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The Painful Threshold, Episode 1: Do You Like Pigs?
Nora, a non-shitty baby. (Photo by Jenny Byfield) Welcome to the very first episode of The Painful Threshold! The Painful Threshold is a brand new podcast where YOU provide the questions to our lovely...
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The Painful Threshold Episode 2: Kittens or Pie?
A kitten pie by Calamity Jon Morris Check out episode 2 of The Painful Threshold! The Painful Threshold is a brand new panel show where all the questions come from the Internet at large! Anyone can...
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The Painful Threshold After Dark: William D. Drake tells us about the...
William D. Drake (source: Cardiacs.com) This is NOT the new episode of the Painful Threshold, but rather a special teaser for Episode 3, which is coming soon! This is not going to be in the episode...
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The Painful Threshold Episode 3: What Is The Meaning Of Life?
Deutsch: Lytton Strachey (1880–1932) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It’s time for episode three of The Painful Threshold! The Painful Threshold is a brand new panel show where all the questions come from...
View ArticleSaving Criticism from the Corporate Marketing Machine
Cultural criticism has always been an essential part of our media ecosystem, especially when it comes to geek culture. And on the surface, it’s thriving. Every blog, every YouTube video essay channel,...
View ArticleFinding Beauty In Darkness
Why do we love horror so much? On the surface, it makes no sense. Why would anybody enjoy media that focuses on upsetting, grotesque topics? Why would anybody want to be afraid? In this episode,...
View ArticleTo Be a Great Writer, You Must Defeat a Thousand Babies
As the world looks grimmer and grimmer, Millennials and Gen Xers retreat deeper and deeper into childhood nostalgia. Adults dominate fandoms meant for children, like Steven Universe, Young Adult...
View ArticleBooks Are Not Movies: Writing the Invisible
In previous episodes, our podcast has said over and over again that one of the best ways to improve your writing is to read a lot: read more books. But instead of learning from books, too many...
View ArticleQueerness Is Not a Fandom
It’s normal to look for people who share your interest in pop culture. But what happens when devotion to corporate-owned IP becomes an integral part of your identity? What happens when you only know...
View ArticleSo You Think You’re a Writer?
What makes a writer? Is it coffee and cats? Is it a good author photo? Is it having a screenname like @JaneDoeWrites? Is it in your soul, in your bones, in your DNA? Is it collecting photos of books...
View ArticleMeet the New Gatekeeper, Same as the Old Gatekeeper
If you’ve spent any time talking about geek culture, you’ve probably seen one word come up over and over again: gatekeeper. To be a gatekeeper is bad. To be a gatekeeper is exclusionary and harmful and...
View ArticleHopepunk? More Like COPEpunk
If you’re into science fiction and fantasy, you might have heard of something called hopepunk. Hopepunk, according to its supporters, is a creative movement that believes that producing and consuming...
View ArticleTalk Gud: A Dialogue about Dialogue
In this irregular episode, audio gremlin Sid Oozeley talks shop with returning guest Mario Coelho about fantasy and science fiction’s long-standing vendetta against dialogue writing. Why is it...
View ArticleWriting for Young Audiences with Celine Kiernan
“If someone is mad enough to publish my weird shit, I am going to do my utmost to be a little bit more complex.” In this episode, middle grade horror/fantasy author Celine Kiernan joins us to talk...
View ArticleWhy We Can Stop Flogging H.P. Lovecraft’s Dead Bloated Corpse
In today’s sci-fi/ fantasy community, it’s fashionable to dig up H.P. Lovecraft and put him on trial as the avatar of everything wrong with speculative fiction. While we won’t defend Lovecraft’s...
View ArticleNSFW: Not Safe For Weenies
On this very special NSFW episode of Rite Gud, goth girl correspondent Matilda Lewis and veteran tijuana bible cartoonist Bitter Karella (creator of The Midnight Pals, co-host of the A Special...
View ArticleGenre Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good
Genre is safe. Genre is comfortable. Genre tells us, as readers, what to expect. As writers, genre gives us guidelines to follow, which can make it a lot easier to plan a story: put the villain...
View ArticleThis Is My Hole, It Was Made for Me: On Negative Space and Leaving Room for...
A story is a type of conversation with the reader. If you don’t leave room for the reader to speak, you’re a terrible conversationalist. This room, this essential emptiness, is called negative space....
View ArticleIn Defense of Degenerate Art
Artists have always been under pressure to create work that embodies proper morals. In the old days, if art didn’t honor the Church and glorify the state, the artist could be imprisoned, tortured and...
View ArticleBooks Are Not Movies: Writing the Invisible
In previous episodes, our podcast has said over and over again that one of the best ways to improve your writing is to read a lot: read more books. But instead of learning from books, too many...
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