STORYBEAST
A podcast for story lovers, Storybeast explores how we weave tales and why we love them. Co-hosts Ghabiba Weston and C. Shack chat with each other and legendary guests about different elements of various books, tv shows, plays, and other modalities to explore this fundamental aspect of humanity. Come for the story, stay for the snacks.
Episodes
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Nisha J. Tuli.
Nisha J Tuli is a New York Times, USA Today, Sunday Times, Indie Next, and Spiegel bestselling author. Her book, Trial of the Sun Queen, became a BookTok hit, selling over a million copi...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- Brief writing updates
- A chat about Build Your Author Empire coming Summer 2026
- And tons of trash talking for the snackdown (ever want to eat a slowburn romantasy with sides of wound tending and training sequences with tension in an academy setting?)
Tune in to see if the...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Zeyneb Holdridge.
Born in Vancouver, B.C., Zeyneb Holdridge was raised to embrace her Turkish Iraqi heritage, which has informed her passion for infusing her lifelong love of storytelling with elements...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- the brain hack guide Ghabiba and Courtney are putting together for you
- naming your resistance
- challenging your resistance!
- personalizing and framing your hack approaches
- our favourite hacks from the guide
- being in conversation with yourself
And, of course, the snackdown tra...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Pascale Lacelle.
Pascale Lacelle is the New York Times bestselling author of CURIOUS TIDES and STRANGER SKIES. A longtime devourer of books, she started writing her own at the age of thirteen and quick...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- the balance of ambition and mom guilt
- phases and emulation teaching you your boundaries
- how your creativity changes through different phases
- celebrating and mourning at the same time
- writing in the cracks of life
- feedback on our writer persona experiment
- journaling through chan...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Ruth McKell.
Ruth McKell writes haunting and hopeful tales she hopes will make your heart ache, just a little bit. Her debut, HONEY IN HER VEINS, has been described as "cottagecore with teeth." Steeped...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- coming back to your story truth
- sitting with your imposter syndrome
- when critical feedback has its value (and when it doesn't)
- the devil you know
- setting up your emotional environment
- unlocking your process by shifting mediums, and how this can relieve the weight of expectation
- ...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Premee Mohamed.
Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Ignyte, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been ...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode, you'll hear:
- Courtney's process of following Chelsea Abdullah's reverse outline
- considerations on how to frame a revision approach to suit your needs
- building your path to guide your next steps (esp. when life challenges your usual writing routine)
- the shiny outline
- how renaming can help with re...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Vajra Chandrasekera.
Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His novels THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS and RAKESFALL have between them won the Le Guin, Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and Otherwise...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- making sparkly lists
- query word economy
- mirroring truths from query to novel and back
- tension, stakes, and enticing character traits
- tapping into and reflecting your own joy
For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary A.D. Sui.
A.D. Sui is a Ukrainian-born, internationally raised speculative writer. They are a Nebula winner, and an Aurora, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist.
They are the author of The Drag...
Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.
In this episode:
- Courtney shares her cool new name.
- the beasts discuss adapting writing realities to life changes.
- you'll hear about the values, lessons and real talk behind not writing the story of your heart.
- Courtney shares her tip for revisions progress (be ready for girl math).
- Courtney and Ghabiba share th...
Welcome to the final installment of our spoiler filled breakdown of Arcane Season 2! In this episode, Ghabiba and McKell discuss that "WHAT JUST HAPPENED??" ending.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- McKell's aquamarine tea
- the conflict of happy endings for conflicting characters
- the two elements Ghabiba thinks make for a satisfying ending
- the role of fairness and the shaping of villains in allowing viewers to extend grace to other...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Carla Hoch.
CARLA HOCH is the author of the Writer’s Digest book Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes as well as Fight Write, Round Two: Crafting Chaos, Combat and Crime. Carla has b...
Welcome to the second installment of our SPOILER FILLED breakdown of Arcane Season 2! In this episode, Ghabiba and McKell discuss what makes us who we are through the lens of analyzing Arcane's characters.
You'll hear about:
- the alternate reality what-if episode that made our hearts ache
- the tool of using a character who reflects our feelings
- the types of grief that shape us
- where we situate the self
- how the shape of your world shape...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Kalla Harris.
A full-time daydreamer, KALLA HARRIS has wanted to be an author since she was eight years old--although she's now traded her composition notebooks for a computer. When she's not writing h...
Welcome to the first in a three-part series where Ghabiba Weston and Ruth McKell take a deep dive into the fantastic storytelling of ARCANE, Season 2.
In this episode, you'll hear about:
- home made "something" berry jam
- emotional salience when consuming story
- redemption arc essential ingredients
- intention vs. consequence
- the gift of empathy: redemption through perspective
For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ...
Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Dr. Grace Nosek.
Dr. Grace Nosek is a long-time community organizer, storyteller, and sociolegal scholar focusing on environmental justice and democracy. She centers justice, joyful community, storytel...
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