Dr Embers Verse and Tales
Dr Embers: Verse & Tale stories and poetry told by the fire.
Each week begins with a single thought — a line from a philosopher, poet, or thinker — and journeys through classic tales and original works that explore the themes shaping our lives.
Here, not all stories are told the same way.
Here, you are invited to sit by the fire.
Here, you may unwind and let your imagination wander to places you may never have been.
Ideas you may never have considered.
New episodes every Sunday.
The fire is lit.🔥
Episodes
24 episodes
Dr Embers on Location - The Big Nasty Knight (Special)
Dr Embers is bringing stories on the road.Tonight, we learn the tale of the Big Nasty Knight and discover that fear is never far away—even for the most fearsome of fellows...
Dr Embers Presents - By the hearth 05
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." — Albert EinsteinTonight, we return to the hearth for a more personal conversation as contributor Gordon Banks shares the inspiration behind the poems h...
Dr Embers Presents - Swipe Right: Written and Performed by Jason Buck
"Men are not punished for their sins, but by them." — Elbert HubbardWe often imagine that consequences arrive from outside ourselves, but perhaps the choices we make carry their own rewards and punishments.Tonight, award-...
Dr Embers Presents - The Owl and the Pussy Cat by Edward Lear Performed by Gordon Banks -
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." — Albert EinsteinThis week on Verse and Tales, we leave reason at the door and step into the wonderfully absurd world of nonsense poetry.Join us as w...
Dr Embers Presents - The Selkie Tail - Sarah Turpin
“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours; if it doesn’t, it never was.”In this episode of Verse & Tales, we step onto the shores of myth and memory to explore the haunting legend of the Selk...
Dr Embers Presents - Hunting Dragons and others by Hi-Reciprocity (Simon Satori)
“What people believe prevails over the truth.” — SophoclesIn every age, mankind finds something new to fear, something new to believe in — dragons in the dark, madness in the moonlight, or the quiet anxieties of the modern world....
Dr Embers Presents - By the hearth 04
Tonight, By the Hearth takes a different form.Rather than a tale told by the fire, I'm joined by a fellow poet, storyteller, and co-creator Joanna Vale for an intimate conversation exploring the inspiration behind her latest sea...
Dr Embers Presents - Beltane Fire and other poems by Joanna Vale
“We see the world… not as it is… but as we are.” — Anaïs NinHow often do we mistake our own perspective… for truth?How often do we look… and believe we have seen?Tonight’s episode invites us… to loosen that certain...
Dr Embers presents – Rainbow Crow: A Lenape Story
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” — Henri BergsonHow often do we pass by the ordinary… without ever truly seeing it?In a world that moves ever faster, we grow accustomed to glancing r...
Dr Embers Presents - Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats (Featuring guest reader J.Vale)
“We are always getting ready to live, but never living.”— Ralph Waldo EmersonTonight, we leave the hearth behind… and carry the fire out into the woods.In this episode of Verse and Tales, we explore Ode to a Night...
Dr Embers Presents - How the Nightingale got its song
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo EmersonTonight, by the fire, we turn to a tale as old as memory itself — How the Nightingale got its song...
By the hearth 03
From The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
Dr Embers Presents - The Merchant of Wapping: The Hargreaves Recordings
Recently, I led my first historical walk through Wapping—exploring the lives of those who once called those streets home.To bring that world closer, I made use of a set of restored wax recordings belonging to a Mr Jonathan Hargreaves, a ...
Dr Embers Presents - Sonnet 97 W.Shakespere and Other Poems
“We who survived the camps are not true witnesses. This is an uncomfortable notion… we survivors are only a small and abnormal minority.” Primo LeviIn this episode of Verse &...
Dr Embers Presents - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Island by Armin Greder
“All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.” — Viet Thanh NguyenYet it is not only soldiers who carry those battles with them. For many who flee the chaos, the war follows close behi...
Dr Embers Presents – The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot
“I have had 80 years to forget it… I still can’t.” — Harry PatchTonight, we take our humble flame into the long shadow cast after war.For as Harry Patch — the last surviving British soldier of...
Dr Embers Presents - A Man in Winter by E. Embers
“What happens in war isn’t just what you do. It’s what you become.” — Karl Marlantes, Vietnam veteranIn this episode of Verse & Tales, we journey into a frozen landscape gripped by winter....
By the hearth 02
This episode is a companion piece to the previous four episodes of the season.Tonight, there is no poem. No dramatic reading. No new tale brought to the fire.Instead, we pause.By the Hearth is a reflective...
Dr Embers Presents: The Highwayman — Alfred Noyes
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” — Søren KierkegaardIn this episode, we return to The Highwayman — a tale of love, inevitability, and the cruel arithme...
Dr Embers presents: Invictus by William E. Henley and Other Poems
“If you let one ant stand up to us, they all stand up to us.”Tyranny does not rise with banners or chants — it rises quietly, through silence.In this episode of By the Hearth, I bring three poems to life: In...
Dr Embers Presents: The Monkeys Paw — W. W. Jacobs
"We are our choices" - Jean-Paul SartreThree wishes offered.Each seems harmless.Each carries a cost unseen.In this episode of Dr Embers: Verse & Tale, W. W. Jacobs’ classic short story The Mo...
Dr Embers Presents: The Raven — Edgar Allan Poe
“He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster.” — Friedrich NietzscheMany know The Raven for its gothic beauty and haunting rhythm. But beneath the darkness lies something e...