Category: Episodes

There have recently been a bunch of ultraviolent makeovers of classic children’s stories. Some are schlocky horror fun. And some are just dreadful. Pinocchio Unstrung looks like promisingly gory twist on Carlo Collodi’s already scary tale, while THE BRIDE! was a painfully bad attempt to update Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

When researching the first published books of nursery rhymes, I found some hilariously inappropriate entries. Well, by modern standards, anyway. Please enjoy these silly, violent, and scatalogical poems. If you share them with your kids, don’t say I didn’t warn you if you find yourself in the principal’s office getting told off.

If you’d like to watch the full livestream including listener comments, you can find that here:

This episode comes from my recent livestream about Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and its Shakespearean influences.

The plot is a real-time metaphor for the end of the Cold War, highlighting larger-than-life personalities and critical historical moments in a way that Shakespeare did when writing his history plays. Klingon costumes are based on Elizabethan fashions, telling viewers exactly who each character is using only clothing. And the famous dinner scene both honors the original meaning of Hamlet and recontextualizes it in fascinating ways.

Join me by the fireside to hear the story known as the “Russian Cinderella,” which is funny and strange . . . and has the most unusual fairy godmother I’ve ever heard of.

This translation of the Russian fairy tale “Vaselesa the Beautiful” was done by Edith M. S. Hodgetts. Mrs. Hodgetts was born in Russia, though I could not discover the year. As a teen or young adult she moved to England, where she died in 1902. Her most famous book was Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar (1890), and the first story in it is “Vaselesa the Beautiful,” in which the Russian Cinderella meets Baba Yaga in the woods, is given the world’s most unusual flashlight, and manages to beat the odds with her especially helpful doll.

Other translations will spell the main character’s name as “Vasilisa” or render the title as “Vaselesa the Fair.” These are translator’s choices. I have preserved the original spelling and punctuation from Mrs. Hodgetts’ book so you can see how she wrote her version.

If you like Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, that’s fine. Just keep it far away from me, because I DON’T BRONTË. If you also don’t Brontë, you can get yourself a Wayne’s World style wall plaque from my Teespring Store:

I also share my latest Fireside Fairy Tale, which is my own contribution to the Little Red Riding Hood Tradition. Please enjoy “Little Red Head: A Hillbilly Fairy Tale.”

 

 

Join me on a pleasantly mild winter evening to toast a marshmallow and share my translation of “Rödkappchen,” or “Little Red Cap,” the German version of Little Red Riding Hood as collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in Kinder- und Hausmärchen, their 1812 collection of fairy tales.

This version is interesting because it has an alternate ending, in which you learn not to mess with a German grandma.

You can also get the commentary-free version of this tale on my storytelling channel:

This Fireside Fairy Tale is a double feature where I share my own translation of the very first Little Red Riding Hood story by Egbert of Liège from 1000 years ago as well as the very first English Translation of Little Red Riding Hood as written by Charles Perrault in his Mother Goose Tales.

De puella a lupellis servata by Egbert of Liège:

The Little Red Riding-Hood by Charles Perrault as translated by Robert Samber:

In this episode, we start off with a clip from our New Year’s Eve livestream in which we highlighted the best book-to-screen adaptaions of 2025. If you want to hear us dunking on the Mid, Meh, and Miserable adaptations of 2025, check that out on our YouTube Channel:

Also, I’ve got some Book Drama for you that came in over the holidays. Santa Claus apparently needs to be decolonized and David Walliams, one of the biggest children’s writers ever, has been dropped by his publisher for alleged bad behavior toward women.

This was recorded a few days after Bonfire Night, when it’s common for massive fireworks to go off in England . . . even right next door! This made for a fun backdrop to one of the darkest stories in Kinder-und Hausmärchen, the collection of tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812. This is my own translation of the story.

My treat for this Fireside Fairy Tale is a lovely sugar frosted pumpkin-shaped marshmallow that toasted up beautifully, with the outside crystallizing and the inside going nice and gooey.

You can hear this story without any commentary (or fireworks) at my storytelling channel:

In this episode, you will find:

• On the nice list: A reading of the earliest Winnie-the-Pooh story, which turns 100 years old on Christmas Eve 2025
• On the naughty list: the worst film adaptations of children’s books this year
• A reading of my new translation of “Die Wichtelmänner,” usually translated in English as “The Elves and the Shoemaker.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!