The Ethically Immoral Podcast
The Ethically Immoral Podcast is a program dedicated to long-form conversations with poets, spoken word artists, authors, and creatives who use language as a tool for truth-telling, healing, and resistance. Hosted by Mike Payne, the show travels beyond the typical interview to explore the personal histories, artistic philosophies, and cultural contexts that shape the voice of the Creatives we welcome.
It’s not just about poetry or performance — it’s about the people behind the pen. We talk about identity, healing, joy, frustration, and the journey of becoming. Some moments are deep, others are funny, but all of them are authentic. If you’re someone who values storytelling, vulnerability, and good conversation, this space was created and cultivated for you.
The Ethically Immoral Podcast
Volume Seven: Chapter Seven - Our Conversation with Jennifer LoveGrove
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In Volume Seven: Chapter Seven of the podcast, we welcome Dunnville, Ontario-born and Toronto-based Writer, Author, and Poet Jennifer LoveGrove. Jennifer is the author of four full-length poetry collections and the novel Watch How We Walk, which was long-listed for the Giller Prize. Her poetry collection Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes was long-listed for the Raymond Souster Award, and her newest collection, The Tinder Sonnets, is available now via Bookhug Press.
In our conversation, we discuss Jennifer's creative history—from childhood creativity and growing up with a typewriter and lamp-chair writing setup, to the lasting influence of religion and the sense of outsiderhood that shaped both her worldview and artistic voice. We discuss her movement between fiction and poetry, whether those creative instincts originate from the same creative space, and the realities of maintaining a writing practice beyond romantic ideas of inspiration.
Jennifer speaks candidly about discipline, resistance, self-doubt, and the emotional terrain of writing—why first drafts can feel exhausting, what revision gives back, and whether satisfaction comes from the act of writing itself or from seeing something new brought into existence.
We also spend time discussing The Tinder Sonnets—a collection based on Jennifer’s experiences navigating dating apps and modern relationships in middle age. Our conversation touches on vulnerability, confession, female desire, misogyny in contemporary dating culture, and the expectations society places on women as they age. Jennifer reflects on writing openly about intimacy and emotional complexity, what it means to transform personal experience into poetry, and whether the collection brought clarity, confrontation, or simply another way of living alongside difficult truths
Contact Jennifer:
Purchase The Tinder Sonnets: bookhugpress.ca Instagram: @jenlg52
Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:
Prentice Powell – True Love
Instagram: @prenticepowell1906 Website: prenticepowell.com
Asia Samson – Enough
Instagram: @theasiaproject Website: theasiaproject.com
Alysia Harris – Death Poem
Instagram: @poppyinthewheat Website: alysiaharris.com
Kyla Janee Lacey – I Pulled Out A Knife On Him
Instagram: @kylajlacey Website: thatswritekyla.com
Emi Mahmoud – Window Games
Instagram: @emibatuta Website: emi-mahmoud.com
