
Finding Beauty In Darkness
OnWhy do we love horror so much? On the surface, it makes no sense. Why would anybody enjoy media that focuses on upsetting, grotesque topics?
All Things To All People
This isn’t a podcast for total beginners. We’re going to assume that you know what plot structure is, what a protagonist is, where ideas come from, and how to use a semicolon. This is a podcast for people who can already write okay, but want to do better.
Why do we love horror so much? On the surface, it makes no sense. Why would anybody enjoy media that focuses on upsetting, grotesque topics?
Cultural criticism has always been an essential part of our media ecosystem, especially when it comes to geek culture. But is any of this really meaningful, or is it just another part of the big corporate content marketing machine?
There are many writing advice columns that won’t help you write good—that will actually encourage you to write bad, or at best mediocre.
Filthcore queen Gretchen Felker-Martin returns to talk about unlikable female characters. What makes a woman unlikable?
SFF author and professional translator Mário Seabra Coelho talks to us about the art of translation. Writing translations, even only as an exercise, can open a writer’s eye to new perspectives, new devices, and new poetic turns of phrase.
Horror writer G. Emerald, who has a background in the medical system, joins us to talk about the healing power of stories that leave us with a bad taste in our mouths.
Sci-fi/fantasy author Karlo Yeager Rodríguez joins us to talk about the relationship between storyteller and in-universe audience.
In this episode, Mistress Snow, PhD joins us to talk about sex work in writing. What do writers get wrong? How do writers promote inaccurate and harmful stereotypes about sex workers? How can writers do better?
Villains in fiction tend to fit a certain template: erudite, aristocratic, queer-coded, monologuing and vaguely British. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it gets a little old after a while.
In this episode, filmmaker Shannon Strucci and critic Leslie Lee of Struggle Session were kind enough to join us to talk about why we need to tell our own stories instead of waiting for someone else to tell it for you.