwriters who are poets and poets who are poets and Bill masterfully completes some WG quotes, and there's only a tad bit of profanity. Lots of crickets though. Some polk greens, too.…

Episode 89: Yelling Expletives For Over an Hour Continuously takes us back to the Police Blotter in our county paper and a trip through memories, poetry, crime, stolen grills and a quarrel about numbers at Cooper's Bridge. ALSO: Special guest Robert Reid from OETA, the man behind Gallery America, talks about the show and his new podcast and plays a…

Episode 88: Summertime is exactly what it sounds like--all things poetic, muddy and salty within the purview of summertime. What is your summer song? What is your summer self? Find it in this episode, while we walk with our tootsie wootsie in the good ole summertime.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 87: Round Barn is about a red round barn, a rondelet or two, singing pigs, electrical outages, the Nelson brothers and guzzling things. Just go with it, folks.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 86: Totally Poetry Tulsa is our second episode with special guest Zhenya Yevtushenko, who talks with us about poets and poetry happenings in Tulsa, just a short lovely drive from our podcast home. He also shares some of his wonderful poetry with us.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 85 boasts a special guest, Zhenya Yevtushenko, the great poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko's son, who talks about his dad, reads his poetry, and discusses his legacy. and his life in Tulsa and points beyond. The opening music snippet is from Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 based on Yevtushenko's poem "Babi Yar," with Oleg Tsibulko conducting the Russ…

Episode 84: Off the Beaten Path explores the most misunderstood poem in the world, diverges into misunderstood song lyrics, and includes a multitude of poetic ways of seeing what a "path" is and which one you are on. There's a little bit of wacky to satisfy the "wacky" in our name, of course.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 83: She Seen Gunholes takes us into the wacky world of incident calls reported in our local paper in the POLICE BLOTTER column. Of necessity, the entries are heavy on nouns and verbs and guess what else is . . . poetry. We have found our calling.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 82: Old Bobi the Dog is about the oldest living dog and dogs we have loved, dogs that are suitable for poetry . . . or not. Dogs who hide under trailers. Dogs named Toby Keith. Dogs everywhere. Dog Dog. Arf!Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 81: Plague Doctor Rat Taxidermy is precisely what it sounds like, a foray into the world of taxidermy, well, sort of, and literary taxidermy, cool plague doctor rats and all things stuffed or stuffing. ALSO, be sure to enter the Literary Taxidermy Contest and win a free WPL t-shirt! Enjoy!Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 80: War Monster steps back to let the Poppy Lady speak. She stands in the museum in the theme area about WAR. Write your war experience haunting you on a red poppy card and offer it to her. We read some of the offerings.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 79: Lizards Will Be Running was originally titled Skinks in May, and it is about skinks and about May and about skinks in May, but it is about so much more, dear listener, so very much more. Enjoy! Opening bird song recorded by Bill Guthrie.Von Shaun Perkins

Episode 78: Reba has Pockets may or may not mention Reba McEntire, but it is all about pockets, particularly POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY, and we are quite sure that Reba would stuff a poem in the pocket of one of her pairs of REBA jeans!Von Shaun Perkins