Radio 831: A Romance Podcast
A weekly discussion of everything romance—from the novels and the tropes to the book-to-screen adaptations and, of course, the drama of it all—with hosts Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall. Brought to you by the romance publisher 831 Stories.
Episodes
At last: Sanjana and Tyler are talking Omegaverse. Sanj gives Tyler the quick and dirty on alphas, betas, and omegas, while acknowledging the loaded question of which one you think you are. Then Kate Stayman-London joins to talk See You Next Tuesday and writing an enemies-to-lovers romance in a no-Republicans setting. Plus: Sanj and Tyler saw Wicker and basically have no notes.
- Omegaverse 101, ft. Ali Hazelw...
It’s (still) a Monster Romance Extravaganza over here! But first, Sanjana and Tyler saw the Sense and Sensibility movie and, of course, have thoughts. Then Gracie Delgado joins for an extremely fun chat about sentient-object romance—love interests include twelve-foot skeletons and apartment doors—and explains why these inventive stories have serious things to say about desire. Then, Tyler completes her monster-rom...
Welcome to a Monster Romance Extravaganza! Kicking it off, Sanjana gives Tyler a crash course in the subgenre, explaining the allure of aliens and lake monsters—and why freakishness is part of the appeal. Then Villain Edit author Rosie Danan joins to talk vampires, reality TV, blood play, and finding tenderness in a non-human love interest. Plus: Sanj and Tyler react to SeaWorld’s "Just One More Chapter," a dark-ro...
Sanjana and Tyler reveal their dream romance adaptation slate, from non-Austen historicals to the paranormal franchises Hollywood is sleeping on. Then Once in a Timeline author Iman Hariri-Kia joins to talk about writing contemporary love stories that lean into influencers, apps, and the infinite scroll. Plus: a listener voicemail gets Sanj and Tyler chatting about reader expectations, publishing pressure, and who has the power to ...
Sanjana and Tyler dive into romance criticism, the newsletters keeping it alive, and why even a good hater should be devoted. Then Bad Words author Rioghnach Robinson joins to talk about turning book criticism into a whole (extremely compelling!) enemies-to-lovers plot. Plus: the best sex scenes Sanj and Tyler read this month, from Scandalized to a stalker romance involving a multi-tasking hockey stick.
- The ...
Our hosts Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall are talking all things The Love Hypothesis with contemporary-romance queen Ali Hazelwood this week, from the book's leap from page to screen to what it's like to hand your characters over to Hollywood and become forever associated with one very famous fake-dating experiment. Plus: Ali's influences, thoughts on messy people behaving badly, and how her relationship with writing has changed si...
Sanjana and Tyler kick off the show imploring sports romance to look beyond hockey—and then Lily Herman joins to talk about why Formula 1 is perfect genre fodder. Plus: a VM from listener Danielle gets Sanj and Tyler into the tropes and choices that can turn them off a book, along with their DNF philosophies. Also, reminder: We love voicemails! Reach us at 833-831-LOVE.
It's an all-Austen episode: Sanjana formally pitches The Other Bennet Sister, arguing the show works because it lets Mary Bennet stay a genuine weirdo instead of “yassifying” her. Then Nikki Payne joins to talk Jane Austen: her Clueless-into-Emma origin story, why Sense and Sensibility reads more like a philosophy argument than a romance, and her theory that you can always tell when the characters boned off-page. And: M...
Sanjana and Tyler bravely enter the Goodreads discourse: the good, the bad, the entertaining. Then Alexandra Romanoff—author of 831’s Big Fan, Square Waves, and Vacation Self trilogy—joins to talk about moving from YA to adult romance, writing sex across genres, and whether teenagers can really get a happily ever after. Plus: The books and movies our hosts are most excited for this fall.
Sanjana and Tyler saw One Night Only, and, listener, they loved it. More on that before Business or Pleasure and Extracurricular author Rachel Lynn Solomon joins to talk about the fantasy and complications of celebrity romance. Plus: what our hosts read and watched in August (shoutout Scandal).
- The One Night Only verdict: Give yourself over to the premise, support theatrical rom-com releases, and acknowledge...
Why is it that some celebrity romances feel genuine and others feel like fake news? Sanjana and Tyler dig into the authenticity of it all before UTA literary agent Ariele Fredman joins to chat about what romance publishers want right now and what may be coming next. Then, Sanj and Tyler crown their Q3 Internet Boyfriends.
- Celebrity romances mentioned: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Matty Healy and Gabbriette...
Sanjana airs a pet peeve—the "didn't feel realistic" critique—and she and Tyler make the case that exaggeration is one of romance's best tools. Then Adrie Rose, a former sex worker and editor of the book of essays I Hate My Job, joins to talk about how the genre handles sex workers (not well) despite being kind of obsessed with writing them. And: Sanj completes her Tyler-assigned homework and comes back thrilled by The ...
Bring the steam: Sanjana and Tyler advocate that sex scenes count as character work and that too many books miss that opportunity. Then Kate Goldbeck—the author of You, Again and Daddy Issues—stops by to talk about what it's actually like to write romance in an era of chronically online readers and, well, Threads. To close things out, Sanj and Tyler make the case for messier, sillier plots: well-executed cheating and un...
Hear us out: An awkward sex scene can actually be better than a frictionless one. Take the examples Sanj and Tyler cite from Business or Pleasure and Act Your Age, Eve Brown! Then, Riss M. Neilson shares her experiences writing chronic illness and disability and delivering romance to characters who deserve love and steam. Plus, a what-we’ve-consumed-this-month roundup ending with a wildly bad Italian accent courtesy of a rewa...
Why an Emily Henry interview now? Sanjana and Tyler dig into Bloomberg’s recent piece on the author, where she discusses Hollywood adaptations and delivers the all-timer line: “A lot of actors think that it’s less humiliating to pretend to be a Beatle than it is to pretend to be in love.” Then: Naina Kumar joins to talk about heyday rom-com movies as novelistic underpinnings—see her latest, Just a High...
Are you on the vertical-video bandwagon? Or perhaps you’ll be more persuaded by another phenomenon, the C-drama, once you’ve heard @tritney’s take on the Chinese romance boom that has finally hit America. (Of course, she brings her starter-pack picks for anyone who wants to see some of the best eye-acting in action.) Then: Sanjana assigns Tyler Sherry Thomas's Private Arrangements, and Tyler becomes a full histori...
Sanjana and Tyler open by making the case that the World Cup is a 48-country meet-cute machine (see: kilted Scotsmen throwing women over their shoulders in Boston bars). Then KT Hoffman joins to talk baseball in romance: why the minor leagues are more romantic than the majors, why slow-burn and baseball are basically the same thing, and what it takes to write queer and trans joy into sports. And: Tyler and Sanjana watch Bull Durham...
Tyler and Sanjana kick things off this week with their take on Netflix’s Office Romance: The Brett Goldstein–Jennifer Lopez movie that features Betty Gilpin delivering one of the great rom-com best-friend performances in recent memory. Then Lyla Sage joins to talk about cowboy romance: fantasy vs. reality, writing about rural communities with actual texture in this political moment, and how atmosphere and landscape do t...
Sanjana takes the stand as the self-proclaimed number one age-gap defender, arguing that the trope is really about power, that demanding moral instruction from romance is a fundamentally conservative impulse, and that “reverse age-gap” is not a thing. Then debut novelist Anna Maria Volkova joins to talk about Games, her romance about an economics grad student and a Soviet-born Wall Street banker: why his Russianness spe...
Let’s dive into the BookTok discourse, shall we? Specifically, how algorithms work and why dismissing the community tends to say more about the dismisser than the community. Then debut romance novelist (and longtime cookbook author) Julia Turshen joins to talk about her 831 Stories novella Down to Earth, why food is the fastest way to put a reader in a room, the formula that cookbooks and romance novels quietly share, and wha...
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