

Sophomore Lit
John McCoy
John McCoy and a guest host read books you might have been assigned in high school, or college, or other stuff you might have read when you were a kid. The theming is loose!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 26, 2025 • 35min
181: Thanksgiving Special: Protest Songs
The answer, my friend…is not a lyric in the any of the songs the McCoy Brothers discuss. For this annual drunk Thanksgiving Special, Rob, Dan, and John talk about Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, One Tin Soldier, and Alice’s Restaurant.
John McCoy with Rob McCoy and Dan McCoy
Show Notes & Links
Pathetic Fallacy: Hurrah for the Pumpkin Pie
A companion essay for this episode on my blog about Thanksgiving specials and protest songs.
The Kingston Trio: Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (1961)
One of the most successful covers of this song, originally by Pete Seeger.
The Original Caste: One Tin Soldier (1969)
In the episode I don’t remember who wrote this song, but it was Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter.
Arlo Guthrie: Alice's Restaurant Massacree (1967)
Here it is in all its 18 1/2 minute glory.
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Nov 10, 2025 • 49min
180: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Podcasts could happen to anyone. David Loehr discusses exits and entrances in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (first performed 1966, published 1967).
John McCoy with David J. Loehr
Show Notes & Links
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Trailer for 1990 movie.
Björk: Bachelorette
That Björk video John references, if anyone cares.
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Oct 8, 2025 • 35min
179: The Last Unicorn
Don’t it allways seem to go, you don’t know what unicorns you got til they’re gone. Kathy Campbell discusses Peter S. Beagle’s 1968 The Last Unicorn.
John McCoy with Kathy Campbell
Show Notes & Links
I'm Aliiiiiiive
My Pathetic Fallacy blogpost about theme song for the movie version of The Last Unicorn.
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Sep 24, 2025 • 52min
178: R.U.R.
BEEP boop what is… love? Well, we don’t figure this out, but John Siracusa does return to Sophomore Lit to discuss Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. (1920), the origin of the word “robot.”
John McCoy with John Siracusa
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Aug 27, 2025 • 52min
177: The Pushcart War
Brush up on the Large Object Theory of History. Shaenon K. Garrity returns to discuss Jean Merrill’s The Pushcart War (1964).
John McCoy with Shaenon K. Garrity
Show Notes & Links
Sophomore Lit Tee Shirt
The first ever SophLit merch!
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Jul 18, 2025 • 57min
176: Walden, or Life in the Woods
If you’re suffering from Quiet Desparation, why not listen to the not-so-quiet voices of Dan Daughhetee and me discussing Henrey David Thoreau’s Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)?
John McCoy with Daniel Daughetee
Show Notes & Links
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads
My blog post with further Thoreau musings.
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Jun 13, 2025 • 1h 7min
175: Elizabeth Bishop Poems
Somebody loves us all. Rosalynde Vas Dias discusses three poems by Elizabeth Bishop: “Sestina” (1956), “Filling Station” (1956), and “Crusoe in England” (1971).
John McCoy with Rosalynde Vas Dias and Marina McCoy
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Apr 23, 2025 • 52min
174: The Chrysalids
Podcasts are the original voices in your head. David Dredrick discusses John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids (1955).
John McCoy with David Dedrick
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Mar 18, 2025 • 43min
173: The Visit
Make money fast with this one weird trick. Glenn Fleishman discusses Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit (1956).
John McCoy with Glenn Fleishman
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Feb 25, 2025 • 37min
172: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
And indeed there will be time to discuss this, the most mid-life white-guy crisis poem of all. Lisa Schmeiser discusses T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915).
John McCoy with Lisa Schmeiser
Show Notes & Links
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Complete text on the Poetry Foundation website
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