Encore Presentation: Songs About Change

I'm taking the month of July off from making new episodes of A Symposium of Popular Songs and using the opportunity to share some older ones you might have missed. This one…

Michial Farmer

July 20, 2026

I’m taking the month of July off from making new episodes of A Symposium of Popular Songs and using the opportunity to share some older ones you might have missed. This one originally aired during Thanksgiving week, and I think that’s why it had a lower number of listeners than the average episode. I liked it anyway! Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com, and I’ll be back with a new episode on Monday, 3 August!

0:00
Casey Dienel, “People Can Change” (My Heart Is an Outlaw, 2025)
5:54
Madison Cunningham, “All I’ve Ever Known” (Revealer, 2022)
11:00
New Order, “Regret” (Republic, 1993)
15:47
Reading: Will Durant, The Lessons of History
17:49
Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come” (Ain’t That Good News, 1964)
21:56
Wilco, “You Are My Face” (Sky Blue Sky, 2007)
26:30
Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide” (Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
29:45
Bob Dylan, “Things Have Changed” (Wonder Boys OST, 2000)
35:40
Reading: Kathleen Raine, “Change”
39:14
Okkervil River, “Savannah Smiles” (The Stage Names, 2007)
42:46
Will Sheff featuring Bridget St. John, “Tommy McHugh” (single, 2023)
50:27
The Flaming Lips, “Suddenly Everything Has Changed” (The Soft Bulletin, 1999)
55:02
The Posies, “Coming Right Along” (Frosting on the Beater, 1993)

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.