Episodes

A bonus Christmas episode for you all! Back in December 2018, Charlotte was asked to interview RJ Barker and Micah Yongo at perhaps one of the most beautiful bookshops in Britain – the Bradford Wool Exchange branch of Waterstones. In the interview, Micah talks about Lost Gods and Pale Kings, and RJ revisits our old favourite, The Wounded Kingdom trilogy. […] The post Bonus: RJ Barker and Micah Yongo (live) first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

If you love a story, you love reading it over and over again. But you can also get joy out of reading someone’s reinterpretation of it. When authors decide to take old stories that we know and love and turn them into something else, it can breathe new life into characters we thought had had […] The post Re-imaginings with Christina Henry first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

When our favourite television series come to an end on our screens, it doesn’t always mean goodbye. Firefly was revived with Serenity and Buffy the Vampire Slayer found a second life in a celebrated comic series (and yes, this happens for more than just Joss Whedon shows!). One of Breaking the Glass Slipper’s favourite shows […] The post Writing and adapting Orphan Black with Madeline Ashby first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Before you listen to this episode, you should be warned: your to be read pile will become unmanageable. If you’re anything like us, you already have a huge to-read list, but we discuss so many epic horror short stories and novels that you won’t be able to help yourself. Don’t worry, I hear books can […] The post Horror short stories with Marie O’Regan first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

This year has been an incredibly busy one for the BtGS girls, so when it came time to do our annual live episode at FantasyCon we decided to do something a little different. We threw caution to the wind and went for a fun and silly set-up. Let us assure you: major silliness occurred. We […] The post FantasyCon 2019: Women vs. the world first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

I have been thoroughly enjoying JY Yang’s Tensorate series of novellas so wanted to chat to them about blending science fiction and fantasy, non-binary representation in SFF, and using different structures and forms across a series! Fair warning – there is a lot of giggling in this episode. But hey, it’s nice when interviewer and […] The post The moment of the novella with JY Yang first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Previously on Breaking the Glass Slipper we have covered Disney princesses. This time we thought we would turn our attention to the men. But we’re a podcast about women! So why spend an entire episode focusing on princes and other male protagonists in Disney films? Well, the dominant narratives surrounding men – and in this instance, […] The post Disney Princes first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Alternate history narratives – regardless of whether they have overt fantasy or sci-fi elements – are ultimately ‘what if’ narratives. This is the same basic principle underlying all speculative fiction, so it is no wonder they made such good bedfellows. Have you ever thought about writing an alternate history story or wondered what’s involved? Good […] The post Alternate histories with Mary Robinette Kowal first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Much of W. B. Yeats’ poetry is inspired by the rich mythological fabric of Ireland. This is the land of the Sidhe, the banshee, the merrow. But the island itself has a character, an identity, in the geographical, historical and metaphysical sense. So, in homage to our host country, we’ll be talking about the place […] The post Islands in speculative fiction: Live from WorldCon first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

From ancient mythology and religious texts to Star Trek and Harry Potter, trinities – or trios – have always been a common motif. Why is the power of three so potent and what tropes do we tend to see? To help us delve into this subject, we have enlisted the help of an author of […] The post Trinities with Jen Williams first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

In 1979, one of the most seminal sci-fi films ever made was shown for the first time on the big screen. Ridley Scott’s Alien is a dark, disturbing and downright terrifying addition to the Hollywood Hall of Fame. 2019 marks 40 years since Alien was born (or possibly ripped from a stomach), so we thought […] The post Alien at 40: The making of a feminist icon first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Today’s episode was inspired by an article that appeared on The Guardian with the headline ‘Picture book bias worsens as female characters stay silent.’ The piece was based on research into books published in the last year, showing that most picture books ‘present a white and male-dominated world to children.’ A child is 1.6 times […] The post The importance of diversity in children’s books first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

I don’t want the future to be female. I want it to be for everyone. Lisa Yaszek In a fascinating episode that covers everything from telepathic matriarchies to lesbian vampire fiction, academic Lisa Yaszek chats to us about the history of women writers in science fiction. Why are so few remembered? What did they write? […] The post Women write Science Fiction – with Lisa Yaszek first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

In our last episode, we had author Aliette de Bodard on to discuss the absence of mothers in speculative fiction. One explanation put forward was the focus of chosen one narratives – these stories rely on the protagonist achieving something great, against all odds, and usually alone (or supported by a small group, rarely, if […] The post The problem with the chosen one first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We were inspired to speak to Aliette about representations of motherhood in speculative fiction after reading her excellent essay ‘On Motherhood and Erasure‘. There’s no denying that mothers are demonstrably absent from most speculative fiction. Whether they died ‘off-screen’ or simply have no tangible presence in the narrative, there is a gaping hole in our […] The post Representations of motherhood with Aliette de Bodard first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

With a new film adaptation of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the publication of The Haunting of Hill House, we thought it was high time we turned our attention to the wonderful Shirley Jackson. To help us on our journey of […] The post The enduring legacy of Shirley Jackson – with Catriona Ward first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Here at Breaking the Glass Slipper, we love the 1987 film The Princess Bride. I mean, who doesn’t? It is endlessly quotable, tongue-in-cheek, and full of great characters. Unfortunately, only a couple of those characters are female and the way they’re represented…well, let’s just say our inner feminists are wincing. Is it ok to still […] The post The Princess Bride first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Sometimes it is fun to call the shots on this show – and this week (while Lucy was away on holiday!), I decided to indulge a personal favourite subject of mine: time travel. My love of time travelling tales has been life-long, from Back to the Future (obvs) to Kindred, there’s so much scope for […] The post Time travel with Kameron Hurley first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We like to think that fantasy is a limitless exploration of our imaginations, but in reality, fantasy fiction is limited by the cultural experiences of the author. As a result, what most of us are exposed to are a very narrow set of ideas about fantasy and magic – those from a Judeo-Christian tradition. When […] The post Cultural Traditions of Magic – with Zen Cho first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

The representation of transgender people within genre is a subject we’ve wanted to explore for a while now on this podcast. All too often, trans and non binary people are absent from speculative fiction, or if not absent then poorly represented. Why is this and what can be done to improve the situation? Cheryl Morgan […] The post Transgender representation in SFF with Cheryl Morgan first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

In this episode, we discuss all things reproduction. That’s right: sex, pregnancy, birth – the whole shebang around creating new life and what it means to a woman’s position, as represented in genre fiction. We (supposedly) have a biological drive to propagate our species… as a result, it’s natural that a certain preoccupation with procreation […] The post Sex! Pregnancy! Birth! Representations of reproduction first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Women aren’t the only minority to suffer from poor as well as a lack of representation in genre fiction. Among other minorities struggling to have their voices heard are people of colour, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQI community. In this episode, we spoke to prolific science fiction and fantasy author Marissa Lingen, whose credits […] The post Representations of disability with Marissa Lingen first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

While we were all winding down from Christmas, Charlie Brooker and the Black Mirror gang were getting ready to mess with our minds yet again. December 28th saw the release of the one-off interactive Netflix special ‘Bandersnatch’ to mixed reviews. But no one can deny it was an interesting experiment, combining elements of video games, […] The post Choose your own Bandersnatch first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.