Think you know Jane Austen? In this episode, we explore the wild side of Austen’s writings, life, and legacy with noted scholar Devoney Looser, who makes the case for Austen as a far more daring and unconventional figure than her prim Victorian reputation suggests. Whether you're new to Austen or a longtime Janeite, this episode offers a lively take on the beloved author—and reminds us why we’re all a little wild for Austen.

Devoney Looser is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, a Guggenheim Fellow, an NEH Public Scholar, and a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow. She is the author of Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës, The Making of Jane Austen, The Daily Jane Austen, and her latest, Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, which will be released September 2, 2025. A life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and frequent speaker at JASNA conferences, Looser has also skated in roller derby under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen.

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep26/.

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“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is his duty." —Mr. Knightley

We believe Jane Austen is for everyone, but it’s no secret that her modern fanbase is predominantly female. But why is that, and what might men be missing? Brett McKay joins us in this episode to share how he first discovered Austen’s work and why more men should read her books. Along the way, we touch on Austen's Aristotelian ideas of virtue, the qualities that make a good man, the importance of choosing the right spouse, and how reading her works can help everyone become the best version of themselves.

Brett McKay is the founder of The Art of Manliness, a website and podcast dedicated to helping men “grow up well, reach their potential, and become better friends, mentors, husbands, fathers, and citizens.” Since 2008 he has interviewed hundreds of authors and scholars on a wide range of subjects, from philosophy to weight-lifting, dinner-party planning to hostage negotiation. In 2023, he interviewed Austen scholar John Mullan in an episode entitled “Jane Austen for Dudes.” 

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep25/.

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"'The course of true love never did run smooth'—A Hartfield edition of Shakespeare would have a long note on that passage.” —Emma

Shakespeare's influence on Jane Austen can be seen throughout her novels and letters. She quotes him, mimics him, and echoes him in fascinating ways. In this episode, Professor Mary Floyd-Wilson helps us unpack and examine the many parallels between these two pillars of English literature. 

Mary Floyd-Wilson is the Mann Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in Shakespeare and early modern literature, with works including English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama and Occult Knowledge, Science, and Gender on the Shakespearean Stage. Recently, she received the George H. Johnson Prize for Distinguished Achievement from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. 

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep24/.

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Jane Austen has had devoted American admirers since her works were first published. In fact, several Americans played a crucial role in preserving and promoting her legacy. Joining us to explore Austen’s reputation and reception in America is Professor Juliette Wells, a leading expert on the subject, who will also share the story of avid Austen collector Alberta H. Burke and preview some of the Austen treasures set to be displayed at the Morgan Library’s upcoming exhibit A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250, for which she is guest co-curator.

Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College, is the author of Reading Austen in America (2017), Everybody's Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination (2011), and most recently, A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World’s Greatest Novelist (2023). She has edited the 200th-anniversary editions of Persuasion and Emma for Penguin Classics, with a new edition of Mansfield Park slated for release later this year. A former JASNA Traveling Lecturer, Dr. Wells is a regular speaker at the society’s Annual General Meetings. She is also the guest co-curator for the upcoming exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 at the Morgan Library and Museum, which will run from June 6 to September 14, 2025, in celebration of Austen’s milestone birthday.

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep23/.

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"I have made up my mind to like no novels really but Miss Edgeworth's, yours, and my own."  —Jane Austen to her niece, Anna Lefroy, 1814

Jane Austen’s novels and letters are strewn with references to the female authors she admired—writers like Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliffe, and Charlotte Lennox. But these novelists, despite their wide popularity in their own time, have largely disappeared from our bookshelves. In this episode, rare book dealer Rebecca Romney shares some of their stories, examines their influence on Austen, and may even inspire you to add some of Austen’s favorites to your own to-be-read list. 

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and the cofounder of Type Punch Matrix, a Washington, DC-area rare book firm. Over the course of her career, she has sold Shakespeare folios, first editions of Newton's Principia Mathematica and Darwin's Origin of Species, and individual leaves from the Gutenberg Bible. The author of several books, her latest is Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend. She is also the rare books specialist on the HISTORY Channel’s show Pawn Stars.

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep21/.

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"I do not think I can live without something of a musical society. . . . without music, life would be a blank to me."  —Emma

Though these words are spoken by the shallow and pretentious Mrs. Elton, the sentiment is one that Jane Austen herself likely shared. Austen played the pianoforte throughout her life and often incorporated music into her novels. In this episode, we chat with pianist Laura Klein about the music Austen and her family knew and loved and discuss how she used it in her writing to drive plots, reveal character traits, and provide emotional outlets for her heroines.

Laura Klein is a pianist and historical musicologist. Her current research centers on the music contained in the Austen Family Music Books collection. She founded The Jane Austen Playlist in 2019, a historical music project that features the music of the Austen family in digitized notations, companion recordings, and dramatically narrated performances. An active performer and presenter, she gives frequent concerts and lecture recitals online, throughout the United States, and in the United Kingdom, including Jane Austen’s House and Chawton House.

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep21/.

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"To work in his garden was one of his most respectable pleasures."
—Pride and Prejudice

The garden may be where Charlotte sends Mr. Collins when she tires of him, but for many of Jane Austen's heroines, it's a place of repose and reflection. Nature is an important and recurring theme in Austen's novels and a meaningful part of her own life. In this episode, author Kim Wilson takes us on a tour of the many types of Regency-era gardens and greenery that inspired Austen and her work.

This episode is a slightly abridged version of the videocast available on our YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4XSBUImU0Y.

For audio-only listeners, a selection of images discussed in the episode can be found in the transcript on our website: https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep20.

Kim Wilson is a writer and speaker, a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, and a past regional coordinator for JASNA's Wisconsin Region. Kim has presented at several JASNA AGMs and was a 2023/2024 JASNA Traveling Lecturer. She is the author of At Home with Jane Austen, Tea with Jane Austen, and In the Garden with Jane Austen.

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Happy 2025! This year marks Jane Austen's 250th birthday, and we are delighted to kick off the celebration with professor and author John Mullan as our guest. This month we delve into passages from the four novels published during Austen's lifetime and discuss what the details reveal about her genius as a writer. Join us for this fascinating and insightful episode (and get a sneak peek at one of our plenary speakers for JASNA's 2025 AGM in Baltimore)!

John Mullan is Lord Northcliffe Chair of Modern English Literature at University College London. Specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth century literature, he is a frequent guest on radio and TV and lectures widely. He also writes on contemporary fiction for the Guardian and was a judge for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. John is the author of The Artful Dickens, What Matters in Jane Austen?, Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature, and How Novels Work and has edited the Oxford World Classics editions of Sense and Sensibility and Emma as well as a number of works by Daniel Defoe and Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets.

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep19.

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In this episode we chat with the man who gave us the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice—for many, the definitive Austen adaptation. A prolific author and screenwriter, Andrew Davies is also responsible for the 1996 ITV adaptation of Emma, Northanger Abbey (2007), Sense and Sensibility (2008), and the recent dramatization of Sanditon—not to mention adaptations of a host of other classic novels. Join us as we discuss Andrew's thoughts on adapting Austen's novels to film and, of course, Mr. Darcy in a wet shirt.

Andrew Davies, prominent author and screenwriter, began his career writing radio plays and eventually moved into writing for television, film, and theater. He is also the author of several novels and children’s books. In addition to the screen adaptations of Austen's novels mentioned above, he has dramatized television series such as Bleak House, House of Cards (ITV), Mr. Selfridge, Little Dorrit, To Serve Them All My Days, Vanity Fair, and War & Peace, in addition to films such as Bridget Jones's Diary, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Andrew's work has garnered dozens of nominations and awards, and in 2002, he received the highest honor bestowed by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, a BAFTA Fellowship, in recognition of his “outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image.” 

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep18.

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Lord Byron is one of the most notorious bad boys of English literature. He had countless affairs, drank wine from a cup fashioned from a human skull, kept a pet bear at Cambridge, and fought for Greek independence against the Ottoman Empire.  What could this Regency-era demigod of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” possibly have to do with spinster Jane, a country parson's daughter? More than you'd think, according to our guest, Christine Kenyon Jones. In this episode we discuss the parallels between Austen and Byron, Austen's references to Byron in her novels and letters, and how each may have influenced the other's work.

Dr. Christine Kenyon Jones is a Research Fellow at King's College London, focusing on the Romantic and Regency periods. Her books include Jane Austen and Lord Byron: Regency Relations (2024) and Dangerous to Show: Lord Byron and His Portraits (2020). She has also authored several essays published in Persuasions and Persuasions On-line.

For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep17.

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