Have a listen to the quick update below about what’s going on with the show. TL;DR there won’t be any episodes for a little while, for a couple of reasons. But the show will be back as soon as possible! I’ll put any updates on here and on social media read more…
Ep 60: Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons plays a huge part in fiction and popular culture more generally, but it is often overlooked or misunderstood. In this episode I gather together an experienced Dungeon Master and some complete novices (including myself) to play D&D for the first time. Joining me to explore this new read more…
Ep 59: Robin Hood
From medieval ballads to the poetry of John Keats, stage productions to children’s songs, novels to comic books, silent movies to glorious technicolour, Disney classics to Kevin Costner blockbusters to Mel Brooks parodies to gritty re-imaginings and lots, lots more, Robin Hood is certainly one of the most recognisable characters read more…
Ep 58: The Origins of the Gothic
What does the word “Gothic” mean to you? Gothic cathedrals and castles? Gothic fiction? Teenage goths dressed in black? Horror and the supernatural? This episode explores the origins of the gothic and one man’s lasting influence on this most important of genres. Guest Prof Dale Townshend is Professor of Gothic read more…
A Word To That Effect: Serendipity (Bonus Ep)
A Word To That Effect is a new series of bonus mini-episodes about a single word or phrase with a distinctly literary origin. This week, is a 2001 romantic comedy with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. It’s a baby clothes shop I passed the other day. It’s a song by read more…
A Word To That Effect: Cliffhanger (Bonus Ep)
A Word To That Effect is a new series of bonus mini-episodes about a single word or phrase with a distinctly literary origin. This week: cliffhanger! Find out about the cliffhanger story. Hint: it’s related to all that sensation fiction that was featured in the last WTTE episode There will read more…
Ep 57: The Sensation Novel
The sensation novel was a phenomenon of the 1860s. The novels were incredibly popular with the reading public and just as passionately derided by many critics. Sensation fiction was so called for a number of reasons. Firstly, the stories, in serialized and then in book form, were a publishing and pop read more…
Ep 56: Arthurian Romance
Think of King Arthur and the medieval romance and a huge number of images and tropes and clichés spring to mind: knights in shining armour and damsels in distress, castles and chivalry and courtly love, heroic quests and fierce dragons. Camelot, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table, the Holy read more…
Ep 55: A History of Dragons
Dragons have been around for a very long time. They are one of the very few mythological creatures that have become absolutely central to popular culture; everyoneknows what a dragon is. There are other important and well-known mythological creatures, but none are as ubiquitous as dragons, which can be found read more…
Season 6 Preview
Season 6 launches next Tue, 25th January! It’s been quite a while but WTTE Season 6 is back next Tuesday, and I’ve been busy. The show is getting a refresh and you’ll notice new artwork and some changes to the website in the coming weeks. I’ve got some extra production read more…
Season 6 Coming Soon
Hello! It’s been a while since Season 5 finished and I wanted to pop a note on here to say that Season 6 is in the works. It’s taken longer than planned for a variety of reasons: side projects, covid, a lack of self-motivation. The usual. But I finally have read more…
Ep 54: Underwater Civilizations & Homo Aquaticus
There is a complex and fascinating relationship between humans and the ocean. How do people and cultures across the world know and understand the sea, whether through myths and legends, trade or fishing, exploration or entertainment? This episode explores one particular aspect of all this: our relationship with the undersea, read more…
Ep 53: Fiction & Food
How do we use fiction in food? What does a character’s choice of food reveal about them? Do you simply have to go and make a dish when it’s described so beautifully in a book? On this very special episode, a collaboration with the wonderful Spice Bags podcast, we discuss read more…
Ep 52: Gothic Forests
The forest is a place we have very mixed feelings about. Forests can be calm and peaceful, full of ancient and natural beauty. Until they’re not. The forest, in so many ways, is a place we fear. They are dark and dense and overgrown, all too easy to get lost read more…
Ep 51: Desert Fictions
How do we imagine and portray the desert? And what does it say about us and our relationship to each other and, crucially, to the planet we live on? In this, the second in a loosely connected series on places in fiction and popular culture, I chat to Dr Aidan read more…