Imaginary Oklahoma-logo

Imaginary Oklahoma

KOSU

What do you think of when you hear the word Oklahoma? A new podcast from KOSU, AIR and This Land Press offers a fictional take on the 46th state. From Franz Kafka to Rodgers and Hammerstein, writers both foreign and domestic have been speculating about Oklahoma for more than a century. Oklahoma is more than a place, it’s an idea. The new audio series, based on the book Imaginary Oklahoma from This Land Press, offers a complex picture of the pan-shaped land through a simple, ghostly narrative.

Location:

United States

Networks:

KOSU

Description:

What do you think of when you hear the word Oklahoma? A new podcast from KOSU, AIR and This Land Press offers a fictional take on the 46th state. From Franz Kafka to Rodgers and Hammerstein, writers both foreign and domestic have been speculating about Oklahoma for more than a century. Oklahoma is more than a place, it’s an idea. The new audio series, based on the book Imaginary Oklahoma from This Land Press, offers a complex picture of the pan-shaped land through a simple, ghostly narrative.

Language:

English


Episodes
Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

The Violinist

6/16/2020
When life seems to speed up, one man's world slows down as he learns to appreciate life in the big city. The Violinist by Emily St. John Mandel tells the story of how one man copes with loss and loneliness.

Duration:00:06:35

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

Of All Places

6/9/2020
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine with artists to provide a fictional take on this place we call home. Through a wide variety of voices, styles and literary devices, these works prove that “Oklahoma” is much more than a place, it’s an idea.

Duration:00:04:37

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

Drinking Games

6/2/2020
What happens when Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas walk into a bar? Drinking Games author Carolyn Parkhurst wanted these three states to come clean during one of America's oldest past times.

Duration:00:03:47

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

Rest Stop

5/26/2020
A confrontation over a locked bathroom leads one rest stop employee to contemplate some of life's biggest questions including what can keep people anywhere when all they want is to keep moving? This story is read by Tulsa Artist Fellow Liz Blood.

Duration:00:06:10

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

Stillwater

5/19/2020
Stillwater is a ghost story about someone who doesn't know they're dead. This short piece of fiction about Sooner Lake by Matt Bondurant asks: how do we reconcile with our own mortality? What will I represent to people in my life when I die?

Duration:00:06:10

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

The Tigers of the Oklahoma Pool Halls

5/12/2020
Tigers of the Oklahoma Pool Hall by Tupelo Hassman isn't a story about tigers. It's about how we know and see each other. "When I wrote the Tigers of the Oklahoma Pool Halls, I was thinking about how we are all the same., but when we look at each other through cognitive or emotional dissonance, we are terrified."

Duration:00:04:34

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

Tom Mix

5/5/2020
Author John Crowley never visited Oklahoma as a child, but his family did stop at many roadside attractions around the U.S. on their frequent road trips. This short fiction story imagines such an excursion, and was inspired by the actual Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, OK.

Duration:00:03:41

Ask host to enable sharing for playback control

Coming Soon

4/13/2020
Imaginary Oklahoma, coming soon.

Duration:00:01:13