Hey there, it's Major.

As we take a look back at the slowdown's deep well of episodes,

we're revisiting some standout moments from past hosts.

Today, we're going into the vault to bring you an episode from Tracy K. Smith,

one of the voices that helped shape the slowdown into what it is today.

This is just one of the many special selections

from our archives. I'm Tracy K. Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

I'll be honest.

Often lately, I'm made to recall the opening lines of Yates' classic poem, The Second Coming.

I'll be driving to work, listening to the news when they pop into my head.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart.

The center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Of course, it's no coincidence.

These days, it really does feel like something has finally come undone. The poem assures me that,

at the very least, someone long ago was paying attention.

Someone saw this coming, a collapse that obeys the very laws of physics or fate,

a collapse that leaves everyone toppled, misguided, in the wrong. That's how it feels sometimes, listening to news of our daily

catastrophes. Like all of us, no matter who we are, are lost together. And the old signs, the old

facts even, are gone, insufficient to the new task we together must face.

Why does that idea, the idea that together we must find a new means of putting things back in order,

why does it somehow comfort me?

Today's poem is

Wake Up by Carl Phillips.

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