The Getting Lit Podcast
Casual yet stimulating talks about books and media.
Episodes
This is a snippet from the Patreon-exclusive aftershow, Back Matter, where our guest this week, Emmalea Russo, reads Sini's astrological chart. Later, we discuss the 2024 film, The Uninvited, directed by Nadia Conners and starring Walton Goggins, Elizabeth Reaser, Pedro Pascal.
To listen to full episodes of Back Matter, get access to the full archive and other special episodes, subscribe on Patreon at https://www....
On this episode we talk to poet, author, and astrologer Emmalea Russo about her new novel, Vivienne. We talk about the "cancellation novel", women artists, astrology, hippie women, Catholicism, and porting poetic structural techniques onto the novelistic form. A great discussion!
And over on the paid aftershow at Patreon, Emmalea reads Sini's natal chart (so much Gemini!) and we discuss the 2024 film, T...
This is part two of a collaboration with Book Club From Hell, another great Australian book podcast. Head over to their feed for part one where we discuss the classic Australian psychological thriller novel, Wake In Fright by Kenneth Cook (1961).
And on this episode we will be discussing the almost lost forever film version from 1971, starring Donald Pleasance and Chips Rafferty.
This is a fun one folks, and painfully A...
On this special episode of Back Matter, Psi from Rare Candy podcast and Cody LaDuke join Sini and Fresta to discuss George Lucas' Revenge of the Sith, and nerd out on all things Star Wars.
This is a preview. To get the full episode, and more details about Sini's visit to the set of Attack of the Clones, subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/GettingLit
Subscribe to Rare Candy here:
This week, Sini is joined by his friend Lucas out at a bar one Saturday night to discuss Camille Paglia's book on art history and visual culture, Glittering Images.
Follow Lucas on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifetothose.shadows/
And over on paid feed, we have a special episode of Back Matter featuring Cody LaDuke and Psi from Rare Candy podcast who join Sini and Fresta to discuss George Lucas' Reveng...
Returning guest Alex speaks with us about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: what makes it so narratively compelling and different to other shows in this franchise, as well as the character dynamics, novelistic elements, soap influences, and much more. We also talk about the unique charm of the strivers on this show.
Meanwhile, over on the Patreon, we talk about the state of sex in current popular culture. Subscrib...
Melbourne writer Tobe Ellen joins us to talk about his upcoming podcast, The Barrow, where he documents his process of co-writing a memoir with his mother. We talk about podcasting as a writer, memoir writing, the importance of implication in narrative, political correctness, sensitivity readers and much more.
Follow The Barrow on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebarrowpod/
Substack: https://substack.com/@thebarro...
This week, we're talking to New York playwright and novelist Matthew Gasda about his new novel, The Sleepers, one of the best treatments of millennial generational malaise. We talk about the Dimes Square New York scene, the internet and culture, ideology vs art, masculinity and femininity, defiantly staging theatre during the lockdowns, and much more.
Buy The Sleepers here: https://www.amazon.com/Sleepers-Novel-Ma...
This week we're joined by the "Ern Malley of the 21st Century," Jasper Ceylon, who has pranked multiple poetry journals by posing as vogueish identities while submitting terrible poems.
Jasper successfully published poems that were intentionally bad to woke journals more interested in an author's pronouns, sexuality and racial characteristics than talent.
This satirical "performance art" pi...
This episode, we talk to Jared Klickstein about his amazing memoir of drug addiction and homelessness, Crooked Smile. We also chat about the underground classic Australian film, Pure Shit (Bert Deling, 1978).
Buy Crooked Smile here: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CWZ1GHLW?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_au
Reading isn't dead - our attention spans have just been hijacked by phones and social media. Inspired by an essay Fresta wrote on how to read last year, we discuss practical strategies to reclaim your reading habit and rediscover the joy of getting lost in a good book.
Check out Fresta's essay on Rare Candy's substack with more detailed reading tips and strategies: https://rarecandy.substack.co...
J David Osborne joins us once more, this time to talk about his new psychedelic cyberpunk epic novel, Gods Fare No Better.
We talked about spirituality, cyberpunk, science fiction, and the impact of various media on JDO's work, as well as book marketing strategies, industry challenges, and the importance of creativity and playfulness in literature and art.
Buy Gods Fare No Better here:
This week, we chat about an ancient classic, Medea by the Athenian tragedian Euripides.
We also discuss Lars Von Trier's 1988 TV movie adaptation of the play, written by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
Sini also published a well-received essay on men reading books on podcasts at Unherd, which you can read here:
https://unherd.com/2025/04/the-literary-man-isnt-dead/
This week, a triple crosspost collaboration with Agitator and Bistro Californium, where we discuss the remasters of the Legacy of Kain videogame series. We talk about the game's mechanics, story progression, incredible voice acting and sound design, character development, themes of free will, spiritualism, and the liminal space between analog and digital technology and much more.
Subscribe to Agitator here: h...
For full episode, go to https://www.patreon.com/c/GettingLit
This week, we have compiled all four episodes of our Book of the New Sun series we did in 2023 into one massive 8.5 hour journey. Join Sini, J David Osborne and Kelby Losack as they unpack Gene Wolfe's masterwork of science fiction.
We're celebrating 100 episodes of the Getting Lit Podcast by talking about a few Jorge Luis Borges stories: The Library of Babel, Three Versions of Judas, The House of Asterion, and Borges And I.
We talk about infinity, intellectualism, mythology. We also touched on the challenges of creating a public persona as a writer, a few movie opinions, and the podcast's 100 episode milestone.
This week, it's a bit of a buffet!
We chat about two Aleister Crowley short stories: The Drug, and The Stratagem. Before he was a famous occultist, Crowley wrote some fiction, so we thought we'd try it out. To get a much more extensive dive into Crowley, check out Art of Darkness' episode on his life: https://artofdarkpod.com/aleister-crowley-the-sewer-of-creation/
On this episode, we chat with Masha about the Soviet science fiction novel Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
Russian nihilism and existentialism, Soviet censorship, the unique flavour of Soviet-era science fiction, how to say slurs in Russian and more!
Follow Masha on X: https://x.com/3l3ktr4k0mpl3ks
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t3lk4/
This episode we talk about Julio Cortazar's short story, The Southern Thruway, about a traffic jam that turns into a community. We chat about the concept of the "fantastic" in literature, our experiences driving in Italy and Vietnam, and gave our expert opinion on the complexities of Russian politics and the portrayal of Putin.
Fresta and Sini talk about what they've been reading, watching, playing lately. Also talk about how some internet "personalities" get on podcasts with voice disguisers because "The Feds" are after them.
This episode is paywalled. Go to https://www.patreon.com/c/GettingLit to get the full version.
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