Austen Chat

By Jane Austen Society of North America

Welcome to Austen Chat, the podcast of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). Join us each month as we interview scholars, authors, and subject experts on a wide range of topics related to ... more

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The podcast currently has 40 episodes available.

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Number 1: Rereading Jane Austen: A Visit with Elaine Bander
Rereading Jane Austen’s novels with an understanding of the literary conventions of her time can reveal new layers of meaning that modern audiences may miss. In this episode, we sit down with Austen scholar Elaine Bander, author of Reading with Jane Austen, to explore how Austen used and deliberately played against the conventions of the romance fiction of her day, as well as forms such as the “two-heroine” novel and the “female Quixote.” Along the way, we’ll gain fresh perspectives on Fanny Price, Marianne Dashwood, and Elizabeth Bennet, and discover how Austen took familiar literary traditions and turned them in unexpected directions. Dr. Elaine Bander is retired from Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, where she taught English for three decades. She has published numerous essays and book chapters on Jane Austen and other Georgian writers, including contributions to JASNA’s journals Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line. A frequent speaker on Austen, Elaine has also served as president of JASNA Canada and of the Burney Society (North America). For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep39 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]
September 10, 202633min
Number 2: Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: A Visit with Laura Piani
“The first one, the very first one, is like opening a door to another portal somehow.” —Laura Piani on reading her first Jane Austen novel. Join us for a conversation with Laura Piani, writer and director of the romantic comedy, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. In this episode with guest host Janet Saidi, she shares how Austen's novels and life choices, Austen fandom, and her own experiences inspired the development of the heroine, Agathe, and her journey. Laura Piani studied film and literature in Paris and Rome, then worked as a bookseller at Shakespeare and Company in Paris while studying screenwriting. She went on to write for French film and television before making her feature film directorial debut with Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2024/2025), distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep38 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]
August 06, 202623min
Number 3: Jane Austen & Her Letters: A Visit with Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
"My dearest Cassandra, The letter which I have this moment received from you has diverted me beyond moderation. I could die of laughter at it, as they used to say at school." —Jane Austen, September 1, 1796 It's been speculated that Jane Austen may have written nearly 3,000 letters in her lifetime. While only 161 are known to have survived, that small collection offers a wealth of information about her daily life, her friends and family, her writing, and her voice. In this episode, historical sociolinguist Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade shares insights gained from her study of the language in Austen’s letters—from her vocabulary and spelling to her many instances of linguistic playfulness and clues about her dialect and accent. Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is professor emeritus of English Sociohistorical Linguistics at Leiden University's Centre for Linguistics in the Netherlands. A member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, she has published widely in her field. Her works include In Search of Jane Austen: The Language of the Letters (2014), an in-depth linguistic analysis of Austen’s correspondence. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep32. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]
February 05, 202646min
Number 4: Miss Lambe and Beyond: A Visit with Vanessa Riley
Happy 2026, listeners! To kick off the new year, we’re sharing something special: Austen Chat’s first episode recorded in front of a live audience. Jane Austen lived during a remarkably dynamic period of British history and was well aware of the forces shaping her world—colonial expansion, booming global trade, revolutions in Europe and the Americas, and slavery and the abolition movement. It was also a world that included people of color whose lives were far richer and more influential and varied than often assumed today. In this episode, we talk with author Vanessa Riley, who is eager to share their stories. Join us as we discuss Miss Lambe—Austen’s mixed-race heiress in Sanditon—and meet some notable Black figures from Austen’s time, such as Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, who was born enslaved but went on to build a Caribbean business empire. Vanessa also shares some of her experiences behind the scenes (and on the screen!) of the 2024 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility as Hallmark's historical consultant. Dr. Vanessa Riley is the author of over 25 novels across across the genres of historical fiction, romance, and mystery, including a trio of books based on the true stories of extraordinary women during the Regency era: Island Queen, Queen of Exiles, and Sister Mother Warrior. Her works spotlight hidden narratives of Black women and women of color. Vanessa was the historical consultant for Hallmark’s 2024 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and the 2024 Georgia Mystery/Detective Author of the Year for Murder in Drury Lane. With a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and other engineering degrees from Penn State, she brings a research-oriented approach to her inclusive storytelling about the Caribbean and the Georgian and Regency eras. For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep31. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]
January 08, 202645min
Number 5: The Women Writers Who Inspired Austen: A Visit with Rebecca Romney
"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/. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]
April 03, 202542min