Welcome to Radio 831, where hosts Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall share their romance origin stories and make the case for why romance is fiction's most underestimated genre. Then they sit down with Jen Prokop, co-host of the Fated Mates podcast, to break down what actually makes a romance a romance: the HEA, the theory of change, the unspoken rule that love has to make you better. Plus: what our hosts can’t wait to read and watch this summer.
- Sanjana Basker’s romance origin story: period pieces and Lisa Kleypas’s historical romances.
- Tyler McCall’s romance origin story: The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (and Harry Styles fanfic) and Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (related: this Jezebel article).
- Four examples of romance at its best, from Jen Prokop, co-host of the Fated Mates podcast: The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and Indigo and Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins.
Summer releases Tyler and Sanj are hotly anticipating: Rivals Season 2 (May 15), Score by Kennedy Ryan (May 19), Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kamar (July 21), Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon (July 14), The Invite movie (June 26), I Want Your Sex movie (July 31).
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, and welcome to the radio eight three one podcast,
brought to you by the romance publisher eight three one Stories.
We're your hosts, Sinjonabasker and Tyler McCall, and we're so
excited to talk everything romance, from the novels and the
tropes to the book discreen adaptations, and of course the
drama of it all, you know, unpacking what the genre
(00:25):
says about who we are and how we love big stuff,
important stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We are so genuinely, like, honestly embarrassingly excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We really are. First episode. It's happening. It's finally happening.
We've been talking about doing this for so long, and.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Now we're here, actually here, well like virtually here, but here,
microphones and everything, a professional recording setup.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
For anyone who doesn't know us yet, which, Hi, welcome.
We are so glad you found us, thrilled that you're here.
This is a podcast about romance, the genre, the books,
the tropes, the adaptations.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
The opinions. I mean, you and I have so many
opinions just between the two of us.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Mm hmm, quite a well of opinions, possibly too many,
no such thing, no such thing. But also truly, what
we want to do here is dig into what the
genre is actually saying about yearning, about how we love,
about what we want, and why we keep coming back
to these stories even when, and like honestly, maybe especially
(01:27):
when real life isn't giving us the happily ever after.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, because the thing is, romance is one of the
most red genres in fiction, if not the most red
genre in fiction currently, and somehow it still goes so underestimated.
And I find that gap interesting. I know you find
that gap interesting, and I think.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That gap is really the show, right, like bridging the
distance between what people think romance should be relegated to
and like what we know it to be. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Absolutely, But okay, so before we get into all of that,
let's start at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
The origin story.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Everyone has one us, you mean, Batman, spider Man, iron Man,
various other men.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Many members of the Marvel and DC cinematic universe, any and.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Many many people in us. Yeah, but for us, it's
it's what the literary origin story.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, the book that got you the moment it clicked
Book one or I guess like book zero.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Son, tell me what was the book? What was the
thing that got you into romance.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So I grew up watching period pieces with my mom.
If someone's in a corset, she's watching it, like hell yeah,
if someone is getting laced up by a maid, she
is tuned in. So I think it's where like my
romance bones were installed. Also, like little known lore, she's
a matchmaker, and like I suspect that there are like
little inklings of that that like infiltrated my psyche at
(02:51):
a tender age?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Wait, how am I just learning this about you?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Wait?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You just dropped that lore? So casually she.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Started doing that more college. But she's always been interested
in love, right, Like she's always interested in partnership, interested
in things like that. So I think it was like
a weirdly heritable property.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Like I am obsessed with this. Okay, so sorry, So
your matchmaker mom, who loves historical dramas.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Can't imagine where I got my interests in romance and
historical romance in particular from what a mystery? Yeah, someone
should get freud on the case. But like, I really
truly like started there, and then I actually started reading
genre fiction romance in college and picked up Alisa Kleapas
(03:36):
novel who I'm sure we'll talk about at some point
and was like, I'm a different person than who I
was before I read this, and I didn't realize that
people were doing this, that people were writing like this,
that people were telling stories like this, And I like
fell off of a cliff into the like deep well
of romance and I've I have yet to emerge, and
(03:59):
I don't the golm her scathed, So like that's good.
That kind of what got me started. How about you.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I feel like I'm one of those, I guess notorious
I started during the pandemic romance readers like I definitely
have memories of being in a books a million and
secreting my way into the romance area and like, yeah,
surreptitiously looking through books and things like that. But you know,
in a in a past life, I was a full
(04:24):
time fashion editor and that job kind of made it
so that I lost my free time until the pandemic.
So like that's kind of what got me into reading
again generally. And I was like, oh right, I used
to love reading. I used to read books all the time. Yeah,
And there were two books in tandem that I remember
around that same time. One is going to be a
(04:44):
controversial pick. Because I don't think many would consider it
to be a true romance novel, but it is the
idea of you. Ah.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yes, I'm still yet to read that. Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
My friend Selene texted me like early in the Pandemic
and she was like, you will love this. I am
a noted Harry Styles fan She was like, you will
love this. It's like Harry Styles fan fiction. And I
was like, amazing, Yes, And I read that and I
read Jezebel did an interview with Olivia Dade around the
release of Spoiler Alert, and I loved the interview. I
(05:17):
loved what Olivia had to say in the interview. I
was so riveted by the concept of both her generally
like her as an author, and also the book. And
I picked that up and those two together kind of
got me into like, wait, what's going on here, Like
it's been a minute since I've checked in. Yeah, and
I just started reading really voraciously. But I think what's
(05:40):
interesting is like you come from the very sort of
traditional background of the historical romance of it all. I
definitely think like foundationally, I come from a fan fiction background,
Like I was like deep in the fanfiction dot net.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, Oh, and I are not new to this.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I'm not new to this, and so I think it honestly,
like not that fan fiction and romance crossing over is
anything new, but I think it really prepped me for
the moment that I that we're in, which is so
many fanfic readers and writers who are becoming traditionally published authors.
Like obviously I picked up the love hypothesis, right, Obviously,
(06:21):
I don't think it's a coincidence that you again is
white like Holy Reil, all time favorite contemporary romance novel
by Kate Golback, because Kate comes from the fan fiction minds,
Like I think it's a different approach, but it definitely
laid a foundation for me.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, And I mean I think the overlap is a
circle in many ways, like yes, and I also like
I feel so profoundly shaped by my own experiences and
fandom when it comes to like relating to romance too.
I think that's kind of in terms of like framing
the pod too, like we're interested in romance culture, right,
like this thing that I think can feel a little
(07:01):
bit more all encompassing maybe like we're rooted in this
place of obviously loving to read and loving to read
romance novels and like feeling that they are this like
really important cultural artifact. But there's also this thing of
like romances everywhere you look, Like, yeah, romances in so
much of media that like may or may not self
(07:22):
describe as romance. And there's something about that that I
think is really freeing when it comes to like what
the pod might get up to. Yeah, yeah, do you
know what I mean? You can look at the romance
novel at the top of the charts and like decide
to be dismissive about it, But that, to me speaks
to a lack of knowledge about like where that novel
(07:42):
is positioned within the genre, what it's responding to, what
implications it might have for the novels that come after it.
The readership, which is this like massive population of people
who are profoundly influenced by the things that they consume
and treasure, right, Like, people have intimate personal relationships with
these texts that I think are worth reverewing. Even if,
(08:04):
like whatever the romance novel doesn't appeal to you, aren't
you curious about why people can't stop thinking about love?
Isn't that kind of the bedrock of a lot of
media that people are interested in. I don't know, I
just always see things like that that are like touted
as a kind of intellectual standpoint, and I'm just like,
(08:25):
aren't you bored, Like I mean, oh, you want to
read cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I think it's just one of those things where in
the same way that I know horror, for example, like
good horror says something about where.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
We are as a society.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, good romance does the same thing. Yeah, you know,
I feel like the amount of times that I have
read a romance novel and felt either seen by something
or feel like it's gotten me thinking about something in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
People dismiss it because it's there is a quote unquote
formula to it, Like you know that person A is
going to meet person B, or person a B and
C and D depending if you're writing a wide shoes, Yeah,
what your configuration of choices and they're going to end
up together and they're safety in that. But also because
(09:19):
you have those parameters and you have those boundaries, you
can use them to explore so many different ideas and
so many different concepts.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah. I mean, man, like any genre, any kind of
story has to operate from constraints, so you know where
you're going and what you're saying and what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I'm so glad that we're talking about these constraints and
these boundaries. I think it really nicely tees up our
very first guest, Jen pro Cop from Faded Mates.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Jenn is so wonderful. She is someone who reads a
lot of romance, who writes about romance, who thinks really
hard about romance. As one of the co hosts for
Faded Mates, obviously been talking about romance novels at this
point for several years with her co host romance author
Sarah McLain. But she also is a Kircus correspondent for romance,
so she's a critic and she's been like a lifelong
(10:13):
reader of romance, and she's someone who I think is
a really reliable, wonderful authority on like what kinds of
parameters we're working with when we talk about romance here
on the pod. I think she'll be a really useful
ass in like helping us set up our frame of analysis,
if you.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Will, Yeah, we'll talk about what makes a romance romance.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I'm so excited to be doing this, truly, I cannot
express how delighted I am thank you for coming on, Jed.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We're so excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I'm really excited to be here. I guess really the
point of the conversation today is that, like, this is
a romance culture podcast, and we're interested in like romance
as a way of seeing the world and moving through
the world and interacting with media, regardless of whether or
not it is strictly speaking romance genre fiction. But obviously
Tyler is a romance novelist and I am a romance reader,
(11:13):
and both of us come from this place of like
deeply loving and appreciating the genre and its bones, and so
I guess we're in a place of wanting to like
level set for a listener too, Like what are the
constraints of romance that are like particularly precious and like
(11:33):
the ones that shape what this genre really is to you? Right,
Because we understood like there's sort of the name thing
of like needs to be about love, needs to have
a happily ever after, But there's more, right, Like, there
are more expectations around this, And I'm curious about your
thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
You know What's funny because I think romance readers are like, yeah,
there's some rules and it's outsiders who are really like,
but we don't like rules, how dare you? The scribbling
women of romance right like sort of put rules on
us that we don't like or we don't want to
deal with. And I think that's really like embedded in
sort of some of the pushback against it, because lots
(12:11):
of genres have rules, lots of kinds of stories like
come with some guardrails around them.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
The one that.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
I think is like the most famous and is of
course like the HGA right it has to end happily
or the HfN happily for now. You know, sometimes you
see something really smart go by and like threads or
social media, and you don't make note of who said it.
And one of the things that was really interesting me
is someone had this thread that they were sort of
like romance readers see that as very expansive. What a
(12:41):
happily ever after or happily for now looks like is
I can think of off the top of my head
fifty you know, one hundred a thousand different ways.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
That might look.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And so to us that doesn't feel confining. And I
think it's like people outside the genre who think, well,
if they have to be happy what does that mean?
It mean a marriage, a baby, And I just don't
think that romance readers feel that way at all, Like
we're like, yeah, it's whatever the characters needed. And so
(13:11):
I think like it was really eye opening for me
to just like think about it that way, Like this
is not a problem for romance readers because we know
the ha is defined by the love interests, right, not
by a set of outside metrics.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So I think that to me is.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
One that I'm only mildly interested in. I just feel
like if somebody is like I'm struggling, well, feel free
to get off the bus and read a thousand romances
and report back.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah. Right.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
The one that I feel is less stated is this
idea that the world the character's in And this is
language I for sure borrowed from Jennifer Porter, who is
like a longtime romance reader or someone on Threads is like,
She's like Jennifer r n N the world is not perfect.
But whatever unhappiness or like misery is like as a
(14:07):
result of their wound has to also be something that
they are addressing at the end of the book as
individual characters. And I think maybe this is where again
outsiders to romance struggle. It's like, oh, so you fall
in love and you're just happy. Well no, well.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
No, yeah yeah right yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Instead it's this person for people, These people's person makes
me better. So I think for me, when I'm editing,
I really sometimes am like mining this, like this is
going to destabilize the ha if this person is at
the beginning identifies XYZ as a problem and it's still
(14:49):
a problem where they're still in that kind of behavior pattern.
And so I think that to me is another like
unspoken maybe part of like what the h she means
is your world better?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, when we talk about the like traumatized man who
arrives on page one of let's say The Duke and
I by Julia Quinn, we understand that, like Simon must
be unmade and remade over the course of the novel
for the like anchor and hook of the end to
actually land, and also for the to be a story.
(15:25):
Like I think the idea that like plumbing, the interiority
is essential is a really interesting and like unspoken, like
you said, tenant of the genre.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I think like a core belief of romance is that
your human relationships, And I say that purposefully. I don't
just mean romantic love, but your human relationships should make
you better if you are going to continue them.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, Love isn't what makes that possible. It's that the
other person either sees the bad parts of you and
pushes you to improve them, or sees the parts of
you that you don't allow yourself and gives you the
room to express that stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I saw Sherry Thomas speaking once, and we all know
Sherry right, brilliant, probably one of the most brilliant minds
in romance. And what she said is the love interest
is the person who sees through the lies you tell yourself.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Oh man, right, that's so yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I mean I was like, let me sit down because
it's great. And I think that's like when we talk
about the ha If people think it's simple, I'm like, well,
you just aren't trying hard to understand what we're talking
about when big character changes require work, right.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I'm really curious with like the book Tokification of Discourse,
et cetera, and so forth, whether the concept of rules
around romance, like if readers have become more prescriptive about
that kind of thing or what you've noticed in that space.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I'm not going to just blame TikTok for that. I
think thick and aos three I think right, like the
tropification of Romance I think has also had a really
big part of that. Then we have like the large
scale trauma of the pandemic, right, and people really feeling
there's something very clear to me happening that like pre
(17:17):
and post pandemic about like just how little grace. I
think people are willing to extend a story property, whether
it be a movie or a TV show or a book,
to surprise them.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I think that there is.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
A very much a prescriptive sort of element, like I
want to be able to like sort of you know,
three tropes in a trench code and now I know
what the story is. Yeah, but you don't know what
the story is. And I think that to me is
reductive in a way that I do think is sort
of bad for the genre, largely.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, because I think that it has led to a
lot of criticisms that have made author I mean like
I feel afraid of anything that feels too complex or
too messy, or you know that that one person might
be like, well, your male main character is evil because
he did this thing. This one time or whatever. And
I think that it leads to a lot of sort
(18:13):
of like toothless romance where there's no stakes and you're like,
I say this all the time, but it's like this could.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Have been an email.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yes, like you know, yeah, this romance could have been
an email. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
There's fearless writing and then there's fearful writing, and we're
really in a fearful writing kind of era.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I'm going to ask this and let me know if
this is like too big of a question, but like
if you had to hand someone three romance novels and say, like,
these are the bones, clearest examples of like romance when
it's at its best, what would they be? Why those? Okay?
I like it.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
I like a challenge. I at recency bias is also
a thing. So right, And Kate Claiborne's newest book, The
Paris Match, came out, Yes, and my god, that's right.
I'm opening a tab. First of all, it's beautiful writing.
And I think I get a little like prickly around
people who are like, it's all bad writing. I'm gonna
give them something that I'm maybe like, if you think
(19:08):
this is poorly written, you're just a Jackass, okay, right,
But I think the other thing that The Paris Match
really delivers is a really strong woman as a main character,
which I think is really important to the bones of
the romance, right, like just in general, like these are
strong women who are dangerous in some way, and Layla
is someone who is like I have walked away from
(19:31):
a marriage. It takes a while to figure out why
she did. But I also think it delivers all like
the feelings, right, the angst, the yearning, the like, all
of that. Okay, So I would say that book for sure. Listen,
it's top of the twenty twenty six. I'm gonna say,
read Heated Rivalry.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, it is a first of all, it's a fucking banger,
like so good, right, And I think the other thing that.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
It does so well is it shows how important sex
can be toward romance. Yes, and that like when we
write when we say the emotional intimacy and the sexual
relationship have to be like one is informing the other.
I think there's very few books that do it as
well as he would Rivalry US. Yes, yeah, yeah, so
(20:16):
I think that I would say Kate's going to deliver
the feelings Katid Bravery is going to deliver that part
of it. And then I'm going to say I'll talk
about a Beverly Jenkins book. I know that they're first
all I want to say historical because I love them
and I think they're so foundational to the like the
romance genre. And I know you said one, but I'm
going to say Indigo or Forbidden Dealer's Choice. These are
(20:37):
both perfect books, perfect yea perfect books. And I think
what these two books do, it's like really showing you
characters who are like these amazing individuals, both of them
in both books, who are on a path that gets
intercepted by then meeting the other person and their life changes.
And I think that's what romance does really well too,
(20:58):
that we were talking about, right of those books, what
the characters at the beginning would have said, this is
what I want my life to be like versus what
they have at the end shows you the transformational nature
of falling in love.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, so that's I answer that that's a good lineup.
That's like a good lineup. It's a sexy lineup, it's
a an honest lineup.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We put you on the spot and you're like, I'm ready,
you know what I read.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I'm ready, I'm ready the letterbox.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Top for you without any morning, basically nail that.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Well. Thank you also for all of the time that
you've given us, and also like your expertise and wisdom
is so so so appreciated. Thanks for coming on. No,
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I wrote down all those book recommendations from John. They
are now on my summer reading list.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But speaking of summer reading list, it is right around
the corner, believe it or not. Yeah, it's actually going
to happen. We're going to be warm and in the
sunshine again. And I want to talk about what we
are anticipating this summer. Yeah, what are the three things
that we're most excited about that we're really looking forward
(22:20):
to that we're circling dates on our calendar for uh
huh ready songe.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I'm ready, I'm ready. Okay, So I'll go in chronological order,
because I think that's just most respectful to the media.
First Rivals season two, Yeah, well season one consumed me, mind, body,
and soul. It's so important to me. I have seen
so many edits of Declan O'Hara online. It's like, actually, ridiculous,
(22:47):
and it premieres on May fifteenth, actually, but I think
they're doing it in two chunks, so there's one in
May and then the next six episode chunk is in June. Probably.
I'm really really excited to see David Tennant being just
an absolute diva for like several hours. And also there's
a romance in Rival. I mean, the whole thing is
based off of like the Bonkbuster series by Dame Jillie Cooper,
(23:11):
the iconic kind of romance Bonkbusters, the author from the
eighties and nineties. But there's a romance within the Rivals
novels that really closely mimics a romance within one of
my favorite romances of all time. But more on that
at a later date. We have too much to get through.
I know, I'm mystery. I'm saving it for the clear
(23:32):
banger Clipberger. And then my second thing is Score by
Kennedy Ryan, which is the sequel to the book Real
by Kennedy Ryan, which was so beautiful and so really
I mean, like the thing of Kennedy Ryan is that
like she's just so guided that like, really, how much
is there to say? Besides like this book is going
(23:53):
to rock and I'm really excited about it. And these
are characters from the first novel that I was really
interested in and curious about, and it's a second chance romance,
and like music is at the heart of the novel,
and I'm like so interested in everything that Kennedy Ryan
has to say. And I think also, like in the
Wake of Sinners, it feels like a particularly well timed novel,
(24:16):
So I'm really excited to read that, and I like
I am continuing to like build my theory about how
she writes, so having a new data point to supplement
that is going to be really exciting for me. And
the last thing is just a Highland Fling by Nana Kamar,
which I'm cheating a little bit because I'm reading it
right now, but it's not out until the end of July,
(24:37):
which is a very sweet romance set between a woman
who attends her dad's wedding in Scotland and a guy
who she hooks up with and then doesn't realize is
actually at the wedding the next day and the like
road trip that they need to go on shenanigans are ensuing.
I will say this is like the most concise summer
I can give it. So I'm very excited to see
(24:57):
that book come out. And like, also, she's just like
a really fun writer who has really sexy heroes, So
what's not to love what those are?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
My free Oh my god, Kennedy Ryan is an overlap
for me, So I mean, I pick it different, but
I love but like, Kennedy Ryan is an auto by
for me. Like I see a Kennedy Ryan book, Yeah,
it goes in the cart you know.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Excited about that. I'm also excited for Rachel Lynn Solomon
has a new one coming out on July fourteenth, Extracurricular.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Oh okay, I'm curious about that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's a former pop star who enrolls in college and
she gets on with her sexy professor who has a
slutty little earring on the cover. It's all I could
ever ask for in this world, Like, say no more.
I need to know what goes on with these two immediately.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So so excited for that. And then I'm excited for
what I'm calling the Olivia Wilde double feature this summer.
So there's two movies coming out with her in them.
One she directed called The Invite and it is about
a couple who get invited by their neighbors to be
in weekly orgies. So I'm excited Seth Rogan's in it.
(26:10):
I wait, Jeff saw straight.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I saw. I like walked in as this trailer was
playing when I went to the movies recently. Yeah, this
is I didn't know the premise, but this is wild
I'm tickled. Okay, sorry, go ahead, I'm delighted.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
So it's her Seth Rogan, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
And that's when she directed. And then she's in a
movie with Cooper Hoffman called I Want Your Sex that
comes out later in July. Oh, and it's Greg Arakis.
I'm not familiar with his work, but the reviews out
of Sun Dance were really intriguing to me. She plays
like a professional dominatrix, like I've heard. Like it's like her,
like she was made for this role. I really like
(26:47):
when you let Olivia Wilde be a little kookie. Yeah,
so I'm really I'm really invested in this. Like Olivia
Wilde kind of sexy, intriguing double feature.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I like her when she's being a little kookie. I
was introduced to her first when she was on House,
so her as like, yes, bisexual chaos even in House
like was really a formative So I seeing her as
a dominatrix, I think, really lands that feels correct.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, yeah, it feels it feels really good. I'm I'm excited,
like I get excited for summer block Like obviously, like
The Odyssey is coming this summer.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I will be sad for that.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Like, you know, there's the summer blockbuster situations, but I
like the weird little movies that people put out as
counter programming. Yeah, so okay, Lightning Round though, if you
had to pick one of the things that you just said,
my gosh, I know, no.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Prash, Okay, I'm gonna say Score because it's the one
that we both had, Like I just think that it's
gonna be so good, Like it's such a guaranteed banger.
I'm gonna go with that. I'm gonna go with that.
But that was actually like picking between favorite children, so excruciating.
Ask because I'm really brave.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
You're so brave, you're super for doing it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Okay, So that's what we're looking forward to this summer,
and we've got a lot on the docket, so honestly,
we'll probably come back here and keep you always posted
on what we are continuing to read and listen to
and watch and love the sticky summer. I hope you
have your thigh chafing bomb in the cart at Target.
(28:22):
It is the season. This is the season. But thanks
for hanging out and we'll see you next time. Let
us know what you are looking forward to this summer.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, let us know what's not on our list that
we should be yes reading. I'm compiling my summer reading list.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, what are we missing? I gotta know? And that
has been the very first episode of the radio eight
three to one podcast. We did it, We did it.
Oh believe it. It's real, emerging unscathed.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
And that's the show. Call us and leave us a
voicemail with your thoughts at eight three three eight three
to one. Love that's eight three eight three to one
five six eight three.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
If you feel hard for what you heard here, get
episode notes delivered straight to your inbox by signing up
at eight through one stories dot substack dot com and
share your recommendations and topic ideas in the post comments.
Head to eight three one stories dot com to keep
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Ones to get your hands on them before anyone else.
(29:27):
The Ones also get a twenty percent discount on everything
on the site, including eight three one's beloved tropats and
pleasure reading merch.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
The Radio eight three one podcast is a production of
iHeart Podcasts, posted by Sandanabascar and Tyler McCall. The show
is produced by Liz Smith and for iHeart. Our supervising
producer is Emily meronoff special thanks to the whole iHeart
team and especially Ali Perry and Alison Kanter Graver. Our
executive producers are Claire Maser and Erica Serulo. Our music
(29:56):
is Domino by James Ryan Carr and Love Is What
You Do by Alibi. We'll be sharing love here again
next week
Hi, and welcome to the radio eight three one podcast,
brought to you by the romance publisher eight three one Stories.
We're your hosts, Sinjonabasker and Tyler McCall, and we're so
excited to talk everything romance, from the novels and the
tropes to the book discreen adaptations, and of course the
drama of it all, you know, unpacking what the genre
(00:25):
says about who we are and how we love big stuff,
important stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We are so genuinely, like, honestly embarrassingly excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We really are. First episode. It's happening. It's finally happening.
We've been talking about doing this for so long, and.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Now we're here, actually here, well like virtually here, but here,
microphones and everything, a professional recording setup.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
For anyone who doesn't know us yet, which, Hi, welcome.
We are so glad you found us, thrilled that you're here.
This is a podcast about romance, the genre, the books,
the tropes, the adaptations.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
The opinions. I mean, you and I have so many
opinions just between the two of us.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Mm hmm, quite a well of opinions, possibly too many,
no such thing, no such thing. But also truly, what
we want to do here is dig into what the
genre is actually saying about yearning, about how we love,
about what we want, and why we keep coming back
to these stories even when, and like honestly, maybe especially
(01:27):
when real life isn't giving us the happily ever after.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, because the thing is, romance is one of the
most red genres in fiction, if not the most red
genre in fiction currently, and somehow it still goes so underestimated.
And I find that gap interesting. I know you find
that gap interesting, and I think.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That gap is really the show, right, like bridging the
distance between what people think romance should be relegated to
and like what we know it to be. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Absolutely, But okay, so before we get into all of that,
let's start at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
The origin story.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Everyone has one us, you mean, Batman, spider Man, iron Man,
various other men.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Many members of the Marvel and DC cinematic universe, any and.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Many many people in us. Yeah, but for us, it's
it's what the literary origin story.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, the book that got you the moment it clicked
Book one or I guess like book zero.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Son, tell me what was the book? What was the
thing that got you into romance.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So I grew up watching period pieces with my mom.
If someone's in a corset, she's watching it, like hell yeah,
if someone is getting laced up by a maid, she
is tuned in. So I think it's where like my
romance bones were installed. Also, like little known lore, she's
a matchmaker, and like I suspect that there are like
little inklings of that that like infiltrated my psyche at
(02:51):
a tender age?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Wait, how am I just learning this about you?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Wait?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You just dropped that lore? So casually she.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Started doing that more college. But she's always been interested
in love, right, Like she's always interested in partnership, interested
in things like that. So I think it was like
a weirdly heritable property.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Like I am obsessed with this. Okay, so sorry, So
your matchmaker mom, who loves historical dramas.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Can't imagine where I got my interests in romance and
historical romance in particular from what a mystery? Yeah, someone
should get freud on the case. But like, I really
truly like started there, and then I actually started reading
genre fiction romance in college and picked up Alisa Kleapas
(03:36):
novel who I'm sure we'll talk about at some point
and was like, I'm a different person than who I
was before I read this, and I didn't realize that
people were doing this, that people were writing like this,
that people were telling stories like this, And I like
fell off of a cliff into the like deep well
of romance and I've I have yet to emerge, and
(03:59):
I don't the golm her scathed, So like that's good.
That kind of what got me started. How about you.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I feel like I'm one of those, I guess notorious
I started during the pandemic romance readers like I definitely
have memories of being in a books a million and
secreting my way into the romance area and like, yeah,
surreptitiously looking through books and things like that. But you know,
in a in a past life, I was a full
(04:24):
time fashion editor and that job kind of made it
so that I lost my free time until the pandemic.
So like that's kind of what got me into reading
again generally. And I was like, oh right, I used
to love reading. I used to read books all the time. Yeah,
And there were two books in tandem that I remember
around that same time. One is going to be a
(04:44):
controversial pick. Because I don't think many would consider it
to be a true romance novel, but it is the
idea of you. Ah.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yes, I'm still yet to read that. Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
My friend Selene texted me like early in the Pandemic
and she was like, you will love this. I am
a noted Harry Styles fan She was like, you will
love this. It's like Harry Styles fan fiction. And I
was like, amazing, Yes, And I read that and I
read Jezebel did an interview with Olivia Dade around the
release of Spoiler Alert, and I loved the interview. I
(05:17):
loved what Olivia had to say in the interview. I
was so riveted by the concept of both her generally
like her as an author, and also the book. And
I picked that up and those two together kind of
got me into like, wait, what's going on here, Like
it's been a minute since I've checked in. Yeah, and
I just started reading really voraciously. But I think what's
(05:40):
interesting is like you come from the very sort of
traditional background of the historical romance of it all. I
definitely think like foundationally, I come from a fan fiction background,
Like I was like deep in the fanfiction dot net.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, Oh, and I are not new to this.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I'm not new to this, and so I think it honestly,
like not that fan fiction and romance crossing over is
anything new, but I think it really prepped me for
the moment that I that we're in, which is so
many fanfic readers and writers who are becoming traditionally published authors.
Like obviously I picked up the love hypothesis, right, Obviously,
(06:21):
I don't think it's a coincidence that you again is
white like Holy Reil, all time favorite contemporary romance novel
by Kate Golback, because Kate comes from the fan fiction minds,
Like I think it's a different approach, but it definitely
laid a foundation for me.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, And I mean I think the overlap is a
circle in many ways, like yes, and I also like
I feel so profoundly shaped by my own experiences and
fandom when it comes to like relating to romance too.
I think that's kind of in terms of like framing
the pod too, like we're interested in romance culture, right,
like this thing that I think can feel a little
(07:01):
bit more all encompassing maybe like we're rooted in this
place of obviously loving to read and loving to read
romance novels and like feeling that they are this like
really important cultural artifact. But there's also this thing of
like romances everywhere you look, Like, yeah, romances in so
much of media that like may or may not self
(07:22):
describe as romance. And there's something about that that I
think is really freeing when it comes to like what
the pod might get up to. Yeah, yeah, do you
know what I mean? You can look at the romance
novel at the top of the charts and like decide
to be dismissive about it, But that, to me speaks
to a lack of knowledge about like where that novel
(07:42):
is positioned within the genre, what it's responding to, what
implications it might have for the novels that come after it.
The readership, which is this like massive population of people
who are profoundly influenced by the things that they consume
and treasure, right, Like, people have intimate personal relationships with
these texts that I think are worth reverewing. Even if,
(08:04):
like whatever the romance novel doesn't appeal to you, aren't
you curious about why people can't stop thinking about love?
Isn't that kind of the bedrock of a lot of
media that people are interested in. I don't know, I
just always see things like that that are like touted
as a kind of intellectual standpoint, and I'm just like,
(08:25):
aren't you bored, Like I mean, oh, you want to
read cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I think it's just one of those things where in
the same way that I know horror, for example, like
good horror says something about where.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
We are as a society.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, good romance does the same thing. Yeah, you know,
I feel like the amount of times that I have
read a romance novel and felt either seen by something
or feel like it's gotten me thinking about something in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
People dismiss it because it's there is a quote unquote
formula to it, Like you know that person A is
going to meet person B, or person a B and
C and D depending if you're writing a wide shoes, Yeah,
what your configuration of choices and they're going to end
up together and they're safety in that. But also because
(09:19):
you have those parameters and you have those boundaries, you
can use them to explore so many different ideas and
so many different concepts.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah. I mean, man, like any genre, any kind of
story has to operate from constraints, so you know where
you're going and what you're saying and what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I'm so glad that we're talking about these constraints and
these boundaries. I think it really nicely tees up our
very first guest, Jen pro Cop from Faded Mates.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Jenn is so wonderful. She is someone who reads a
lot of romance, who writes about romance, who thinks really
hard about romance. As one of the co hosts for
Faded Mates, obviously been talking about romance novels at this
point for several years with her co host romance author
Sarah McLain. But she also is a Kircus correspondent for romance,
so she's a critic and she's been like a lifelong
(10:13):
reader of romance, and she's someone who I think is
a really reliable, wonderful authority on like what kinds of
parameters we're working with when we talk about romance here
on the pod. I think she'll be a really useful
ass in like helping us set up our frame of analysis,
if you.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Will, Yeah, we'll talk about what makes a romance romance.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I'm so excited to be doing this, truly, I cannot
express how delighted I am thank you for coming on, Jed.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We're so excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I'm really excited to be here. I guess really the
point of the conversation today is that, like, this is
a romance culture podcast, and we're interested in like romance
as a way of seeing the world and moving through
the world and interacting with media, regardless of whether or
not it is strictly speaking romance genre fiction. But obviously
Tyler is a romance novelist and I am a romance reader,
(11:13):
and both of us come from this place of like
deeply loving and appreciating the genre and its bones, and so
I guess we're in a place of wanting to like
level set for a listener too, Like what are the
constraints of romance that are like particularly precious and like
(11:33):
the ones that shape what this genre really is to you? Right,
Because we understood like there's sort of the name thing
of like needs to be about love, needs to have
a happily ever after, But there's more, right, Like, there
are more expectations around this, And I'm curious about your
thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
You know What's funny because I think romance readers are like, yeah,
there's some rules and it's outsiders who are really like,
but we don't like rules, how dare you? The scribbling
women of romance right like sort of put rules on
us that we don't like or we don't want to
deal with. And I think that's really like embedded in
sort of some of the pushback against it, because lots
(12:11):
of genres have rules, lots of kinds of stories like
come with some guardrails around them.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
The one that.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
I think is like the most famous and is of
course like the HGA right it has to end happily
or the HfN happily for now. You know, sometimes you
see something really smart go by and like threads or
social media, and you don't make note of who said it.
And one of the things that was really interesting me
is someone had this thread that they were sort of
like romance readers see that as very expansive. What a
(12:41):
happily ever after or happily for now looks like is
I can think of off the top of my head
fifty you know, one hundred a thousand different ways.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
That might look.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And so to us that doesn't feel confining. And I
think it's like people outside the genre who think, well,
if they have to be happy what does that mean?
It mean a marriage, a baby, And I just don't
think that romance readers feel that way at all, Like
we're like, yeah, it's whatever the characters needed. And so
(13:11):
I think like it was really eye opening for me
to just like think about it that way, Like this
is not a problem for romance readers because we know
the ha is defined by the love interests, right, not
by a set of outside metrics.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So I think that to me is.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
One that I'm only mildly interested in. I just feel
like if somebody is like I'm struggling, well, feel free
to get off the bus and read a thousand romances
and report back.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah. Right.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
The one that I feel is less stated is this
idea that the world the character's in And this is
language I for sure borrowed from Jennifer Porter, who is
like a longtime romance reader or someone on Threads is like,
She's like Jennifer r n N the world is not perfect.
But whatever unhappiness or like misery is like as a
(14:07):
result of their wound has to also be something that
they are addressing at the end of the book as
individual characters. And I think maybe this is where again
outsiders to romance struggle. It's like, oh, so you fall
in love and you're just happy. Well no, well.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
No, yeah yeah right yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Instead it's this person for people, These people's person makes
me better. So I think for me, when I'm editing,
I really sometimes am like mining this, like this is
going to destabilize the ha if this person is at
the beginning identifies XYZ as a problem and it's still
(14:49):
a problem where they're still in that kind of behavior pattern.
And so I think that to me is another like
unspoken maybe part of like what the h she means
is your world better?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, when we talk about the like traumatized man who
arrives on page one of let's say The Duke and
I by Julia Quinn, we understand that, like Simon must
be unmade and remade over the course of the novel
for the like anchor and hook of the end to
actually land, and also for the to be a story.
(15:25):
Like I think the idea that like plumbing, the interiority
is essential is a really interesting and like unspoken, like
you said, tenant of the genre.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I think like a core belief of romance is that
your human relationships, And I say that purposefully. I don't
just mean romantic love, but your human relationships should make
you better if you are going to continue them.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, Love isn't what makes that possible. It's that the
other person either sees the bad parts of you and
pushes you to improve them, or sees the parts of
you that you don't allow yourself and gives you the
room to express that stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I saw Sherry Thomas speaking once, and we all know
Sherry right, brilliant, probably one of the most brilliant minds
in romance. And what she said is the love interest
is the person who sees through the lies you tell yourself.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Oh man, right, that's so yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I mean I was like, let me sit down because
it's great. And I think that's like when we talk
about the ha If people think it's simple, I'm like, well,
you just aren't trying hard to understand what we're talking
about when big character changes require work, right.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I'm really curious with like the book Tokification of Discourse,
et cetera, and so forth, whether the concept of rules
around romance, like if readers have become more prescriptive about
that kind of thing or what you've noticed in that space.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I'm not going to just blame TikTok for that. I
think thick and aos three I think right, like the
tropification of Romance I think has also had a really
big part of that. Then we have like the large
scale trauma of the pandemic, right, and people really feeling
there's something very clear to me happening that like pre
(17:17):
and post pandemic about like just how little grace. I
think people are willing to extend a story property, whether
it be a movie or a TV show or a book,
to surprise them.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I think that there is.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
A very much a prescriptive sort of element, like I
want to be able to like sort of you know,
three tropes in a trench code and now I know
what the story is. Yeah, but you don't know what
the story is. And I think that to me is
reductive in a way that I do think is sort
of bad for the genre, largely.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, because I think that it has led to a
lot of criticisms that have made author I mean like
I feel afraid of anything that feels too complex or
too messy, or you know that that one person might
be like, well, your male main character is evil because
he did this thing. This one time or whatever. And
I think that it leads to a lot of sort
(18:13):
of like toothless romance where there's no stakes and you're like,
I say this all the time, but it's like this could.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Have been an email.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yes, like you know, yeah, this romance could have been
an email. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
There's fearless writing and then there's fearful writing, and we're
really in a fearful writing kind of era.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I'm going to ask this and let me know if
this is like too big of a question, but like
if you had to hand someone three romance novels and say, like,
these are the bones, clearest examples of like romance when
it's at its best, what would they be? Why those? Okay?
I like it.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
I like a challenge. I at recency bias is also
a thing. So right, And Kate Claiborne's newest book, The
Paris Match, came out, Yes, and my god, that's right.
I'm opening a tab. First of all, it's beautiful writing.
And I think I get a little like prickly around
people who are like, it's all bad writing. I'm gonna
give them something that I'm maybe like, if you think
(19:08):
this is poorly written, you're just a Jackass, okay, right,
But I think the other thing that The Paris Match
really delivers is a really strong woman as a main character,
which I think is really important to the bones of
the romance, right, like just in general, like these are
strong women who are dangerous in some way, and Layla
is someone who is like I have walked away from
(19:31):
a marriage. It takes a while to figure out why
she did. But I also think it delivers all like
the feelings, right, the angst, the yearning, the like, all
of that. Okay, So I would say that book for sure. Listen,
it's top of the twenty twenty six. I'm gonna say,
read Heated Rivalry.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, it is a first of all, it's a fucking banger,
like so good, right, And I think the other thing that.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
It does so well is it shows how important sex
can be toward romance. Yes, and that like when we
write when we say the emotional intimacy and the sexual
relationship have to be like one is informing the other.
I think there's very few books that do it as
well as he would Rivalry US. Yes, yeah, yeah, so
(20:16):
I think that I would say Kate's going to deliver
the feelings Katid Bravery is going to deliver that part
of it. And then I'm going to say I'll talk
about a Beverly Jenkins book. I know that they're first
all I want to say historical because I love them
and I think they're so foundational to the like the
romance genre. And I know you said one, but I'm
going to say Indigo or Forbidden Dealer's Choice. These are
(20:37):
both perfect books, perfect yea perfect books. And I think
what these two books do, it's like really showing you
characters who are like these amazing individuals, both of them
in both books, who are on a path that gets
intercepted by then meeting the other person and their life changes.
And I think that's what romance does really well too,
(20:58):
that we were talking about, right of those books, what
the characters at the beginning would have said, this is
what I want my life to be like versus what
they have at the end shows you the transformational nature
of falling in love.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, so that's I answer that that's a good lineup.
That's like a good lineup. It's a sexy lineup, it's
a an honest lineup.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We put you on the spot and you're like, I'm ready,
you know what I read.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I'm ready, I'm ready the letterbox.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Top for you without any morning, basically nail that.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Well. Thank you also for all of the time that
you've given us, and also like your expertise and wisdom
is so so so appreciated. Thanks for coming on. No,
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
It was my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I wrote down all those book recommendations from John. They
are now on my summer reading list.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But speaking of summer reading list, it is right around
the corner, believe it or not. Yeah, it's actually going
to happen. We're going to be warm and in the
sunshine again. And I want to talk about what we
are anticipating this summer. Yeah, what are the three things
that we're most excited about that we're really looking forward
(22:20):
to that we're circling dates on our calendar for uh
huh ready songe.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I'm ready, I'm ready. Okay, So I'll go in chronological order,
because I think that's just most respectful to the media.
First Rivals season two, Yeah, well season one consumed me, mind, body,
and soul. It's so important to me. I have seen
so many edits of Declan O'Hara online. It's like, actually, ridiculous,
(22:47):
and it premieres on May fifteenth, actually, but I think
they're doing it in two chunks, so there's one in
May and then the next six episode chunk is in June. Probably.
I'm really really excited to see David Tennant being just
an absolute diva for like several hours. And also there's
a romance in Rival. I mean, the whole thing is
based off of like the Bonkbuster series by Dame Jillie Cooper,
(23:11):
the iconic kind of romance Bonkbusters, the author from the
eighties and nineties. But there's a romance within the Rivals
novels that really closely mimics a romance within one of
my favorite romances of all time. But more on that
at a later date. We have too much to get through.
I know, I'm mystery. I'm saving it for the clear
(23:32):
banger Clipberger. And then my second thing is Score by
Kennedy Ryan, which is the sequel to the book Real
by Kennedy Ryan, which was so beautiful and so really
I mean, like the thing of Kennedy Ryan is that
like she's just so guided that like, really, how much
is there to say? Besides like this book is going
(23:53):
to rock and I'm really excited about it. And these
are characters from the first novel that I was really
interested in and curious about, and it's a second chance romance,
and like music is at the heart of the novel,
and I'm like so interested in everything that Kennedy Ryan
has to say. And I think also, like in the
Wake of Sinners, it feels like a particularly well timed novel,
(24:16):
So I'm really excited to read that, and I like
I am continuing to like build my theory about how
she writes, so having a new data point to supplement
that is going to be really exciting for me. And
the last thing is just a Highland Fling by Nana Kamar,
which I'm cheating a little bit because I'm reading it
right now, but it's not out until the end of July,
(24:37):
which is a very sweet romance set between a woman
who attends her dad's wedding in Scotland and a guy
who she hooks up with and then doesn't realize is
actually at the wedding the next day and the like
road trip that they need to go on shenanigans are ensuing.
I will say this is like the most concise summer
I can give it. So I'm very excited to see
(24:57):
that book come out. And like, also, she's just like
a really fun writer who has really sexy heroes, So
what's not to love what those are?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
My free Oh my god, Kennedy Ryan is an overlap
for me, So I mean, I pick it different, but
I love but like, Kennedy Ryan is an auto by
for me. Like I see a Kennedy Ryan book, Yeah,
it goes in the cart you know.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Excited about that. I'm also excited for Rachel Lynn Solomon
has a new one coming out on July fourteenth, Extracurricular.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Oh okay, I'm curious about that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's a former pop star who enrolls in college and
she gets on with her sexy professor who has a
slutty little earring on the cover. It's all I could
ever ask for in this world, Like, say no more.
I need to know what goes on with these two immediately.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So so excited for that. And then I'm excited for
what I'm calling the Olivia Wilde double feature this summer.
So there's two movies coming out with her in them.
One she directed called The Invite and it is about
a couple who get invited by their neighbors to be
in weekly orgies. So I'm excited Seth Rogan's in it.
(26:10):
I wait, Jeff saw straight.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I saw. I like walked in as this trailer was
playing when I went to the movies recently. Yeah, this
is I didn't know the premise, but this is wild
I'm tickled. Okay, sorry, go ahead, I'm delighted.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
So it's her Seth Rogan, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
And that's when she directed. And then she's in a
movie with Cooper Hoffman called I Want Your Sex that
comes out later in July. Oh, and it's Greg Arakis.
I'm not familiar with his work, but the reviews out
of Sun Dance were really intriguing to me. She plays
like a professional dominatrix, like I've heard. Like it's like her,
like she was made for this role. I really like
(26:47):
when you let Olivia Wilde be a little kookie. Yeah,
so I'm really I'm really invested in this. Like Olivia
Wilde kind of sexy, intriguing double feature.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I like her when she's being a little kookie. I
was introduced to her first when she was on House,
so her as like, yes, bisexual chaos even in House
like was really a formative So I seeing her as
a dominatrix, I think, really lands that feels correct.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, yeah, it feels it feels really good. I'm I'm excited,
like I get excited for summer block Like obviously, like
The Odyssey is coming this summer.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I will be sad for that.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Like, you know, there's the summer blockbuster situations, but I
like the weird little movies that people put out as
counter programming. Yeah, so okay, Lightning Round though, if you
had to pick one of the things that you just said,
my gosh, I know, no.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Prash, Okay, I'm gonna say Score because it's the one
that we both had, Like I just think that it's
gonna be so good, Like it's such a guaranteed banger.
I'm gonna go with that. I'm gonna go with that.
But that was actually like picking between favorite children, so excruciating.
Ask because I'm really brave.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
You're so brave, you're super for doing it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Okay, So that's what we're looking forward to this summer,
and we've got a lot on the docket, so honestly,
we'll probably come back here and keep you always posted
on what we are continuing to read and listen to
and watch and love the sticky summer. I hope you
have your thigh chafing bomb in the cart at Target.
(28:22):
It is the season. This is the season. But thanks
for hanging out and we'll see you next time. Let
us know what you are looking forward to this summer.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, let us know what's not on our list that
we should be yes reading. I'm compiling my summer reading list.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, what are we missing? I gotta know? And that
has been the very first episode of the radio eight
three to one podcast. We did it, We did it.
Oh believe it. It's real, emerging unscathed.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
And that's the show. Call us and leave us a
voicemail with your thoughts at eight three three eight three
to one. Love that's eight three eight three to one
five six eight three.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
If you feel hard for what you heard here, get
episode notes delivered straight to your inbox by signing up
at eight through one stories dot substack dot com and
share your recommendations and topic ideas in the post comments.
Head to eight three one stories dot com to keep
up with eight three ones monthly read in one sitting
romance novellas, and sign up for a membership to the
Ones to get your hands on them before anyone else.
(29:27):
The Ones also get a twenty percent discount on everything
on the site, including eight three one's beloved tropats and
pleasure reading merch.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
The Radio eight three one podcast is a production of
iHeart Podcasts, posted by Sandanabascar and Tyler McCall. The show
is produced by Liz Smith and for iHeart. Our supervising
producer is Emily meronoff special thanks to the whole iHeart
team and especially Ali Perry and Alison Kanter Graver. Our
executive producers are Claire Maser and Erica Serulo. Our music
(29:56):
is Domino by James Ryan Carr and Love Is What
You Do by Alibi. We'll be sharing love here again
next week
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