Welcome! This list is a work in progress. We are steadily adding transcripts for our episodes, prioritizing transcription of new episodes.

For content warnings and links to articles or other materials mentioned in the episode, please check the full show notes in your podcast app or the episode page on our Libsyn feed, which is linked in each episode entry below.

Our discussions are pretty much never spoiler-free, so proceed with caution!

Click here for a list of upcoming episodes.

This month we read Mary Doria Russell's divisive novel The Sparrow. It's got a bit of everything - Jesuits, space travel, food, friendship, sexual assault, victim-blaming, and child murder. Amy is DM.

Did we mention trigger warning? Yikes!

CW/TW: see description above, and it's really serious so skip this one if you need to! We like you!

By the way, we did a LOT of chatting at the top of this one, so skip to about the 12 minute mark if you want to get straight into the book discussion.

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Friend of the pod Anne joined us and quizzed us on past episodes! We also discussed our favorite reads of 2023 and what we're looking forward to reading in 2024. Happy New Year, and thanks for listening!

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This month we read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. We liked it! Lori is DM.

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This month we read Roger Zelazny's classic Lord of Light. We did not like it, and we are sorry.

DM: Haley

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This month we discussed Blood of the Dragon, which won George RR Martin the Hugo Award for best novella in 1997. Blood of the Dragon consists of the Daenerys chapters from Game of Thrones. You can read it here or here.

DM: Amy

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Hold on to your dirtypillows and don't forget to plug it up - spooky season is here! This month we read Carrie, Stephen King's 1974 debut novel.

Lori is DM.

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This month we read The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. We liked it. No further analysis!

DM: Haley

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This month we read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, and boy howdy is it ever a Mojo Dojo Casa House up there on Luna. We'll stay here on Earth, thanks.

DM: Amy

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While we were discussing Connie Willis's 1999 Hugo winning novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, our memory card went kaput. We hope that you enjoy this somewhat disjointed discussion with an awkward break in the middle, because when we thought we'd lost the whole discussion, we almost abandoned ship! It must've been the net causing slippage.

Lori is DM.

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This month we read T.H. White's retro Hugo winner for best novel, The Sword in the Stone. Digressions abound!

Haley is DM.

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In this special episode, we celebrate the midpoint between Life Day 2022 and Life Day 2023 (it's Halfway to Life Day!) with a review of the Star Wars Life Day Cookbook by Chef Strono Tuggs. We were joined by friend and writer Ann Harris for an eclectic feast from a galaxy far, far away.

This is a cookbook episode, so we're eating, and it sounds like we're eating. We even talk with our mouths full (especially Lori), so if that's gonna gross you out, skip this one.

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This month we discussed The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. We swam in a sea of metaphors and similes so you don't have to. But you might want to, because in spite of itself, this storm of words is good!

DM: Amy

Big thanks to Lori's cousin Sarah, who did a sensitivity edit for us, and wrote us such a banger of an email that we asked her to turn it into a review! Heck, maybe we do written reviews now! Who knows!

Music by Pets of Belonging

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This month we discussed Kate Wilhelm's 1977 Hugo winner, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. This is the second book in our accidental 2023 Clone Duology (after Cyteen), and it's pretty weird! This episode covers some important topics, such as whether sex between clones is more like incest or more like masturbation.

DM: Lori

Thanks to Cody from the Hugonauts podcast for joining us! Each episode of Hugonauts dives into a single book or series in the sci-fi canon. They also do incredible author interviews, including a recent episode with Becky Chambers.

Music by Pets of Belonging

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This month we discussed CJ Cherryh's hot em dash mess, Cyteen. Weighing in at 1 lb 10.7 ounces (or 757 grams), Cyteen is a whole lotta book, and we definitely read every page of it.

SPOILER WARNING: There's a spoiler for Cyteen's sequel Regenesis, around the 45-46 minute mark. If you don't want to know who killed Ari, skip that part.

DM: Haley

Music by Pets of Belonging

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This month we read Doomsday Book, Connie Willis's 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel. We had no idea it was going to be an eerily prescient pandemic story, with parallels to today, right down to the oft-mentioned toilet paper shortage. Necrotic!

Amy is DM.

Music by Pets of Belonging

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This month we read Fritz Leiber's 1958 Hugo winner, The Big Time, which despite the cover art is not actually about a very tall lady. It was weird!

Lori is DM.

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This month we jacked into cyberpunk classic Neuromancer, by noted orange cat owner William Gibson. Neuromancer won the Philip K. Dick Award and the Nebula Award in 1984, and the Hugo for Best Novel in 1985. There's some fun stuff in there! We don't hate it!

Your console cowboy for this episode is Haley.

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It's the fourth and final installment of Novella-vember! That was a lot! Phew!

For our last episode, we read The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, which won the Hugo for best novella in 2013. Amy is DM.

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It's week 3 of Novella-vember! This is the third installment in our series. We'll be releasing four weekly episodes in November, covering a Hugo Award-winning novella.

For this week's episode, we read The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis, which won the Hugo for best novella in 1989. Lori is DM.

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It's week 2 of Novella-vember! This is the second installment in our series. We'll be releasing four weekly episodes in November, covering a Hugo Award-winning novella.

For this week's episode, we read Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr., which won the Hugo for best novella in 1977. Haley is DM.

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It's Novella-vember! This is the first installment in our series. We'll be releasing four weekly episodes in November, covering a Hugo Award-winning novella.

For this week's episode, we read The Word for World is Forest, which won the Hugo for best novella in 1973. Amy is DM.

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It's time for our Halloween Spooktacular Special! We watched and discussed the 1997 sci-fi/horror film Event Horizon, which has some incredible practical effects and solid performances, and is also very nearly scary.

DM: Kevin!!

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This month we read and discussed Samuel R. Delany's 1984 queer sci-fi masterpiece, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, chosen by our fundraiser winner and friend, Steven! It was wild and it was weird and you should probably give it a shot if you haven't read it.

DM: Lori

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We debrief after attending Chicon 8! Nearly 4 weeks after the fact, so the focus is largely on pizza. Tl;dr - we didn't win the Hugo, had fun anyway! 5 stars, would do again.

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This month we watched and discussed the beloved camp classic, Jupiter Ascending. What makes a good movie, anyway? If it has great costumes, sweeping spacescapes, and Eddie Redmayne alternately whispering and screaming, isn’t that enough to be good? Plot, dialogue, and acting are overrated, honestly. Haley is DM.

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This month we discussed Jo Walton's debatably fantastical novel Among Others, winner of the Hugo for best novel in 2012.

Your DM for this episode is Amy!

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Last month, we had the pleasure of appearing on City Lights, our local NPR station's arts and culture show, for an interview with senior producer Kim Drobes. We discussed the Hugo Awards, common issues in science fiction, and our favorite podcast segments.

AND THEN...the text version of our interview got scraped, run through a not-very-good thesaurus, and posted on a goofy "news" site. The result was hilarious, and we are pleased to present you with a dramatic live reading!

Check out the original (legitimate) version (you can listen or read the interview highlights) on WABE's website.

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This month we read and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1969. The poor book won no awards.

This sprawling classic prompted many College Thoughts. Will we find the meaning of life? Probably not. Also, please enjoy a cameo from Haley's mom!

Lori is DM.

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At long last, we discussed our oft-referenced favorite tale of Terror (and Erebus), Dan Simmons' 2007 novel The Terror, a fictionalized and dubiously supernatural account of the Franklin Expedition. Is it Peak Dan Simmons? Yes, it is! Is it as good the second time? No, it isn't! Did we still LOVE discussing it so much that we talked for nearly two hours, which Kevin has painstakingly pared down to 90 minutes? You betcha!

Haley is both the captain and ship's cook for this episode. She made us pea soup and custom-monogrammed hardtack to fuel our discussion.

Amy joined us remotely due to having a bit of a cough, hence the slight difference in sound quality. Safety first!

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This month we read and discussed Karin Boye’s novel Kallocain, which was nominated for a Retro Hugo for 1941. This is an excellent, if bleak, book, which we think should be taught in US classrooms alongside 1984 and Brave New World. We scream a few times during minute 29, so mind your volume! Digressions include a live tasting of the new space-flavored Coke.

Our DM for this episode is Amy.

The full text of the novel is available to read free online, courtesy of the University of Wisconsin.

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Hey guess what!! We are nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fancast!! We're excited and screaming and don't want to hurt your ears, so turn down that volume!

Thank you so much to everyone who nominated us, and who listens, likes, comments, shares, leaves reviews - we are over the moon!

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This month we read and discussed Vonda McIntyre's 1979 Hugo Award winning novel, Dreamsnake, which is beloved by everyone except a very vocal handful of men on the internet. Even Orson Scott Card said it was readable!

DM: Lori

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In this special episode, we're going live to the phones to answer urgent questions across space and time!

Big thanks to special guest stars Kevin and Emmanuel!

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We watched and discussed the new HBO Max limited series adaptation of Station Eleven. We had a VARIETY of opinions, so if you loved it or you hated it, you'll find something to agree with/be mad about in this episode. And we are joined by special guest, Kevin!

DM: Chaos

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This month we discussed Larry Niven's Ringworld, which is verifiably a book that won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1971. Even a truly fantastic talking warrior cat couldn't save this litany of Misogynist Moments, but there were still a few things to like.

Credit to Simon Bisson for the amazing Moby-Dick crossover!

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Despite what Haley described as “an oppressive fantasy feeling,” we all really enjoyed this classic novel in which all the women are strong, all the men are weird-looking, and all the children are the subject of murder plots.

Note: We have not read Shards of Honor. Per Bujold’s own pronouncement, the books are written to stand alone, and we believe her!

Amy is our DM.

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In honor of the recent Moby-Dick Marathon, it's time for a special episode on one of our favorite books of all time. Have you ever wondered if Moby-Dick was Star Wars or Lord of the Rings? It's time to find out!

Your ship's captain for this special episode is Haley!

Royalty-free theme music courtesy of Alexander Nakarada -
Download | Bandcamp | Spotify

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This month we read 2012 Hugo nominee for best novel, Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey. Spoiler alert for how many times you can deride sex workers in one novel! Despite that, we all basically liked this book, we promise.

Your DM for this episode is Haley!

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Kevin and Lori went to Worldcon in Washington, DC! It was fun! We'll tell you a little bit about the con itself, plus lots about dogs and food and meeting new friends.

We were very excited to find out after the Hugo Awards that we were on the long list for best fancast! We were only a few nominations away from the ballot. If you'd like to nominate us this year, be sure to grab your Worldcon 2022 membership by the deadline, January 31. You can purchase a membership online at https://chicon.org/.

For a thorough and nuanced discussion of the sponsorship and site selection issues, check out this free Patreon post by Hugo-nominated fan writer Paul Weimer.

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Description goes In this special episode, we learn all of physics, courtesy of amazing physicist Emily Duden! Hear the answers to burning questions like "would a flashlight be useless for a person traveling at the speed of light" and "will I stay young forever if I just never leave an airplane" and "is Interstellar a bunch of foolishness?" Also, relativity! And gravity! And did you know that anything can be a clock?! Yay, science!

Check out our Instagram to see a couple of helpful diagrams that Emily used to teach us three hapless English majors about relativity.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider supporting classroom access to scientists by making a donation to Skype a Scientist or Venmo @skypeascientist

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What’s not to love about 800 years of a straight man’s discomfited rumination on “homolife?”

This month we read Joe Haldeman's military sci-fi classic, The Forever War. Your DM for this episode is Lori!

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This month we discussed Isaac Asimov's groundbreaking novel about various pairs of dudes scheming in rooms for over a century.

Your DM for Foundation is Amy!

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We discussed Denis Villeneuve's new movie adaptation of Dune. We liked it a lot!

Recommended reading: The Washington Post

Recommended listening - The Middle Geeks

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It's our Halloween Spooktacular! This month for spooky season we read and discussed Retro Hugo nominee The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle. Published in 1941 under the dubious title Uneasy Freehold, this book is chock full of our favorite things: ghosts, breakfasts, lesbians, and a nice orange cat. It has a great twist so we REALLY hope you'll read it. Be warned: spoilers and spirits abound!

Your super spooky DM for this episode is Haley!

Music: The House - Vivek Abhishek

Irish Times article about our author, who was "no ideal woman:"

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This month we discussed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu), winner of the 2015 Hugo Award for best novel. Did you know that we are in fact three bodies? And by the end of this episode, we are also self-taught physicists.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/liu-cixins-war-of-the-worlds

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This is a short book so detours abound, but we did (mostly) love that Murderbot! After almost a year and a half of a whole pandemic, who can't identify with wanting to shut your helmet faceplate and feed thousands of hours of TV directly into your brain? Murderbot is all of us.

NPR Review

NK Jemisin's Blog

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Part 1: The Unboxing

This minisode we open and peruse Cooking for Wizards, Warriors and Dragons, a fantasy-inspired collection of recipes, created by Hugo Award winner and co-founder of The Book Smugglers, Thea James, and chef Isabel Minunni. The book also includes forty beautiful illustrations by artist Tim Foley. Listen as we...read the table of contents and talk about lactose intolerance and flossing. It's cuter than it sounds, we promise!

Listen to Part 1 | Transcript

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Part 2: The Eating

It's time to eat! Join us as we eat and discuss delicious dishes inspired by The Witcher, The Broken Earth Trilogy, The Legacy of Orïsha, and Lord of the Rings from Cooking for Wizards, Warriors and Dragons, by Thea James and Isabel Minunni. Be forewarned, there's plenty of chewing because this food was good!

We are allowed to share a handful of recipes, so send us an email or reach out on social if anything piques your interest!

Listen to Part 2

This month we read The City and the City by China Miéville, which was...fine? Maybe goodish? Is it "New Weird," or is it just weird? We don't know. But we do know that Mare of Easttown would have cracked this case with half as many commas as Inspector Borlú.

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In honor of her birthday, please enjoy this reading of Haley's middle school Star Wars fanfiction. There are twins, a quest, an evil guy who definitely isn't just the Emperor, an underwater eatery, 35 minutes of nonstop giggling, cameos by Kevin - you name it, we've got it!

Read The Nerantel Gem

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Episode 29 is here, and now with 50% more podcast! This month we read Hyperion by Dan Simmons, winner of the 1990 Hugo for best novel, and we took a whopping hour and a half to discuss it. This is a very good book, rife with problems and problematics, and a HEAPING helping of boob talk.

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This month we read A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, winner of the 2020 Hugo for best novel! This was a fun, steampunky romp. Don't forget to tweet us your Teixcalaanli name!

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This month we went back into the bunner tuggles as we discussed Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.

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BIG NEWS! We're jumping on the true crime train. For our inaugural episode, we discussed the sensational jewelry heist of approximately 3,070 years ago, popularly known as The Lord of the Rings. These events were originally covered by true crime reporter JRR Tolkein in the 1950s.

Music: Sir Fireheart by Ean Grimm

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This month we discussed Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. We didn’t like it.

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Hitch a ride on the nearest vehimal and join us for the conclusion of NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy! It's been a wild ride, and everyone is either dead or turned to stone or both.

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WE WERE KIND OF CONFUSED BUT MOSTLY LIKED THIS BOOK AND ALSO GEORGIA IS BLUE!! IT'S BLUUUUUUUE!

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For this supersized super special episode, we were joined by Ginger Lee Thomason, who is currently writing her thesis on food in fiction and knows every snack in the book! Join us as we geek out over everything from lembas to roach jello to seared krayt dragon.

Sound quality is always a crapshoot when recording remotely, so this time around, Lori and Haley are coming to you from the bottom of a well - sorry!

Find Ginger at https://gingerleethomason.com/ and @wordsofginger on Twitter.

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This month we discussed the 2015 Hugo winner for best novel, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.

There's a lot going on in this book, so our plot summary is longish. If you don't need a plot summary you can skip 5:48-14:35.

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We're taking a break from recording this month, so we're releasing the crossover episode we recorded back in January of 2020 with Seth Heasley, creator and host of the Hugos There podcast. This book is wild - all of humanity (and humanoid...ity??) is dead and in a bizarre, harsh afterlife. Actually now that I write that out, it feels familiar. Is 2020 just Riverworld??

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It's our Halloween Spooptacular! In honor of Spooptober, we bring you a special episode on Fritz Leiber's 1944 retro Hugo winner for best novel, Conjure Wife. Big thanks to Seth (@hugospodcast) for suggesting this 180-page Misogynist Moment, which asks (over and over and over) if witchcraft might be real. Warning: major digressions ahead. Topics include Elvira and whether or not spit is water.

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This month we discussed A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter H. Miller, winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for best novel. It has lots of men, lots of death, and almost no women - and we all loved it! We loved it so much, we forgot about our Boob Talk segment, but there are no boobs in this book anyway.

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Welcome to our inaugural Hugo Babygirl episode! These are shorter episodes (hence the "baby") where we read and discuss Hugo Award-winning short fiction (and other stuff if we feel like it).

For this episode we read Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse, which won the Hugo Award for best short story in 2018. Spoiler: we all thought it was excellent.

Apologies for some weird audio in this one. The results of recording remotely are always a surprise!

Read the story via Apex Magazine

Hear the story on LeVar Burton reads

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To borrow a term from our friend Seth at the Hugos There podcast, this was a comfort read chosen by Haley. As far as we know, it won no awards, but it is composed of many words printed on paper and is definitely a book. Plus, there are Force witches!

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This month we bring you a supersized episode for a supersized book. We read (and read and read) the 2004 winner for Best Novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. We also recorded the day after the Hugo Awards, so we discussed that for a while. If you'd prefer to skip straight to the book talk, start at 14:15.

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This month we discuss Ancillary Justice, winner of the 2014 Hugo for best novel, and the first book in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy. It's got sentient ships, zombie soldiers, tons of tea, and no he/him pronouns, which threatens a lot of men on Goodreads, apparently!

We were also thrilled to have special guest Colette Fozard, co-chair of DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, join us for this episode!

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This episode we discussed The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lori's new bff). We had no complaints, and we digressed often. This one was great fun!

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A few days ago we learned about the Podcast Blackout, started by Cult 45 Podcast. In solidarity, we are not releasing our planned episode today. Instead, we are sharing some thoughts on how to be a better white ally, and speaking the names of 100 black victims of police violence. Black lives matter.

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On day 5,000 of shelter-in-place, we discussed The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel in 2010. We would have voted differently.

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This month your podcasters discuss Bloodchild by Octavia Butler, winner of the 1985 Hugo Award for best novelette, and a boatload of other awards. We also make a special announcement at the top of the episode.

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We got together (remotely!) to responsibly record a pandemic special for these weird times. We discuss Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2015 winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Toronto Book Award), elephants, and why you should stay inside!

Link

In this month's episode, we revisit Ender Wiggin, perennial Mary Sue, 20-ish (but also 3,000-ish) years after the events of Ender's Game. Ender is thirty(-five), flirty, and thriving in his career as an intergalactic funeral director. But drama abounds when Ender gets caught in a love rhombus with an adolescent AI, a troubled teen on a faraway planet, and his own sister. Will Starfleet blow up an innocent planet? Has Haley learned how to say Valentine? Listen to find out!

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February's selection is Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. You've probably seen the Amazon TV series, which is based loosely on this novel.

Ever wonder what would have happened if Germany and Japan had won World War II? You can kind of find out in this novel, in between lengthy discussions about the state of American antiques, Colorado shopping trips, and awkward dinner parties.

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Happy 2020! This episode, your three favorite space witches tackled Frank Herbert's magnum opus — Dune! This book has everything: jedi ladies, poop suits, misogyny, and a main character from the year 10,191 named JESSICA.

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This one was a classic, y'all! December's selection was Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama — a meditation on the power of awe, ancient alien life, gravity-defying space boobs, genetically engineered monkeys masquerading as house elves, and more.

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Presenting our very first minisode! We had forgotten a few things and had some extra news to share, so voila! Salient points include:

-follow-up snake research

-our Robert J. Sawyer mail correspondence

-a shout-out to Hugos There, our counterpart podcast

Enjoy!

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It's here! The day everyone who doesn't read a lot of obscure sci-fi has waited for! Your favorite space crones read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire.

Listen as we delve into our Hogwarts houses, patroni, and wand types. We'll also get into some incredible tangents about magical contracts, house elf legal statuses, and why Haley thought Nagini had boobs.

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This month, we read Robert J. Sawyer's Hominids, the first in his Neanderthal Parallax series.

This book is a wild ride — it asks the question "what if Neanderthals became the dominant human species?" that no one ever asked. Neanderthals are all bisexual, take care of the environment, and don't eat any grains. Also, it's unclear if the author has ever met a real-life woman based on some of his characterizations, which we unpack with a hearty laugh.

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Howdy fair Hugonauts! This week, we dove into the sci-fi classic "The Left Hand of Darkness" by reigning queen of the genre Ursula K. Leguin. This book won both the Hugo AND Nebula award in 1970, proving that Ms. Leguin is, indeed, the GOAT.

Be sure to look out for diversions into horses and hardtack and Arctic expeditions, oh my!

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Our August selection was Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." This book has everything: numerous strange classifications of boobs, trickster gods, overwhelmingly polite midwestern courtesy, and coin tricks.

Lori

Welcome to Episode 3 of Hugo, Girl! This week we discuss Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man," the inaugural Hugo winner from 1953. We also reveal our Hogwarts houses, too.

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Welcome to Episode 2 of Hugo, Girl! This time around, we read Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. This book has everything! Space shrimp, malevolent jellyfish, gelatinous rice pudding love, and more!

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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Hugo, Girl! — Ender's Game: In The Bunner Tuggles. In this first outing, we're venturing into the world of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

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