Plague Remedy Podcast

13/10/2025

Thanks so much to everybody who's donated to the Story podcast's GoFundMe fundraiser so far (including anonymous donors we aren't able to thank directly). Thanks to you, we're slightly less than halfway to our goal. We've been able to consult with a tech expert, who advised us to change out pretty much all of our recording and editing software. Stephen is working with the new stuff now, and hopefully you will see the benefits of this soon. Hopefully this will include getting videos of the interviews up on YouTube.
We still need to accomplish several other things, including buy a new light and microphone and (hopefully) consult with a marketing expert to get ideas for how to get our name out there. Anything you can do with be more appreciated than we can say. Again, thank you so much.

Many of you know and have listened to our podcast, STORY, hosted by S… Christian Livermore needs your support for Help the STORY podcast get to the next level

07/10/2025

🚨🎧 New Episode Alert!

🎙️ The Honest Writer: Award-winning author Christine Sneed on Creative Survival

In this episode, Christine Sneed joins us for a thoughtful, funny, and honest conversation about the writing life — from the joy of creating to the challenges of staying inspired.

Christine talks about the art of storytelling, why empathy matters, and how she keeps her creative energy alive after decades in the literary world.

LINK TO THE FULL EPISODE IN COMMENTS

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01/10/2025

We’re back with a new name, a new logo, and a fantastic guest to kick things off — the brilliant poet and musician Don Paterson.

Don has won just about every poetry prize there is (including the T.S. Eliot Prize — twice!)

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about:

🎸 His early life as a gigging musician in Dundee and London.
📖 Why he turned to memoir and how memory, music, and identity intertwine.

Poetry, and the strange ways the mind holds on to certain things. And his approach to writing. (He reads some poems too.)

Don is funny, down-to-earth, and deeply insightful — this one could’ve gone on for hours.

Link in the comments!

30/09/2025

✨ New Episode ✨

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us: Iain Maloney on Grunge, Writing, and Being a Scot in Japan 🎙️

This week I sit down with writer, editor, and musician Iain Maloney, whose work ranges from novels and travel writing to memoir and poetry. We talk about what it means to grow up in Scotland and spend twenty years in Japan, how lockdown shaped his writing, and why the nineties—and a pilgrimage to Seattle—still echo through his life and art.

🎧 Link to podcast in comments.

If you enjoy the episode, please share, leave a review, and, if you can, support our GoFundMe campaign! Links in the comments!

29/09/2025

https://gofund.me/b8e9f5d32

Many of you know and have listened to our podcast, STORY, hosted by S… Christian Livermore needs your support for Help the STORY podcast get to the next level

18/09/2025

It's autumn, and you know what that means! The Plague Remedy podcast is back!

We return on Tuesday, 23 September with renowned poet Don Paterson. Don and Stephen talk about Don's poetry and his memoir, and try to pin down just how many guitars he owns.

Our new season will also be a relaunch. Many of you said you didn't like the podcast name, so we've caved to peer pressure and got a new one. It expresses who we are and exactly what the podcast is about. So no more people accidentally tuning in because they were looking for podcasts about infectious diseases.

So we'll see you in slightly under a week's time. We're excited, and we hope you are, too. We can't wait to see you all again.

29/07/2025

Hey guys!

We're still on our summer break, back in mid-September, but in the meantime we wanted to let you know about what's coming this fall. Our Patreon will be up and running, and there will be some really enriching options for both readers and writers.

For readers, you can join our book club. Once a month we will get together and discuss a book that's been set in advance. Christian and Stephen will both be there, and we'll all talk about what we liked, what we didn't like, our favourite characters, what we wish had happened, you know, all the great book club stuff.

For writers, Christian will be running a monthly creative writing class. Think of it as a mini master's degree because this is exactly what Stephen and Christian both did during our own creative writing master's studies. Every week, one person will do a presentation on a book that's been set in advance, focused on craft, and the rest of the group will chime in with their own ideas. Christian will help you with the presentation by helping tease out ideas you raise, but the most important thing for a writer is to read, so by presenting and discussing the book, you will develop critical thinking skills and a framework for how to think about writing as practice. For an added fee, Christian will edit two pages of your work in progress. She has a heavy editing hand, but her feedback is always kind and comes with advice about how to improve your work.

You can also buy pre-recorded sessions of either class for a one-off fee per class if you're not sure yet whether you want to make a monthly Patreon commitment.

And if you want one-on-one help with your whole project, Christian acts as a writing coach. She can edit your manuscript (or pages) and provide you with advice for how to move forward, or you can choose a monthly mentoring service in which she will read a set number of pages every month and you will meet on Zoom to talk about them.

So enjoy the rest of the summer, and we'll see you in September!

21/07/2025

Stephen Fry’s comedy, intellect, and eloquence are inseparable. His quote captures the essence of his humour: layered, literate, and always striving to make complexity feel light. In A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989–1995), his sketches with Hugh Laurie showcased verbal gymnastics and philosophical banter. As Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993), Fry embodied refined wit with effortless poise. His hosting of QI (2003–2016) turned a quiz show into a comedic exploration of obscure facts, led by curiosity and cleverness. Fry’s writing, from autobiographies to novels, carries the same voice—elegant, reflective, always ready with a pun or poignant metaphor. He doesn’t use humour to obscure emotion; he uses it to translate it. His jokes are an invitation to feel more, not less. Wit, for Fry, isn’t superficial—it’s soulful. And that’s why his comedy feels both timeless and deeply personal.

21/07/2025

Another reason to keep your nose in a book.

20/07/2025

"Summer", a poem by Kellam Ayres
https://poems.com/poem/summer/
via Poetry Daily and Gunpowder Press