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TheWolverineWay.com (Ricardo Sierra is the interviewer. With the exception of Sierra and Douglas Chadwick, every person has been interviewed. Click on a name, then click on headphones next to photo.)

Headed Into the Abyss, with author Brian Watson

Podcasts

Switched on Pop / Sodajerker on Songwriting / SongTown on Songwriting / Song Talk Radio (Songwriting Tips & Talk) / Soundcheck / World Cafe / The Global Countdown /

Rewilding Podcast (with Jack Humphrey) / Hidden Brain / Nature Podcasts / Philosophize This! / You Are Not So Smart / Fresh Air with Terry Gross / Making Sense with Sam Harris / The New Yorker Radio Hour / World Book Club (BBC) / The Book Review Podcast / This American Life / Selected Shorts / The Truth / The Writer’s Voice / The Moth / The Howard Stern Show /

Top 200 Podcasts in 19+ categories / Search Through Over 30 Million Podcasts and Episodes / 150 Podcasts / NPR Podcasts & Shows / CapRadio A-Z or CapRadio Podcast Directory / CapRadio Reads (Listen) / Book of the Day (NPR) / Monocle (e.g., The Curator, The Monocle Weekly) /

BBC Global News / BBC Weekend / PBS News Hour / NBC Nightly News Hour / Axios Today / The Daily / NPR News Now / This Week with George Stephanopoulos /

Science Friday / Science Magazine / Overheard at National Geographic / Freakonomics M.D. / New Scientist /

Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! / 60 Minutes / Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen / On the Media / NOVA Now / Stuff You Should Know / Freakonomics / The LBR Podcast / Freethought Radio / The Gray Area (with Sean Illing) / The Influence Continuum / The New Abnormal / The Peter Attia Drive / Brain Science with Ginger Campbell / The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss /

FRONTLINE Dispatch / RadioLab / A Slight Change of Plans / The Jordan Harbinger Show / Dateline NBC / In Our Time / The Canadian Bushcraft Podcast with Caleb Musgrave / A Life More Wild / Post-Growth Australia Podcast / The Great Simplification / The Overpopulation Podcast / (Nature Bats Last) / Earth Riot (or For Show Description) /

Some of these Podcasts I’m not too familiar with, so I welcome feedback. Are there ones you think I should add? Or delete? Please let me know what you think.

[Note: And in case you’re wondering. Yeah, I know. Most of these — to put it mildly — have nothing to do with saving the planet. Certainly none of the top, most listened to podcasts, last I checked. However, that’s the world we live in. Humanity never really seems capable of focusing on ‘saving the planet.’ That’s a fact. And like Schrodinger’s cat, I live in two opposite worlds, simultaneously. In one, I will someday get funding (the ability to move forward). But in the other, that day will never arrive. So yes, I will continue to do a great deal of work preparing for the former. Hardly a day ever goes by, in fact, that I’m not thinking about or doing things related to saving the planet, or getting great new ideas along those lines. It’s in my DNA. But I also recognize and accept the fact I live in those two opposite worlds. All I need is one backer. True. But perhaps Sam Harris was correct when he opined “It seems very likely that we have spent too long in the company of bad ideas to now arrest our slide toward the brink. I hope I’m wrong about this, but I would not be surprised if the human experiment runs radically off the rails in our lifetime.” Considering the breathtaking lack of interest and lack of curiosity I’ve witnessed these past 9+ years of getting my message out, that does appear very much to be the case. Sorry to say.]

*** First, let me explain why this blog post is “upside down.” By that, I’m referring to the fact that it “begins” right here, and not at the top. I’ve created this page so I can have easy access to the songs and music that suit my taste. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense if every time I revisit this page, I have to scroll down to where that part actually begins. That is why I’ve begun with the links portion at the top.

Now that you know why this begins down here and not at the top, let me better explain why I’ve created this page in the first place. I love music. I find music energizing. It’s like caffeine, adrenaline and endorphins, all rolled into one. Never mind, that would probably be illegal. The point is, approximately three years ago, I packed up my stereo, CDs and cassette tapes, and put all of that into storage. Eventually, I gave away the stereo. It was just gathering dust. I haven’t had room for any of that, since moving.

Then, one day, I had an idea — and that idea, basically, morphed into this. I’ll get lots of enjoyment coming back to this page again and again. But since I’m putting this up as a blog post, so too can you and everyone else.

Originally, I considered titling this “World’s Longest Blog Post,” in anticipation of it becoming a never-ending “work in progress,” where I continue adding to it. (So check back periodically; this will only get bigger.)

There will be a wide assortment of music. I might even expand this to include links to podcasts and things unrelated to music. Some of these songs are perfect for listening to while working out. Others make for a nice background “white sound” — for playing while doing busy work that doesn’t require intense concentration. Some of these songs might be just right for snapping you, or someone you know, out of a bad mood. Some of these songs might help you see things from a different perspective. And who can resist those energetic upbeat songs that help “recharge our batteries,” so to speak?

But also, since I love the craft of songwriting — it’s one of those things I never have time for, but wish I did — some of these songs fit marvelously well here for that reason alone. They’re great songs to listen to and analyze from a songwriting perspective. To savor how every chord, note, lyric, syllable, everything, just come together so seamlessly and deliciously. One of the beauties of songwriting — and writing in general — is that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you can’t find a way (though it might not be easy) to express in words. To me, writing is kind of like problem-solving. Every sentence, in a sense, is about solving a problem — even if we don’t quite think of it in those terms. “How do I say this?” “How can I say this better?” “How can I make this more visual?” “How can I take this and spin it in a completely different direction?” “Should I spin it in a different direction?” “Which line sounds better, ‘x’ or ‘y’?” “What else rhymes with that word?” How can I shorten that line?” And so on. Those questions don’t necessarily materialize in a songwriter’s head, literally, in that way, but isn’t that in a sense what’s going on?

In short, this blog post is “a horse of a different color.” Something completely different. I’ve designed it for me. But I’ve also designed it for you! So enjoy.

And. Someday. If I ever receive funding. I’ll share with you an intriguing little tie-in concerning how this all relates to ‘saving the planet.’ But for now — and until then — that will just have to remain a mystery. If you choose to wrap your neurons around that charming little mystery in the meantime, good luck and happy guessing!

Additional Resources:

If They Ask You, You Can Write a Song, by Al Kasha & Joel Hirschhorn (1990)

American Songwriter (Behind the Song) /

5 Songwriting Books You Must Read, by Thomas Honeyman /

The 9 Best Songwriting Books to Read in 2021, by Jon Anderson /

25 of the Best Books for Songwriters (according to SongwritingMagazine.co.uk) /

RhymeZone.com (No, it’s not cheating.)

Poetry can also be a rich source for ideas. To help illustrate this point, in the November / December 2006 issue of American Songwriter magazine (on page 16), it states “a recent New York Times article investigates the similarities between Bob Dylan lyrics from Modern Times and the work of Civil War-era poet Henry Timrod. One Timrod scholar claims to have found ten correlations.” And in an article about singer-songwriter Adam Duritz (of Counting Crows), in this same issue, Schlansky writes: Duritz “was moved most by the work of political poet Carolyn Forche.” Duritz states: “Her work has been a bigger influence on my writing than any singer / songwriter ever has.” In the issue’s feature article — “Sex, Death and Poetry: The Story of The Doors” — Schlansky writes: “Where other lyricists drew from blues, folk and Tin Pan Alley traditions, Morrison combined a fascination with Nietzsche, Rimbaud, William Blake, shamanism, American Indians and a dual obsession with sex and death — the beginning and end parts of human existence.” In 1971, Jim Morrison died in Paris, at the age of 27. Morrison “fled to Paris,” according to Schlansky, “to seek solitude and write poetry.” It gives me a chill thinking about it: Just as we’ll never know what great songs John Lennon would’ve penned had a bullet not ended his life on that fateful night back in 1980, so too we will never get to hear the songs Morrison would’ve written had he not died so young. On Amazon, 92% of reviewers give The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics — published in 2021, and available also as an audiobook — 5 stars. All in all, it would seem to me a good way to strengthen your songwriting muscle would be to go to your local library and browse the section where poetry books are shelved — look for books beginning with “811.”