JPROF artwork

JPROF

20 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1 rating

Jim Stovall was a journalism professor for nearly four decades. In this podcast he shares some of the stories that he has learned about writers, journalists, the writing process, and just about anything else that he finds interesting. You can sign up for his weekly newsletter at his website jprof.com.

Jim's latest book is Heads and Tales: Caricatures and Stories about the Famous, the Infamous, and the Just Plain Interesting. That book is available on Amazon.com.

Books Arts Education Self-Improvement baseball non-fiction beekeeping caricature comics drawing fiction stories writers writing
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Episodes

James Cain, Billy Wilder, and Double Indemnity

June 08, 2021 16:00 - 5 minutes - 4.16 MB

Double Indemnity, the book by James Cain and the movie directed by Billy Wilder, defines the genre that we call noir. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jprof/message

Edward Bulwar-Lytton

June 07, 2021 16:00 - 4 minutes - 3.01 MB

Edward Bulwar-Lytton is one of the most reviled writers in English literature -- undeservedly so. Here we make the argument that he needs to be set free from this ignominy. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jprof/message

Isaac Asimov

June 06, 2021 15:00 - 3 minutes - 2.67 MB

Isaac Asimov was an extraordinarily prolific writer who covered many genres. This episode will tell you a little more about this extraordinary man. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jprof/message

The hard road to glory for Arthur Ashe

June 05, 2021 21:00 - 4 minutes - 3.49 MB

Arthur Ashe faced many challenges on his way to being a championship tennis player, but one of his toughest challenges came when he took on writing a history of black athletes in America. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jprof/message

JPROF - introduction

June 05, 2021 14:30 - 2 minutes - 1.77 MB

Jim Stovall is a retired journalism professor who, for most of the last two decades, has operated the JPROF.com website. The site was originally one of the most popular sites for journalism teachers and students. Today, it retains much of its original content, but it also serves as Jim's blog where he writes about journalists, writers, the writing process, and just about anything or anyone else that he finds interesting. This podcast is the audio version of some of these stories. You can s...

Heads and Tales - Marguerite Higgins and No Place for a Woman

May 06, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.19 MB

Heads and Tales blurb Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably – sometimes tragically, sometimes commendably, usually unintentionally – caricaturing culture. This collection careens along the gamut from rich and famous to downtrodden and obscure.  Some of them, t...

Heads and Tales -Rebecca Harding Davis and the beginnings of American realism

April 29, 2021 04:00 - 8 minutes - 6.47 MB

  Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably – sometimes tragically, sometimes commendably, usually unintentionally – caricaturing culture. This collection careens along the gamut from rich and famous to downtrodden and obscure.  Some of them, the readers will know...

Heads and Tales - On the Line with Bob Considine

April 22, 2021 04:00 - 7 minutes - 4.85 MB

Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably – sometimes tragically, sometimes commendably, usually unintentionally – caricaturing culture. This collection careens along the gamut from rich and famous to downtrodden and obscure.  Some of them, the readers will know. O...

Heads and Tales - Winston Churchill, the writer - 3

April 15, 2021 04:00 - 8 minutes - 5.53 MB

  The twenty-year-old Churchill (he turned twenty-one while in Cuba) was a second lieutenant in the British Army, and he was going to Cuba as a military observer. He also was going as a journalist. Heads and Tales blurb Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably...

Heads and Tales - Winston Churchill the writer (part 2)

April 08, 2021 04:00 - 10 minutes - 7.4 MB

  The phrase "his/her place in history" gets tossed around a lot. It's used by journalists, politicians, and commentators as if it's a seat on the Number 12 bus, and you need to be in the right spot when it hits Picadilly Circus. Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are in...

Heads and Tales - Winston Churchill the writer (part 1)

April 01, 2021 04:00 - 7 minutes - 5.03 MB

The phrase "his/her place in history" gets tossed around a lot. It's used by journalists, politicians, and commentators as if it's a seat on the Number 12 bus, and you need to be in the right spot when it hits Picadilly Circus. Heads and Tales blurb Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that write...

Heads and Tales - Agatha Christie and the death of her stars

March 25, 2021 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.5 MB

When Agatha Christie was living in London during World War II, she wasn't sure she was going to survive. The Blitz by the German air force had inflicted heavy damage on London's capital city, and thousands of people had died. Christie believed she might eventually be among them.  +++ When the book was published, Poirot was given a front-page obituary in the New York Times — the only obituary the Times has ever run of a literary character. *** Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Sto...

Heads and Tales - G.K. Chesterton - a colossal genius

March 18, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 3.83 MB

Physically, he was massive: 6 feet 4 inches tall, he weighed more than 250 pounds. Gilbert Keith Chesterton had a shock of hair that on many days looked like it had exploded out of the right side of his head. His writing production almost defies belief: 4,000 essays, 80 books, several hundred poems, and numerous plays.   Heads and Tales blurb Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he i...

Heads and Tales - George Washington Carver's rules for living

March 11, 2021 05:00 - 4 minutes - 3.3 MB

The great scientist and agronomist George Washington Carver developed some simply formulated rules for living that he presented to his students. They're worth passing on to you. Heads and Tales blurb Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably – sometimes tragicall...

Heads and Tales - The libraries of Andrew Carnegie

March 04, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 3.88 MB

Carnegie has his name on a lot of things, to be sure–Carnegie Hall and Carnegie-Mellon University, to name a couple–but for most of the 20th century, America and a good part of the world paired the name Carnegie with the word "library."   Read more at JPROF.com.   Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the...

Heads and Tales - Double Indemnity, James Cain, and Billy Wilder

February 25, 2021 05:00 - 7 minutes - 5.22 MB

Double Indemnity – the book by James Cain and the movie directed by Billy Wilder – defines, as well as anything, the elusive genré that we call noir. Noir is generally associated with violence, usually murder, and sex, with conflicting motives and motivations, and with tragically flawed characters whose lives are never the happily contented ones they seek. In general, all of these aspects are played out in an urban setting, and much of the action occurs at night. Corruption, official or uno...

Heads and Tales - Edward Bulwar-Lytton

February 18, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 3.95 MB

After being consigned by several generations to literary purgatory, Edward Bulwar-Lytton deserves to be free -- if not for his sake then for our own. He is a far more interesting man than simply being the author of the most famous first line in all of English literature: It was a dark and stormy night. Read more here. Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature pe...

Heads and Tales - Isaac Asimov - writing in all genres

February 11, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 3.66 MB

Heads and Tales text and drawings by Jim Stovall In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says: "Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is “trying to caricature people.”  He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably – sometimes tragically, sometimes commendably, usually unintentionally – caricaturing culture. This collection careens along the gamut from rich and famous to downtrodden and obscure.  Some of them, the readers will know. O...

Arthur Ashe and his Hard Road to Glory

February 04, 2021 05:00 - 6 minutes - 4.89 MB

We remember Arthur Asheas a tennis star whose quickness and grace on the court masked a concentration and preparation that few athletes have matched. Ashe's tennis career was cut short by health problems, and his life ended tragically early by a medical accident. Ashe was many things besides a tennis champion. Among them, he was an author, a fact probably unbeknownst to most readers. Ashe wrote and co-authored a number of autobiographical volumes, inspirational books, and instructional boo...

Heads and Tales - introduction

January 23, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 1.44 MB

Hi, I'm Jim Stovall -- writer, editor, reader, watercolorist, drawer, caricature maker, (I'm carefully avoiding the word "artist" here), woodworker, gardener, and journalism prof now happily retired. I've written several books, the latest of which is Heads and Tales: Caricatures and Stories of the Famous, the Infamous, and the Just Plain Interesting. That book contains a lot of my caricatures and short pieces about writers and writing and serves as the basis for this podcast. I hope that y...