Novel Ideas

Not many people can say they remember life at five-years old, much less finding a one, true love that changed your life forever, and yet I've had both. If you want to hear about how to deal with memories of loss and love, and the meaning of change in our lives, tune in to our newest episode. TW: mention of abusive situations

Saturn returns, I'm messing up my words, and we seem to keep hitting sticks with balls. It's a great time to celebrate my day a whole month and a half afterwards with laughs, some cussing, and hellavu time talking about passion in "Challengers the Movie featuring Zendaya and her boy toys.

I don't know what's worth more? Me screaming into my microphone about Jennette McCurdy, or Ms. McCurdy giving us the cultural rest to understanding what value truly means amidst growing up in the most difficult of circumstances? Maybe you should tune in to a make that decision for yourself.

After coming back from a lifelong sabbatical due to backbreaking work, your host finds himself discussing politics, romance, and why Casey McQuiston did what we all wanted to do after 2016, create a new fantasy to deal with a harsh reality. Make a great choice now and tune into this brand new episode.

I thought it'd be important to discuss performance in and outside of our personal/professional lives. Whether it's relative to jobs, relationships or identity, Vivek Shraya does an amazing job identifying how gender performance played out in their life and how we can reflect on the social influences that encourage us to pursue the "good" versions of masculinity and femininity.

Tune in for a lively discussion about how I spent Father's Day enjoying not being a father, examining masculinity as I've experienced so far and what does it mean to desire community with other men.

Not every story needs the protagonist to be readily identified as a man or woman. Sometimes, you can just be a person existing in the murk of life, unsettled by the choices you make because you believe you're right. And whether you're in your 20s or 60s, love is a hard thing to speak to or identify. Can love only be measured by loss? Tune in to find out.

If there was ever a conversation to be had about how I don't enjoy being overworked and prioritizing a job over my physical and mental health, this is it. And Ann Petry does a phenomenal job with her short story that highlights the way race, gender and class impacts our ability to effectively deal with the consequences that emerge from considerations not offered by our society.

In today's episode, Nella Larsen's "Passing" offers an opportunity to explore the legacy behind being called an "Oreo", modern presentations of Blackfishing, and what does it mean to balance the influences of Whiteness and Blackness through this story about two mixed-race women living with the privileges and disadvantages of being Black and looking White.

In this week's episode, Amiri Baraka's "Dutchman" opens up a conversation about racial politics between Black men, White women and the American mythos that establishes a sordid violence between this pairing. Addressing uses of religious/spiritual/mythological allusions to highlight the tradition established within the racial hierarchy, I guess it's only inevitable to see the impending doom arrivin...

Join Elijah as he works through fear with Simon Holt's "The Devouring" and how one can conquer or be conquered by fear. Filled with too many chuckles on the dark subject, carrying CliffNotes' legacy and finding hope in the restlessness, listen in for a spooky discussion on why you should also never pick up a random journal filled with its own kind of demons.