Overdue

Enjoy another episode of our spookiest show-within-a-show yet! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. Ep 3 - MONSTER BLOOD If you're like the kid in Monster Blood, you, too have been horrified by...

This Man Booker Prize-winning novel has one question at its core: what if Thomas Cromwell wasn't quite the jerk we thought he was? Henry VIII's right-hand man definitely does dirty deeds on behalf of the King, but Mantel creatively fills in blanks in the historical record to imagine a man who wasn't so bad. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/lis...

This week we take a bloodydamn dive into the depths of a society living on a terraformed Mars hundreds of years into our future. The humans of this alternate reality are, get this, enforcing a rigid caste system that benefits a privileged few, and it's our meathead hero's job to infiltrate that society and take it down from the inside. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on O...

Killing Time is a classic Star Trek novel most notable for its "interesting" publication history. Della Van Hise was an OG fan fiction author who got the chance to bring her particular skills and interests to an official novel featuring Kirk, Spock, and a few other fan favorites. Also, Andrew brought slides?  This episode was recorded with some of our Patreon supporters watching live. Find out how...

It's time to talk about expectant fatherhood. But whose? You'll have to listen to find out! For our previous discussion of pending parenthood, tune into Ep 347 - What to Expect When You're Expecting Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice a...

In the world of hardboiled detectives, no one is harder boiled than Sam Spade, a guy who loves to get one over on both the criminals AND the cops while also romancing dames.  Find out how to vote on future Patron’s Choice episodes at patreon.com/overduepod Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at...

Can we contain all of Tony Kushner's award-winning Angels in America, a Gay Fantasia on National Themes in one podcast? Probably! First we'll talk about Part I: Millennium Approaches, then we'll talk about Part II: Perestroika. And along the way we'll cover Roy Cohn, how to stage an angel, and the Kushner-to-Spielberg Pipeline. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue S...

What if the kids who fell into that wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe all came back to the real world and needed extensive therapy to deal with the things they had seen and done? Welcome to Every Heart a Doorway, where a strong central conceit helps cover for a somewhat rushed mystery narrative. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com...

Tell me about a Complicated Man. Mishima's breakthrough coming-of-age novel about sexuality in late Imperial Japan has a powerful narrative voice and prose style. But the legacy of his work and his political goals has led to him being a bit of an "enigma" (as one listener referred to him) -- to put it lightly. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/...

The Scarlet Letter is often included as part of a high school reading curriculum because it's good at teaching people about symbolism, and it's good at teaching people about symbolism because it uses a half-dozen symbols roughly 700 times apiece.  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://...

What if thirty years of history took place JUST beyond the doors of your hotel? And what if you weren't allowed to leave that hotel? And, get this, the hotel is in Moscow. The beloved bestseller A Gentleman in Moscow fills its historical fiction with charming characters that you want to root for. But can we (or should we) figure out what it's trying to say? Our theme music was composed by Nick Ler...

Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In Episode 1, we do some table-setting on the series, Stine, and Scholastic books -- then we dive into the first e...

Whether you're a fan of Netflix's Bridgerton series or you just want an Austen novel with more modern language and more explicit sex scenes, the first novel in Julia Quinn's series about the Bridgerton family has something for you. Just, uh, watch out for the nonconsensual sexual encounter!! Oops!!  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Who wants to celebrate April with some modernist poetry??? This month, we allude to many of the allusions in T.S. Eliot's landmark poem. Thank you to the Patreon supporters who joined us as we navigated this tricksy poem. Find out how to join us for bonus recordings at patreon.com/overduepod. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

August Wilson wrote a whole bunch of plays, all of which contain dialogue and take place at certain points in history. He's most notable for his Pittsburgh aka Century Cycle, so we decided to talk about one of the standouts: Fences. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/priva...

The first of four books in the Circle of Magic series, Sandry's Book feels a bit less self-contained than first-books-in-a-series normally do. You'll meet likable and well-drawn characters, but be prepared to finish the series if you want a more satisfying story. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Po...

The inspiration for the hit trilogy of DreamWorks films is  rather  different than you might expect. It's still about a boy named Hiccup and his dragon Toothless, but the original has more burping, farting, and Dragonese than the films dared to show -- which is odd because those are the guys what made Shrek. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/li...

The thrilling conclusion to the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest continues most of the plot threads introduced in the previous book. If you thought that The Girl Who Played With Fire was lacking in secondary and tertiary characters, boy have we got good news for you!  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

This award-winning novel by a real writer's writer has elicited a broad range of responses, with some folks praising the prose and structure and others bouncing off its characters and style. But maybe that range of reactions was inevitable given the way Trust Exercise explores the slipperiness of memory and narrative. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnyst...

Is The Winter's Tale a tragicomedy? A dramedy? A romance? A problem play? Who knows! But we can say for certain it's a play about a king who gets jealous and makes bad decisions. Also a bear eats someone. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy N...

Truly great butlers are work-focused automata, occupied only on maintaining and increasing the reputation of their employer. But what if there were more to life than that? This week, we follow one butler as he comes to exactly that realization. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://ar...

Enjoy the FINAL EPISODE of our latest show-within-a-show! We read Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters got these episodes monthly, but every two months we combined them for general consumption. These episodes cover Chapters 48-74 of Part Two aka The End of the Story. In Episode 13, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza bid good...

It's time to go back to school, where professional scientists Melody and Erin from the Heaving Bosoms podcast can help us talk about Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis. This STEAMy romantic comedy is one heck of a romp, and we have a heck of a time recounting it. Caveat lictor: This episode is marked explicit because this book includes adult material! You can find more from our new friends at the...

This week, Glory Edim of Well-Read Black Girl fame joins us to talk about Deesha Philyaw's inaugural short story collection. We also chat with Glory about her work with WRBG and some of her favorite interviews. You can find more from Glory and Well-Read Black Girl at their website or on their podcast .  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listene...

My podcast is a fish. Faulkner's 1930 modernist "tour de force" (his words) takes one family's journey to bury its matriarch and splinters it into over a dozen increasingly-disjointed perspectives. The book's structure and characters are memorable but boy howdy are they difficult. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati...