1558 Episodes

  1. 517: They'll Ask You Where it Hurts the Most

    Published: 10/6/2021

  2. 516: In Response to Feeling Alone

    Published: 10/5/2021

  3. 515: Matte

    Published: 10/4/2021

  4. 514: Some Things are Unforgettable

    Published: 10/1/2021

  5. 513: Romantics

    Published: 9/30/2021

  6. 512: To Offer Sweet Fruit to the Ghost

    Published: 9/29/2021

  7. 511: Present Tense

    Published: 9/28/2021

  8. 510: Let Me

    Published: 9/27/2021

  9. 509: Wondrous

    Published: 9/24/2021

  10. 508: Rehearsal for the New World

    Published: 9/23/2021

  11. 507: Do You Ever Think About Leaving, My Mother Asks

    Published: 9/22/2021

  12. 506: At the Arcade I Paint Your Footprints

    Published: 9/21/2021

  13. The Slowdown returns with new host Ada Limón

    Published: 9/9/2021

  14. 505: You Are Who I Love

    Published: 10/30/2020

  15. 504: What the Kids in Subtle Asian Traits Know

    Published: 10/29/2020

  16. 503: Before the Riot

    Published: 10/28/2020

  17. 502: To D.B.

    Published: 10/27/2020

  18. 501: Facial Recognition

    Published: 10/26/2020

  19. 500: The Party

    Published: 10/23/2020

  20. 499: Leaving Tulsa

    Published: 10/22/2020

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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.