Katrina and Geoff get silly! Inspired by the legendary meme status of the D&D alignment chart, we pull fairy tale character names from a hat and decide where they fall. Is Cinderella really Lawful Good? Or could she actually be Chaotic Evil? Is Sleeping Beauty the closest thing we can get to a True Neutral princess? Some of our answers might surprise you.

Katrina and Geoff discuss Mulan! In an episode that's been on the calendar for over 4 months, and specifically scheduled to coincide with the release of the, now delayed, live action remake of Disney's Mulan, we retell multiple versions of this well known Chinese folktale. We compare each version and talk about how and why they changed with each retelling. Let this episode fill the hole in your heart where the new movie was supposed to be.

Katrina and Geoff retell three veeeeery different versions of Sleeping Beauty! Geoff starts off by retelling the Brothers Grimm version, which is probably the version of the story you are most familiar with today. Then Katrina takes us on a journey back through time by telling the earlier Charles Perrault version, complete with a baby eating ogress-in-law.  After that we go back even further with the Giambattista Basile version, the most graphic and disturbing of them all. We discuss the similarities and differences between the versions and make some educated guesses about why the story changed along the way.

CW: Rape. Cannibalism. Infanticide.

Katrina and Geoff discuss voodoo! Katrina retells the totally true (but probably not) story of how the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau ruined the last public hanging in New Orleans. We briefly discuss the origins of the voodoo religion in America, how it was used to help the people of New Orleans, and how it got an undeservedly bad rap due to, you guessed it, racism.

Happy Mardi Gras! Enjoy the king cake.

Katrina and Geoff discuss love! Geoff retells East of the Sun West of the Moon, a Norwegian fairy tale about a poor peasant girl who is sold off into marriage to a White Bear and the trials she endures to be with the man she loves. Katrina retells the story of Cupid and Psyche, a Roman mythology-adjacent story, which is the basis of soooooo many other fairy tales around the world including, you guessed it, East of the Sun West of the Moon. In this episode we get into the nitty gritty on love, marriage, troll anatomy and physiology, and what an absolute hunk Jack Black is. Settle in for the long haul while we retell you a thing (or two).

Katrina and Geoff dip back into the well of Aesop's Fables! This time we retell four fantastic fables about fairytaledom's most infamous villains, wolves. For real. Why are they always the bad guys? We do our best to figure it out. And though Aesop's fables weren't meant for kids, we can't help but draw parallels to our favorite pieces of children's entertainment.

In this episode Katrina is a little too excited to talk about the devil! Geoff retells The Devil and His Grandmother, a lesser known Grimm fairy tale about, well, the Devil and his sweet adorable grandmother. Then Katrina introduces us to the world of Tall Tales by recounting the totally true, in no way made up, 100% factual story of how real life Revolutionary War hero Major Robert Stobo cheated the Devil out of claiming his soul. CW: Suicide 

Geoff retells Hansel and Gretel, specifically the 1857 version made famous by the Brothers Grimm. Katrina compares this version to the first publication from 1812 and the changes made along the way. We also learn that people (AKA buzzkills) have been complaining about the graphic content of these tales from the beginning.

Bundle up! We're going to Russia! In this episode, Geoff retells the story of Morozko, Russia's Father Frost. And in return Katrina repeatedly traumatizes him with various tales of Snegurochka, the snowmaiden. We discuss the kind/unkind girl tale type and how the Russian people stuck it to the man by disguising critiques of the Soviet Union among innocent-seeming stories. And in a bit of a tangent, Geoff forces Katrina to recount a personal story of the time she was almost arrested in Russia for antiquities smuggling.

Katrina retells the story of Mother Holle, German folk goddess of winter, industriousness, and lost and troubled children. Join us on a journey to find out how the mythology surrounding this kindly figure leads directly to the wild and rambunctious Krampus tradition that continues in Germany today.