Writing Remix Podcast

126. Birthing Language w/ Aimee Suzara

On this episode of Writing Remix, Dan talks with Oakland-based Poet, Playwright, & Educator Aimee Suzara. The beauty of this episodes wildness is raw and poetic, because their conversation goes into the power of multi-hyphenate creative being, how Aimee is fueled by her Filipino-American identity to learn, create, and archive in her work, the impact of flipping the gaze in her research, and re-examining folklore and mythology outside their restrictive parameters.

Aimee speaks on her poetic evolution from her book Souvenir to her forthcoming book Birth Language and its multilingual poetic landscape. Aimee speaks about the role of archival research, ceremony, and invocations play in Birth Language and she unpacks the book’s cover design by artist Malaya Tuyay and its relationship to the This is the part of the podcast where both Aimee and Dan are swept up in the exchange of ideas, experiences, and Aimee’s reading of two poems that totally leave Dan speechless. There’s an improvisational energy to the episode, a freeness that steers Dan and Aimee into a conversation on mothering and the action of it, and how many of us are mothering outside our traditional knowledge of what it means to mother.

125. Inspired Belonging: Being Unashamed During Mental Health Awareness Month w/ Angela Franklin

Content Warning
This episode deals with discussions of Domestic Violence, PTSD, Depression, Schizophrenia & Suicide Ideation.

If you or someone you know is struggling:

From mental health issues, you can find help at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
With suicidal thoughts, you can contact the National Suicide Hotline at 988
With homelessness, you can contact the National Alliance to End Homelessness or Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority for LA residents
In an abusive relationship, call The National Domestic Violence Hotline, or for Los Angeles Resources

On this special Mental Health Awareness episode of Inspired Belonging on Writing Remix, Daniel & Stephanie Renee Payne talk to the LA-based poet, essayist, visual artist, and documentarian Angela Franklin. Their open and honest conversation leaves Dan and Stephanie nearly speechless. Angela shares her experiences with her late brother who suffered from schizophrenia and homelessness, the challenges of finding help and care in a society that is looking to erase and ignore people with mental health issues, the intersectional complexity that race, gender, and class has on sufferers of mental health problems, as well as the families of these individuals, and what the role of creativity and poetry are in times of grief, pain, and rebuilding.

Angela Franklin shares to poems, the upcoming anthology that her work is part of, 88 Unashamed Black Mental Health Stories, and so much more. This is one of those episodes that stays with you after you listen. Share this with as many people as you can, because we’re all thinking we’re alone on these human journeys when there’s an infinitely deep and beautiful community out there waiting to embrace us all. Embrace each other.

124. LIVE! From The LA Kerouac Festival at Typewriters Anonymous: The Kerouac We Ignore w/ Daniel Dissinger

Daniel Dissinger recorded live from Typewriters Anonymous to give the keynote talk at the LA Kerouac Festival on April 18^th, 2026. His talk, “The Kerouac We Ignore,” opens a much-needed conversation into Kerouac’s pre-On the Road work and introduces a nuanced analysis of father-son relationships, masculinity, vocational identity, and Kerouac’s lifelong search for love, both of self and others. Daniel brings the audience through his deeply personal journey with Kerouac’s books, the three books that started him on the Kerouac journey, his scholastic instinct that something was wrong with the transition from The Town and the City to On the Road, how seeing the On the Road scroll at the Denver Public Library in 2007 changed everything, and what the opening lines of the scroll version confirmed for him.

bell hooks’ works All About Love and The Will to Change come into the conversation and this is where Daniel shows how generational trauma, specifically connected to hyper-masculinity and patriarchy created for Kerouac a misunderstanding and inability love himself for the man he was and how his whole life became an unending desire to prove his worth in a patriarchal world. At the end of the talk, Daniel answers some questions from the audience about Kenneth Rexroth, the difference between loneliness and solitude, why did he bring bell hooks into the Kerouac scholarship, and so much more.

I hope you enjoy this episode. A special thank you to Philip and Elizabeth Nails at Typewriters Anonymous for having and supporting this amazing event.

123. A Joyful Poetry Resistance w/ Alexis Jaimes

Writing Remix is kicking off National Poetry Month with poet & educator from Orange County Alexis Jaimes. This episode explores the connection and close affection Alexis has for Santa Ana. He discusses the misrepresentation of Santa Ana and sets the record straight by celebrating and highlighting the depth of its culture, from food to art to its community organizations. Alexis also talks about the how since moving to Fullerton he’s seeing the roots of Santa Ana in his poetry, as well as the vulnerable self-reflective journey addressing family trauma, masculinity, and cycles of abuse in his new forthcoming collection The Seeds We Sow (Daxson Publishing). He talks about balancing his work with a poetics of joy and celebration which leads Dan and Alexis into a conversation about joy as a source of resistance. Alexis shares his poem “On the Car Stereo.”

As an 4^th grade teacher, Alexis is doing the hard work, the deep work, and the much-needed work for his students during these unpredictable and violent times. He’s the sort of educator courageously facilitating and mentoring his students through conversations and questions about ICE, deportation, and oppression, while introducing them to literature that they see themselves in, pushing against the misnomer that students don’t want to read.

122. The Harold & Maude Phenomenon at The Westgate Theater w/ Author John Gaspard

On this episode of Writing Remix, Dan talks to John Gaspard, the author of Held Over: Harold and Maude at the Westgate Theater. During a time when large movie theaters are trying to figure out how to bring in the crowds and rival streaming services, John and Dan discuss how the movie Harold and Maude played for two years at The Westgate. John unpacks why audiences were so obsessed with the film, how the studios had no clue how to advertise Harold and Maude, the fading communal experience of watching a movie in a theater, the role that small neighborhood movie theaters played in small towns, and what it was like to live in a time pre-VHS.

This episode provides a bit of hope during a time when hope seems to be fading. It gives us something to remember and be nostalgic for, that place where people went to experience a wide array of emotions together as collective event of shared humanity. As John says in this episode, Harold and Maude was a feel-good movie during a time, in the 70s, when there weren’t a lot of feel-good films to go see. In a similar way, we’ve been overwhelmed with movies and media that exploit people, celebrate violence, and flood our senses with tragedy. This episode attempts to shed light on a singular moment when a small quirky film provided people with a little joy.

121. Navigating AI & Surveillance in the Classroom w/ Ryan Leack

As higher education continues to navigate attacks from the Trump administration, it are also trying to figure out how to negotiate the increased use of AI in the classroom, by teachers and students. On this special episode of Writing Re:mix, Daniel Dissinger invites his USC Writing Program colleague Ryan Leack, host of the Live Theory podcast, to start unpacking the impact that AI and LLMs have had on the Humanities classroom, what they find to be the risks of an exponential increase in reliance on AI by students, why are students using AI, and how are teachers being impacted. They also comment on the USC administration’s decision to give ChatGPT Edu to all the students and faculty.

Something that Ryan & Daniel present is a pedagogy of slowing down as an act of resistance. This approach includes reducing workloads, designing assignments that are reflective, and leaning heavily into process-oriented writing work instead of product-oriented writing in order to open their students’ eyes to them being forced into branding and monetizing every part of their existences. They call on intellects like Foucault, Byung-Chul Han, Debord, Freire, bell hooks, and Baudrillard to deepen their conversation.

This episode was originally recorded an released for the 2025 Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival: “Untethering Surveillance Power Dynamics, Emerging Technologies, Social Control.”

120. Finding the Light w/ Caroline Reddy

Daniel Dissinger dives deep into a conversation on finding the light with poetry in all of the darkness in the world, in ourselves, and from traumas in our pasts with Reiki Master, Librarian, and Poet Caroline Reddy. This is an episode that celebrates the power of poetry and language and how people can be brought together by celebrating their personal energy and the positive force of a loving community. Caroline talks about some of the adversities and traumas she faced like her childhood memories of war in Iran, immigrating to the US at just eight years old, and finding her voice after her divorce. She talks about her meditation practices, how she uses meditation as part of her writing process, and how poetry has become a grounding practice, so much so that she will be running several workshops at Poet’s House, The New Rochelle Public Library, and The Hudson Valley Writer’s Center (links below to register). Caroline also reads several poems, including “The Basement of Tehran” (which is a poetic account of her experience hiding from bombings as a child), “The Lost Tribe,” and a few haikus rooted in her meditation practice.

Sign up for Caroline’s workshops:
“The Creative Breath” at the New Rochelle Public Library (monthly starting in March)
“The Immigrant’s Voice” at Poets House (Thursdays 6–8 pm on Zoom in March)
“The Immigrant’s Voice” at Hudson Valley Writer’s Center (April and May)

119. The Poet’s Role w/ Anaheim Poet Laureate Camille Hernandez

Daniel Dissinger welcomes the Poet Laureate of Anaheim, Camille Hernandez, to talk about her new book Motherlands, what it means to be Poet Laureate in Anaheim, the impact of poetry and poets, her mission to make poetry accessible to as many people as possible, and how poetry informs, reports, and dismantles. Camille also reads the poem “Overwhelm: A Colonial Swarm” from her book Motherlands which leaves Daniel speechless. This is one of those episodes of Writing Remix that reminds us of the humanity, pain, grief, dreams, and joy that each person on this planet share. It’s a conversation about reconnection to ancestors through poetry. It’s an episode that teaches and invites, so please share this with your friends, family, and your students.

Make sure to watch the episode on the Writing Remix Substack, and subscribe for free for writing prompts, articles, and Substack specific content.

118. Crafting Cowboy Boots w/ Lisa Sorrell

Daniel Dissinger welcomes renowned cowboy boot maker and artisan Lisa Sorrell to talk all about the history of boot making in America, her personal journey from apprentice to having her own boot making business, and her goal to preserve the history of boot making. There’s also a really great conversation on gender, mental health, and Lisa’s favorite pair of boots that she’s ever made. Towards the end of the episode, Lisa shares a very personal story of loss and how boot making played a role in the grief process

This is a great way to start the 2026 season of Writing Remix, and it’s going to set the tone for the amazing lineup of guests, episodes, and Writing Remix articles on Substack coming this year.

117. Inspired Belonging w/ Dr. M. Shadee Malaklou

On this episode of “Inspired Belonging” on Writing Re:mix, hosts Dan Dissinger and Stephanie Renée Payne talk with Dr. M. Shadee Malaklou, the Founder and Director of the bell hooks Center at Berea College. Back in the summer of 2023, Dan & Stephanie had the honor of bringing their “Inspired Belonging” workshop to the first-ever bell hooks Symposium, and ever since then it was their mission to have Dr. Malaklou on the podcast. Dr. Malaklou opens up about her friendship with the late great bell hooks, the role of the bell hooks Center on the Berea campus, and rural living in Kentucky. The conversation also covers the impact of feminism, identity and belonging, the role of theory, and radical vulnerability, which Dr. Malaklou, Dan, and Stephanie courageously practice by sharing personal stories about mental, physical, and emotional health journeys. This is one of those episodes that teaches, invites, and lovingly cracks you open.

Book an Inspired Belonging workshop, speaker events, or podcast guests.

Approximate Show Notes

00:00 Introduction and Excitement for the Episode

00:54 Introducing Dr. M Shadee Malaklou

01:51 bell hooks’ Influence and Legacy

03:50 Personal Stories and Connections with bell hooks

04:37 The bell hooks Symposium and Community Impact

06:58 Reflections on Belonging and Land

08:58 bell hooks’ Radical Vulnerability and Critique

16:26 Navigating Institutional Challenges

18:16 Personal Anecdotes and bell hooks’ Wisdom

19:39 The Intersection of Theory and Personal Experience

24:59 Feminism, Love, and Cancel Culture

26:28 Whiteness, Belonging, and Ancestry

29:24 Experiences of Respect and Judgment

30:34 The Impact of bell hooks’ Work

32:55 Struggles with Mental Health

34:45 Radical Vulnerability and Empathy

40:25 The Role of Educators and Institutions

51:37 Healthcare Challenges and Personal Reflections

57:00 Conclusion and Call to Action

Content WarningThis episode deals with discussions of Domestic Violence, PTSD, Depression, Schizophrenia & Suicide Ideation.

If you or someone you know is struggling:

Approximate Show Notes

Content Warning
This episode deals with discussions of Domestic Violence, PTSD, Depression, Schizophrenia & Suicide Ideation.