I will admit that I am an avid, even devoted, fan of Serial, the new podcast produced by the folks of another of my favorite podcasts, This American Life. But while I’ve listened to it raptly for the last eleven weeks and eagerly await the conclusion to be dropped tomorrow, in the last week or so I’ve also become a bit ambivalent…about both the podcast itself and my devotion to it. A little background may help. Serial is a new podcast that this fall has told – really, is still telling as the conclusion is tomorrow – one story over twelve weeks. One true story, actually. It is the podcast/radio version of a Ken Burns documentary...

Pretty much all I’ve got this morning are questions. Why do I like this poem so much? I don’t know, except perhaps, just now, the darker mysteries seem more transparent, or at least available, than the higher ones. What moves me about these lines? Still don’t know, except that just now I’m not sure I can bear a miracle that needs explaining but would be glad to receive a sign of what’s next, of what I should do, of what is even possible. Why, for that matter, is this a poem, as it feels as much like prose as poetry? Perhaps it’s the line breaks, or the imagery, or the lack of resolution, or the silent invitation. I just don’t...

Because I love grand fiction that involves the creation of other “worlds” – Tolkien’s Middlearth or Lewis’ Narnia or Collins’ Panem – I found this animated video from TED-Ed really interesting. The question that bestselling children’s author Kate Messner seeks to answer in it is, “How do you build an alternative world that people will find believable?” Her answer has a lot to do not just with stories per se, but with us: we humans who are to the core deeply narrative creatures. Because narrative has the benefit of ordering events in a way that makes sense – that doesn’t mean it’s right, mind you, or the only way to...