Encore Presentation: Break-Up Songs

I'm taking the month of July off from doing new episodes and using the opportunity to re-air some episodes you might have missed. This one is from 27 October 2025 and features…

Michial Farmer

July 13, 2026

I’m taking the month of July off from doing new episodes and using the opportunity to re-air some episodes you might have missed. This one is from 27 October 2025 and features break-up songs. I wasn’t getting divorced then, and I’m not getting divorced now. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com, and I’ll be back on 3 August with a new episode.

0:00
Beck, “The Golden Age” (Sea Change, 2002)
5:58
Father John Misty, “Goodbye Mr. Blue” (Chloë and the Next Twentieth Century, 2022)
11:43
Reading: John Updike, “The Morning”
17:42
Fleetwood Mac, “Silver Springs” (single, 1977)
22:23
Frazey Ford, “Done” (Indian Ocean, 2014)
26:33
Michael Roe, “Go with God but Go” (Safe as Milk, 1995)
29:59
Reading: Pope St. John Paul II, Love and Responsibility
32:36
Josh Ritter, “Joy to You Baby” (The Beast in Its Tracks, 2011)
37:08
Bill Mallonee, “Bank” (Permafrost, 2006)
42:33
Reading: Jeffrey Eugenides, “Capricious Gardens”
46:13
Laura Cantrell, “Brand New Eyes” (Just Like a Rose, 2023)
51:05
Tracy Thorn, “Oh, the Divorces!” (Love and Its Opposite, 2010)
55:30
Barenaked Ladies, “Call and Answer” (Stunt, 1998)

Michial Farmer

Michial Farmer is a poet, essayist, and history teacher. He is the author of Imagination and Idealism in John Updike’s Fiction (Camden House, 2017) and the translator of Gabriel Marcel’s Thirst (Cluny, 2021). He lives in Atlanta.