The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life

Updated: 02 Aug 2025 • 691 episodes
thedrunkenodyssey.com

Join author John King for eclectic interviews with writers from a variety of genres, including fiction writing, poetry, memoirs, and journalism. From literature to genre writing to the movies, all writing is up for discussion. In particular, The Drunken Odyssey features discussion of all aspects of the writing process—not just the published manuscript, pristinely presented to the entire literate world, but also the scrawled notes and tortured drafts that lead writers there. In long-form interviews, writers discuss their process and the way that writing has influenced their lives. Besides this interview, each episode also features a short memoir essay from a writer about a beloved book, plus John King responds to listener’s questions and observations about the writing (and the drinking) life. For more information, see our website at www.thedrunkenodyssey.com.

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In this week's show, John teams up once again with his friend Matt Peters to discuss the second book of William S. Burroughs's original quartet of novels. They also discuss the recent film adapation of the same.

44 min
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44:14
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26 Jul 2025 • EN

680: Katharine Coldiron!

On today’s show, I speak with the essayist Katharine Coldiron about how the way we watch movies are sometimes our autobiographies, sometimes our philosophies, and sometimes our humanity.

61 min
00:00
01:01:56
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19 Jul 2025 • EN

679: Keith Mackenzie!

On 679, John speaks with the novelist Keith MacKenzie about how to plan an unplannable thriller, and how body horror and comedy and existentialism are awfully close neighbors.

63 min
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01:03:08
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05 Jul 2025 • EN

678: Zach Zimmerman!

On 678, John speaks with recent Kerouac Project of Orlando resident Zach Zimmerman about memoir, memories, childhood, comedy, tragedy, the problems of authenticity, and other vital literary matters.

61 min
00:00
01:01:16
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On this episode, John and Rachael discuss the poetic output of Hannah Arendt's poetry, newly translated into English in a new book from Norton, translated by Samantha Rose Hill and Genese Grill, plus Fred Lambert delivers another masterful installment of the Booze News Roundup.

76 min
00:00
01:16:27
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21 Jun 2025 • EN

676: Skye Jackson!

On this episode, John speaks with Kerouac Project of Orlando resident Skye Jackson about how to create a poetry collection that can be read in one sitting, how to balance the concrete and imaginative abstraction, inviting the audience in, recording a poetry audiobook, ekphrastic poetry, and living in New Orleans.

56 min
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56:54
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