Season 4, Episode 3: Poe: The Death and Life

In this double interview episode, Frank toasts the life and death of Edgar Allan Poe, with a brew themed after the author.

Frank's Thoughts

Poe is omnipresent. He is one of those authors that kids have to read in school, and actually really enjoy. He’s macabre, visceral, and yet, witty at the same time. He’s one of those authors that you know what they look like, which isn’t exactly something you can say about all authors. Really about most authors.

Now, in Baltimore, Poe is everything. Our football team is named after the author’s most famous poem. There’s a tavern named after my favorite poem of his. When the John Cusack movie, the Raven, was about to released, the film company set up black wrapped mannequins all over Fell’s Point’s Broadway Market to promote the film. It was creepy, and kind of cool. There’s Poe plastered all over the city. There’s even a bar that makes the claim that they were the last place Poe drank before he died, and that his ghost is still there.

But I didn’t grow up in Baltimore. I grew up in a cow-town in upstate New York. Literally, there were cows across the street from me. But I can confidently say that the first author I knew, like really knew, was Edgar Allan Poe. That’s how far reaching he is. It’s not just a regional thing. So it was no surprise when I saw that there was a series of craft beers inspired by him. And thankfully, they are quite tasty, so this was a delicious episode to film.

There is something poetic to end up moving to the place where a person you admire died. Especially if you can go to the site (we did in Jeff Bejma's gangs tour). It was also chilling and amazing to learn, what at least to my analytical brain, Poe’s probably cause of death. This will go down, like so many other episodes, as one that I feel truly happy that I was apart of.