Hope is Kindled
A podcast devoted to the way stories shape us, sharpen us, and sometimes… save us.
Hope is Kindled is a literary podcast that explores classic and powerful works of literature through the lens of self-discovery, moral reflection, and enduring hope. Each episode delves into a single book, essay, or story, examining its themes, characters, and psychological depth, and connects it to timeless questions about the human condition.
What makes the podcast unique is its blend of literary criticism and warmth. It uses biographical, psychological, and historical criticism, along with personal reflection and cultural commentary—including references to Doctor Who, The Muppets, and classic film.
Please let us know what you think of our episodes, if you have any ideas for future episodes or to share your experiences looking searching for hope in the literary world.
Hope is Kindled
A Wrinkle in Time
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What if love, imperfect, emotional, stubborn love, really is the strongest force in the universe?
In this episode of Hope is Kindled, we take a deep and thoughtful journey into A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, a story many of us first encountered as children and only later realized was asking some of the most profound questions literature can ask.
Through close story and character analysis, historical and biographical context, psychological insight, and rich comparisons to works like The Odyssey, Frankenstein, 1984, Doctor Who, and Stranger Things, we explore how this deceptively simple novel confronts fear, conformity, and the loss of self—and why it insists so fiercely on hope.
With the final season of Stranger Things airing now, A Wrinkle in Time feels especially timely. Its warnings about sameness, control, and comfort at the cost of humanity echo loudly today, as does its quiet, defiant belief that what saves us is not power or intellect, but connection.
At the heart of the episode is one radical idea:
Love is something you do.
Not sentimental love.
Not easy love.
But love chosen in the face of fear—and carried, imperfectly, into the dark.
This is an episode about light that does not deny darkness, hope that does not wait to be rescued, and the daily courage it takes to remain human.
