Be The Serpent

On today's episode, we're discussing what exactly makes things funny. Hardly any dick jokes in this one, folks. (Get it? HARDly? it's a dick joke!) Anyway, our tentpoles (wink wink) this week are The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Emperor’s New Groove, and the Hamilton fanfic, “our gilded age” by screamlet.

Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O’Neill

Which Witch by Eva Ibbotson

Schitt’s Creek 

Harry Potter

Lettered (writer in Schitt’s Creek and Harry Potter fandoms)

Good Omens

Black Spot

Black Sails

Detroit: Become Human

the Cats trailer

Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix special Nanette and Ted Talk, “Three Ideas. Three Contradiction. Or Not.”

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Blackadder

Absolutely Fabulous

Buffy

The West Wing

The Lion King

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

Cabin Pressure 

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Rocky Horror Picture Show 

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

My Fair Lady

Jane the Virgin

One Day at a Time

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

M*A*S*H 

Blackadder Goes Forth

Pagan series by Catherine Jinks

Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

Mark Reads, a video series by Mark Oshiro 

"With Fire In Their Eyes" by Asuka Kureru

The transcript for this episode can be found here. Have you written a love letter to your local scribes recently? :D

On this episode, we're talking about politics! It's gonna get.... kind of weirdly emotional. The tentpoles this week are “Corridors of Power” by blythely, “Hand in Unlovable Hand” by Annakovsky, and Cheesecake and the Art of Political Warfare by Sakana Sara.

What We’re Into Lately

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Semiosis by Sue Burke

Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

“Lie Back and Think of Dinner” and “Still My Heart Has Wings” by jessthereckless

“By Definition” by idiopathicsmile

Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

Other Stuff We Mentioned

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Rogue One

WorldCon (Dublin 2019)

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

A Choir of Lies and A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland

The West Wing

House of Cards

“Spin!” by weatherfront. 

Inception

Veep

Lean In 

Fernand Braudel

Jupiter Ascending

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Leverage

The Thick of It

Yes Minister

House of Cards, the UK TV mini-series

House of Cards by Michael Dobbs

Madam Secretary

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

A Deeper Season by lightgetsin, sahiya

What Passing Bells by lightgetsin, sahiya

Gentleman Bastards

Republic of Thieves 

Merlin

Discworld

For Next Time

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Transcription

The transcript of this episode is available here. Thanks as always to our brilliant and extremely cute scribes! If you'd like to help compensate the scribes for their work, consider contributing a few dollars on Patreon!

*bangs on pots and pans* It's the Extravaganza! We're answering listener questions and definitely not sneaking in a question or two of our own! This is all completely legitimate and above-board! 

Hither Page by Cat Sebastian

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite,

Kaleidotrope podcast

Jenn Lyons’ Ruin of Kings

Lots of Good Omens stuff, including:

Raven (singlecrow)’s Good Omens fic

“Salinity (And Other Measures of Brackish Water)” by drawlight

“A Stone’s Throw From Jerusalem” by RC_McLachlan

“TwoFish” by Grindylowe

“the mortifying ordeal of being known (biblically)” by FlipSpring

Other Stuff We Mentioned

The Adventure Zone

Critical Role

“Written by the Victors” 

Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Bi, Episode 29 of Be the Serpent

Rocketman

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

astolat’s Steve/Sam stories

“Dangerous if Unbound” by astolat

Game of Thrones 

astolat’s Game of Thrones fics

Tales from the Trunk, Hilary Bisenieks’s podcast

Welcome to Night Vale

Wolf 359 

The Adventure Zone

Print Run

Shipping & Handling

Get to Work Hurley

Galactic Suburbia

Freya’s story in Analog

BtS Episode 36 “There’s No Place Like Home”

Dresden Files

Nirvana In Fire

The Tempest

Twelfth Night

World of Warcraft

Runes of Magic

Runescape

Lemmings

The Legend of Zelda series, Breath of the Wild specifically

Mass Effect

Dragon Age

Age of Empires

Civilization

Don’t Starve

Minecraft

Loom

Conspiracy of Truths 

Choir of Lies

In the End

tulip mania

Hugo nominated fancasts:  

The Coode Street Podcast

Fangirl Happy Hour

Galactic Suburbia

Our Opinions Are Correct

The Skiffy and Fanty Show. 

For Next Time

"Cheesecake and the Art of Political Warfare" by Sakana Sara

Transcript:

On this episode, we're talking wizards! We're comparing the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson's The Emperor's Soul and RB Lemberg's "Geometries of Belonging". Also, Freya has designed a fun game for Alex and Macey!

What We’re Into Lately

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons

Chronin by Alison Wilgus

Catalyst by Jennifer Mace

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Lots of Good Omens shit, including:

Alex’s Good Omens fanvids “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Hallelujah”.

“vintage demon art, vape pens, & other treasures” by kyrilu

 “Don’t Stop Me Now” and “My Best Friend” fanvids

"Making An Effort: Queer (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens" 

Much Ado About Nothing (2011)

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis

Dragon Age: Inquisition

DA:I fanfiction 

Analog July/August Issue (ft. Freya’s short story)

Moving Pictures 

Soul Music

Unseen Academicals

Wayward Children series

Every Heart a Doorway

Ursula K. Le Guin 

Freya’s fairy fic ‘Hood & Glove’

The Magicians

Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee

The Birdverse section of R.B. Lemberg’s website

Kingdom (2019-)

“What We Named the Needle" by Freya Marske

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

The Elenium series by David Eddings

The Tamuli series by David Eddings

The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Tamora Pierce 

For Next Time

Nothing! It's the Episode 40 Extravaganza!

Transcript

The transcription for this episode can be found here. Thanks as always to our wondrous scribes, the lights of our life!

On this episode, we're doing a bird's-eye view of the six finalists from this year's Best Novel ballot of the Hugo Awards! 

What We’re Into Lately

Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Prince of Air and Darkness by M.A. Grant

Schitt’s Creek

Borne by Jeff Vandermeer

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Sungkyunkwan Scandal 

The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold

Good Omens (the miniseries)

Other Stuff We Mentioned

The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal (Freya misquotes the second title as The Fated Stars) 

Hidden Figures

Record of a Spaceborn Few and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Farscape

Chants from A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland 

Star Wars: A New Hope 

Trail of Lightning

Karl Urban

Buffy

Lost Girl

Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

Hannibal Lecter from The Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris

Space Opera by Cat Valente

Saga Press

Eurovision

Eurovision 2019 Iceland

Eurovision 2019 Australia

The Fifth Element

Jupiter Ascending

Spinning Silver

Uprooted

The Starlit Wood (‘Navah Wolfe anthology’)

Discworld

N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy

For Next Time: 

"Geometries of Belonging" by RB Lemberg

Transcription:

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Sing, muse, of the work of the scribes!!

On this week's episode, we're discussing ASSASSINS! Tentpoles this week are The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore, the television show Killing Eve, and the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

What We’re Into Lately

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Fisherman by John Langan

Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler

Killing Eve

Proper English by K.J. Charles

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

“Episode 10: Spies & Disguise” from Technique Critique

HIStory 3: Trapped

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Think of England by K.J. Charles

“meditations ex post facto” by singlecrow

A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland

A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland

Freya’s amazing new jacket

Ozimandais by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Scandal

House

Mr. Right

Pitch Perfect

The Bourne series

Zoolander

John le Carré

Grosse Pointe Blank

Person of Interest

Farseer by Robin Hobbe

BtS patreon

Naruto

Dreaming of Sunshine

Discworld

Anne McCaffrey

Transcript

The transcript for this episode is available here. The scribes are amazing! They're so good!! Yay for scribes!!!

On today’s episode we’re discussing magical houses! Are some of them sentient? How do they communicate? Is a haunted house a magical house? The tentpoles this week are:  “House Proud” by astolat, House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Veldt by Ray Bradbury.

What We’re Into Lately

Proper English by KJ Charles

A Prince on Paper Alyssa Cole

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History by John Julius Norwich

Everything astolat

Fall Out Boy’s discography

The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Wightwick Manor

Bletchley Park

Episode 40 Extravaganza!

Homestuck

Frances Hardinge

Harry Potter

TARDIS (from Doctor Who)

Victoria Schwab’s series (A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab)

Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Downton Abbey

Hieros gamos

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

African veld

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Ender’s Game

Farscape

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

The Popinjay’s Daughter by Anne Cross

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Jane Eyre by  Charlotte Brontë

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

Foresight by Freya Marske

Goblin Emperor

Spinning Silver 

For Next Time: 

The Perfect Assassin by KA Doore

Transcription:

The transcript of this episode is available here! Thanks as always to our amazing team of scribes.

On this week's episode, we're talking about space operas.... IN SPAAAAACE. The tentpoles this week are The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard, the fanfic A Deeper Season by lightgetsin and sahiya, and the pilot episodes of Farscape and Killjoys.

What We’re Into Lately

The London Celebrities series by Lucy Parker

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Ancillary Justice series by Ann Leckie

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

Transcription:

On this episode, we're doing a deep-dive on a single tentpole, and we are extremely back on our bullshit. It's time to talk about astolat's Witcher fanfic, "Misethere"! 

What We’re Into Lately

Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly

Other Stuff We Mentioned

“Drastically Redefining Protocol”

For Next Time

Transcription

The transcript for this episode can be found here. As always, thank you to our brilliant scribal team! 

On this episode, we're discussing police procedurals! Who breaks the rules? Who goes by the book? Tentpoles this week are A Private Reason for This by femmequixoitc, Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, and the first episode of the TV show Luther.

What We’re Into Lately

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Other Stuff We Mentioned

Brooklyn Nine-Nine!