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.
Articles by Michial Farmer
Encore Presentation: Songs About Solidarity
In this episode of A Symposium of Popular Songs, which originally aired 22 September 2025, we listened to songs about solidarity, one-half of the foundation of Catholic social teaching. Send…
All You’ve Got Is Hurt: Songs About Arguments
Be gentle—we’re listening to songs about arguments this week, and trying to figure out the strange pleasure of them. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com! Programming note: Francophile that I…
Sunshine Bores the Daylights Out of Me: Songs About Dreams
This week we’re listening to songs about dreams—not in the sense of goals or ambition but in the sense of images that flash across your subconscious as you sleep. Send…
Stake My Place at the Singles Bar: Pick-Up Songs
This week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening mostly to songs about men picking up, or trying to pick up, women—though there are two songs that reverse that…
Edgy and Dull: Songs About Obsession
For a while, the episode risked becoming an episode on unreliable narrators—but really we’re talking about obsession, a subject I suspect we all know something about. Send your song suggestions…
I Only Want to Drown: Songs About the Ocean
We’re approaching the ocean from fourteen different directions on this week’s A Symposium of Popular Songs, featuring, for whatever reason, some very long songs (as well as a few short…
Centrifugal Motion: Songs About Kissing
We’re listening to songs about kissing this week. This is one of the perpetual themes of pop music, so I’m going to try to play only artists whom I’ve never…
Breaks in the Line: Songs About the Telephone
No readings this week—just fifteen songs about landlines, and some musing on why there aren’t any great songs about cell phones. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
You Play a Caryatid Easy: Songs About Constancy
We start with some songs about faithful women this week before moving on to some more abstract examinations of constancy. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
Set Me Free from This Mighty, Mighty Fire: Songs About Salvation
It’s songs about salvation this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs—and not nearly as much Christian rock as I was afraid I’d play! Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com.
Talking to You Is Like Long Division: Songs About Falling in Love
Just in time for summer, it’s a bunch of songs about falling in love. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
Keeps Me Up at Night with the Memory: Songs About Nostalgia
We’re looking back with a golden haze this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, listening to songs about nostalgia (and its high-class cousin, antiquarian feeling). Send your song suggestions…