Unfortunately Required Reading
119 episodes - English - Latest episode: 17 days ago - ★★★★★ - 13 ratingsReview and relive the books that made you cringe in school, but now with cocktails and sass. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
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Episodes
Little Scam on the Prairie (Little House on the Prairie)
April 13, 2024 22:50 - 1 hour - 79.9 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, Manifest Destiny, the Minnesota Massacre, the lie of Westward expansion and why neither host can spell prairie. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Basically, Just Real Life in Late Stage Capitalism (Fahrenheit 451)
March 16, 2024 20:54 - 1 hour - 87.1 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Episode 110: I Bet on Losing Dogs (Lady Chatterley's Lover)
February 17, 2024 20:40 - 1 hour - 69.7 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Lady Chatterley's Lover, sex politics, and what DH Lawrence means by a "crisis." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Strong Independent Pilgrim (Little Women)
January 20, 2024 20:11 - 1 hour - 84.6 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, and the myth of typical femininity. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
A Bug's Life (Metamorphosis)
December 17, 2023 00:42 - 1 hour - 74 MBThis month Amanda and Victoria discuss Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, traumatic childhood abuse, and the utterly depressing life of Franz Kafka. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
This Time, We Want to Join a Cult (or Build a Submarine)
November 12, 2023 00:42 - 2 hours - 132 MBBaron Von Cheeseplate returns to discuss 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne with Amanda and Victoria. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Do You Want to Get Sued? (The Shining)
October 07, 2023 20:48 - 2 hours - 134 MBFor Spooky Month Amanda and Victoria discuss Stephen King's infamous work The Shining, alcoholism, hotels, and Stanley Kubrick. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
A Whole New World (Brave New World)
September 09, 2023 20:26 - 2 hours - 117 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, ethnobotany, drugs, and enough weird stuff to fill a 2-hour podcast. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Episode 104: Paper Folding Peace Signs (Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes)
August 19, 2023 19:15 - 1 hour - 78.9 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, as well as the atomic bomb and the lasting effects on America and how it is viewed internationally. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Look Down (Les Miserables)
July 22, 2023 23:50 - 1 hour - 76.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Victor Hugo's massive fan fiction, Les Misérables. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Is the Movie Better? (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
June 10, 2023 20:15 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Happy Pride! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Animal Harm (Animal Farm)
May 20, 2023 23:48 - 1 hour - 89.8 MBThis month Amanda and Victoria discuss George Orwell's Animal Farm, and the historical events that inspired it. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
F*** You, Mark Twain
April 22, 2023 20:29 - 1 hour - 84.9 MBBy some miracle, we made it to 100 episodes. This week we discuss Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and wonder why we give this book to children. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
I Dreamed I Went to Mandalay Bay Last Night (Rebecca)
March 30, 2023 01:57 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Death From Above (The War of the Worlds)
March 18, 2023 21:02 - 1 hour - 107 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss HG Wells as The War of the Worlds. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
The Ultimate KGB C*ck Block (Doctor Zhivago)
February 26, 2023 19:52 - 1 hour - 73.6 MBThis is the reuploaded version of our episode on Doctor Zhivago. Some listeners advised the end had been cut off by our editing software. Thank you! This week Amanda and Victoria discuss the drag that is Doctor Zhivago and why it was so scary to the USSR. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
The Ultimate KGB C*ck Block (Doctor Zhivago)
February 25, 2023 23:08 - 1 hour - 60.5 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss the drag that is Doctor Zhivago and why it was so scary to the USSR. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/unfortunately-required/support
A Guide to Why Your Black Friends Are Exhausted (A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas)
February 12, 2023 00:08 - 1 hour - 84.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
The Return of Two Host One Mic (The Secret Garden)
January 21, 2023 19:01 - 50 minutes - 47.2 MBAmanda and Victoria FINALLY get to record together in person for the first time in....almost three years? Welcome back with The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We discuss ableism, rest cures, and the garden metaphor. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
A Thinly Veiled Cult Metaphor? (Jonathan Livingston Seagull)
January 07, 2023 20:11 - 53 minutes - 49.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria read a book that managed to break Victoria, Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Cottage Core White Girl Fantasies (The Witch of Blackbird Pond)
December 18, 2022 22:37 - 58 minutes - 54 MBAmanda and Victoria discuss The Witch of Blackbird Pond and why Kit definitely would have been found guilty of witchcraft in Connecticut. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Being a Mermaid is Just One Giant Metaphor, Isn't It? (Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid)
December 11, 2022 01:27 - 1 hour - 73.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss the uncomfortable dating history of Hans Christan Andersen...wait, we mean The Little Mermaid. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Do Androids Dream of Dick? (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep)
November 19, 2022 17:22 - 1 hour - 66.4 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick, the book that was adapted loosely into Blade Runner. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
So You're Saying I Can Dodge? (Neuromancer)
November 06, 2022 00:40 - 1 hour - 87 MBAmanda, Victoria, and special guest Baron Von Cheeseplate discuss William Gibson's Neuromancer. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Trauma All the Way Down (The Haunting of Hill House)
October 23, 2022 20:03 - 1 hour - 64.9 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria cover spooky season with Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Episode 88: It Was a Monkey? (Murders in the Rue Morgue)
October 08, 2022 20:42 - 56 minutes - 52 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe for Spooky Season. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
These are the MF Jokes (Oedipus Rex)
September 24, 2022 19:08 - 1 hour - 71.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Sophocles' work Oedipus Rex (aka Oedipus the King) and make surprisingly few jokes about incest. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Sexting in the Time of Cholera (Love in the Time of Cholera)
September 10, 2022 21:38 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria read Love in the Time of Cholera. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Encanto with Incest (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
August 13, 2022 20:32 - 1 hour - 73.1 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss the most beloved Latin American novel of all time, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Sartre Diem (No Exit)
July 31, 2022 16:58 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Sartre's one-act play No Exit. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
A Night with Uncle Tennessee (The Lady of Larkspur Lotion)
July 23, 2022 21:19 - 1 hour - 61.3 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Tennesse Williams' one act play, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Mimosas are Not the Only Brunch Beverage (Oranges are Not the Only Fruit)
July 01, 2022 02:31 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are Not the Only Fruit. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Getting Dragged by Gods (the Iliad)
June 18, 2022 22:27 - 1 hour - 83.2 MBThis week we discuss the Iliad for Pride month. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
nolite te bastardes carborundorum (The Handmaid's Tale)
May 28, 2022 19:30 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and despair. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Another Robbie Burns Inspired Book (Of Mice and Men)
May 14, 2022 18:33 - 1 hour - 61.6 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria unpack Of Mice and Men, the exploitation of the American worker, and the utter exhaustion of existence. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Like Ducks on a Frozen Pond (Catcher in the Rye)
April 23, 2022 18:41 - 1 hour - 62.4 MBThis week Amanda is drug kicking and screaming into a book they didn't have to read in school and Victoria has flashbacks to dating people who need therapy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Being an Adult at 13 Sucks (Dicey's Song)
April 09, 2022 01:10 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss the heartbreaking book Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voight. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Irish Catholic Childhoods are Hard (Angela's Ashes)
March 26, 2022 19:54 - 1 hour - 65 MBhis week, Amanda and Victoria discuss the memoir Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Unfortunately Apt War Allegory is a War Allegory
March 12, 2022 20:27 - 1 hour - 63.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Art Spiegelman's Maus and the Holocaust. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
And Nothing Has Changed Since 1974
February 19, 2022 19:44 - 1 hour - 65.8 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria are exhausted and discuss James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
A thinly veiled excuse to talk about Cruel Intentions (Dangerous Liaisons)
February 05, 2022 02:47 - 1 hour - 72.7 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria decide to discuss Cruel Intentions instead of Dangerous Liaisons. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Button-Induced Trauma (Coraline)
January 22, 2022 20:16 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBThis week Amanda and Tori unpack Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and a lot of childhood trauma in the process. Oh god, those button eyes. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Bet You're Pronouncing It Wrong (Eugene Onegin)
January 08, 2022 19:11 - 48 minutes - 45 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Alexander Puskin's Eugene Onegin and celebrate a delayed birthday month. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
A Different Goddess in Every Port or Group Projects are a Nightmare (The Odyssey)
November 27, 2021 20:49 - 1 hour - 85.3 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria tackle the Odyssey and the audacity. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
The Amount of Descriptors Tax My Wits
November 06, 2021 22:04 - 1 hour - 90.5 MBYou've waited. You've watched. BARON VON CHEESEPLATE RIDES AGAIN! This week Amanda, Victoria, and the Baron (aka Jason) return to discuss Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Really Close Friends, Roommates, Just So Close (Carmilla)
October 30, 2021 19:26 - 1 hour - 80 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss Carmilla by J. Sheridan le Fanu. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Spooky Incel Sh*t (Sleepy Hollow)
October 16, 2021 18:46 - 1 hour - 70.3 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria go through Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Did you know Washington Irving was a George Washington Fanboy? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
The Very Worst Suicide Squad Film (A Separate Peace)
September 18, 2021 18:17 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria continue pain month with John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace. It is not peaceful. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
Only Legal in Washington State (Equus)
September 04, 2021 18:35 - 1 hour - 62.2 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss the Peter Schaffer play Equus and question our life choices. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support
All Loud on the Eastern Back
August 21, 2021 19:07 - 1 hour - 76.3 MBThis week Amanda and Victoria discuss World War 1 and The Erich Maria Remarque book All Quiet on the Western Front. As mentioned in our content warning this week: https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help/hotline --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/unfortunately-required/support