Campfire Classics Podcast

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Short blurb this week.

Your hosts got overwhelmed by life and are dropping this late, solo outing.

You know how life goes.

Check back next week for more regular frivolity. But for now enjoy this spooky mystery By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"The Sealed Room" was published 1898 in The Strand.

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Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

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Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

You ever join a cult?

Not a cute one like a bookclub, or pilates, or Taylor Swift fans, but one of the scary ones, like Heaven's Gate, or Scientology, or Dave Matthews fans (just kidding Dave, love you!).

This week's story give strong culty vibes.

Ken picked the story for Heather to read. It's by previous Campfire Classics author Clark Ashton Smith and it's called "The Demon of the Flower". It's a bizarre trip of a story clearly written by a man who would have rather been writing poetry. 

Your hosts learn a lot of new words, choose a graphic alliterative euphemism, and make juvenile jokes about what the author's name sounds like.

"The Demon of the Flower" was published 1933 in Astounding Stories. Extensive research has uncovered no evidence of an active copyright.

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Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

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Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

This one goes some places.

The story, yes, but also your hosts.

Tangent alert.

Heather picks a story by Frank Stockton, an author we've not heard from since his appearance 4 years ago with the story "The Lady or the Tiger."

Ken can't finish a sentence, Heather makes up a new word, and dialects wander, generally.

Also, this is the week of Aroused Amusements.

Oh, and your hosts acknowledge (grudgingly) the Big Game.

"The Philosophy of Relative Existences" was published 1893 in The Watchmaker’s Wife and Other Stories

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Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Good morning Campers!

We're taking on a bug name in American Literature this week. Kurt Vonnegut!

So, many of our listeners already know whether they are in or out right there.

Ken has chosen the story "The Big Trip Up Yonder." He also does the Fun Facts session and leaves it on a cliffhanger!

Who'd have thought the education part of an edutainment podcast could be a cliffhanger.

Well, it is.

Heather reads and makes up some weird voices since there are no dialects to butcher.

Your hosts discuss the Grammy Awards, the Club in your mind, and how long it takes to learn to "conceal your pleasure".

"The Big Trip Up Yonder" was published in 1954 and is in public domain.

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Good morning Campers!

It's another beautiful day here at Campfire Classics, even if your hosts don't know what day it is.

But, in fairness, neither of them has even claimed to be overly good at keeping track of such things. Time. Life. Sanity... 

But, they are here! For you! Reading another ridiculous (but only because they made it so) story, chosen this week by Heather. Ken reads the H. G. Wells story titled simply "The Apple," and I get the impression he regrets one of his character voices immediately upon realizing that that character would be narrating most of the story.

But, choices were made, and you can't go back and change it!!

Surprise episode themes include the power of knowledge, the wisdom of talking to strangers, and the deliciousness of balls.

"The Apple" was published in 1896 in The Idler, Volume 10, Issue 3.

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

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Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

It's a very rare episode that gets a content warning here, but this one does get it.  This isn't a language thing it's just that the story takes on some issues that some may find difficult to digest.  There's a warning in the episode and you get plenty of heads up to stop it should you decide to, but hey. Fair warning and all that.

Anyway!

How are you doing? 

Life feeling kinda f-d?

Yeah...our hosts clearly sympathize.

Or empathize.

Whichever one means "ditto!"

Heather reads a story called "And All the Earth a Grave" by C.C. MacApp, and yes, I thought that name was a typo at first, too.

Anyway, during the episode your going to hear all about self care, the literal end of humanity, and Neil deGrasse Tyson sucking at Jeopardy.

"And All the Earth a Grave" was published in 1963, but extensive research has found no evidence of an active copyright. 

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Welcome to 2025!

A New Year!

New Stories!

Hopefully not the end times...

Here we are, campers, bringing love, literature, bad jokes to the world.

After a recap of what's new in the Public Domain this year, Ken selects a story for Heather to read by podcast muse, Dame Agatha Christie. And it is a Poirot. So, for those of you who have been missing Heather's French accent, it's your lucky day.

Your hosts also discuss the difference between sexy and sexual, how to accidentally call a cat, and post coital podcasts.

"Wasps' Nest" was published in 1928. 

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

It's Christmas!

You know what that means!?

Ghost stories...

That's right, holiday spooky stories are back.

Heather reads a tale by long time favorite author M.R. James called "A School Story".

Love a good tradition.

Along the way your hosts accidentally leak spoilers for the movie The Ring, spoilers for the movie Hunt for Red October, and spoilers for the movie Highlander.

"A School Story" was published in 1911. 

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Did that title get your attention?

Really?

I think there might be something seriously wrong with you!

But that makes you our kind of people, I guess.

This week Heather is reading a story Ken picked out for her by Susan Coolidge called "Who Ate the Pink Sweetmeat?"

It's a cute little holiday story about... Socks? Candy? Whipping out your precious in public?

Whatever it is, it's not nearly as tragic as your hosts seemed prepared for. Along the way, conversation topics include poncy ravens, talking inanimate objects, and what exactly does gross mean?

"Who Ate the Pink Sweetmeat?" was published in 1884. 

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Do you like terrible accent choices from actors?

Do you appreciate a euphemism about at sausage so long you have to wind it around itself?

Do you love the upbeat and chipper works of 19th century Russian literature?

Then this episode is for you!

Heather has chosen the story "Black Fog" by Aleksandr I. Kuprin. Ken is dubious from the beginning and by the end he's still unsure how to feel.

Ken whines about crumpets, uses a wildly inappropriate dialect, and hints that Tennessee Williams might just be American Chekhov.

"Black Fog" was published in 1905 and translated by Douglas Ashby.

Email us at [email protected].

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Like, subscribe, leave a review.

Now sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.