Gom Jabbar: A Dune Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Irulan Corrino Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

Princess Irulan Corrino, Shaddam IV's eldest daughter and Paul's wife in name only, finally gets her own character deep dive. Abu and Leo dig into what the Dune Encyclopedia says about her life and legacy, with an eye on Florence Pugh's return to the role in Dune: Part Three.

Dune historians are brutal about Irulan's Bene Gesserit abilities, yet they also credit her as an independent thinker who never fully bought into the Sisterhood, and her near silence about her own mother hints at what the record leaves out. Her schemes in Dune Messiah get written off as "small spurts of rebellion," and the hosts make the case that her history was sanded down to fit the cult of St. Irulan the Virgin that rose a century after her death. They also run through highlights of the writings recovered in the Rakis Finds, including The Chakobsa Way, Arrakis Awakening, and a drama called Ornithopera. The episode closes on how Denis Villeneuve might move her to the center of the conspiracy.

This episode contains SPOILERS for Children of Dune.

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Greenslaves and Occupation Force: Frank Herbert Before Dune Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Abu and Leo dig into "Greenslaves" and "Occupation Force," two stories Herbert wrote in the decade before Dune made him famous, to see what they reveal about the mind behind the books.

"Greenslaves," published in Amazing in March 1965 and later expanded into the novel The Green Brain, follows a Brazilian extermination program built to wipe out every last insect, and the swarm that has learned to disguise itself to survive it. In "Occupation Force," published in Fantastic in 1955, a U.S. general readies the nukes against an alien ship parked over Washington, only for its ambassador to deliver a reveal about exactly how long humans have actually been under alien rule.

This episode contains SPOILERS for Frank Herbert's short stories Greenslaves and Occupation Force. There are NO SPOILERS for the Dune novels.

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Lost Entries: Psychology of the Sardaukar and Harkonnens Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

Abu and Leo finish their Lost Entries run through Carl B. Yoke's psychology manuscripts, uncovered at the Fullerton Archives. This week they read two unpublished Dune Encyclopedia entries on the psychology of the Sardaukar and the Harkonnens.

The Sardaukar entry centers on the Dhama ti Kama, the corps' secret training manual, which Lady Margot Fenring somehow stole for the Bene Gesserit. Its author, the Sardau shaman Kiwan Kalama, lays out a Freudian program for turning children into warriors, and it is every bit as grim as that sounds. The Harkonnen entry introduces Dr. Amertine Moritani Harkonnen, a granddaughter of Shaddam IV who married into the family after the Baron's death and made him the subject of her Study of the Dark Side.

This episode contains SPOILERS for Children of Dune.

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Book Club: Hunters of Dune (Part 2) Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Abu and Leo finish Hunters of Dune, the first book in Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's conclusion of the Dune saga. They break down the back half of the book and vent their feelings about how this is all just so wrong.

They cover the Ithaca's stalled journey through the Scattering, Duncan Idaho's fixation on the absent Murbella, and the ghola children growing up aboard the no-ship. On Chapterhouse, Murbella's war against the Honored Matres comes to a head, including the reveal that the Honored Matres descend in part from Tleilaxu women. Uxtal's doomed attempt to resurrect a Tleilaxu master and Khrone's efforts to reawaken a young Baron Harkonnen push the ghola storylines toward their conclusions. Along the way, the mysterious old couple behind the Scattering's chaos finally comes into focus, setting up next episode's dive into Sandworms of Dune.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus the entirety of Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

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Lost Entries: Psychology of the Fremen Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

An unpublished Dune Encyclopedia manuscript called Psychology of the Fremen never made it past Willis E. McNelly's editing desk, until now. Abu and Leo dig into what got cut, in part one of a two-episode dive into the Fullerton archives' unreleased psychology entries.

Carl B. Yoke, a Kent State University professor, wrote it as one of five planned psychology profiles that also covered the Bene Gesserit, the Sardaukar, the Harkonnens, and the Imperium. Yoke's Fremen entry builds its case through an invented smuggler-poet, whose writings and observations of Fremen psychology survived in the Bene Gesserit archives on Wallach IX. From there, Abu and Leo trace a psychological system mapped almost entirely onto Carl Jung.

This episode contains NO SPOILERS for the Dune novels.

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DISPATCH: Hugo Winners, Bobiverse Returns & Silo's Divisive Finale Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

The 2026 Hugo Awards hand Best Novel to Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting and give Murderbot its first-ever trophy, while WorldCon finally reveals the price for the 2023 Hugo scandal: a lifetime ban for administrator Dave McCarty and lesser bans for three others. Plus, Silo closes its most divisive season yet to a critic/audience split the internet doesn't seem to agree with, and the Bobiverse's fifth book proves the series still has it.

Stellar Dispatch drops every Tuesday. New main episodes every Friday on the Stellar feed.

Stories this week:

2026 Hugo Awards winners announced at LAcon V

WorldCon censures and bans four 2023 Chengdu Worldcon officials

Silo season 3 finale review

Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5) review

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Book Club: Hunters of Dune (Part 1) Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Abu and Leo begin the book club coverage of Hunters of Dune, the first novel completing Frank Herbert's saga after his death. They walk through the first half of the book's tangled plot before turning to the continuity breaks and creative choices they think do real damage to the Dune canon.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus chapters 1-44 of Hunters of Dune!

Listen to "The 7 Deadly Sins of Brian Herbert" episode HERE

IN THIS EPISODE

Why the Ithaca crew revives gholas of Paul Atreides and Leto II Atreides while passing over Ghanima and Alia
Murbella's shaky start as Mother Commander of the merged Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, and the power struggles taking shape at Chapter House
The Oracle of Time and a Golden Path retcon that Abu and Leo argue contradict rules Frank Herbert spent six books establishing

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Producer's Commentary: Revisiting The Road to Dune Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

Since we're in our #BrianHerbertEra, Abu and Leo revisit an episode from 2022 covering the history of Dune as told by Brian Herbert in his book, The Road to Dune.

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The Hidden Jews of Dune With DZ Kalman Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

Frank Herbert spent five books showing how faiths merge, mutate, and drift beyond recognition. Then, in Chapterhouse: Dune, he wrote in a community of Jews who had not changed at all. Abu and Leo gather critical takes from Jewish readers and scholars, then sit down with historian DZ Kalman to ask whether representation that gets things wrong can still be worth having.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, up through Chapterhouse: Dune!

IN THIS EPISODE

Rebecca, the Rabbi, and the deal the Bene Gesserit struck with a people nobody could find
Where Kwisatz Haderach actually comes from in Jewish mysticism, and why nobody knows how Herbert found it
A theory about Beverly Herbert's death, the to-do list she left behind, and what Daniel and Marty have to do with any of it

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

DZ Kalman's essay on the Jews of Dune: jellomenorah.com

DZ Kalman's podcast, Belief in the Future: podcasts.apple.com

Michael Weingrad, Jews of Dune: jewishreviewofbooks.com

Jonathan Weidenbaum, The Holy Versus the Sacred: doi.org

Leigh Kimmel's Chapterhouse Dune review: billionlightyearbookshelf.com

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Mailbag: Ranking All Six Dune Novels and Why We Never Needed a Seventh Book Aug 07, 2026

Show notes

Abu⁠ and ⁠Leo⁠ close out the book club with a live listener Q&A, the first one recorded with every page of Frank Herbert's saga behind them. It's a reflective hang about how this series thinks about power, governance, and the limits of art as political commentary, and about what it feels like to reach the end of a six-year read-through.

This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels.

IN THIS EPISODE

Whether the Bene Gesserit's surveillance-and-no-confidence structure is Frank's ideal government, or a system he builds up only to critique through the Honored Matres
Our theories for why Abomination disappears after Children of Dune, from the inner Mohalata to Siona's descendants being immune
What Daniel and Marty really represent, and why Chapterhouse works as Frank's farewell with no seventh book needed
What the Dune Encyclopedia's contraception entry reveals about the Bene Gesserit breeding program, axolotl tanks, and their opposition to abortion
Whether Dune: Part Three can handle the jihad honestly, with Andor Season 2 held up as the gold standard for political storytelling
A live, no-holds-barred re-ranking of all six novels, with Leo putting Dune fifth and God Emperor dead last

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