“The Tell-Tale Heart” on City of Man Podcast

I’m excited to have hosted City of Man for the Christian Humanist Radio Network’s annual Halloween crossover again. This year the shows are all covering selected stories by Edgar Allan Poe. On this episode of City of Man, David Grubbs, Mathew Block and I discuss the story that began my own lifelong love of Poe’s work, “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

We discuss Poe’s life and work overall, the tragedy that dogged him for forty years, the story itself, the immense craft put into it, how it compares to a similar story from Poe’s corpus, and whether “The Tell-Tale Heart” really deserves its lofty spot in the canon of American short fiction.

N.b.: early in the episode, when I say Poe picked a fight with Nathaniel Hawthorne, I mean Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poe would have my hide for that.

This was a great discussion of a great story and I’ve had a good time listening to it again. I hope y’all enjoy, and that you’ll check out some of the resources we recommend at the end.

You can listen to this episode of City of Man on iTunes, Stitcher, or other fine podcasting platforms. Give City of Man a visit at the show’s Facebook page or the Christian Humanist Radio Network’s main site. Be sure to subscribe to the show—and the other shows on the CHRN—so you can catch up on previous episodes and won’t miss future episodes. Coyle’s a hardworking guy and has made City of Man one of the best shows in my podcast feed, and I’m grateful that he asked me to host the crossover again this year.

Thanks for listening!