Yale Professor Meghan O’Rourke Uses Poetry to Navigate the Invisible Kingdom

October 20, 2026

Loading player...

Episode Description

New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Kingdom Meghan O’Rourke sits down with Zibby Owens to talk about her new, slim, poetry anthology The Story of the Body, a collection of 82 poems about illness, pain, and recovery.


Meghan talks about her own experience of falling ill in her early twenties and navigating the onset of symptoms that eventually led to a diagnosis a decade later. She also discusses the process of compiling the anthology with her students at Yale and the magic and power of poetry as a way to make sense of the world.


Learn more about Meghan O’Rourke here and follow her on Instagram @meghanor. The Story of the Body can be purchased here.

*********

A story for the messy middle. Zibby's essay collection Between Chapters is out now!

Love to listen? She narrated the audiobook.

Listen on Spotify here.

Listen on Apple here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent Episodes

Jessica Radloff on Young Sheldon
Jane Leeves: A Look Behind the Scenes of Hit Sitcom Frasier
Israeli Author Noa Yedlin on Humor in Family-Based Fiction
Christine Pride and Jo Piazza on The Ripple Effect of Secrets