50. Levity and Gravity (July, 2025) Episode Summary John and Lynn ride the rollercoaster of levity and gravity, for what it tells us about how the ludicrous often stalks the grave moments of our lives. One provokes the other. People who take themselves too seriously often make us snicker, after all. In this episode we meet someone bemoaning the shortage of Belgian endive as the world falls apart, surely levitatious in the extreme, and Jesus and the devil communing on the side of a cliff for just a short time, a humorous take on those notorious opposites. Satire is the tool of debunking the doom scrollers, as old as language itself. Be brave and eavesdrop as one poet tells us, and be astonished and bemused at what you’ll hear––and feel.
Song 1: “Twenty Wishes” (John V. Modaff, w/ lead guitar and mandolin by Dan Modaff)
Poem 1: “You Weary Listening To Their First World Complaints” by Mikki Aronoff. Published in Gooseberry Pie. Mikki is featured this year in Best Microfiction 2025 and Best Small Fictions 2025.
Fiction excerpt: Scene from the novel The Unmasking by Lynn C. Miller, published by UNM Press, 2020. www.lynncmiller.com
Feed the Cat Break: “Bittersweet” (JVM.)
Poem 2: “Fat Boy Poems” by Kelly Yenser, whose most recent collection is Walking Uphill at Noon. Kelly publishes fiction and poetry.
Song 2: “Jesus & Satan Take a Nap,” (John V. Modaff.)
Episode artwork by Lynda Miller
Theme & Incidental Music by John V. Modaff, BMI
Recorded in Albuquerque NM and Morehead KY.
Produced at The Creek Studio
NEXT UP on Episode 51: Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.