Alice Notley says there is "probably nothing more disobedient than being a comic poet, since no one's ever sure if that's good enough." In this episode, the razor-sharp & brilliantly funny Nicole Steinberg talks humor in poetry, poetry/life balance & how to stay on that prolific grind, bro heckling at readings, the downsides & upsides of integrating pop culture into her work, & much more. She also reads some of her fantastic poems, both old & new. This one's not to be missed!

episode tags: how writing poetry is like Weight Watchers; pop culture in poems, giving 'em something to latch onto, & subsequent resistance; comedic timing & "You can be smart without being funny, but you can't be funny without being smart"; a rare breed of POETRY HECKLERS; on being uncomfortably & unapologetically feminine; the poem that a bro SO hated; "I have no problem provoking men.."; culling sonnets from Lucky magazine; are men ever frazzled or breezy or shrill?; brand-new bodega snack roulette format! (& jazzy theme song); becoming the Janeane Garofalo of poetry; why Nicole's forthcoming book is called Glass Actress; why Nicole's poems are gonna be on 1,500 posters (& how we can steal them); hot saliva action