We're joined today by Claire Forrest, the award-winning author of Where You See Yourself, to chat all about the two youngest members of the March family -- well, the Brooke family. It's perhaps the most heterosexual chapter of this book to date, but we soldier on, and we also chat about Claire's outstanding debut novel and her publishing journey as a woman with cerebral palsy.  Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also ..read more

Amy and Laurie play the newlywed game, smear the Irish, and invent Reaganomics. What a whirlwind! With us to discuss everyone's favourite (?) femme4femme couple are sister duo Mel and Teghan Hammond, authors of the forthcoming novel Lucy Uncensored. The novel stars a trans theatre nerd named Lucy who faces challenges when her school board bans her queer adaptation of “The Tempest.” Mel also worked as an editor at American Girl for several years, where she wrote award-winning and acclaimed books on pets, body image, and loving the earth. Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It inter ..read more

Jo falls asleep fantasizing about becoming a literary spinster with a pen for a spouse. What follows had better be a dream sequence. Here to heap vials of wrath on the head of one Lou Alcott is legendary Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith. Dr. Smith is the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, Professor of English, and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland. She was the president of the Emily Dickinson International Society and the coordinator and executive editor of the Dickinson Electronic Archives at the University of Virgini ..read more

This week, Amy and Laurie consummate their love in a rowboat. Their romance has mystified readers and scholars for over a hundred years, but here, today, right now, award-winning author Torrey Peters will help us get to the bottom of it. (Spoiler alert: Laurie is the bottom.) Torrey is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Debut Novel. It was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Gotham Book Prize. It was also a finalist for the Women’s Prize, and more than twenty publications named it one of the b ..read more

As we mourn our dear, sweet Beth, we sit down with author and journalist D.L. Mayfield to discuss what her story means. Why does Alcott portray Beth as "a little saint" and "the angel of the house?" What message is she sending? Is it anything like the messages little girls hear in high-control evangelical Christianity?  D.L. Mayfield is an author and journalist who writes about neurodivergence and healing from high-control religion. They’ve written three books, including Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day’s Radical Vision and its Challenge for our Times. They also write a newsletter called Healing ..read more

Good night, sweet Beth, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Here to mourn the most meek and mild of the March sisters is disability scholar Saul Leslie, a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool who studies portrayals of disability in 20th century literature. Is there anything to admire about Alcott's depiction of this poor #invalid? Does she tick every box of hurtful disability tropes? Is she nonetheless an icon? We mention it all. Saul has worked in higher education as a disability supervisor and a disability rights campaigner. He also works with Penguin Random House to as ..read more

As things heat up between Amy and Laurie, we're joined by Alena Smith, creator and showrunner of Dickinson, a television show for the exact demographic of this podcast. Like, have you ever wept openly at a Mitski concert? Can you not shut up about how every 19th century literary figure was part of the #RainbowCommunity? Do you have feelings for Chloe Fineman despite her associations with Scientology? Dickinson is for you, and this episode is for you. Enjoy listening to Peyton and Alena pass the same brain cell back and forth for an hour. Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates t ..read more

Who better to chat with us about this Meg-centric chapter than Meg herself? On June 28, 2023, before the SAG-AFTRA strike, actor Willa Fitzgerald chatted with us about Meg's marital woes and her own time playing Meg in the 2017 Masterpiece adaptation of Little Women. You can see Willa this fall in Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher, the thrillers Desperation Road and Strange Darling, and Ethan Hawke's Wildcat. She’s also starred in MTV’s Scream, USA’s Dare Me, and Amazon's Reacher. True heads will also remember her turn as Kitsey Barbour in The Goldfinch. In 2012, Willa graduated from Ya ..read more

Bestie of the pod James Frankie Thomas is BACK this week, on the heels of the release of his critically acclaimed debut novel Idlewild, to discuss Laurie and Amy's newfound romance, in which Amy wields the reins and the whip and Laurie delights in submission. We also offer our official statement on Kylimothée's public début at the Renaissance World Tour. Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for He ..read more

Beth's Secret: Strong contender for gloomiest lingerie brand of all time. As Beth and Jo head to the seaside to convalesce, science and health journalist Hannah Seo joins us to break down the history and utility of the beach as medicine. Hannah was recently a fellow for the Well Desk at the New York Times, reporting on science, health, and the environment. Their work can be found in Wired, Scientific American, and the Walrus, among other publications. They're a graduate of New York University’s science, health and environmental reporting program. Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It inter ..read more