1539 Episodes

  1. [encore] 351: Fish Heads by R.A. Villanueva

    Published: 8/7/2025

  2. [encore] 278: Thanks by W.S. Merwin

    Published: 8/6/2025

  3. Maggie Smith is the New Host of The Slowdown

    Published: 8/5/2025

  4. [encore] 237: Workshop by Jacob Shores-Argüello

    Published: 8/4/2025

  5. [encore] 961: Nocturne by Oliver Baez Bendorf

    Published: 8/1/2025

  6. [encore] 1107: Accessory to War by Kim Stafford

    Published: 7/31/2025

  7. [encore] 1156: In Love by Chloe Martinez

    Published: 7/30/2025

  8. [encore] 1094: 00000000 by Erin Marie Lynch

    Published: 7/29/2025

  9. [encore] 1005: eco-hood by Melania Luisa Marte

    Published: 7/28/2025

  10. [encore] 624: Sunflowers in the Median

    Published: 7/25/2025

  11. [encore] 526: Saudade

    Published: 7/24/2025

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

    Published: 7/23/2025

  13. [encore] 510: Let Me

    Published: 7/22/2025

  14. [encore] 788: John Muir, A Dream, A Waterfall, A Mountain Ash

    Published: 7/21/2025

  15. [encore] 382: Another Night at Sea Level by Meg Day

    Published: 7/18/2025

  16. [encore] 442: Climbing China's Great Wall by Afaa M. Weaver

    Published: 7/17/2025

  17. [encore] 454: On a Spaceship Somewhere, Long After Empire's Collapse by Jesús I. Valles

    Published: 7/16/2025

  18. [encore] 470: Say Thank You Say I'm Sorry by Jericho Brown

    Published: 7/15/2025

  19. [encore] 393: Song In Which We Yet Sidestep Disaster by Tess Taylor

    Published: 7/14/2025

  20. [encore] 1175: Hunger by Kelli Russell Agodon

    Published: 7/11/2025

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Host Maggie Smith is your daily poetry companion. Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have to wield our own attention — to consider our own lives and the lives of others, to help us live creatively and compassionately, to use that attention to lean into wonder, and joy, and truth, and to find hope — to keep hoping. The Slowdown community knows that reflecting on a poem, every weekday, can connect us to our inner world and the world around us. Listen as you make your morning coffee, as you go on a walk in your neighborhood, as you pull away from the to-do list, as you resist the dismal, endless scroll to share five minutes of perspective through the lens of poetry, from poets old and new, well-loved and emerging onto the scene. Brought to you by American Public Media, in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.