Folklore & Fiction

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in November 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about performance with help from scholars Dan Ben-Amos, Roger D. Abrahams, Richard Bauman, and others, author and playwright William Shakespeare, and the McGahan Lees Irish Danc...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in October 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about child lore with help from scholars Gary Alan Fine and others, author Philip Pullman, and The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin. I'm also exploring the use of chi...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in September 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about language and verbal lore with help from scholars J.L. Austin and Richard Bauman, author Frank Herbert, Swedish performers Emma Åslund and Åsa Larsson, and others. I'm als...

This edition is a departure from my promised two-part discussion of language and verbal lore, which will be condensed and presented in a single edition next month. Instead, I'm answering the call of folklore scholar Phillips Stevens Jr., who argues that folklorists are uniquely qualified to address harmful collective narratives and because of this, they have "a professional and moral responsibility to share their knowledge." I'm al...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in July 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about material culture with help from the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, scholars Judith Farquhar and Simon Bronner, The Joy of Vegan Baking, and the 2005 science fic...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in June 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. At the summer and winter solstices, I mimic the sun and pause to reflect on my own creative work. In this edition, I'm discussing representation issues in fiction with a passage from my short story "D...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in May 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about folk customs with help from scholars Richard Sweterlitsch and Wayland Hand, author Naomi Novik, and friends Vigdís Andersen and Sveinn Svavarsson, among others. (Companion Disp...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in April 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing curses with help from scholars Natalie Underberg, Evangelos Gr. Avdikos, and others, outlining the use of curses in storytelling, and providing you with an example and a reflect...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a supplementary newsletter in March 2020, shortly after the pandemic was declared. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing the value of keeping a journal you can pass on to others. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/folklore-fiction...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in March 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing charms with help from scholars J. Stanley Hopkins, Jonathan Roper, and others, discussing the use of charms in storycraft, and providing you with an example and an exercise on t...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in February 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing superstitions with help from scholars Ülo Valk, Torunn Selberg, Alan Dundes, and others, discussing superstition in the context of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of books,...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in January 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing rites of passage with help from scholars Arnold van Gennep, Alan Dundes, and others, discussing rites of passage in fiction, and providing you with storytelling insights relat...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in November 2019. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing ritual with help from scholars Catherine Bell, Ronald L. Grimes, and others, discussing ritual use in story craft, and providing you with an example and exercise on the topic...

This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in October 2019. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm discussing the tall tale with help from scholars Richard Bauman, Carolyn S. Brown, Henry B. Wonham, and others, helping you analyze a tall tale, and discussing ways to bring tall tales t...