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PODCAST

Head On Fire

In Head On Fire Don Martin (author of Where Did Everybody Go? & Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire) goes on a search for answers to life’s biggest and smallest questions. What is the purpose of anger? Is there a solution for loneliness? How do you write a hit pop song? Don asks experts in fields you didn"t even know existed questions you didn"t even know you wanted the answers to. Join Don every other Tuesday for brand new episodes, or catch the full video on YouTube! Find Don on social

society & culture social sciences

All Episodes

112:20

What's so great about Horror Movies? with Dr. Eva Burke

Head On Fire ·

2022/10/18

Dr. Eva Burke returns to provide an education on the value and cultural significance of horror movies. Dr. Eva Burke is a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, and she both studies and teaches pop culture, genre fiction, crime novels, and, of course, horror. The official Head On Fire Horror Watchlist: Black Christmas (1974) Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) The Fly (1986) Candyman (1992) Audition (1999) Lake Mungo (2008) Suspiria (2018) Social links: Instagram:

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82:56

What makes a good poem? with Taylor Mali

Head On Fire ·

2022/10/04

Poetry has a weird reputation in literature. I cannot think of a time when it felt cool to like poetry. All sorts of other genres and styles of writing have had their heyday - seriously who would've thought that "dinosaur smut" would bring in such big bucks? - but poetry seems continually relegated to being that thing you had to get through back in school. Taylor Mali has been on a mission to transform the way we think about, read, listen to, and consider poetry. He has been featured in Russell

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66:40

What's the best bone to lick? with Yinan Wang

Head On Fire ·

2022/09/20

When you're into crystals as a kid that - at least for me - takes the form of "rock on the side of the road pretty, must take home". When you're into crystals as an adult it comes with all this extra baggage. What's the name of the crystal in your hand? Where does it come from? How much child labor went into getting it out of the ground and into your hands? Does it actually cure my migraines? Yinan Wang is a geologist and children’s book writer. He is currently studying potential uses of new

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62:15

How do you advocate for disabled lives? with Ola Ojewumi

Head On Fire ·

2022/09/06

Ola Ojewumi is a force of nature. When she was nine she learned she had a rare heart condition and by eleven she was faced with undergoing kidney and heart transplants. She grew up navigating a complex world of intersectional privilege and challenge which was only exacerbated when, as a young adult, she was diagnosed with cancer and soon after became a wheelchair user. She's a fierce advocate for the disabled community, having worked with Lady Gaga, Nancy Pelosi, Cory Booker, Steny Hoyer, and

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62:48

Who owns an author's work? with Meg Elison

Head On Fire ·

2022/08/23

You might have at one time said something like “I think if we ever met, I’d be really good friends with Dolly Parton.” Or thought if Chris Evans happened to come into the cafe where you work, he’d definitely go out with me. Have you ever heard of a parasocial relationship? The term was created in 1956 by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl to describe a unique one-sided relationship in which a member of an audience believes a person they see on tv or social media is their close personal friend. That

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64:34

134: ”Why is there so much shame around food?” with...

Head On Fire ·

2022/08/09

We love talking about food, but we have a tough time talking about eating. For some reason we are allowed to almost fetishize food, salivating over perfectly aesthetic photos of food but the moment that food touches our lips we are judged for it. And, naturally, the more layers of intersectional oppression you experience, the more you are judged for your food choices. Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland College Park

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58:54

133: How do you write a best-seller? with Ayana Gray

Head On Fire ·

2022/07/26

Writing is a special kind of solitary torture. The only thing about it anyone ever sees is the end result, the finished, published work resting on shelves. In today's booktok culture, books are consumed at lightning speed and reviewers rush to deliver the most controversial hot take they can think of for engagement. Years of a person's life are spent writing the stories that become our blockbuster movies or our summer beach reads. Years spent alone in a room somewhere with a pen and paper or a

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60:56

132: ”What makes a good cult?” with Jennings Brown

Head On Fire ·

2022/07/12

Would you make a good cult leader? If not you, then you probably know someone who would. We're fascinated by cults. It seems like every day a new docuseries is dropped on some streaming service or podcast platform about yet another cult out there in the world taking people's time, energy, or money. Jennings Brown is an investigative journalist with a penchant for investigating cults. He's reported on Teal Swan, the Fellowship of Friends, as well as a number of conspiracy theories, algorithm

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72:19

131: ”Pre-K pause...What’s it like being a teacher?”...

Head On Fire ·

2022/06/30

Pre-K pause. If you’ve been online in any capacity in the last year, that phrase probably conjures up the face of Tell Williams. He was a pre-K teacher for 9 years before resigning to pursue a Master’s in social work. Along the way he accidentally found viral fame when a video he posted about the realities of being a teacher hit the algorithm jackpot. He’s gone on to try his hand at stand-up comedy, being the face of a nail polish brand, and even act in the new show The Book of Queer that just

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67:32

130: What does the Bible really say? with Dan McClellan

Head On Fire ·

2022/06/14

Lots of people have lots to say about the Bible. Loads of conspiracy theories exist about it. Whether it’s conspiracy theories about its creation, or lost books that didn’t make the cut, or obscure interpretations seen by a select few as prophecy about our modern world, not a day goes by that someone, somewhere isn’t holding the Bible up to the light and seeing if we missed anything. Beyond that, so-called biblical literalism has been the basis of support for a lot of pretty heinous parts of our

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57:16

129: Why do you study witchcraft? with Owen Davies

Head On Fire ·

2022/05/31

Witchcraft and magical practice has been an indelible part of the human experience throughout recorded history. Wherever there are people, there are people practicing magic. It shows up in all sorts of places: tv shows, fantasy novels, and the strange shop on the corner that smells of incense and has shelves lined with crystals. But what if I told you there is an actual, formal discipline of study when it comes to the history and practice of magic? Owen Davies is a professor of history at the

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74:00

128: How do you suffer outside? with Diana Helmuth

Head On Fire ·

2022/05/17

Early mornings and late sunsets are a hallmark of the summer season. The extra warmth and daylight is a blessing for many of us that live in areas where it is cold, dark, and wet or frozen for much of the year. It is a time of year that calls many of us to go out in search of high mountaintops or deep canyons, verdant forests, and untouched landscapes. To get back to nature. But getting back to nature isn't without its pitfalls, which is where my guest today comes in. Diana Helmuth is the author

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70:50

127: What do you do with a dead body? with mortician...

Head On Fire ·

2022/05/03

Do you want to see a dead body? How about two? Would you like to see 1-2 dead bodies every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the next 20, 30, 40 years? If you said yes, you might have what it takes to do the job of my guest on today's episode of Head On Fire. The preparation and care for our dead is not just a sacred rite, or a taboo subject, but for folks like Temple Ruff it's a job. One that isn't without its perks, I mean how much more job security can you get than death, right? Temple is

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82:37

126: 6.”How much do marketers know about us?” with...

Head On Fire ·

2022/04/19

How much does the marketing industry know about you? You, specifically. Sure, you've heard all the horror stories - or maybe you've lived it - in which you're thinking about Pop Tarts and suddenly you see an ad on social media for Pop Tarts. That's freaky, right? But marketing existed long before the advent of modern technology and still seemed to somehow catch the pulse of what we all wanted to consume. Or did it? Maybe the truth about marketing isn't that it is reacting to what you're seeing or

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69:15

125: 5. ”What is a death doula?” with Mahlakai Rose

Head On Fire ·

2022/04/05

"Grief is a feeling made of feelings," says Mahlakai Rose, a death doula and co-founder of The House of Grief. We are all thinking about death lately. How we want to die, where and with whom we want to spend our final moments, and what we'd like to happen afterwards. But given how much our lives have changed in the last few years, we're also becoming clued in to the fact that death and grief happen more often than we'd like to think. We die little deaths throughout our lives. Unexpected loss of a

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47:00

124: 4. How do you live intentionally amidst all this...

Head On Fire ·

2022/03/22

There’s this urge to turn yourself into a brand online. No matter how specific your interests are, no matter how tiny you think the niche is, social media compels you to believe that if you want to participate in that culture you must become a copy of those who came before you. If you come online hoping to research anything - how to be a writer, how to organize your home, how to exercise - you are instantly bombarded with people who are not only far more advanced at that thing than you are, but

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52:14

123: 3. How do you take a chance on your passions?...

Head On Fire ·

2022/03/08

The last two years of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic have forced a lot of people to take stock of what is important to them. For many that has meant assessing whether they're in the right career or whether it's time to take a chance on forging a path for themselves. That's what Nikk Alcaraz - an actor, food artist, and DIY craft maker - did. He created Practical Peculiarities, a content creation brand under which Alcaraz inspires people to add a bit of magic into their dinner menus or around their

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80:49

122: 2. ”What’s so guilty about our pleasures?” with...

Head On Fire ·

2022/02/22

What’s important to you? What do you value? What makes you happy? No matter how you answered I want to know: would your answers change if you were telling your significant other? A work acquaintance? Your boss? If I were there right now with a microphone and camera asking you on the record, would any of those answers change? The answer is…probably…yes. Right? Yes, of course, we don’t tell our bosses everything about our off-hours lives. We don’t tell our coworkers all the smutty shows we watch

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74:36

121: 1. Joshua Conkel: Not everyone’s opinion matters.

Head On Fire ·

2022/02/08

An all too common problem for anyone in a creative field is other people's opinions. The folks who look over your shoulder and tell you that you should've painted something blue instead of red. The folks who take years of your life's work and turn it into bumper sticker commentary for easy engagement on social media. The alleged fans of a show that seem to take glee in tearing apart the thing they profess to love and ruining the lives of those who make it. My guest today knows this intimately,

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0:58

120: Head On Fire Trailer

Head On Fire ·

2022/01/07

A promotional trailer for Head On Fire. "Seek illumination the way a man with his head on fire seeks water." That's the ethos behind Head On Fire, a new podcast featuring deep dive conversations with experts in interesting, often overlooked fields. It's a search for meaning and answers to life's biggest and smallest questions. Join me, author and host Don Martin, every other week as we discuss everything from climate change and reproductive Justice to the cultural importance of reality television

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