Shows
The Book ReviewA Summer Book Recommendation BonanzaJune is here and the long summer days are stretching out ahead, which means it’s time to settle in front of the air-conditioner with a pile of books. (Just us?) But which ones should you read this summer? The “Book Review” podcast’s Gilbert Cruz talks with the Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin about the titles they’re most excited about.
Books discussed in this episode:
“Red Sheet,” by James Ellroy
“Villa Coco,” by Andrew Sean Greer
“They All Fall in Love at the End,” by Haili Blassingame
“Wh...
2026-06-0543 min
From the Front PorchEpisode 584 || June 2026 New Release RundownThis week on From the Front Porch, it’s a New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia share the June (and some July) releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 584), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Annie’s books
Whistler by Ann Patchett
Villa...
2026-06-0448 min
Plants Always WinEp. 47 Are You Starting Your Spring Garden Right?Spring is tiptoeing in and we want to set you up for the smoothest garden year ever. This week we’re recording live on location in Erin’s garden and examining what tasks she has already done, what’s next on the list, and what pressures to let go of. (Remember: don’t let perfect be the enemy of good!)
The first order of business as winter ends is to prune woody fruit-producing perennials. We chat about currants, apples, and grapes—yes, grapes in zone 4b. Naturally that leads into propagation: cuttings, mound layering, and even air layering...
2026-04-3000 min
Plants Always WinOntario One CallAre you breaking the law every time you plant a shrub?
This week we welcome Ian Simpson, VP of Communications and Corporate Affairs at Ontario One Call. That’s the public safety administrative authority that makes sure your gardening project doesn’t end in a damaged gas line or ruptured water main. You’ll find Call Before You Dig services across Canada and the United States (search “One Call” for your province or “811” for your state), but Ontario is the one place where that call—or that click—is required by law. If you’re breaking ground, even by an inch or tw...
2026-04-1442 min
Plants Always WinHydrangea Happiness with C.L. FornariFor some of us, happiness is a hydrangea in full, glorious bloom.
And if you’re not yet well acquainted with these flowering shrubs, who better to learn from than The Garden Lady herself? C.L. Fornari is the author of the upcoming 2026 book Hydrangea Happiness: Planting, Pruning and Blooming, among many others. She’s also a well-known gardening radio host and podcaster, appearing over the years as a contributor on NPR’s The Cultivated Gardener, as host of GardenLine on WXTK, as co-host of the podcast Plantrama, and today as the eponymous host of The Garden Lady o...
2026-03-2742 min
Plants Always WinInternet Plant Science with Dr. Vikram BaligaThe internet is a minefield of questionable plant hacks, rage bait, and—sigh—banana water. Good thing The Plant Prof is here to shed some science on the matter.
Vikram Baliga, a.k.a. The Plant Prof, is a professor of horticulture and the host of the podcasts Planthropology and Deep Roots. He is that rare being in the world of science: an academic who has also honed the skill of communicating with non-academic audiences. As he says, public taxes pay for science research. The public deserves good, true scientific information.
Today’s conversation ranges across...
2026-03-1647 min
Plants Always WinRosemary vs. LavenderIn this versus episode, we bring you two of the nicest-smelling and slowest-growing plants in the garden. Sean gets us started with rosemary, which is known to science as Salvia rosemarinus (though some botanists may be surprised to hear that!). We learn how to grow this Mediterranean plant and how to help it handle a northern winter, even if that means bringing it indoors. One option, of course, is to take softwood or hardwood cuttings and root them for next year, and Sean gives us a crash course in doing that before moving on to the fascinating research being...
2026-02-101h 10
Thoughts from a Page PodcastKelly Hooker - January's Real Time ReadingKelly joins me for January's Real Time Reading episode where we discuss our current, past, and upcoming reads.
Kelly's Selections:
Last:
Upward Bound by Woody Brown
That’s Not How it Happened by Craig Thomas
Now:
Love by the Book by Jessica George
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Next:
Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
DNFs:
The Survivor by Andrew Reid
Book Mail highlights:
The One Day You...
2026-01-2843 min
Plants Always WinEp. 42 Landscape Design FailsAs the 2026 growing season waves tantalizingly on the far horizon, we’d like to help you prepare for a disaster-free garden. To do that, we’re sharing a few key landscape design principles…along with a whole heap of stories about landscape design fails.
No garden is truly no-maintenance, but while ordinary weeding and pruning is one thing, fighting endlessly against the effects of a bad design decision is something else entirely. We’re talking about hardscaping installed in the wrong spot, poorly selected plants, ever-spreading invasive species…The list goes on. Sean shares some zingers from his histor...
2026-01-201h 00Plants Always WinThoughtful Foraging with Gabrielle CerbervilleIf you’re looking to build a relationship with the land that feeds you, you can start by embracing the wisdom of the Internet’s Mushroom Auntie.
Gabrielle Cerberville, a.k.a. your new Mushroom Auntie, a.k.a. The Chaotic Forager, has spent her academic life collecting degrees in music. If you catch her in the forest, however, she’s more likely to be collecting mushrooms and plants for cooking and preservation. She’s known online as a mycologist and foraging educator, and—more recently—as the author of the book Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal...
2025-12-1955 min
Plants Always WinEp. 40 Nut Trees and Connection with Elspeth HayFeeding humanity doesn’t need to come at the Earth’s expense. Elspeth Hay is here to talk nut trees, ecosystems, and humans as keystone species.
In 2019, Elspeth was a local food writer who felt despondent about humans’ need to tear up nature in order to feed ourselves. When she discovered that acorns are edible—that they had, in fact, once been a central pillar of an abundant North American food system—she was electrified. This week she joins Erin to talk about the book that resulted from her all-consuming research into that subject, Feed Us with Trees: Nut...
2025-12-0246 min
Plants Always WinPlant Evolution: Kid Q&AKids ask the best nature questions!
For this episode, a class of elementary-school students prepared a list of questions about plants for Sean and Erin to answer. The best part, of course, is that these are questions few adults would think to ask, and they let our hosts explore all sorts of fascinating topics. How did plants come to be the way they are? Why did they evolve to have roots (or no roots!) and leaves and fruit? What makes one tree grow big leaves while another one has narrow needles? We talk evolutionary niches, the tree...
2025-11-2556 min
Plants Always WinEp. 38 Little Shop of HorrorsThis episode is what happens when two people’s loves for venus flytraps, spooky season, and movie musicals collide.
Yes, we’re doing nerdy Halloween horticulture by analyzing the representation of carnivorous plants in the classic musical Little Shop of Horrors—specifically the 1986 movie version. If you haven’t seen the show, don’t worry; we set the stage for you and save any late-story spoilers for the very end. For the most part, we’re interested in one question: based on our knowledge of real-world carnivorous plants, how reasonable were Seymore’s guesses when he first tried to care fo...
2025-10-3149 min2025-10-0853 min
Plants Always WinEp. 36 Community Gardens with Jessica LetteerThis episode is for anyone who has ever daydreamed about starting a community garden and for anyone who needs the boost of a good-news gardening story.
2025-09-3040 min
Plants Always WinEp. 35 Bat Ecology with Dr. Dana Green Part 2Dr. Dana Green, a.k.a. "The Eyepatch Biologist" is back for part two! This free-flying conversation just couldn't be contained to a single hour.We plunge straight in this week with an urgent question: how do bats relieve themselves without dribbling on their own heads? From there the facts come thick and fast: microchiroptera (our local insect-eating, echolocating bats) vs. megachiroptera (bigger fruit-eating bats from other climates that don't echolocate); the truth about bats' sense of sight; and the unexpected songs of silverhair bats. Dana shares how to attract bats to our properties without welcoming them into our homes...
2025-09-2343 min
Plants Always WinEp. 34 Bat Ecology with Dr. Dana Green, Part 1Dr. Dana Green is a bat expert who is known online as The Eyepatch Biologist. As a science communicator, a pun connoisseur, and a woman who knows a good joke when it's staring her in the face, she says of herself, "What a wonderful bat advocate to go half blind."In Dana's interview with Sean, she tells us about her master's degree studying grasshopper mice (predatory, solitary, highly aggressive mice that howl) and her PhD in bat ecology, which she completed at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. We learn about echolocation and other bat chatter, fact check Hank Green's...
2025-09-1655 min
Plants Always WinEp. 33 Establishing Apples, Eradicating Horsetail & Fertilizing FlowersOur gardens are winding down for the season, but our audience is putting on a growth spurt! This crop of new listeners has seeded our Q&A inbox with a flush of questions, which we love to see. And while we’d normally answer these at the end of our versus episodes, we currently have a backlog of recorded episodes and we don’t want folks to have to wait for answers. That means it’s time for another Q&A special!We start with questions inspired by Sean’s recent video about an apple tree sold with its graft and root...
2025-09-0958 min
Plants Always WinEp. 32 Home Composting with Delaina ArnoldDo you make compost at home? Do you delight in the experience? If your answer to either of those questions is no, this week’s guest is here to help.Delaina Arnold is the community programs manager with the Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere, a UNESCO-designated “ecologically significant” landscape where people are striving to live in balance with nature. As part of that striving, the Biosphere launched a pilot project in 2025 to help people learn about home composting, to get started doing it themselves, and to troubleshoot any problems. Now we get to benefit from all that education, as Delaina answer...
2025-09-0241 min
Plants Always WinEp. 31: Joyful Gardening with Chris Paul Rainbows“I am very enthusiastic about [gardening]. I don't know if I'm that great at it. I'm not very knowledgeable. I can't really answer any of your garden questions, but I love getting my hands dirty.”Gardening is for everyone! We’ve interviewed plenty of experts on Plants Always Win who’ve mastered everything from groundcovers to home hydroponics, but every so often we like to bring you a less experienced guest who is already skilled in one crucial area: gardening with joyful abandon.In their day job, Chris Paul Rainbows is a speaker and strategist who helps organizations create spaces where ev...
2025-08-2655 min
Plants Always WinEp. 30: Sassafras vs. Cola NutAre you finding yourself thirsty for a little soda pop this summer? How about for some botanical knowledge about soda pop’s history?In this plant face-off episode, Erin and Sean put some fizz into the competition with the plants behind two iconic flavours: the cola nut that gives cola its kick, and the sassafras that puts the root in root beer. Or, at least, the plants that did serve those roles before the advent of artificial flavouring. Erin takes the first swig with a dramatic overview of the North American Sassafras albidum, an aromatic tree with a long history of...
2025-08-1257 min
Plants Always WinEp. 29 Climate Action with Lauren SavilleThis week we’re celebrating the difference that can be made when a regional government supports its people and businesses in taking climate action. Get inspired by impactful local initiati...
2025-07-1739 min
Plants Always WinEp. 28 Cultivation Activism with Lorraine JohnsonThis week we talk about the activism embedded in native plant gardening and the creation of pollinator habitat with Lorraine Johnson.Lorraine styles herself as a “cultivation activist”. It’s a term she came up with to describe the common purpose at the intersection of everything she does, from writing books to giving talks to supporting the fight against harmful grass and weed bylaws. This episode is for anyone who:* feels guilt or overwhelm when they think about gardening, native plants, and invasive species* feels anger or frustration about garden centres promoting invasive plants* needs tools and resources to fight bylaws...
2025-06-251h 15
Plants Always WinEp. 27 Tomato vs. Pepper Part IIIt’s Part II of the nightshade party!Sean and Erin plunge back in with tomatoes and peppers, covering cultural hi...
2025-06-1749 minPlants Always WinEp. 26 Tomato vs. Pepper Part IIn this shady plant face-off, Sean and Erin explore two of the gardening world’s favourite nightshades: tomatoes and peppers. Both are members of the family Solanaceae, and have plenty of traits in common, so rather than splitting the episode in half our two hosts try a livelier approach this week, passing the stage back and forth to talk about their chosen plant’s botany, etymology, growing habits, and pest and disease management. Prepare for a wealth of interesting information (did you know the Spanish word for tomato references an old belief in their aphrodisiac qualities?) alongside practical gardening tips (make...
2025-06-121h 01
Plants Always WinEp. 25 Smart Hydroponics with Jennifer HolstonSmart hydroponics pioneer Jennifer Holston grows a living pantry in her home through all seasons. And so can you. When most of us hear the word “hydroponics,” we picture sprawling operations in a warehouse or basement, possibly constructed from home-drilled PVC pipes and buckets. We might also have a very specific idea of the kind of plants that are grown hydroponically. But over the last decade, attractive, compact, and easy-to-use home-scale hydroponic systems have become available. This week’s guest, Jennifer Holston, was an early adopter and she uses her bookshelf-sized indoor garden to grow everything from the expected herbs and let...
2025-06-0456 minPlants Always WinEp. 24 Serviceberry vs. HaskapWe’re berry excited for this extra delicious plant face-off. In this week’s shrub showdown, our hosts go head to ...
2025-05-271h 03
Plants Always WinEp. 23 Life, Death, & Master Gardeners with Cole ImperiCole Imperi is known for her trailblazing work in thanatology, the study of death, dying and grief. But she’s also a master gardener: someone who helps others learn how to make life flouri...
2025-05-201h 01
Plants Always WinEp. 22 No Mow May…Debunked?Every spring, the gardening and sustainability side of the internet explodes with posts: Practice No Mow May! Let your lawn bloom! Support pollinators! But does a lawn and garden initiative begun in the UK have the same environmental impact in North America? That’s the subject under scrutiny in this episode as we examine whether well-meaning horticulture advice can be exported around the world. This week, Sean comes armed with research while Erin is equipped with curiosity. Is practicing No Mow May in Ontario helpful, harmful, or neutral? Does a lawn full of imported dandelions somehow hinder our pollinators? What nat...
2025-05-1445 min
Plants Always WinEp. 21 Permaculture and Biodynamics with Debby WardHave you ever wanted to go a step beyond organic gardening and buzzword-y sustainable practices? To grow food, flowers, community, and even society in relationship with the land? This week’s guest, Debby Ward of Prior Unity Garden, helps her clients and students do just that in their own yards. This week she joins Erin to talk about two systems she draws on in her work: permaculture and biodynamics.Debby shares her own journey in organic gardening and her mission to help clients understand their gardens, not just to maintain them. She and Erin compare notes on the principles of pe...
2025-05-0635 min
Planthropology117. Chaos Garden Gremlins, Necessary Context, and Practical Landscapes w/ Sean PatchettSend us a textSean Patchett, known online as Garden Guy Muskoka, shares his multifaceted experience in horticulture, from landscape work to science communication, emphasizing the critical importance of context in gardening advice.• Context is everything when sharing gardening information – advice must be tailored to location, climate, and specific situations• The internet contains overwhelming amounts of gardening information, requiring critical evaluation and testing• Working in landscapes requires a jack-of-all-trades approach – from plant care to construction skills• Well-designed gardens must consider long-term maintenance and how plants will grow over time• Master Gardeners organizations...
2025-05-0252 min
Plants Always WinEp. 20 Ask Erin Anything about Monarch ButterfliesHow much expertise does a children’s author need to write about monarch butterflies? In this episode, we find out.It’s a special show for a special day. Our co-host Erin Alladin is launching her second picture book, Wait Like a Seed, and we’re testing just how much research she did….and how much she retained. Wait Like a Seed uses the relationship between monarch butterflies and milkweed to teach kids the life cycle of a seed, and at the back of the book are nine extra pages of information about both monarchs and milkweed. We know from Episode...
2025-04-2952 min
Down The Garden Path PodcastPlants Always Win Podcast with Sean Patchett and Erin AlladinThis week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne speaks with Erin Alladin and Sean Patchett about their podcast, Plants Always Win. Plants Always Win Podcast Plants Always Win is a podcast where two Ontario gardeners dive down plant-fact rabbit holes, answer audience questions, interview intriguing guests, and compete to bring you the most interesting stories and information. Erin Alladin, a.k.a. Earth Undaunted, is a professional communicator with a love for gardens, especially garden ecosystems. She's known online for her writing and videos about gardening with chronic illness and disability, as well...
2025-04-281h 10
Plants Always WinEp. 19 Moths and Butterflies with Stoned AffectionSusie of Stoned Affection is a practicing entomologist who has been raising moths and butterflies—and raising awareness of them—since 2014. She als...
2025-04-221h 05
Plants Always WinEp. 18 Seed Starting vs. Direct SowingAs a changeable April wears on, spring-hungry northern gardeners are anxious to get seeds planted. But should they start those seeds indoors with grow lights or on a widow sill? Or can the...
2025-04-1554 min
Plants Always WinEp. 17 Plants Need BugsPlants always win…and to manage it, they need insects, arachnids, and other creepy-crawlies on their side. Of course, those creatures need plants too. In this episode, Sean and Erin are jo...
2025-04-081h 03
Plants Always WinEp. 16 Q&A Special: Cedars, Compost, and Cardboard MulchWe’re cultivating a safe space to ask gardening questions!We have been plotting for some thyme t...
2025-04-011h 00
BreakpointDefunding Planned Parenthood and the Ethics of "Bodyoids" President Trump threatens to defund Planned Parenthood. Will it happen? And scientists suggest growing human bodies to be used for body parts. Recommendations Become a Cornerstone Monthly Partner at colsoncenter.org/monthly The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett Segment 1 - Defunding Planned Parenthood WSJ: Trump Administration Plans to Freeze Family-Planning Grants Sean McDowell: Heating up! The Current Debate Over Abortion Rights (w/ Lila Rose) Lila Rose: Best Arguments for Christianity w/Dr Sean McDowell | The Lila Rose Show E195 Breakp...
2025-03-281h 10
Plants Always WinEp. 15 Lost Ladies of Garden Writing with Carol MichelCarol Michel is a garden author and co-host of The Gardenangelists podcast. She boasts of having the world’s largest hoe collection…which is overshadowed only by her library-worthy collection of gardening books. Among the hundreds of volumes on her shelves are hard-to-find copies of books by a number of American women who were horticultural experts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but who have been all but forgotten by history. To honour them, Carol started a Substack called the Lost Ladies of Garden Writing. On this week’s episode of Plants Always Win, she invites us into some of their...
2025-03-2541 min
Plants Always WinEp. 14 Living Soil with Michelle BruhnSoil is the foundation of a healthy garden…or homestead…or farm. For sustainable gardening that gives us nutritious food without depleting the land, we need to know how to feed and maintain living soil. After all, it’s the community of living things in the soil that feeds the plants we eat ourselves. That’s where Michelle Bruhn comes in. Michelle is a suburban homesteading author, speaker, and educator who manages the online information hub Forks in the Dirt. This week, she joins Erin (who’s always excited about home-scale regenerative agriculture) to talk about how she has turned a sandy su...
2025-03-181h 04
Plants Always WinEp. 13 Beneficial Non-Natives? Borage vs. CosmosIt’s a concern being voiced by conscientious gardeners everywhere: is it okay to plant a non-native flower that feeds pollinators but also self-sows freely? One suspect that is being discussed in many online gardening groups in borage. It shows up in pollinator-garden seed mixes that the purchasers expected to be 100% native. It features at seed swaps and in seed libraries because its seeds are easy to collect, and established gardeners know it always brings the bees in. But it also sows itself aggressively, and it didn’t evolve alongside North American pollinators. The people want to know: is it prob...
2025-03-041h 00
Plants Always WinEp. 12 Groundcovers with Kathy JentzThis week we cover a lot of ground on the subject of groundcovers with Kathy Jentz. Kathy is the editor and publisher of Washington Gardener, the host of the Garden DC podcast, and the author of Groundcover Revolution, a book written to give inspiration and examples for turf grass substitutes that gardeners everywhere can use to find the best plants for their region. They can also use its attractive and accessible photographs to get their spouses and their HOA on board.We start our conversation by establishing some ground rules: what is a groundcover? Kathy says it’s any plant th...
2025-02-181h 07Plants Always WinEp.11 Valentine’s Day Special, Part 2, Carnation NationThis is the second instalment of our two-part Roses vs. Carnations Valentine’s Day special. After Sean eloquently shared his love for roses earlier this week, Erin barges in with the claim that roses are elitist and carnations are the flower of the people. Her focus is Dianthus caryophyllus, a cut-flower relative of some familiar garden flowers like pinks. She takes us back to the Carnation Revolution and other people’s uprisings in which carnations became important symbols, tells us what the name “pink” has to do with dianthus’ ruffled petals, and explores carnations’ aromatic uses. When Erin puts Sean on the spot...
2025-02-1543 minPlants Always WinEp.10 Valentine’s Day Special Part 1: RosesThis is a special two-part Plant Face-Off! We had so much to say about roses and carnations that we had to split the recording into two episodes. In this instalment, we start with some housekeeping, answering the listener question “What is Patreon?”, explaining why we’re phasing off the Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram, and reminding YOU to reach out if you’d like to join the conversation at our Plants Always Win Discord server.After that Sean takes us through history and around the world with the ever-sweet subject of roses. Learn about the surprising members of the rose family f...
2025-02-1149 minPlants Always WinEp.9 Garden Classrooms with Lauren MacLeanHave you learned to read your garden? This week we sit down with Lauren MacLean, a teacher, author, and podcaster from Richmond, British Columbia. She’s a big advocate for how outdoor classrooms help kids learn better, but a few years ago she had a learning experience of her own when her school built a new garden classroom. In this interview she shares with us her background as an outdoor educator and explains the magic of “sit spots” for creating a relationship with our environment—something we should all do in our own gardens. Lauren explains how even though she was new...
2025-02-0444 minPlants Always WinEp.8 Peace Lily VS Phalaenopsis OrchidThis versus episode kicks off with a discussion about creating a safe space on social media for respectful, loving communication about everything plants and gardens, then digresses into a discussion of Latin pronunciations in botanical, liturgical, and classical settings. When we make it to the Plant Face-Off, Erin leads with peace lily, or Spathiphyllum spp. She explains why some plants in the Spathiphyllum genus have Big Spadix Energy, then explores the fascinating physical mechanism that makes biting a peace lily a bad idea. She explains how to approximate the conditions of its home in the understory of tropical rainforests and...
2025-01-2858 minPlants Always WinEp.7 Winter Sowing Native Plants with Amanda JewellYou might think a gardening podcast would focus on guests who have a lifetime of gardening expertise and plenty of credentials. But we want to emphasize that anyone can garden, and amateurs everywhere find niches to flourish in. That’s why we invited Amanda Jewell to share her adventures in learning to grow native plants from seed.Amanda is a vision therapist by trade. In her free time, she uses her postage-stamp urban yard in Northern Ontario to grow hundreds of native wildflowers every year. She describes for us the joy she felt the first time she discovered that her ga...
2025-01-2152 minPlants Always WinEp.6 Milkweed VS BeardtongueThis versus episode is a battle of the native wildflower...
2025-01-1450 minPlants Always WinEp.5 Pokemon Ecology with Alex MeindersWe’re always pretty nerdy on Plants Always Win, but in this interview episode Alex Meinders helps us take it to a whole new level. He’s a wildlife biologist and videogame enthusiast whose passion project is the YouTube and TikTok channel Geek Ecology. He uses his real-world science know-how to analyze the biology and ecology of Pokémon—yes, those quirky monsters from the cartoon, card game, and video games. This week Alex speculates with us about the plant-inspired class of grass-type Pokémon. We consider their place in the food web (are they animals or vegetables?), their evolutionary history...
2025-01-0744 minPlants Always WinEp.4 Bay Leaves VS Mustard SeedIn this Versus episode, it’s the battle of herbs and spices. Get your fill of these fascinating aromatic plants that have flavoured our food and changed our history since paleolithic times...
2024-12-3147 minPlants Always WinEp.3 Garden Education with Paul ZammitIn this interview episode, Sean chats with Paul Zammit about the life of a garden communicator. Paul has had a long career in horticulture and is presently a professor of Horticulture and Environmental Studies at Niagara College as well as CBC’s Ontario Today gardening expert—although “expert” is a term he would like to contest. After all, we never stop learning, and that’s especially true in the garden. Paul and Sean talk about selfish gardening (taking space from nature for ourselves) compared to building a biodiverse space that wildlife can enjoy alongside us—even if that means broadening our definiti...
2024-12-2457 minPlants Always WinEp.2 Poinsettia VS AmaryllisIn this “versus” episode, Erin and Sean face off with two big holiday plants: Poinsettias and Amaryllis. Erin comes in swinging with the fraught history of settler (Poinsettia) and Indigenous (cuetlaxochitl) names for her plant, but Sean pushes back with the romantic (or is it?) mythology behind amaryllis. Both contenders shatter misconceptions (Poinsettias are not toxic! Some amaryllis are imposters!) and share care tips for keeping these festive flora in good shape during the holidays and year round. A few tangents slip in about specialist insects that thrive on toxic plants and the way plants interpret light and darkness. And of c...
2024-12-1848 minPlants Always WinEp.1 Erin VS SeanIn this pilot episode of Plants Always Win, Erin and Sean give the Plant Face-Off a trial run…with a twist. Instead of competing for viewers’ votes with the most interesting information about a plant or gardening concept, they go head to head with competing interviews of each other. Find out what theft has to do with Erin’s early forays into gardening, why she makes content about gardening with chronic illness and disability, and how talking about plants every week complements her literary life. Then learn how Sean’s mom got him into a horticulture career, explore the pros and cons...
2024-12-1643 min
Books with BetsyEpisode 27 - Nobel Prize in Reading with Amie MedleyOn this episode, Amie Medley, who loves a long book, discusses her big reading project, which is reading every author who has won a Nobel Prize in Literature, and what she has discovered through that endeavor. We also discuss the ups and downs of book clubs, the benefits she finds from ereaders, and her love for a book that I can’t help but roll my eyes at.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda
Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan
2024-11-111h 01
TsundokuEpisode 46: Sean Williams; guru of speculative fiction and fantasy + Kylie Cardell dissects the “gloriously unhinged” work of Miranda July and Rachel YoderSean Williams, author of 5 million words, is famous for his hugely successful forays into the worlds of Star Wars, Dr Who, the Marvel Universe, but did you know he also writes ghost stories for young readers? ”Honour Among Ghosts” and “Her Perilous Mansion” are exciting, mysterious, witty and clever reads, officially for 8-12 year olds, but really for anyone who enjoys a rollicking adventure. + It’s a case of “Art vs Mother’ in two “gloriously unhinged…yet deeply philosophical” novels celebrated by our special guest Associate Professor Kylie Cardell. In “Nightbitch” Rachel Yoder’s protagonist unleashes her inner canine...
2024-10-2550 min
The Garden Question185 - Gentle Gardening: Gardening With Uncooperative Bodies - Erin AlladinWelcome to The Garden Question Podcast! I’m your host, Craig McManus.Today we’ve got a fantastic episode lined up. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert seasoned pro, this conversation will inspire you to think deeper about gardening.Our guest is Erin Alladin, creator of the concept gentle gardening—a unique approach designed for those working with chronic illness and disability.Erin’s journey is all about making gardening accessible and enjoyable for every kind of gardener, no matter their challenges.Throughout this episode, Erin shares practical strategies she’s deve...
2024-10-2440 min
Edição de BolsoS3 E10 - Viagens de BolsoBem vindos a bordo do voo para o último episódio desta temporada! É verdade, chegamos ao fim de mais uma temporada. Como estamos todos prestes a viajar, fazemos um roteiro pelo mundo com sugestões de livros para todos os destinos. Bom episódio!
Instagram @edicaodebolsopod
Goodreads Andreia https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/142272410
Goodreads Cláudia www.goodreads.com/user/show/44506464
Email: edicaodebolsopod@gmail.com
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:48) “The Marriage Portrait” - Maggie O’Farrell [Florença, Itália]
(05:39) “Essa Gente” - Ch...
2024-06-0647 minFrom the Front PorchEpisode 469 || March Madness with Annie & JordanThis week on From the Front Porch, it’s all about books and basketball! Annie is joined by her husband and friend, Jordan, to set different books head to head and debate their merits in this beloved yearly tradition.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (type “Episode 469” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Shop our March Madness merch in the store or online here.
Fourth...
2024-03-211h 05From the Front PorchEpisode 457 || Staff’s Favorite Books of the YearThis week on From the Front Porch, The Bookshelf staff share their favorite books of 2023!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (type “Episode 457” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode) or or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Olivia's favorite:
The Widely Unknown Myth of Apple and Dorothy by Corey Ann Haydu
Erin's favorite:
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Kyndall's favorite:
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Felicia's favori...
2023-12-2823 min:quality(90)/https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/assets-w3.rrr.org.au/assets/d54/327/6aa/d543276aa88327ef745035feb11337d033a88adc/Breakfasters-2026-Daniel-Bron-Mon.png)
BreakfastersSalad Spinners, Fruit Tips & Japanese BirdsThe team discuss salad spinners and leaf blowers; Book lover Fi Wright shares her opinion on Tom Lake by Ann Patchett; Comedian Tom Ballard chats about his Fringe Festival show YESNO: A Comedy Lecture; The Fruit Nerd, Thanh Truong shares his best tips and trick for buying fresh produce; Sean 'Birdman' Dooley provides some insight to the birds of Japan; and Nat is wondering how to optimise a coffee order. With presenters Monique Sebire, Daniel Burt & Nat Harris.Website: https://www.rrr.org.au/explore/programs/breakfasters/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Breakfasters3RRRFM/Twit...
2023-10-061h 08
Books, Beach, & BeyondAnn PatchettEpisode 4 brings us the incredible writing talent that is Ann Patchett, an "auto-buy" author for our hosts and the 2023 National Humanities Medal recipient for "putting into words the beauty, pain and complexity of human nature." The three start their conversation by diving into Elin and Ann's respective years at the Iowa Writers' Workshop before exploring Ann's writing process, her friendship with Lucy Grealy, and her ability to nail human relationships on the page. They also discuss the release of Ann's latest novel Tom Lake, as well as Ann's favorite writers and what it's like owning Parnassus Books in Nashville.
2023-08-0253 min
You're BookedCaleb Azumah Nelson - You're BookedThis week we are delighted to welcome superstar author Caleb Azumah Nelson to the YB airwaves. As I'm sure you're well aware, Caleb's first book Open Water was a massive, bestselling success and won the prestigious Costa First Book award. His follow-up is the highly-anticipated Small Worlds which Candice Carty-Williams calls 'Beautiful, unforgettable and all-consuming'. We talked to Caleb about the joys of the Scholastic book fair, writing routines, the beauty of rereading, love stories in all their forms, favourite poets and inspirational writing advice from Toni Morrison.Daisy will be attending the JLF Soneva Fushi l...
2023-05-1551 min
Tónica ReplicanteTemporada 1 - Episodio 11: Alf, Río Bravo, Los Fabelman y Ganadores Goya 2023.En este episodio hablamos de:
1. Alf (1986-1990), Paul Fusco y Tom Patchett. Serie disponible en HBO Max
2. Río Bravo (1959) de Howard Hawks. Película disponible a la compra por: Apple Tv, Amazon Prime y Google Play Películas.
3. Los Fabelman (2022), de Steven Spielberg. En cartelera.
4. Ganadores Premios Goya 2023.
Voz intro: Belén Zurera
Voz cabecera (cortinilla) de la película clásica: Saúl De Andrés.
¡Sean bienvenid@s!
2023-02-171h 06
What You Should ReadYou Should Read: Literally Everything Jennifer Weiner Has WrittenSend us a textHey Should-Heads! We're discussing one of our favorite authors today and doing a deep dive into Jennifer Weiner and her backlist. We've all read her for years and we discuss our favorites, when we started reading her and, of course, where you should start if you haven't read her already. (There's no bad option there.)Look for the books mentioned in this episode on Libro.fm by using our affiliate link. When you buy using this link, you are supporting the podcast! AND if you use our code WHATYOUSHOULDREAD at checkout...
2022-05-1049 min
Literally Delicious PodcastEpisode 9 - Roast Chicken and Ratatouille from Ann Patchett's Bel CantoBetter late than never, here is this week's episode. Nick seriously won't shut up about this award winning book (or how well his roast chicken came out). This week, Nick sleuths out a recipe and then draws inspiration from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a classic cookbook written, in part, by Julia Childe. We hope you enjoy this episode and that you keep listening!If you would like to suggest a meal (or beverage) from a work of literature for a future deep dive, send an email with the dish’s name, title of the literary wo...
2022-04-2751 min
The Ezra Klein ShowCan Democrats Turn Their 2022 Around?With the midterms just over six months away, the electoral prospects for Democrats are looking bleak. President Biden’s approval rating is at 42 percent, around where Donald Trump’s was at this point in his presidency. Recent polls asking whether Americans want Republicans or Democrats in Congress found that Republicans are leading by about 2 percentage points. And with inflation spiking to its highest point in decades, Covid cases rising and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continuing to send economic and humanitarian shock waves across the globe, things don’t look as if they are going to get better anytime soon.
2022-04-191h 07
The Next Right Thing156: 5 Favorite Books I Read This YearIn our brand new The Next Right Thing Guided Journal, we'll have one page per month dedicated to A Happy List: a place to record the things we read, watched, listened to, and made. In the spirit of celebrating my next right favorite things from this year, today I'm sharing 5 books I read and loved this year. Listen in! Links + Resources From This Episode: Explore your creativity with a free trial of Skillshare (Premium membership is less than $10/ month!) Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: A Memoir of Learning to Believe You're Gonna Be Okay by Sean Dietrich The Du...
2020-12-0814 minFrom the Front Porch254 || Favorite Books of 2019In our final episode of 2019 (and the decade as a whole!), Annie and Bookshelf staffers Olivia and Lucy sit down to talk through their favorite titles of the year. These are the books that meant the most over the last 12 months:
Annie's List:
1. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
2. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
3. The Dearly Beloved by Carla Wall
4. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
5. Family of Origin by CJ Hauser
6. Normal People by Sally Rooney
7. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth...
2019-12-1938 min
Auckland Writers FestivalLess Is More: Andrew Sean Greer (2019)Andrew Sean Greer’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Less has amassed a legion of fans, among them Ann Patchett, David Sedaris, and Armistead Maupin. The judges declared it “A generous book, musical in its prose and expansive in its structure and range, about growing older and the essential nature of love.”The same could be said of Greer’s five other works of fiction: tales that joust playfully with time, loss, love and family, and with notions of escape and confinement. He speaks with Noelle McCarthy about his work, and the wisdom to be found in the fabric of a life.
Su...
2019-05-2253 minFrom the Front PorchEpisode 193 || UnderappreciatedIt's award season, and some of our absolute favorites got robbed. As much as we are Professional Book People™️, we're not professional critics--and we're the first people to admit that the critics don't always know what they're talking about. Join us as we talk through some of those books. + Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro + Difficult Women by Roxane Gay + Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi + An American Marriage by Tayari Jones + The Mothers by Brit Bennett + Commonwealth by Ann Patchett + Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng + Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng + The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt + Department of Speculation by J...
2018-10-1836 min
HawkeyesMic.com Iowa Hawkeyes Football PodcastsHawkeyes Mic Football Show 112017Hawkeyes Mic Football podcast - Quick Hits with Tyler Tjelmeland - reviewing the Iowa Hawkeyes 24-15 Big Ten West home loss on Senior Day to the Purdue Boilermakers in Iowa City - featuring comments and analysis by Tyler Tjelmeland along with Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz, Quarterback Nate Stanley, Running Back Akrum Wadley, Defensive Back Joshua Jackson, Linebacker Josey Jewell, Offensive Lineman Sean Welsh, and Wide Receiver Matt VandeBerg. A special Black Friday Week Reporters Notebook feature with John Patchett and sports reporter Scott Dochterman - a quick look back at Purdue and a look ahead at Nebraska. HawkeyesMic.com...
2017-11-2146 minNJ Podcasts - New Jersey Podcasts on GigaDial PublicOrdinary Average Guy #68Almost livefrom the TCF
Show Opener - Brad P from NJ/Craig Patchett/Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff/Sean Mormelo
Gene from Hometown Tales
Podsafe Music - Cheryl (Come And Take A Ride) - Waltham
Pete from Pete Renee and my co-host of NJCast
Erin from Pencil Test
Podsafe Music - Dont Forget Where You Came From - Cool Waters Band
Brad P from Whole Lot [...]
2006-04-2700 min