Michael talks with Nuar Alsadir about remote psychoanalysis, finding a path as a thinker and writer, her two collections of poetry, her book-length essay Animal Joy (Graywolf Press), spontaneous outbursts of laughter, losing an early version of the book, free association as form and process, balancing the personal and intellectual, the research and writing processes, laughter as manipulation, the parallels of laughter and empathy, free range writing play, and more.
Nuar Alsadir is the author of Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation (Graywolf Press) and the poetry collections Fourth Person Singular (Pavilion Poetry), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and More Shadow than Bird (Salt Publishing). She lives in New York City and works as a psychoanalyst.
Podcast theme: DJ Garlik & Bertholet's "Special Sause" used with permission from Bertholet.