The Nourishment is Palatable: The Comedy and Satire of John Green (lost radio essays CD; 2003)

CD cover by Hank Green.

Status: Lost (audio)
Found (text)

The Nourishment is Palatable: The Comedy and Satire of John Green was a CD of radio essays written by author John Green for WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. (The title was a reference to Millard Fillmore's last words, which were also included in Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska.) Since WBEZ owned the recordings of these essays, John Green released the CD for free on request from approximately 2003 to 2006 on his now-defunct website sparksflyup.com. Information is only available on an archived page:

John Green WBEZ excerpt on not becoming a minster.

"The CD includes 16 John Green commentaries that aired on WBEZ. It is about 70 minutes long, and also has some nice bluegrass songs as intros and outros, thanks to Hank.

So here's the deal: You email me a domestic address. And then I will send a copy of the CD to that address. Even if you don't want to listen to the CD, you might still want to request a copy, as it makes for a fine coaster, or, in a pinch, a makeshift frisbee. There are a lot of uses for "The Nourishment Is Palatable," and you will be able to explore all of them, because -- after all -- it will not cost you one red cent."

Text versions of these essays (and other essays not listed on the CD) are still available on old/archived website pages:

• johngreenradio.blogspot.com
• sparksflyup.com (Download links for the audio no longer works).

• johngreenbooks.com

In 2017, John Green's brother, Hank Green, tweeted an image of the cover that he designed for the CD. The cover had a tracklist (albeit only 14 essays are listed) and production credits:

"The Nourishment is Palatable is a production of http://www.sparksflyup.com the 2,854,352,413rd most popular website in the world. John Geen wrote and spoke the words. Hank Green produced the CD and designed the cover. Mike Green helped out in several ways. Sydney Green provided invaluable support. This is in short a Green family production. This compact disc is free and should be distributed freely."

Hank Green was unsure if the MP3s still existed and wondered if they were "hopelessly outdated and problematic" and if he would "ever let them be released". In 2020, he said "we have found pieces of it and deemed it actually quite bad...not like, in quality, but in values."

Essays

CD track list

#	Title	Date	Status
1	Nine Girls I have kissed and what I learned about them from google.com	January 6, 2002	Text Found
2	College	August 26, 2002	Text Found
3	Speed Dating	November 26, 2002	Text Found
4	Smoking	December 6, 2002	Text Found
5	Saving the World	March 6, 2002	Text Found
6	The Illinois Budget Crisis	February 26, 2002	Text Found
7	The Accidental Terrorist	February 26, 2002	Text Found
8	Instanter Gratification	September 5, 2004	Text Found
9	A Modest Proposal	October 5, 2002	Text Found
10	Flying High on Corporate Welfare	January 6, 2003	Text Found
11	Economic Stimulus	March 6, 2003	Text Found
12	Your Next Governor	October 21, 2002	Text Found
13	The Game	January 6, 2002	Text Found
14	RATS!	November 26, 2004	Text Found

Other WBEZ essays

Title	Date	Text Status	Audio Status
The City of Gentrified Neighborhoods (or, Chicago Gentrification)	April 18, 2003	Text Found	Audio Found
Nick (or, Being a Chaplain)	May 26, 2003	Text Found	Audio Found
Uncle Tom (or, A Writer Attempts to Avoid Self-Sabotage)	December 17, 2004	Text Found	Audio Found