Welcome to our first-ever summer intern edition of Ad Aster! Join Aster Lit interns Judy, Angie, and Zara for an eye-opening and laughter-filled episode on some of our favorite children’s stories (and their darker histories). Learn about Disney favorites and classic tales as we celebrate the stories that have inspired us since childhood.

This episode was produced from start to finish by our first group of summer interns. Thanks to our hosts for their hard work, as well as to Jane for the episode transcript, Judy for editing, and Zara for highlighting timestamps and quotes.

notable moments:

0:12 - Introduction: Meet Angie, Judy, and Zara!

0:40 - Finderscope check-in.

3:19 - Insight on The Brothers Grimm.

4:19 - Discussing Tangled’s origin.

5:58 - Insight on Hans Christian Andersen.

6:21 - Hans Christian Andersen’s popular works.

8:55 - Zara explains the original Tangled (i.e. Rapunzel) story, which the Grimm brothers collected.

18:22 - Judy and Angie discuss the differences between the original Rapunzel and the adapted Disney version.

22:21 - Discussing Beauty and the Beast.

34:28 - Angie discusses Jane Eyre.

36:31 - Judy discusses Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly.

37:30 - Judy, Angie, and Zara talk about taking inspiration from other books and writing their materials through these inspirations.

37:55 - Angie and Zara talk about Greek mythology and books (e.g. Percy Jackson).

40:48 - Judy and Angie talk about story variations and dive deeper into the symbolism in Jane Eyre.

43:34 - Judy asks a question for the listeners!

43:58 - Zara gives a short episode summary.

44:39 - Outro

⁠Information on The Brothers Grimm⁠

⁠Information on Hans Christian Anderson ⁠

⁠Rapunzel collected by The Brothers Grimm ⁠

⁠Beauty and the Beast - Wikipedia ⁠

⁠Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly ⁠