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Words To That Effect

Stories of the Fiction that Shapes Popular Culture

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WTTE Ep49 robots
January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 Conor21st Century Literature, Science, Science Fiction

Ep 49: Robots

You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us!  Robots of the world, the power of man has fallen.  A new world has arisen, the rule of the Robots, March! R.U.R., Karel Čapek These are lines from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R: Rossum’s Universal Robots, the work read more…

HeadStuff+ & WTTE
January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 ConorPodcast News & Announcements

A little announcement about supporting Words To That Effect

A quick update episode on the new HeadStuff+ membership platform, HeadStuff+ Have a listen to find out more about what’s on it and how you can join (although the joining bit is very straightforward – just click here) I’m really excited to be a part of this and I hope read more…

HeadStuff+ WTTE
January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 ConorPodcast News & Announcements

WTTE is now a part of HeadStuff+

Something exciting has been going on over at the HeadStuff Podcast Network! This week saw the launch of HeadStuff+, a new membership platform for all HeadStuff shows. Words To That Effect, as I’m sure you know, has been a proud member of the HPN since way back in 2017 and read more…

Ep 48 antarctica
December 22, 2020December 22, 2020 Conor20th Century Literature, 21st Century Literature, Literature and Science

Ep 48: Fictions of Antarctica

The continent of Antarctica was only discovered two centuries ago, even if it had long been theorized. It’s a place shrouded in mystery with no human history and no permanent residents. It’s a land of superlatives: the coldest, the windiest, the driest continent. It is a grand scientific experiment, a read more…

Ep47 Alternate History
December 8, 2020December 8, 2020 Conor20th Century Literature, 21st Century Literature, History, Science Fiction, Uncategorized

Ep 47: Alternate History

In one sense the alternate history tale is a very specific kind of story: a type of speculative fiction in which a certain, often key, moment of history has been changed. In another sense, though, alternate history has a much broader appeal. We are all curious, we all think about read more…

Weird Westerns - Words To That Effect Ep 46
November 24, 2020November 24, 2020 Conor20th Century Literature, Westerns

Ep 46: Weird Westerns

In a way it’s maybe strange that the western is such a prominent genre. Given it’s connected to such a specific time and place – the mid-to-late 19th century, American west – why are we all so familiar with the many tropes of the western? Cowboys and Indians, shootouts and read more…

Words-To-That-Effect-Ep45-mashup
November 10, 2020November 11, 2020 Conor21st Century Literature, Horror, Romance

Ep 45: Mashups, Remixes, and Frankenfiction

Remix, mashup, sample, adaptation, parody, homage, knock-off. The lines between these, and so many other similar terms, are not always very clear. In one sense, all culture is a remix, nothing exists in a vacuum. On the other hand, some people may take a dim view of lifting almost the read more…

WTTE Season 5 Trailer
November 4, 2020November 3, 2020 ConorPodcast News & Announcements

WTTE Season 5 Trailer

Words To That Effect is back! Season 5 officially launches next Tuesday, 10th November. The world may be a very different place since the end of season 4, but there’s plenty in store this season to distract, entertain, and enlighten you. In the meantime, here’s a trailer to give you read more…

September 21, 2020September 21, 2020 ConorPodcast News & Announcements

Season 5: Coming Very Soon!

It’s been a while. It was not my intention to have such a long season gap, but then nor was it my intention, when I made an episode about apocalyptic fiction, that I would soon get the opportunity to experience my very own global pandemic. So there you have it. read more…

Words Dunnit
April 3, 2020April 2, 2020 ConorCrime, Detective Fiction

Ep 44: Words Dunnit (Live at the Dublin Podcast Festival)

Last year Caroline Crampton (of Shedunnit) and I teamed up to create a joint live show, called Words Dunnit: a 200-year history of detective fiction in an hour. We performed the show live at the Dublin Podcast Festival in November 2019, and then again at Pod UK, in Birmingham, in read more…

lost books - wtte ep43
March 11, 2020March 11, 2020 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, British Literature, History

Ep 43: Lost Books

There are countless great works of literature we have tantalising glimpses of, works we know exist but, as far as anyone can tell, have been lost to history. Huge swathes of ancient Greek literature, a vast Chinese encyclopedia, a lost Shakespeare play based on the story of Don Quixote. And read more…

Ep42 Missing Link
February 26, 2020February 26, 2020 Conor19th Century Literature, Literature and Science, Science Fiction

Ep 42: The Missing Link

The Hunt for the Missing Link Sasquatch. Bigfoot. The Abominable Snowman. Yeti. The Yowie, the Yeren, the Almas Ape-men, cave men, wild men. The Missing Link. The idea of the missing link came about in the mid-19th century, with the rise of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. In 1859 Darwin read more…

Romance Novels Mills & Boon
February 11, 2020February 19, 2020 Conor21st Century Literature, Popular Culture, Romance

Ep 41: Romance Novels

His head moved, his mouth glided up her neck with feather-light brushes to that hollow beneath her ear. Then something hot and wet… His tongue. A Mills & Boon romance novel. The style is pretty easy to recognize – and to imitate or parody – because it works to a read more…

Time travel ep 40
January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, Science, Science Fiction

Ep 40: Time Travel Tales

Time travel fiction is a small subgenre of science fiction. Science fiction is a small subset of all the many genres and types of literature. Time machines and time travellers are a niche interest. And yet, in another way, all fiction is time travel fiction. All stories rely on time read more…

January 14, 2020January 14, 2020 ConorPodcast News & Announcements

2020 Update

Unfortunately due to, well, life, and things that are far, far outside my control, I won’t be getting the next WTTE episode out today (14th) as planned. Things will return as soon as possible thought and I have 3 new episodes in the works. Most likely I’ll just skip this read more…

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Episodes & Articles

  • Ep 49: Robots
  • A little announcement about supporting Words To That Effect
  • WTTE is now a part of HeadStuff+
  • Ep 48: Fictions of Antarctica
  • Ep 47: Alternate History

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