Viktor Frankenstein goes for a walk in nature. He's trying to clear his head, to get back in touch with the amazingness of everything that surrounds us and creates a context for life. IMHO we all need that. But then guess who shows up? I'd call...

Viktor is tormented by the idea that his monster killed his little brother and a beloved, innocent woman was falsely accused, wrongly convicted, and executed because of the murder. In dark moments such as these, it's understandable that he want...

Justine. JUSTine. What's in a name? Innocence in the eyes of Viktor Frankenstein and his sister Elizabeth. But will the court agree? And what of Viktor's guilty conscience and fears of madness? Join us for Chapter 8 of Mary Shelley's Frankenste...

It's the inciting incident of inciting incidents: MURDER. Viktor's little brother William is dead. We don't know who didn't, but there's thunder, lightning, a monster on the loose, and a young woman who will stand trial in hours – has she been ...

Once upon a time, authors moved plots long without chases or explosions or orgasms. Now, I'm the last person to speak out against a good chase or explosion or orgasm, but those events are all the more compelling when the audience cares about th...

Welcome back to the LIT AF Riff. The Riffs are shorter episodes of LIT AF – no novels or interviews, just my unfiltered, unrehearsed thoughts on what's going on in the world and how we can tell a better story about it with Open-Source Learning....

Welcome back to the LIT AF Riff. The Riffs are shorter episodes of LIT AF – no novels or interviews, just my unfiltered, unrehearsed thoughts on what's going on in the world and how we can tell a better story about it with Open-Source Learning....

Welcome back to the LIT AF Riff. The Riffs are shorter episodes of LIT AF – no novels or interviews, just my unfiltered, unrehearsed thoughts on what's going on in the world and how we can tell a better story about it with Open-Source Learning....

It's the first LIT AF Riff! The Riffs are shorter episodes of LIT AF – no novels or interviews here, just my unfiltered, unrehearsed thoughts on what's going on in the world and how we can tell a better story about it with Open-Source Learning....

You can't go back in time. And you can't unhear someone telling you that you can get more of anything – except the last few minutes of your life, because everything that made you beautiful just faded a little bit, and you're a few minutes close...

When does art reveal the artist? When is art too personal to share? What's the deal with Basil and Dorian Gray, why is Lord Henry Wotten so nosy, and speaking of nosy, exactly how many different kinds of flowers could Oscar Wilde stuff into one...

Oscar ends the preface by writing, "All art is useless." Really? Was he being coy in response to his critics? Was he being defiant in putting sex and homoeroticism front and center in Victorian England? Or was he daring us to argue the point? W...

Today's cancel culture has nothing on Victorian England. That didn't stop Oscar Wilde from publishing THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, complete with homoeroticism and full frontal vanity. We've come a long way since then. In today's anti-aging marke...

To quote Jim Morrison: "This is the end, beautiful friends..." You may think Charles Dickens and Jim Morrison were very different. You may think they were the same person in different eras. You may think one or both is still alive....

If you think your future is just going to happen to you no matter what you do, then you may as well listen to this podcast episode. If you think your future depends on what you do in this moment that will improve your thinking and ...

Ugh. I can just see the embroidered pillows: "Right now is a gift, that's why they call it the present."But in this moment you are making the most important decision of your life. You are learning from your past, imagining your future, ...

If you're not haunted by your past, you're not paying attention.

When your dead best friend shows up to warn you, best give him both ears.Bonus: Did you know Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in just a few weeks while walking the streets of London late at night? Why would he do that? Because ...

Victor gets all the body parts he needs to build a monster. Sometimes success isn't all it's cracked up to be.

In this episode our narrator Viktor Frankenstein walks us through the moments in which he left home and began school. People dying of disease at home, being uncomfortable with leaving familiarity and making new friends - it sounds sort of like ...

Mary Shelley opens Frankenstein with a series of letters from Captain Walton to his sister, telling of his expedition to the north pole and the stranger he encounters who tells a story... Why frame the book this way? For the same reason a handw...

There's a lot of weird going around. As Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." That's what Mary Shelley did in 1816, the Year Without A Summer. Check out how a volcano, a frog, and a poet inspired an 18-year-...

Independence Day? Nope. Nation of freedom, equality, righteousness, and Christianity? Nope. I've read this speech every year for 30 years, and its logic, perspective on international politics, and moral philosophy ring truer than ever. Enjoy - ...

Gatsby is dead and no one is coming to his last party. All that's left for us is to figure out where we belong, and whether we are living in the past, present, or imagined future. 

Most of THE GREAT GATSBY is timeless. Love and the nutty things we do for love happens in/to every generation. It has for centuries, and it will until we cook ourselves off the planet. Fitzgerald focuses on the characters, the immediate setting...