500 episodes listed below
Art talk with civic static.
Troubadours and Raconteurs with E.W. Conundrum Demure is a conversation show built around artists, writers, musicians, poets, regular contributors, and people thinking through public life. It wanders from Lower East Side counterculture to tariffs, poetry, ecology, sports, aging, protest, and the strange daily weather of life.
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Troubadours and Raconteurs with E.W. Conundrum Demure is a sprawling, conversation-first show where art, politics, poetry, music, and ordinary life keep interrupting each other in useful ways. It does not behave like a tight news panel or a glossy arts program. It is slower, warmer, and more lived-in. A guest may arrive as an acclaimed artist, journalist, poet, songwriter, sound documentarist, satirist, or resident historian, but the talk quickly becomes wider than a resume. Rob Roth brings Blondie, old Polaroids, algorithms, Lower East Side presence, and the strange persistence of vinyl records into the same frame. Louise Romaine opens a route through South Korea, language barriers, shopping as extraction, greenwashing, French politics, family memory, and more-than-human voices. Seamus McGraw’s appearance turns from woods, Costco, tariffs, fuel prices, farmers, Iran, Cuba, and climate change toward a larger argument about common ground and social division. Craig Czury’s episode carries the romance and grit of poetry: the Bowery, hitchhiking, old journals, dimensional thought, Montana chimney sweeping, and the act of letting go of intention. Jeffrey Lewis brings counterculture memory, comic books, Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Freud, and the social fabric into a talk about making art. The regular contributors give the show another gear. Travis Ignatowski’s urban-hiker conversations can swing from hotels and Penn Station pizza to Hunter S. Thompson, campaign writing, fascism, and politicians without courage. Serf William brings local action, young people, teaching, protest, capitalism, and incremental hope into sharper focus. Bruno Milo adds sports, satire, authority problems, immigration, Congress, winter weather, and the proposed chaos of contact curling. Through it all, E.W. poetic pieces and music act less like decoration than ritual punctuation. The show’s strength is its refusal to separate culture from politics or jokes from seriousness. It suits patient listeners who enjoy talk that rambles toward meaning, especially when the path runs through New York counterculture, public life, poetry, ecology, classrooms, sports, and dissent.
Made for: For listeners who like long, conversational interviews where politics, poetry, music, memory, and jokes are allowed to overlap. It especially suits people drawn to community-radio texture, counterculture history, and argument that still leaves room for warmth.
What sets it apart: The show pairs guest conversations with E.W. poetic pieces and music, giving each episode a handmade structure rather than a standard interview format. Its range is unusually porous: Blondie artwork, greenwashing, tariffs, poetry, classroom life, fascism, curling jokes, and Lower East Side memory can all belong to the same ongoing conversation.
Conversation, Poetry, Philosophy, Science, Literature, Humor, Ideas, and Music - It's So Human. Commercial Free, Community Radio...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Conversation, original poetry, and wide-ranging musical selections meet in E.W. Conundrum Demure's distinctive radio-collage format.
E.W. Conundrum Demure builds episodes as loose radio collages, moving between substantial guest conversations, an original poetic piece, and credited music.
Contact curling gets a tactical debate; your sports brain is welcome to take this one too seriously.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose Manhattan walk-and-talk moves from Hunter S. Thompson to nihilism, with poetry and music widening the path.
Travis Ignatowski, a longtime regular contributor and resident urban hiker, joins E.W. Conundrum Demure in Manhattan's financial district for a roving talk about city life, politics, journalism, and cultural drift.
A tired, funny conversation about local action, young people, justice, and hope, framed by poetry and music.
Episode 662 starts as a weary check-in from central Jersey and opens into a thoughtful conversation about belief, responsibility, and the work of justice in a divided society.
A loose, funny episode turns contact curling into a route through sports, politics, identity, and moral argument.
Bruno Milo gives this single-episode conversation a restless comic charge, moving from snowballs, early mornings, and brutal cold into authority, fairness, immigration, and money in sports.
A roaming Ryan Cook conversation links theater craft, creative thinking, Obey, and a few great tunes.
Episode 660 treats theater as a way of paying attention, following Ryan Cook from the Pocono Mountains through early years, the Bucks County Playhouse, New York City rent pressure, and auditions for Bye Bye Birdie.
A wide political conversation finds its best moments when music and history keep the debate open.
Episode 599 brings Surf William back for a broad political conversation about what comes after the red wave, moving through teaching, dignity, racism, patriarchy, religion, immigration, and the Constitution.
Amy Reed connects documentary art, travel, quilting, and curiosity about people beyond easy assumptions.
Amy Reed gives the episode its center as she talks about Long Haulers, a film shaped by curiosity about truckers rather than easy assumptions about them. From there, the conversation opens onto Grandmother's Garden, her broader project on quilting, U.S.
Personal psychology against public collapse.
Australian policy argument, tightly reasoned.
Combative interviews for hard-edged culture fights.
Campus thought, ceremony, and civic dialogue.
A conversation with writer and poet Kitty Belle Burbank covering politics, art, and society.
Host E.W.
A conversation with JQ about spirituality, American politics, and societal values, interspersed with music and poetry.
A conversation with urban hiker Travis Ignatowski covering politics, society, and culture with a revolutionary theme.
A conversation with Almighty Todd covering philosophy, Buddhism, free will, and pop culture.
An interview with Caribbean American writer and educator Lesley-Anne Brown discussing politics, nature, and social issues.
Host E.W.
A conversation with artist and director Rob Roth about his career, Blondie, and various creative topics.
Louise Romaine, sound artist and anthropologist, tells host E.W.
A conversation with journalist Seamus McGraw covering nature, politics, economy, and social divisions.
A conversation with poet Craig Czury about his new book, life experiences, and poetry.
A conversation with musician and illustrator Jeffrey Lewis about his life, art, and influences.
Travis Ignatowski connects Trump rhetoric, trans panic, and Hunter S. Thompson’s warning about "doom".
Cerf William, from “central Jersey” near Princeton, joins E.
E.W.
Ryan Cook says the arts are "the absolute meeting point of intellect and care."