Poirot Pod

In this episode, we discuss this delightful lesser known mystery, which brings up privilege, class, and birth order (spoiler: younger siblings are murdering psychopaths). Portia and Amanda get distracted by their discomfort with domestic service and then by Michelle Obama's flawlessness, while the protagonists get distracted by sexy murderers. We get on track to discover that Evans made the sandwich, but of course we don't find that out until later because patriarchy.

We are back with Hercule Poirot in this 1933 book! In terms of plot, it is brilliant while Poirot isn't. In terms of writing, Portia's 1980's version had racism and anti-semitism which were edited out of the 2012 version Amanda listened to. Follow along as we get into Vulcan brain stabs, Fibber Mcgee and Molly, Kimmy Schmidt, and American dialects.

Stressed about democracy? Ignore reality and listen to the rambling conclusion to our discussion on the Mr. Quin stories, we discuss remembering choreography years later, the idea of death as a character and even lover, outsiders to love being insightful observers, the idea of one true love, and the gender spectrum. Amanda says "whoa" like Joey from Blossom a lot as we manage to compare the ideas of Mr. Quin to every 90s movie ever.

This second episode discussing the Mysterious Mr. Quin was recorded in November of 2020 (we were so young and innocent then)... The stories of The Man from the Sea through The Dead Harlequin follow Mr. Satterthwaite as he steps into his role and the discussion gets into f*ckboys, finding love in your 40s, sister violence, the dangers of being too beautiful, Rihanna, violence of men against women, and the mystical insight of artists.

We are excited to have a guest on this episode, our mother! We discuss this short story collection as well as the mechanisms of different poisons, "the quiet assurance" of white privilege, problematic Swedes, and Pamela comes in with a counterpoint to our cousin love stance?

Agatha Christie forays into the supernatural in this fascinating collection of stories (Amanda's Favorite!) which has a singularly positive portrayal of feminine traits in a man and brings up themes of the magic of non-binary gender! Listen to Amanda struggle to pronounce Satterthwaite as we wonder about the relationship of Mr. Quin and Mr. S to Mr. Snuffleupagus, Joe Black, the Sixth Sense, and Ed Norton/Tyler Durden. If Tommy and Tuppence are Kimmy Schmidt, The Mysterious Mr. Quin is the Good Place!?!?

Apologies for the timing sync issues, hopefully this is the last episode with that issue!

Recording episode 13 during 2020 retrogrades and before the US election was called leads to a weird timing delay in the recording about halfway through the episode (apologies for that to our decades of listeners)... in which Portia TALKS ABOUT SEXUALITY and brazenly ignores the 'u' in aunt. Agatha Christie has updated her stance on consanguinity in this great mystery that brings up frienemies and envy within partnerships. Come hate-listen as Portia and Amanda spiral into their past marriages, and how Agatha Christie suggests the key to a happy marriage is to settle.

We start this episode by catching up on The Portia Scale, then: Poirot gets conned, Hastings glows up, questions about Agatha's criminal justice framework, toddler zoomies, and plans for American(s) In England.

After a couple month recording hiatus, Poirot Pod is back! We discuss how the obvious suspects did it in a very non-obvious way, Agatha Christie's evolving stance on killing murderers, and spinstererotisism (or lack thereof).

More Tommy and Tuppence! Is the Blitz the McDowell's of London? Also randomly featuring spoilers for "The Prestige".