Jo's Boys: A Little Women Podcast

Apr 12 2024 56 ep. 49 mins 116

Jo's Boys: A Little Women Podcast artwork

Jo's Boys is a podcast for little women, little men, and everyone in between! We'll be reading through "Little Women" chapter by chapter, pulling out rainbow threads as we go. Our guests include best-selling authors, legendary activists, and veteran Alcott scholars. Your host is Peyton Thomas, author of the award-winning novel "Both Sides Now," whose non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times and Vanity Fair.

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Chapter 47: Harvest Time with Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Apr 12 2024 47 mins

And then they realized: They were no longer little girls. They were little women. Joining us for the final episode of the podcast are Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo. Rey and Bre are the author-illustrator team behind Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, a graphic novel adaptation of Little Women. Rey is also the New York Times bestselling author of many other books, including the award-winning Fre

Chapter 46: Under the Umbrella with Willow Catelyn Maclay

Mar 15 2024 46 mins

Wedding march or funeral dirge? We're joined to discuss the penultimate (and Peyton's least-favorite) chapter of Little Women by film critic Willow Catelyn Maclay. Willow is a film critic for publications like The Village Voice, Roger Ebert, Vulture, Little White Lies, Cleo Journal, MUBI Notebook, and many, many more. She has done freelance work with Netflix and the Academy of Moti

Chapter 45: Daisy and Demi with Claire Forrest

Jan 26 2024 45 mins

We're joined today by Claire Forrest, the award-winning author of Where You See Yourself, to chat all about the two youngest members of the March family -- well, the Brooke family. It's perhaps the most heterosexual chapter of this book to date, but we soldier on, and we also chat about Claire's outstanding debut novel and her publishing journey as a woman with cerebral palsy. Our

Chapter 44: My Lord and Lady with Mel and Teghan Hammond

Jan 12 2024 38 mins

Amy and Laurie play the newlywed game, smear the Irish, and invent Reaganomics. What a whirlwind! With us to discuss everyone's favourite (?) femme4femme couple are sister duo Mel and Teghan Hammond, authors of the forthcoming novel Lucy Uncensored. The novel stars a trans theatre nerd named Lucy who faces challenges when her school board bans her queer adaptation of “The Tempest

Chapter 43: Surprises with Martha Nell Smith

Dec 29 2023 66 mins

Jo falls asleep fantasizing about becoming a literary spinster with a pen for a spouse. What follows had better be a dream sequence. Here to heap vials of wrath on the head of one Lou Alcott is legendary Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith. Dr. Smith is the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, Professor of English, and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute of Technology in the Huma

Chapter 42: All Alone with Christine Jacobson

Dec 15 2023 55 mins

In the wake of her sister's death, Jo decides to take up Beth's mantle and become the angel of the house. When that doesn't work, she heads over to Meg's place to hear the pitch for motherhood. When that doesn't work, she wonders if she made a mistake turning down Laurie's proposal. (Little does she know that Laurie and Amy are presently boning down in a rowboat in the Alps.) Whose

Chapter 41: Learning to Forget with Torrey Peters

Dec 01 2023 54 mins

This week, Amy and Laurie consummate their love in a rowboat. Their romance has mystified readers and scholars for over a hundred years, but here, today, right now, award-winning author Torrey Peters will help us get to the bottom of it. (Spoiler alert: Laurie is the bottom.) Torrey is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Debut Nove

Scrap Bag: Bringing Beth Back to Life with D.L. Mayfield

Nov 16 2023 68 mins

As we mourn our dear, sweet Beth, we sit down with author and journalist D.L. Mayfield to discuss what her story means. Why does Alcott portray Beth as "a little saint" and "the angel of the house?" What message is she sending? Is it anything like the messages little girls hear in high-control evangelical Christianity? D.L. Mayfield is an author and journalist who writes about neu

Chapter 40: The Valley of the Shadow with Saul Leslie

Nov 03 2023 58 mins

Good night, sweet Beth, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Here to mourn the most meek and mild of the March sisters is disability scholar Saul Leslie, a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool who studies portrayals of disability in 20th century literature. Is there anything to admire about Alcott's depiction of this poor #invalid? Does she tick every box of hurtful

Chapter 39: Lazy Laurence with Alena Smith

Oct 20 2023 58 mins

As things heat up between Amy and Laurie, we're joined by Alena Smith, creator and showrunner of Dickinson, a television show for the exact demographic of this podcast. Like, have you ever wept openly at a Mitski concert? Can you not shut up about how every 19th century literary figure was part of the #RainbowCommunity? Do you have feelings for Chloe Fineman despite her association