Sophomore Lit

The Incomparable

A podcast about your 10th grade reading list, hosted by John McCoy.

  • 1 hour 9 seconds
    170: Emily Dickinson Poems

    Forever is composed of podcasts. Caroline Fulford discusses selected poems by Emily Dickinson (c. 1860-65).

    John McCoy with Caroline Fulford and Marina McCoy

    Show Notes & Links

    Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Foundation

    Biography and texts of many of her poems. Works in this episode linked below:

    I felt a funeral, in my brain

    I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

    Forever – is composed of Nows –

    You left me – Sire – two Legacies –

    Wild nights - Wild nights!

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    10 January 2025, 5:00 pm
  • 24 minutes 57 seconds
    169: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

    Cigars are always trouble. Marina McCoy discusses Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972).

    John McCoy with Marina McCoy

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    24 December 2024, 10:18 pm
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    168: The Time of Your Life

    Sometimes you want to go where everybody is a thread in the fabric of the human condition. Also they know your name. Phil Gonzales discusses William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life (1939).

    John McCoy with Phil Gonzales

    Show Notes & Links

    The Time of Your Life (1976)

    The John Houseman directed television version for Theater in America, with Kevin Kline and Patti Lupone.

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    6 December 2024, 8:20 pm
  • 24 minutes 43 seconds
    167: Thanksgiving Special: Comfort Reads

    Hey, things are tough. The McCoy Bros, Rob, John, and Dan, discuss the books that get them through.

    John McCoy with Rob McCoy and Dan McCoy

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    27 November 2024, 11:00 pm
  • 44 minutes 18 seconds
    166: The Owl Service

    Ross Cleaver returns to talk owls, plates, and Welsh mythology in Alan Garner’s The Owl Service (1967).

    John McCoy with Ross Cleaver

    Show Notes & Links

    Owl Service dinner plate

    The titular service plate with its owl flowers.

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    19 November 2024, 4:00 pm
  • 58 minutes 6 seconds
    165: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    This episode has many omissions, and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate. Jacob Haller tries to make sense of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979).

    John McCoy with Jacob Haller

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    25 October 2024, 7:44 pm
  • 49 minutes 23 seconds
    164: Lysistrata

    What’s more cultivated and genteel than classical theater? David Loehr discusses Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.)

    John McCoy with David J. Loehr

    Show Notes & Links

    Lysistrata Jones

    Trailer for the 2011 Broadway musical

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    26 September 2024, 3:22 pm
  • 53 minutes 51 seconds
    163: The Twenty-One Balloons

    Because twenty would be too few and twenty-two would be ridiculous. Shaenon K. Garrity discusses William Pène du Bois’s The Twenty-One Balloons (1947).

    John McCoy with Shaenon K. Garrity

    Referenced Works

    The Twenty-One Balloons

    Show Notes & Links

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    5 September 2024, 8:23 pm
  • 46 minutes 16 seconds
    162: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

    Rain Main meets Air Bud. Dan McCoy discusses stims and happy endings and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003).

    John McCoy with Dan McCoy

    Show Notes & Links

    Dan McCoy's Special Interests

    My brother’s newsletter mentioned in the episode.

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    13 August 2024, 7:43 pm
  • 57 minutes 38 seconds
    161: A Canticle for Leibowitz

    This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a bunch of monks sitting around copying stuff. Jelani Sims returns to discuss Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959).

    John McCoy with Jelani Sims

    Referenced Works

    A Canticle for Leibowitz

    Show Notes & Links

    A Canticle for Leibowitz

    The Internet Archive has all episodes of the 15-part NPR Playhouse adaptation which aired in 1981.

    Support this show and other shows like it on The Incomparable network by becoming a member. Members get early access to podcasts, bonus episodes, and more.

    15 July 2024, 8:43 pm
  • 44 minutes 7 seconds
    160: Why I Live at the P.O.

    Stick some stamps on the top of our heads. Deborah Stanish discusses Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941)

    John McCoy with Deborah Stanish

    Referenced Works

    Why I Live at the P.O.

    Show Notes & Links

    Support this show and other shows like it on The Incomparable network by becoming a member. Members get early access to podcasts, bonus episodes, and more.

    21 June 2024, 7:45 pm
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