Jo's Boys: A Little Women Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Chapter 21: Laurie Makes Mischief and Jo Makes Peace with Alex Marzano-Lesnevich Dec 30, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're joined by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich. Alex is the author of the book slash cultural phenomenon The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, which won several awards, including the Lambda Literary Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, the Times of London, the Guardian, and about a million other places. Alex earned their BA from Columbia, their MFA at Emerson College, and their JD at Harvard Law School. They’re now an assistant professor at Bowdoin College, and their next book, Both and Neither, is forthcoming from Doubleday.

Together, we dive into this rollercoaster of a chapter: Laurie plays Cupid, makes a mess, and tries to enlist Jo in a plot to run away from home. Jo would, if she were a boy, but as she's a miserable girl... Well, maybe with this haircut... On second thought, yeah; we're running away to India together, and we're doing it as boys. Gender! Can't live with it, can't live without it.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan’s book “More to the Story,” with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith and transcribed by Lou Balikos.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Scrap Bag: Lou Alcott and George Eliot with Ethan Evans Dec 16, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're joined by Ethan Evans, a PhD candidate at Cardiff University, to chat about George Eliot, a contemporary of Lou Alcott, and everything the two authors had in common. Ethan has written extensively on queer masculinity in Eliot's life and work, and his research applies recent developments in queer and trans studies to the lives of Eliot and her partner George Henry Lewes.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Chapter 20: Confidential with Jennifer Putzi Dec 02, 2022

Show notes

This week, we’re joined by Jennifer Putzi. Dr. Putzi is a professor at the College of William & Mary, where she teaches English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Among her course offerings, she’s taught both Transgender Fictions and a 400-level course called 150 Years of Little Women. She is the author of several books, including Fair Copy: Relational Poetics and Antebellum American Women's Poetry and Identifying Marks: Race, Gender, and the Marked Body in Nineteenth-Century America. Together, we discuss Chapter 20: Confidential, in which Meg and John Brooke’s relationship really takes off, much to Jo’s consternation. Also, we make an incredible discovery regarding the gender identity of Aunt March’s pet parrot. Turns out Polly… is a he?

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Chapter 19: Amy's Will with Gregory Eiselein and Anne Phillips Nov 18, 2022

Show notes

This week, we’re joined by Gregory Eiselein, current president of the Louisa May Alcott Society and Donnelly Professor of English and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Kansas State University. We're also joined by Anne Phillips, former president of the Louisa May Alcott Society and Associate Head of the Graduate Faculty of English at Kansas State University. Together, Dr. Eiselein and Dr. Phillips have co-edited four books on Alcott and Little Women. They bring entire lifetimes of expertise and experience to this episode, a deep dive into Chapter 19: Amy’s Will, which sees Beth becoming sicker and Amy becoming… a Catholic bio queen?

A transcript of this episode is available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fi-jYI0rV-1dbiqeoOruYn4iKfUkVw4SiAQzpSH_u4Y/edit?usp=sharing.

Chapter 18: Dark Days with Molly Horan Nov 04, 2022

Show notes

This week, we’re joined by Molly Horan, author of the delightful novel Epically Earnest, which is available now from Harper Collins. She is a professor at New York University, where her course offerings include Reading and Writing LGBT YA Fiction: From Annie On My Mind to They Both Die at the End. She’s also edited and written for publications like BuzzFeed, Refinery29, and Bust, and she holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from the New School. And she co-wrote a stage adaptation of Little Women for Brooklyn's Hedgepig Ensemble in 2019, which makes her very qualified to speak on this bleak chapter, wherein Beth gets sick, Jo gets drunk, and Laurie gets romantically rejected for the first time -- but not the last. You can visit Molly on Twitter at @molly_horan.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Chapter 17: Little Faithful with Tiffany Wayne Oct 21, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're joined by special guest Tiffany Wayne, a historian and scholar of women, gender, and feminism. Dr. Wayne was an Affiliated Scholar at Stanford University's Clayman Institute and a professor of history at UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College. She's edited and authored several books, including Women's Suffrage: The Complete Guide to the Nineteenth Amendment, Women's Rights in the United States, and Feminist Writings from Ancient Times to the Modern World. We're so glad to have Dr. Wayne on hand as Beth returns from the Hummels with bad news and a worse fever. You can visit Dr. Wayne online at womanwriting.com.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan's book "More to the Story," with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith and transcribed by Lou Balikos.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Chapter 16: Letters with Eagan Dean Oct 09, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're joined by special guest Eagan Dean, an award-winning Americanist in Rutgers' Department of English. Eagan is currently working toward his PhD in Literatures in English with a certificate in women's, gender, and sexuality studies. Their dissertation, "American Literary Gender (and Its Discontents): The Literary Production and Uses of Hermeneutic Gender in the Long Nineteenth Century in America," makes him the perfect person to break down this chapter of Little Women. With Marmee away in Washington, tending to father, Jo assumes the mantle of man of the house -- and the other March sisters have their own concerns.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan's book "More to the Story," with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith and transcribed by Lou Balikos.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Scrap Bag: Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of) with Kathleen Gros Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're chatting with cartoonist Kathleen Gros about her graphic novel Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of), which reimagines Jo March as a middle schooler discovering her queer identity and navigating a crush on Freddie, a girl who works with her on the school's paper. Kathleen is also the author of the forthcoming Anne, a contemporary retelling of Anne of Green Gables, which is due out this summer and, yes, promises budding romance between Anne and one Diana Barry. When Kathleen's not writing queer-as-hell adaptations of your favorite classics, she teaches comics at Langara College. You can visit her online at kagcomix.com and on Twitter at kagcomix.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan's book "More to the Story," with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith and transcribed by Lou Balikos.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Chapter 15: A Telegram with Vicki Johnson Sep 16, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're joined by special guest Vicki Johnson. Vicki is a former White House staffer and the author of the forthcoming picture book Molly's Tuxedo,due out in June 2023 from Little Bee Books. She's a 2022 Lambda Literary Fellow, a graduate of Smith College, and an MFA candidate at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. You can visit her online at vickijohnsonwrites.com, on Twitter at @vickijohnson, and on Instagram at @vickijohnsonwrites.

Together, Vicki and I dive into Chapter 15: A Telegram, in which a telegram arrives, all hell breaks loose, and Jo gets the most famous literary haircut of all time. We do spend most of the episode talking about that haircut. Civil War? Never heard of her!

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan's book "More to the Story," with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith and transcribed by Lou Balikos.

A transcription of this episode is available here.

Chapter 14: Secrets with Erin Thomas Sep 07, 2022

Show notes

This week, we're joined by special guest Erin Thomas, the author of more than half a dozen books for young people, including Forcing the Ace, Wolves at the Gate, and Overboard. She teaches creative writing to people of all ages, from Toronto schoolchildren to residents of the Oshawa Senior Citizens' Centre. She's a member of CANSCAIP, the Writers' Community of Durham Region, and the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Together, Erin and I dive into Chapter 14: Secrets, in which Jo publishes her very first story and enters into a footrace with Laurie, one with staggering Greek-mythic implications. You can visit Erin online at erinthomas.ca.

Our cover art is by Mattie Lubchansky. It interpolates the cover art for Bethany C. Morrow's book "So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix," with permission from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It also interpolates the cover art for Hena Khan's book "More to the Story," with permission from Simon & Schuster. Our theme music is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major. This episode was edited by Antoinette Smith.

A transcription of this episode is available here.

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