An episode from 4/3/24: Tonight, I interview the poet, novelist and translator, Amit Majmudar. You can find a full list of his books here, but we spend most of our time talking about his 2018 translation of the Bhagavad Gita, Godsong. Along the way, we also get his take on many of the preoccupations of this podcast: how a life devoted to creativity, religion, family, and an awareness of history and tradition can still be maintained in this strange time of ours.

His book recommendations at the end are:

  • John D. Smith’s abridged translation of the Mahabharata
  • S. Radhakrishnan’s translation of the principal Upanishads
  • The Princeton edition of the Ramayana   
  • Roberto Calasso’s Ardor

You can support Human Voices Wake Us here, or by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the SunThe Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I’ve also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series.

Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.


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#221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist Human Voices Wake Us

An episode from 3/16/26: Tonight, I read about the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in the year 535 CE, and the outbreak of plague in Constantinople (and elsewhere) only a few years later. It all comes from Susan Wise Bauer’s The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade, and I give a handful of reasons why her histories for adults and children are definitely worth going to.Bookending these stories are a few passages in Gershom Scholem’s (1887-1982) memoir, From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memoirs of My Youth. It turns out that the great kabbalist liked sweets, and riding around on roller-skates.The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, sharing it with others, or sending me a note on what you think. You can also order any of my books: Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I've also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series. I also have a YouTube channel where I share poems and excerpts from these books, mostly as YouTube shorts. Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.
  1. #221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist
  2. #220: The working poor and a so-so murder show
  3. #219: When a paragraph changes your life
  4. #218: Poetry to Live By
  5. #217: Voices from 1900-1914
  6. #216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from Time & the River
  7. #215: 8 Favorite Poems from "Time and the River"
  8. #214: Two of the Best Poems You've Never Heard of (by William Cullen Bryant)
  9. #213: Van Gogh's Early Years
  10. #212: The Most Popular Story in Ancient India

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