All Episodes

Episode 466: The Better Angels of Our Nature - 2025 in Review

Episode 465: Tinsel and Time Loops - Temporal Chaos at Christmas

Episode 464: Krampus The Grinch and Holiday Mischief - Why Christmas Needs Villains

Episode 463: A Season of Giving - Gifts as Plot Devices in Speculative Fiction

Episode 462: Beauty is a Beast - the Problem with Ugly Characters in Speculative Fiction

Episode 461: The Girl with a Sword - strong female characters and the death of nuance

Episode 460: Folklore of the Forgotten - Mythic Creatures Born From Obsolete Jobs

Episode 459: The Ghost in the Machine - Folklore Meets Firmware in Speculative Fiction

Episode 458: The Mummy Unwrapped - Bandaged Horror to Unlikely Romantic Hero

Episode 457: The Graveyard Shift - Nightmares Sleep Paralysis & Dreamscapes in Folklore and Modern Horror

Episode 456: Haunted Attics & Cursed Kitchens - the Paradoxical Terror of the Mundane

Episode 455: Tangle Bottles & Bone Charms - Everyday Magic in Folklore & Fiction

Episode 544: The Uninvited Guest - Unseen Entities and Invisible Fear in Myth and Modern Horror

Episode 453: The Outsider - When the Gothic meets the Contemporary

Episode 452: A Bull on the Tongue - 10 years of Writing

Episode 451: The Work place dystopia - The soul crushing reality of the modern workplace in SFF - part 2

Episode 450: The Work place dystopia - The soul crushing reality of the modern workplace in SFF

Episode 449: The Crumbling Castle - Disney's Downward Spiral

Episode 448: Unbelievably Popular - why do bad books become best sellers?

Episode 447: Wit & Readability - 250 years of Jane Austen

Episode 446: Getting Your House in Order - Writing as a Career or a Serious Side Gig

Episode 445: No More Mr Nice Guy - the Geek Misogynist in Speculative Fiction Part 2

Episode 444: No More Mr Nice Guy - the Geek Misogynist in Speculative Fiction part 1

Episode 443: 2024, the Real Life Experience - A Year in Review

Episode 442: The Witches of Midwinter - Following the Wild Dance and Furious Hosts of Christmas

Episode 441: Remaking the 80s - Rewriting Classic Films for a Modern Audience

Episode 440: The Devil's Music - the Occult, Rock'n'Roll and Storytelling

Episode 439: It Grows in Darkness - Mushrooms in Horror and SFF

Episode 438: Jeeves Blackadder and Puss - Canny Domestics and Sneaky smart servants

Episode 437: Popular, you're gonna be popular - or are you? - Why Stage Production Musicals Often Fail on the Big Screen

DD 436: The Tiffany Problem - When Reality is too real for Speculative Fiction

Episode 435: Snatchers surfers and Hitchers - Bodysnatching in Speculative Fiction

Episode 434 -The Allure of the Curse - Speculative Fictions Oldest Trope

Episode 433: The Woods, the Mountains and Emptiness - an Examination of Survival Horror

Episode 432: Haunt Sweet Home - How to Write a Haunted a House

Episode 431: This is Fine - Writing Trauma in Scifi and Fantasy part two

Episode 430: This is Fine - Writing Trauma in Sci-fi & Fantasy

Episode 429: All in the Details - How to Use Description in Speculative Fiction part 2

Episode 428: All in the Details - How to Use Description in Speculative Fiction part 1

Episode 427: The Boys are Back in Town - the Dark Heart of the Superhero Genre

Episode 426: Change, Uncertainty and Unhappiness - making low stakes compelling

Episode 425: A Thousand Ships - The Awkward Side of Retelling Greek Myths

Episode 424: Starving Artists and Worshipped Writers - unrealistic depictions of creatives in Film and TV

Episode 423: Memory became legend legend became myth - the dawn of the fantasy genre part 2

Episode 422: Memory became legend legend became myth - the dawn of the fantasy genre part 1

Episode 421: Impossible Monsters - Dinosaurs and Megafauna in Speculative Fiction

Episode 420: Never Coming Home - The Moving Beyond Bereavement and Death is a Sad Thing Tropes

Episode 419: The Sun, the Moon & the Spindle - Tracing the Origins of Sleeping Beauty

Episode 418: the Dark Decent - Transforming a Hero into a Villain in SFF

Episode 417: An Abundance of Janes and Cathys - Retellings of the classics and why they usually suck pt 2

Episode 416: An Abundance of Janes and Cathys - Retellings of the classics and why they usually suck part 1

Episode 415: Seafarers, Swashbucklers and Chaotic Archaeologists - the evolution of Adventure Fiction

Episode 414: Seasons May Change - Stars Farmers & Wild Weather Calendars

Episode 413: Dragon riders & wolf speakers - the Animal Soul Bond in Speculative Fiction

Episode 412: By the Blade - the Evolution of Heroic Fantasy

Episode 411: Kitchen Heroes - Humble Protagonists who get Things Done in Speculative Fiction

Episode 410: In a Rural Dream - The Rise of Cottagecore

Episode 409: Pitched Perfectly - The Film was Better than the Book

Episode 408: There’s good news and...more good news - 2023 in review

Episode 407: Jingle Bell Rock - Storytelling through the medium of songs the Christmas edition

Episode 406: A Picture Says a Thousand Words - The Rise of the Graphic Novel

Episode 405: The Fairest of Them All - The Pursuit of Beauty as a Literary Device

Episode 404: It was Great Apart from the Ending - Beloved Fiction that Wobbled on the Dismount

Episode 403: The Old Family Business - Gangster Witches and Legacy Monster Hunters

Episode: 402 Of Gold and Hubris - Tracing the Origins of Rumpelstiltskin

Episode 401: Girls on Ice - a History of the Fridging Trope

Episode 400: Strange Fruit in the Gallant South - Exploring the Southern Gothic

Episode 399: This Set is Cursed - Strange Events Behind the Scenes at Horror Films

DD Episode 398: Joyous Companions Forever - examining the queerness of the vampire genre

Episode 397: The Beautiful and the Damned - examining the Queerness of the Vampire Genre

Ep 396: It Came from Out of the closet - The Queer Relationship with Horror

Ep 395: Weirdstones and Magic Keys - What makes a Children’s book a classic?

Ep 394: Divas Debutantes and Girls next door - the best and worst female main characters

Episode 393: Unlikely Rebels - the Moral Outlaw Trope

Episode 392: An Awful Lot of Walking - Mastering Pacing in Speculative Fiction

Episode 391: Lost in the Woods - Tracing the Origins of Hansel and Gretel

Episode 390: Let the Games Begin - Why the Competition Trope is so Popular in Speculative Fiction

Episode 389: Beautiful Misery - The Hunger for the Afflicted Woman in Fiction

Episode 388: A Conflagration of Authors - AI, Audiobooks and Infringement

Episode 387: Complicated Runes and Ineffable Power - Hard Versus Soft Magic Systems in Speculative Fiction

Episode 386: The Art of Not Fitting In - A collection of Not Like the Other Girls Trope Observations

Episode 385: Both is Good - Examining Bisexual Representation in Speculative Fiction

Episode 384: Appearances Can be Deceiving - The Hidden Power of Modern Fairytales

Episode 383: Gaslit Magic and Immortal Monsters Hunters - Incorporating Strong Historical Elements in UF

Episode 382: Part of Your World - Tracing the Origins of The Little Mermaid

Episode 381: Hard Times in Magic & Logic - Examining the Parameters of Hard Scifi and fantasy

Episode 380: Will He Escape those Dastardedly Clutches - Why Cliffhangers Are a Bad Idea

Episode 379: Exuding Menace 101 - How to Create Menacing Villains

Ep 378: Separated by a Common Language - Examining the Differences between UK and US Urban Fantasy

Episode 377: Bringing in Dessert - Serving Up Delicious Endings Against Desperate Odds

Episode 376: In that Time In that Place - the Monomyth and Other Storytelling Modes

Episode 375: The Batcherlorette - Bookish Edition

Ep 374: Her Fatal Curiosity - Tracing the Origins of Bluebeard

Ep 373: Circe Morgana and Rosaline - The Problem with Feminist Retellings

Episode 372: Truth Fiction and Outright Absurdity - More Strange Author Mysteries

Episode 371: Breaking the Stained Glass Window - Language Storytelling Absolutism and Censorship

Episode 370: Running with th Wolves - Werewolves in Folklore and Speculative Fiction Part 2

Episode 369: Running with the Wolves - Werewolves in Folklore and Speculative Fiction Part 1

Episode 368: Help I’ve Written a Book - What to do next when you want to get published

Episode 367: To Like or Not to Like - Writing Likeable Characters in Speculative Fiction