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Introducing a brand new podcast from The Public Medievalist! The Public Medievalcast is going to be all the content you know and love from us here at The Public Medievalist in a new format: stories that connect the medieval and the modern, and that delve into the ways in which the medieval world– for better and for worse– still has a place in modern culture, politics, and more.
For now, this is an experiment. So, we would love your feedback! And if you are interested in helping us with this new adventure, get in touch at editor@publicmedievalist.com.
Ep. 1: A Conversation of Ice and Fire (with Kinitra Brooks, Shiloh Carroll, and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas)
Our first episode is a post-Game of Thrones group discussion with three scholars who have a lot of thoughts about how the show came to a close. They are: Kinitra Brooks (Michigan State), Shiloh Carroll (The Public Medievalist), and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (University of Pennsylvania). They discuss how David Benioff and D. B. Weiss “sh*t the bed” with the final episode “The Iron Throne”, and how their depictions of women and people of color disappointed to the very end. George R.R. Martin might not be comfortable with it too, though he may be uncomfortable all the way to the bank.
But our panelists didn’t stop there– these scholars dissect the necessary questions about why representation matters in medieval fantasy and event TV, and about what other works of fiction are doing it much, much better.
Books by our Panelists
The Lemonade Reader, edited by Kinitra D. Brooks and Kameelah L. Martin.
The essays, written by both scholars and popular bloggers, reflects a broad yet uniquely specific black feminist investigation into constructions of race, gender, spirituality, and southern identity.
Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, by Shiloh Carroll.
Game of Thrones is famously inspired by the Middle Ages – but how “authentic” is the world it presents?
The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.
Reveals the diversity crisis in children’s and young adult media as not only a lack of representation, but a lack of imagination.
Recommended by our Panelists:
The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle
The Inheritance Trilogy, by N.K. Jemisin (and everything else she’s written)
Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor (and everything else she’s written)
Show Credits:
Host: Paul B. Sturtevant
Panelists: Kinitra D. Brooks, Shiloh Carroll, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
Transcription by Samantha Mcdonald
Show Music: “Medieval Joy” by MusicHook
Special thanks to the Medieval Academy of America
