1591 Episodes

  1. 1337: New York Address by Linda Gregg

    Published: 8/25/2025

  2. 1336: I Find Myself Defending Pigeons by Keith S. Wilson

    Published: 8/22/2025

  3. 1335: Bonfire Opera by Danusha Laméris

    Published: 8/21/2025

  4. 1334: Étude by Amy Gerstler

    Published: 8/20/2025

  5. 1333: Crossing the Line by E. Ethelbert Miller

    Published: 8/19/2025

  6. 1332: Tea by Leila Chatti

    Published: 8/18/2025

  7. [encore] 784: Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds

    Published: 8/15/2025

  8. [encore] 768: Lately I Am Trying by Sanna Wani

    Published: 8/14/2025

  9. [encore] 520: I Worry My Mother Will Die and I Will Know Nothing by Asa Drake

    Published: 8/13/2025

  10. [encore] 792: Trash by Joshua Bennett

    Published: 8/12/2025

  11. [encore] 688: [since feeling is first] by E.E. Cummings

    Published: 8/11/2025

  12. [encore] 264: Sleeping with the Chihuahua by Tami Haaland

    Published: 8/8/2025

  13. [encore] 351: Fish Heads by R.A. Villanueva

    Published: 8/7/2025

  14. [encore] 278: Thanks by W.S. Merwin

    Published: 8/6/2025

  15. Maggie Smith is the New Host of The Slowdown

    Published: 8/5/2025

  16. [encore] 237: Workshop by Jacob Shores-Argüello

    Published: 8/4/2025

  17. [encore] 961: Nocturne by Oliver Baez Bendorf

    Published: 8/1/2025

  18. [encore] 1107: Accessory to War by Kim Stafford

    Published: 7/31/2025

  19. [encore] 1156: In Love by Chloe Martinez

    Published: 7/30/2025

  20. [encore] 1094: 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch

    Published: 7/29/2025

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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.