The Inklings Variety Hour

Jan 31 2025 100 ep. 52 mins 18
The Inklings Variety Hour Podcast artwork

Welcome to “The Inklings Variety Hour,” where fans and scholars discuss the lives and works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and the works and authors that inspired them.

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From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 4 (Saturday Rerun)

Jan 31 2025 66 mins  
From the vaults! More of C.S. Lewis' underrated final novel! Original description: In which Anika and Chris reveal the fairly shallow reason we had for doing Till We Have Faces this year and accidentally endorse human sacrifice. Mostly, we talk about Chapter 7, in which Orual and Psyche say goodbye, and Chapter 8, in which Orual decides to journey to the mountain and recover Psych

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 3 (Saturday Rerun)

Jan 24 2025 75 mins  
Enjoy! Original Episode Description:

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 2 (Saturday Rerun)

Jan 17 2025 79 mins  
Till We Have Faces, Part 2! Here are the original shownotes: In the spirit of Groundhog's Day, Chris and Anika dig into Chapters 3-4 of Lewis' Till We Have Faces, which retells the Cupid and Psyche myth. We discuss, among other things: The apparent popularity of J.G. Frazer in Glome "Foxy Redival's Flirtations" Whether we're the worst at what we care about most (and other cheeri

From the Old Winyards: Till We Have Faces, Part 1 (Saturday Rerun)

Jan 11 2025 65 mins  
Sorry about the late upload! Enjoy! From the original episode description: Welcome back to The Inklings Variety Hour! It's a new year, and Ungit has only just hatched out of her egg-house (or something), but already, your intrepid hosts are tackling C.S. Lewis' novel, Till We Have Faces (1956)--widely considered the best novel he ever wrote. Chris, Anika, and Meagan discuss this

From the Old Winyards: Smith of Wootton Major, Part 2 (Saturday Rerun)

Jan 03 2025 52 mins  
Happy New Year! Kora Burton rejoins Chris to discuss Tolkien's last fairy (or is it faerie?) story, "Smith of Wootton Major" (1967). Smith of Wootton Major is a short story, a parable about the nature of what Tolkien called “fayery” or “Faerie,” an evocative fairy tale in its own right, as well as a melancholy meditation on the loss of artistic capacity. Though told simply

From the Old Winyards: Smith of Wootton Major, Part 1 (Saturday Rerun)

Dec 27 2024 28 mins  
From the Old Winyards: It's Time for the Feast of Good Children (to which not many are invited). ___________________________________ Kora Burton joins Chris to discuss Tolkien's last fairy (or is it faerie?) story, "Smith of Wootton Major." Smith of Wootton Major (1967) is Tolkien’s last work of fiction and was begun as part of an Introduction to an edition of George MacDonald�

An Inklings Christmas Carol (Repeat)

Dec 20 2024 44 mins  
For the first time, all three parts of last year's Christmas play are edited together. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas. Previous description: At last! Here is the first part of a (Zoom) table reading of my "play" (loosely defined), "An Inklings Christmas Carol." Two more (longer) parts are to come! Gee, it's a good thing Christmas begins on December 25, or I'd be out of time. Twelve Ti

From the Old Winyards: Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters (Saturday Rerun)

Dec 13 2024 88 mins  
Enjoy this gently used Christmas gift from Ghost of Inklings Variety Hours Past! It's an Inklings Variety Hour Jovial Christmas Extravaganza! Featuring: A Discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas! Chris Pipkin and his children, Davey and Virginia! Anika Smith! (First half of show) Meagan Logsdon! (Second half of show) A cringeworthy impersonation of an old Br

The Wind in the Willows

Dec 09 2024 86 mins  
Chris is joined by Angela Teal and Marena Bleech of In the Burrow Books to discuss Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows! More episode description to come! In the meantime, enjoy!

Twelve Tide (Saturday Rerun)

Dec 06 2024 57 mins  
Original Description: O.G. Host Anika Smith rejoins the podcast to interview Chris and his beautiful and omnicompetent wife, Glencora, about their new Christmas resource book, Twelve Tide. Part of what we're trying to do with this book is make Christmas less a single-morning present binge preceded by anxiety and followed by anticlimax--and more a season of twelve days of giving, f