In celebration of one inspired year since Jim Franks' acclaimed 2025 book release, we're delighted to spill this: out March 10, a hot-out-the-oven audiobook version of Existential Bread, read by Jim himself and soundtracked with music played by Whitney Johnson, Rob Frye, Bill MacKay, James Schroeder and special guest Shutaro Noguchi. A chapter of the audiobook is available to hear now via Bandcamp and Drag City's website.

It was ‘round about a year ago or so that we were happily enmeshed in the Existential Bread promotion-release cycle, getting the word out on a maybe/maybe not genre called "Hardnose Prose" (i.e. a writer unafraid to be at once pragmatic and whimsical.) It was easy; the book's so sweet and funny, talking fruitfully on a "per se" level about bread and baking and the politics of being alive in its ramblings from line to line. In support of the book release, Jim toured the country for several months, visiting like-minded bakers, doing events and talking about bread and life with everyone in the room. Existential Bread received feature press in The New York Times, Comstock's, and Wordloaf, where baker/writer Andrew Janjigian insisted: "It is no exaggeration to say that Existential Bread is one of my favorite bread books... Even if your favorite sorts of breads aren't identical to Jim's, it will inspire you to love them and the process just the same." The praise confirmed our suspicion: Existential Bread as enjoyable, discoursable school of thought. 

Fortunately for everyone, the audiobook format companionably reassembles Existential Bread's 'what-if' mindset in audio form. Two hours and eighteen minutes in length, Jim Franks' recorded version of Existential Bread is an engrossing experience for both Breadheads and the rest of us — and what's more, a pure audiological pleasure. Jim reads the text, moving through thoughts, equivalencies, exceptions and digressions, backed by a similarly searching musical presence. The music — provided by Whitney, Rob, Bill, James and Shutaro, recorded and mixed by James Schroeder — is a separate stream of consciousness that evolves alongside Jim's reading, sometimes in time with his words, at other times encroaching on his flow. These are the energies we must work with and unite to create our collectives; a neighborhood of sonics, the potential ecosystem for our communities.

Existential Bread, the audiobook, is out March 10, 2026 – Listen up! AND buy a second copy of Existential Bread, the book. It may turn out to be the best investment in yourself you make this year.