As our course on politics and speculative fiction draws to a close, we talk with author Will Cornell about how the intersection of politics and speculative fiction should and does impact our writing. We discuss how the "why" behind your writing intersects with politics and what it means to publish.This is our last episode before […]

Have you ever stopped yourself from writing what you wanted to write? In this episode, Zac and Rin discuss Ursula Le Guin's "The Stalin in the Soul" and what warnings it holds for writers. We discuss how capitalism and culture influence decisions about what we write and how we publish.We want to read your comments […]

Agents are censoring authors! Cancel culture has gone too far! These are common refrains these days, wherever you stand in the political landscape. In this episode, Zac and Rin discuss how institutions and networks curate the political content of books and what that means for writers.We want to read your comments on the show! If […]

Is romance a liberal genre? And is fantasy a conservative genre? Where does that leave romantasy? In today's epsiode, Rin and Zac analyze how political commitments intersect with the conventions of romance, horror, fantasy, scifi, punk genres, and grimdark. We want to read your comments on the show! If you have a response to one […]

We're beginning a course on the intersection of writing and politics! In this first episode, Zac and Rin discuss the nature of politics, the political value of reading, and how to assess the political value of a book.We want to read your comments on the show! If you have a response to one of our […]

To round out our series on fairy tales, we invite Monica Shantel onto the show! Monica is an independent Dark Romantasy author, and you can find her on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @lxstinneverlandWe want to read your comments on the show! If you have a response to one of our homework assignments you want to […]

This week we have a special guest: Zac's wife Paulee! Paulee is an archivist who specializes in privacy protections for folklore material and she joins us today to bring a folklore perspective to our discussion on fairy tales. We cover everything from folk tales to creepy pasta to Harambe!We want to read your comments on […]

In this episode, Zac and Rin discuss the elements of a fairytale retelling and how to build your own! They also briefly explain the role of archives and the public domain to fairytale retellings.We want to read your comments on the show! If you have a response to one of our homework assignments you want […]

Today, Rin and Zac begin a new course all about fairytales! In this episode we discuss fairytales as a genre of folklore and how their telling both reflects and informs the culture they come from. We also discuss how academics break down fairytales into motifs and compare them across cultures.We want to read your comments […]

We're wrapping up our planetary science course with our case study from an indepedent author: Rise by Brian Guthrie! We discuss a world torn apart and flipped on its head with edges you can fall of. We also discuss how the setting acts as both critique and source of conflict in the story.You can find […]