In this episode, you get the real "old days of radio" experience listening to Jen pick up her glass and drink from it and set it back down repeatedly. Ice clinking! It's like we are on Mad Men! Metal Desk + Podcast = Clink Amplification

We start out playing a new game we dub "Scenarios" - Essentially we each make up a series of geeky/pop cultural scenarios for the other to navigate. It involves Harry Potter and Star Trek!

For the main event, we have Smut Shaming or de-stigmatizing guilty pleasures. We have discussed before that we are adamantly against the concept of “guilty pleasures” - just like what you like and you should not be ashamed of it or made to feel shame because of it. In this segment, we express our love of fanfic and romance novels, defend them from shamers, and explain why they appeal. And, as promised, here are all the books we recommended during the show as well as some extras!

Fanfic book: Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins

Jen's Romance Recs:

YA sports themed romance: Miranda Kenneally & Simone Elkeles

Urban Fantasy, no explicit sex (fade to black) - Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

Urban Fantasy with sex - Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (LOTS OF SEX - Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series)

Urban Fantasy with some sex and lots of jokes - Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson

Steampunk Werewolf romance - Soulless by Gail Carriger

Contemporary amusing romance with a relatable heroine - Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

Contemporary romance with my kind of guy - Vision in White by Nora Roberts

Historical romance, light - Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James, Nine rules to break when romancing a rake by Sarah Maclean

Historical romance, epic - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon,

Epic Fantasy Romance - Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey

M/M romance - Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

YA romance, fairy tales - Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

YA romance, angels and demons - The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

YA romance, contemporary - Stephanie Perkins trilogy - Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the boy next door, Isla and the Happily Ever After

Romance, contemporary, but with interesting structure - anything by Rainbow Rowell

YA comic book, historical elements - The Dreamer

As always, our amazing Intro/Outro music is "We Are Highscore" by Krackatoa