COVID Check-In with Nathaniel Popkin

Virtual Memories Show
COVID Check-In: Nathaniel Popkin

Author & activist Nathaniel Popkin checks in from Philadelphia. We talk about the potential for creative moments in the midst of self-isolation, the inspiration of Elsa Morante’s novel History on his recent LitHub essay on the abuse of war imagery during the pandemic, the unique social aspects of Philadelphia, the dilation of time during self-isolation and how glad he was to take a social-distance walk with friends, the eternal search for justice and the battle against corporatization, the history of how the Lenape natives were defrauded of their land in the 1700s and how the language of destroying indigenous people hasn’t changed over the centuries, how literature helps him travel in time and space, and more. Give it a listen! And go read The Year of the Return!

You can listen to all these COVID Check-In episodes at The COVID-19 Sessions.

Listen to the conversation! Then check out the archives for more conversations from The Before Times.

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About our Guest

Nathaniel Popkin‘s essay-memoir on moral responsibility and the eco-crisis, To Reach The Spring, will be published in December 2020 by New Door Books. He is the author of three other works of non-fiction and three novels, and is the co-editor, with Stephanie Feldman, of the anthology Who Will Speak for America?

Follow Nathaniel on Twitter and Instagram and listen to our full-length podcast

Credits: The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Cloudlifter CL-1 and a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Nathaniel by somebody. It’s on my instagram.

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