Oh No! Lit Class

The Odyssey aka Part 2 of Homer's epic poetic duo features what is perhaps the worst and also most horny travelogue of the ancient world as Odysseus battles and bangs his way home while Athena, arguably, does all the real work. Meanwhile, Megan and RJ are both tempted by siren songs: 1980s anime and Brad Pitt.

Donate to the Black Lives Matter Global Network: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019

Get it? Because Achilles has zero chill? Megan and RJ also find themselves lacking chill as they attempt to navigate the first of Homer's epic poem duology, The Iliad, starting with the important question: Just what does it mean to be 10-Year War Hot? RJ defends fictional historical sites, Megan gets lost in the mythological sauce, and instead of chasing waterfalls, we learn to stab the rivers and lakes that we're used to.

There's no getting around it, this episode on Kurt Vonnegut's seminal novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, is big. A big, meaty episode all about time, space, war, trauma, and also, for absolutely no reason at all, French philosopher Michel Foucault's weird bald head. Taking the trip to Tralfamadore with Megan and RJ is Rob Kristoffersen of the podcast Our Strange Skies, who doesn't really help so much as talk about finger-puppets, nu-metal, and winning the wang lotto. So it goes.

Listen to Rob talk UFOs at https://www.ourstrangeskies.com/

What do Iowa tourism slogans, college mascots, Mel Gibson movie corrections, Miami Dolphins draft options, and institutionalized racism all have in common? Probably more than you think but mainly they're all things we end up somehow talking about in the course of our episode on Sandra Cisnero's contemporary YA classic, The House on Mango Street. Hey, at least we managed not to talk about Pitbull for once.

If we could turn back time, we'd probably make Cher less of a major cornerstone on this episode about Henry James's spooky novella The Turn of The Screw but it's too late for that now! RJ makes his spectacular return in an episode rife with song titles, interrupting trains, cat-chewing, ESPN-checking, and occasionally actually talking about the book. We're back, and we got you, babe.

Woah! New episode on a Tuesday?! Yes, we're sitting at the razor's edge of both March and madness as Matt Johnston aka The Narcissist Cookbook joins Megan to share his feelings on HBO's adaptation of the His Dark Materials novel series, which are that it sucks so bad. Megan Rambles About Books They Read Years Ago, we appreciate The Princess Bride, Matt defends World War Z, and we learn that maybe we're all a little bit naked sometimes. In front of our neighbors, specifically.

Check out The Narcissist Cookbook's music, merch, and more at https://thenarcissistcookbook.bandcamp.com/

Or annoy him personally at @NarcissistCook on twitter

March may be winding down but the madness continues with Paul Csomo, host of the amazing animal podcast Varmints! The exclamation point is part of the show's title but also indicative of the level of excitement you should have as Megan and Paul discuss book-huffers, defacers, skippers, and other such weirdsies. Also, we dunk on RJ a whole bunch. Sorry, bud.

Listen to Paul (and his co-host Donna) at https://varmints.podbean.com/

or just Paul at https://anchor.fm/paul-csomo

Witcher? I hardly know her! March Mini Madness continues as Megan is given a lesson in Witcher Literature (Witcherature) by Joe Raspolich, co-host of Life, Death, and Taxonomy. Together they'll play guessing games, critique Witcher world fashion, contemplate destiny, mispronounce even more character names than the last episode, and fall in love with foul-mouthed parrots and the sheer charisma of an ass you can toss a coin to your witcher off of.

Listen to Joe (and his co-host Carlos) at http://ldtaxonomy.com/

Our first entry into Miniaturized Madness in March is with Webby-nominated(!) Kate Wallinga, host of Ignorance Was Bliss and co-host of LifeWorld. Megan and Kate ostensibly discuss the pointless pedantry of book-shaming someone for not having read something but quickly veer off into Harry Potter character mispronouncing, author call-outs, and So You've Accidentally Written Something Problematic: A Guide. Also, we take away some birthdays, because we deserve them and JK Rowling doesn't.

Hear Kate as a guest on a regular ON!LC at http://bit.ly/ONLCep62

Listen to Kate at https://iwbpodcast.com/ and https://anchor.fm/lifeworld

RJ has officially left ON!LC HQ and Megan is totally handling it super well (he's fine, it's fine, we're fine). Until your favorite book idiots are reunited, please enjoy this retrospective of some of our greatest hits and relive the singing, screeching, shaming, and sex jokes that make our show the Internet's #1 Podcast for Literature and Penile Humours.