The Inklings Variety Hour

Chris talks with Jonathan Geltner about the best (but still flawed) adaptation of The Hobbit. Get ready for...your greatest adventure! Among other things, we discuss: 1:32 — The 1977 NBC broadcast 2:31 — Childhood memories of the cartoon 5:48 — Rankin/Bass as directors 5:58 — Rankin's "no additions" philosophy 6:15 — Top Craft & the Studio Ghibli connection 7:39 — Music & the folk singer-s...

Friend of the show Connor Salter joins me to talk about his new book,  The Other Inklings , a book of interviews with current Inklings scholars about C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and other figures connected with their circle(s). Among other things, we discuss:  3:44 About the book 4:39 How the book came to be 9:58 Why these scholars & figures? 14:28 Tolkien's English Catholicis...

Chris talks with Jonathan Geltner and Eric Geddes about Owen Barfield's fairy tale,  The Silver Trumpet --which has the distinction of being the first fairy tale written by an Inkling. Among other things, we discuss: Introduction (2:46) — The book, its context, and the new illustrated edition The Coat of Arms & the Faust Epigraph (10:41) — "Two souls dwell in my breast" The Twin Princesses (9:...

Chris chats with Liz Zenger, program manager of The Inklings Project , which provides resources for professors, teachers, and other groups developing Inklings-related courses. Also, by way of update, this just in from Liz herself:  This is currently live for 6-12 teachers! Goes along with your second to last question of the podcast :-)   Call for Proposals Inklings Project Fellowship for 6-12 Teac...

Dr. Luke Mills joins me to talk about his article "His Dark Materials," as well as C.S. Lewis' nightmare imagery across his fiction. Among other things, we discuss: [2:08] – Welcome & guest introduction: Dr. Luke Mills, Associate Professor of English at Wingate University [2:57] – Dr. Mills's article: "His Dark Materials: C.S. Lewis's Nightmares as Inspiration" [4:10] – What drew Mills to the...

Chris talks a bit about his first scholarly book, Monster Relics in Medieval English Literature, and what it has to do with Jimmy Stewart sneaking a Yeti finger past customs. You can find it here . Be sure to enter the promo code "RELICS20" to get it for $40 rather than $50 before August 20.  A new full episode will appear Tuesday!  

Dr. Leslie Baynes returns to the podcast to talk about biblical and literary allusions in (and origins of) The Magician's Nephew! If you haven't already, check out her book, Between Interpretation and Imagination: C.S. Lewis and the Bible . Among other things, we discuss:  1:37 — Introductions Chris introduces Dr. Leslie Baynes — NT scholar, author on CS Lewis and the Bible. 3:30 — Stars, Singing...

Jonathan Geltner and Luke Mills rejoin me to finish talking about The Magician's Nephew.  Meanwhile, Narnian troubadour Matt Wheeler joins us to share "Awake, Awake!"--the first of his seven songs from Narnia! More details to come, but here's a quick summary of what we discuss: Introduction & Reading 0:00 — Opening dramatic reading from The Magician's Nephew (Digory before Aslan) Host & Gu...

Chris welcomes back friend of the show Eric Geddes to talk about the second part of The Magician's Nephew.  Among other things, we discuss the following: Uncle Andrew's adult silliness Jadis, Hempress of Colney 'Atch! Why the Wood Between the Worlds affects Jadis the way it does Digory v. Edmund and Eustace Uncle Andrew and Renaissance Magic The Cabby's Hymn The Songs of Aslan Mixing of Mythologie...

Happy Sixth Season of The Inklings Variety Hour! Would you like a present to mark the occasion? One of these fine rings, perhaps? No, not the green ones. No, I don't care if it's St. Patrick's Day. You. Can't. Have. The. Green. Ones.  But have a yellow ring. No, seriously, go for it. Why are you hesitating? But that's preposterous. They won't make you disappear. What do you think this is, The Hobb...

Enjoy this gently used Christmas gift from Ghost of Inklings Variety Hours Past! I think this may be from 2020.  It's an Inklings Variety Hour Jovial Christmas Extravaganza!  Featuring: A Discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas ! Chris Pipkin and his children, Davey and Virginia!   Anika Smith! (First half of show)  Meagan Logsdon!  (Second half of show)  A cringeworthy impers...

O.G. Host Anika Smith rejoins the podcast to interview Chris and his beautiful and omnicompetent wife, Glencora, about their new Christmas resource book, Twelve Tide .  Part of what we're trying to do with this book is make Christmas less a single-morning present binge preceded by anxiety and followed by anticlimax--and more a season of twelve days of giving, feasting, and learning to celebrate be...

All three parts of 2023's Christmas play are edited together. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas. Previous description: Enjoy a (Zoom) table reading of my "play" (loosely defined), "An Inklings Christmas Carol."   Special thanks to Anika Smith, Sørina Higgins, Joe Hoffman, and Ed Powell for reading this episode.  Thanks in general to Sørina's Author's Circle, which you can find out more about (and even jo...

Dr. Leslie Baynes joins Chris to talk about her new book,  Between Interpretation and Imagination: C.S. Lewis and the Bible .  Among other things, we discuss: Lewis' familiarity with (and attitude toward) the Bible, before and after his conversion. Biblical scholars (like Gore) who influenced Lewis' views of Scripture. Lewis and the doctrine of inerrancy The trouble with the liar/lunatic/Lord tril...

Cryptids in Narnia! Happy Halloween! A parody of the excellent Camp Monsters podcast. Apologies for posting this twice--people with Apple Podcasts didn't seem to be getting it, so I'm trying again with a new file! inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com  

Rebroadcast: Cryptids in Narnia! Parody of the excellent Camp Monsters podcast. Happy Halloween! Feel free to email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com if you have other ideas for Narnia fan fiction (such as that Caspian the Werewolf one).

Dr. Katherine Wyma joins me to discuss C.S. Lewis' longest and most ambitious undertaking: The Oxford History of English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama. Or, as he called it, the OHEL. It lay, he said, "like a nightmare on my chest." It's a brilliant work of scholarship, and we highly recommend it. But just in case you can't make it through 700 pages of paradigm-shattering, wi...

Connor Salter joins me to talk about the first "animated" Hobbit, made by Rembrandt Films in 1966 to allow the studio to hold onto the rights for the film. Feel free to watch it here before you listen! It is...something. By the way, I am aware of the fact that the sound is not ideal in this, and I apologize for some of the problems in quality. I am taking steps (as soon as possible) to remedy this...

Dr. Sørina Higgins joins me to talk about The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and why adults should read it. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to take Sørina's course on the same, go here: https://wyrdhoard.com/2025/07/18/come-through-the-wardrobe-with-me/ We get into a lot of really interesting subjects related to Narnia here, and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe in particula...

Chris invites several guests to talk about the following question in a two-hour roundtable special: To what extent is Lewis' The Abolition of Man prescient or prophetic?  I really enjoyed this roundtable discussion between: Nathan Gilmour James LaPeyre Joseph Weigel and Jonathan Geltner I hope you will, too.  We talk a lot about the following subjects: What Lewis means by "nature" Whether Lewis is...

The Inklings are often characterized as mostly sedentary men who wrote about people going off on adventures. Yet for a few of them, the highlight of their year was the chance to go on walking tours throughout England. It's unlikely, in fact, that they would have been able to describe the adventures of, say, Elwin Ransom, or the three friends in Night Operation if they didn't take these rambles (an...

Joseph Weigel from the Men With Chests podcast joins me to talk about NICE Alchemy!  By which I don't mean, "Whoa, that was some really sweet alchemy you were doing just now, dude! NICE!" But rather, the connection between science and magic as practiced by the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.) in C.S. Lewis' final novel in his space trilogy, That Hideous Strength. It's wei...

Ned Bustard and Matt Wheeler join me to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's great allegory (or is it?) for the creative process, "Leaf by Niggle"! Enjoy! I am quite excited about this episode. And check out Ned and Matt's stuff! I will post links! I will! In the meantime, I've given you the spelling of their first and last names, above. Notable works include, but are not restricted to: Every Moment Holy, The...

Katie Wray Schon joins us to talk about Pauline Baynes , the subject of her new book,  Painting Wonder !  It's been a long-held goal of this podcast to devote at least one episode to Pauline Baynes--who, while not an Inkling, illustrated both the Narnia chronicles and many of Tolkien's short stories--in addition to being one of the best illustrators of the 20th Century. Luckily, Katie Wray Schon h...

Sorry for the extra wait for this one!  Eric Geddes, Jonathan Geltner, and Charlie Carter join me to talk Tolkien's Father Giles of Ham. Episode description to come! Many more podcasts on the way this summer! Leave me a review! It's really the only way I know anyone is listening.