Paul highlights some of the books he’s been reading over the last year or so. Mentioned: Alastair Reynolds, Lian Hearn, Lev Grossman, Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, Len Deighton, Kage Baker, Iain M. Banks, Paul Midler, and others.
What are you reading? What’s in your to-read pile? Do your books jockey for position when you’re not looking?
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
To Sleep. Perchance to dream.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Paul rambles on about Lou Reed; the loss of a musical genius and icon is unexpectedly moving.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Paul rambles on about sprawl and its consequences; is sprawl killing your soul?
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Paul rambles on about Apple’s muddled branding; your obsolete iPhone will not be tolerated.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Have you ever eaten a pawpaw? Have you ever even heard of one?
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Who shops at Walmart, and why would anyone? Paul responds to a controversy on the David Feldman Comedy Podcast.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Greg Egan is an Australian science fiction writer. He has won the Hugo and John W. Campbell Memorial Award. You can find his web site, which includes all kinds of fascinating stuff including interviews and many of his stories, here.
The feed is now active. Manually editing podcast feed files is the single most time-consuming part of my DIY approach to podcasting. If anyone knows of an app or command-line tool that would help with this, while still allowing me to host my own files, I’d be happy to learn about it. I may have to write something myself if I’m going to keep doing it this way.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
Paul recounts making a Doctor Who-themed birthday cake for his son Sam, and taking him to look through a real telescope. Outer space isn’t quite what it once was.
Here is a direct link to the MP3 file, which should work with most browsers.
The Podcast feed is here.
The Morning Valediction Pottscast Archive Index
In 2013 I spun off a separate podcast feed for a series of recordings I called “Morning Valediction.” I did not start a new Google Blogger blog for the associated blog posts, but instead just added entries to my existing blog for The Potts House General Purpose Podcast. In retrospect this was confusing, so in this archive I have broken these episode show notes out into this separate page.”
I am setting up yet another feed for a series of unedited solo podcasts. The idea is that I’m out for a morning walk, after dropping the boys off at school. I’m calling this series “Morning Valediction.” The title is a sort of pun on the title of John Donne poem “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.” Mourning, morning — I’m not a morning person and so I’m generally mournful in the morning. A valediction is a farewell address. I’m not planning to go anywhere, but there is a mourning tone to these musings — I’m becoming keenly aware of the shortness of life as I get older, and the brevity of childhood as my children get older, but it’s not just about that. It’s also about saying goodbye to things in the world that are changing — it’s morning in America, and not in a good way — mourning the change, sometimes holding back the change, sometimes trying to reverse it, and sometimes working to embrace the “new normal.”
As for the topics — well, I’m just going to talk about what’s on my mind. Sometimes I have an idea in the back of my mind, but the general idea is that I’ll talk until I think of something to say, and then continue to talk until I’ve said it. The first few I’ve recorded are about 30 minutes long — roughly fifteen minutes of finding a topic, and then fifteen minutes on that topic — but don’t hold me to that. When they work right, it kind of folds up into a neat bow and sounds like I planned it all in advance. When it doesn’t… well, then I’m rambling. I am planning to record several per week, but don’t hold me to that either — we make plans, and God laughs.
The Podcast feed is here.