Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC studios in Soho on this, the first day of 2026. Happy New Year. Today, this is a special edition of All Of It leading up to WNYC's coverage of the inauguration of New York's new Mayor, Zoran Mamdani. Brian Lehrer is hosting. We'll have live analysis and reporters on the scene, and we'll take your calls. Live coverage of the mayor's inauguration starts today just before 1:00 PM here on WNYC. Stay with WNYC for special coverage happening in about 40 minutes. Until then, we want to open the phone lines to you, our listeners.

What are your hopes for 2026? Personally, what do you want to see? What do you hope to accomplish this year? Culturally, what do you want to see happen? Take a moment to think about those questions and get ready to call in. Now, to give you a little inspiration, we've invited a great creative thinker to the show, Pulitzer Prize winner and former United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. She's published a new book called Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times, and she joins me now. Welcome, Tracy.

Tracy K. Smith: Thank you. Happy New Year.

Alison Stewart: Happy New Year to you as well. Will you start us off with a poem?

Tracy K. Smith: Sure. This is a poem by 20th-century American poet Sara Teasdale. I think this poem was first published 100 years ago, in 1926, and it's called "The Crystal Gazer."

I shall gather myself into myself again,

I shall take my scattered selves and make them one,

Fusing them into a polished crystal ball,

Where I can see the moon and the flashing sun.

I shall sit like a sibyl, hour after hour intent,

Watching the future come, and the present go,

And the little shifting pictures of people rushing

In restless self-importance to and fro.

Alison Stewart: Why did you pick that poem to start 2026?

Tracy K. Smith: This is a poem that speaks to me so powerfully in terms of the feeling of being scattered or shattered into a million pieces. Living a life that pulls you in many different directions, and where time is something that chases you around. The speaker of this poem resolves to bring herself back together into a state of coherence and authority, and to claim a perspective on time, on our human dealings. I feel it's such a powerful wish with which to begin the year. Let's slow down. Let's come back to the fullness of our true selves and be patient and courageous, and generous with ourselves and one another. That's what I hear in this poem.

Alison Stewart: It's a moment when she can get it together. Get yourself together.

Tracy K. Smith: Get yourself together.

Alison Stewart: It's interesting. The poem "Gazer" is spelled G-A-Z-E-R.

Tracy K. Smith: She says, "Sitting like a Sibyl watching the future come and the present go." I imagine this figure who's saying, "I want to sit as if before a crystal ball and gaze into it and discern what is happening and exercise a form of power or control." Sibyls were these ancient prophets or seers, and they were female figures with the power to explain what was coming, what was on the horizon. I think there's also a sense of the desire to reclaim a poise and power that is often denied women in the collective imagination.

Alison Stewart: I want to talk a little bit about your new book, Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times. The New York Times said of it, "Can poetry heal the divided nation? Tracy K. Smith makes the case in her new book of criticism." What's your case?

Tracy K. Smith: [laughs] My case is that poems are objects that encourage us to listen with earnestness, attention, and generosity to the voice and the testimony of a stranger. The speaker of a poem, someone who comes up to you and opens up some facet of their experience, some view of the world. One of the things that happens inevitably, I believe, is that some piece of your own story is illuminated by that exchange, so much in our culture encourages us not to slow down and listen to others, not to give people a sense of priority in our daily comings and goings. Not to turn our attention away from ourselves, our wishes, and our obligations.

I think we suffer when that's the stance that we accept. If we let them, poems can make us feel comfortable, willing, and perhaps even grateful for the opportunity to exercise this other form of listening. My notion is that if we become willing to do that more and more with the speaker of a poem on a page, it rubs off on the ways that we deal with other humans in real time. I think that's something that we very much need right now.

Alison Stewart: How has poetry helped you? Can you think of an instance when a poem has been really, really helpful for you?

Tracy K. Smith: Oh, I can think of a lot. The one that pops into my mind first is a brief poem by the late Louise Glück called "The Undertaking." I turned to it at a moment in my life when I was really struggling with multiple forms of grief, and I felt the weight of sorrow, loss, and hopelessness. That poem opens with the line, "The darkness ends, imagine in your lifetime." I might have flubbed a little bit because I'm not so great at memorization, but that notion that a poem could invite me to do a mental exercise of imagining that sorrow and emotional weight could lift in the foreseeable future, it opened a door in my heart, I think, to say, "Okay, this is heavy and real, but I also believe there's something that sits after this." Sometimes the perspectival shift that a poem invites can really feel life-saving.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Tracy K. Smith, the poet, the professor. We're talking about 2026, the New Year. You are a professor at Harvard. Many people say, "I am going to write more this year. I want to write more this year." What are some of the things that we should do, those of us who want to be able to write more?

Tracy K. Smith: It helps me not to think about the big project and to think about the small steps. What's the question I want to broach today? What's the one page or the one line that can help me disappear into a kind of exploration and lose track of time and lose track of the sense of difficulty or pressure? Chunking the big project in that way, I think, can be really helpful. For many of us, it's the mental block of this notion of something that's impossibly large and impossibly difficult. That invites procrastination.

Alison Stewart: You're working on a book of poems now of your own?

Tracy K. Smith: I am. I have a book of poems that's mostly done. It's called The Forest, and it'll be coming out next year in 2027. I'm still hoping to bring in some more poems and see what might come in. Then I have other projects, other books of prose about poetry that I'm gathering the courage to say, "I can do this. I can finish these books."

Alison Stewart: With the book that you finish and you may be working on adding additional poems, is there a theme to it? Were you struggling with something, or is this just a book of imaginations?

Tracy K. Smith: I think it's both. There is a theme because these poems emerge from a pretty compressed period of time in 2025, thinking about the violence that we witness and that we, in many ways, are complicit in. The notion that all of the desire to arrest war and disregard, oftentimes in my imagination or in my writing, it takes the form of argument. I want to think logically about why this is wrong. More recently, I've come to the realization that it's not that war is illogical. It is claiming a logic that's moving toward an end that I disagree with.

Maybe one way of working upon that conundrum is to let go of linear logic and to let the lyric imagination guide. What I love about the lyric imagination is that it forges counter-logics. It operates sometimes in the way that dream operates. It brings different time periods and different events and even different voices together into a space and allows them to exert a clarity or invite forms of revelation, so that's what this book is doing. It's also inviting a figure, I'm thinking of the goddess or the divine feminine presence, as a powerful counterpoint to what I'm thinking about is the God of war, which is a male figure in my imagination. I think in many of our cultural imaginations.

Alison Stewart: Tracy, as we finish up, what are your hopes this year, both personally and professionally, or culturally?

Tracy K. Smith: I think they overlap in some ways. One of the mental exercises I've been challenging myself to do is to let go or acknowledge when I'm defaulting to a notion of us and we that includes only my tribe and only the people that I respect and agree with. Every time I do that, and I think it's a habit that many of us have, I try and say, "No, no, no. That's a subset of a larger us and a larger we." That is this cacophonous multitude. It includes people that I don't agree with and that I feel I don't understand. I'm trying to do the work willingly to say, "Those are my people too."

What does it mean? What's the work that I have to do? Maybe my wish is that each of us, in our ways, can find time or forms of recalibrating our sense of what we belong to and who we're working with, and see where that leads us. I hope it leads us to a place that's filled with compassion and attention, and maybe even more introspection.

Alison Stewart: Can we get you to read one more poem before you go?

Tracy K. Smith: Yes. I have a new poem, one of the poems from The Forest. I'm reading it because, in my own way, I'm calling out toward Teasdale's poem. Maybe you'll hear the reference to the Sibyl in this poem. It's called "HYMN," H-Y-M-N.

Sickle reaping the light of stars

And needle, threading it through a curtain's gauze,

Single frond of kelp amid its nation of leaves,

Rejoicing on the bed of the sea.

Simple song repeating from the Owl's Hollow.

Its question only the soul can answer.

Sibyl gazing off and in

Spindle winding fleece into thread,

Subtle source water flashing the earth,

Supple, spill, and rise

Circle.

The ripples make

Circle.

We travel from life to life,

Circle of light, the candle casts that is not itself, the Candle.

Alison Stewart: Pulitzer Prize winner and former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, she's published a new book called Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times. Thank you for making the time to be with us today.

Tracy K. Smith: Oh, thank you.

[MUSIC - Hannibal Hayes: All Of It Theme Song]

Alison Stewart: You are listening to a special edition of All Of It. Live from the WNYC studios in Soho on this bright and shiny day, this brisk day as well, the first day of 2026. I'm Alison Stewart. This is special coverage leading up to WNYC's coverage of the inauguration of New York's new Mayor, Zoran Mamdani. Stay with WNYC for special coverage happening this hour. Until then, for the next 30 minutes, we are opening the phone lines to you, our listeners. We want to know what are your hopes for 2026. Personally, what do you want to see?

What do you hope to accomplish this year? Culturally, what do you want to have happen? Our phone lines are wide open, and they are open to you for the next 30 minutes. Our number is 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. You can call in, and you can join us on air. The phone number is 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. Joining me in studio is WNYC senior producer and fill-in host Kate Hinds. Hi, Kate.

Kate Hinds: Hey, Alison.

Alison Stewart: Can you tell people why we decided it was important to do a live show on New Year's Day? Why we think it was important to open the phone lines?

Kate Hinds: We open the phone lines not infrequently on the show. The listeners are a big part of our daily churn. We like to be in conversation with you. It's really critical to the show. Especially today, on a day when we are inaugurating a new mayor. As you will hear next hour, Brian Lehrer will be opening the phones for listeners to share their feedback, their emotions, and their hopes and dreams for the mayoral administration. It seemed like a moment in which a lot of people are thinking and taking stock of things. We want to hear what's on your mind.

Alison Stewart: 2025. Remember her? She was a challenging year for public media. You've worked here for a very long time. What's your hope for public media as we go into 2026?

Kate Hinds: I hope that we are able to turn what is a crisis into a moment of opportunity. That public, both WNYC and then the rest of the system writ large, really double down on local coverage. Local coverage is the lifeblood of public media, so many people live in media deserts where there is no local newspaper. I want to see local public radio stations being the thing that connects people to their communities and tells them what's going on, and also connects people to each other. At our best, we are a town hall of the airwaves, and I want to continue to be that. Personally, my hope for public media is the podcasting landscape.

I love podcasts. I love hearing people in conversation with each other. I want to hear less conversation between two people and more produced radio pieces. I want to hear audio pieces where I hear a range of voices, and also something that is an audio delight. I want to hear audio production. I want to hear engineering.

Alison Stewart: I'm going to ask you personally because we're going to calls next. Personally, what do you have on your plate for 2026?

Kate Hinds: Like producer Jordan Lauf, I've gone heavily down the knitting rabbit hole. I took a class in January. It didn't really click. Jordan inspired me to get back into it. Now I speak to you as someone who has sore fingers because-

Alison Stewart: Calluses. [laughs]

Kate Hinds: -I didn't leave my apartment from Friday until Sunday last weekend. I churned out two hats and a scarf. I'm a knitting maniac, and I just want to get better and better and improve my skills.

Alison Stewart: I spot a knitting club, All Of It Knitting Club, happening.

Kate Hinds: We have a crafty Slack channel, and I'm trying to start a monthly get-together where we all just craft in each other's personal spaces.

Alison Stewart: All right, listeners, what are your hopes for 2026? Personally, what do you want to see? What do you want to accomplish this year? Culturally, what do you want to have happen? Our phone lines, they are open. 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. Let's go to the phones. Peter is calling us from Tampa. Hi, Peter.

Peter: Hi. I'm a native of Glen Ridge, by the way. Listen, here is what I thought when I was listening to your guest, who was a poet, that I was listening so intently. That's what I thought. I said, "What I'd like to see for the future for myself is that when I'm in conversation, when I'm listening to people, listen as intently as I was listening, as if they're telling me a poem." Because I listen very intently when someone's reciting a poem, why don't I do that as if that person talking to me in regular conversation has that much intent? I could speak that way too. Like here, I'm giving more attention to my speech because I know there's a lot of people listening. I think it would be a good habit that we don't be sloppy with our speech, but think of it all as poetic. What do you think?

Alison Stewart: I think that is an excellent thing to think about for 2026. Peter, thank you so much for calling and for listening. Let's talk to Claire from Brooklyn. Hi, Claire. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Claire: Hi. Thank you. Second to the listening, I want to be doing a lot more waiting and listening. Also, I want to be doing a lot more sharing. If that's the single word, I want to be sharing more from myself, more the things that I'm making and resonating with. I also want to see all of the beautiful, incredible projects that everybody is working on, because it feels like the more I get to know people, and all of my friends are making and dreaming up such incredible projects. From a very selfish standpoint, I want them all to share that with me because [chuckles] I want to see everybody shine and I want to shine too, so sharing.

Kate Hinds: Can I ask you a question, Claire? What are you making and where are you sharing it?

Claire: That's a great question. I'm trying to make an email newsletter, which already sounds very silly, but-

Kate Hinds: Not at all.

Claire: -just sending it out to my friends and things like that. I would love to be figuring out more ways to disseminate things and spread them among people.

Kate Hinds: It's all about connection.

Alison Stewart: Thanks for calling. Let's go to another Claire. This one is from Hartsdale. Hi, Claire from Hartsdale. How are you?

Claire: Hi, I am good. I'm just excited because a book that I wrote in 2004, that I had the dream that it would spread as a play or a film, it's now going to be made into a film in Costa Rica with friends that live there. It's called The Call of Mother Earth, How a Being of Light Draws Forth Humanity's Response. I've been just so into the climate issue that is the environmentally challenged Mother Earth. It's all in poetic prose. It's all in dialogue already. There's a lot of people, apparently, in Costa Rica that want to be in the cast. I am excited because I also have a global healing foundation, which is non-profit.

People can donate to including environmentally conscious organizations that could have their names up and sponsors. I'm looking into that into the future, this year. Because Mother Earth is calling out for help, and I have a trailer, I would love to send it to you. If you have an email address, I could send you the trailer.

Alison Stewart: You know what? Send it to our Instagram. That's a good place that we can take a look for it. Congratulations on your film as well. Let's talk to George on Line one. Hi, George, thanks for calling All Of It in 2026.

George: Happy New Year, Alison. Happy New Year, Kate. In 2026, I plan to continue and hopefully accelerate my various campaigns with great organization to preserve New York's incomparable built heritage. I think it's going to be especially important in 2026 because with the incessant focus on "affordability," preservation has been left out. Specifically, the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of affordable units that are preserved in historic districts from the Upper West Side to Brooklyn. Think of all of the walkups on the Upper West Side in Yorkville and Upper East Side. I have not heard the Mamdani administration talk at all about preservation.

I hope that his deputy mayor, Mela Bza, will take this up. I plan to work with my groups, including the Historic District Council and Friends of the Upper East Side, in advocating for this. There was the onslaught of, again, a real estate board-driven legislation that passed in 2025, including City of Yes, including significantly the three-ballot resolution.

Alison Stewart: You know what? I'm going to stop you right there because Brian wants to hear the rest of this in his next hour.

Kate Hinds: Exactly.

Alison Stewart: They're talking politics in his next hour. I understand this is politics in the city, but we really appreciate you calling. We're doing a special call-out about what you want to see for 2026. What do you hope to accomplish? Culturally, what do you want to have happen? Our phone lines are 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. In studio with me now is All Of It senior producer and fill-in guest host Kate Hinds. We had our team fill this out.

Kate Hinds: Oh my God. I love this.

Alison Stewart: Do you want to read Simon's or should I read Simon's?

Kate Hinds: You can read Simon's

Alison Stewart: I'll read Simon's. Simon does a lot of our live events. He does our Broadway on the radio series, and he said personally, he's into playing more piano, maybe picking up the clarinet again. Simon's neighbors watch out. [laughs] It says, "Using my sewing machine, making at least one clothing gift for a friend or a family member, make a perfect English muffin," which is unusual because his father is British.

Kate Hinds: I wonder if his idea of an English muffin is what we think of as an English muffin.

Alison Stewart: Maybe we need to talk to him about that. "Travel somewhere new." When you think about that list, what stands out to you?

Kate Hinds: I think the sewing machine really jumps out to me because I feel like I've seen it among a bunch of people. The idea to create something. This need to get your hands on something and make something. I know that you feel the sewing machine-

Alison Stewart: Oh, yes.

Kate Hinds: -allure deeply. For the listeners who don't know, Alison is something of a sewing whiz. Alison is crafting her own clothes. You should be checking out her Instagram, first of all, because she will sometimes post her outfits. I think we just want to make stuff. Those of us who are so conscious of living in our phones and being online all the time. It's a nice antidote to that.

Alison Stewart: A lot of people on our team put down travel. We're going to discuss travel next week on the show. Who are we going to have on? Is it Travel + Leisure?

Kate Hinds: Give me two minutes, and I'll tell you. I need to get into our All Of It board, but yes, we are going to be talking about that.

Alison Stewart: All right, let's take another call. Bob from Brooklyn. Hi, Bob. Thank you so much for calling All Of It.

Bob: Oh, and thank you for being on, and happy New Year to everyone. I am just about to have our yearly brunch with the kids and my wife. What I want to say is I hope we'll find many, many ways to be in solidarity with the poor and downtrodden, underfed, under-housed, unhoused of New York City and the rest of the world. We have to explore ways, develop agencies, give our time. Further, some of the people in leadership become better and better role models since there's a poverty of good role models in government right now in many other areas. That's my hope for the year.

Alison Stewart: Love that. I hope you have an excellent time with your family. Let's talk to Joseph from Nolita on Line four, Joseph. Thanks for making the time to call All Of It.

Joseph: Thank you. Happy New Year.

Alison Stewart: Happy New Year.

Joseph: Mine is a bit of a challenge, reconnecting with one of my five sisters who is a Trump supporter living in Florida. I basically ghosted her for about four years, and I just reconnected. My hope for this year is to just be kind and have conversations and not get upset about it at all.

Kate Hinds: Joseph, this is the way. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Alison Stewart: We really appreciate it, and good luck to you and your family. Let's talk to Mary Grace from Brooklyn. Hey, Mary Grace, thanks for making the time to call All Of It.

Mary Grace: Hi?

Alison Stewart: Hello?

Mary Grace: Oh, thank you so much. Something that I'm looking forward to is returning to my childlike wonder. I work with kids. I took a break from film for a moment and got back into nannying. Now I've found that I think my life's purpose is to work in children's media. With working with these two little boys that I love so dearly, I've been able to slow down and catch my breath, to be patient, and to feel so connected to myself and with the collective. That's where we're at.

Alison Stewart: I love that. Mary Grace.

Mary Grace: Thank you so much.

Alison Stewart: Thanks for calling in. You are listening to-

Mary Grace: Thank you.

Alison Stewart: -a special edition of All Of It. As we await the inauguration of Mayor Mamdani. Brian Lehrer is going to take over in about 15 minutes, but until then, we are keeping the phone lines wide open. We want to hear from you. What do you hope to accomplish this year? Culturally, what do you hope to have happen? Personally, what's something that you want to see? Our number is 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. Joining me in studio is All Of It senior producer and fill-in host Kate Hinds. Should we go back to our list of the people on team All Of It?

Kate Hinds: Let's go back to our list, but I just want to say-

Alison Stewart: Oh.

Kate Hinds: -two things. We're going to be talking travel next Wednesday at noon. People, if you are interested in finding a new place to travel, hit us up on Wednesday. We're going to be speaking with someone from Travel + Leisure, and also to Mary Grace, she reminded me of one of my favorite sayings. "You can't learn what you think you already know." It's a beautiful thing to set aside your preconceived notions about stuff and just take things in.

Alison Stewart: On the travel note, Luke said that he wants to-- Luke, on our staff, he wants to visit one new state and one new country, California, Austria, this year. He wants to write more, including emailing his grandparents once a month.

Kate Hinds: Call your grandparents.

Alison Stewart: Love that. He would like to read the second volume of Robert Caro's LBJ series, which is a big joke.

Kate Hinds: Which he got in our Secret Santa this year.

Alison Stewart: Go home and see his parents more often in Rhode Island. This is so funny because he is one of the younger members of our staff. He wrote, "I feel like I should be doing weight exercises more, including for my back. Tall people problems."

Kate Hinds: Luke is tall. You're very smart, Luke, to want to take care of your back right now. Get on it.

Alison Stewart: It's also interesting culturally, he said, "I hope the New York mayor inspires this current generation of young people to get more interested in running for local office, or at least in more engaged in local politics." He's manifesting. [laughs] I'm manifesting a long-promised new album from The Roots." I'm with him on that one. "I hope there's a lot of interesting and accurate commemorations and programming related to America's 250th." We're going to be concentrating on that a lot.

Kate Hinds: We're kicking it off on Monday.

Alison Stewart: Also, I'm reading The Schuyler Sisters.

Kate Hinds: Schuyler Sisters.

Alison Stewart: It's fascinating. Let's take a few more calls. Let's talk to Linda from Brooklyn. Hi, Linda. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Linda: Thank you so much. Thank you for your poet and Fear Less. That's what prompted me to call in. As an educator, my hope for the New York City with the new mayor being sworn in is that we'll have a shift in focus in our education system to awareness, self-awareness, belonging, care, compassion, generosity, forgiveness, and gratitude. These are the new ideas that we can infuse in our education system so we can build a moral character of our people. I appreciate so much for taking the call. I really would like to see that shift as we face a polycrisis that I really see as a polyopportunity.

AI will do a lot for us, but I think that we need to do a lot more for ourselves. Your speaker with her poetry really invoked so much of that language that we all need to speak and listen and hear each other with deep respect and gratitude for the planet. Thank you.

Alison Stewart: Linda, thank you. Let's talk to Paul from Brooklyn. Hi, Paul. What's going on in Brooklyn today?

Paul: I'd like to improve my relationship with my daughter. That's what I would like always.

Alison Stewart: Did you have a big fallout or no, or you just want to improve your relationship?

Paul: No, I'm not really sure why she doesn't want to communicate with me. We've just been communicating with very brief text messages. There was a time when I said to her that I would like to change whatever it is that I'm doing that makes her not want to talk to me. She was not interested in even responding to that. If we could get back at all to talking and having some relationship, that is all I want.

Alison Stewart: Paul, we wish you the very best with you and the rest of your family. Let's talk to Raul from East Elmhurst. Hey, Raul, happy New Year to you.

Raul: Gracias, gracias. Happy New Year to you. Thank you so much for being in the air and allowing all of us to communicate with each other and communicate with the city. I really appreciate that. My hope is as I become more aware of Mother Earth, because all of us have families, all of us have lives, and all of us care about our families and about Mother Earth and the environment.

I'm going to focus more on letting people know, just stop shopping. Amazon is great, yet we're producing all of this trash, all of this trash that is going to other countries, our countries, taking all these computers and all this stuff. I want to focus this year on letting people know, "Hey, you don't have to buy all that. Just recycle, reuse." Because--

Alison Stewart: Big fan of that. I'm a big fan of that with our sewing. I bring in stuff that I've thrifted and put together and made something new out of it. It's a wonderful feeling when you can create something new. Thank you so much, Raul, for calling as well. Let's talk to Susan from Summit, New Jersey. Hi, Susan. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Susan: Oh, you're welcome. Thanks for taking my call. I hope it's worth it.

[laughs]

Alison Stewart: It's worth it.

Kate Hinds: I'm sure it will be.

Alison Stewart: It's absolutely worth it.

Kate Hinds: Make it worth it, Susan.

Susan: I know I'm already doing what I'm trying to get better at. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: That is?

Susan: I have two issues. One is my own self-esteem, but the other one is always comparing myself to other people and feeling like, "Wow, I wish I could be like them."Somebody like you who seems so confident, and "Wow, you're just out there and can do stuff and people admire you." I don't know, I'm always comparing myself, and I'm never the one who comes out on top.

Alison Stewart: You are going to do great, Susan. That's my pep talk for you.

Kate Hinds: "Comparison is the thief of joy," Susan.

Alison Stewart: Absolutely. We are keeping our phone lines open for eight more minutes or so. We want to hear from you. What are your hopes for 2026? Personally, what do you want to see? Culturally, what would you like to see happen? Our phone lines are 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. My ride-along for this segment is our senior producer and fill-in host, Kate Hinds. I was going to go for you, Kate, but it says kid on the line. We got a kid on the line.

Kate Hinds: You got to take the kid on the line.

Alison Stewart: Hey, Sadie, calling in from Queens. First of all, how old are you, Sadie?

Sadie: What?

Alison Stewart: How old are you?

Sadie: I'm 11 years old.

Alison Stewart: Tell us, what's on your mind?

Sadie: I love drawing. My nana's an artist, and she's taught me a lot of things, and she's always wanted me to go to art camps. I want to go to an art camp, and then I want to sell things on Etsy and get money for it.

Kate Hinds: I love that.

Alison Stewart: I like a plan. The girl has a plan. Good luck, Sadie. This text says, "I want to establish more firm boundaries with people. Sharing is good at times, but we need to know when to pull back, create more time for ourselves, and not feel guilty about it. Feel guilty about saying no." I want to share what Jordan had to say. Jordan, who many of you have heard on the air. She was our book Queen. She runs Get Lit. She says she's hoping to knit my first colorwork sweater. More knitting. Want to finally read Ron Chernow's Hamilton biography as part of our 250th anniversary of the Revolution, and she wants to attend a movie at the Metrograph. She's never been. It's great by the way.

Kate Hinds: That surprises me because no one sees more movies than Jordan. Let me tell you.

Alison Stewart: This one culturally says, "I hope Broadway bounces back with some cool original shows, especially original musicals. I hope a form of body positivity returned. I'm worried about the current emphasis on weight loss and thinness."

Kate Hinds: Double yes.

Alison Stewart: "I hope we have a fun summer movie like Barbenheimer moment of last year." I'm waiting for Wuthering Heights myself.

Kate Hinds: Oh, yes?

Alison Stewart: Oh, yes, Jacob Elordi. He makes me sound good. He makes it sound good. Did you want to add something?

Kate Hinds: No, I endorse all of Jordan's hopes and dreams, especially the idea that Broadway should be doing more original content and less with intellectual property.

Alison Stewart: I understand, though. There's some really good things coming to Broadway. Titanic.

Kate Hinds: Titanic [crosstalk]

Alison Stewart: Titanic will be coming to Broadway, as will The Rocky Horror Picture Show, directed by Sam Pinkleton. Who did Oh, Mary? Jellicle Ball will be coming to Broadway as well.

Kate Hinds: Lovely.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Susan from Manhattan. Hey, Susan, thanks for calling All Of It.

Susan: Hi. I'm excited and happy New Year, and my hope is to give out yellow roses everywhere in Manhattan to cause smiles. I want to connect the generations, especially the children who have grandparents at a distance. I'm excited that I'm launching my first children's book on January 22nd called Flowers for Nana.

Alison Stewart: Aw, that is so sweet. Good luck with the book. We really appreciate it. I want to make sure we get to everybody on our list as well. Zach, who is the person manning the phones, they are doing their very, very best with all your calling in. By the way, you should still call 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. He says, "I want to spend more time up at The Cloisters. I want to take more photographs in general. I want to make a better use of Nonsense NYC newsletter." Then they said 2026 will be "the year of the beard," which scares me a little bit.

Kate Hinds: I can't wait to see what that means. Thank you, Zach.

Alison Stewart: I'm curious as well.

Kate Hinds: I'm on the edge of my seat.

Alison Stewart: Are you excited about any good books coming out this year?

Kate Hinds: Ann Patchett has a new one, which is going to be amazing.

Alison Stewart: Ann Patchett has a new one. George Saunders has a new one, Vigil. It's a really interesting book. It's about a terminally ill oil CEO who's got to go into his afterlife, and he's got a guide to go with him. We'll leave it there. Lauren Groff is back a series of, I think it's nine short stories, it's called Ball Brawler, and then a woman who had a really big book years ago on An American Marriage, Tayari Jones. It took her a long time. She has a new book called Kin, which is coming out, which is about platonic love and then Ann Patchett.

Kate Hinds: Then Ann Patchett. Also, Emily St. John Mandel, who wrote Station Eleven, has a new book coming out, I think, in the spring. That's going to be a must-read for me.

Alison Stewart: By the way, do you want to give people a shout-out to our Get Lit with All Of It January selection? It's a big book.

Kate Hinds: It is a big book. I assume we talked about it a little bit earlier in the [crosstalk]

Alison Stewart: We talked about it already, but it's January. It is Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness.

Kate Hinds: I actually haven't read this, so I'm excited to read it.

Alison Stewart: It's so good.

Kate Hinds: I read his first novel. I've heard him speak about it on our show, and it's so moving. I'm really excited for that conversation.

Alison Stewart: We're having our big event on January 20th. We'll give you more details next week. I know you're a big supporter of Third Spaces. This is very important for people. Can you tell us why book clubs are important things? Why you think people need to have third spaces?

Kate Hinds: The very short version is we need to be in community with each other. We are getting more and more isolated. You see things like restaurants doing most of their money in takeout. We are living in isolation. We are streaming things on Netflix alone. We're social animals, and we need to be with people. We need to be in community together. Experiencing things together in so many ways is more powerful than experiencing them alone. It builds community. It stops us from being isolated, and it reminds us that we're all in it together.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Joe from North Plainfield. Hi, Joe. Thank you so much for calling All Of It.

Joe: Thank you for taking my call. I was making the base of a wonderful meal this morning while I was listening to Brian Lehrer, and all of a sudden, I love the way it looked, and I said, "I love you and Alison." I was like, "I've never said that to myself before in my life." I'm hoping that I can find some more things about Joe that I love and continue to say that. Happy New Year.

Alison Stewart: Happy New Year to you as well. This text says, "Personally, I want to listen to people I disagree with and not to convince them that they're wrong, but so I can forgive myself for feeling that I need to correct them."

Kate Hinds: Love that.

Alison Stewart: Everybody, thank you so much for calling in. We really loved hearing about your hopes for 2026. Kate, thank you so much for coming into work today. We really appreciate it.

Kate Hinds: My honor.

Alison Stewart: Juliana, thanks for being with us. Thanks for not getting sick. [laughs] I'm Alison Stewart. That's it for All Of It. Stay tuned for WNYC's coverage of the inauguration of new Mayor Zoran Mamdani.