Beltway Banthas

Happy Thanksgiving! Beltway Banthas is taking this week off to connect with family & friends, but we did want to speak to you on this holiday. First, we want to thank you! This audience is amazing. We also share things we are thankful for in Star Wars and politics, as well as read your Tweets. Finally...some important announcements about the future of the show. Stick around for those in this holiday broadcast.

Clayton Sandell is a digital news reporter and correspondent for ABC News. You may know his work during the launch of Rogue One: A Story Wars Story when ABC went behind the scenes to see how Tarkin was brought back to life.

It's treason then! This week we discuss how the Jedi botched the removal of Chancellor Palpatine. Had they done it more carefully, maybe the Empire would have never risen. Stephen is joined by guests Josh Gilliland of The Legal Geeks and Kate Sanchez of the But Why Tho Podcast.

In this episode, Tricia Barr (@fangirlcantina) of the Fangirls Going Rogue podcast and founder of Fangirlblog, along with contributor John Liang (@juanjohnjedi), joins Beltway Banthas for a spoiler-filled discussion of one of the most recently released novels: Claudia Gray’s Leia: Princess of Alderaan, and what we learn about the politics of the Rebellion.

Dr. Annalise Ophelian, the driving force behind Looking for Leia, joins us for a discussion on women in fandom, sexism, social movements, how to ensure fandom is inclusive.

In this jam packed episode, we seek wise counsel from The Legal Geeks podcast. Jessica Mederson and Josh Gilliland run The Legal Geeks blog and podcast, where they break down the burning questions of law in sci-fi. They joined Beltway Banthas to address droids rights, liability for the Death Star, Han's right to stand his ground and much more.

Chuck Wendig is author of The Aftermath Trilogy, a series of stories that take place in the tumultuous time after Return of the Jedi. For our 40th episode, we chatted with Wendig about the politics of the era and how a Star Wars author learns about the galaxy in which they are writing.

Holy Star Wars Batman! Stephen was interviewed by Jason Flatt about defining redemption through the lens of Christianity. Together they apply this conversation to Star Wars and also our worlds nastiest politics - the politics of hate. 

This interview originally appeared on the Holy Star Wars podcast. We felt it was an awesome enough conversation on relevant topics to Beltway Banthas to share with you. Jason and Stephen go through the definition and cultural understanding of redemption. Next they tie the theme through Star Wars and also the film American History X, a dark tale of a mans descent and escape from dark well of racism & hate. 

 Get in touch with everyone on the show!

Follow Jason Flatt on Twitter @FlatterYou | Follow Holy Star Wars on Twitter @Holy_Star_Wars

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@JuanJohnJedi |@Stephen_Kent89 | @SwaraSalih1 

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This week on Beltway Banthas we discuss Inferno Squad, the new Star Wars book by Christie Golden. The story takes us inside a faction of Saw Gerrera's Partisans with Iden Versio, an undercover Imperial with the elite - Inferno Squad.

Eleven-ThirtyEight is a living journal of news and opinion dedicated to producing analytical pieces on all things Star Wars. In this week's interview episode, we talk to the creator and Editor-in-Chief of the site, Mike Cooper! We talk about the political message of the prequels, the creative process for Star Wars, his vision behind the website and much more!