The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily Podcast By American Public Media cover art

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

By: American Public Media
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Poet Major Jackson is your guide on the pathways to feel and understand our common journey – through poetry. In sharing poems, we take a moment to pause and acknowledge the world’s magnitude, and how poets illuminate that mystery. Join The Slowdown for a poem and a moment of reflection in one short episode, every weekday. Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. Make us a part of your routine as you drink coffee in the morning, as you take a walk in nature, or as you wind down to go to sleep in the evening. With host Major Jackson, we collectively take a moment to calm, to inspire, to learn, and to engage with the best emerging poets and established writers of our time and generations past, from Emily Dickinson to Danez Smith, from Amanda Gorman to Mary Oliver.

Listen to our back catalog for episodes by our previous hosts, Tracy K. Smith and Ada Limón, as well as guest hosts Jenny Xie, Brenda Shaughnessy, Tina Chang, Nate Marshall, Shira Erlichiman, and Jason Schneiderman. Our hosts and production team select poems that move them, and we hope they move you, too.Copyright 2025 Minnesota Public Radio Art Entertainment & Performing Arts
Episodes
  • [encore] 624: Sunflowers in the Median

    [encore] 624: Sunflowers in the Median
    Jul 25 2025

    Today’s poem is Sunflowers in the Median by Natalie Homer.


    The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on March 4, 2022.


    In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “What is it about noticing beauty that brings you out of yourself and returns you to yourself? I love rooting for beauty, for awe, for those unexpected visions that make life a little easier to manage. In today’s vibrant poem, we see how the image of sunflowers can allow for a sort of grace. I love this poem for its appreciation of unexpected beauty.”


    Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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    7 mins
  • [encore] 526: Saudade

    [encore] 526: Saudade
    Jul 24 2025

    Today’s poem is Saudade by Silvia Bonilla.


    The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on October 19, 2021.


    In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “There are days I’m prone to see the nostalgia in things, the ache of the moment. Most days, I try to focus on the bright edges, those little seams of joy that vibrate in the world. One of the many reasons I love today’s poem is that it is full of that cantaloupe-colored longing and makes no apologies.”


    Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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    5 mins
  • [encore] 645: It’s 9:30am, I’ve ran four miles, cried four times, & eaten two chicken sandwiches

    [encore] 645: It’s 9:30am, I’ve ran four miles, cried four times, & eaten two chicken sandwiches
    Jul 23 2025

    Today’s poem is It’s 9:30am, I’ve ran four miles, cried four times, & eaten two chicken sandwiches by Christian Aldana.


    The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Ada Limón’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on April 4, 2022.


    In this episode, former host Ada Limón writes… “Annie Dillard once wrote, “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.” I think about this a lot when I’m planning my day and what sort of pleasure I might suck out of its marrow during these tumultuous times of constant upheaval and war. Sometimes that means noticing even the most mundane of tasks in order to know we are alive, that we are living.”


    Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
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    6 mins
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