An exploration of the politics and themes hiding inside our genre fiction.
61 episodes transcribedTo tide everyone over until our next series, we decided to unlock our first bonus episode. This one's about why the new Star Wars properties feel...
Our first dive into the works of Philip K Dick. We talk about emptiness, empathy, and how it all comes down to simulacrums of real life. Also, Darius...
The 2nd half of our talk about Watership Down! We discuss rabbit mythology, alienation, and why Hazel is a better Odysseus.patreon.com/swordsandsocial...
Time for another classic! Here in part one of our conversation about Richard Adam's "Watership Down" we talk about leadership styles, t...
Part 2 of our episodes on the foundations of the podcast; we talked about J. R. R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories". We discuss his...
We're back with a foundational text from the legendary Ursula K. Le Guin. This is one of the most important short stories in the history of scif...
Our first dive into the works of Sir Terry Pratchett with The Colour of Magic! A pessimist bum and an eternally optimistic tourist stumble their way p...
This is our final discussion with Trevor on The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski. We talk about the ecology of monsters, side characters, and how to probl...
The 2nd part of our conservation with Trevor about The Witcher series. We talk about sex and the upsetting way the author decided to base the whole 2n...
This is part 1 of our conversation about The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. In this one we talk about racism, fate, and the power of being ludic...
In our third episode about Dune we talk hard power: The Emperor, the Landsraad, CHOAM, and the Spacing Guild. We talk about how these four things enco...
Part 2 of our discussion about Frank Herbert's scifi classic Dune. We focus on the Bene Gesserit and whether Dune is a reactionary story. We tal...
Part 1 of our discussion about Frank Herbert's scifi classic Dune. We focus on the Bene Gesserit and whether Dune is a reactionary story. We lear...
Today we covered the 1962 scifi classic by Madeleine L'Engle. We talked about the beauty of the individual overcoming oppressive systems, why God...
The 2nd half of our discussion of the Walter M. Miller sci-fi classic. We talk about how this would be a perfect story for the Coen Brothers, Catholic...
Part one of our discussion of the 50s science fiction story where we discuss cyclical history, the danger of technological advancement, and a poor dum...
The 2nd part of our discussion of Ursula K. Le Guin's classic. We talk about gender roles, the power of describing things less, and Le Guin&apos...
The first half of our discussion of Ursula K. Le Guin's introductory fantasy novel. We discuss her subversive use of race, non-violence, protect...
Part 2 of our discussion on Brian Jacques' Redwall series. Here we discuss communal parenting, the morals of killing, and the achievement of perf...
