Esbat: A Bookish Podcast

Elle and Regi discuss The Death of Jane Lawrence with academic Vicky Brewster. They get into the Gothic, Bluebeard, Dark Academia and the media that really terrifies them.

Follow Vicky on Twitter @VProofreader. You can follow us on Twitter@EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt and Regi @Regicwrites

Content Warnings: Medicine, war, death, bombings, blood, PTSD, Claustrophobia

Elle talks to Hannah O’Flanagan about Mexican Gothic, discussing the Gothic, the Weird, and the themes being tackled in the genre today.

Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahOFlanaga1. You can follow us on Twitter@EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt and Regi @Regicwrites

Content Warnings: colonization, gender, race, white feminism, mental health, abuse

Join us for a very special bonus episode this Halloween, where we talk to Divination Hollow contributors Dee, Kayla and Dai about Halloween, including traditions, costumes, and what we love about spooky season.

Follow Divination Hollow @divinationblog, and our contributors Dee (@SirenofScience), Kayla (@poultroyofperil) and Dai (@PrepareToDai). You can follow us on Twitter@EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt and Regi @Regicwrites

Content Warnings: death, Aberfan disaster, cannibalism, trapped children, shipping off/ ostracizing students who had behavioral issues, teen pregnancies, dead baby jokes

Morgan Payne (Diversity in Horror) joins Elle and Regi to discuss Transmuted, and dig into gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia, fatphobia, the difficulties surrounding medical care, and toxic parents.

Follow Morgan @diversityhorror on Twitter and Instagram, and check out http://diversityhorror.blogspot.com/. You can follow us on Twitter@EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt and Regi @Regicwrites

Content Warnings: gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, fatphobia, experimental surgery, self-harm, medical mistreatment, toxic parents, mentions of pregnancy and related complications, racism in healthcare, end of life care, depression/mental health.

Elle and Regi, two women just gettin’ bi, talk about their favourite LGBT+ books and TV shows in this episode, discuss the importance of LGBT+ history, the issues around representation, and why First Kill definitely should not have been canceled (according to Elle).

You can follow us on Twitter@EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt and Regi @Regicwrites

Content Warnings: Section 28, erasure of history, bi erasure, homophobia/transphobia/biphobia, Misogynoir

Elle and Regi talk to writer and zinester Eve Harms about Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona, exploring society, reality, parasocial relationships and more.

**We apologize for technical issues affecting this episode - part of the discussion was unfortunately lost around 40 minutes in, but not too much!**

Follow Eve on Twitter @eveharmswrites, and follow us @EsbatBookish, @elleturpitt, and @regicwrites.

Content Warnings: gore including eyes, cannibalism, drought, child death, cults, religion,  substance abuse

Author, signer/songwriter and creator of Esbat’s intro and outro music Joanne Askew joins Elle and Regi to talk about Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built. More discussions about robots and droids, navigating the world, making connections, different types of Sci-Fi and lesbian planets. Joanne Askew’s novella Sloth and EP Summer is Dead are both available now. Listen until the end to get more of a taste of Joanne’s music with Deep Green.

You can follow us on Twitter@EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt, Regi @Regicwrites and Joanne @J_Askew_Author

Content Warnings: Covid, munchausens by proxy/child abuse & child murder

With Elle out ill, Zeenovos joins Regi to discuss the fantastic and entirely too relatable series Murderbot Diaries, primarily focusing on book 5, Network Effect, all by Martha Wells. During the discussion, Regi learns that Murderbot is ace and that robots in general are excellent LGBTQ+ representation and that not all sci-fi is difficult to get into. Sometimes, all you need is an incredibly relatable robot protagonist.

You can follow us on Twitter @EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt, Regi @Regicwrites and Zeenovos @Pixelladium. Be sure to check out Zee's shop, too: https://pixelladiumcreations.bigcartel.com/

Content Warnings: Unreliable narrator, murder, sexuality, working a job that you absolutely despise

Olivia White talks about The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell, leading to discussions of translations, history presented through fiction, the type of history we’re not taught at school, and a bit about Goat Valley Campground, too. Elle gets to say a few Welsh words.

You can follow us on Twitter @EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt, Regi @Regicwrites and Olivia White @horrolivia.

Content Warnings: Argentinian Disappeared, military coup, death, body horror, child death, Facism/Nazis, Colonialism

In their second host-only episode, Elle and Regi talk about the media they’ve been consuming. Regi’s a fan of the Shudder found-footage documentary and gives recommendations for that and some podcasts. Elle shares her thoughts on Men, Women, and Chainsaws and has a couple of new fantasy/romance recommendations.

You can follow us on Twitter @EsbatBookish, Elle @ElleTurpitt, and Regi @Regicwrites.

Content Warnings: Transphobia, homophobia, perceived discrimination, classism, ableism, internet predators, sexual assualt, death of children, trafficking, eugenics, racism