Our Episodes
Disposable characters
Redshirts. No sooner are they introduced than they are killed. The tension rises, there are beads of sweat on Kirk’s brow… now the audience knows the peril is real. These stock, disposable characters exist in a story solely for the purpose of being disposed of –...
Catriona Ward & ‘the liminal space between certainties’
Award-winning horror writer Catriona Ward joins us to discuss this most exciting and compelling of genres. Why are we so moved by horror? Why do we willingly throw ourselves into the twisted worlds it conjures? We don't have to look far to find it: horror surrounds us...
Revisiting The Dark Crystal
A Lucy and Charlotte Special! After the success of our Labyrinth episode, we thought we'd have a bit of fun and take another look at one of our favourite films: The Dark Crystal. If you haven’t seen this cult Henson classic, The Dark Crystal tells the story of Jen,...
Magic, Wealth and Power with Vic James
Today, the blunt reality of inequality and unequal distribution of wealth is more prevalent than ever. Our society is split into the haves and the have nots - the 1% and the 99%. A few individuals tend whole orchards of magic money trees; their extreme wealth is...
Women’s jobs in fantasy
While Charlotte and Megan geeked out about Star Trek (sparing poor Lucy who puts up with enough of that) when discussing women's jobs in science fiction, in this episode, all three of us shine a light on female careers in fantasy. We have found that few women in...
Grimdark with Anna Smith Spark
Sometimes the sheer number of sub-genres and niche areas within the SFF world can feel completely overwhelming. What do they all mean? Where does one thing become another? One of the most confusing – and most commonly talked about – sub-genres is Grimdark. Other than...
Women’s jobs in science fiction
With equality of pay and the drive to get more women in top executive jobs reaching the headlines in our current era, does the world of the future have women in the same roles they occupy now, or do they have them in traditionally male-dominated jobs? #SorryNotSorry...
Toxic masculinity
We started this podcast to highlight the issues around the representation of women in genre fiction. But women aren’t the only ones who suffer at the hands of harmful tropes, poor characterisation, and limiting traditional gender roles. In this episode, we discuss the...
Women’s ghost stories with Melissa Edmundson Makala
Ghost literature written by women in the 19th century was more about social commentary than pure entertainment, argues academic Melissa Edmundson Makala. Charlotte positively geeks out with Melissa about her book, Women's Ghost Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain...