PODCAST · arts
Overdue
by Headgum
Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Join Andrew and Craig each week as they tackle a new title from their backlog. Classic literature, obscure plays, goofy childen’s books: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.
Episodes
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Ep 771 - The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones
Spooktober continues with this Rez Gothic slasher from Stephen Graham Jones. A vengeful spirit hunts down four young Blackfeet men for a past transgression on their reservation, prompting reflection on whether or not they'd ever have become "good Indians." Our theme music was composed by Nick...
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Ep 770 - She Waits Where Shadows Gather, by Michelle Tang
A classic haunted house tale, full of ghosts and bugs and ghosts who can boss around bugs. I swear the presence of time travel was not something I gravitated to on purpose this time. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 50% of your first purchase of a…
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Ep 769 - Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein's sci-fi classic is rather different from the campy satire of Paul Verhoeven's 1997 adaptation. You can ask similar questions of both. Do they gleefully depict fascism? Do they glorify militarism and violence? Do they successfully subvert either? In our experience, both versions of...
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The Sillymarillion Ep 04 - The Black Gate Opens (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in October 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project THE...
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Ep 768 - Retro, by Jessica M. Goldstein
They'll never write a time travel story that Andrew won't try! This week's riff on the formula includes megalomaniac tech billionaires, millennial malaise, and an astoundingly dangerous amusement park in northern New Jersey. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue...
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Ep 767 - Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
Shhhh...this episode is confidential. The kitchen secrets divulged by bad boy chef Anthony "Tony" Bourdain will Rock Your World. Or will they? This breakout essay collection laid much of the foundation for modern popular understanding of American restaurant culture, but some of its lessons may…
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Ep 766 - Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay
This classic of twentieth-century Australian literature isn't a Whodunnit. It isn't a Howdunnit. It's barely a dunnit at all. It's a certifiable Whahappen?? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme…
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Ep 765 - Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #3), by Tamsyn Muir (w/ Meghan Winch)
Do you like lesbian necromancer space operas but find all the grieving, brooding, and in-fighting a bit hard to sift through? Well then do I have the book for you! What began as Tamsyn Muir's concluding entry in her trilogy of The Locked Tomb evolved into a full novel of its own with the charming...
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The Prydainger Zone Ep 00 - Lloyd Alexander and his Chronicles, an introduction
For this new show-within-a-show, Andrew and Craig will learn all about The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. We'll read the five books in this classic children's fantasy series, then close out with an extra episode on the Disney adaptation The Black Cauldron. In this episode, you'll hear…
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Ep 764 - Waist Deep, by Linea Maja Ernst
This is a book about what happens when a formerly tight-knight group of longtime friends rents a house in the woods for a week. Having to deal with your friends' significant others is one possible hazard; having to deal with a decade's worth of pent-up horniness and anxiety and yearning is…
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Ep 763 - Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree
This story is a giant bag of cotton candy, which we mean mostly as a compliment. It's a romance-adjacent found family story set in a cozy coffee shop set against a D&D-flavored backdrop, a place where almost no one is really a villain and the one person who comes close gets the ending they…
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Ep 762 - Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
Is it a novel? A collection of stories? A story cycle? A monograph?? It doesn't matter. This one's an award-winner. Strout's a masterful episodic storyteller, diving quickly into the deep end with characters we've met just pages before. However, the titular Olive looms much larger than the others...
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Stop! Homer Time: The Odyssey (2026)
Sing, O Muse, of an adapted poem - specifically Homer's Odyssey as adapted for the silver screen by filmmaker Christopher Nolan. That's right, we went to an actual movie theater to see the blockbuster film that everyone is talking about (including friend of the show Emily Wilson). And don't…
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Stop! Homer Time: The Iliad - Chatting with Emily Wilson
With the recent release of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and buzz around Emily Wilson's translation of Homer, we thought we would unlock this special Stop! Homer Time episode originally released to Patreon supporters in early 2024. In November 2023, the acclaimed translator returned to the show...
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Ep 761 - On the Calculation of Volume (Book I), by Solvej Balle
Welcome to the 18th of November, friends! What's that you say? It's not the 18th of November for you? Well it is for us! Over and over and over again. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at...
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Ep 760 - The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's debut novel traces the tragedy of a young girl named Pecola Breedlove and the community that failed her. By splintering the book's perspective across the community of Lorain, she humanizes everyone and exonerates no one. Not an easy book, but a rewarding one. This episode is...
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Ep 759 - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
Join us friends, for a real paradigm shift. Andrew and Craig's synergy reaches levels never before seen as they proactively seek to understand the meaning behind this self-help titan. We'll also discuss our most upsetting dairy-related prose since the Krampus egg-nog thing. Our theme music was...
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Ep 758 - Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom
Life is like a box of podcasts, you sort of know what you're gonna get (e.g. host-read ads, friends talking books, hot takes about books that inspired movies). Winston Groom's picaresque romp Forrest Gump inspired a juggernaut of a movie in the mid-90s - but it's really a rather different story...
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Ep 757 - Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
New achievement! Record a podcast about Dungeon Crawler Carl! The thought of having to write flavor text in Dungeon Crawler Carl’s “achievement description” voice bums me out so I’m going to skip that part of the joke. Reward: You get to listen to the podcast we recorded about Dungeon Crawler…
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The Sillymarillion Ep 03 - Of Elves and Stewed Curses (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in August 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO…
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Ep 756 - Private Rites, by Julia Armfield
Rain, rain, go away, come again another day--oh. You're never going away? You're going to flood the world and make it very damp for a trio of sisters as they parcel out their dead father's legacy a la King Lear But Wetter? Sounds like you're the rain from Julia Armfield's Private Rites, an…
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Ep 755 - Audition, by Katie Kitamura
Have you ever read a book where you haven't been entirely sure what happened in the book? Where you haven't been sure what's "real," and if you can tell what's "real," you can't tell who the book is "real" for? Have you ever felt like the whole world is a stage, and that we are merely players? If...
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Ep 754 - Legend of the White Snake, by Sher Lee (w/ Heaving Bosoms)
Here we go again: another collaboration with Heaving Bosoms! Buckle up for a supersized episode on this folklore inspired YA fantasy by Sher Lee. Special thanks to our guests Melody and Sabrina from Heaving Bosoms for joining us to discuss snakes, lost contacts, love, and Chinese myth. We have a...
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Ep 753 - You Are a Millionaire, by Jay Leibold (Choose Your Own Adventure #98)
Living in our age of elite impunity made us want to imagine what it must be like to have one million US dollars (approximately $2.6 million, when adjusted for inflation). Luckily, there's a book series that lets you choose to be anything you want to be, as long as what you want to be exists…
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The Sillymarillion Ep 02 - The Choices of Master Fëanor (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in July 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS...
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Ep 752 - Daisy Jones and The Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In 2019, author Taylor Jenkins Reid released her sixth novel Daisy Jones & The Six, a fictional oral history of a Fleetwood Mac-esque 70s rock band. In May 2026, Andrew and Craig from Overdue recorded a podcast about the author, her novels, the themes and points of inspiration that helped make...
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Ep 751 - Annie Bot, by Sierra Greer
Less a story about AI, and more "what if that Star Trek episode about whether Data was a person was also exploring the concept of domestic abuse?" Greer writes a short punchy novel that is occasionally uncomfortable but thoughtfully constructed, not unlike a sentient humanoid robot might be. This...
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Ep 750 - Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
In the not-so-distant future, Andy Weir will write a novel about a Competent Man getting into trouble and then getting himself out. Then it will be made into a major motion picture starring a relatively bankable movie star. Then Overdue will (probably) read the book. That's what happened with The...
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Ep 749 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and Other Stories), by Eric Carle
To celebrate this year's Children's Book Week, we're discussing the work of children's author and illustrator Eric Carle, whose colorful art and innovative prints have delighted our children (and us!) for years. Since they're each pretty short we decided to talk about a bunch of them, including…
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Ep A03 - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Annotated)
Around 25 minutes into this episode, Andrew and Craig take a mysterious elixir that turns them into younger versions of themselves with worse microphones and less research under their belts. Oh no! I hope they can find the ingredients to turn themselves back! Our theme music was composed by Nick...
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The Sillymarillion Ep 01 - A Shortcut to Ilúvatar (J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in June 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS...
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Ep A02 - Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (Annotated)
Our stroll down memory lane continues this week, but we come provisioned with Present-Day Overdue research and context. This week, 2026 Andrew and Craig talk about Mary Shelley and the legacy of her most famous work while 2013 Andrew and Craig deal primarily with the story, including the titular...
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Ep A01 - Dune, by Frank Herbert (Annotated)
We're revisiting our past this month, adding Present-Day Overdue research and context to a few old episodes that didn't have them. This week, 2026 Andrew and Craig talk about Frank Herbert and the extended Dune-iverse while 2013 Andrew and Craig do their best to talk about the book. This episode…
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Special Collections: Twilight (2008)
This isn't a belated April Fool's joke. We really did watch the movie Twilight, and we're really here to talk about it. Why are Edward and Bella SO strange? How is it that all of the side characters come off as more human than they do in the books? Why is the vampire running like that?? Sometimes...
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Ep 748 - MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker and W.C. Heinz
MASH is the book that inspired the movie that inspired the show M*A*S*H, which is set in an active war zone but doesn't have a ton to say about war. If you wanted to read about the exploits of a bunch of meatball surgeon wiseacres, though, it is not completely without its charms. Our theme music...
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Sit Me Baby One More Time Bonus - The Baby-Sitters Club: The Movie (1995)
Ho-na-na-na Hey-ey! It's time to talk about the 1995 film adaptation of the series, directed by Melanie Mayron and written by Dalene Young. We mostly enjoyed it, though we have to acknowledge how hard it is to squeeze full plots for each BSC member into one 94-minute movie. Also, what is the deal...
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Ep 747 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1, by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Before everyone's favorite heroes in a half-shell wore brightly colored bandanas and ate pizza for every meal, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were black-and-white underground vigilantes. Eastman and Laird drew on a variety of influences to create something that starts with the energy of...
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Ep 746 - Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock, by Maud Woolf
This week we've commissioned all thirteen of our clones to record thirteen other versions of this podcast, because we're just such busy guys that we can't do them all ourselves. So are you listening to us, or the clones? And if you're listening to clones, which ones?? Our theme music was composed...
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Ep 745 - Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom
I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and - wait, Morrie's here. Tuesday's not so bad after all! Mitch Albom's breakthrough account of his meetings with the late Morrie Schwartz includes some moving lessons about how facing death head-on can help you lead life to the fullest. It also...
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Ep 744 - Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
This week's book examines the Asian-American experience through the age-old phenomenon of Hollywood typecasting. And there's an intentionally porous line that separates this book's "reality" from the rest of it, which kind-of-sort-of takes place inside of a formulaic police procedural. This…
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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 08 - Welcome to the BSC, Abby! (The Baby-Sitters Club #90)
We jump way ahead in the sequence of the series (but not in the lives of our sitters, who remain stubbornly trapped in the Eighth Grade Time Loop), well into the books' ghostwritten era. This week we meet Abby, an acerbic new member of the Club, and we also meet ghostwriter Nola Thacker, who…
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Ep 743 - The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
Paul Beatty took the Booker Prize in 2015 with this satirical novel about a grieving man’s attempts to put his small town back on the map. The book lampoons the notion of a post-racial America, touching the fourth rail of "political correctness" with outlandish scenes of segregation and slavery....
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Ep 742 - Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2), by Rachel Reid
Ilya Rozanov. Shane Hollander. Two of hockey's greatest young goal scorers are also trying to score...with each other?? Reid's breakthrough hockey romance has become a true pop culture phenomenon, so we figured it was time to lace up the skates and see what the puck is going on with this most...
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Ep 741 - Monk & Robot, by Becky Chambers
Usually when robots gain sentience in fiction, they rise up and slay or otherwise subjugate their human creators, but this week's book dares to imagine what might happen if they stood up, looked around, said "thanks but no thanks," and left. It also ponders the meaning of existence, just for good...
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Ep 740 - Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein
Three lives, all alike in indignity. Stein's debut book is a collection of stories about three working-class woman at the turn of the 20th century. In it, we see the beginnings of her unique literary voice - full of repetition, repetition, poetic vernacular, and repetition. This episode is...
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Tokyo Drifters Ep 0 - Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo, an introduction
For this new show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew will travel to Neo-Tokyo to meet Akira, created by Katsuhiro Otomo. We're going to read this classic manga across six episodes, then close out with an extra episode on the groundbreaking 1988 film adaptation. This is a preview of a series we’ll be...
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Ep 739 - Fun With Dick and Jane, and other stories
See Andrew and Craig. See Andrew and Craig read. Read, Andrew and Craig, read! The Dick and Jane characters are still widely known, even though their heyday as The Main Way American Kids Learn How To Read has long since passed. Join us for a discussion of how these (now public domain!) characters...
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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 07 - Jessi's Secret Language (The Baby-sitters Club #16)
Another month, another new member of the BSC! This time it's Jessi, ballerina extraordinaire, who also happens to be adept at learning languages. And her first big job involves learning sign language so she can babysit Matt Braddock, whose family just moved to town. Soon everybody in Stonybrook…
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Ep 738 - Glorious Exploits, by Ferdia Lennon
Sometimes you just want to get together with your friend and enlist prisoners of war into putting on a production of Euripides in the quarry, am I right? This is a broadly relatable thing that lots of people have thought about doing. Right? Right?? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to...
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Ep 737 - The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1), by Agatha Christie
The public domain comes for us all and today it's come for Miss Marple, the elderly busybody and amateur sleuth that Agatha Christie created in the 1920s. In her first proper novel, Marple assists a vicar in uncovering the truth behind a murder that occurred in his own home (also known as a...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Join Andrew and Craig each week as they tackle a new title from their backlog. Classic literature, obscure plays, goofy childen’s books: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.
HOSTED BY
Headgum
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Overdue have?
Overdue currently has 840 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Overdue about?
Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Join Andrew and Craig each week as they tackle a new title from their backlog. Classic literature, obscure plays, goofy childen’s books: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.
How often does Overdue release new episodes?
Overdue releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 840 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to Overdue?
You can listen to Overdue on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Overdue?
Overdue is created and hosted by Headgum.
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