In this week’s episode, John speaks with fiction writer and editor Dave Housley about the joys of using writing prompts, the problem-solving of writing meaningfully improbable stories inspired by pop culture, and the limits of post-modern irony. His newest books is Aliens Attack!, now out with Mason Jar Press.

In this week's show, Rachael Tillman and I discuss The Bell Jar, in part 3 of our series on Sylvia Plath.

If you are keen, check out the previous installments: episodes 685 (The Colossus and Other Poems) and 693 (Emily Van Duyne's Loving Sylvia Plath).

Sophia Ferrara returns to the secret HQ of TDO to chat about the pleasure-filled dystopia of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, while John freaks out about the novel's structure or lack thereof.

In #710, Sophia Ferrara returns to the secret HQ of TDO to chat about the dystopia of Rollerball, as imagined in the film and the short story, which was called "Roller Ball Murder." Jonathan E and his pal Moonpie turn out to be a threat to The Corporation while thriving in a technocratic bloodsport. Good times.