The Animorphs Cookbook
Everything you need to know about literary theory, philosophy, politics, and the human condition that can be learned from reading The Animorphs.
Episodes
Narration duties cycle back to Jake just in time for the obligatory time-travel required of all franchises above a certain size. The gang encounters jaguars, monkeys, and quantum suicides. Oh my!
In < thoughtspeak >, Thaddeus returns (and returns and returns) to the question of what time travel is really for.
Max (he/him)Thaddeus (she/her)Caleb (he/him)
We got boys turning into skinwalker dogs to listen to the Offspring while robot dogs manipulate mankind to look after actual dogs! It's topsy-turvy in Book 10 as we are introduced to the Chee and a major expansion to Animorph cosmology.
In , Caleb talks about verisimilitude, the acceleration of the series away from it, and how Applegate and Grant avoid one of the biggest traps in modern fiction.
We're back with the next Cassie book, so you know this tree-hugging has claws...and smells! The gang joins our heroes as they agonize over the ethics of carnivores and the logistics of practical ecoterrorism, and we try not to get too hung up on that time the body-snatching alien army got beaten by a skunk.
In , Max walks us through some of the history of US environmentalism informing the Animorphs and ways the evoluti...
Ax book! Ax book! Ax book! It's time for the first foray of our fan-favorite narrator. The gang talks about delicious globules, the charm of stupid plans, and Animorphs as high farce.
Then it's Caleb's turn to reply-all some < thoughtspeak > as he refamilizarizes our audience with "defamiliarization," the Russian formalists, and alienated perspective as an essential sci-fi tool.
Max (he/him)Thadd...
With the series on the way to moon, it's time for the first Megamorphs! We break down the first super-sized helping of Animorphs like a swarm of nanomachines eating a birthday party.
In thoughspeak, Thaddeus provides us the shortest title for a critical examination of Animorphs thus far :"All Novels Are Megamorphs, or The Novel is the Genre of Chaos (Complimentary)" Mikhail Bakhtin shows up for the first time as a guest, and it won...
It's Elimist time! The ultimate race of deus ex machina-loving John de Lancie analogs shows up to stop our heroes from non-consensual vore and ask "Dr. Who, who?" We reintroduce the series' #1 bullshit wizard and prep for the ensuing time shenanigans.
Fittingly, all this time-travel has Max Thoughtspeaking about contingency and lost futures.
As if the cosmic and body horrors weren't enough! It's time for some full-blown existential dread in Book 6 as Jake gets a front-row seat to Yeerk infestation. We discuss alien jacuzzi genocides, extraordinary Animorph rendition, and how well Ax can actually throw hands [tail].
In
Marco takes his first stab at narration when he's not busy refusing the call to action. Our shorms provide a recap and discuss the DNA-deep treat-lust of human teens, the genre of Animorph-ian farce, and the incompetence of Yeerk expeditionary forces.
In Thoughspeak, Caleb mindcasts about the concept of the panopticon and the paranoid surveillance logic that drives narration of the whole series.
Max (he/him)
It's time to get aquatic and rescue some Andalites! Our hosts dream-SOS a summary of the first Cassie book and discuss the addition of the sixth Animorph: Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
For < Thoughtspeak >, Max takes us through the Utopian Scholastic aesthetic that so dominated the world of the characters and their young audience.
Max (he/him)
Thaddeus (she/her)
Caleb (he/him)
It's the first Tobias book! Our underground podcasting cell talks about hawk-4-hawk, light ecoterrorism, and nepo Yeerks, delighting as KA Applegate follows Chandler's immortal writing advice: "When in doubt, have a hawk fly through the window with a dracon beam."
In , Thaddeus introduces us to New Criticism with some big feelings about Tobias as a metaphor for trans experience.
HOSTS
Max (he/him)
Thaddeus (she/her)<...
We delve into Book 2 - The Visitor this week, our first foray into the mind of the most militant of Animorphs. Rachel takes control as Fluffer the feline spy, and we get our first look into the interior workings of the Yeerk conspiracy (and also learn Visser Three is a cat guy).
In
The Cookbook has the privilege of interviewing Gretchen Felker-Martin (she/her), award-winning and bestselling author of Manhunt, Cuckoo, and Black Flame.
We talk about the influence of Animorphs on her upcoming novel CHIMERA, as well as the shifting landscape of children's literature, the perils of adaptation, the best morph for a night on the town, and much, much more.
The book that started it all! Like everything in the 90s, it all starts at the mall. Less than a chapter later, five teens are conscripted child soldiers in an alien war....
After a recap of the plot, the gang indulges in some on the material conditions that created the Animorphs phenomenon: namely, the Scholastic corporation. The market conditions of the late 90's forged what Animorphs could be, who it could reach, ...
In which Max, Caleb, and Thaddeus discuss how they first got into the Animorphs and what to expect from this podcast.
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