Narrated Essay: The Baring Season

Narrated Essay: The Baring Season

From The Guest House: "Gem Tactics" by Shawn Parell and David Keplinger

January 25, 2026 · 6 min

About this episode

The episode explores the challenges of staying human amidst rising authoritarianism and the significance of companionship and poetry during winter.

Nearing the end of January, I’m only beginning to feel the sinew of this new year. Here in the United States, we’re reckoning with what seems like a sudden surge of authoritarianism—though, as Hemingway reminds us in The Sun Also Rises , collapse happens “two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The hubris we’ve unleashed from within now sends shockwaves through the world, unmooring the institutions we’ve depended on and unsettling the nervous system of our species. Staying human amidst the swirl has become a practice unto itself. We must maintain the pleasantries of our daily lives, yoke ourselves to the people and practices that organize and buoy the mind, and make actionable the indignance of our deeper values—all while sifting through the muck and shimmer of the collective unconscious. Of those in privileged circumstances, many are divesting themselves of accountability or arming up for an uncertain future. Even a question like “How’s it going?” can land strangely if it feels insulated from the existential tremors of the moment. Winter, of course, is the barest season. It’s a time when thin, long-shadowed light clarifies sight and stillness disciplines attention, when branches…

People in this episode

Host: Shawn Parell

Guests: David Keplinger, Lindsay Whalen

Topics covered

  • authoritarianism
  • mental health
  • human connection
  • poetry
  • winter
  • existentialism

Keywords

  • authoritarianism
  • mental health
  • Mary Oliver
  • poetry
  • winter
  • existentialism
  • human connection

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Sun Also Rises

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