Switchyard

Switchyard is a podcast for people hungry for eye-opening essays, moving fiction, soul-stirring poetry, and honest, thought-provoking conversation. Join us monthly for new content.

The Truth of What Happened: In Conversation with Ted Conover 12/19/2024

The Truth of What Happened: In Conversation with Ted Conover In this episode, Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways speaks with award-winning journalist Ted Conover about his book Cheap Land Colorado, set among the rural poor in the San Luis Valley, and his style of investigative reporitng, known as "immersion." By spending months or even years with the people he is writing about—working alongside them, living with them—Conover comes to understand his subjects as few journalists do. That style, however, also raises thorny questions of objectivity and truth-telling, especially when Conover is writing about people who are suspicious of the media and believe that all reporters are biased against them. In this conversation, Conover explores these contradictions with sensivity and depth. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/34529905

Switchyard at Mayfest: A Journey into the Heart of America 10/11/2024

Switchyard at Mayfest: A Journey into the Heart of America In this episode, Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways brings together author Jeff Sharlet and political organizer Jane Kleeb for a conversation about the nation’s political divide and a path toward a positive future. Ranging from the deep-rooted divisions fueling hate and violence to the beacon of hope emanating from rural America, this dynamic conversation promises to spark your imagination and ignite your spirit. Sharlet and Kleeb delve into the heart of America’s complex political landscape and explore the power of community as we navigate through uncertain times together.  Discover how ordinary citizens are becoming catalysts for change—forging a path toward unity and cooperation in the face of adversity. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/33425857

Switchyard at Mayfest: Exposing the Ku Klux Klan in America 10/11/2024

Switchyard at Mayfest: Exposing the Ku Klux Klan in America In this riveting episode, Timothy Egan, author of New York Times bestseller A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, and Kevin Willmott, the brilliant director and Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman, join Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways for a conversation about the role of the Ku Klux Klan in America’s past and present. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/33424412

Switchyard at Mayfest: Lost Promise and Resilience in Rural America 10/11/2024

Switchyard at Mayfest: Lost Promise and Resilience in Rural America In this episode, three contributors to the Rural Americas issue of Switchyard magazine—Monica Potts, the New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Girls; Dean Bakopoulos, whose third novel Summerlong is now in development as a television series; and Michael Croley, author of the collection of short stories Any Other Place—join editor, Ted Genoways, for a conversation about the hardships facing rural America and hope for the future. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/33424047

Switchyard at Mayfest: Climate Forward 10/11/2024

Switchyard at Mayfest: Climate Forward In this episode, world-renowned climate activist Bill McKibben and singer-songwriter Andrea von Kampen join Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways for a lively and soul-searching conversation about how we can embrace our fear and grief in the face of pending climate disaster and use those feelings as motivation to take action to address the crisis. The conversation is interlaced with acoustic performances by von Kampen from her new album Sister Moon, a cycle of songs about climate change. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/33423632

Worlds Unseen: In Conversation with Sterlin Harjo 05/21/2024

Worlds Unseen: In Conversation with Sterlin Harjo In this episode, Ted Genoways speaks with Sterlin Harjo, the co-creator of the groundbreaking TV series Reservation Dogs. They discuss the show's unique blend of humor and heartbreak and how Harjo combines elements of traditional Native storytelling, parodies of Hollywood classics, urban myths, pop music, and zany side quests to create a rich and recognizable portrait of a complex and vital community. Harjo also describes his early years in Holdenville, Oklahoma; his film Mekko (2015); his new series for FX called The Sensitive Kind, starring Ethan Hawke; and what it means to be "a community guy," whose work draws inspiration from and supports fellow artists in and around Tulsa. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/31407657

Live Audience: At the Church Studio with Carl Phillips and Casii Stephan 02/29/2024

Live Audience: At the Church Studio with Carl Phillips and Casii Stephan This very special episode of the Switchyard Podcast was recorded live in the “big room” of Leon Russell’s historic Church Studio in Tulsa. The program leads off with a performance by Casii Stephan of “These Hard Days,” her song about working through the challenges of Covid lockdown but it is also about the big themes of loneliness and how we weather difficult times. Next, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Phillips reads a few shorter poems and then delivers the entirety of his essay, "The Fog Lifted," from the special Food Issue of Switchyard magazine. It's also a meditation on Covid lockdown, the respite he found in being in the kitchen and the sense of connection he discovered by sharing his cooking routine on Instagram. Many people who knew him only as a poet saw a new side of Carl, a private side full of joy and hope in the midst of uncertainty and fear. And yet, the real pleasure of cooking is one of sharing family and home, creating community and a place around a literal table, something that no social media platform could provide. After a brief Q&A between Phillips and Switchyard editor Ted Genoways, Casii Stephan returns to the piano for a performance of Leon Russell's "A Song for You." Listen now! /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/30172253

Live at the Church Studio: In Conversation with Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb 12/19/2023

Live at the Church Studio: In Conversation with Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb In this episode, Switchyard editor Ted Genoways talks with writers Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb whose stories were published in the new Switchyard magazine special food issue (Winter 2024) in partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Lewis and Deb joined us in Tulsa on November 30, 2023, for the Switchyard Food Fest, and we recorded this conversation with a live studio audience at The Church Studio. Jori Lewis is the author of Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History (New Press, 2022), winner of a James Beard Foundation Book Award. Siddhartha Deb is the author of three novels, most recently The Light at the End of the World (Soho, 2023), a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice selection, as well as the nonfiction book, The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India, winner of the PEN Open Book Award. You can read their essays and subscribe to the magazine at switchyardmag.com. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/29149903

On Native Land: In Conversation with Sean Sherman 11/30/2023

On Native Land: In Conversation with Sean Sherman For the Winter 2024 food issue of Switchyard magazine, we teamed up with the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN). In this episode, guest host Theodore Ross, Editor-In-Chief of FERN, speaks with Chef Sean Sherman. Sherman's Minneapolis restuarant Owamni won the 2022 James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant. It’s a whole menu made from ingredients used by Indigenous Peoples in North America, before the arrival of white settlers. Sherman, who is Lakota and bills himself as the Sioux Chef, calls this decolonizing the kitchen. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/28846608

Around the Table: In Conversation with Tom Colicchio 11/30/2023

Around the Table: In Conversation with Tom Colicchio In this episode, we speak with Tom Colicchio, chef, activist, and contributor to Switchyard magazine's special Winter 2024 issue on food. Colicchio is arguably the best known chef on the planet. He is a five-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, including the award for Outstanding Chef. For twenty-one seasons, he has been the lead judge of the Emmy Award-winning TV show, Top Chef. He is also the author of three books, including the James Beard Foundation Book Award-winning classic Think Like a Chef. He spoke with host Ted Genoways in New York City in the midst of a torrential downpour that was threatening to disrupt the evening service at his restaurant, Craft. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/28846348

The Power of Fiction: In Conversation with Antonio Ruiz-Camacho 11/10/2023

The Power of Fiction: In Conversation with Antonio Ruiz-Camacho In this episode, award-winning author Antonio Ruiz-Camacho speaks with host Ted Genoways about his lifelong passion for storytelling, his journey from journalist to fiction writer, learning to write in a second language, and how all of these experiences shape the characters in his stories. You can read Antonio's short story "The Search Zone" in the first issue of Switchyard magazine and hear it performed as a radio play in a previous podcast episode. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/28570183

The Search Zone: A Radio Play by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho 10/20/2023

The Search Zone: A Radio Play by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho In this episode, author Antonio Ruiz-Camacho portrays Daniel Proust, a young journalist covering a flood in the remote mountain village of Motozintla, Chiapas, in far southern Mexico. Proust comes to the aid shelter late at night in hopes of seeing the condition of the survivors and has a chance encounter with the leader of the disaster relief effort, General Martínez, portrayed by Oscar Cásares. Proust is hoping to get information from Martínez but soon discovers that the general has some secrets of his own. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/28372235

The Frontier: In Conversation with Dimiter Kenarov 09/29/2023

The Frontier: In Conversation with Dimiter Kenarov In this episode, Ted Genoways speaks with Dimiter Kenarov about his transformation from snowboarder poet to journalist, and his return to Bulgaria where he has been observing a slow transformation that he describes as “the closing of the Bulgarian frontier." He wrote about this in the inaugural issue of Switchyard magazine. We had the opportunity to speak in person at the Church Studio in Tulsa, during the first annual Switchyard Festival in June. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/28180508

Banned: In Conversation with Maia Kobabe 08/04/2023

Banned: In Conversation with Maia Kobabe In this episode, Ted Genoways speaks with Maia Kobabe about eir book Gender Queer—how the book explores eir gender and sexual identity during eir childhood and teen years, eir discovery of non-binary identity, the book’s early positive reception, and how Kobabe has navigated the challenges of the last few years, as eir memoir became the most banned book in America. We had the opportunity to speak in person at the Church Studio in Tulsa, during the first annual Switchyard Festival in June where Kobabe was a keynote speaker. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/27624990

Ground Truth: A Poem by Natasha Trethewey 06/02/2023

Ground Truth: A Poem by Natasha Trethewey In this Switchyard poetry exclusive, hear Natasha Trethewey, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Poet Laureate of the United States, read her stunning and deeply felt sequence of poems that she wrote for the inaugural issue of Switchyard magazine about the legacy of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/27023508

The World on Fire: In Conversation with Natasha Trethewey 06/01/2023

The World on Fire: In Conversation with Natasha Trethewey In this episode, Ted Genoways speaks with Natasha Trethewey, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Poet Laureate of the United States, about a stunning and deeply felt sequence of poems that she wrote for the inaugural issue of Switchyard magazine about the legacy of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Those poems are available unabridged as an exclusive Switchyard poetry episode. We encourage you to listen to them in their entirety. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/27019380

Tennessee Waltz: In Conversation with Art Spiegelman 05/24/2023

Tennessee Waltz: In Conversation with Art Spiegelman In this episode, Ted Genoways, editor of Switchyard magazine, speaks with legendary comic book artist and writer Art Spiegelman about the attempt in Tennessee to ban his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, about a legislative bill in Oklahoma that was designed to defend the book, how he became a free speech absolutist, and how he found his way back to the drawing table after a year consumed by controversy and outrage. /episode/index/show/2536b59e-912b-4c35-9e7e-335c31c1b527/id/26941578

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