Sophomore Lit

Host John McCoy with Bill O'Donnell.

Beauty is only skin deep, but podcasts go clean to the bone. Shaenon K. Garrity discusses four short stories by Dorothy Parker. Host John McCoy with Shaenon K. Garrity.

I cannot rest from podcasting. Jill Hoffman returns to discuss three poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854), “Lady of Shalott” (1832, 1842), and “Ulysses” (1833). Host John McCoy with Jill Hoffman.

What’s life without choices? How about books that are nothing but choices? Ross Cleaver discusses the choose-your-own genre with examples from both the U.S. and the U.K.: Edward Packard’s The Cave of Time (1978) and Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982). Host John McCoy with Ross Cleaver.

Which detective is better, Edgar Allan Poe’s Auguste Dupin or Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes? I mean it’s obviously Holmes but that won’t stop Jacob Haller discussing two genre defining stories, Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (1892). Host John McCoy with Jacob Haller.

There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our podcasts. First-time co-host Tim Read discusses William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Hamlet (c. 1600). Host John McCoy with Tim Read.

Zut alors! Ross Cleaver returns to discuss the totally historically accurate Asterix and Cleopatra (Astérix et Cléopâtre) by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (serialized starting in 1963). Host John McCoy with Ross Cleaver.

Storkin’ it up! First-time co-host Jill Hoffman discusses Meindert De Jong’s Newbury-winning book, The Wheel on the School (1954). Host John McCoy with Jill Hoffman.

Jelani Sims returns to talk about Mildred D. Taylor’s heartbreaking Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1977). Host John McCoy with Jelani Sims.

boss these podcasts are getting out of hand the other day i heard dan mccoy and his much older brother discussing archy and mehitabel by which i mean the column by don marquis that started in 1916 and then was collected into a book if you could call it that in 1927 Host John McCoy with Dan McCoy.