1557: All Trains Are Going Local by Timothy Liu
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem is All Trains Are Going Local by Timothy Liu.
Sharing poetry is a two-way street. So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Today’s selection was submitted by Prerna from Assam, India.
The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Prerna reflects… “Today's poem takes me back to the timelessness of the pandemic. After reading this poem, I started my own little newsletter for my friends, which is named after this poem actually. I started it thinking if nothing else, if I have nothing else going in my life and I forget today from tomorrow, at least there'll be this particular day in the month that I will have to sit down and think, ‘So what did I do last month? What did I listen to? What did I read? What the hell happened to my plants?’”
This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Support The Slowdown with a donation and get access to the sponsor-free version of The Slowdown today. Slowdownshow.org/donate
If you’d like to participate in the next round of Community Selections, sign up for our newsletter. We’ll be sending a special Slowdown postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. Subscribe at slowdownshow.org/newsletter
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We invited you, our community of listeners, to share poems that inspire the way you move through your daily life, |
| 0:06.0 | and you shared so many thoughtful recommendations with us. This week, we're featuring five of your selections, |
| 0:13.3 | along with a reflection from the person who chose each one. If you'd like to participate in the next |
| 0:18.3 | round of community selections, sign up for our newsletter. |
| 0:21.8 | We'll be sending a special Slowdown Postcard to new subscribers that sign up this week. |
| 0:26.6 | Find the link in the show notes. |
| 0:32.2 | I'm Micah Kielban, and this is The Slowdown. |
| 0:47.9 | Sharing poetry is a two-way street. |
| 0:51.4 | So today, you'll be hearing a poem selected by one of our listeners. Enjoy. |
| 0:58.0 | My name's Prerna Barwa, and I live in a small town called Jorhat in Assam in India. |
| 1:06.1 | Trains are a very big part of the commute in India. Even if it's not a daily commute, |
| 1:11.5 | especially when I was growing up, |
| 1:13.4 | I would have to take the train |
| 1:14.5 | to go visit my grandparents every six months. |
| 1:18.0 | I felt like I grew up on trains. |
| 1:20.9 | And when I was away for college, definitely... |
| 1:24.6 | I didn't have to use the train. |
| 1:26.8 | It's funny. |
| 1:29.9 | Like, we had a metro, but I lived close to the college, but I loved going on the metro. Like something about the liminal space of a metro. Like, |
| 1:36.8 | I knew the city better than my friends from the city because I spent so much time just |
| 1:41.7 | going around on the trains. |
| 1:49.0 | Unlike an express train, which is a super fast train and only stops at really big stations, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 14 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.