# Welcome to SLOW READ: The Stand (The Author's Note + A Preface in Two Parts) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/slow-read-the-stand-7562947/welcome-to-slow-read-the-stand-the-author-s-note-a-preface-in-two-parts Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/slow-read-the-stand-7562947/welcome-to-slow-read-the-stand-the-author-s-note-a-preface-in-two-parts.md Podcast: [Slow Read: The Stand](https://stenobird.com/podcast/slow-read-the-stand-7562947) Published: 2026-01-01T06:01:00+00:00 Episode link: https://slowread.substack.com/p/the-stand-preface Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/182732847/6eb79b6a56e47c5819345d6b256ccb9a.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/slow-read-the-stand-7562947/episodes/welcome-to-slow-read-the-stand-the-author-s-note-a-preface-in-two-parts Duration seconds: 1967 ## Resource SLOW READ: The Stand reading schedule Welcome to Welcome to Slow Read The Stand . We are your hosts Sarah Stewart Holland and Laura Tremaine This is the inaugural episode of Slow Read The Stand . For this first episode, we just wanted y’all to read the Author’s Note and the Preface in Two Parts. But also, today we wanted to share a little bit about this whole project: why we’re doing a slow read, why we’re doing The Stand , all of it. If you prefer to read instead of listen, below is a cleaned up transcript of the episodes as well as links to all the books and Substacks we mentioned in this episode…and several fun bonus links and videos! Sarah: We’re going to deep dive to set us on the right track for reading together for six months. I’m so excited. Have you ever done a slow read before, Laura? Laura: No. I mean, certainly not like this. In fact, this kind of way of doing a slow read—you introduced it to me. I didn’t even know people were doing it like this. It’s new. Sarah: Listen, it’s a new thing the Internet has invented. It is a great thing the Internet has invented. I was doing slow reads, I just didn’t know they were called that. Probably four or five years ago, I decided I was going to tackle some classic text over the course of the year. It’s too intimidating to sit down with The Brothers Karamazov and chip away over a month. It’ll just take up all your reading time. And I often read more than one book at a time. So I decided to pick one book and just chip away at it over the course of the year. I did The Brothers Karamazov , I did Don Quixote , I did Lonesome Dove —though I don’t think that took me a year. But I really wanted to get bigger, longer texts. I believe in a juicy book, a big book. Want to read more? Choose an extremely long book Laura: Can I just… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/slow-read-the-stand-7562947/episodes/welcome-to-slow-read-the-stand-the-author-s-note-a-preface-in-two-parts/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/slow-read-the-stand-7562947/welcome-to-slow-read-the-stand-the-author-s-note-a-preface-in-two-parts.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.