I think about how easy it is to be overwhelmed by what's happening in the world right now. And it's so

much easier for me to think, okay, you know what I want to do is just sort of turn on the scroll

feature in my brain. I then have to remember. Not only do I have all these feelings,

but so does everyone. I think we have this impression that nobody else cares or sees what we see,

but that's actually completely not the case. When you talk one-on-one to people, you realize,

oh, everybody feels this way, or everybody is going through a loss or a grief or a great

joy, you know?

Welcome to the Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them.

I'm your host, Tracy Thomas, and today I am

joined by award-winning poet Ada Limone. Ada served as the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.

She was recognized as a 2024 Time Magazine Woman of the Year and was a finalist for the

National Book Award. We're here today to talk about her brand new book against breaking

on the power of poetry, which is a speech Ada delivered in April 2025 that explores the

profound ability of poetry to heal, inspire, connect, and remind us of our shared humanity. Today,

Ada and I talk about what surprised her during her tenure as the poet laureate, the ways that poems can connect us to

our own feelings and the feelings of others, and why it's important that we engage with poetry

even if we think we don't get it. Our book club pick for April is room-swept home by

Remica Bingham Risher. We will be discussing that book on Wednesday, April 29th with Mahogany L.

Brown. Everything we talk about on each episode of the Stacks is linked in our show notes.

And if you like this podcast, if you want more bookish content and community, consider joining

the Stacks Pack on Patreon and subscribing to my newsletter unstacked on Substack.

These are both places where you can get awesome bonus content

...