An Engineering Major's Unfinished Poem Became "Puff the Magic Dragon"

About this episode

The episode explores how Lenny Lipton's poem inspired the hit song 'Puff the Magic Dragon' and its connection to his engineering studies.

Lenny Lipton was studying electrical engineering at Cornell University when he wrote a poem that turned into a song. That song eventually became a hit, thanks to Lipton's roommate who later became Peter of Peter, Paul and Mary fame. Find out how all that came about in this short story by Sheldon Zoldan. Here, you can watch a 1965 recording of Peter, Paul and Mary performing "Puff the Magic Dragon." The thumbnail photo of Lipton is a self-portrait that he shot with a Pixel 3 phone ...

People in this episode

Host: Kate Jones

Guest: Sheldon Zoldan

Topics covered

• inspiration
• songwriting
• engineering
• poetry
• music history

Keywords

• Lenny Lipton
• Puff the Magic Dragon
• songwriting
• Cornell University
• Sheldon Zoldan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cornell University, Peter, Paul and Mary

Books & works: Puff the Magic Dragon

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