We have a Substack page at inklingsvarietyhour.substack.com. Head there if you have comments to make about this or any episode!  It may be desolate at first (I've not bothered to invite anyone as of this posting) but make a comment and subscribe--it shouldn't be too long before you hear back from someone else who wants to talk about Out of the Silent Planet.

Also, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts!

And do feel more than free to drop us a line at [email protected].

Sophie Burkhardt joins the show today to discuss the final third of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet. Among other things, we discuss:

• Why it doesn't snow in Malacandra

• Are you a sorn, a pfiffltriggi, or a hross? Take our personality quiz and find out! (Not really)

Next Tuesday, I'll be talking to Dr. David C. Downing, who wrote the first seriously scholarly work on Lewis' Ransom Trilogy (which is quite readable).

Thanks to Sophie for joining me!  Please check out her podcast, Beneath the Willow Tree!

In a few days, join us for a bonus episode, where I will interview Kay Ben-Avraham, who has written (and is writing) a book about dryads called The Flower of the Cedar. This is the first of a few interviews I'll be having with authors publishing through Signum University Press.

If you're enjoying this podcast, please rate it on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts!

Also, we'd love to hear from you!  Email us at [email protected].

Chris, Sophie, and Logan discuss Chapters 9-14 of Our of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis!

More description to come!

If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it on iTunes, or wherever in the world you get your podcasts!  Please feel free to drop me a line at [email protected].  I'd love to hear from you.

David Bates, Logan Huggins, and Sophia Burkhardt join Chris to talk about Out of the Silent Planet!  This was recorded quite some time ago--shortly after the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I wanted to space out my Lewis episodes (so to speak). 

Longer episode description (with links) to come, because I am tired!

Next week: Out of the Silent Planet, Part 2 (of 3).  

Want even more Out of the Silent Planet?  David's podcast, Pints With Jack, is covering the book in detail this year!  Check it out!

This is a Wagner-iffic episode, partly due to the fact that Malacandra is (as Dr. David C. Downing once pointed out) a fairly "Northern" world.  So that's why I'm doing that. 

Also, when this was recorded, Logan Huggins was indeed my producer, but he has since had to jump ship--so if anything (sound effects, music) is sloppy, that is wholly my fault!

Feeling nostalgic while running through the grading gauntlet, Chris dips back into what was probably the most widely-listened-to episode of the Inklings Variety Hour: the first of many, many, many episodes on Till We Have Faces. 

If you like it and want to hear the rest, just go back to Season 1 and binge away!  It's good stuff.

Next week, once my grades are in, we will be blasting off to Heaven with a new, 3- or 4-part series on C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet.

In the meantime, here are the notes for the original Till We Have Faces episode:

Welcome back to The Inklings Variety Hour!  It's a new year, and Ungit has only just hatched out of her egg-house (or something), but already, your intrepid hosts are tackling C.S. Lewis' novel, Till We Have Faces (1956)--widely considered the best novel he ever wrote.  Chris, Anika, and Meagan discuss this retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth as only the Inklings Variety Hour can--with lots of digressions, reading of passages, and laughter.

If you're enjoying this podcast, we're glad to have you along for the ride, and we'd love to know you!  Drop us a line at [email protected].  Ratings on the iTunes store would be most welcome also.

Music for this episode includes:

The Hurrian Hymn

The "Our Father" in Aramaic

"Sick Muse" by Metric

The Internet, like Sauron, just keeps on giving. 

Kora Burton and Jonathan Geltner join Chris to talk about one of its strangest and most recent Tolkien-related gifts, Khraniteli, a made-for-television production of The Fellowship of the Ring that aired in the final days of the USSR (1991) and was released by a kind soul onto YouTube 30 years later (2021).  

In this characteristically digressive episode, we start with some big thoughts about realism in cinema and fantasy, as well as whether Tolkien's stories can be adapted into non-British (non-English?) contexts. For dessert, we talk about particular moments in the movie itself.  You don't need to have watched this to enjoy all that is said, but it might help to at least watch a condensed highlight reel.

This article in Variety gets mentioned, and it's worth reading, at least compared to all of the other articles that have come out about this (ones that don't feature actual reporting).

I'd love to hear from you if you're enjoying the podcast!  Email me at [email protected].  

Next time: We'll either feature an interview, or begin our Out of the Silent Planet episodes.  It may be two weeks before we get there, as I'm still grading final papers and exams, but I'll try to throw something from the vault your way next week.  Upcoming interviews feature Harry Lee Poe, David C. Downing, Don W. King, and others.  

Editing and releasing a podcast once a week is difficult. Editing a releasing a podcast once a week while grading end-of-term papers is...more difficult. 

So...enjoy this 2020 vintage from the vaults, where Chris, Anika, and Meagan weigh in on the (now-semi-)perennial question: Is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe a "Fairy Story" (as defined by Tolkien)?  Their answer...will shock you.

Probably.

I don't really remember what it was, if I'm being honest.

Anyway, enjoy this rough cut of Season 1 wackiness, and stay tuned--we've got lots of new interviews and episodes coming your way...it's just a matter of me finding time to edit them!

The next non-aged episode will be on The Soviet Lord of the Rings, Khraniteli.  Be afraid.  And maybe mildly impressed?

Feel free to email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.

Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes join Chris to talk about their favorite adaptations of Tolkien's Legendarium in this fairly self-indulgent and digressive conversation.  Join us!

More description to come!  Sorry to publish this late!

Do you have a favorite (or least favorite) Tolkien adaptation?  Email us at [email protected] and tell us about it.

Next time: A full episode on the "Soviet Lord of the Rings"!

J.D. Peabody has written a middle-grade novel that features the Inklings!

We're accordingly interviewing him on The Inklings Variety Hour!

Our conversation is about his book, The Inkwell Chronicles: The Ink of Elspet, which you can buy here.

And here is the secret, "invisible" page that shows how the details in his plot are connected to real people in places in England.

Among other things, J.D. and I talk about:

• the premise for his story (magical Ink that is the source of all creativity)

Thanks again to J.D. for joining me!

If you liked this show, or others, or if you have ideas, please write us at [email protected] to say hi.

Next week, Eric Geddes and Jonathan Geltner rejoin me as we begin talking about the wacky world of Tolkien adaptations!

Once again--there were problems with the original file. This should be corrected now. Please delete and redownload, and thank you for your patience!

This week, the Inklings Variety Hour (that is, Chris) talks to Dr. Sørina Higgins about the life and thought of "the Oddest Inkling," Charles Williams. 

Among other things, we discuss:

• Taliessin Through Logres

The reading at the top is slightly glitchy due to Zoom issues--I tried to edit it to make it sound as smooth as possible. Hope you enjoy the episode.  And check out all of Sørina's awesome projects--listed at "The Oddest Inkling." Also, check out her podcast, promoting unity and dialogue within the church: 1619 and 1776.

As always, if you like what you're hearing, please reach out to us at [email protected] and let us know! We'd love to meet you. Please also leave us a review.

Next time, join us for some middle-grade fiction that features The Inklings (or "Jack," "Ronald," and "Dot," anyway) as characters!  It's time for The Inkwell Chronicles with author J.D. Peabody!

The second of a two-part conversation with author Jonathan Geltner--about his highly-acclaimed debut novel, Absolute Music--a literary novel about fantasy and faith, among other things. 

Among other things, we discuss:

• Mythologizing or reenchanting Cincinnati and Pittsburgh

If you'd like a copy of Absolute Music, go here.

If you'd like to see Jonathan Geltner's author page at Slant, go here.

If you'd like to follow his Substack, go here.

Finally, please do email us at [email protected] and leave us a review on iTunes.

Next week: Back to the actual Inklings!  Sorina Higgins rejoins us for a Charles Williams Q&A!

Many thanks to Logan Huggins for producing this episode!  Listeners, this is the last episode I have that Logan has edited, and I'd like to thank him for all of his hard, excellent, unpaid work on this podcast!