Christian Bök

Experimental poet and author known for ambitious constraint-based works and the Xenotext project, which encodes poetry into DNA; discussed his methods, motivations, and the technical challenges of encoding poetry into an extremophile bacterium.

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Dec 11, 2025 • 36min

The Polymathic Poet Who Taught Himself "Impossible" Skills

Christian Bök, an experimental poet and author renowned for his groundbreaking Xenotext project, talks about encoding poetry into DNA. He discusses the technical challenges of using extremophile bacteria for this ambitious endeavor. Bök reveals his journey of self-education in genomics and programming to make the 'impossible' feasible. The conversation touches on the enduring nature of art, the resilience of language, and how breaking big dreams into small, achievable goals can lead to extraordinary outcomes.

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