Bonus Episode: Toni Morrison, Goodness, and What Comes Next with Saeed Jones

The Stacks

Traci Thomas

Literature, Society & Culture, Books, Arts

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's special bonus episode, we’re offering some counterprogramming to the inauguration with a discussion of Toni Morrison’s lecture, “Goodness: Altruism and the Literary Imagination.” Saeed Jones joins us to explore Morrison’s thoughts on how goodness sustains itself in the face of evil and what it means to lean into our own goodness as we move into 2025 and beyond.

The Stacks Book Club pick for January is The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. We will discuss the book on January 29th with J Wortham returning as our guest.

You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:

https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2025/1/20/bonus-saeed-jones

Inclusive Action for the City Fundraiser | Ways to Help with Fire Relief

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. I just wanted to pop on and say hello and touch base. I did not feel comfortable
0:04.7	dropping a new episode of the Stacks this week without acknowledging the terrible wildfires
0:08.8	that are taking place in Los Angeles right now, the city in which I live. My family and I,
0:14.0	we are okay. Thank you so much for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, so many people that I know and
0:19.4	love lost their homes, including a few people
0:22.5	who work here with me at the Stacks. I have to say, of course, I'm beyond grateful to the amazing
0:26.8	work of the firefighters and first responders, and I hope that they can continue to protect
0:30.6	the citizens of Los Angeles. I wanted to quickly highlight an organization that is in need of your
0:35.6	financial contributions. I know there are so many places you could donate your money, and I wanted to highlight inclusive action for the city.
0:43.1	They have a fund going on right now for outdoor workers that have been impacted by the fires.
0:47.7	Many gardeners, street vendors, recyclers, and other outdoor workers who are an integral part of the LA
0:53.1	communities touched by the fire have lost
0:54.9	their livelihoods. Inclusive action is giving out $500 grants directly to these workers. Also this week in my
1:01.7	newsletter, I shared a list of places and people in need of your support, and I have included links to
1:06.4	both Inclusive Action and my newsletter in the show notes. So please check those things out.
1:11.8	And thank you so much for helping us rebuild Los Angeles.
1:15.6	She's become the well that I go to when my soul is dehydrated, I guess.
1:22.9	And, you know, certainly whether we're thinking of climate catastrophe and, of course, this inauguration and all that it augurs, yeah, you have to go back to the well.
1:43.1	Welcome to the Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them.
1:46.9	Today, we're doing something a little different on an extra special bonus episode of the Stacks.
1:51.4	I'm joined by poet and author Saeed Jones, who's been a guest on the show before, and he's back today to talk to me about a lecture given by Tony Morrison in 2012 about goodness
2:02.4	and the literary imagination. Today we talk about goodness, evil, and what we hope to do and be
	...

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