A man on the porch by the river

The Writer's Almanac by Prairie Home Productions

Feb 8, 20257:39Arts

When I was 12, I was a teacher’s pet, so I was a target for playground bullies. A boy told me my teeth were green and rotten and I believed him and stopped smiling. And I believed that the Second Coming was imminent and...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from The Writer's Almanac.

The one-armed man at the concert

Apr 11, 2026 - 7:22

Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major, the “Jupiter,” was his last, a symphony he never heard, composed in...

Gearing up to go on the road

Feb 14, 2026 - 7:03

Some days I glance at the front page and see the name RUMP in three or four places so I flip back to the...

An old man's winter night

Feb 7, 2026 - 7:19

A Times story reporting that college students in a writing course do better when they go offline for a mo...

Remembering you but not the rest

Oct 18, 2025 - 8:39

I remember when I was a kid, our family driving home from Sunday night gospel meeting and stopping at A&W...

What we learn from air travel

Sep 13, 2025 - 8:00

This all came crashing down last Monday night at JFK when I boarded a Delta flight to Seattle around 5 p....

My weekly walk to church and back

Jun 28, 2025 - 8:44

The sweet day draws near

Apr 12, 2025 - 7:01

And now I worry, as old people do, about the kids I see who are growing up in the dreadful clutter of Ame...

The perils of pedestrianism

Apr 5, 2025 - 7:10

And so you have men on bikes racing through narrow gaps on jammed avenues with a backpack full of shrimp...